The IDE Team offers consults with congregations as a way to determine their current status in regard to Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity. These consults don't provide a score or value judgment but an assessment and some suggestions for moving one step further. Often the conversations that arise during these consults open further conversations around these topics and can provide an opening for discussion in potentially traumatic history around inclusion.

Produced in conjunction with Pastor Carla Christopher of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, the Southwestern Texas Synod offers a one-day training in Anti-Oppression. This training offers some basic vocabulary and more specific cultural vocabulary, a look into the history of how we got to the ways of oppression that we are currently in, and works to build skills for allyship and understanding of restorative justice practices. This training is typically offered in a 9 am to 3 pm block with a conversational lunch over zoom. There is periodically cost-free training offered by the synod and any congregation, conference, or group can request the training, virtually or in person, at cost. Pricing is currently under construction.

Is there a group of people in your congregation that are interested in Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity? Several congregations in our synod have teams or task forces centered around diversity, inclusion, or racial justice. These teams can be a great way to explore growing your congregation's growth and learning in these areas as well as making clear that there are people committed to this work in the congregation.

Throughout the pandemic we came to realize how important is to have the right streaming licenses for streaming music during worship, meaning that the composers and lyricists of our music would get their appropriate royalties for our use. We also came to realize that because Negro Spirituals were developed in a time where there was not adequate (or really any) recognition of their original composers and lyricists that those incredible musicians and writers would never receive the royalities for their work, nor would their descendants. As a way to right the wrongs of the past in the best way possible, congregations around the country and across denominations have begun donating "royalities" for the use of Negro Spirituals to organizations which work for the betterment of Black and African American communities in the United States.

You can learn more about this practice here.