The placements in Jackson, Miss. pair two churches who are seeking to embody reconciliation.  Central United Methodist Church was founded in 1889 and seeks to be a place where “no one is a stranger.”  Central UMC is located in the historic Farish Street district of Jackson, a formerly thriving African American business district that is now impoverished.  Central UMC participates in the Farish Street Community of Shalom, which seeks to improve the quality of life for people in the neighborhood through building community relationships, emphasizing health and wellness, and promoting economic development.  Founded in 1929 in the midst of racially-segregated Jackson, Mississippi, Wells United Methodist Church stands today as a sign of hope in its community, attempting to bridge racial and socio-economic divides.  The church proclaims a holistic gospel and an inclusive ministry, offering a weekly food pantry and a mobile health clinic where prescriptions can be filled at no cost.  Its commitment to the ministry of reconciliation is embodied best by its youth, whose friendships and deep faith transcend unspoken racial lines. 

Read reflections from students who have interned at Central United Methodist Church/ Wells United Methodist Church »

For more than 50 years, this ecumenical Christian community in the diverse neighborhood of Adams-Morgan has birthed a network of organizations addressing issues of poverty and injustice. Each of their 12 small churches emphasize a commitment to an outward journey of mission and service and an inward journey of deepening one’s relationship with God through a disciplined life of prayer, scripture study, and committed Christian fellowship.

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Circle/Rock has been serving as a witness to Christ in the Austin community (population 100,000) on Chicago's west side for nearly three decades. Their joint, intensely interracial ministry in one of the city's lowest-income communities sprawls across a city block and serves thousands each year. Rock Church, an Evangelical Free Church of America congregation, is strongly focused on interracial life and mission.

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Founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier, L’Arche is an international federation of 130 communities in 30 countries for people with disabilities and assistants who share life, worship, meals, and daytime activities together in family-like settings that are integrated into local neighborhoods. The Duke partnership is with Daybreak, the oldest and largest L’Arche community in North America and home to a vibrant community of 100.

Duke professor Amy Laura Hall visits L’Arche Daybreak (pdf)

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Grounded in an interracial worshipping congregation, New Song concentrates on 15 blocks in the Sandtown-Winchester community of West Baltimore, which struggles with concentrated, enduring poverty. More than 80 staff, mostly from the surrounding neighborhood, live in the community and work together on efforts from New Song Academy (K-8 public school, 130 students) to over 200 houses completed via Sandtown Habitat for Humanity. Many different individuals-black and white, affluent and poor, urban and suburban-work closely together to break down barriers, including 10,000 annual volunteers.

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At St. Monica’s School, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus provide a home and vocational training for child mothers and their children, many of whom are survivors of abduction, enslavement, and rape by the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). 

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Word Made Flesh is called and committed to serving Jesus among the poorest of the poor. This calling is realized as a prophetic ministry for, and a holistic, incarnational ministry among, the world's poor. Word Made Flesh focuses its energy to make Jesus known among the poor while reconciling the church with the poor. This ministry's involvement for the poor is primarily through serving the church as a prophetic voice articulating God's passion for the poor through Scripture and further educating them concerning the needs of the world. This movement of bringing the church and the poor together is done through preaching, teaching, discipleship, music, media and other creative means.

Read reflections from students who have interned at Word Made Flesh »