This Sunday is UMC Peace With Justice Special Sunday

The Peace With Justice Special Sunday offering is an important Sunday in the life of The United Methodist Church. It’s a time when financial gifts from congregations from all over the country are earmarked for the work of peace.

Half of the offerings on this special day are used for UMC Annual Conferences to promote the work of peace and justice, and the other half goes to the General Board of Church and Society. Peace With Justice Coordinators from Annual Conferences help administer funds for GBCS grant recipients who support peace in the U.S. and around the world.

The impact of GBCS grants highlights an important role for the work we do in local U.S. communities, as well as countries outside the U.S. Some of the GBCS grant recipients in local U.S. communities received funding for structural inequities in public health, social and economic disparities, heightened civil rights violations and systemic racism.

As we face conflicts today in places outside of the U.S., such as Israel and Palestine, Ukraine, Korea, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines to name a few, this Special Sunday helps us remain prayerful and mindful of the work of peace that needs to be done in many places of the world.

Some examples of international GBCS grants include awards to organizations in Congo that provided support where people face severe poverty, poor health care and a lack of socio-economic resources. Grants for human rights educational training in the Philippines have developed clergy and lay people into human rights activists and defenders. Grants that have supported reconciliation services and peacebuilding dialogue in Ethiopia’s Gambella region have helped to reduce heavy fighting and displacement of people.

Yes, there continues to be much more work to do. However, as you attend your Peace With Justice worship service this Sunday, we hope and pray you offer your support toward the work for peace.

Thank you. We are always grateful for your support, prayers and actions to promote peace and justice together as United Methodists all around the world.

Peace and Grace,

Colleen Moore
Director, Peace With Justice
The General Board of Church and Society