Inaugural JustLove Summit Releases Statement for Adventist Church to Embrace Justice
by Rebecca Barceló | 8 May 2024 |
The inaugural JustLove Summit, held at La Sierra University on May 3-4, has sparked a call for the Adventist Church to re-prioritize justice in its faith, life, and practices. The summit drew over 160 participants, both in person and online, and featured keynotes from Dr. Marlene Ferreras, Garrison Hayes, and Eugene Canson.
The keynote speakers emphasized the biblical mandate to pursue justice and explored its application in today’s world. Complementing these presentations, eight workshop streams delved into various justice-related topics, offering practical insights and strategies.
The summit culminated in a collective call to action, urging the Adventist community to intensify its focus on justice in alignment with biblical teachings. A statement reflecting this advocacy was endorsed by many participants and is now available on the JustLove Collective’s website, inviting wider community support. It reads as follows:
As a collective of followers of Jesus in the context and tradition of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we call on leaders and members of our global church community to work with us to renew our doing justice and loving mercy as vital elements and expressions of walking humbly with our God in our world today (see Micah 6:8).
We see a world with desperate needs for more justice and more love. In the ministry of Jesus (see Luke 4:18, 19), the voices of the Hebrew prophets (see Isaiah 58 and Micah 5), and the examples of our Adventist pioneers — who stood up for the poor and oppressed and fought non-violently against social evils such as racism and slavery—we recognize that the work of justice is “the kind of ministry that will bring life into the churches,”* as well as changing the world for those who most urgently need it to be changed.
We affirm and support those agencies, organizations, and individuals who are already at work in various places, ways, and issues, and acknowledge those groups within our church family for whom issues of injustice, oppression, and exploitation are lived experiences.
We also lament that we have been a silent church, at times when we should have spoken, but we affirm the as-yet-unrealized potential of our worldwide body of believers to be a greater voice for justice in our world. We call our preachers to preach it, our teachers to teach it, and all of us in our own ways and together to do it.
As participants in the inaugural JustLove Summit, we will take this call home to our churches and communities, to share with our church leadership and membership, and to live out in our own places.
As we re-commit to the work of justice and love, we invite our community of faith to join us in the radical and difficult, creative and joyous work. Together, we sound this call in the name of the One who “will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world” (Matthew 12:20, 21, NLT).
*Ellen White, Welfare Ministry, page 29.
If you would like to add your name to the statement, you can do so at this page.
