Join NCIPL & NC Council of Churches Intern for Climate and Environmental Justice, Noely Bernier, for a discussion on the impacts of colonialism (on our lives and the environmental movement), […]
When it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground. Polarizing debates over their meaning have intensified into legislative maneuvering to preserve the statues, legal battles to remove them, […]
On February 11 at 6 p.m., join Catawba College for a live-stream screening of 11am: Hope for America’s Most Segregated Hour. The story in this film is centered around the […]
Join us on Friday, February 26th, for a conversation on the work of environmental justice with expert speakers including Sherri White-Williamson of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network and the […]
The annual HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) Moral March and People’s Assembly 2021 is happening virtually and online this year. Due to Covid, we cannot gather on Fayetteville Street, but there […]
Join us and NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green for a Zoom discussion on one of James Baldwin’s essays, Equal in Paris, written shortly before Christmas 1949. Jaki Shelton Green will […]
This August and September, NCIPL will host an eight-week forum series detailing the important issues facing us this election. These events will highlight our voter reflection guide, feature expert speakers, […]
This August and September, NCIPL will host an eight-week forum series detailing the important issues facing us this election. These events will highlight our voter reflection guide, feature expert speakers, […]
The following transcript was offered as a sermon by NCIPL Program Coordinator, Sarah Ogletree, on Sunday, June 7th, during the online worship service of Pittsboro Presbyterian Church. The sermon reflects […]
A resolution adopted by the Governing Board of the North Carolina Council of Churches, June 2, 2020. Whereas the North Carolina Council of Churches was founded in 1935, primarily for […]
![A small roadway memorial marks the area where jogger Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in Brunswick, Georgia [Erik S Lesser/EPA]](https://ncchurches.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/NCCC_Ahmaud.jpg)
This piece was written by Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director, in conjunction with Jessica Stokes, Associate Director of Partners in Health and Wholeness. For 85 years the North Carolina Council of […]
Racism has been called America’s “original sin.” Struggles around affirmative action, welfare and immigration reform, and other policies show that the racial divide in the United States wasn’t healed in […]
When leaders of the N.C. Council of Churches two years ago adopted a policy statement entitled “Confederate-themed monuments: Time to reassess,” the statue known as Silent Sam still faced north […]
During both the pre- and post-Civil War eras, lynching was used with impunity by patrols of KKK members to intimidate, terrorize, incarcerate and kill black people. Then as now, unpunished […]
The Liberating Theologies conference is a one-day experience exploring varying theologies with an emphasis on liberation and inclusion for the oppressed and marginalized. North Carolina has been a political, social […]
The Liberating Theologies conference, presented by The Freedom Center for Social Justice, is a one-day experience exploring varying theologies with an emphasis on liberation and inclusion for the oppressed and […]
2018 is shaping up to the be the Year of the Woman. From the halls of government to stages and theaters from coast to coast, from marches and protest to […]
Only rarely does the United States Commission on Civil Rights hold hearings outside of Washington D.C. In February they came to town, convening in Raleigh to hear testimony about obstacles […]
Black History month is North Carolina Council of Churches’ history starting in 1935 because our history is founded on the black experience as seen through the eyes of the white […]
A reflection on Jesus of Nazareth (out of which nothing good comes)¹, the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr., and the detention of Gilles Bikindou. Jesus. Martin. Gilles. […]
At many levels, Americans are confronting issues of race relations and racial justice with an intensity that echoes the climax of the civil rights movement five decades ago – as […]
It has been nearly fourteen months since Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner prior to the start of his team’s games. The decision not […]
On April 26, 1865, my great-great-grandfather was camped a mere five miles from where I now live in Durham, NC. He was from the upstate of South Carolina, as am […]
Today, Friday, August 18, 2017, South Main in Durham, NC, is closed to traffic. Civil employees have been sent home. Some banks and many businesses in the downtown area have […]
When President Trump stepped to a White House lectern on Monday and rebuked the instigators of the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., that had erupted two days before, he was […]
Before I came to call the great state of North Carolina home, I was a proud Virginian for the first twenty-six years of my life. I grew up in a […]
Five years ago, President Obama created the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program to enable young people brought to this country as children to come out of the shadows […]
The optics, as they say, are terrible. But in a state whose motto is “To Be Rather Than to Seem,” it’s even more important to look at the substance. And […]
With so many issues confronting us, our nation’s involvement in acts of torture is fading from the public’s priorities for concern. Five years and $40 million in the making, the […]
Presented with a new state budget that, whatever its occasional virtues, is mainly about easing tax burdens on the well-off while grinding opponents of legislative Republicans into the dirt, Democratic […]
