For this gathering on the fourth Wednesday in June, we will be joined by Rev. Dr. Andrea L. Walker, for a learning opportunity on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
***This special session of Creating Beloved Community will last 90 minutes and count toward ELCA Coaching Active Status continuing education requirements.***
This is the first of three different learning opportunities made possible by a grant awarded to ELCA's Coaching Ministry from the ELCA's Strategy for Authentic Diversity team. This first module is about what DEI is, and it will end moving us toward how we live it out.
Rev. Dr. Andrea L. Walker is a dedicated and visionary leader in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), currently serving in her fourth call as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Washington, DC. Since her ordination in 2000, Dr. Walker has combined deep pastoral care, theological depth, and a strong commitment to justice in all areas of ministry.
In 2007, she earned her Doctor of Ministry degree from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Her doctoral thesis, “A Place at the Table: An African American Lutheran Preaching from Margins to Mainstream,” reflects her lifelong commitment to lifting marginalized voices and enriching the church through a diversity of perspectives.
Prior to her current call, Dr. Walker served ELCA Global Mission as Area Director for Madagascar, West and Central Africa, where she led global partnerships with wisdom, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering dedication to mutual accompaniment.
A gifted preacher, mentor, and leader, Dr. Walker continues to inspire communities to embody the inclusive and transformative love of Christ.
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"Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion." -- bell hooks, All About Love
ELCA Coaching is collaborating with Rev. Stephanie Luedtke and Rev. Mukesh Cheedie to facilitate our gatherings on the fourth Wednesdays of each month through November 2025.
Our regular gatherings in 2025 will have a general flow of listening, learning, and sharing for the first three weeks of each month -- with intentional movement from head to heart to hands. We are inviting you to go even deeper in those fourth weeks, among the Beloved Community, to discern and name your next most faithful step(s). How are we intentionally living out our faith in our daily lives?
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We began gathering online with faith leaders* in March of 2020 to wrestle together with Being Church in a global pandemic, which transitioned over the summer of 2021 to Courageous Leadership, as COVID revealed our perceptions and misconceptions about most things in life. We continue to discern where Spirit might be collectively leading us as people of faith. Jesus is our primary model as we move toward Creating Beloved Community to learn together and experiment in community with a variety of spiritual practices and focus areas.
We believe this is in attunement with our call as Christians from:
- Scripture and our expanding understanding and expression of love for ALL of our neighbors
- MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail and Vision of the Beloved Community
- What Is the Beloved Community and Why Is It Important?
- The Idea of the Beloved Community: The creative friendship of Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh
- ELCA Teaching, and especially our "connection to all of life"
- ELCA Living Our Baptismal Covenant
- ELCA Truth and Healing Movement (facilitated by ELCA's Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations)
- ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations
- Dr. Shawn Ginwright's The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves
- And so many other diverse voices and sacred ways we engage with each other and with the world.
* An important definition: The coaching ministry defines "faith leaders" as all members of the Body | "priesthood of all believers"| Beloved Community, so even if you do not feel like you are a leader, you are welcome in this space.
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To answer some commonly asked questions about these regular gatherings:
"Why are you still meeting?" "Don't become too familiar with loneliness. Community is a risk, but liberation depends on the collective. Who can you trust to hold you?" -- Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies
"How can I prepare?" Beloved Community members pay attention and listen actively. We invite you to bring a spirit of curiosity and openness to these gatherings and to all aspects of your life. What are you noticing? Where is Spirit moving? How are you being invited to participate in the work God is already doing, especially outside the walls of the building where the church often gathers?
"What if I'm not a group person?" Beloved Community members take calculated risks. We invite you to take a small step outside your comfort zone and allow yourself to be seen and witnessed. We can almost guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised by the loving, caring, and nurturing nature of community in this time together.
Recordings from prior gatherings can be found here: https://www.elcacoaching.org/podcasts/media
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CREATING BELOVED COMMUNITY hosted by ELCA Coaching
Most Wednesdays -- 9:00am Hawaii | 10:00am Alaska | 11:00am Pacific | 12noon Mountain | 1:00pm Central | 2:00pm Eastern | 3:00pm Atlantic (Time zones may vary with Daylight Saving Time. We always begin at 1:00pm Central time.)
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