Statement of Solidarity – Daniel Prude
Authored by the Pastoral Team and the Spiritus Christi Anti-Racism Coalition
As we listen to the cries of the people, much like God heard the cries of the Israelites and sent Moses, Spiritus Christi stands in solidarity with God, Jesus, the prophets, and protesters working to dismantle structures that oppress God’s people. In Rochester, we join the voices locally and around the world calling for justice for Daniel T. Prude and an end to structural and institutional racism.
Daniel T. Prude lay naked on a wintry Rochester street with a spit bag over his head, handcuffed with knees in his back and his head pushed down for three minutes — senselessly killed when he was in a mental health crisis!
There are two truths of our faith. One is that God is a God of justice, spoken by the prophets through the ages. The second is that Jesus came working to dismantle structures that oppressed God’s people. Amos 5:24 tells us, “But, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Another prophet Micah 6:8 poignantly says, “He has told you, O humanity, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you Except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion), And to walk humbly with your God.”
Even the prophet Isaiah 1:17, which Jesus quoted often, said, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause.”
So when Jesus came to our world, he clearly stated his mission around justice and compassion by saying he was sent to proclaim release to captives and liberation to men and women trapped in the web of oppression. It is why Jesus in Mathew 21:12 disrupted the system of exploitation and oppression in the temple, through his own one-man protest of turning over the tables and running out those who were profiting off of the poor and preventing equitable access. For black and brown Americans in this moment, that web presents as mass incarceration, poverty, racism, over policing, injustice, and police brutality that has caused great harm and traumatization to communities of color through uses of power. In each Gospel, Jesus heals the sick, restores vision to the blind, and welcomes people that the empire and those in the wells of power dismissed, problematized, and oppressed.
Free the People ROC and other protesters have worked to dismantle structures that oppress God’s people. They called on us prior to the release of the Daniel Prude video to defund or reallocate resources from an institution that was created from a slave patrol blueprint in 1819 designed to patrol, surveil, and “keep in their place” former slaves. They raised our awareness of how, since 94% of our sworn officers take their checks to towns and hamlets outside of Rochester, resources are allowed to be drained from the city. They reminded us that communities are safest when we invest in people within neighborhoods from a cultural and racial justice lens that serves them (libraries, education, housing, direct family service, employment, mental health etc.).
Spiritus Christi is a sanctuary to the movement of justice led by Free the People Roc and protestors on the ground. We see ourselves as a bridge in the work of justice, actively participating in the struggle.
We look to God to bring us together as a people to stand on the side of justice and the side of the oppressed, with a vision for a new kind of city and world where we do the work to create thriving communities, correct historical injustices, end oppressive blueprints and systems, so that all people regardless of race can experience the love and care of God. We ask God to guide us in this moment, give us courage, give us vision, give us safety and love for one another.
Statement of Solidarity – George Floyd
Authored by the Spiritus Christi Anti-Racism Coalition
As we think of all that is happening in the world today, Spiritus Christi Church and the Spiritus Anti-Racism Coalition (SPARC) stand with protesters in Minneapolis and around the world calling for justice for George Floyd and an end to structural and institutional racism for people of color. Our nation witnessed the reality of the expendability that exists as it relates to black life in policing when George Floyd waited eight minutes with a knee on his neck and his back before he was senselessly killed.
We believe that black lives are not expendable!
We call for transformation within all institutions that fail to support black life, sustain black life, and protect black life. We believe that Black Lives Matter, and we commit to putting forth work within our church structure and our community, to embody that belief. Black lives need to have safe, just, and thriving spaces in the streets and in policing, as well as in the boardroom, the church, the classroom, the workplace, the courtroom, the voting booth, in health care, housing and the community!