Thank you for visiting the application for Solidarity Circles of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School.
If you're hungry for a peer-network of fellow faith leaders, organizers, and clergy working on issues of justice, you've come to the right place!
Solidarity Circles are virtual peer-networks for faith leaders, organizers, clergy, and members of the community interested in the cooperative and solidarity economy and its multiple relations to faith. Broadly understood, the cooperative and solidarity economy are ways of addressing longstanding economic inequalities within our society, including white supremacy and gender and sex inequities.
Over 9 months participants will engage in meetings of education, dialogue, and coaching on a specific project at their organization, church, or institutions, informed by the Churches and Cooperatives Toolkit and other materials presented in Interventions and Exchanges as well as our webinars.
Participants of a Solidarity Circle will develop a project in conversation with the Solidarity Circle that will involve their organization, workplace, or church, on which they will receive critical, collective engagement from other members of the group and expert organizers. Each participant will be charged to develop a plan of action for the project, and participants will receive individual coaching in developing this plan of action. Solidarity Circles will meet monthly and the facilitator will help to set up an individual coaching session between each participant and a seasoned organizer to help develop their project and plan of action.
Solidarity circles are one way the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice is seeking to revitalize and build the church and Christian theology in positive ways. We believe that this work is deeply connected to the mission and vocation of faith communities, with the goal of contributing to new awakenings in both church and world.
Application Deadline is August 30, 2023