Events: Live Events are slowly coming back after COVID. Your donations help us get back to vital conversations.
Join us each month on the first Wednesday for a time of silence, song, and contemplation. Worship is simple, beautiful, and reflective. Bring your full self. Come, let your spirit breathe.
REGISTER - This event is presented by The Church Council of Greater Seattle.
In collaboration with Havana, New Israel Fund, and Seattle Friends of Standing Together, this forum explores co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. It features personal story-telling by two people whose transformation has led them to non-violent resistance with a vision for collective safety and liberation.
What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as "play" is perhaps what he Himself takes most seriously. At any rate, the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.
Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.” —Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Over the course of a full day, we will explore the following themes through quotes and ideas from Thomas Merton:
Self
Community
World
Creation
God
Our time together will be embodied. You will have permission to do whatever you need during this set apart day of rest; if you need to remove yourself from the group for a nap, a walk, or time alone, please do. There will be time to explore nature, to play, and to relax together. Bring a journal, games, an instrument, food to share, and some clothes/shoes for inclement weather if you decide to head out in exploration.
Tickets are pay as you are able.
Rev. Grey Maggiano, Rector of Bolton Hill Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, walked his church through a process of taking a hard and honest look at the church’s racist beginnings. The church was founded by slave holders. That origin story led to tendrils of injustice that reached down through the years to the church’s current life. After years of work, his congregation established a reparations fund and began to take action. He will tell their story and help us think about how to tell hard truths for the sake of liberation.
The church’s website asks, “Why, in a city that is more than 60% African-American, in a neighborhood that is almost 50% African-American, is our congregation predominantly white?” While acknowledging that the roots of this are multi-faceted and complicated, we also recognize that our parish’s role as a leader in the segregation of our church, neighborhood and city for more than 100 years is a significant part of the answer.”
Most of north Seattle was developed in a series of intersecting restrictive covenants and practiced redlining. Christian congregations were often directly involved in the creation of neighborhoods. They have certainly been implicated in and affected by these histories.
Join Derek Webb and Flamy Grant for a small and intimate concert on April 20 at The Well.
If you love music and have struggled with church because…well, for many reasons, this concert is for you. Here is a space for your spirit to be free.
Tickets are $25 and doors open at 7:30 PM.
Tickets are pay as you are able through Eventbrite.
Join us on March 13 for this presentation and conversation on mental health and teens. The event is designed for parents, educators, mental health professionals, and others who accompany teens.
Caleb Visser (LMHC, MACP), will draw from a decade of experience with teens to talk about teenage brain development, typical challenges to well-being, and general treatment goals. Trained in psychodynamic theory, Caleb also relies on ideas from interpersonal neurobiology and CBT. Dr. Natalie Goodwin, PhD, will consider common challenges for families seeking to support their teens. She draws from years of work in the field of disordered eating, and training in emotionally focused family therapy.
Caleb received his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. In more than a decade of work in clinical settings his focus has always been with adolescents and teens, starting with work in a residential foster home, spending two years working for the Cowlitz Tribe, and most recently in a contracted position in a local high school. Caleb works well with teens, building rapport quickly, working with parents when it's helpful, and trying to get to the heart of difficulties. Caleb is heavily influenced by the work of Daniel Siegel (The Whole-Brained Child, Mindsight, Brainstorm) and feels that the teenage years present a special window of opportunity for learning greater insight and empathy, as well as skills for self regulation.
Dr. Natalie Goodwin is a native Seattle-ite who loves living in the Pacific Northwest and taking advantage of all the natural beauty it has to offer. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and she completed pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She returned to Seattle and served as a clinical manager and clinical director at Eating Recovery Center Bellevue for 6 years and then spent 3 years in private practice. Her professional focus is in the area of treatment of eating disorders. She enjoys providing therapeutic intervention with clients and their families, as well as supporting others who are providing care through teaching, supervision and general support. Therapeutically her favorite interventions are Family Based Treatment, Emotion Focused Family Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She is certified in Exposure and Response Prevention treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and also have training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure for PTSD.
Join therapist Caleb Visser as he helps adults think through how to discuss mental health with teens. His focus will be primarily on identity formation and fostering agency within teens.
Tickets are Pay are You Are Able through Eventbrite. Reserve your spot for this limit space workshop.
