Dear Representative McGuire, and Senators Kaine and Warner: 
 
We are members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, a community of over ten different faith traditions. We are citizens of Virginia. We write to demand due diligence and action on your part to address the following:
 
On the day of President Trump’s inauguration, he signed an executive order, directing Kristi Noem (DHS Secretary) and Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary) to compile a report in 90 days that includes “…recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” 
 
That 90-day mark is April 20, 2025. We and our congregations are well aware that Mr. Trump may decide to invoke that Insurrection Act, a rarely used law that allows a President to declare martial law under extraordinary circumstances to replace a civilian government by military rule, and civilian legal processes by military powers.
 
Although none of this has happened yet, recent history suggests the real possibility that this President, with complicit Representatives, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, may well declare martial law for his own ego and bank account, rather than any actual emergency. Such an unconstitutional abuse of power would be the final step in replacing our democracy with an authoritarian state. Under our Constitution, the government must be motivated by truth and justice and not hatred, prejudice, malice, or caprice.
 
The time to act is now. The time to enforce our constitutional protections is now. It is past time for you, our elected officials, to stop this unconstitutional power grab and to start REPRESENTING US. Not to speak out and stand for the people who voted you into office at this time is to be complicit in the destruction of our democracy. 
 
We demand that you perform due diligence, both as elected officials and as citizens of the United States of America, to 

1. Use your platform to make sure that all of your constituents know that invoking the Insurrection Act for a non-existent emergency crisis is a profound abuse of power.
2. Use your platform to challenge – at every level – this abuse of power.

 
We implore you to summon your courage to protect our democracy. Work on our behalf to make America possible again.
 
Signed,
 
Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms, New Beginnings Christian Community
Apostle Sarah A. Kelley, Faith, Hope, and Love In’tl Healing and Deliverance Center
Rev. Leia Durland-Jones, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Rev. Karen Mann, Sojourners United Church of Christ
Rev. Eugene Locke, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rev. Susan Karlson, retired minister, member of Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Joyce Hillstrom, Charlottesville Friends’ Meeting (Quaker)
Karen Boyle. Catholic
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Emrey, American Baptist Churches, USA
Richard Lord, Activists Guide
Rev. Liz Forney, First Presbyterian Church
Dorothy Smith, Presbyterian
Rev. Michael Cheuk, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Rosemary Gould, Charlottesville Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Alvin Mirmelstein, Church of the Incarnation (Catholic)
Beverly Mirmelstein, Church of the Incarnation (Catholic)
Rev. Don Lansky, Unity (retired)
Rev. Karen Lewis Foley, retired Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Sharon Beckman-Brindley, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Douglas Reed, Charlottesville Religious Society of Friends
Deborah Reed    , Methodist
Jean Thorburn   , Charlottesville Friends (Quaker)
Susan Kaufman, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Anne Spanos, Ivy Creek UMC
David K Garty, Westminster PCUSA
Rev. James Hassmer, Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church
James Webb, Charlottesville Friends Meeting
Mary Johns, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Bethany Cok, Sojourners United Church of Christ
Laura S. DeVault, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
The Rev. Carol Carruthers Sims, Episcopal Priest
Hal Brindley III , Buddhist
The Rev. Sandra Wisco, Lutheran (ELCA)
Diana Brawley, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Shirley Fleishman, Unity Church of Charlottesville
Pam Marraccini, Cloud Floating Free Sangha
The Rev. Hillary T. West, Episcopal priest, Diocese of Virginia
Chris Stockwell/Goering, United Church of Christ
Deacon Don Gathers First Baptist Church West Main Street,  Charlottesville
Rev. Dr. James Bundy, United Church of Christ, retired
Harry Kennon, United Methodist Pastor (retired)
Rev Ellen Longmoore, Unitarian Universalist
Julie Gottschalk, Christian values
Cindy Poots Remington, Charlottesville First United Methodist Church
Rev. Seido David Auble, Upaya Zen Center
Diana Boeke, Orthodox Christian
Marty Miles Paciocco, Crozet UMC
Rev. Patricia Barth, Retired United Church of Christ, member of Sojourner’s UCC
Peter Thompson, n/a
Katherine Canter, Charlottesville First United Methodist Church
Pat Lloyd, NA
Shirl Pohl, Unitarian Universalist
Ellen M Dudley, Episcopalian
Barbara Maille, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Rev. Gary Hatter, Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church

​We, the undersigned members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, are deeply troubled by the rising antisemitism in our country and in our community.
 
