About
Following God’s call to become an inclusive church, the Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation (ARPR) Ministry in Arizona dares to live into the scriptural vision of humanity fully reconciled with each other and creation. We are committed to recognizing the sin of racism, dismantling its oppressive structures, and breaking down the walls that divide us. This ministry is accomplished through education, dialogue, and action towards God’s vision of a Kin-dom where all races, genders, languages, and cultures will grow towards God’s realm, where all have a place at the table and ‘none shall be turned away.’
The Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciling Team provides Anti-Racism Introductory Workshops for Disciples congregations and ministries in Arizona. The purpose of the training is to raise awareness of the systemic nature of racism, to recognize racism as sin, and to connect the work of ending racism as an intrinsic part of our faith journeys.
If you are interested in hosting an Anti-Racism training for your ministry or congregation, please contact the Regional Office at region@azdisciples.org. Please include the name of your congregation and the number of attendees you would anticipate.
Leadership & Team
Rev. Patricia Thompson-Winters
Rev. Jessica Braxton
Rev. Ailsa Guardiola González
Karen Nye
Dave Coatsworth
Rev. Pedro Ramos Goycolea
Rev. Dr. Jay R. Hartley
Matthew Clark
Events & Meetings
Upcoming Events
2025 Trainings
- Yet to be determined
Past Events
2025 Trainings and Events
June 10, 17, & 24 – Executive Order Conversations via Zoom
January 22, 29, & February 5 (Wednesdays) – Regional Book Study on “”How to End Christian Nationalism” by Amanda Tyler.
2024 Trainings and Events
Saturday, June 20, 2024- Anti-Racism level 1 training at Alfa y Omega and Templo Cristiano Central (en Español)
Saturday, May 18, 2024 – Anti-Racism level 1 training at Larkspur Christian Church
Saturday, March 9, 2024 – Anti-Racism level 1 training at Saguaro Christian Church
2023 Trainings and Events
September 30, 2023 – Anti-Racism level 1 training at First Christian Church, Tucson
May 6, 2023 – Anti-Racism level 1 training (en Español)
2022 Trainings and Events
Nov. 4, 2022 – Anti-Racism level 1 training (Regional Assembly Pre-Event)
Apr. 30, 2022 – Anti-Racism training at Community Christian Church, Tempe
Mar. 10, 2022 – Seeing Color in Current Events – “Powers at play during the Super Bowl halftime show”
2019 – 2021 Trainings and Events
Jan. 30, 2021 – Anti-Racism training for Admin Council and Mission Focus Team
Feb. 29, 2020 – Anti-Racism training (en Español)
Sept. 21, 2019 – Anti-Racism training for clergy
Meetings
2025 – Monthly on the first Thursday via Zoom.
Resources
Regional Resources
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a U.S. federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when the final enforcement action of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred in Texas. The Arizona Disciples Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team has assembled resources for our members and congregations. Click here for the Juneteenth Resources page.
Sample Sensitive Site Plan for Congregations
On January 20, 2025, the current U.S. Administration declared it had rescinded a policy which protected certain sensitive locations, or sites, from ICE. Included in this list are churches, schools, and hospitals. The practical implication of this action by the current administration is that ICE agents have been granted the authority to enter these sensitive sites to detain those they believe to be in the U.S. without documentation.
Since then there have been several legal challenges to the policy, including one brought by Disciples in concert with other faith traditions. There have also been multiple incidences of illegal deportation, including disturbingly inhumane treatment.
The Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Arizona recommends to all our congregations that they, as a sensitive location/site, have a plan in place that addresses the possibility that ICE attempts to enter their property.
Click here to view the Sample Sensitive Site Plan for Congregations.
Denominational Resources
Reconciliation Ministry
The Pro-Reconciliation and Anti-Racism Initiative (Reconciliation Ministry) was founded upon the need to make visible God’s beloved community. It invites the church to listen to once silenced voices, learn from their wisdom and gain insight from their leadership. It calls the church to discern, pray, study, reflect, dialogue and fellowship. The true goal is to transform, strengthen and deepen the church’s spirituality, resulting in a community that understands its mission to be about bringing justice and salvation to the world.
Reconciliation Ministry Special Offering
The Reconciliation Ministry Special Offering is received each year in congregations on the last Sunday in September and the first Sunday in October (in solidarity with World Communion Sunday). You can read more about Reconciliation Ministry, the special offering, or make a gift at reconciliationministry.org.
Reconciliation Ministry Resources
Reconciliation Ministry offers a wide range of resources including books, articles, videos/movies, podcasts, and more. View them at disciples.org.
In the summer of 2020, Reconciliation Ministry and the Office of the General Minister and President offered a special eight part anti-racism town hall with voices from across our denomination. View the town halls at disciples.org.
Additional denominational resources
- Justice
- Advocacy Toolkit
- Refugee & Immigration Ministries
- Disciples Center for Public Witness
- Racial/Ethnic Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Videos
Books
Click title or book cover to visit the publisher or link to more information.
| Pre-Post Racial America by Sandhya Jha (2015) Sandhya Rani Jha addresses the hot topic in a way that is grounded in real people’s stories and that offers solid biblical grounding for thinking about race relations in America, reminding us that God calls us to build Beloved Community. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide starting points for reading groups. | |
| The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (2010) The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. | |
| Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? | |
| An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (2015) The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. | |
| Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli (2017) Structured around the forty questions volunteer worker Valeria Luiselli translates from a court system form and asks undocumented Latin American children facing deportation, Tell Me How It Ends humanizes these young migrants and highlights the contradiction between the idea of America as a fiction for immigrants and the reality of racism and fear—here and back home. | |
| White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (2018) Educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ Wait — Is This Racist? A Guide to Becoming an Anti-Racist Church by Kerry Connelly, with Bryana Clover and Josh Riddick (Westminster John Knox |
Christian Nationalism
The Flag and The Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy by Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry (Community Christian Church just finished this study; we have copies of the book available for use, if needed.)
Imagining Persecution: Why American Christians Believe There is a Global War Against Their Faith by Jason Bruner (Dr. Bruner is an ASU professor and a Disciple!)
White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy by William Barber (Rev. Dr. Barber is founding influence for The Poor People’s Campaign and a Disciple!)
Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (super readable and great for a church book study)
Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Chrisitan Nationalist Neighbors by Caleb Campbell (Rev. Campbell is the Lead Minister at Desert Springs Bible Church – nondenominational/evangelical – in Phoenix AZ!)
The False White Gospel by Jim Wallis (again, super readable and written by a progressive evangelical)
Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding by Steven K. Green
The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un American by Andrew Seidel
White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones
The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People are Drawn in and How to Talk Across the Divide by Pamela Cooper-White
Reflections
Regional Reflection: At the Crossroads of Ubuntu and Koinonia
Calling Young Leaders!