Caleb received his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. In more than a decade of work in clinical settings his focus has always been with adolescents and teens, starting with work in a residential foster home, spending two years working for the Cowlitz Tribe, and most recently in a contracted position in a local high school. Caleb works well with teens, building rapport quickly, working with parents when it's helpful, and trying to get to the heart of difficulties. Caleb is heavily influenced by the work of Daniel Siegel (The Whole-Brained Child, Mindsight, Brainstorm) and feels that the teenage years present a special window of opportunity for learning greater insight and empathy, as well as skills for self regulation.
Common Good Tacoma and The Well welcome Rev. Ben McBride on Sept 15 at Common Good Tacoma. He has a new book out "Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging." I know this is something that we are all talking about - belonging. For Seattleites, I know we always expect people to come to us, but here's an opportunity to be part of a small gathering with this activist who also stands in our shared spiritual space, working and laboring for a spiritual renewal and a spiritual movement of justice. For those in South King Co or Pierce Co, this is a great opportunity.
Please reserve your space. Space is limited...tickets are free. Just get to eventbrite and reserve your spot.
Rev. Ben McBride is an internationally recognized peacemaker, faith leader, activist, and speaker who has spoken in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. McBride is the co-founder of the Empower Initiative, a capacity building firm devoted to empowering organizations and communities to foster belonging.
Previously he served as director of PICO California, the state’s largest faith-based community organizing network. McBride was featured in the Sundance Film Festival award-winner The Force, and in 2020 the Center for American Progress listed him as one of the top faith leaders to watch. Ben lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, Gynelle, and their three daughters.
“This visionary and courageous book stands in the great tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Ben McBride powerfully and persuasively shows how radical belonging and radical self-care are integral to a radical Christianity—a Christianity serious about the radical love of Jesus Christ.”
—Dr. Cornel West, philosopher, activist, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary
Join us for a vital conversation about how theology frames depression. This vital conversation will walk us through how theology has talked about depression and will look at how we might “sketch new maps” for addressing living with depression as people of faith.
Dr. Jessica Coblentz is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theology, Gender and Womens Studies at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. She also has lived with depression. Her book “Dust in the Blood” explores the complexities of depression and how it has been discussed in a variety of Christian theologies. Dr. Coblentz puts her hands in these theologies and pushes and pulls them into a new shape that helps people today expand our theological framing of depression so that we may respond to it in new ways.
Tickets are being sold through Eventbrite. They are pay as you are able.
Click the image for more tickets!
Notes of Rest is a practice of contemplation and creativity that moves us towards the rest we were created to receive. This workshop - Sabbath and Our Ancestors - will use music, teaching, and interaction to explore how we carry in our bodies patterns of work and rest inherited from our ancestors. As we explore how some patterns helped our ancestors survive, we will ask how those patterns serve us today. And, what from our ancestors - familial and spiritual - has been buried deep inside of us that yearns to be released and given life?
Notes of Rest is a spiritual formation ministry grounded in scripture and black music that helps the body of Christ receive God’s gift of rest.
Julian Davis Reid is a pianist, producer and composer with a focus on jazz, electronic music, and gospel. He is a founding member of the jazz-electronic fusion group The JuJu Exchange (in partnership with Grammy Award winner Nico Segal and drummer-inventor Nova Zaii). Julian holds a B.A from Yale University and an M.Div. degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Julian and his wife live in Chicago.
Scholarships are available if the ticket price is a hindrance to attendance. We charge to offset costs, but we never believe that cost should keep someone from attending our public engagements. Call us or email us if you need financial relief to attend.
Tickets available via Brown Paper Tickets: https://juliandavisreid.bpt.me/
Dr. Cornel West joins us by Zoom for a live talk with Q&A. He will present on the philosophy of non-violence as the organizing principle for change used by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This event will be part of several sponsored by The Well and the Seattle Regional Committee of the Poor People’s Campaign leading up to the Mass People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18.
Rev. Yolanda Norton brings her Beyoncé Mass to Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Seattle, WA on May 6th. Come dance, laugh, lament with us for a groundbreaking worship service that uses the music and life of Beyoncé as a tool to cultivate an empowering conversation about Black women—their lives, their bodies, and their voices. Beyoncé Mass creates a space of story, scripture, and song that calls for the liberation of all people.
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Admission is FREE. But tickets are required. (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5395087)
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Curated by Rev. Yolanda Norton, the Beyoncé Mass has gathered thousands of people from Southern California to Portugal with even more worship services coming in 2022.
Learn more at beyoncemass.com.
With 350seattle.org
(**Register for the Zoom call**)
Learn emotional grounding techniques, skills to defuse and de-escalate potentially volatile situations, how to work together as a team of peacekeepers, situational awareness, and
additional roles that can help create a successful action (read more on Facebook).
