St. Mark’s Racial Equity Team

St. Mark’s Racial Equity Team, made up of eight St. Mark’s members and supported by our pastor, was formed in August 2020 to lead the congregation in antiracism work in our congregation and community. You can contact us at equity@stmarks-sf.org.

Helpful Resources:

• Faith in Action

• San Francisco Office of Racial Equity

• ELCA Racial Justice

• ELCA Declaration to Native American and Alaska Natives

• Sierra Pacific Synod Resources

• Santa Clara University Anti Racist Teaching Collective

• Test Yourself for Hidden Bias - examine your own possible biases to understand the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society

• We believe racial equity begins in our own communities. Please purchase books directly from our local Black entrepreneurs. Black-owned bookstores in Oakland:

  • The Collective

  • Marcus Books (also via Bookshop)

  • Ashay By The Bay

Books we have read together

• Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. by Lenny Duncan 

• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo

• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone

St. Mark’s lending library

The following books are available to borrow from the St. Mark’s lending library:

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

• How to Be Less Stupid about Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Crystal Marie Fleming

• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone (2 copies)

• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

• Caste : The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

• The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward

• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

• Sunday School book list coming soon

Mission Statement

The St. Mark’s Racial Equity Team seeks to build congregational awareness, solutions, and leadership for racial equity by generating faith-driven transformative ideas, education, information, and experiences. Rooted in the foundation of Christ's teachings, we are committed to using our hearts, minds and soul to confess our own racism and dismantle the systems and the culture of white supremacy by enacting antiracist policies in our congregation and in our community.