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Parish Collective

@parishcollective

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Connecting people to be the church in the neighborhood

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Many people choose a word for the year.

What if, instead, we chose a place?

A block.

A building.

A street.

A neighborhood.

A local business.

And what if we resolved to pay attention, to learn its rhythms, and to love it patiently.

Because love begins with knowing.

And knowing takes time, attention, and presence.

What place might be asking for your attention this year?

Read more about choosing a Place of the Year on the blog - link in bio. by @parishcollective

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9 months ago

Want to practice being the Church in the neighborhood but not sure where to start?

Here’s a simple framework from Part 5 of our Change the Game series:
1️⃣ Gather a few friends
2️⃣ Pick one practice around mission, formation, or relationships
3️⃣ Try it for a season (1 to 3 months)
4️⃣ Learn + adapt
5️⃣ Repeat

It doesn’t have to be forever. It just has to begin.

📖 Read the full reflection + watch the short video on our blog. Link in bio.

#ParishMovement #FaithInNeighborhoods #GodsRenewal #ChurchTogether by @parishcollective

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a year ago

Last spring, as Ontario was closing safe consumption sites across Toronto, @stevemacdouell and other organizers hosted a gathering about harm reduction.

Steve lives in Little Portugal, where he pastors with FreeChurch Toronto and writes at the intersection of urbanism, faith, and community formation. We talk about polarization as a problem of belief, but after years of community work he's convinced it's just as much about separation — how far we've gotten from the people we disagree with. Up close, you learn what shaped someone. That's harder to do from across the internet.

He's clear about the limits. Being close to someone doesn't make a harmful idea less harmful, and empathy is no substitute for confronting injustice. But something shifts when we move toward difference instead of away from it.

Read Steve's full reflection in @_broadview_media — link in bio. by @parishcollective

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4 days ago

A new season asks us to pay attention.

What is changing?
What needs to fall away?
What needs to be planted?
And what new growth needs to be protected?

Christine Sine has spent decades paying attention to seasons in the garden, in the church calendar, and in the life of the spirit. A contemplative activist, gardener, author and liturgist, she trained as a physician before turning to the work of helping people find rhythms of faith rooted in ordinary life and in the ground under their feet.

In this reflection, she reads the turning season as an invitation to prepare but with attentiveness, intention, and hope.

Perhaps this season isn't simply about slowing down. Perhaps it's also about putting down roots for what is still to come.

Read Christine's full reflection, Spiritual Practice – Gearing Up For a New Season, on Substack.
https://christinesine.substack.com/p/spiritual-practice-gearing-up-for by @parishcollective

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11 days ago

What is autumn inviting us into? 🍂

Our new Autumn Litany: Taste the Table is a simple prayer for our neighborhoods, our tables, and the people we share them with.

A prayer to help us notice the gifts our neighbors carry, make room for one another, and receive the goodness of being together.

Set the table. Make room. Taste the goodness of life together.

📖 Download the free Autumn Litany at the link in bio. by @parishcollective

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13 days ago

What are we building for our youth to inherit?

Angel S. Brown reflects on the importance of trusting people with lived experience and investing in the work already taking root in their communities.

The seeds we plant today may bear fruit long after we’re gone. What might it look like to invest with that kind of long-term hope?

Read the full story and watch the full conversation on our blog. Link in bio.

#ParishCollective #NeighborhoodFlourishing #CommunityLeadership #FaithAndPlace #LocalLeadership by @parishcollective

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17 days ago

Who gets to say what's wrong in a neighborhood, and who gets to decide the fix?

Usually it's whoever holds the money.

@byangelsbrown spent five years handing that power back to the people who actually live there, the ones with the long-term experience of the block.

She's one of our Parish Collective Residents in Place, rooted in the West End/Lakewood neighborhood of Durham, NC.

Watch the full conversation on our website. Click the "blog" link in our bio to find it! by @parishcollective

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18 days ago

Happy Good Neighbor Day!!

Today is a simple reminder that neighboring starts close to home.

Small acts of presence can grow into deeper connection and a stronger neighborhood.

Today, take a moment to notice your neighbors today.

#GoodNeighborDay #Neighboring #ParishCollective by @parishcollective

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20 days ago

A table does more than hold food. It makes a place for people.

This fall we're paying attention to tables like the ordinary ones already set in our neighborhoods, and the ones still missing a chair.

The invitation isn't only to become better hosts. It's also to become better guests. To accept an invitation. To taste something unfamiliar. To let our neighbors give us something.

Who has been setting tables on your block long before you noticed?

➜ Read our new blog by @emma.rooker called Taste the Table — Click the "blog" link in our bio!

#ParishCollective #Neighboring #Neighborliness #CommunityBuilding #GatherAroundTheTable #LocalCommunity #Hospitality by @parishcollective

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25 days ago

What has the place you live taught you about caring for your neighbors?

Nathan Daniel Blake @sevenstorypilgrim is a writer, storyteller, and spiritual wildling from post-industrial Appalachia, rooted in Victorian Old Town in Wheeling, West Virginia, and one of our Residents in Place. He's the founder of Seven Story Studio and Abbot of The Appalachian Order.

A few years ago he wrote down five characteristics of the spirituality his place had formed in him. His list belongs to the hills that raised him, and it's also an invitation to name what your own block has been teaching you all along.

Read all five on the blog. Link in bio.

#ParishCollective #ResidentsInPlace #TheologyOfPlace #SpiritualityOfPlace #Neighboring #FaithAndPlace #FaithfulPresence #Appalachia by @parishcollective

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a month ago

What are you doing for National Good Neighbor Day on September 28th? Tell us in the comments and help spark an idea for someone else!

Still deciding how to celebrate? We put together a free downloadable guide filled with 25 simple, playful ways to connect with the people who share your place.

Host a dinner hop.
Share something from your garden.
Play music on the porch.
Gather for sips and snacks.
Leave a cheerful note.
Start small or invite the whole block.

There's no wrong way to do it! Just begin with what you have, pay attention to who is nearby, and see what grows.

Download Good Neighbor Day: 25 Ways to Celebrate Right Where You Are at the link in our bio.

#NationalGoodNeighborDay #GoodNeighborDay #GoodNeighbor #Neighboring #LoveYourNeighbor #NeighborhoodLife #CommunityLife #LocalChurch #ChurchInTheNeighborhood #PracticingNeighboring #ParishCollective by @parishcollective

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a month ago

As another school year begins, may we learn to pay attention.

To the children finding their way, the teachers and caregivers showing up, and all the people whose everyday work helps hold a school community together.

And to those of us who share the same sidewalks, parks, libraries, businesses, and streets.

Our schools are part of our neighborhoods, too.

May this school year invite us to notice one another, celebrate where there is joy, tend to where there is hurt, and remember that even one small act of neighboring can matter.

Save this prayer and share it with a neighbor, teacher, caregiver, or friend. 🤍

#BackToSchool #PrayerForTheSchoolYear #GoodNeighboring #FaithfulPresence #ParishCollective #Neighborhoods #Community by @parishcollective

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a month ago