The founding of the United States and its rise as an economic and global power was built upon the exploitation of land and forced labor of people of color, including the genocide of indigenous nations and the enslavement of African people.

We, the Community for Interfaith Celebration, see and hear the pain and struggle of Black and Indigenous communities, and all people of color who have suffered centuries of oppression in the United States and who continue to endure violence, discrimination, and systemic inequities and injustice. We acknowledge the part we have played in maintaining structural racism and white supremacy in our country.

We welcome and seek to understand diverse experiences and expressions, including the varied spiritual and religious perspectives within and beyond our community. We strive toward personal and collective contemplation, practices, and action in the service of social justice and racial equity for the safety, healing, and peace of all human beings.

In order to dismantle the influence of white supremacy in our own interfaith community, we will examine the ways our spiritual traditions might perpetuate racism and cause harm, conduct an audit of our canon of texts to seek deeper diversity in the voices that influence us, and review our social norms and practices.

With the intention of being proactively and consistently anti-racist, we will practice presence and intentional listening, and allow our work to be deeply informed by communities of color. We will seek to center diverse voices in the traditions we honor. We commit to exploring cross-community dialogue and showing up for communities of color in meaningful ways.

"The beauty of anti-racism is that you don't have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it's the only way forward." (Ijeoma Oluo, Twitter, 7/14/19).