Jews have faced, endured and suffered from antisemitism for over two thousand years, based in part on the desire of some Christians to marginalize Judaism, and manipulated in modern times by political movements of every sort in order to divide people from one another and to gain followers or advantage. It consists of several different stereotypes, generalizations, and stories about Jews, including malicious conspiracy theories that have been used and re-used at different times in history.
 
Antisemitism is part of the machinery of division and fear used by some politicians and by those who seek to create a country that is only for themselves or others like them, as we witnessed in our town in 2017. But whether they manufacture fear based on our religion, our skin color, our culture, or how long we’ve been here in this country, their goal is to keep us from working together to win the unified common humanity we all need to thrive. 
 
The Charlottesville Clergy Collective is an interfaith community of prayer, solidarity and impact that seeks to establish and promote justice and equity in the Charlottesville/Albemarle region. We are aware that anti-Semitic speech and ideas can quickly lead to anti-Semitic violence. We invite people in our community to look inward at our own implicit and explicit biases against Jews and Judaism and to learn how antisemitic tropes are expressed and circulated in our communities. In order to resist and speak out against this hate, we must speak up for the respect and dignity for our Jewish sisters and brothers. 
 
For those who want to learn more, we refer you to the following: 
https://truah.org/antisemitism
https://files.integrityfirstforamerica.org/14228/1611248500-832-1-expert-report-of-d-lipstadt.pdf
 
Signed:
 
Apostle Sarah A. Kelley - Faith, Hope and Love Int’l Healing and Deliverance Center
B. Cass Bailey - Trinity Episcopal Church
Carol Sims - Trinity Episcopal Church
Cynthia Power - Charlottesville Friends Meeting
Derrick Stone  - Bahá'ís of Albemarle County
Dr. David K. Garth - Retired Presbyterian Minister
Gary Hatter - Meadows Presbyterian Church
Karen Lewis Foley - Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Karen Mann - Sojourners UCC
Laura DeVault - Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Michael Cheuk - Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Mildred Best - Mount Zion First African Baptist Church
Pam Marraccini - Cloud Floating Free Sangha
Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms - New Beginnings Christian Community
Rabia Povich - Charlottesville Inayatiyya Community
Rev. Alex Joyner - First United Methodist & Hinton Ave. United Methodist
Rev. Carol C. Sims - Trinity Episcopal Church
Rev. Don Lansky - Unity of Charlottesville
Rev. Dorothy Piatt-Esguerra - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
Rev. Dr. Alvin Edwards - Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Emrey - New Beginnings Christian Community
Rev. Ellen Longmoore - Universalist Unitarian Association
Rev. Eugene T. Locke, D.Min. - Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rev. Hillary West - Episcopal Church
Rev. Liz Hulme Adam - Tabor Presbyterian Church
Rev. Sandra Wisco - Lutheran, ELCA
Rev. Seth Lovell - Olivet Presbyterian Church
Rev. Tim Temerson - Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Richard Lord - Activists’ Guide
Sharon Beckman-Brindley - Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Susan Kaufman - Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Susan Steinberg - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Will Brown - Baptist
Adam Slate - Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Gayle Jessup White - Non-affiliated​

Originally posted November 13, 2022

While the deaths of UVA football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry have captured national and international attention, others in our community who have died or have been seriously injured by gun violence have gone unnoticed.

