Lydia Strand

Lydia Strand is a member of the Core Team of the Contemplative Action Circles project, organizing to call for an integrity-filled response to the systemic and personal oppressions that have been and are sustained by the institution of the church. She has been shaped by time working in workers’ and immigrants’ rights, living in intentional community, and growing up as a pastors’ kid in the evangelical church who stumbled into contemplative spiritual practice. Lydia works as the Director for Contemplative Programming with Boston-based Leadership Development Initiative, where she strengthens and integrates training in contemplative spiritual practice alongside leadership development and community organizing practices.

Responding to a Crisis of Integrity: Contemplative Practice & Movement Building

n the face of a crisis of integrity in both our nation and often in our church, what would it take to respond at a scale proportional to what we are up against? When we are tempted by complicity and passivity, where do we draw courage to take risks and take action, especially through noncooperation and civil disobedience? And how can we deconstruct the culture of isolation and support our collective healing from the traumas of oppression? In short, what would it look like to take the gospel seriously? In this session, we will be sharing organizing technologies for decentralized popular movement building from the Momentum community. We will also be leading practices from the Contemplative Action Circles – sacred songs, silence, and lament that leads to true critique; a storytelling practice called Resonating which is designed to build empathic vulnerability; and ongoing collective visioning.