I hope the video will give you an overview of why we are in the midst of a capital campaign and its relation to our ongoing Ministry of the Hearth.

ECM’s ministry and our capital campaign are interconnected.  Our building has received National Historic Landmark designation, and we are in the midst of an effort to restore our building next to the KU campus.  Built in 1960, the ECM Center supports one of the largest and oldest campus ministries at KU, having begun in 1905.

The building is a center for diversity of ministries, of which all attempt to answer the questions of vocation: “what do I want my life to say” and “how can I discover and affirm my gifts to address the needs of society and the earth?”  The building is a place for these questions to be raised and acted upon as hearths are formed for supporting the answers given.  An ECM “hearth” is where community is experienced, conversations are encouraged, and reflections on society and the earth are shared

Hearths at ECM include: listening to the call for justice, nurturing compassion as integral to our vocation as people of faith, and being open to one’s sense of spirituality that acknowledges the mystery in our lives. 

We hope that in viewing the video, you will gain an understanding of what we do.  ECM has a ministry grounded in the Christian faith.  We are open to all, regardless of where they are on life’s journey, whether they identify themselves as a person of a particular faith tradition or not.

 In summary, ECM affirms a statement of purpose influenced by an international network of ministries.  It is as follows: 

• Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;
• Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to): believers and agnostics, conventional Christians and questioning sceptics, women and men, those of all sexual orientations and gender identities, those of all races and cultures, those of all classes and abilities, those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope;
• Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in the dogmatic certainty --more value in the questioning than in the absolutes;
• Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God's creations, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers.

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