Dear Friends in Christ,

As another week comes to an end and I prepare for two weeks away to rest and spend time with family, I find myself returning to Presiding Bishop Curry's Word to the Church on May 30 reminding us all that the work of racial reconciliation and justice must "go on when racist violence and police brutality are no longer front-page news. It must go on when the work is not fashionable, and the way seems hard, and we feel utterly alone. It is the difficult labor of picking up the cross of Jesus like Simon of Cyrene, and carrying it until no one – no matter their color, no matter their class, no matter their caste – until no child of God is degraded and disrespected by anybody." The news is still stirring from the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd; and yet, as the church program year winds down and we make our way fully into summer I worry that we may be tempted to drift in our communal commitment to bring about the racial healing and justice that is so long overdue.