About Circle of the BelovedIn the Fall of 2016, The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, together with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, and community organizers and neighbors launched Circle of the Beloved: the Minnesota chapter of the Episcopal Service Corps.
Each year four or five young adults live in intentional community on the North side of Minneapolis and serve full time at non-profit sites that serve the greater Twin Cities area. Some of our residents work at Americorps sites that work to close opportunity gaps in Minnesota while other residents work directly for non-profit agencies in advocacy roles supporting programs that address issues of environmental justice, affordable housing, and food insecurity. We invite you to join with us as you discern how you might spend a year serving others and living in intentional community. At Circle, we live together in intentional Christian community that acknowledges and deepens kinship across many lines of difference. In community, we live out these values: |
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Kinship
Instead of operating from a benefactor paradigm of “us” helping “them,” we acknowledge our innate kinship, where all sides give and receive based on our mutual gifts and needs. |
Rule of Life
We craft a rule of life together that encourages holy listening and prayer, simplicity, a ministry of presence, and active justice-making in our neighborhoods. |
Reconciliation
We embark on a journey of racial, socioeconomic, and spiritual reconciliation, grounded in following the way of Jesus. |
Our Staff
Denise Graber
Director Denise is an East Texas native who has a heart for mission work, a background in Christian Education and youth ministry She is blessed with a loving husband, 2 children attending Texas A&M University and 2 bonus daughters who are busy making their mark in the world. She loves to cook and stay active through various forms of exercise and outdoor activities.
Contact: circle@episcopalmn.org |
The Rev. Craig Lemming
Volunteer Chaplain The Rev. Craig Lemming is thrilled to serve as a Volunteer Chaplain for Circle of the Beloved - the Twin Cities chapter of the Episcopal Service Corps - working with justice-seeking young adults living intentionally together in prayer, simplicity, and kinship with the marginalized. A Zimbabwean native, Craig holds a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory, a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, and a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in Theology and the Arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
Contact: clemming@hotmail.com |
“Stepping back and connecting reconciliation to God’s story also helps us move away from dramatic visions of fixing the world, as if our job were to provide solutions to problems outside us. If Christians believe anything, it is that no one—including ourselves and the church—is separate from the brokenness as an untainted solution to the problems of our world. The new creation contends with the old. The dividing line between good and evil runs straight through each one of us. So the journey of reconciliation begins with a transformation of the human person.”
― Chris Rice, Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing