The gathering will bring together preachers, educators, writers and poets, podcasters, playwrights, and visual storytellers exploring religious and theological narratives that heal the world.
The gathering will be intentionally intergenerational and include people from across faith traditions.
All costs (program, travel, lodging, and meals during the program) for those selected to participate will be paid for by Auburn.
This gathering will go from 9:30 AM ET, May 30, until 4:00 pm, June 1, 2024, and be hosted between The Riverside Church and The Janet Prindle Center for Prophetic Leadership at Auburn Theological Seminary on the Upper West Side in New York City.
Auburn’s first consultation will center emerging voices, grounding and centering religious and theological narratives to heal the world. Participants will help explore what an institution like Auburn might provide a future generation of leaders.
Auburn will provide these leaders with a design and communal storytelling model that will help focus and strategize across various narrative change work for a shared vision of the future.
The consultation will be led by Auburn’s Dean, the Rev. Dr. Patrick B. Reyes, the bestselling and award-winning Chicano author and facilitator.
Complete the application form and prompts with short, up to 300-word responses that reflect your interest and experience.
Applications are due by April 12; selected applicants will be notified on April 26.
This is a selective program that aims to compose a diverse and committed cohort.
As Auburn’s president says, we are “sending a letter to the future.” That letter is in the form of the stories our leaders carry into the future.
Storytelling and narrative change efforts equip leaders with tools to identify, engage, and transform the religious and spiritually rooted narratives and stories that cause fear, scarcity, division, distrust, isolation, and alienation.
Drawing on Auburn’s history going back to the groundbreaking work of the late Dr. Walter Wink, leaders will be equipped to name the narratives that feed ruptures and conflict and use skills and tools to proclaim, reclaim, propagate, and employ prophetic and hopeful narratives across faith traditions that lead to healing and the common good.
To do this, the Center for Storytelling and Narrative Change will
Center for Storytelling and Narrative Change is under the direction of the Dean.
