Our Saviour’s celebrates welcome, inclusion during RIC Weekend
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Naperville will join with more than 1,000 other Lutheran faith communities across the country Jan. 25-26 in celebrating Reconciling in Christ Sunday, a day to honor the ongoing work of welcome, inclusion, celebration and advocacy for LGBTQIA+ people in the life of the church.
Reconciling in Christ Sunday was organized as an annual celebration by St. Paul, Minnesota-based Reconciling Works, a 50-year-old organization that advocates for the full welcome, inclusion and equity of all individuals at Lutheran institutions across the U.S.
All Lutheran churches that have elected to become Reconciling in Christ partners — a process that includes a congregational vote and the creation of an inclusive welcome statement — are invited to participate in RIC Sunday.
Our Saviour’s in Naperville, which became an RIC partner church in 2024, will mark the weekend in several ways. All worship services will feature special music, including belonging-affirming hymns and performances from several of the church’s music ensembles.
On Saturday, Jan. 25, after 5 p.m. worship (at 815 S. Washington St.), all are invited to a discussion led by Senior Pastor Brian Wise on the history and future of welcome at Our Saviour’s. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.
After worship services on Sunday, Jan. 26, members of OSLC’s RIC in Action team will host tables of coffee and breakfast treats. A snack drive throughout the weekend will collect donations of single-serve snacks for Youth Outlook, a Naperville-based social service agency founded in 1998 that supports LGBTQIA+ youth.
Reconciling in Christ Sunday “is a cool time to be church together” with other RIC churches nationwide, said Vicar Emily Moentmann, pastoral intern at Our Saviour’s and one of the coordinators of RIC Sunday activities at the church. “With Our Saviour’s status as an official RIC partner church, and with so much clarity around who we are, we can really run full force in the direction of bringing the love and liberation of Christ to people throughout the community.”
The theme of this year’s RIC Sunday is “Resilient Community,” meant to call attention to how community bonds and relationships sustain individual members of the community and how communities are stronger when they work together for justice.
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church of Naperville, a member of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and an inclusive, affirming Reconciling in Christ church, offers both traditional and contemporary worship services each weekend at its two campuses in central Naperville.
Traditional worship is offered at 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday at the church’s campus at 815 S. Washington St. (next to Edward Hospital). Contemporary worship is offered at 10 a.m. Sunday at the church’s Celebration Campus, located two blocks south at 919 S. Washington St. For information, visit oursaviours.com or call the church office at (630) 355-2522.