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** Our National Gathering – Awakenings 2025 – Returns!
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Save the date!

We are excited to announce that we are coming back to the DC area for our next Awakenings Gathering. On March 6-8, 2025 we will convene to spark imagination for and foster brave conversations around Wholeness and Beauty in the Life of the Church.

We are incredibly honored that premier theologian Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings ([link removed]) will be one of our main plenary speakers. Mark your calendars and sign up at awakeningsgathering.com ([link removed]) to get the latest updates and first chance at an extra discounted early bird rate.

We’re excited to be with you all again next year!

- Missio Alliance


** Welcoming Our 2024 Writing Fellows Cohort!
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Anchored by a diverse group of Leading Voices and a featured Writing Team, Missio Alliance is proud to launch our 2024 Writing Fellows Cohort (seen above!), expanding our Writing Collective to three integrated teams. The vision of the Missio Alliance Writing Fellows Cohort is to create a brave space for historically marginalized voices within the Church to develop, mature, and flourish as writers exploring their vocational callings within this cultural moment.

If you’d like to get to know our twelve 2024 Writing Fellows a bit more, download this introductory PDF ([link removed]) to learn more. Be on the lookout for the Cohort’s first pieces to be published on missioalliance.org later this summer, and for a future Brave Spaces newsletter takeover!

-Chris Kamalski (Cohort Director) and Dr. Oneya Okuwobi (Lead Mentor)


** Open Call for New Long-Form Article Pitches Featuring African American Writers
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Missio Alliance would love to hear your pitch, and potentially platform your written voice, for “Do Black Lives Matter?" ([link removed]) , a long-form series which we will publish in June 2024. This series will be co-edited by Leading Voice Dr. Dennis Edwards and our Editorial team.

If you are an African American Christian leader, we invite you to submit: (1) a proposed title, (2) a summary of what you will write in a paragraph or two, including a central thesis statement / big idea, and (3) a central passage of Scripture that you will unpack for our readership through the eyes of your cultural hermeneutic and life experience as African American. Please read through the Missio Alliance Writing Framework ([link removed]) , and email your pitch to Chris Kamalski, Editorial Director, at [email protected].

Pitch proposals are due May 15th.
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** Formation / Mission / Witness
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** Our Deep Desire is to be Witnessed | Phil Lewis ([link removed])
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"In a world where our attention is the prize that goes to the highest bidder, I am reminded of how radical of an act it is to choose to see each other. To witness is to recognize my own humanity in the eyes of the beloved in front of me, no matter who it might be. It is the deep acknowledgement that our liberation, our ability to live freely, to express and thrive is intimately bound to theirs."

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** Culture / Justice / Theology / Witness
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** Listening to Black Voices Experiencing Oppression | Dennis Edwards ([link removed])
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"The prophetic call for justice arises from the voices of those experiencing oppression. This is to say that while cries for peace, freedom, dignity, and equality might come from those who advocate for oppressed people, the most poignant message resounds from the downtrodden themselves."

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Prayer Walking for the Sake of Mission (Workshop) | ([link removed]) Shannon Kiser, Michael Beck, J.R. Briggs, Kristen Beckert: ([link removed]) FREE ([link removed])

There are many ways to be actively involved in blessing the communities and neighborhoods in which we live and work. One way is to pray for our community so that we have eyes to see and ears to hear what are the hurts, hopes, dreams, fears, and challenges we live among. We desire to listen to where God is already at work and to join in with what God is already doing. This workshop at Awakenings 2017 trained participants in prayer walking. Put on your own walking shoes and join us in this spiritual practice of listening and praying for our communities.
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The Equal Rights Amendment: Why Hasn’t The US Constitution Caught Up With The World? | A World of Difference (Hosted by Lori Brown) ([link removed])

We’ll uncover the resilience, setbacks, and ongoing advocacy surrounding the ERA in the United States, while also delving into the international bill of rights for women. Despite strides made through international efforts, disparities persist, underscoring the need for continued advocacy and support. Join us as we unravel the surprising history and explore what can be done to champion gender equality. This is a call to action for making a real difference in the fight for women’s rights.
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** Noticing Beauty In Our Weekly Walk!
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Seasons mark time and change. For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re in the season of spring, where signs of beauty and new life are suddenly everywhere. For those in the tropics and sub-tropics, the rainy season may have just begun, signaling a time for the earth to receive the rain it needs to thrive. For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, you are shifting into winter, a season of equal beauty that is marked by slowness, stillness and the recuperation as we allow more space for rest.

Beauty is a characteristic of God’s own self, and when we awaken to noticing beauty in our world, we often find we are surrounded by its signs everywhere we look.

For this month’s Brave Practice, we invite you to take a weekly walk, seeking to pay attention to the beauty all around you. What signs of life do you notice? Is there art that tells a hopeful story on your path? What is new that signals beauty and points to wholeness? Blooming flowers? New storefronts? A first snow? The season’s first rain? Green shoots sprouting from the edges of established plants? Life and beauty are flourishing all around us, and in fact, they are God’s gift of God’s own self to us.

Let’s bravely notice and give thanks for the beauty and wholeness in our world this month!

-Lisa Rodriguez-Watson, National Director

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