With 350seattle.org
(**Register for the Zoom call**)
As activists we are often the focus of unwanted information gathering attempts by the state, and others. Through surveillance, doxxing, trumped up charges, grand juries, and much more; this information is used to harass, intimidate and suppress individuals and movements (read more on Facebook).
With the National Lawyers Guild
(**Register for the Zoom call**)
Learn how to protect your federally-granted constitutional rights during encounters with law enforcement officers (read more on Facebook).
With 350.org
(**Register for the Zoom call**)
Come learn how to be mentally and physically prepared for being on the streets protesting. What to bring, what to wear, and what to expect. This training is part of a 4-part training series hosted by 350.org (read more on Facebook).
With 350seattle.org
(**Register for the Zoom call**)
An interactive webinar discussing where social movement power and leverage comes and how we can learn from past movements to be effective in building power to address our current historical moment (read more on Facebook).
Become a More Powerful Peacemaker in Your Family, Community and Workplace
9:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Saturday May 30
1:00 p.m. to 6:30 pm Sunday May 31
Facilitated by Susan Partnow
Deepen Your Exploration of the Five Core Practices of Compassionate Listening and learn the skills necessary to bring this powerful technique into your daily life.
**Cultivating and Holding Compassion for Oneself and Others
**Developing the Fair Witness, without Judgment or Blame
**Maintaining Balance in the Heat of Conflict, with Respect for Self and Others
**Listening with the Heart
**Speaking from the Heart
Compassionate Listening is a practice that reaches deep into the heart of discord or disconnection, teaching people to listen with a different "ear" to those around them. Its powerful tools help transform the energy of conflict into opportunities for understanding, intimacy at home, healthy relations, productive teamwork, and positive action. It is a practice that provides a roadmap to what sages from all ages and cultures have taught: cultivating the wisdom of the heart is the key to real peace "from the inside out."
This two day session provides provides a basic introduction, beginning with a focus on our own stories and self compassion, and then stepping in the shoes of the other, transforming debate to dialogue and healing connection, and learning from our judgments. Prior students are welcomed and encouraged to repeat the training.
Your Facilitator: Susan Partnow is co-founder of Conversation Cafes, Let’s Talk America and Global Citizen Journey. She is a former teacher and speech pathologist, author of Everyday Speaking for All Occasions, co-contributor of The Art of Compassionate Listening, certified mediator, and an organizational development consultant/trainer for over 20 years, with an M.A. from Northwestern University. She is Network Weaver and a Sr. Facilitator for The Compassionate Listening Project.
Cost: Total cost for the two-day workshop is $175 - $300. You'll be able to choose what you pay within this range at the end of the workshop. Those able and willing to contribute at the higher end help support our ability to provide partial scholarships for those who are in need.
Pre-registration of $50 is required. Register here:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4400305
This pre-registration fee goes toward the total workshop fee. The remainder of the fee is due at the end of the workshop. We' can accept Venmo or Paypal but are unable to accept credit cards at the workshop so bring cash or checkbook!
Note: Partial scholarships may be available for those unable to pay the full fee, so please don't let cost be a barrier.
Cancellation Policy:If you cancel with more than two weeks notice, we can apply $40 toward registration toward a future workshop. With less than two weeks notice, we can apply $25 toward a future workshop. There are no refunds.
Continuing education credits may be available for this workshop.
For more about The Compassionate Listening Project,
visit www:compassionatelistening.org
Due to COVID-19, the event Thursday evening with Rabbi Anson Laytner is changed to a ZOOM presentation and conversation. The original talk and reading from his book will be rescheduled at a later date. HOWEVER…
“Why did this have to happen? What can I do? Where is God?” These are central questions asked amid suffering. Whether one is asking about COVID-19, the death of a loved one, a financial crisis, an illness, or any other personal or communal catastrophe, surviving difficult times can create significant stress for us emotionally, physically, and spiritually. On Thursday, using ZOOM, Rabbi Laytner will give a short presentation and there will be ample time for questions and conversation.
This is event is free. Grab a cup of coffee. Fire up your tablet or computer, turn on your camera, and let’s find some community together.
