Friends,

We are grateful that our church is willing to have important conversations, like the one we had at Agape a few weeks ago regarding racial reconciliation.  We recognize it was just a beginning, but everything must begin somewhere.  It is also encouraging to see the wider Loyola community respond to the sin of racism and discrimination.  

Racial reconciliation is not only social work or political work, it is also kingdom work.  It is at the heart of the gospel and we want to see continual reconciliation in our church and on our campus.

We will continue to talk about this in our large group and small group settings.  Please continue to discuss honestly, with your passions and convictions, and with your reservations and confusions.  Remember, as Christians, we dialogue around the Lord’s Table of reconciliation.  In response we are going to have a special Tuesday night prayer, tomorrow evening, to pray for racial reconciliation on our campus, country and our world. Keep your eyes to our social media for time and place.  This is the next step in discerning how Agape & Ecclesia should address systemic issues of racism.

Each of us also needs to do personal work on this in prayer and study.  There are a lot of resources about racial reconciliation and we can’t share all of them.  However, in response to Ferguson this church in St. Louis had a good round table discussing race and privilege. Here and here. This article also provides a lot of good resources.

I pray we, the church, continue to mourn, stand with and work to change systems that perpetuate violence and hate through the overflow of Christ’s love. For Beirut, for Paris, for Missouri, for Rogers Park–Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

If you have questions or want to discuss this further then let’s talk!

With love,

The Leaders and Staff of Agape & Ecclesia

The stained glass window depicts the prodigal son, a story of reconciliation.  Located in the church of St Mary de Castro in Leicester.