All authorized clergy:

To meet our six-hour per five-year cycle (2023-2027) requirement for Anti-Racism Training, we have contracted with:

Rev. Gary T. Smith, Director, Center for Racial Justice; Racial Justice Consultant, NY Conference, United Church of Christ AND Rev. Dr. Marsha Williams, Conference Minister, New York Conference to offer their Culturally Responsive Ministry Training (CRMT) on Race.

The CRMT on Race focuses participants on the importance of culturally responsive ministry, how we are socialized and how culture shapes us, how we examine our own bias, and the challenges of race/racism/whiteness in congregations. We end our training by breaking participants into racial affinity groups where white folks learn about the deep impact of microaggressions on our siblings of color, while People of Color have the opportunity to check in about their ministry and the impact of race/racism on it. We lead the trainings as a two-person multiracial team.

Rev. Gary offers: As many pastors know, churches and ministers can actually hurt their cause and end up alienating or insulting people they are trying to work with if they ignore the importance of culture and assume “we’re all Christians,” or “we’re all Americans,” or “we’re all the same.” Join us for Culturally Responsive Ministry Training (CRMT) on Race, a six-hour learning experience designed to help pastors gain greater understanding about how the church can take culture into consideration in order to better communicate its transforming message of God’s love and acceptance for all. The CRMT on Race provides pastors with the tools to be more culturally responsive to issues related to race and culture, to better understand their own biases, and to explore how white Supremacy Culture still appears in churches (while offering antidotes to reduce and/or eliminate it). The training concludes by breaking participants into racial affinity groups where white folks learn about the deep impact of microaggressions on our siblings of color, while People of Color have the opportunity to check in about their ministry and the impact of race/racism on it.

Register here for the summer CRMT session on June 26, 2025, 9 am-3 pm AZ (10 am - 4 pm NM).

Can’t make that one? Sign up here for the fall CRMT session on October 21, 2025, 9 am-3 pm AZ (10 am - 4 pm NM).

The cost is $30 per person. We’ll send out the Zoom link to all registrants the week before the session.