WHEREAS, 2008 is the fifteenth anniversary of the ELCA social statement, “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture”;

         WHEREAS, the United States of America is embroiled in amplified conversations about racism;

         WHEREAS, Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson in a news release on November 1, 2007, expressed “grave concern” for the “spiritual crisis concerning race relations in the United States” and called on members of this church to take specific actions to address the “sin of racism”;

         WHEREAS, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is committed to addressing racism through study, discussion, and prayer, seeking to become an increasingly anti-racist body;

          WHEREAS, the churchwide organization, through two of the commitments for implementation in the Plan for Mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commits itself to:

• Confront the scandalous realities of racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, gender, familial, sexual, physical, personal, and class barriers that often manifest themselves in exclusion, poverty, hunger, and violence; and
• Pursue ardently the ELCA’s commitment to becoming more diverse, multicultural, and multi-generational in an ever-changing and increasingly pluralistic context…

WHEREAS, this church has been called by ecumenical partners to dialogue about racism, including the call of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. to a “Sacred Day of Dialogue and Discussion” on May 18, 2008; therefore, be it

            RESOLVED, that the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

• humbly seek God’s forgiveness for our complicity in perpetuating individual, cultural, and institutional racism and God’s grace to deepen our awareness of and increase our commitment to address racism;
• express gratitude to this church for the intentional and consistent call of its social statement, “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture,” as a tool to address racism;
• reaffirm its commitment to becoming increasingly anti-racist;
• invite members of ELCA to join in this commitment and to sustained dialogue during 2008 and beyond that will lead this church to become anti-racist and multicultural;

and be it further

            RESOLVED, that the Church Council encourage the Church in Society and Multicultural Ministries program units, in consultation with the Office of the Presiding Bishop, to develop discussion materials to assist the congregations and members of this church to use the social statement to guide conversations about race.