LSTCs graduating class of 2023 has begun a fund to support the larger call for reparations to begin addressing the harm of LSTC's complicity in racism, even while preparing Christian leaders for work in the church and the world. We acknowledge racism has been embedded in the purchase and relocation to its 55th St. location, as well as the additional ways that Black, Indigenous and other People of Color, domestic and international, have been harmed through LSTC's ongoing systemic racism.

Very recently LSTC has announced its own long-term commitment to the work of repentance, repair, and reconciliation through a special Task Force of the Board of Directors. We, the class of 2023, have begun a financial campaign of our own, as seed money to ensure that these larger efforts towards ongoing and sustainable reparations are begun, with the intentions for it to continue to grow. In raising these funds, our class hopes to support, encourage, and partner with this larger institutional commitment to long term and sustainable authentic relationships with our neighbors of the surrounding community, especially BIPOC individuals, attempting to make just and equitable that which has not been.

These financial contributions are to serve as seed money to join a larger pool of funding set aside by LSTCs Board of Directors Reparations Task Force, used for the explicit and exclusive purpose of reparations from our seminary to the wider community. Decisions about the final use of these funds will be made by this Reparations Task force, but will most likely go towards organizations actively committed to and engaged in the healing and well-being of communities of color in the neighborhoods nearest to Hyde Park and the greater South Side of Chicago. This discernment by the Task Force is currently underway.

Our scriptures and faith tradition teach us that God calls us to live justly and righteously with our neighbors and all of creation, and that when we fail to live this way and instead cause harm, we must offer repentance and seek repair and reconciliation. We believe that the establishment of this reparations fund, as well as the institutions anticipated larger ongoing efforts, are a part of what it means to be people of faith, and embodies what it means to be a public church.

Building upon our class own contributions, we invite you to join us in these efforts of repentance, repair, and reconciliation as we together seek to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Photo design is by entitled "You Will Be My Witnesses" based on Acts 1:8 by Ann Gerondelis

***PLEDGING*** If you would like to pledge now to make a gift at a later time, you can do that by clicking the following link "The Campaign for LSTC" and follow these instructions: On this page, under 'Donation' choose the "Pledge to the Campaign" button. Then choose your dollar amount to be pledged. Under 'Designation' choose "Other" and in the box that pops up type in "LSTC Reparations Fund 2023 Class Gift." Please note, if you do not write in this separate class gift designation, the moneys will not go to our fund, but elsewhere to LSTC. After selecting the designation complete the other billing and tribute information and then under 'Billing Details' select "Bill Me Later."