On Monday, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago issued a statement in response to the death of George Floyd and the event’s aftermath.

Floyd died on May 25 at the hands of Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after the policeman knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than right minutes, according to a prosecutor’s statement of probable cause. Chauvin and his accompanying officers, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng have all been fired while Chauvin faces charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

The incident has sparked protests in cities throughout the United States. At least 40 have imposed curfews and National Guard members have been activated in 15 states and Washington D.C.

Metropolitan Nathanael’s statement comes two days after a tweet from Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who condemned the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death.

Read the full statement from Metropolitan Nathanael

Like so many of you, it was with heartache, confusion and outrage that I watched the images of a white police officer, whose duty is to “serve and protect,” kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, who lay subdued and prostrated on the street, as his dignity, rights and life were slowly extinguished. It was shocking and devastating to witness a fellow human being begging for breath in the face of callous disregard for human life. This heart-wrenching injustice has now set our communities on fire, and alongside peaceful protests calling for much needed change, we have seen violent confrontation, looting and property destruction.

We call for an immediate end to the violence and for calm, but we must heed another call—our calling to responsible action. As children of God, Orthodox Christians and Americans, we cannot allow dehumanizing acts and the insidious plague of racism to continue in our country, dividing us from one another and separating us from God. In words that are just as true today, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. concluded, “[c]ertain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard… And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

I call upon Orthodox Christians in the Holy Metropolis of Chicago to do the hard work that this moment in history demands. Grieve with the victims of injustice, pray for those gripped by hate and fear, protest peacefully against injustice, advocate for the under-served, rebuild destroyed communities and, above all, extend unconditional love and mercy. We are all complicit in the suffering of our neighbor, and we must all repent—transforming our way of seeing, thinking, and acting toward Christ-likeness.

Doing the hard work of repentance is the very essence of being a Christian and, to that end, we must prayerfully take up our crosses and begin, today, to reconcile with God and our fellow human beings. Our rights, our nation and our salvation depend on it.

Metropolitan Nathanael
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago

Featured image credit: Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune