Picking back up the items from a few months ago, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (GOA) is working as part of the National Council of Churches to A.C.T. to End Racism. This movement was launched in Washington D.C. in April on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A quick summary of the movement can be found in this 2-minute video by Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, who gained fame when he provided the sermon at the May wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Faith communities, including the GOA, have historically been leaders in confronting racism in the U.S. As we have recently been reminded that racism and xenophobia are pervasive and systemic in every sector of society, faith communities are again taking the lead in addressing injustice and showing Christ’s love for all people.
This past August was the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in a woman’s death. At the time of this event, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA put out a statement in response to the “racist violence” in Charlottesville (https://www.goarch.org/-/response-to-racist-violence-in-charlottesville-va). It is worth taking a moment to revisit this statement as it grounds our work for social justice in the Orthodox faith; it is reprinted below.
“The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America stands with all people of good will in condemning the hateful violence and lamenting the loss of life that resulted from the shameful efforts to promote racial bigotry and white supremacist ideology in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Orthodox Church emphatically declares that it does not promote, protect or sanction participation in such reprehensible acts of hatred, racism, and discrimination, and proclaims that such beliefs and behaviors have no place in any community based in respect for the law and faith in a loving God.
The essence of the Christian Gospel and the spirit of the Orthodox Tradition are entirely and self-evidently incompatible with ideologies that declare the superiority of any race over another. Our God shows no partiality or favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17, Romans 2:11). Our Lord Jesus Christ broke down the dividing wall of hostility that had separated God from humans and humans from each other (Ephesians 2:14). In Christ Jesus, the Church proclaims, there can be neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, but all are one (Galatians 3:28). Furthermore, we call on one another to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to expose them (Ephesians 5:11). And what is darkness if not hatred? The one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness (1 John 2:11)!
Furthermore, in 1872, Hierarchs from around the world assembled in Constantinople and denounced all forms of xenophobia and chauvinism (phyletism). They agreed that the promotion of racial or national supremacy and ethnic bias or dissension in the Church of Christ is to be censured as contrary to the sacred teachings of the Christian Gospel and the holy canons of the Church. It is formally condemned as heresy, the strongest category of false teaching. Finally, such actions as we have witnessed in recent days, by self-proclaimed white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and various racists and fascists, betray the core human values of love and solidarity. In this, we pray wholeheartedly for the families of those who lost their lives or suffered in these tragic events. In like manner, we cannot condone any form of revenge or retaliation by any group or individual. Therefore, we fervently appeal to every person of good will, and especially the leaders of our great nation, to consider and adopt ways of reconciling differences in order to rise above any and all discrimination in our history, our present, and our future.”