Diversity Outreach

We continue to take a look at the different aspects of our church mission statement

Current Focus:

  • Maintaining our commitment to being an open and welcoming church.
  • Race and culture education.

Our committee has discussed regular events that DOC plans on either supporting or organizing

  • Participate in the Pride Parade in Aurora or Naperville annually
  • Women’s March Annually depending on the focus of the march (usually in the month of March)
  • Create Welcoming Center Travel Coffee Mugs The mugs will be sold for a small profit and proceeds could support DOC ministries.
  • Plan an Annual Diversity Conversation (movie, book talk, speaker, podcast) topics would be linked to LGBTQI community or Racial Justice
  • Support the Health Fair at Islamic Center (Pat Shanower) we would donate manpower
  • We are also in the process of discussing signage for the exterior of the church
  • We will continue to pay Reconciling Ministries Network a minimum of $250 per year to honor our commitment as a Reconciling Congregation
  • This past year we organized CUMC’s participation in Aurora’s first Pride Parade.
    • We had 35 participants representing the range of ages that are in this congregation
    • We marched with 4 pre-printed signs and our reconciling banner that all said:
    • Building a Church for All Community UMC and our website & address
    • We had one sign carried that contained the signatures of many of our members who were unable to march
    • Our group handed out business cards with the church contact information to bystanders in the crowd
    • The parade was G-Rated, and it was, indeed family friendly. Many people in the crowd were grateful to see so many churches represented. Wesley church also participated.
    • We will plan on marching again next year. If Naperville chooses to have a parade next year we will look into participating in that. Maybe alternate between Aurora and Naperville
  • On October 20th, the committee hosted a workshop entitled Talking Across the Divide. The workshop was facilitated by Tish Calhamer from the organization Illinois Speaks.

We will continue to support or organize activities that demonstrate our mission of inclusion.