Editor Erin J. Walter and contributors offer essays, interviews, and resources to revolutionize our understanding of ministry by lifting up the rich diversity of community ministries.

Product Code: 6616
ISBN: 9781558968943
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Skinner House Books
Pages: 200
Size: 8.5 x 5.5
Published Date: 10/15/2022
Availability:In stock
N/A
Price: $16.00

Community ministry is the fastest growing type of ministry in Unitarian Universalism and many ministers serve in some combination of parish and community work. But what is community ministry? It’s not often clearly understood, and nonprofit work, justice movement leadership, and other forms of community ministry are still widely unknown or considered radical. When many people think minister, they still imagine only a church minister.

In Care for the World: Reflections on Community Ministry, editor Erin J. Walter and contributors offer essays, interviews, and resources to revolutionize our understanding of ministry, lifting up the rich diversity of community ministries—both lay and ordained and led by religious leaders with a broad range of life experiences, identities, and communities of care—within Unitarian Universalism. These reflections show the immense and vital work that Unitarian Universalists are doing in the world and will inspire readers to live a spirited, purposeful life, rooting their daily work in their deepest values and faith.

This collection will also support seminarians and religious professionals in, or who are considering, community ministry, and inspire congregations to nurture and affiliate with community ministries. Without knowledge of the important work of community ministry, potential leaders may not answer their call. And the world needs this sacred, vibrant work now more than ever.


Bookmark and Share

Foreword by Rev. Theresa Ninán Soto
Introduction by Rev. Erin J. Walter

Abolitionist Community Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Rev. Jason Lydon
Breathing New Life with BLUU by Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin
Q&A with Ben Gabel
The Holy Work of Administration by Rev. Dr. Lee Barker
How to End the Rally by Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen
Q&A with Julica Hermann de la Fuente
Accountability to the People, Water, and Web of Life by Aly Tharp
Bivocational Ministry by Rev. Christian Schmidt
Q&A with Rev. Amy Beltaine
The Artistry of Endings by Rev. Erik W. Martínez Resly
Ministry in Liminal Times by Rev. Suzanne Fast
Q&A with Rev. Chuck Freeman
Healing Moments for Alzheimer’s by Rev. Dr. Jade Angelica
Where Unity Lies, Wholeness Within by Rev. Dr. Azande Sasa
Q&A with Rev. Marisol Caballero
Answering the Call of Purposed Peace by Rev. Denise Graves

Community Ministry Resources
Sample Covenants
Acknowledgments

Dorothy Day, who changed the world with her fierce, heart-centered work, once shared the following encouraging words, apt for community ministers today: “The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us.

Community ministers—both ordained and lay—are a living example of the possibility of revolution in each heart, not as individual locations of change but rather as an interdependent chain reaction of transformation.

One of the complexities of community ministry is that the deep treasure of interdependence isn’t always obvious. To some, community ministers may appear to be loners. Maybe they are, but only in the same way that one aspen tree is alone. It is a slender tree with bright white bark, brilliant gold foliage in the autumn, quaking leaves, and, below the surface, an extensive and supportive root system.

These trees are always growing. Their extensive, intertwined roots make the entire aspen forest—called a clone—strong. The oldest known clone grows in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah. The clone is over eighty thousand years old and weighs more than 6,600 pounds. The history of community ministry, the significance of ministry outside congregations as people engage with it today, is no less substantial.

from the foreword by Rev. Theresa Ninán Soto

Be the first to submit a review on this product!
Review and Rate this Item

You might also be interested in: