Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) has posted the following statement on its website, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, confessing and repenting of complicity in white oppression and systemic racism, and committing to “purposefully create space to amplify black and brown voices during our orientations and in our office as a staff.”
Here is the full text of the statement:
“As a ministry of the Church of the Brethren, BVS has been the hands and feet of Jesus by advocating justice, working for peace, serving human need, and caring for creation for more than 70 years. The horrific recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and a long list of others before them, has brought further attention to the oppression of and violence towards our black brothers and sisters and demands that we continue to be Christ’s hand and feet by advocating justice today. BVS stands firmly that Black lives matter and that racism is sin.
“As a BVS community, how are we using our voices to advocate justice in this time?
“We confess that we have been silent during times that marginalized communities have suffered and that our silence has made us complicit in giving power to white oppression. We repent of these sins and commit to increasing our listening, education, and dialogue about anti-racism. While working to understand how we perpetuate systemic racism, we will purposefully create space to amplify black and brown voices during our orientations and in our office as a staff. Micah 6:8 says, ‘And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ May it be so.”
Find out more about Brethren Volunteer Service at www.brethren.org/bvs.