November 2025 Honoring Our Pasts, Embracing New Futures Community Reflections on In My Grandmother's House While our November theme is The Inward Journey, the guidance of Rev. Dr. Pierce reminded us that inner work is never an individual endeavor. We are each a unique reflection of the Divine image of Love, shaped within the intricate networks of our families, communities, and churches of origin. Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce speaking at our Fall Gathering As we enter a season of celebration, one...
23 days ago • 2 min read
October 2025 Choosing Love in a Fragile World Community Reflections on Good Soil In reading Jeff Chu’s book and digesting his remarks from our Fall Gathering, a theme emerged: choosing love. Click to watch Jeff Chu's talks from our Fall Gathering Love, as Jeff reminds us, is not a feeling—it’s a deliberate, often difficult, choice. And love is not separate from faith and justice—it’s foundational. In both his book and our live conversation with his Farminary professor, Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
September 2025 Resilient Faith Holding Us Together Fall Gathering Recap We entered the Fall Gathering in Nashville carrying, well, a lot. The weight of national headlines pressed just as deeply as the struggles in our own neighborhoods. As one participant named, even when we stand in hope, sometimes that hope “slouches.” This was not a room that tried to erase those burdens, but one that made space for both lament and possibility. Together we stepped into community—seeking resilient faith,...
3 months ago • 2 min read
August 2025 Looking Back, Looking Ahead As we look back on the past few months, we’re also excited to give you a sneak peek at what’s coming this fall and winter. From new content to upcoming events, there’s so much good ahead—and we can’t wait for you to be part of it. Summer Wrap-Up: Food & Justice This summer, we turned our attention to food and justice through the themes of coloniality, liminality, and mutuality. Journeying together through Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee and...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Imagining Life Together December 2024 After an amazing fall season, we are looking with great anticipation to 2025. This January, we will gather once again in San Francisco to imagine life together as a way to move with faith into the future. Hahrie Han, Paula Williams, Yii-Jan Lin, and Angela Parker will guide us into a new season of learning about the work of justice. Imagination is a powerful discipline of hope, enabling us to envision spiritual community in an ever-evolving world. As...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
The Meaning of Good Friday March 2024 A word that meant “holy” in Old English, “good” today signifies many things. To be sure, both words have taken a beating in our time. But on this day, during an Easter season where hope feels incredibly distant and out of reach, Good Friday reminds us that what is good and holy in life endures and cannot be suppressed or eradicated by all the pain and sadness of the world. In fact, Good Friday is good preparation for April, when we will learn about...
over 1 year ago • 2 min read
Working for Justice in the Midst of a World at War February 2024 I have come to understand the overarching story of the scripture is the story of a people group struggling to survive and flourish in a fallen world that is hell-bent on crushing the image of God on earth. God's clap-back to the Fall, including war, is to first plant the vision of shalom in the hearts of the people. ––Lisa Sharon Harper This month, we began a new season of Public Theology: The Work of Justice by focusing on the...
almost 2 years ago • 2 min read
Neighborology: From the Way of Jesus to the Work of Justice January 2024 Our neighbors are not concerned with our christology, but they show, from time to time, their interest in our "neighborology."––Kosuke Koyama We make this shift every year around this time – from Spiritual Theology: The Way of Jesus during the fall months, we turn our attention in the spring to Public Theology: The Work of Justice. Or to borrow Koyama’s language, we turn from Christology to Neighborology, knowing all the...
almost 2 years ago • 1 min read
Final Giving Update Your year-end gift matters; please consider supporting our work! Make a Tax-Deductible Gift Dear Friend, This month in our community we had conversations about salvation and genocide in the book of Esther. It made me wonder why I never before stopped to think about the murder of 75,000 people at the end of Esther. In the context of this book that never mentions God, we talked about our relationship to the land, home ownership, xenophobia, nationalism, spirituality, and how...
almost 2 years ago • 1 min read