By now the strategy is familiar – the strategy used by the N.C. General Assembly’s Republican chiefs to try to make a fundamentally flawed state budget appear, well, not that […]
Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Under President Trump’s recent executive orders, many people’s lives have changed, especially the lives of those who have come to North Carolina […]
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I headed north for my sister’s graduation. Being only a few hours away from Niagara Falls at that point, we decided to […]
We were already living in a time of profound consequence. President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement means that while the needs of our endangered climate are increasing, […]
Following the elections of 2010 – tilted as they were by an intense right-wing pushback against President Barack Obama midway through his first term – Republicans in the N.C. General […]
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly discussed SB 145, an anti-immigrant bill that would expand the 287g program, thereby allowing local law enforcement to […]
This week, Donald Trump issued an executive order to turn back the clock on the climate progress we have made over the past decade. In addition to directing the EPA to […]
Thank you to those who have registered for the 2017 Legislative Seminar. We are looking forward to having you join us this Monday, March 27, at St. Mark’s United Methodist […]
The budget blueprint for 2018 released by President Trump on Thursday cuts a wide swath through programs that serve women, people of color, those of low income (for poor women […]
Around the release of the alt-health plan currently making its way through Congress, several elected leaders have gone where elected leaders sometimes go – blaming the poor for being poor. […]
Despite evidence that the Affordable Care Act is more popular and more needed than ever, some Republicans in Congress have proceeded with partisan plans to repeal Obamacare while dismantling Medicaid […]
The political situation at the national level has occupied the time and attention of many faithful progressives. Each day has brought with it more reasons to be concerned for our […]
Yesterday morning, the Sandra P. Lerner Jewish Community Day School in Durham received a bomb threat. This was the most recent in recurring waves of bomb threats against Jewish centers […]
President Trump’s recent executive actions impacting refugees and immigrants have faithful people increasingly interested in how they might support our sisters and brothers being impacted. Court decisions have offered a […]
Sometimes God whispers. Whether through hymns or homilies or kids dancing their way down the aisle to children’s chapel. Sometimes God shouts. Through the amplified suffering of others, known or […]
Last in a series of three blogs. Above all, these strangers bring to us the Christ. When we welcome a stranger we welcome Jesus, and when we welcome Jesus we […]
Second in a series of three blogs. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) The idea […]
Compared with some of the provocatively, even outrageously unsuited people whom President Trump has chosen for high office, Neil Gorsuch barely moves the needle. But that’s not to say Americans […]
Our friend Rob Schofield over at Policy Watch wrote a column on Tuesday that was as vitally important in its truth-telling as it was hard to read for the future […]
First in a series of three blogs. God calls people of faith to remember that they once were strangers in a strange land and they must, must welcome the stranger […]
At another time in my life, I would not have spent most of Saturday occupying my tiny square of personal space in the heart of Washington DC, literally shoulder to […]
Dear Mr. Trump, You ARE my president. I did not vote for you, but you were elected, and that makes you my president because I am a citizen of these […]
Pizazz. Laughter. Friends. Singing. These words describe the Healthy Churches 2020 National Conference. But, did you know that a faith and health national conference even exists? Healthy Churches 2020 held […]
Excerpts from Dr. King’s remarks delivered on May 14, 1963 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The American dream reminds us that every man is the heir of […]
Groups at the state and national level continue to mobilize around concerns about President-Elect Donald Trump’s stated policy objectives and choices for cabinet posts. The NC NAACP, Interfaith Power & […]
On Friday, the House of Representatives voted to continue the process that could ultimately repeal the Affordable Care Act. Activists across the nation were already planning Day of Action events […]
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Durham and the NC Council of Churches invite you to join us for a brief service to pray for justice and reconciliation in our nation […]
As we watched the egregiously unqualified Donald Trump campaign for and win election to the White House, any good news on the government and politics front was likely to be […]
Looking ahead to 2017, there is much more work for the Council to do than we ever imagined. Please join us. Your financial support helps us continue what began in […]
We are living in unsettling times. Progress we once thought inviolable now feels threatened. One constant is the NC Council of Churches and our commitment to a more just, united, […]
The response to our sign-on ad was overwhelming and inspired the staff of the Council to create the video below. Clergy who would like to have their names included in […]
Earlier this month, the North Carolina Conference hosted its annual Pilgrimage event, a time when several thousand middle and high school students come together for a weekend to hear from […]
Almost 400 years ago, in what is now Massachusetts, a group of newly arrived immigrants from Europe received lifesaving hospitality from a group of indigenous Americans. Tomorrow, we celebrate and […]
The North Carolina Council of Churches is calling on people of faith and leaders of the faith communities across NC to shape their worship services the weekend of December 2-4 […]
