Justice Training Resources

These tools and programs have been especially designed to strengthen the justice ministry in your congregation. Learn more about each of them by using the links below.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days

Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a yearly gathering of the ecumenical Christian community. This weekend of learning, worship and advocacy is grounded in biblical witness and our shared traditions of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Our goal is to strengthen our Christian voice and to mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues. Learn more and join us in DC!

Host a Justice Revival

What it is: Over the past several years, Justice and Witness Ministries has supported local churches in the creation of “justice revivals.” These revivals have been opportunities to be inspired by preaching and informed by workshops and training all through the lens of justice. So far, revivals have been hosted in Vancouver, WA and Milwaukee, WI. Rev. Andrew Warner, who is pastor of Plymouth Church in Milwaukee, has captured his planning process and put it into a toolkit for others to use as a model.

How to use it: Use this event as a way to spark a revival of justice work in your local church or conference. Download the Revival Manual and consider how such an event could be held in your community. Reach out to Justice and Witness Ministries for support, and inform your local conference office for help with planning or promotion.

Issue-Centered Programs Other Opportunities

A2A – Accessible to All

A2A is the terminology used within the United Church to refer to congregations that have completed the Accessible to All process and thereby made the commitment to be physically and attitudinally welcoming of people with disabilities. The A2A process has for many years been defined by the A2A resource “Any Body, Everybody, Christ’s Body”; the “process” is completed by completing the check list in the back of the A2A resource and sending this checklist to UCC Disabilities Ministries.

Our Whole Lives (OWL)

Our Whole Lives is a series of sexuality education programs for six age groups: grades K-1, grades 4-6, grades 7-9,  grades 10-12, Young Adults and Adults. The resources are written by professional sexuality educators and provide accurate information for parents, teachers and pastors to be used in the affirming and supportive setting of our churches. We offer training opportunities for individuals who want to become OWL instructors.

Economic Justice Covenant Program

In 2009, General Synod XXVII approved a resolution that established the Economic Justice Covenant Program. The resolution encouraged all congregations and other settings of the UCC to become Economic Justice Churches (or Economic Justice Seminaries, Associations, Conferences, etc): to study economic injustices, pray and discern God’s will for their economic justice ministry, draft and adopt an Economic Justice Covenant, and engage in actions to promote economic justice.

This curriculum is designed primarily for a local church but is easily adaptable for the needs of other settings.

Homegrown Faith & Justice: Faith-Forming Activities, Conversations, Rituals, and Resources for Families with Children

Homegrown Faith & Justice introduces children and youth ages 3 to 18 to the following topics, with Biblical reflection and age-appropriate conversation moments and activities:

  • God’s Vision of Shalom
  • God and Love
  • Love and Neighbor
  • The Courage to Do the Right Thing 

Creation Justice Churches

We challenge all our congregations to become Green Justice Congregations. Why not just “green?” Because like Sally Bingham says, justice is more than just changing light bulbs. It is about a transformation of our hearts and minds to see God’s creation in new ways that lead to living in new ways. It is about acting on new values in your life and in the life of your community.

Becoming an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation

Become an immigrant welcoming congregation. The Journey toward becoming an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation involves multiple study and reflection sessions. Download this wonderful toolkit created by our UCC Southwest Conference.

Just Peace Church

The Just Peace Church vision is a hallmark of United Church of Christ theological identity.  For over two decades, the Just Peace Church pronouncement has inspried a grassroots movement of UCC congregations committed to corporately naming and boldly proclaiming a public identity as a justice-doing, peace-seeking church.

Congregation-Based Community Organizing

Congregation-based community organizing (CBCO) is community organizing rooted in faith bodies that come together in answer to God’s call to love our neighbors, stand with the marginalized, and work with God for a more just society.

Open and Affirming

Open and Affirming (ONA) is the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) designation for congregations, campus ministries, and other bodies in the UCC which make a public covenant of welcome into their full life and ministry to persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions.

UCC Fair Trade Coffee Project

The UCC Coffee Project means that your congregation can partner with UCC Justice and Witness Ministries and Equal Exchange in building fair trade for small farming communities by serving fairly traded coffee, tea and cocoa, and chocolate, almonds, and olive oil for justice at fellowship hour on Sundays. It is a way for your congregation to join hands with farmers and communities in the developing world.

Centers of Education and Social Transformation

UCC Centers for Environmental Justice

The UCC Centers for Environmental Justice at Pilgrim Firs and Silver Lake Conference Center are places where participants can come from all over the U.S. and be immersed in a justice-centered response to climate change and environmental equity.

Washington, D.C. Office

This is the goal of the UCC Washington office is to make a better world possible by addressing the systemic problems that we face as a country and as part of the world. Hunger, poverty, peace and security, racism, care for the earth. These are among the types of justice issues that we work to improve through federal policies.

Please note: The Daniel F. Romero Center for Border Ministries (Centro Romero) is no longer a national border immersion program of the United Church of Christ. We are in the midst of exciting conversations among an expanded list of partners to determine the design of future border justice programs. More information will follow as these plans unfold.