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The Church and Society
The College for Bishops Leadership Institute was established to provide educational resources for new bishops as well as trending informational resources for all bishops. The Church and Society focuses on the following specific topics:
New items are added on a monthly basis. To comment or suggest additional topics or resources, please use the feedback form located at the bottom of this page.
Faith & Politics
Dismantling Anti-Asian Racism: How Churches Can Lead the Way
With the upward trend of anti-Asian hate crimes, congregations can no longer ignore the pain of the Asian American community, or anxiety and fear from Asian sisters and brothers in our midst. How can churches lead the way in dismantling anti-Asian racism? How can we become spaces where people of any background or ethnicity can bring their whole selves to the table and know they belong?
Politics and Political service
What is politics? What is justice? What is government for? And what do these things have to do with God’s own judgment, and his kingdom? These are the questions to be considered over the next few weeks in a new Breaking Ground symposium. This essay, by eminent political theologian Oliver O’Donovan, is the cornerstone piece for this symposium.
How Religion Can Help Put Our Democracy Back Together
Could some of the areas where religion excels — the wonder, the mystery — help to repair the intangible corners of American democracy, at a time when American democracy could use all the help it can get?
Who will President Joe Biden listen to on faith matters?
President-elect Joe Biden will likely bring a more formal and interfaith approach to religious engagement to the White House. Look for him to listen to key voices from his own Catholic community, from Judaism and, yes, evangelicals. Here are a number of the faith leaders Biden will likely end up consulting.
We are all marsilians now
As the pandemic has become more familiar and less scary for many, outcries on behalf of religious liberty have grown steadily louder with some seeing restrictions on worship attendance as a form of government interference and religious persecution. So what does a forgotten fourteenth-century Italian physician have to do with our current system of church and state?
America, Why Can’t You Stop Killing Us
We live in a country that has been organized to ensure the systemic diminishment and elimination of people of color. This article by the Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers is part of the Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practice July issue on Racial Justice and Reconciliation.
White Supremacist Ideas have Historical Roots in U.S. Christianity
Where were white Christians during events such as the attack on the Freedom Riders during the civil rights movement? The answer to this question lies partly in U.S. history, beginning in the days of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, but not ending there. Elements of racist ideology have long been present in white Christianity in the United States. NPR explores the history of racism from the pulpit.
What’s My Complicity? Talking White Fragility with Robin DiAngelo
Years of deep learning, research and mentorship from colleagues of color Robin DiAngelo not only to understand that her whiteness has meaning—but also to become really good at explaining this to other white people. The New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism sat down with Teaching Tolerance to discuss why working against one’s own fragility is a necessary part of white anti-racist work—and why good intentions don’t matter.
America's New Religion
Everyone has a religion. It is, in fact, impossible not to have a religion if you are a human being. Unfortunately, the post-Christian West has come to believe in something we have called progress as a substitute in many ways for our previous monotheism. We have constructed a capitalist system that turns individual selfishness into a collective asset and showers us with earthly goods; we have leveraged science for our own health and comfort. Our ability to extend this material bonanza to more and more people is how we define progress; and progress is what we call meaning.
Churches and Gun Violence: 7 Practical Preparation Tips
In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in a church, Ministry Matters offers this article from Rev. Derrek Belase, a former certified police officer turned pastor, with two degrees in criminology. He is now the Director of Discipleship of the Oklahoma Annual Conference. His current portfolio includes coordinating the Safe Sanctuary Training. Derrek believes that you can’t completely prevent gun violence from erupting. How can a church adequately protect itself? Here are seven practical tips that can help any church prepare for the unexpected.
What does it mean to be a refugee?
About 60 million people around the globe have been forced to leave their homes to escape war, violence and persecution. The majority have become Internally Displaced Persons, meaning they fled their homes but are still in their own countries. Others, referred to as refugees, sought shelter outside their own country. But what does that term really mean? This brief video from TED-Ed explains.