Grace and peace.
I am Rev. Chantilly Mers. I am grateful you stopped by!
For the past fifteen or more years, I have served and loved the Church as a community pastor, music and song leader, faith and justice educator, activist, retreat leader, and equity consultant. My roles have allowed me to design and create sacred spaces, to build bridges, and animate conversations that groups, churches, and organizations otherwise would not have.
Of all the roles I have held, I am at heart a keeper and practitioner of Circle, an Indigenous and ancient pattern that has held communities for generations.
I am passionate about the ways we as kin gather to speak and listen with wide open hearts. In a fracturing society, many living at the edge of eco-devastation and isolation, I am passionate about re-membering in our bodies and bones what it feels like to belong to one another and the Earth.
This practice of radical togetherness in the belly of systems and structures that harm and exclude, is to awaken what is ancient in all of us - our innate kinship and communal identity - that to me is the hope of the “kin-dom of God.”
I hope you might join me.
The Kin-dom Collective is my dream of radical togetherness. I am hosting gatherings both virtual and in-person that honor our sacred connectedness and shared life. It tastes like delicious home-cooked, locally-sourced meals. It looks like Sacred Texts, spoken word, poetry, songs, and art being offered to the center; and every day people telling stories that heal the relationships we have with ourselves, one another, and the Land.
FAQ’s
Why “kin-dom” and not kingdom?
Mujerista theologian and teacher, Ada María Isasi-Díaz popularized this term. “Kingdom” is associated to the dominant and oppressive reign of kings and Empires. (No more of that please!) The reign of God that Jesus proclaimed, however, looks more like justice; the last in society are made first and the least have everything they need, not because they are charity, but because they are family (Matthew 25). This new world order is better described as “kin-dom.” It is a way of life built on the bonds that make us kin. I may not yet know you, but I know we are mysteriously connected. I hope to cultivate within myself and all who gather at The Kin-dom Collective a deep sense of belonging. We belong to one another and to this beautiful planet. Full stop. And when we nurture and strengthen our bonds, our relationships and imaginations, we practice radical togetherness that is, the kin-dom of God.
Do I have to identify as Christian to participate?
Not at all! As your Spiritual Dinner Party Host, I want to be upfront that I am ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition and I have support through an ecumenical partnership with 1001 New Worshipping Communities, a movement and network within and beyond the PCUSA, growing new expressions of church and community life. While the stories and teachings of Jesus beat in my heart and soul, I intend to weave in the Bible with other Wisdom traditions and texts. The center of our virtual and in-persons gatherings will be the stories and beauty we bring as well as the Wisdom we discover by being together.
“We need not wait for the next moral, political or spiritual leader to show us the way. Wisdom is among us. All we need is each other to draw Her out, discern Her guidance, and build the world our souls already know is possible.”
- Rev. Chantilly Mers