Statements and Commitments

Click here to watch the Letter of Lament and Anguish read by Presbytery leadership on YouTube

Click here to download/read the Letter of Lament and Anguish from Presbytery leadership

Written by Rev. Katelyn Nutter Dowling, Presbytery Moderator,
with the support and input of Commissioned Pastor Lisa Elkington,
and Rev. Abigail Trautmann, Executive Presbyter and Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of WNY, January, 2026

~ LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ~

*This Land Acknowledgement was approved by the Native American Reconciliation Group in
July 2025 for use in the Presbytery of Western New York.

We the members and churches of the Presbytery of Western New York acknowledge that we are standing on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy which include Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora Nations.

We recognize that this land was taken through illegal treaties and unrelenting colonization.

We honor the elders of the Haudenosaunee who have actively stewarded this land throughout the generations and witnessed what it is to live as one with creation.

We commit to remembering how this land was acquired and to faithfully care for this land as God’s stewards.

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Statements and Commitments

~ LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ~

*This Land Acknowledgement was approved by the Native American Reconciliation Group in July 2025 for use in the Presbytery of Western New York.

*This Land Acknowledgement was approved by the Native American Reconciliation Group in
July 2025 for use in the Presbytery of Western New York.