The United Church of Christ Board issues a statement of solidarity with National Officers, Conferences and local churches condemning systemic racism and pledging to build a strong anti-racist commitment in the church to show Black Lives Matter in the kingdom of God.

The virus infecting the killers of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and other Black people in America is much older than COVID-19. It will stop killing people only if society, the church and especially white people focus relentlessly on a cure, over the long haul, using resources that are already available. That was the word from a May 31 UCC online panel discussion, "The Cross and the Lynching Tree."

Around the United States Saturday, peaceful protests calling for justice in response to the death of George Floyd morphed into violent demonstrations against police in several cities, including Cleveland. The UCC Church House was only one of two buildings in its neighborhood that escaped damage as rioters set fires, looted businesses and destroyed property in central business districts.

An online vigil organized by United Church of Christ and other faith leaders in Minnesota on Thursday, May 28, was the latest in a series of UCC responses to the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Speak up. Stand up. Show up. The National Officers of the United Church of Christ call on the Church to challenge the evil of racism and the unjust killings of black men and women at the hands of police.

As Christian churches prepare to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, unlike the disciples in Acts 2:1, we will not be “gathered in one place."

State laws. School schedules. Budgets. Board terms. With COVID-19 precautions preventing in-person gatherings, Conferences of the United Church of Christ have a lot to consider as they decide what to do about their annual meetings.

Responding to Monday's violent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, local congregations of the United Church of Christ are calling for justice — by attending public demonstrations, writing letters, making phone calls, organizing an online vigil and posting a message on an electronic sign board on a busy street.

A UCC congregation in Maryland that decided it wanted to give back to others during this time of a pandemic is making an impact in its community every week, feeding health care workers on the front lines. 

The United Church of Christ national officers are offering $2.6 million in COVID-19 relief to churches and Conferences — $1.5 million in loans and another $1.1 million in micro grants, which will be available by an application process that begins  June 1.

With racial tensions escalating in a U.S. presidential election year, a prominent United Church of Christ pastor who has described the death of jogger Ahmaud Arbery as a lynching will join panelists in a national online conversation on Sunday, May 31, about how Christians "can be actively involved in dismantling racism."

The COVID-19 pandemic, from its beginning, has amplified racial, economic and health disparities in America, exposing the existing crisis of poverty and systemic racism. The Poor People’s Campaign has long been mobilizing to reveal and eliminate those disparities in the quest for a just world for all. But because of the coronavirus, its planned June march on the nation’s capital is moving online.

My father, Herbert Henry Griffith, grew up in rural Missouri and attended children’s Sunday school at the little white clapboard church just down the dirt road from the family farmhouse.

In this country’s war against the coronavirus, there are hundreds of United Church of Christ chaplains fighting on the front lines.

In a pastoral letter to the wider church, the leadership of the United Church of Christ sends a clear and strong message to congregations who are considering going back to meeting in person, urging them to wait until ALL safety concerns have been addressed.