Greetings on behalf of the co-directors and everyone here at enfleshed. As this year draws to an end, we return to our reflections throughout the year on the theme, ‘home.’ It’s been a powerful one for us as we have endeavored to think through how we create and make meaning of home: Home with ourselves. Home with one another. What prevents ‘home’ from being available to all, in our society as well as across the globe. It’s been a meaningful question to thread throughout the year, politically, socially, and spiritually.
Along the way, Anna posed two questions that still resonate:
“How can we become trustworthy with each other? Trustworthy for, and to each other?”
Their answer: “Tend the tender connections between me and you and we, here and there and now and then.”
Home is a slippery thing, requiring tending – ongoingly, regularly. Like so many other sacred endeavors, practicing ‘home’ asks us to be always open to reevaluating and reconsidering. What’s working? What must be shed? What is asking for more attention or less? We are touched when we hear about people sensing a home – a refuge, belonging, or place of nourishment – in the labors of enfleshed, some highlighted below. And we are also, always, grateful to learn of new directions we can grow in to reshape our understanding and practice of home – through enfleshed, as individual people, and in solidarity with kin, near and far.
This year has been difficult for many. We know that. War has torn communities and families apart. Bigotry has harmed so many in our society. Many feel anywhere but ‘home.’ And yet, and still, we believe in what can break through. The ‘home’ we can create in the midst. Fleeting as it can be. Little pockets of refuge. Little places of rest. