Loving our neighbors takes many different forms.
At LCR, we strive to follow in Jesus' footsteps, providing support for immigrants and refugees, caring for creation, affirming and celebrating our LGBTQ+ siblings, working for racial justice, advocating for marginalized groups of people, and building coalitions of care with members of different faith communities.
Whether you're someone who shares our faith or our values, we invite you to join us in working towards a more just, loving world.
Creation Care
It can be difficult to know what's recyclable and what's not. Our Creation Care team has curated a Cincinnati-region specific database to help you out!
Immigrant & Refugee Ministries
LCR partners with Heartfelt Tidbits, a local volunteer-based organization, to provide English classes and supportive services refugees need during and beyond the initial days of resettlement to help them feel welcomed and settled in our city.
Heartfelt Tidbits is a grass-roots organization that helps the refugee community organize around and overcome the many issues they face.
Cincinnati Sanctuary Congregation Coalition, a cooperative effort by the AMOS Project, the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, and the Coalition for Immigrant Dignity along with 25 local interfaith and ecumenical congregations supports policies and programs to protect the dignity and rights of immigrant and refugee communities in our region.
Graceworks Lutheran Social Services, an organization founded in 1926 and serving people of all faiths with a variety of services dedicated to upholding personal dignity and fostering wholeness.
AMMPARO is an organization within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America working with children and families that have been forced to flee their communities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) is a recognized leader in the effort to resettle immigrants and refugees in the United States.
Celebrating the LGBTQ+ Community
We welcome all people created in the image of God, Creator of the universe inclusive of: race, culture, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression; relationship or social status; abilities or disabilities; outcast or stranger; typical or atypical skills; how the world describes you or you describe yourself.
We invite those sure in who they are, those still seeking and those looking for a church that believes in a loving, non-judgmental, safe, inclusive, grace-filled God and a beloved community that reflects those values.
Because God loves us unconditionally, we share our Christian love through acceptance, inclusion, and understanding. We welcome you to share yourself, your time and talents with the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, a part of God’s universal Church. God made each of us unique and we share our diversity here.
Welcome, Inclusion, Celebration
We are Lutherans working with the recognition that racism, sexism, ageism, able-ism, heterosexism, homophobia, and all other artificial distinctions that seek to raise one group into privilege and preference over another, conspire together to diminish our world and the church.
Reconciliation is a fundamental value; it is what the Apostle Paul says we are all called to do. Through our participation in Reconciling in Christ, ministries, resources, events, and alliances, we build a community for worship, education, and support; foster welcome and acceptance in all settings; and offer full participation in all sacraments, inclusive liturgical resources, and ministries of the Church, we invite all people into Gospel lives of authenticity, integrity, and wholeness.
If you're looking to engage with Lutheran churches in the greater Cincinnati region that celebrate who you are and include you in full participation, consider one of these churches listed below:
Certified Reconciling in Christ Congregations:
- Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (Anderson Township) -- That's us!
- First Lutheran Church (Over the Rhine)
Ally Congregations
- Edge House Campus Ministry (Clifton)
- Gather Cincinnati: A Faith Community for Young Adults
- Gloria Dei (West Side)
- Zion (Hamilton)
- Resurrection (Lebanon)
- Vida Eterna-Iglesia Luterana (West Chester)
- Lord of Life (West Chester)
Racial Justice
LCR supports and partners with Greater Anderson Promotes Peace (GAPP) to affirm the value and dignity of all people.
GAPP's Mission
As a coalition of concerned citizens, we are committed to the ongoing work of peacebuilding as essential for community life. We believe it is critical not to react to acts of intolerance with silent disagreement, but rather, to transform silence and lethargy into visible acceptance of others by actively confronting intolerance and replacing it with acts which promote peace.
GAPP's Goals
- Promote education, especially about various faiths and cultures, to develop a better understanding of our commonalities and differences.
- Promote dialogue, particularly with an interfaith or multicultural context, in order to foster respect in the midst of diversity.
- Raise awareness of tensions within our community.
- Monitor hate incidents and hate crimes in our community and help to develop effective responses to these incidents.
- Build a Peace Pole as a focal point of community celebrations of our commitment to peacebuilding.
- Strive to create a community atmosphere which is welcoming to all people.
LCR is a proud member of Anderson Churches for Racial Unity (ACRU), an association of churches in greater Anderson Township.
ACRU's Mission
In partnership with GAPP (Greater Anderson Promotes Peace), we strive to raise awareness among the residents of Anderson Township and surrounding areas regarding issues of racism, to promote inclusion, to encourage participation in solutions, and to build individual and congregational relationships between people of color and white people. We work to accomplish our mission through the presentation of guest speakers, film discussions, workshops, book studies, and entertainment.
