Document
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28.
During the Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches in Johannesburg, South Africa the official US federal holiday of Juneteenth, 19 June 2025, took place. This holiday celebrates the emancipation of formerly enslaved People of African Descent in the USA-North America context, their resistance to the evil of enslavement and their legacy of faith. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was announced two years earlier in 1863, it was not until 19 June 1865 that it was enforced.
This holiday also marks the memory of the broader global history/herstory of the transatlantic (‘Middle Passage’) extraction of African peoples and natural resources taken from Africa that still has consequences today, including the racialized impact of the debt and climate crisis. With US and other global governmental public policies that are seeking to erase and not provide support for the stories and equitable livelihoods of diverse peoples, Juneteenth is a timely reminder of hope for all of us despite the continued scourge of racism and racialized structures and powers.
On this year of the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference and the 40th Anniversary of the Kairos Document in South Africa the World Council of Churches honours and reaffirms its call for reparatory justice for the sake of all.
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
