Resolution 1: On the Poor People’s Campaign
WHEREAS As members of the ELCA “We are freed in Christ to serve, love and care for our neighbor, and in this work we strive to ensure that all people have a livelihood that is sufficient to meet their basic needs and is sustainable in creation.”
WHEREAS As members of the ELCA, “we believe God is calling us into the world to serve together. Through our direct service, we aid immediate needs before us. Through our advocacy work, we impact systemic, long-lasting change.”
WHEREAS In 1967-68, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and other leaders built a coalition with the intent to organize to end poverty. This coalition was called the Poor People’s Campaign and organized across barriers of race to work “against dehumanization, discrimination and poverty wages in the richest country in the world.”
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/history/
WHEREAS In 2018, 50 years after Dr. King, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival came together and arose from years of organizing and listening across the US
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/demands/
WHEREAS The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is “committed to lifting up and deepening the leadership of those most affected by systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation and to building unity across lines of division.”
WHEREAS The ELCA Social Statement on The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective states the ELCA “is committed to defend human dignity, to stand with poor and powerless people, to advocate justice, to work for peace, and to care for the earth in the processes and structures of contemporary society.”
WHEREAS At least one hundred and thirty-two other national, regional, and local organizations have signed on as endorsing partners of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, including ELCA full communion partners: the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, and the United Methodist Church; therefore be it
RESOLVED that the Metropolitan New York Synod endorse the Poor People’s Campaign and encourage its members to participate where appropriate in the organizing, advocacy, and actions of the campaign.
Submitted by
Pastor Lenny Duncan
Jehu’s Table