About ECIR

The Ecumenical Center and International Residence (ECIR) is an intentional living-learning community for students and visiting scholars from around the world. The word “ecumenical” stems from the Greek word for “the whole inhabited earth.” ECIR seeks to be a community of friendship and respect in which persons from many different countries, cultures, religions, political perspectives, and vocational interests may learn from one another.

ECIR is both a Residence for up to 50 persons, and a Program of hospitality, global understanding, justice, and peacemaking. Our programs invite university students in the greater Ann Arbor community and also provide opportunities for congregations, organizations, and individuals throughout SE Michigan.

Mission Statement

The Mission of ECIR is to

History

When six students from China arrived in Ann Arbor in the 1890’s to attend the University of Michigan, no homeowners in Ann Arbor would rent rooms to them in which to live. This rejection was rooted in the xenophobia and the racism of that time in history.

Courageously, a woman named Louise Sackett from a campus area church said “Let the Chinese students live in my home.” It was her visionary, hopeful hospitality that inspires the Ecumenical Center and International Residence to this day.

In the aftermath of World War II, many religious congregations, organizations, and individuals joined together in the U-M area, convinced that person-to-person relationships are key to creating a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Rev. Paul Dotson, the first Director of ECIR, rented several homes near the campus for international students in the early 1960’s and then led the effort to purchase the apartment building on Church St. Thirty years later, under the leadership of Rev. Nile Harper, thirty additional rooms were added to the ECIR facility in 1995. In the past few years, community area and meeting rooms in our building have been expanded and modernized, and major renovation is being done to kitchens, bathrooms, and windows in the older part of the building.

Today, ECIR is a home-away-from-home for students from nearly 50 different countries each year. Our programs reach out around the campus and involve hundreds of international and U.S. students.