2021: A Year in Review

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

Peace

Advent Worship Resources on Peace
Advent Worship Resources on Peace
Oct 30, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Advent Worship Resources on Peace

Date: Advent 1 – Dec. 1, 2013
Topic: Peace
Focus Text: Isaiah 2:1-5
To take Isaiah’s words to heart is to envision a world without hunger, poverty, war, violence, or fear. The prophet’s oracle challenges our endless pursuit for bigger and better weapons, the perpetuation of hatred and violence, the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor, and our insatiable appetite for more resources and power.
Disturbing the Peace
Disturbing the Peace
Aug 27, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Disturbing the Peace

Rev. Cody Sanders, Ph.D. candidate in Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Counseling at Brite Divinity School

There is something in these furious, feverish words that beckons beyond a simple description of what life will be like if you choose to follow a peculiar call from Jesus and your closest friends and family don’t. Beyond description, there is something of a call in this passage trying to work its way inside of us. These words beckon us beyond a recounting of our inevitable losses on the journey, to embrace our sacred calling to disturbers the peace.
Lectionary: Peace (Pentecost Sunday)
Lectionary: Peace (Pentecost Sunday)
Apr 22, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Lectionary: Peace (Pentecost Sunday)

From Acts of Faith: Free Lectionary Resources for Prophetic Worship

Date: Pentecost – May 19, 2013
Topic: Peace
Focus Text: John 14:8-17, 25-27

From the personal vignette: “After returning from Iraq, we moved to Durham, North Carolina to start a house of hospitality in the summer of 2003. We said we wanted to try to practice in our daily lives the love we had seen in Iraq. So we called our little experiment the Rutba House. What we do here day in and day out is hardly as dramatic as rescuing enemies from a roadside while bombs are falling. We’ve tried to find ways to shape our community life together around receiving and sharing God’s love.”
Preparing the Way: Blessed are the Peacemakers
Preparing the Way: Blessed are the Peacemakers
Mar 26, 2013
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Preparing the Way: Blessed are the Peacemakers

Sojo.net

Jesus was a peacemaking, blessed child of God, but he also was an “other.” Reviled and persecuted, he was the paperless son of displaced immigrant parents. The prophetic iconoclast. That guy who hung out with those people, the type most modern leaders would not associate with, except for a photo opportunity at a Thanksgiving Day soup kitchen. Let us remember on Sunday when we celebrate his resurrection, that Jesus was crucified because he was an outsider whose way of doing things scared and angered the powers-that-be.
Lectionary: Celebrating Abrahamic Faiths (4th Sunday in Lent)
Lectionary: Celebrating Abrahamic Faiths (4th Sunday in Lent)
Feb 17, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Lectionary: Celebrating Abrahamic Faiths (4th Sunday in Lent)

From Acts of Faith: Free Lectionary Resources for Prophetic Worship

Date: 4th Sunday in Lent – March 10, 2013
Topic: Celebrating Abrahamic Faiths
Focus Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From the pastoral reflection: “Nadia dramatically called us into the reality of her life and away from our being disengaged onlookers. Angrily, she described the early morning hours onslaught as she, her husband, and three little children huddled on their bedroom floor, bullets ricocheting around the room for half an hour. They assumed they would die in the hail of gunfire. But surviving the experience, the family began cleaning up their devastated home and quickly recognized the telltale imprint of American military hardware: spent shells that they knew came from American-made equipment.”
Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)
Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)
Feb 1, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)

Click here for a free download of our new 2013 social justice study for Lent: Preparing the Way. This simple 10-page document combines traditional Lenten themes and Bible passages with contemporary issues including hunger, care of creation, and immigration. We invite you to join us in this season of reflection and preparation.

Economic Justice Way of the Cross
Economic Justice Way of the Cross
Apr 2, 2012
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Economic Justice Way of the Cross

On April 6, state religious leaders and activists will remember Jesus Christ’s suffering and death and the suffering and death of immigrants coming to this country in an “Economic Justice Way of the Cross.” The North Carolina Council of Churches is a co-sponsor of the event which takes place from noon to 2 p.m. at the N.C. State Capitol.

The Good Friday commemoration of Jesus’ suffering and death will be linked with the need for justice, immigration reform, a change in US trade policies, and an end to US support for the war in Afghanistan and Colombia. Money needs to be spent on food and economic development instead of war, according to Gail Phares, director of Witness for Peace Southeast, the event’s primary organizer.
Abraham Jam — Take a Look!
Abraham Jam — Take a Look!
Nov 17, 2011
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Abraham Jam — Take a Look!

