Missouri Mid-South Conference

United Church of Christ

483 E. Lockwood Ave., Ste. 15

Webster Groves, Missouri 63119

August 15, 2014

To the Members, Friends and Churches of the Missouri Mid-South Conference

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

               Our hearts are filled with sorrow this week. A young man has died, and losing him has dashed the hopes of many people - his family, friends and neighbors, to be sure, but also everyone who prays for the community of well-being where all of us can live in safety and freely pursue our dreams. We have been reminded of what we did not want to remember, that fractures made long ago in our common humanity have never fully healed and continue to be re-infected by our failure to care enough for one another and to work hard enough for needed social change.

               It is so important that we stand together this week, and that we share an understanding of one another's grief and pain. I hope that all of our pastors and congregations will be engaged in prayer, and in faithful action responding to the needs that emerge each day. Please hold in prayer the family of Michael Brown, the people of Ferguson, the public officials, the police, and all those charged with public safety. Remember our churches and pastors in the area, and pray for their ministries of healing. Pray also for a growing national awareness of the sources of racial tension, and for a renewed commitment to ending the barriers and privileges that continue to diminish us as a people.

In the midst of the crisis, we are thankful for those who have worked creatively to gather people and resources that are needed for the work of reconciliation in the City of Ferguson and in the wider St Louis community.  To learn about the many efforts being made to bring healing to our region, go to www.prayingwithourfeet.org, a website sponsored by a coalition of churches and community groups of which we are a part. Then decide what you can do, remembering that each of us will respond in our own way, as we are able.

Even as we grieve together and pray together for our local community, may all of us remember that the legacy of racial injustice is an imbedded element of our national consciousness? We in the American church bear a great responsibility as a source of conscience for a people who know that we should be better than we are.

God bless your ministries, and may God give us all the grace to sense the Spirit's guidance through this unsettled time.

In hope and prayer and thankfulness for many who are faithful,

Allen M. Fluent, Acting Conference Minister