Statement on Dismantling Racism

written by Alec Peters

One Saturday last month, I found myself looking for the website of a Presbyterian church I had seen used as a filming location in a TV show.  It was idle curiosity, but the church’s website made an impression on me.  At the top of their homepage was a prominent link to their “Statement on Black Lives Matter,” made in reaction to the murders of George Floyd and too many others—and to the worldwide protests that have followed.

On Being White Moderates

written by Rev. Ashley-Anne Masters

In a conversation with Southern white pastors, one said, “I want peace and don’t understand why people can’t keep everything calm like MLK, Jr. suggested.” I responded, “He wrote about the problem of “white moderates,” those who “prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice” from jail. And he was peacefully standing with colleagues on the balcony of his hotel room when he was assassinated.”

Mandatory Safety Standards

Dear Members & Friends of West Raleigh,

We all thought we would be back in the Sanctuary, worshipping and singing together by now; or, at least I did. Now, we are almost three full months into the pandemic, and even as businesses retool services in order to open safely, Covid-19 diagnosis, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise. We have all had to adjust our expectations and reorient to this new reality.