![House of Deputies President the Rev Gay Clark Jennings, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, executive officer of General Convention speak to the media. NINA NICHOLSON PHOTO News conference](https://dioceseofnewark.org/sites/default/files/styles/node_hero_image/public/images/IMG_1171_web_0.jpg?itok=8BL5SslV)
[Deseret News] As the Episcopal Church embarks on its 78th General Convention this week, church leaders are intently focused on healing the world, the nation and the church itself.
At a news conference Tuesday at the Salt Palace Convention Center, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, said people of faith and goodwill have been "electrified" by officer-involved shootings of black men and boys across the country, and more recently "the slaughter of nine black Christians by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina."
"I believe that God is calling on us to dismantle the systems of racism and privilege that are inextricably bound up in the history of the United States and in our church, which was founded … in the early days of the republic," Jennings said.
The Episcopal Church's General Convention, which is conducted every three years, "is a place where Episcopalians have the ability not only to proclaim that black lives matter, but also to take concrete action for ending racism and achieving God's great racial reconciliation and justice," she said.