February 21, 2025
The Office of Missional and Community Engagement is pleased to announce a partnership with Cross Connection (formerly Carolina Cross Connection) as they expand their ministry with the development of three Access Experience weeks and three Awareness Experience weeks into Richmond, VA in Summer 2026. “I am beyond excited about our new partnership with VAUMC!” Brittany Bethel, Executive Director, said. “With VAUMC’s support, we’re hiring a Regional Director, launching community listening sessions, and investing in racial reconciliation efforts. This is a bold step forward in creating inclusive, faith-driven service opportunities, and I can’t wait to see how God moves through it.”
Cross Connection, established in 1988 at First United Methodist Church in Lincolnton, NC, serves 14 counties across North Carolina as well as serving Kansas City and Honduras.
Many Virginia UMCs have taken part in their Access and Awareness Programs; a ministry that grounds the work of mission and justice in the context of relationships for students in 6th-12th grades.
Through their programs, students engage in projects that enhance safe access for neighbors such as building wheelchair ramps, constructing porches, yardwork, and painting. In their Awareness Programs, students gain a deeper understanding of challenges faced by marginalized communities and participants (students and adult leaders alike) have experienced transformation shifting how they think about the work of mission and justice and how they continue to cultivate their relationships with both God and their neighbors. “This partnership will create new opportunities for students and churches to cultivate curiosity, community, and service,” said Salem Sheridan, Director of Community and Ministry Advancement for Cross Connection. “This partnership provides Cross Connection a chance to learn from our neighbors in Virginia and participate in the incredible work that VAUMC churches are already accomplishing!”
For the Virginia Annual Conference, this partnership also offers an opportunity for VAUMC students to engage more fully in the work of justice through their questions and curiosities as well as to wrestle with experiences alongside Biblical reflection and our historical tradition. This partnership will also strengthen the VAUMC connection across conference boundaries as we live more fully into what it means to be truly collaborative in the work of mission and justice. “At a time when the larger society embraces division and exclusion, this partnership will be a witness that our unity is found in relationship with the most marginalized and vulnerable around us and serving and working for justice together rather than apart,” Rev. Jo Ann Batteiger, Assistant Director of Missional and Community Engagement for the Virginia Annual Conference, said.
Cross Connection is “committed to creating affirming and inclusive environments where participants can encounter Jesus through curiosity, community, and service.”