Central's journey of antiracism takes place within the context of a larger journey. In 1996, the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) approved the formation of a church-wide process to discern the nature of racism and to develop ways of helping congregations address racism.

In 1998, they created a pro-reconciling/antiracist initiative calling the church to "Practice faithfulness with regard to the elimination of racism, which exists in all manifestations of the church, to discern the presence and nature of racism as sin, to develop strategies to eradicate it, and to work toward racial reconciliation."

This initiative was based on several premises including "Racist practice exists throughout the life of the church and needs to be addressed. The church needs to get its own 'house' in order even as it looks toward being a transformational agent in the larger world."

Central has been involved in racial justice work for many years but the effort to look at our own "house" began more recently. Our Inclusion and Equity team, with financial support from the Indiana Region and leadership from Crossroads, offered a training for the entire congregation in March 2020. In July 2020 our board created the Antiracism Transformation Team.

That team's mission is:
To dismantle systemic racism at Central.

Within this we want to:
Engage the breadth of the congregation in this work.
Enhance our capacity as a congregation to participate in this work collectively.
Equip ourselves for antiracism work in the broader world.

While the team is doing the work, we promise to be transparent and invite you to engage with any member of the committee.

Meet the members of Central's Antiracism Team.