2025 All Church Read to empower congregations in ‘building up a new world’: Curriculum, worship resources now available

This year’s All Church Read invites all across the United Church of Christ to imagine the kind of world that could be created if every local church became a hub of justice-making in its community.

With the book Building Up a New World: Congregational Organizing for Transformative Impact, Join the Movement Toward Racial Justice and UCC Racial Justice Ministries are encouraging groups and individuals to dig into methods of creative solidarity, deep purpose, and life-saving change.

Join the Movement leaders, the Rev. Velda Love and Sharon Fennema, selected the book for such a time as this — one that calls for new ways of thinking and being. 

“We believe these days are calling each and all of us to expand the ways we are equipping ourselves to resist injustice and move toward God’s dream of collective liberation. What better response could there be to all the new and familiar challenges that arrive at our doorsteps each day than to join together with communities all across the United Church of Christ and beyond and use our collective power to build God’s kindom ‘on earth as it is in heaven!’” they said.

Curriculum, worship resources available

Several resources are now available to assist in reading and engaging with Building Up a New World, including the 2025 All Church Read Curriculum which can be downloaded through the UCC’s Frontline Faith portal.

The curriculum features six sessions which include centering practices, Scripture readings, discussion questions, and “think like an organizer” assignments. It invites people to practice a method of reading and responding that centers on solidarity and liberation.

Worship resources based on the Building Up a New World theme are being offered through UCC Sermon Seeds and Worship Ways. Each week during the Easter season, April 20-June 8, the worship resources will offer a passage from a chapter of the book in conversation with Scripture. Additionally, the suggested congregational responses will include practices to facilitate embodying the themes and truths found in Building Up a New World.

“This season invites us to consider our role and responsibility as Christ-followers in the world, as well as within the institution of the church. Truth telling, faithful examination, and new ways of living and being are essential responses to our current moment and for long-term vigilance as citizens of the Kindom of God,” says the worship resource’s introduction.

‘A call to action’

The book Building Up a New World contains a collection of essays that span a wide range of topics — from practicing mutual aid, to creating community safety and joining the sanctuary movement. It holds stories, practical wisdom, and diverse perspectives from individuals across many spaces of the church.

Chapters include topics such as “From Potluck to Policy Reform,” “Antifascism in the Way of Jesus,” and “Building a Just Economy.” Each chapter is written by one or two individuals who include local pastors, lay leaders, lyricists, musicians, and poets.

Pilgrim Press, the book’s publisher, is currently offering 10% off the cost of purchasing Building Up a New World with the discount code “AllChurchRead.”

“For those who want to better understand their role in creating a just world for all, this is a resource that will strengthen your journey towards becoming a well-trained community organizer,” Love wrote in the book’s introduction. “This collection of writings is a call to action and an offering of applicable tools for the journey. Upon completing the book, you will no longer sit on the sidelines, watching and listening to rhetoric tearing our nation apart by those who prioritize profits over people. The call is to lean into the lives and learnings, and then implement the community organizing tools and resources necessary for the liberation of humanity.”

Building Up a New World was edited by the Rev. Anne Dunlap, a UCC minister, the Faith Organizing Coordinator for Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), and the founder of FierceRev Remedies; and the Rev. Vahisha Hasan, executive director of Movement in Faith and a faith-rooted organizer moving at the intersections of faith, social justice, and mental health.

Fenema and Love invite people across the UCC to engage with these topics that “offer so many openings for you and your community to begin or deepen your journey of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.”

“No matter how dire the moment may be, we can, like generations before us, make a way out of no way in the face of powers and principalities,” they said. “Join us as we discover new pathways and practices for Building Up a New World.”

To join the All Church Read:

• Find the book from Pilgrim Press here.
• Read and download the All Church Read curriculum here.
• Access the Building Up a New World worship resources here.

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