After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, St. Mark’s began a season of learning with 3 studies: “White Fragility”, 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, and “Be the Bridge” As a result of the studies a task force was formed to create a mission, vision and plan to move St. Mark’s forward.

In 2021 the task force:
– Created a plan calling for a team of Racial Equity Advocates to be formed with
representatives from the appropriate committees and included ideas on how various committees could promote racial equity. The plan was approved by the Covenant Council in 2021.
– Adapted a church self-assessment for St. Marks, based on a document from a church in the Minnesota conference. It is a living document updated and scored each year. The most recent assessment can be found here.
– Created the St. Mark’s Racial Equity web pages.

In 2022 the Advocate team was assembled and decided to focus on education and awareness by celebrating Heritage Months: Black History, Asian Pacific Islander Heritage, Hispanic/Latin Heritage, and Native Heritage. A portion of the Thanksgiving offering went to the Pascua Yaqui tribe for cultural preservation.

In 2023 the Arab American Heritage Month was added and a Heritage Sunday was identified in each of the Heritage months to bring more focus to that heritage. Two special offerings were added that intersect with racial equity: Peace with Justice and Human Relations Sunday.

In 2024 we dedicated a new peace pole with local languages and worked on a Land Acknowledgement.