Grace & Groundings
Podcast series focuses on shalom
Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s resource team focused on racial awareness and reconciliation, is sponsoring a series of monthly podcasts about social righteousness and shalom. The series began in January, with plans to publish one episode each month through May. Each episode focuses on a different topic designed to draw listeners into deeper conversations about issues of social righteousness and…
Building Bridges and Seeking Shalom
How can we build bridges between people, working toward social righteousness and shalom? In a new episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, Doug Zehr introduces a series of podcasts from Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team. Listen to this episode to learn more about this five-part podcast series and to hear Doug discuss five common misconceptions about…
Grace & Groundings offers resources
By Alysa Short Ohio Conference Coordinator of Volunteers Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s resource team focused on racial awareness and reconciliation, wants to bring your attention to a number of upcoming opportunities: Podcast series — Be sure to follow the Ohio Conference Cast on your podcast platform as there will be a new episode out each month from January through May…
Podcast episodes to focus on shalom
Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, is planning a podcast series focusing on social righteousness and shalom. The series will begin in January, with plans to publish one episode each month through May. Each episode will focus on a different topic designed to draw listeners into deeper conversations about issues of social righteousness and shalom. In addition…
Young adult perspectives sought
Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, Grace & Groundings, is working on actions related to social justice. However, the team wants to address those issues that are of utmost concern to young adults in particular. Please encourage the young adults in your congregation to let us know what topics they would be most interested in. Please encourage them to reach…
Putting the focus on social justice
By Nathanael Hofstetter Ressler Note: This year Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, invited Ohio Conference churches to set aside Sunday, June 18, as Social Justice Sunday. The Grace & Groundings team provided worship planning resources for Social Justice Sunday. Below, Nathanael Hofstetter Ressler, pastor of Maple Grove Mennonite Church in Hartville, reflects on his congregation’s experience…
God’s kingdom is bigger
By Kevin Himes In Acts 10, Peter had a dream — a weird dream. Foods that any God-fearing Jew knew to be unclean were no longer off limits. It’s like a vegetarian dreaming of bacon high fiving a cheeseburger while God says, “It’s okay to eat meat now!” Although it seemed ridiculous at the time, Peter’s dream ultimately paved the…
June 18 is Social Justice Sunday
Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, is inviting all Ohio Conference churches to set aside Sunday, June 18, as Social Justice Sunday, in recognition of Juneteenth the following day. (If June 18 does not work well for your congregation, please consider setting aside a different Sunday as Social Justice Sunday.) The team is preparing worship planning resources,…
List of resources for racial reconciliation work now available
Grace & Groundings, Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, has compiled a list of resources for working at racial reconciliation: Racial Reconciliation Resource List.
Humbled from the start: One person’s start on the anti-racist journey
By Greg Bowman Part 1 “When did you begin to grapple with being White?” The answer to this question is fairly straightforward: about 2001. The back story is more revealing. I was 49, living in eastern Pennsylvania in an all-white community, attending an all-white rural Mennonite congregation in Bally. It was at a Saturday morning session of a weekend-long anti-racism…
Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday, Jan. 16, 2023, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This is a day that remembers the nonviolent approach to racial justice that was led by minister and activist Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Grace & Groundings,” Ohio Conference’s racial reconciliation resource team, invites you to use the previous Sunday – Jan. 15, 2023 – to remember the work…
Grounding our healing in grace
Let us begin to heal. Read Proverbs 3:1-7, noting especially verse 5a: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” We are in community with each other. Many of us are hurting. Can we come together and promote healing? Maybe you don’t see it. Maybe you don’t feel it. But when you listen…