I am writing as a member of Holy Trinity. Though I am a member of the vestry executive, we have not yet met this month to discuss a formal response–these words are my own.

We are a small, urban community that cares deeply about justice and about the lives of those who are marginalized by the broader society. In recent years we have been most visible in the struggle for housing and an end to homelessness. But our members been active in LGBTQ+, indigenous rights, disability rights and many other places as well.

We are not always very good at communicating. We are often, collectively or as individuals, up to our necks in actions and and activity related to justice issues of many kinds to greater or lesser degrees. But that sometimes means we don’t speak collectively and clearly into spaces we should very much be speaking into. We are often right there, but organizationally we sometimes forget that we have a responsibility not just to show up, but to speak publicly in formal ways. We are here and we are listening and acting.

Nothing I can say will make the dreadfulness of these losses better. We are very upset by the recent deaths of Chantel Moore and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and so many before them here and around the world. We are painfully aware that there is systemic anti-black and anti-indigenous racism in this country and these incidents bring it to light. It is high time that we seriously tackle these problems.