Let's not forget that a spate of shootings has struck Charlottesville recently and many of those cases remain unsolved. (October 18, 2022 Daily Progress article.) The families of these victims are also grieving and face continuing violence every day.

May we not forget these forgotten victims and their families.
May we find ways to comfort and care for them.
May we not demonize the perpetrators.
May we see with compassion that the perpetrator's family are also grieving and mourning.
​May we see with justice that we are embedded in an inequitable system that robs many people of hope.
May we fight to reduce the number of guns that make killing so easy and prevalent. 
May we pray for those who risk their lives daily to apprehend those who harm others.
May we pray for those who work hard to reduce violence in our neighborhoods.
May we pray for the helpers and healers in our community.
May God have mercy on us all. 
​

​Open Letter supporting Swords into Plowshares

We, the undersigned, declare our enthusiastic support for the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center’s “Swords Into Plowshares” project that aims to melt down and use the bronze from the Robert E. Lee statue to make a new art work. We think the most important aspect of this project is the engagement process where residents of Charlottesville and beyond can jointly imagine how our public spaces and public art can be more welcoming and representative of our community. 
 
Despite the frivolous lawsuit by two plaintiffs challenging the Jefferson School’s rightful and legal ownership of the Lee statue, we are not deterred by attempts to thwart progress with dishonest history and misleading rhetoric. As of this writing, we have corresponded and met with almost seventy local organizations, non-profits, businesses, and churches to invite their input.  

We, the undersigned, will continue to listen, learn, and channel the will of the people participating in this engagement process. We envision an ongoing, unfolding conversation to inform, reform, and inspire this new art work. 

We invite you to visit https://sipcville.com/survey/ to make your voice heard! Join us as together we heal, hope, and march steadily into that brighter day when we will all join hands and sing with open hearts and clear eyes: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Signed, 

John Alexander, HoosBrave
Michael Cheuk, Beloved Community Cville, Charlottesville Clerry Collective
Alan Goffinski, The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Charlottesville Mural Project
Alex Joyner, First United Methodist Church, Charlottesville
Apostle Sarah A. Kelley Fairh, Hope and Love Int’l Healing and Deliverance Center, Inc. 
Bekah Saxon
Ben Doherty
Cass Bailey, Trinity Episcopal church 
Corinne Cayce, Joe Calhoun, Patrick Jackson, Nancy Kliewer, Kat Maybury, Caroline Melton, and David Singerman, Indivisible Charlottesville
Cynthia Power, Charlottesville Friends Meeting
David K. Garth, PhD  Charlottesville Clergy Collective
Derrick Stone
DeTeasa Brown Gathers, Descendants of Enslaved Communities at UVA
Diane Brown Townes
Dr. Alvin Edwards, Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church
Elizabeth Shillue, Beloved Community Cville 
Gail Hyder Wiley, Charlottesville Gathers
Gayle Jessup White
Helice Henderson Jones, DEC-UVA
Jakia Maupin
Jessica Harris, SIP Community Ambassador
Kendall King & Morgan Ashcom, Visible Records
Kristen Chiacchia, Second Street Gallery 
Kristin Szakos, former City Council member
Matthew Tennant, University Baptist Church
Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms, New Beginnings Christian Community 
Rabbi Tom Gutherz
Rev. Dorothy Piatt-Esguerra, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
Rev. Dr. Eugene T Locke, Westminster Presbyterian 
Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Rev. Ellen Longmoore, retired Chaplain, UVA
Rev. Jim Hassmer, retired United Methodist clergy 
Rev. Robert Lewis
Rev. Sandra Wisco, ELCA, retired 
Rev. Susan Steinberg, PCUSA Minister-at-Large
Richard Lord, Activists Guide
Ronald D. Wiley, Jr., Charlottesville resident
Sam Heath, Charlottesville resident
Sharon Beckman Brindley , insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville 
Sri Kodakalla, Second Street Gallery
Susan Kaufman, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Jana Surdi
Reverend Lynne Taylor Clements, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rosemary Beard Heflin, Westminster Presbyterian Church

It is with broken hearts that we mourn over the senseless deaths of nineteen elementary school students and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

We mourn that we are still experiencing gun violence in our schools four years after Stoneman Douglas High School, ten years after Sandy Hook Elementary School, and twenty-three years after Columbine High School.

