(The following text is a proposed land acknowledgment, set to be submitted for approval by the Synod Council at their August 2026 meeting. It was crafted by a team of people including Desta Goehner, Assistant to the Bishop for Anti-Racism Coordination, Pastor Jaz Bowen-Waring, Sarah Tees, Pastor Rick Fry, and Pastor Manuel Retamoza.)

We gather today on lands that have been home to Indigenous peoples since time beyond memory. Before this building stood, before this synod was formed, before the church arrived on these shores, these lands were tended, named, loved, and governed by peoples who remain here still.

The Pacifica Synod spans a vast and varied geography. Across Southern California, we gather on the ancestral territories of many distinct nations, including the Native Hawaiians, Kanaka Maoli (kah-NAH-kah MAU-lee), Kumeyaay (koo-mee-AY) (San Diego), the Cupeño (koo-PAY-nyo) (San Diego County), the Payómkawichum (pay-YOHM-kah-ITCH-um) (San Diego and Riverside counties), the Cahuilla (kah-WEE-ah) (Inland Area, Coachella Valley, San Bernardino mountains), Tongva (TONG-vah), Serrano (seh-RAH-no ) (San Bernardino mtns), High Desert, (Big Bear region), Chemehuevi (cheh-meh-HWEH-vee) (Mohave Desert, Joshua Tree), and many others. San Diego County has more federally recognized tribes than any county in the United States. Each of these nations carries a living culture and an abiding relationship to the land that no act of colonization has erased.

We also gather in relationship with Hawai’i. Hawai’i is an Indigenous space. Its original people, Native Hawaiians, stewarded the ‘Aina (ee-nah), the land, the sea, and all living things, in ways that sustained abundant life across generations. The Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown in 1893 through an act of United States imperialism in which Christian missionaries and their descendants played a direct role. The church carries that history. We do not set it aside.

We acknowledge that the land we gather on was taken. This is not ancient history. Indigenous peoples continue to experience the ongoing harm of that theft, and communities are actively working to undo it, led by Indigenous peoples themselves.

The Doctrine of Discovery is a set of rules created by European church and government leaders in the 1400s that declared any land not ruled by Christians could be claimed and taken by European explorers, as if the people already living there did not count. It is a theological justification for land theft, rooted in white supremacy and anti-Indigenous racism. It undergirds much of what was built in Hawaii, including many of the institutions this church has benefited from and sometimes perpetuated.

In 2016, the ELCA formally and completely rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, refusing to accept its authority or legitimacy. That rejection is a beginning. It is not enough on its own.

Repudiation must be followed by repair. It must be followed by relationship, by the return of power and resources, and by the hard, ongoing work of accountability. We gather on this land as people who are called to that work, not someday, but now.

The Pacifica Synod holds an arbitrary border between California and Mexico. This border was devised with the intention of dividing and causing harm to the people and land. With this international border, the walls divide the Kumeyaay tribe and fracture their relationship with the land and with one another. This is an example of the continued violence and harm done to the people of this land.

The water, the rivers, the coastlines, the valleys, the mountains, and the communities around us carry sacred names given by the peoples who first knew and loved them. We may not know those names yet. Learning them is part of our work.

Indigenous peoples are not a memory. They are our neighbors, our colleagues, and members and leaders of our own congregations. They are knowledge holders, neighbors, and relatives whose wisdom this church has too often ignored or extracted without accountability.

We celebrate the gifts they bring to this church. We honor their past. We acknowledge their present. We commit to their future.And we ask: what does this ask of us?

(A moment of silence.)

‍Congregation: This acknowledgment is a beginning. This synod commits to ongoing relationships, not simply ongoing words. We will review and revise this acknowledgment regularly, in partnership with Indigenous community members. We will listen before we speak. We will compensate the labor of those who teach us. We will ask what repair looks like and be accountable for that repair.‍

(Here are some questions to ask of the group to ponder, with a moment of silence for reflection in between each one)

What did I not know before this moment, and what might it ask of me?

What is happening in my body as I hear these words?

What am I thinking, feeling and what do I want to do about this?