Thanks to all of those who supported Abraham Jam and the wonderful performers who made it happen. We hope to have links to additional video from the concert soon, but for now, here’s a sneak peek provided by the Duke Chronicle.

You can also listen to Frank Stasio’s interview with musicians David LaMotte, Dan Nichols, and Dawud Wharnsby from the Nov. 16 edition of WUNC’s The State of Things.
The Tbilisi Chalice Goes Home
The Tbilisi Chalice Goes Home
Nov 15, 2011
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

The Tbilisi Chalice Goes Home

The church of which I’m a member, Pullen Memorial Baptist in Raleigh, has had a partnership for many years with First Baptist Church in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia (formerly part of the Soviet Union). The pastor with whom we’ve had the closest contact, Malkhaz Songulashvili, has now become the Archbishop for Baptists in Georgia. (You did not read that wrong. Baptists in the Republic of Georgia have bishops and an archbishop!) Malkhaz was at Pullen on November 13 to preach and lead in the celebration of Eucharist.

Malkhaz has been courageous in his advocacy and practice of nonviolent action as Georgia has gone through its “Rose Revolution,” which moved Georgia away from authoritarian government and toward democratic reform. The Church of England honored his leadership in September 2005 when he was awarded the Lambeth Cross by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue
Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue
Nov 14, 2011
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue

Interfaith Dialogue is a crucial endeavor in light of the increasing religious diversity in our nation and our own communities. Globalization is a wondrous, yet in some ways perplexing reality, and it brings us into ever more frequent contact with persons of other faiths. While at one time the dialogue between Christians and Jews was common and we often spoke of our Judeo-Christian heritage, that conversation has necessarily expanded to include our increasingly numerous Muslim neighbors and we now speak of the Abrahamic Faiths. We are becoming increasingly aware of Buddhist, Hindu and Native American neighbors as well as persons of other religious traditions. It is imperative that we acknowledge, understand, and appreciate each other for the sake not only of civility, but because all our religious traditions require hospitality of us.

North Carolina Interfaith Dialogue Project
North Carolina Interfaith Dialogue Project
Nov 14, 2011
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

North Carolina Interfaith Dialogue Project

When a distinguished group of Muslim Imams published their historic “A Common Word Between Us and You” it was met with resounding expressions of appreciation by religious and secular leaders alike. It was an effort to initiate a broad dialogue across the United States between Muslims and Christians. It focused on two central themes which these two historic faiths hold in common: Love of God, and Love of Neighbor, and it sites the many texts of the Hebrew Scriptures which are venerated by both religious traditions. It seemed inappropriate to engage in such a dialogue without including our Jewish colleagues from whose faith tradition these texts originated. Hence, a three way dialogue was seen as the best approach.
Budget with conscience
Budget with conscience
Oct 9, 2011
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Budget with conscience

As the “Super Committee” begins to negotiate a deal to cut $1.5 trillion from our national budget, the faith community wants to be sure that our North Carolina congressional delegation – Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan as well as our 13 representatives – remember the calling of the God of all creation to provide for the common good. As the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, a native North Carolinian and senior pastor emeritus of New York’s Riverside Church reminds us, budgets are moral documents that determine who eats and who starves.
Community Services Around the State to Remember 9/11
Community Services Around the State to Remember 9/11
Sep 10, 2011
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Community Services Around the State to Remember 9/11

Pictured left, St. Paul’s Chapel became a refuge for rescue workers after September 11.

The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is next month, and it happens to fall on a Sunday. The NC Council of Churches has already posted some resources for worship planners, and there are a couple more links at the end of this blog. We also want to make you aware of community services which are being planned.

Proper 19, Year A
Proper 19, Year A
Aug 9, 2011
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Proper 19, Year A

In a community of Christians, the hopeful possibilities present in conflict will only be realized when we deal with the tension in a productive way. When a congregation faces conflict openly and directly with the people involved, there is a good opportunity for the situation to result in positive change and closer relationships between people. When conflict is handled in a way that cuts off communication and silences questions, the conflict can escalate and become destructive.

Left-leaning Christians to rally around ‘Wild Goose’
Left-leaning Christians to rally around ‘Wild Goose’
Jun 20, 2011
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Left-leaning Christians to rally around ‘Wild Goose’

USA Today

DURHAM, N.C. — It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s the South.

That must mean it’s time for an old-fashioned camp meeting.

Starting Thursday, the bygone staple of the tent revival will be reincarnated on a bucolic North Carolina farm as The Wild Goose Festival. Nearly 10 years in the making, the festival is an attempt to reimagine Christianity for the 21st century under a bigger, wider more inclusive tent.