Human Relations Day
January 17, 2010
“It doesn’t matter where we work, what we do, how many degrees we have or where we grew up. What matters is having the willingness to serve God in the most unusual places.”
She is called to help other realize their potential. It is where the homeless find a bed, where the hungry find a meal, where the vulnerable find safety. It’s also where 25-year-old Delia Ramirez works – and once called home. For the first 6 years of her life, Delia lived in the homeless community that is a ministry of Humboldt Park United Methodist Church, Chicago. Today, as executive director of The Center for Changing Lives, she conducts business in the same room her parents used as a bedroom when they lived in the facility and exchanged work services for rent. “I have always known my calling in life was to work with the oppressed,” she said.
The Human Relations Day offering makes it possible for Delia and other community developers to turn lives around and make a change for the better. The Human Relations Day offering helps church-based community developers work in racial- and ethnic-minority communities in the United States and Puerto Rico. The offering also ensures a second chance for youth offenders.
“My passion for this work lives because I understand I cannot call myself a Christian if I live blinded by the [situations] that surround me,” Delia adds.
Why do we celebrate this offering on the Sunday before the observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday? Because as United Methodists we believe in the development of better human relations and we seek to empower others to become the whole persons God intended.
The 1972 General Conference established Human Relations Day to “recognize the right of all God’s children in realizing their potential as human beings in relationship with each other.” Every one of God’s children deserves justice and equality. Every one of God’s children deserves to open doors to success.
You can give to the Human Relations Day offering at any time.
Human Relations Day, one of the six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church. Human Relations Day is celebrated on the Sunday before the national observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
 The day is intended to strengthen United Methodist outreach to communities in the United States and Puerto Rico, encouraging social justice and work with at-risk youth.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline describes the purpose of Human Relations Day as a call to "the Church to recognize the right of all God's children in realizing their potential as human beings in relationship with each other."
Through the Community Developers program, United Methodist churches assist ministries in racial-ethnic United Methodist congregations and communities throughout the United States. Local congregations initiate the work of a community developer, create effective responses to specific community needs, create a network of community developers that assist each other, and provide training and resources for them.
These congregations make systemic changes that allow them to provide services in their communities, ranging from such topics as education, substance abuse, employment training, affordable housing, at-risk youth programs, HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, and much more.
Through United Methodist Voluntary Services, the General Board of Global Ministries seeks to support grass-roots organizations that work through youth and young adult volunteers to challenge oppression and injustice and to improve the lives and fulfill the potential of those whom Jesus called the "least of these."
Allocation of offerings
The Human Relations Day offering receipts will be allocated and administered as follows:
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