Although our church was organized in the 1980s, we must also specifically confess our own indifference and inaction towards helping our brothers and sisters in more recent times. We therefore commit ourselves to the task of truth and repentance over the next year for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel.

The following is a statement adopted by the session of Hope Presbyterian Church in response to the movement in our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), for reaching out to our brethren in the love of Christ. There is an added statement of solidarity concerning the recent Charleston tragedy. These were presented at the conclusion on today’s sermon on the Sixth Commandment:

Adopted by the Session of Hope Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Marietta, GA., Sunday, June 21, 2015. Presented to the congregation on the same date:

We the officers and members of Hope Presbyterian Church, PCA (the undersigned) understand that repentance is not merely a statement, but that steps of faithfulness must follow. Allowing that more time is needed to adequately work on such a statement concerning civil rights, but also the need for action now, we recognize and confess our denomination’s and our churches’ covenantal and generational involvement in and complicity with racial injustice inside and outside of our churches during the Civil Rights period. Although our church was organized in the 1980s, we must also specifically confess our own indifference and inaction towards helping our brothers and sisters in more recent times. We therefore commit ourselves to the task of truth and repentance over the next year for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel. We urge the other congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America to confess their own particular sins and failures as may be appropriate and to seek truth and repentance for the Gospel’s sake within their own local communities. We pledge to provide a place of faith, love, hope, and compassion for brothers and sisters, regardless of race or economic status, even as Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And, as a local body of Christ, that exists in covenant family communion with you and with Mother Emanuel AME Church of Charleston, South Carolina, we mourn the lives of those nine brothers and sisters who were untimely taken from us on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, through the hatred and racially-motivated acts of what appears to be one perpetrator. We will continue to pray for those families who have been so horribly devastated by this tragedy, and will also, as they themselves have graciously done, pray for genuine repentance and salvation for the accused attacker. We also pray that justice will be fully done in this matter for the sake of God’s people and to further heal our racial divisions in this land.