We mourn that this is the 27th school shooting this year.

We mourn that this shooting came just twelve days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, NY, and eleven days after a shooting at a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, CA. 

The evil and madness of the past weeks, together with all the mass shootings this year and too many years before, are hard to bear. The countless other deaths caused by easy access to guns is an indelible, odious stain on our country.

We pray for the students, families, staff, and members of Uvalde, Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and elsewhere who lost loved ones.

We pray as well as for all who have been retraumatized.

Even as we mourn and pray, we acknowledge that our "thoughts and prayers" are not enough.

We commit ourselves to advocate for fire arms reduction, for mental healthcare, for addressing the challenges in our communities with courage, love, and compassion, and not with hate and violence.

We will seek ways to support the victims of these recent shootings, one of which is through donations to these organizations:
https://www.buffalotogetherfund.org/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-dr-chengs-family
https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/donate-to-texas-elementary-school-shooting-relief

We invite you to attend a virtual memorial service on Monday, May 30, 6 to 7 pm, for all communities that are hurting due to recent incidents of violence. RSVP by emailing [email protected].

May the Divine have mercy upon us all.

Signed,
Rev. Dorothy Piatt-Esguerra, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
Rev. Alex Joyner, First United Methodist, Charlottesville
Sharon Beckman-Brindley Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville 
Susan Kaufman, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville 
Adam Slate, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville
Rev. Harry Kennon, Retired United Methodist Pastor
Rev. Mildred Best. Mount Zion Baptist Church
Rev. Susan Steinberg, PCUSA Minister-at-Large
Rev. Matthew Tennant, University Baptist Church
Rev. Liz Hulme Adam, Tabor Presbyterian Church
Pastor Devin Coles, Amazing Changes Ministries 
Rev. Will Brown, University Baptist Church
Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms, New Beginnings Christian Community 
Rev. Ellen Longmoore, retired Chaplain, UVA
Rev. Jim Hassmer, retired United Methodist clergy
Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville 
Dr. Alvin Edwards, Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church
​Pastor Sarah A. Kelley Faith, Hope and Love Int’l Healing and Deliverance Center, Inc.
Dr. Michael Cheuk, Charlottesville Clergy Collective

​

What do we tell our children?
What do we tell ourselves?
What do we tell GOD?
 
We, the members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, came together to figure out how to react to and support each other through the deaths of the brothers and sisters of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, at the hands of a white supremacist.
 
We forged our deepest bonds over the horror of August 11 and 12 of 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
 
Today we grieve anew, at the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, by the hands of current and former police officers.
 
We are Christian and Jewish and Muslim and Baháʼí and Sufi and Buddhist and Unitarian Universalists; male and female; Black, White, Red, and Yellow spiritual leaders at a time of disinformation, pandemic, and destructive partisan politics. The question that echoes through the corridors of time is now ours to answer: “What is truth?”
 
How do we tell our children about our species’ penchant for othering and murdering GOD’S children who are not like us?
 
What meaning do we tell ourselves when murder keeps happening in plain sight with cameras recording, and we do nothing about it?  
 
What do we say to GOD, Whom we say we trust, when asked to give an account of ourselves?
 
We need to say the truth, as all Holy Books teach, that we are ALL GOD'S children. We know there is no excuse to treat others as less than ourselves.
 
We need to acknowledge that our own need to be “exceptional” has led to a pernicious greed and lack of empathy for those who are less well off -- socially, economically, and politically. Further, this same greed and lack of empathy have created and continue to perpetuate systems -- woven through our interpretation of Scripture, and our social and judicial principles -- that visit evil upon those not favored by the systems.
 
