COUNCIL OF CHURCHES June 5, 2020 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Rev. Jason Wells

The NH Council of Churches is made up of nine denominations, BOARD OFFICERS comprising nearly 400 congregations across the Granite State. As Rev. Allison Palm the faith leaders in six of those denominations, we offer a pastoral President word to all of the churches and all of the people of New Hampshire. Phil Kimball Vice President We mourn the evil violence that ended the lives of George Floyd, Rev. John Sawyer Breona Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, each of them made in God’s Treasurer image. We now hear clearly God’s charge to his prophet and to us: Marian Baker “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck Secretary up and to pull down,...to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). MEMBER DENOMINATIONS We affirm that God calls us “to pluck up and to pull down” the American Baptist racism so deeply rooted in our nation. Racially motivated police Churches of / violence cannot be stopped unless we first commit to pulling down New Hampshire the systemic racism and white supremacy around us. Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire We further affirm that we cannot only decry the racism found in far- Greek Orthodox away parts of the nation. As we say the names of George Floyd, Metropolis of Boston Breona Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery we must also say the names of Evangelical Lutheran Jean Roland Saint Preaux, Jeffery Pendleton and our own Church in America, schoolchildren. We cannot look down on Minneapolis, Louisville or Synod Glynn County without also addressing the racism found in Albany, Presbyterian Church Manchester, Claremont and Kingston. (USA), Presbytery of Northern New As faith leaders we commit to stand with the victims of racism here England in New Hampshire and in every place. We commit to look closely at Religious Society of our denominational bodies and in our congregations in order to Friends, New England Yearly Meeting “pull down” the racist structures that we find there. United Church of Christ, New We commit to close examination of the vineyards of our church Hampshire cultures and systems that normalized silence and complicity with Conference white supremacy. With contrition we admit they should have been United Methodist “plucked up” long ago and never been given room to flourish. Church, New England Conference We commit to helping every person in our churches and in our state Unitarian Universalist examine their souls and “pluck up” the racism that they find deeply Association, New planted there. England Region

PO Box 1087, Concord, NH 03302-1087 140 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, NH 03275 (603) 219-0889 [email protected] www.nhchurches.org Only through this fierce moral inventory can we then begin “to build and to plant” the foundations and seeds of a new world whether we call it the Kingdom of God, the Beloved Community or by some other name.

Only then will our nation, our state, our churches and our souls find their true peace, not “a negative peace which is the absence of tension” but “a positive peace which is the presence of justice” (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Yours in God’s prophetic calling,

Rev. Jason Wells Executive Director, NH Council of Churches

The Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld Bishop, Episcopal Church of NH

The Rev. Taesung Kang New Hampshire District Superintendent New England Conference The United Methodist Church

Rev. Cindy Kohlmann Resource Presbyter Presbytery of Northern New England Presbyterian Church (USA)

Woullard Lett Regional Lead, New England Region Unitarian Universalist Association

Noah Merrill Secretary New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

Reverend Gordon Rankin Conference Minister New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ Pastor Tim Roser Associate to the Bishop, New Hampshire Conference New England Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America