No matter the final ballot count, we must remember our mission and work continues. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to be vessels of love in the world - during our victories and amidst trials and disappointments. We can acknowledge our lamentations and remain on the wall as truth-tellers, prophetic witnesses, and good troublemakers.

Our voices will resound stronger, louder, and unbroken in unison and Beloved Community. Our foreparents faced setbacks and obstacles. Still, they rose to the occasion for us and generations yet born. We will carry that spirited fire because it is perpetual and vibrantly inextinguishable through the persistence of our prayers, our protests, and our policies.

CRS shares our deep condolences with the saddening news of another senseless act of cruelty, the unimaginable brutality that stole the life of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins. We extend our heavy hearts to those grieving alongside us.

During an evening worship session of the 2024 Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, CRS Executive Director Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton provided a moving testimony and call to action. She preached the urgency of uplifting disinvested and displaced communities, not only in Chicago, but in Palestine.

CRS is steadfast in its commitment to honoring the sanctity of life. We grieve the loss of all lives impacted by the culture of violence across the global diaspora, perpetuated through war, racism, poverty, disinheritance, xenophobia and all crimes against humanity, including white supremacist patriarchal systems of oppression.

CRS signed on to a letter that reminds our state legislators of our moral and religious imperative to support the passing of the Pretrial Fairness Act on February 22, 2021 without allowing regressive policies to counteract them.

We cry out to God with hope in our persistent pursuit of justice. We realize a guilty verdict does not remove the sting of our grief and deep loss with so many lives stolen.

Our hearts are heavy and exhausted. For some, hopelessness and despair is a daily companion due to the pestilence of mass shootings and violence that appears normalized.

Freedom fighter, Union spy, Underground Railroad Conductor and Social Justice Organizer, Harriet Tubman is commanding our attention even 100 years after her death.

Community Renewal Society is in solidarity with the Justice 4 Laquan collective. Join us by taking action!

CRS is in solidarity with the 23,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union and the 7,000 members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 in their efforts to improve the teaching and learning conditions of our schools.

In the hidden crevices of the city and deeply embedded in the shadows of Chicago's remarkable skyline, there is an unforgivable narrative.

The woes we once again endure in the wake of 31 killed in Dayton, OH and El Paso, TX this past weekend by gun violence remains an unbearable burden. The same weekend in Chicago left seven people dead by gun violence with 46 wounded. It is unacceptable and we must reject this as a norm.