ZOOM Instructions: Topic: Why Did This Have to Happen? What Can I Do? Where is God? Time: Mar 19, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/271777960 Meeting ID: 271 777 960 One tap mobile +13462487799,,271777960# US (Houston) +16699006833,,271777960# US (San Jose) Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US +1 301 715 8592 US +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) Meeting ID: 271 777 960 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab3e3rW0hv
Anson Laytner is a retired rabbi, living in Seattle, whose career in non-profit and academic settings focused on fostering positive interfaith and inter-ethnic relations for the betterment of the community. He is the current president of Northwest Interfaith and of the Sino-Judaic Institute. A graduate of York University (Toronto), Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati) and Seattle University, Laytner is the author of Arguing with God(1990), co-author of The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity (2005), co-editor of The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (2017), and author of The Mystery of Suffering and the Meaning of God (2019).
Many Christians are taught that God is all powerful, can do anything, and can fix everything. Dr. Thomas Jay Oord explores how a relational and loving God inherently can’t do and fix everything - not alone. A provocative idea for many, come and wrestle with the problem of suffering and evil and a God who strives to heal.
Dr. Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is director of the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as professor at Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and Wesleyan/Holiness/Church of the Nazarene thought. While Dr. Oord’s presentation will come from the breadth of his work, his conversation with us will primarily come from his book God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils. We encourage people to read the book prior to the presentation. If you would like to read with others and discuss, please let us know. While we charge for this event to offset our costs, all are welcome to attend regardless of ability to pay. Just let us know at thewellqueenanne@gmail.com.
Tickets are $10 General Admission and $5 for Students. All are welcome to attend despite ability to pay.
This event is one part of three events with Dr. Oord in the greater Seattle area. Feb 8 @The Well, Feb 9 preaching at First UMC Seattle (Thank Goodness God is NOT in Control), Feb 9 evening talk at Bellevue First UMC (God Can’t: A Better Way to Think about God & Suffering - RSVP & more info at fumcbellevue.org/oord.)
Dr. Thomas Jay Oord will be at The Well Feb 8 to discuss the idea that God Can’t Fix Everything and That’s a Good Idea. Read the book first and come discuss.
This 1.25 hour conversation will help determine the questions to bring to Dr. Oord’s conversation and allow space for us to explore power, agency, love, coercion, and divinity. Have you ever wondered if God is omnipotent why there’s suffering in the world? Would a God with limits on power be a blow to your faith? However you decide on this, asking hard questions is always a good thing for our faith. Come, ask, discuss, and get ready for the talk on Feb 8.
There is no charge for the book group, but please RSVP to thewellqueenanne@gmail.com. At least 3 people must sign up for this group to take place.
The Brilliance’s David Gungor will draw from the forthcoming album “World Keeps Spinning” for an intimate gathering that will include conversation about anxiety, loneliness, division, community, creativity, and art. He will play excerpts from the album and talk about the fractures in our society and our relationship, and the journey toward one another (rather than away from each other) that t is needed during these times. We will close the night with some Christmas sing-along time. You can be part of this conversation. We hope you will be.
The new album was created in partnership with Biola University Orchestra and Chorus.
This suite, World Keeps Spinning: An Antidote to Modern Anxiety, asks the question, Is this the end of the world? It seems like the end is always around the corner. From ecological disaster to the presidential impeachment process to international discord, bad news is all around. It is hard not to have a new emotional baseline rooted in anxiety. Existential dread is at our throats.
Advent, a season in the Christian year, is a time of preparation and waiting for something better, two difficult things to do when the world seems to be spinning out of control. In this time of waiting - in the dark of December - perhaps we can find the space needed to slow down, to take deep breaths, and to find our way into communities of creativity and belonging.
As always, all are invited to our events regardless of ability to pay. If you need a scholarship, email us at thewellqueenanne@gmail.com
Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets.
Come, let your spirit breathe. For forty minutes, find solace in prayer, song, and silence. We enter Advent with the hope that the Divine will collapse our world of violence and greed through the inbreaking of the Prince of Peace. This will be our meditation this week.
This service is free and open to the public.
In a day long retreat with Dr. Charles L Howard of the University of Pennsylvania, we will explore how to curate hope and care for personal integrity during these times of division and discord.
We will look at public discourse and what is happening nationally. How do we engage in prophetic acts with compassion and care?
We will look at how public discourse and the national temperature affects personal relationships. How or even can we maintain relationships amid deep divisions, especially when those divisions expose differences in core values?
What does it mean to be spiritually grounded and widely loving?
What are personal practices that can help us look at the world as it is without finding ourselves in deep despair?
These and other issues will be explored in this full day of silence, sharing, learning, and resting.