Our History
Anderson Churches for Racial Unity was organized in 2015 as a call to action in response to the murders of nine people at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June of that year. ACRU has developed a working and personal relationship with Allen Temple AME Church in Bond Hill.
Our Connections
We learn from each other and often attend functions throughout the city sponsored by Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, AMOS Project, Rethinking Racism, and others.
LCR is proud to be one of 30+ religious and faith-based organizations from the Cincinnati region joining together as A Mighty Stream (AMS) to address racial injustice through interfaith involvement.
AMS organizes and unites Cincinnati's diverse communities of faith to take action to advance racial justice, including activism, education, advocacy, dialogue and more.
On June 17, 2015, nine African Americans were shot to death by a white supremacist during a Bible study at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. LCR responded to the shooting by taking a public stand against hate.
On the one-year anniversary of the shooting, LCR joined with Anderson Churches for Racial Unity in community with Allen Temple AME Church to hold a memorial service.
As a result, a relationship formed between LCR and Allen Temple, the oldest operating Black church in Cincinnati. The relationship unfolded in various ways, including pulpit and music exchanges, joint participation in the Undivided racial reconciliation program, and outings to places such as Cincinnati Art Museum. Allen Temple members also accompanied LCR members on disaster relief trips.
Each year in June, the congregations jointly commemorated the Emanuel Nine shooting victims.
Ecumenical & Interfaith Relationships
Our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has been engaging in inter-religious relations since its formation in 1988.
As part of the global Lutheran communion, we wrestle with and lament Martin Luther’s troubling legacy regarding inter-religious relations, especially his anti-Judaic and anti-Islamic writings.
As we've deepened our inter-religious relations, we are dedicated to affirming and supporting our inter-religious relationships with people of Jewish and Muslim faiths as well as diverse faiths practiced throughout our country and the world.
The ELCA has developed educational resources, engaged in dialogue and common action, defended our neighbors against religious bigotry, and cared for our various partnerships.
Read more in the ELCA's Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment (PDF)
In January 2016, a diverse group of Cincinnati civic leaders came together out of concern for a socio-political environment characterized by inflammatory rhetoric, scapegoating, divisiveness and a dramatic spike in hate crimes against our religious and racial minorities. This fledgling group that set out to counter Islamaphobia, anti-semitism and other forms of religious bigotry grew into EquaSion, a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
EquaSion and its growing base of faith communities, including LCR, sponsor interfaith initiatives and educational activities like the annual Cincinnati Festival of Faiths to promote community building and positive change through collective action.
In 2020, EquaSion launched A Mighty Stream (AMS), an interfaith community uniting a diverse group of 30+ faith-based organizations from the Cincinnati region to advance the cause of racial justice through sacred activism, advocacy, education, dialogue and more. LCR is a proud participant in AMS.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church have shared a relationship in the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and at other tables.
Interest in establishing a bilateral dialogue led to formal meetings addressing the question: "How has the American experience affected and/or shaped the life of my church?” Understanding One Another: A Congregational Resource (PDF) was written in the hope that many congregations of our respective communions will use it to accomplish the goal of manifesting unity.
Locally we partner with Allen Temple AME Church. We celebrate worship together and volunteer together in ministry work locally and regionally.
The Lutheran World Federation is a global communion of 148 churches in the Lutheran tradition, representing over 75.5 million Christians in 99 countries.
The organization strives to put faith into action within and beyond communion. This action takes a variety of forms from theological reflection and dialogue with other church and faiths, to deepening relationships, sharing about our faith, serving those in need and advocating for a more just, peaceful and reconciled world.
In the words of Pope John XXIII, "The things that unite us are greater than those that divide us."
The ELCA and the Lutheran World Federation first engaged in dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church in 1965. The dialogue has explored a wide range of theological topics and in 2010 issued a common statement which explored the common belief of Catholics and Lutherans in Jesus Christ's promise of eternal life.
In 2015, the churches together released Declaration on the Way, a unique document that marks a pathway toward greater visible unity between Catholics and Lutherans.
In 2016, a joint Lutheran-Catholic commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation took place in Lund, Sweden. Pope Francis and Lutheran World Federation President Bishop Dr. Munib Younan and General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Martin Junge, led a common prayer service bringing together Lutherans and Catholics from around the world.
Locally, our church meets with Catholic Parishes in our neighborhood to volunteer together, have conversation and work toward greater unity.
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