Seeking Healing 

in the Face of Multiple Epidemics 
 

The challenges that North American society faces in 2023 are manifold and deep. As churches embedded in this society, we have be cognizant of how deep the roots of these epidemics run, and at the same time, begin to move out of them in ways that foster meaningful and lasting healing. Three of the articles below explore the depths of three deeply rooted epidemics, and challenge us to consider what moving forward into Christ's healing looks like: the epidemic of loneliness, the epidemic of injustice against Native peoples, and the epidemic of economic inequality. 
 

Cultivating Communities works alongside cohorts of churches that are in close-proximity to each other, providing resources and helping them discern what it might look like for their congregations and their places to flourish. Our first three cohorts (one in the mountains of East Tennessee, one on the west side of Chicago, and one in Indianapolis) are now underway.

(Learn more about our cohorts and 
the Cultivating Communities Learning Journey)

An Invisible Epidemic. Watch 24 hours of an American day, and the invisible crisis of loneliness hiding in plain sight, in a striking visual essay. ( via The Pudding )

Churches confess and repent for sins against Native and Indigenous people. Starting in the late 2000s, more than two dozen Protestant denominations in the U.S. and Canada as well as the World Council of Churches have voted to officially repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. Among them: Presbyterians, Lutherans, the United Church of Christ, United Methodists, and the Episcopal Church. ... "I think that anyone who calls themselves Christian needs to ask why they wouldn't want to repudiate that doctrine," Mary Crist, an Episcopal priest, says. "Because that doctrine was explicit in saying non-Christians are non-humans and without rights." (via NPR)