Learn more from ReconcilingWorks about this community-led journey towards full welcome, inclusion, and equity of all the people of our church.
June is Pride Month in many communities, a time of celebration, remembrance, and renewed commitment inspired by the courage of those involved in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. That watershed moment sparked movements for justice, dignity, and liberation that continue to shape more affirming communities around the world. As faith communities reflect on what it means to embody welcome and justice in this season, Pride Month offers a meaningful opportunity to highlight a resource that has helped Lutheran ministries publicly live out those commitments for more than four decades: Reconciling in Christ.
Since 1983, the Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Program has been a public way for faith communities to see, name, celebrate, and advocate for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions in the Lutheran church. The RIC Program is made up of congregations, synods, colleges, seminaries, outdoor ministries, and other Lutheran organizations.
The RIC program unfolds as a journey, with steps that help build a foundation and live the journey into the future. If a faith community follows the map for the journey laid out in the Building an Inclusive Church toolkit, there are a total of eleven steps, with six tools provided to build the foundation for the work and then provide educational opportunities for congregational members. More information is available at our website about the four public commitments on the Mapping your RIC Journey page.
Every ministry setting begins this journey from its own unique context and ReconcilingWorks staff are available to help faith communities create an authentic welcome journey that is customized to their community. Think of it as a “choose your own adventure” kind of journey for your faith community, with support available when needed.
As an RIC faith community, the organization as a whole AND individual members can seek out new ways to be a faith community in their context. Living into the identity comes with being affirming, inclusive, and justice-oriented when it comes to equity and inclusion for all marginalized people.
Our primary focus at ReconcilingWorks is on full inclusion for God’s beloved people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions; however, the organization intentionally includes the need for anti-racism commitments from RIC partners to center the most marginalized members of the LGBTQIA+ community, transgender women of color. We also encourage our partners to think deeply and broadly about inclusion and justice across multiple identities and communities. Many of the resources listed on the Building Capacity for Justice and the Eco and Creation Care pages on our website come from other organizations or ELCA churchwide programs.
To understand the impact of the RIC program, it’s helpful to understand the organization that
created and continues to accompany this work—ReconcilingWorks.
ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation was created as a pan-Lutheran non-profit.
Since 1974, the organization has consistently and persistently advocated for the full welcome, inclusion, and equity of people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions in all aspects of the life in what were until 1988 multiple national Lutheran denominations. Now that work focuses on two denominations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Throughout those years of unification and change, ReconcilingWorks maintained a primary focus on individual congregations, but we also work with other types of ministries and faith communities, including campus ministries, seminaries, and synods.
ReconcilingWorks is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded by the financial support of individuals, faith communities, grants and generated by the sale of resources offered for purchase and fees from a variety of training fees. ReconcilingWorks does not receive funding from either the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Our Mission: ReconcilingWorks advocates for the acceptance, full participation, and liberation of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions within the Lutheran Church.
Our Vision: To keep expanding the welcome, liberating those who are forced to live in the margins. To keep dismantling barriers and building bridges. To keep working until all of God's beloved have equity.
Our Values: We believe that God values and embraces each person as a beloved child, that the Spirit gives a diversity of gifts for the common good, and that Jesus Christ calls us to work for justice.
ReconcilingWorks staff support Reconciling in Christ partners as well as faith communities of all types and sizes which are discerning whether to become RIC. As faith communities are discerning whether to take the step of becoming an RIC faith community and partner ministry, we provide support via the Building an Inclusive Church toolkit and offer a day-long training, either in-person or online via Zoom. The training covers how to use the tools and steps in the toolkit to manage the step-by-step journey from the creation of a core team of leaders, to the affirmation of a Welcome Statement, to the setting of new milestones for advocacy and inclusion in a community.
To provide support to faith communities after they become RIC, we provide links to free educational resources on our website and booklets available for purchase through our eStore that can be used for teaching and learning presentations within a faith community. Under the Community tab on our website, leaders from RIC faith communities can also find Community Care Resources that provide practical, faith communities and individuals build resilience and provide mutual support.
The Program Coordinator is the staff member who provides ongoing support to any faith community throughout the journey to becoming RIC and afterwards. The current Program Coordinator is Deacon David Behling [pronouns: he/him/his], and he is available to meet with church councils, pastors, deacons, and other staff as well as with the members of the Core Team managing the journey.
The easiest meetings to set up or via virtual platforms using MS Teams or Zoom. Members of faith communities can set up a 30 or 60-minute virtual meeting or phone call via an online calendar. If the meeting would be best in person, requests for all in person events involving staff should be sent to info@reconcilingworks.org.
ReconcilingWorks Homepage: https://www.reconcilingworks.org
Mapping your RIC Journey: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/ric/mapping-your-ric-journey/
Educational Resources: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/resources/educational-resources-2/
Building Capacity for Justice: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/resources/justice/
Eco and Creation Care: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/resources/eco-and-creation-care/
Community Care Resources: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/community-care/
Online Calendar: https://calendly.com/davidb-wwzq