ACCOUNTABILITY MEANS our efforts to abide must be demonstrated, effective, and expected. As individuals who are forgiven by God, still learning to forgive one another, and welcomed corporately to abide with God through Christ, we remain accountable to God to love neighbors as ourselves and to seek all people’s well-being. Because the freedom we receive through Christ is not freedom from responsibility, each of us must hold ourselves, the institution’s values, its governing policies, and our communal culture accountable to the invitation we have received to abide in God’s love. With integrity and a commitment to pursuing equity, the seminary strives to attain outcomes that foster justice for all members of the community and the broader society in which God calls us to serve. Therefore we will regularly assess the seminary’s progress so as to ensure that we are indeed progressing in our commitments. Our embrace of accountability also means that members of the community can express their experiences of marginalization or exclusion by speaking the truth in love.
A CHRISTIAN PRACTICE: Confession. By confessing sin, we encounter God, acknowledge our accountability, face the pain we cause and suffer, and experience anew the power of truth. Confession goes beyond remorse and contrition; it means we tell it like it is in the presence of God. We confess our individual shortcomings as well as the historical exclusions and structural disadvantages that have constructed barriers in our institution. Speaking the truth to ourselves, alongside one another, and before God, we experience healing and discover new illumination to guide us toward repair. Confession keeps us situated on paths of repentant and renewed living.
~ from Luther Seminary's Calling to ABIDE