Please join us for another open conversation about race, Tuesday, 9/8/2020, 6:30–7:45pm. These conversations are a safe and thoughtful space where you and others in the synod can wrestle with questions and talk with each other. Learn more at gcsynod.org/open-talks.

Please register in advance for this Zoom meeting here: bit.ly/gcs-98.

Videos and articles to review (on Youtube or embedded further in this post): 12 News Being Black in the Valley, A Time for Burning, You Can't Live There: A Long Struggle For Black Rights In Las Vegas, or Do Black Churches Matter in the ELCA? Please pick one of the video clips and view and be ready to share your impressions.

12 News has started a conversation with the African American community on the lived experiences and perspectives on race relations in the Valley. The 12 News documentary "The Work is Hard and Not Done: Being Black in the Valley" shows the history of race relations, the progress that has been made and discusses where society needs to go in order to continue moving forward.

A Time for Burning is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. The film was directed by San Francisco filmmaker William C. Jersey and was nominated as Best Documentary Feature in the 1967 Academy Awards. The film was commissioned by the Lutheran Church in America.

From ANKOSfilms, two videos asking the important and relevant question: Do Black Churches Matter in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?