UMKR Endorsed BMCR Call; Pledges Partnership with BIPOC

for our work to continue.

An Appeal from UMKR

UMKR has important church legislation for our denomination's global General Conference, to be held in 2021. These resolutions address:

• protecting Palestinian children,
• defending the right to boycott,
•divesting from the bonds of occupation governments, and other timely justice issues.

We also have BIG PLANS for educating

A LOT of people throughout our church about Palestinian rights, with literature, displays, speakers, meals, and witness actions!

With very limited resources, UMKR has made a BIG impact in the global United Methodist Church! Groundbreaking divestment and boycott actions by the UMC would never have happened without UMKR's advocacy AND all the extraordinary partners and allies who helped us.

General Conference is always our BEST OPPORTUNITY to make a worldwide impactfor Palestinian rights throughout our denomination.

But, if we are to succeed in advocating for justice with thousands of United Methodists who come to General Conference from four continents,WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Click the green button and take action now:

Please give as generously as you can, and

know that whatever you are able to give

will be greatly appreciated.

UMKR Endorses BMCR

Call to Action, Pledges
Partnership with BIPOC

30 July 2020 – United Methodists for

Kairos Response (UMKR)

wholeheartedy endorses the eloquent

Call to Action issued by Black

Methodists for Church Renewal

(BMCR) in response to recent events

in the United States, including the

deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor

and Ahmaud Arbery. We call on all

United Methodists to join us in taking

this powerful statement to heart and

taking action on the measures BMCR
has put forth.

Both the Biblical values we embrace and the Christian principles set forth by the United Methodist Church have taught us to recognize racism, individual and systemic, as sin. We know it is our responsibility to identify, oppose, and strive to eradicate this sin and heal this brokenness wherever it arises: in ourselves, in our movement, in our church, and in our institutions and societies.

The UMKR Steering Committee commits to pursuing the long-term work of identifying and dismantling racism on multiple levels, beginning with ourselves and our movement. As we engage in that work, we pledge to hear the voices and acknowledge the leadership provided by Black people, indigenous peoples and other people of color, within our denomination, in our local communities, and around the world.

We recognize the urgent need to learn the unique history and current conditions of anti-Black racism in the United States and to give our continual attention to actions and campaigns that address this specific brand of racism, which is so deeply entrenched in American society and appears in many other societies as well.

At the same time, UMKR regards this particularly virulent strain of racism through a wider, intersectional lens. We have long appreciated the historic and ongoing solidarity – drawn from their shared experiences – between Black Americans and the Palestinian people. That relationship continues today, with the profound statements of solidarity in 2020 that have come from Palestinians in the Holy Land and the diaspora.

We expect to see that solidarity growing ever stronger, within our church and throughout the world, as Blacks, indigenous peoples, and people of color rise up to reject “the global order of domination manifested in racial, economic, cultural, and ecological oppression”** and to claim their God-given, inalienable rights. UMKR will earnestly strive to be a faithful partner in this rising.
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**From ”Cry for Hope: A Call for Decisive Action” issued by Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice in July 2020.