A Desire for a Real and Present Peace

The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer

General Minister and President

In his Christmas message to the wider Church, United Church of Christ General Minister and President John C. Dorhauer urges a renewed commitment to God’s peace.

Maybe it’s just I, but of late there is extant an overwhelming sense of not being able to process the feelings that surface after reports of random violence.

I write this brief Christmas reflection just days after a series of brutal mass shootings that come at us so quickly I can’t fully process them emotionally. I learned last night that two former members of this staff, whom I know and care about and worked with, had family members murdered over the weekend. A pastor wrote to me yesterday to share that the chair of her church’s diaconate asked her to remove the banner that hung on the altar that had words for peace written in various languages – a very familiar banner used by many of our churches the first week of Advent.

All of this erodes my confidence not so much in the presence of peace in our world – something my heart longs for – as for the desire for that peace to be real and present. It is as if we have accepted that violence will always be with us and our call as members of the body of Christ to instill a lasting and just peace is either futile or not worth the effort.

As Christmas nears, I find a strong desire within me to engage in the unfolding of peace. I find that to be both relevant and urgent. Bombs cannot fall nor bullets fly and we just sit by in stagnant complacency. Neither the enormity of the undertaking nor the desensitizing of our emotions in response to any of this should result in the Church failing to hear the call from our Prince of Peace to be, as Francis wrote, "instruments of God’s peace."

Toxic. A Black Woman's Story

Monday, December 12, 4 PM

Racism. Toxic stress. Birth outcomes. How are these things intertwined? The short film, Toxic: A Black Woman's Story, seeks to explore that question. Peer into the world of Nina, an elite lawyer, loyal wife, and loving mother of a teen boy. Nina is navigating life (and a pregnancy) to the best of her ability. But sometimes the forces on a woman - especially a black woman - can be too much to bear. Watch this film and join in discussion about how the stress of navigating an unjust world takes a toll on black women’s bodies and about how loving and restorative ways of living together can help.

Register here to get your link to this FREE virtual presentation. View the flyer here.

WISE for Mental Health

Tuesday, December 15, 2:30 PM

The United Church of Christ adopted the WISE (Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, and Engaged) for mental health covenant as a denomination in 2015 as part of our commitment to mental health justice. Join representatives of the UCC Mental Health Network for practical resources for what UCC members and congregations can do to become WISE for mental health and create a more just world for all.

This webinar is part of a special series of Thursdays for the Soul webinars focused on twelve Just World Covenant programs in the United Church of Christ. One the third Thursday of each month, one of these programs will be featured.

Register online here.

New health system focused on improving safety and outcomes, advancing health equity and accelerating medical breakthroughs 

After sharing plans to come together in May, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health last Friday announced they have closed on their formal combination to create Advocate Health. The combined organization will focus on best meeting patients’ needs by redefining how, when and where care is delivered.

In addition to delivering the best health outcomes and making care more accessible and affordable, Advocate Health is committed to being a force for meaningful social impact. The organization aims to bring medical innovations to patients more quickly, address the root causes of health inequities, advance population health, enable career advancement and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Advocate Health is headquartered in Charlotte, while maintaining a strong presence in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, including a planned, new, Milwaukee-based institute for health equity. The Advocate Health Care, Atrium Health and Aurora Health Care brands will continue to be used in their respective local communities, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the combined entity. 

Advocate Health serves nearly 6 million patients annually and is the fifth largest 

nonprofit integrated health system in the nation. With revenues of more than $27 billion, the newly combined organization comprises more than 1,000 sites of care and 67 hospitals with more than 21,000 physicians and nearly 42,000 nurses. The health system delivers nearly $5 billion in annual community benefit. 

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FAITHFUL FRIDAYS is published by the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, 1840 Westchester Blvd, Suite 200, Westchester, IL 60154. The Rev. Molly Carlson, Conference Minister; Sarah Lohrbach, Editor. Copy may be sent to: [email protected].