How does oppression manifest itself in the structures and systems of society? What are the psychological and theological issues surrounding the phenomena of a tortured self-identity and diminished self-esteem? Through the study of King's life and witness, Building King's Beloved Community seeks to inspire and suggest a prophetic practice that will broaden and inform the paradigm for pastoral caregiving in responding to the needs of oppressed people in any context--especially where Christianity is practiced.

Drawing on the expertise of United Church theologians and ministers from across the country, Building God’s Beloved Community outlines the church’s approach to some of the big questions, while offering insight into United Church worship, tradition, and history. An accessible and engaging primer designed to accompany those during their period of preparation—adult baptism, confirmation, or deeper study—Building God’s Beloved Community will draw you closer to God as it invites you into beloved community and encourages you to move out into the world to love and serve.

"Building God’s Beloved Community is a guide to membership in The United Church of Canada. It is intended as an educational resource for people undertaking the process of adult baptism or confirmation, or seeking to enrich their faith through deeper study."--

Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God's vision for a more equitable and just world. Now updated to reflect on current social realities, this book shows how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice.

America is at a pivotal crossroads. The soul of our nation is at stake and in peril. A new public narrative is needed to unite Americans around common values and to counter the increasing discord and acrimony in our politics and culture. The process of healing and creating a more perfect union in our nation must start now. The moral vision of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Beloved Community, which animated and galvanized the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, provides a hopeful way forward. In A More Perfect Union, Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, reimagines a contemporary version of the Beloved Community that will inspire and unite Americans across generations, geographic and class divides, racial and gender differences, faith traditions, and ideological leanings. In the Beloved Community, neither privilege nor punishment is tied to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status, and everyone is able to realize their full potential and thrive. Building the Beloved Community requires living out a series of commitments, such as true equality, radical welcome, transformational interdependence, E Pluribus Unum ("out of many, one"), environmental stewardship, nonviolence, and economic equity. By building the Beloved Community we unify the country around a shared moral vision that transcends ideology and partisanship, tapping into our most sacred civic and religious values, enabling our nation to live up to its best ideals and realize a more perfect union.

God speaks to all people and gives us all spiritual gifts-and yet these gifts are not all the same. We are organizers, pray-ers, workers, carers, innovators, provocateurs, and healers. Why? Because we're made to fit together like puzzle pieces, as we name, affirm, and nurture spiritual gifts and ministries. In the author's view, this fitting together is at the heart of what it means to be a covenant people, a people given to the care of one another and charged with building the kingdom of God on Earth. It's easy to settle for less than covenant; it's scary to stretch for the wholeness of God's promise. We, collectively, face a choice of who to be. A version of this pamphlet was given as the 2019 Weed Lecture at Beacon Hill Friends House in Boston. Discussion questions included.

Is the beloved community local, national, global, or universal? What kind of love is required for the beloved community? Is such a community only an ideal, or can it be actualized in the here and now? Tracing the phrase beloved community from Josiah Royce through Martin Luther King Jr. to a variety of contemporary usages, Goodson, Kuehnert, and Stone debate answers to the above questions. The authors agree about the importance of beloved community but disagree on the details. These differences come out through arguments over the local vs. the universal, the type of love the beloved community calls for, and what it means to conceptualize community. Ultimately, they argue, the purpose of beloved community involves responding to the cries of the wounded and those who suffer in the wounded world.