Dear Members of the West Virginia Conference,

As we continue our work on dismantling racism and building our intercultural competency, I would like to commend to you the “Toolkit for Ministry Post-Charlottesville” that has been pulled together by the General Commission on Religion and Race(GCORR). At our Friday evening 2017 Conference Worship service celebrating our Historical African American congregations, we committed ourselves to develop more and greater relationships with persons who are different than ourselves so that together we can reflect the community of faith and love that Christ calls us to be. We committed ourselves to prayer, to refrain from doing harm with our words, and to going back to our congregations to begin work that breaks down walls and builds bridges in order to reach the great variety of God’s people in our communities with presence and love of Christ. As persons left that service they were given a resource page that listed a variety of actions and studies that could be used with local congregations to explore how to dismantle walls and to build bridges so that we can better be the body of Christ for the world today. The toolkit, shared by GCORR, expands the list of resources given out at our Conference session. I hope that you will take seriously the work and ministry of Christ by intentionally beginning conversations, studies, discussions, and planning life-giving, community building actions that continue to move us in the direction of dismantling racism and building our intercultural competency.

Click here to view the Toolkit.

Peace,

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball

P.S. If you have not registered for the Summit on Diversity and Inclusion and the Grow in Christ through Giving Seminar which is taking place at Cedar Lakes Oct. 6 – 7, I encourage you to go to register today!