Those of us aligned with the Council of Churches share a political outlook whose priorities include equal rights, equal opportunity, environmental stewardship, ample investment in public services and fair allocation […]
We work toward a church that is all-loving. That’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Stay connected with the Council to learn about opportunities […]
Many of us have been following with great interest the resistance of Native Americans in North Dakota to the Dakota Access Pipeline. For the crime of defending their lands and […]
As the 2016 campaign season grinds along the final stretch toward Election Day on Nov. 8 – and with thousands of North Carolinians already having cast their ballots – we […]
The folks in North Carolina who want to make it harder rather than easier for people to vote – a category that features top officials of the state Republican Party […]
Many in our state are celebrating 10 years of no executions and putting out a call for no more killings in our name. Patrick O’Neil a leading abolitionist in our […]
The Republican Party developed a national strategy to seize and hold legislative power, and in North Carolina executed it with relentless precision. Six years into that process, however, the adverse […]
This sermon was preached on August 6, 2016 at the Church Women United Leadership Conference. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let […]
Even for ardent voting rights advocates, there’s little comfort to be gained from a federal appeals court’s finding that the N.C. General Assembly engaged in a multifaceted scheme to discriminate […]
Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! — Genesis 4:10 For days now, I’ve heard the same cry God is hearing. The blood of Philando Castile, Alton […]
Take heart, fair-minded North Carolinians. The state’s not-always-pristine but still vaguely operative image as a place where “the weak grow strong and the strong grow great” is in the process […]
The Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman delivered the sermon during worship at the Council’s 2016 Critical Issues Seminar on Race, Power, and Privilege. Video of his extraordinary message is below: […]
Registration for 2016 Critical Issues Seminar workshops is now available online. If you have not yet registered, please use the form below to do so and include your selection for […]
I do not believe that I am the only one who feels a little hopeless right now. Members of the news media bombard us with news of the attack on Brussels, […]
Yes, it was a pretty neat trick — one bill that manages to expose many vulnerable North Carolinians to unfair, hurtful treatment, that threatens to put a dent in the […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Easter — John 20:1-18 Early on the first day of the week, […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” By Brian Hollingsworth, Partners in Health and Wholeness Intern Good Friday — […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Maundy Thursday — John 13:1-17, 31b-35 Now before the festival of the […]
If Donald J. Trump successfully concludes his so-far-dominant push to become this year’s Republican presidential nominee, North Carolinians will have played a role. Some will view that role as a […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Palm Sunday —Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 O give thanks to the Lord, for […]
After a panel of federal judges threw out North Carolina’s congressional district map because it trampled the rights of African-American voters, the General Assembly followed orders and redrew the map. […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Second Corinthians 5:16-21 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from […]
Infographic by Tracy Loeffelholz Dunn / The Nation. Shutterstock images from Lorelyn Medina, Agusto Cabral The Clean Power Plan, and transitioning to a clean energy economy more broadly, are creating […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Isaiah 55:1-9 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Philippians 3:17-20; 4:1 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe […]
The Republicans who control North Carolina’s General Assembly are determined to draw election-district boundaries favoring their party’s candidates and promoting their conservative agenda. But when Republican voters are outnumbered by […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Deuteronomy 26:1-11 When you have come into the land that the Lord […]
Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Love One Another: Reflections on Race, Power, and Privilege” Ash Wednesday —Psalm 51: 1-17 Have mercy on me, O God, according […]
With an eye toward the battles over redistricting that have roiled North Carolina politics for the last quarter-century, once again push is coming to shove. This time, the advantage lies […]
Join us for the Council’s 2016 Critical Issues Seminar, focused on Race, Power, and Privilege, on Saturday, April 23 at St. Matthew United Methodist Church, 600 East Florida Street, Greensboro. […]
When we set out to prepare this year’s Lenten guide, the contributors were told they could choose whichever lectionary passage they wanted to write about for their given date as […]
Join the NAACP, NC Council of Churches, and other coalition partners for the Tenth Annual Moral March on Raleigh. Historic Thousands on Jones Street 2016 takes place on Saturday, February 13; […]
Few of the decisions made by the men and women of our General Assembly are so prone to self-serving, partisan abuse as the setting of boundaries for voting districts. When […]
A lot of times in the work that we do at the Council we preface our comments, blogs or presentations with the words, “it’s complicated”. The Syrian refugee crisis is […]
For those of us who want to see North Carolina governed with the interests of all its residents in mind – not mainly the interests of the well-off and privileged […]
