Report to the Church 2015 | Page 59

59 An increased focus on racial justice and reconciliation also has characterized the Missionary Society’s work this triennium. In 2013, we convened a first-of-its-kind churchwide summit in Jackson, Mississippi on “The State of Racism,” and in 2014, after securing Executive Council approval for new staff work on racial justice and reconciliation, responded nimbly and dynamically to the events in Ferguson, Missouri in partnership with the Diocese of Missouri and its clergy and lay leaders. In baptism, we promise to “strive for justice and peace” as a consequence of our adoption into the family of God. The Missionary Society is ready to partner with all Episcopalians seeking to live out this vocation of their discipleship. . WE ARE AL L MI SSI O NAR I ES O R WE AR E NOTHI NG United States as a focus area for the present triennium, and the Missionary Society is working to put hands to ploughs by engaging at least one in four Episcopalians in service to the poor by the end of the triennium. We’ve built a brand new online-networking platform to draw together those at the grassroots level working to fight poverty and are pioneering new models of Asset-Based Community Development and advocacy at the local level, where they are most effective. We do this both for the sake of the poor and for the sake of our own souls, as it is through ministry with and among the poor that we encounter Jesus.