The 2020 Reconciliation Offering will be received on September 27 and October 4. This Special Offering is used to fund our Church’s mission imperative to “become a pro-reconciling and anti-racist church,” utilizing experiential education, inclusive worship and intentional dialogue. Recent events have reignited the conversation about human brokenness evidenced in the signs of racism perpetuated in our institutional structures and systems. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has a history dating from the 1960s of sharing our resources to address racism in our society and within our own church. We have called this process the Reconciliation Ministry.
The 2020 Vision adopted by our church names this work as one of the four priorities of our mission together as a whole church. This voluntary annual offering is the only source of funding for this ministry. Half of the offerings given to Reconciliation Ministry by our CCIW Region, come back to our Region to be used in anti-racism work in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The form of this ministry may be changing, but the need for addressing racism has never been more obvious. Your generous giving to Reconciliation Ministry is transforming lives and strengthening Christ’s witness in the world, showing that we love one another, even as Christ continues to love us!
We are so blessed to have a church that has developed ways of responding to the systemic sin of racism so that we do not have to stand by wringing our hands and wishing there was some way we could “fix” things. We have a vehicle through which we may respond to this problem.
Because of the pandemic, there will be no special envelopes. Please be sure your contributions to this special offering are marked “Reconciliation” to avoid confusion. You may bring these to church if you are attending services in person, or drop (or mail) them by the church during this two week period.
For more information on the Disciples Reconciliation Ministry, click here.
