DENOMINATIONAL MEMBERS
Wear Your Support to Help Stop Gun Violence – Shirts Available for Sale
Help us spread Gun Violence Prevention Awareness by supporting the cause and saving lives. One Team. One Goal. A whole lot of support. We’re thrilled to share some exciting updates on all the great things happening at the Gun Violence Prevention Committee of the Ohio Council of Churches. Our resources are expanding with Committee members’ input.
Welcome to the Ohio Council of Churches
A Jesus Christ Movement For Unity, Justice & Peace!
The Ohio Council of Churches (OCC) is a partnership of 17 Christian denominations in 23 different organizational configurations or judicatories throughout Ohio. While our administrative offices are in Columbus, the Ohio Council of Churches is much larger than any office; it is all of us, together, across Ohio!
Justice & Advocacy Ministries
Mental Health Stigma Reducation
Fair Legislative Maps
A Quick Reflection from our Director...
Lent reminds us of Emmanuel - God with us.
One of the darkest days of my life was the day my daughter, Eleanor, was born in 2015. After my wife underwent an emergency C-section, they rushed our daughter from Riverside Hospital down Nationwide Children’s in Columbus. They put her frail body, suffering from multiple issues, on a cooling blanket to put her into medically induced hypothermia. For three days, we couldn’t even hold her while the doctors hoped her body would heal itself.
It was one of the darkest and fear-filled moments of my life.
I was grateful to my congregational pastor for coming to the hospital to sit with me during those trying hours. At some point, he recommended that I eat something. So we walked down to the cafeteria at Children's.
I was standing there, in the huge cafeteria, completely overwhelmed with all the noise and people. In my head I had so many thoughts and emotions. All of a sudden a young person who worked there came up to me. This young person, with a soapy towel for wiping tables in one hand and thick accent came up to me. They placed their hand on my shoulder, and said
‘Breathe. They do miracles here...’
I took a deep breath, and turned to thank them, but they were gone.
God touched me in that moment.
I felt God’s presence. God answers our call to be present and with us in our most difficult moments. Part of the season of Lent reminds us that difficulty and struggles are a part of our human condition. In those difficult moments, God is with us.
In Ministry...
Many of us are experiencing similar things in ministry across Ohio - Lower weekly worship attendance, shrinking budgets, and buildings falling into disrepair. We try to ignore the issues and hope they will work themselves out.
But remember God is with us - Emmanuel. God is calling us maybe to Holy Closure and allowing our properties to be reborn as affordable housing. God might be calling us to new ecumenical collaborations, or re-thinking our gifts and applying them in new and innovative ways.
There are so many options for us to choose, and God will accompany us on the journey. Can you fill out our survey below to help us hear how the Spirit might call the Council in the future?
Answer a few questions?
During this interim year, I want to be very intentional in listening to new ways that the Spirit is calling the Council forward. Can you please click this link and share with me your thoughts in a quick 2 minute survey?
Deacon Nick Bates
Interim Executive Director
Ohio Council of Churches
A Quick Note from our Director...
How are we called to be 'Repairer's of the Breach'?
On Sunday, I preached in Glenford, Ohio in a small Lutheran congregation on Isaiah 58. In the text, it calls us to be repairers of the breach. Isaiah points out to the community that our work isn't to engage in performative faith, but to actively lead lives centered on God's loving-justice for the sake of the world. We are called to repair the brokenness of our world, to engage in restoration, healing, and justice for those who are hungry, oppressed and marginalized.
In my first month, serving as the Interim Director, I have explored the many ways the Council has been working to repair the breaches in our world, and I am amazed at the work we have been able to do together for the sake of the world. A few examples of the work includes:
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Mental health
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Gun Violence Prevention
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Community Safety
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Immigration
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Anti-racism
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Christian Nationalism
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Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships
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Administrative Support to Others
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Death Penalty Abolition
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And much more!
Frankly, it is amazing the amount of work we can do for the sake of the world when we work together in the name of Jesus. But the reality is that we as the Ohio Council of Churches cannot do this work alone. We need your support! The body of Christ is all of us working collectively to witness to God's loving-justice in the world guided by forgiveness and compassion. Can you help strengthen our work with a donation today?
Thank you!
Many of you have reached out to welcome me aboard at the Ohio Council of Churches over the past month. I truly appreciate and ask for your continued prayers to support our work in this interim time! In the coming months, be on a lookout for a survey to help us strengthen our impact and support for your local ministries.
In Service,
Deacon Nick Bates
Interim Executive Director
Ohio Council of Churches
Statement on Immigration
When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
– Leviticus 19:33-34
Yesterday, I gathered with hundreds of faith leaders and people of good conscience in Springfield to pray and stand up for our Haitian neighbors. Currently, 12,000-15,000 Haitians immigrants have made Springfield their home. As many know, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS - originally granted in 2010) for Haitians was set to expire today (Tuesday, Feb. 3rd), and many Ohioans anticipate another surge in deportations and ICE activity in Ohio.
However, last evening, a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration, allowing TPS to remain in place. TPS is a humanitarian legal status that allows immigrants to live and work lawfully in the United States, often due to a natural disaster or war in their home country.
After 16 years of temporary status, the US government should establish legal pathways toward permanent residency and citizenship for individuals and families. Currently, individuals legally present under TPS do not have a clear pathway to permanent status or citizenship.
Taking Action:
The United States needs long-term immigration reform that creates clear pathways toward permanent residency and citizenship for neighbors in need. Until then, we shouldn’t punish our neighbors for following the rules of a broken system.
Fear and anxiety are the root of the divisions based on race, ethnicity, and culture. God’s presence is big enough to be present across the lines of division of our world. We are called to place our faith in a God who accompanies us, not in the bureaucracy or the earthly leaders of our day. God’s loving-justice is the future that we are invited into now.
Remember, we are Ohio – not Minneapolis. We need to respond as Ohioans by loving and serving our neighbors. Your local actions to raise awareness in your community or provide financial or material assistance to those currently serving in Springfield can go a long way. Too often, we wait for the “big” events and end up missing opportunities to do something meaningful now.
Our friends at the Ohio Immigrant Alliance assembled a list of organizations to donate to here.
You can join the Ohio is Home campaign here (and order their merch!) to support the cause.
Anger, division, and fear are dominating our communities and society right now. Let us come together in love and compassion to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly together and with God. Amen.
Deacon Nick Bates
Interim Executive Director
Ohio Council of Churches
