We believe…

We value all the diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and opinions of the people in our Saint Mark family. Even within our faith, there is a beautiful diversity of approaches to interpreting text and loving our God in a modern context. However, we as Saint Mark feel it is important to make statements of our beliefs on certain topics. These have been carefully cultivated by our Social Justice Committee, which you can learn more about here. We hope that these statements - listed in no particular order - will serve to open dialogue, inspire change, and provoke conversations on how we can better demonstrate God’s love to all of our neighbors.

Native American Day of Remembrance Resolution

Saint Mark is built on the land of the Mvskoke (Muscogee) people.

We at Saint Mark stand with the United Methodist Church in decrying the church’s role in the abuse and mistreatment of Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people, as follows below.

• Whereas from the early 1800s through the mid-1900s the U.S. government established boarding schools that forcibly removed Indian children from their families and communities and ALSO intentionally sought to destroy their languages, traditional cultures, and belief systems so as to assimilate them into mainstream white culture;

• Whereas some of these schools were also sponsored or operated by religious organizations, including several earlier Methodist bodies;

• Whereas some Methodists and Methodist institutions shared and promoted the sentiment that Indigenous people must be “Christianized,” that First Nation people were not human beings and must be “civilized” to be regarded as human beings; and

• Whereas large numbers of the young people died in school custody without notice to families and were buried in mass schoolyard graves;

Resolved,

Therefore, on this day, October 3, 2021, we the members of the Solidarity and Social Justice Committee do resolve to join the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and United Methodists everywhere to:

• Decry church sponsorship of U.S. abusive Indian boarding schools promoting cultural genocide,

• Hereby apologize and say we are sorry to our Indian siblings,

• Call for remembrance of victims and survivors in a Day of Remembrance,

• Welcome the investigation underway by the U.S. Department of the Interior,

• Seek to embody in our work the spirit of our church’s 2012 “Act of Repentance Toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous People,” and

• Promote equity and justice for Native Americans in both church and society.

When we hear the tragic news of a shooting, United Methodists mourn with the victims and families of those wounded or killed. We turn to God in prayer, longing for a day when violence will cease.

While the committee recognizes issues related to gun ownership and interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are divisive and that individuals in the congregation may not agree with all the tenets below, we feel it is important to stand up for those who have perished and the countless lives that have been shattered by these acts, and we welcome conversation about any concerns.

Statement on Gun Violence

From the Saint Mark UMC Social Justice & Solidarity Committee

In response to the spate of instances of gun violence resulting in multiple deaths in the US in recent years, including more than 250 shootings this year (as reported by the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/), as well as police shootings of innocent people, and also in remembrance of the six year anniversary of the June 12, 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, and in keeping with the UMC Resolution #3428 (2016) [https://www.umcjustice.org/who-we-are/social-principles-and-resolutions/our-call-to-end-gun-violence-3428],

The Solidarity and Social Justice Committee of St Mark UMC hereby endorses the following resolution:

We call on our church and our members:

• ·to walk with others through the processes of grief and healing,

• to display signs that prohibit carrying guns onto church property, and

• to advocate for laws that prevent or reduce gun violence.

• to make preventing gun violence a part of our conversations and prayer times,

• to assist those affected by gun violence through prayer, pastoral care, creating space, and encouraging survivors to share their stories, and through identifying other resources in our community,

• for gun owners to safely store and secure guns, and by teaching and practicing gun safety,

• to join with communities of other denominations and faiths who have experienced gun violence in order to support them and learn from their experiences,

• to participate in gatherings for public prayer at sites where gun violence has occurred and partner with law enforcement to help prevent gun violence,

• to partner with law-enforcement and community groups” to encourage “full legal compliance with appropriate standards and laws” to the sale and ownership of guns,

Finally, we pray for God to give us the wisdom and strength needed to fulfill the desires God has put within us for a world that is free from the violence of mass killings.

(Read the full UMC Resolution 3428 "Our Call to End Gun Violence" at https://www.umcjustice.org/who-we-are/social-principles-and-resolutions/our-call-to-end-gun-violence-3428)

*Based on “Ways United Methodists can take a stand against gun violence” (www.umc.org/what-we-believe/ways-united-methodists-can-take-a-stand-against-gun-violence#:~:text=The%20Book%20of%20Resolutions%20of%20The%20United%20Methodist,every%20member%20of%20our%20denomination—to%20do%20several%20things.)