Special Guest this Sunday (October 3rd): LaVeta Gilmore Jones, co-director of the Leaven Community Land & Housing Coalition.
Church communities so rarely just listen. We spend so much time telling others about ourselves, about Jesus, that sometimes we forget to listen to our neighbors, to hear what we cherish, what makes our heart sing, and what keeps us up at night.
At St. Philip, we are moving into a period of listening. We have already practiced listening to one another during our Sunday Zoom breakout time. It is time for us to expand our circle of listening. Over the next six months, we are going to be asking our neighbors, “What do you cherish about this neighborhood? What keeps you up at night?”
And we are just going to listen, and then listen again. Eventually, we will share with one another what we have heard, listen to one another, and together, discern how we can be good neighbors based on what we have heard. We may even discern how to be good neighbors with our neighbors. But we will start with listening.
To help us learn how to do this, and to help us understand why listening is so important, we will have a special guest this Sunday, LaVeta Gilmore Jones. LaVeta is a long-time participant and resident of the Albina neighborhood, a member of Salt & Light Lutheran Church, and a co-director of the Leaven Community Land & Housing Coalition. St. Philip has been a part of the Coalition for over two years and this partnership in sacred organizing has been invaluable to us.
LaVeta will be joining us during our service on Sunday to share to story of Salt & Light, tell us about the Sacred Organizing Spiral, and engage us in conversations with one another.
Come join us, in-person (and masked)!