Understanding Racism Workshop
Working in partnership with two other local Christian Reformed congregations — Coit Community Church and Madison Square CRC — we developed the Understanding Racism Workshop to raise awareness and help participants organize for racial reconciliation. The workshop is offered regularly and is led by trained facilitators. The COSAART Team encourages all COS members and friends to attend a workshop. Check the CORE webpage for the workshop schedule or contact a member of the COSAART team for more information.
The goals of the workshop are:
- To see and experience racism in a new and redemptive way
- To gain insights into systemic racism through the eyes of faith and scripture
- To see more of the connections between history and contemporary race relations
- To identify organizing opportunities to eliminate racism, both causes and effects, within the body of believers and throughout the world
Congregations Organizing for Racial Reconciliation (CORR)
The three partner churches that created the Understanding Racism Workshop formed a separate committee, Congregations Organizing for Racial Reconciliation (CORR), to help administer our antiracism work. Here’s what CORR is about:
Mission: We exist to empower and equip churches and other Christian organizations in West Michigan to organize and disciple their members to become agents of institutional and individual racial reconciliation.
Vision: We are a community of churches and Christian organizations who are agents of racial reconciliation.
Values:
- Christian. We are dedicated to be more and more conformed to Christ, as individuals and in community.
- Collaboration. We are eager to collaborate with interested congregations and other Christian organizations, and utilize other antiracist resources.
- Accountability. We are committed, as a multiracial team, to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, with special attentiveness to the voices of racial groups in church and community who are often left unheard.
- Congregational focus. Our ministry is designed to be integrated with the entire life and witness of the local church.
- Organizing. We are committed to strategic use of our spiritual and physical resources for long-term effectiveness.
For more information about CORR check out:
Sister-Church Relationship
Our congregation has formed a sister-church relationship with Coit Community Church in northeast Grand Rapids. Together, we’re working to build relationships and overcome racial barriers through joint worship, outreach events, and times of fellowship.