We need to admit that the inequalities made glaringly clear by the COVID-19 pandemic are not new, just uncovered.  
 
We need to acknowledge that these instances of police and “neighborhood watch” brutality aren’t happening more, we are just able to capture them more, because of phone cameras.
 
We need to believe those who tell us about their mistreatment at the hands of our systems that protect some and kill others.
 
We need to ally ourselves with those whose stories are not our own, but whose scars are evident.
 
We need to work for justice with those whose sufferings are so long-standing that all seems normal to those who don’t know the stories, who don’t see the scars, who don’t bear the sorrow.
 
We need to tell our children that Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor were murdered because some people thought they were disposable. Their deaths, and so many others, are a result of systemic and cultural racism deeply embedded in America.
 
We need to be honest and tell ourselves whether we are all right with “officers of the law” having a free pass to murder with impunity.
 
And, we need to explain to GOD how we can love and trust GOD, and yet still let this evil keep happening.
 
It is not enough that the police officer who held his knee on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, and three other officers who did nothing, are fired. They all must be arrested and prosecuted.  
 
It is not enough that Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend had charges dropped after wounding a drug SWAT team officer whom he perceived to be breaking and entering into what was, in fact, the wrong apartment. As a result of a no-knock warrant into the wrong home, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and was killed in her own bed.
 
Wrong must be righted. 
 
If not, what do we tell our children?
What do we tell ourselves?
What do we tell GOD?
 
Signed, 

​​Rev. Dr. Alvin Edwards, President, Charlottesville Clergy Collective
Pastor, Mt. Zion First African Baptist
105 Lankford Ave, Charlottesville, VA 22903

• Rabia Povich, Inayati Sufi Community of Charlottesville
• Rev. Phil Woodson, First United Methodist Church
• Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms, New Beginnings Christian Community
• Manouchehr Mohajeri, Treasurer, Baha'i Community of Albemarle County, VA
• Sharon Beckman-Brindley, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
• Susan Kaufman, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
• Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Emrey, New Beginnings Christian Community
• Rev. Sandra J. Wisco, Retired Pastor in ELCA
• Pastor Cass Bailey, Trinity Episcopal Church
• Rabbi Tom Gutherz, Congregation Beth Israel
• Adam Slate, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church-Unitarian Universalist, Charlottesville Clergy Collective Treasurer
• Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield, The Presbyterian Outlook
• Rev. Liz Hulme Adam, Tabor Presbyterian Church
• David K Garth, Westminster Presbyterian Church
• Cynthia Power, Charlottesville Friends Meeting
• Rev. James Hassmer, retired United Methodist clergy
• Rev. Carol Carruthers Sims, Episcopal Priest, Retired
• Rabbi Daniel Alexander, Rabbi Emeritus, Congregation Beth Israel, Charlottesville, VA
• Jay Swett, First Presbyterian Church
• Rev. Dr. Eugene T. Locke, Parish Associate, Westminster Presbyterian Church
• Rev. Emily Rowell Brown, St. James Louisa Episcopal Church
• Rev. Dorothy Piatt, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
• Rev. Maren Hange, Charlottesville Mennonite Church
• Rev. Neal Halvorson-Taylor, Grace Church|Red Hill
• Rev. Patricia Gulino Lansky, Unity
• Rev. Dr. Jim Bundy, Retired United Church of Christ
• Rev. Don Lansky, Unity
• Rev. Patricia Gulino Lansky, Unity
• Apostle Sarah A. Kelley, Faith Hope and Love Int’l Healing and Deliverance Center, Charlottesville Clergy Collective Vice President
• Cynthia Deupree, Christian Scientist
• Rev. Karen Foley, member, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church
• Rev. Marilu Thomas
• Rev. Dr. Gay Lee Einstein, Minister-at-large
• ​Elizabeth Shillue, Charlottesville Friends Meeting
• Rev. Nicholas Deere, Charlottesville, VA
• Rev. Dr. Michael Cheuk, Charlottesville Clergy Collective Secretary