Over Labor Day weekend, Our Saviour’s UMC (OSUMC) held an Anti-Racism event in conjunction with the Schaumburg’s end-of-summer festival and the church’s youth group annual parking lot fundraiser.
Read MoreSaving Grace is a six-session course mainly intended for small groups, with extra content for clergy, who have special circumstances in such areas as housing and taxes. Participants use a workbook (the primary cost), and there’s a leader’s guide, too.
Read MoreWhile the bankruptcy case is ongoing, the Boy Scouts of America, along with its local councils, recently reached an agreement with representatives of most of the survivors on a proposed $850 million settlement. This would be the largest settlement in a child sexual abuse case in U.S. history.
Read MoreNIC Interim Bishop John Hopkins has signed a joint statement with the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, condemning the shootings in metropolitan Atlanta on March 16 that left eight people dead and one injured. They recognize these shootings are the product of a culture of violence, misogyny, and hatred against Asian American people—particularly Asian women—that has intensified over the last year.
Read MoreMore than 300 people attended the first virtual Laity Convocation, “The Other Side: Making Churches Vital in a Post-Pandemic World,” held as a Zoom webinar on Feb. 13, 2021. The session focused on the NIC’s strategic goals of ending racism, growing and reaching new disciples, and building vital congregations. The three speakers included Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey on communal prayer, Rev. Adam Hamilton on helping people grow in faith, and Rev. Dr. F. Douglas Powe on reaching out to our neighbors.
Read MoreLike many people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, Rev. Marilyn Nolan, senior pastor at Lanark UMC, went on the search to find an appointment to get her shot, which would surprisingly turn into a community outreach. “Since I was in 1b category, I called the local Caroll County Health department to make an appointment and was told I was number 500 on a long waitlist,” said Nolan, a bit discouraged. “But while on the phone, I asked the administrator if the county needed sites to distribute the vaccine and offered our church as suggested by one of our members.”
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