Climate Forum with State Senator Reuven Carlyle
State Senator Reuven Carlyle will speak about the significant climate legislation that was passed in the last legislative session, his expectations for 2020, and opportunities for our local community and the State of Washington to lead on environmental and climate change issues. We will also discuss the values that call us to steward our world, and the concrete steps we can take to help address climate change in Washington State.
Reuven Carlyle is a member of the Washington State Senate, representing the 36th legislative district (which encompasses NW Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne, Magnolia, South Lake Union, Belltown, Greenwood, Crown Hill, etc.), and a member of Kavana. Cosponsors include: Kavana Cooperative, Earth Ministry, Queen Anne United Methodist Church & The Well, Queen Anne Christian Church, Queen Anne Presbyterian Church, and United Church.
Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin are taking the "Beating Guns" book and their forge on the road with the Beating Guns Tour, a 90-minute event that will feature music, art, and stories of people impacted by gun violence, culminating with an invitation for the audience to take the hammer and transform a gun into garden tools.
Tickets are free. Register for the event here.
Nadia Bolz-Weber will speak about her newest and most personal book Shameless: A Sexual Reformation.
Out to slay a giant by going after the church’s teachings on human sexuality, Bolz-Weber weaves narrative, history, scripture, and wit together to show how Christianity has often turned the glorious gift of bodies into something ugly and shameful, telling us that true holiness equates to sexual repression — “as if the God of the Universe had programmed into creation a passive-aggressive test of our willpower.”
Joining Nadia for the conversation is Seattle’s own Gail Song Barnum.
Tickets are $7.50-$15 and are available through Eventbrite.
We are grateful to University Temple UMC for allowing us to co-sponsor this event with them.
2 Modules.
Part I: Resistance and Love (Thursday night) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Part II: Not Losing Hope (Friday morning) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019 Full Event Both Tickets - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Dr. Charles L. Howard will use lecture and conversation in exploring resistance to injustice without losing relationships, one's own integrity, relinquishing the struggle, or giving in to despair.
In today's increasingly polarized world people are retreating into their own circles. Relationships are being lost at alarming rates. Sometimes people feel they have to sacrifice principles or integrity in order to maintain relationships. It's easy to give in to despair. If one has the luxury, it can be tempting to give up the struggle.
Over two sessions, Dr. Howard will help us explore how to seek the destruction of policies, practices, and a culture that encourages harm without seeking to destroy people. He will help value the power of hope and encourage us to hold on to it. He will walk us through the power of maintaining integrity even in the midst of division and conflict.
Despite the awful face that Christianity often presents in the public commons, Dr. Howard believes that we are trending in the correct direction. There is reason to hope.
The Rev. Charles L. Howard, PhD is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. Prior to his return to Penn, he served in both hospital and hospice chaplaincies, and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Todays Leadership Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Christian Century, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, and Slate. He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, a text which explores new ways of considering homelessness and poverty, and the author of The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection and Lenten Devotional, Black Theology as Mass Movement, a call to theologians to expand the reach of their theological work, and Pond River Ocean Rain, a collection of brief essays about going deeper with God. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters.
Posted in Power Violence Peace, Difficult Conversations
2 Modules.
Part I: Resistance and Love (Thursday night) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Part II: Not Losing Hope (Friday morning) - POSTPONTED UNTIL 2019 Full Event Both Tickets - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Dr. Charles L. Howard will use lecture and conversation in exploring resistance to injustice without losing relationships, one's own integrity, relinquishing the struggle, or giving in to despair.
In today's increasingly polarized world people are retreating into their own circles. Relationships are being lost at alarming rates. Sometimes people feel they have to sacrifice principles or integrity in order to maintain relationships. It's easy to give in to despair. If one has the luxury, it can be tempting to give up the struggle.
Over two sessions, Dr. Howard will help us explore how to seek the destruction of policies, practices, and a culture that encourages harm without seeking to destroy people. He will help value the power of hope and encourage us to hold on to it. He will walk us through the power of maintaining integrity even in the midst of division and conflict.
Despite the awful face that Christianity often presents in the public commons, Dr. Howard believes that we are trending in the correct direction. There is reason to hope.
The Rev. Charles L. Howard, PhD is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. Prior to his return to Penn, he served in both hospital and hospice chaplaincies, and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Todays Leadership Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Christian Century, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, and Slate. He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, a text which explores new ways of considering homelessness and poverty, and the author of The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection and Lenten Devotional, Black Theology as Mass Movement, a call to theologians to expand the reach of their theological work, and Pond River Ocean Rain, a collection of brief essays about going deeper with God. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters.
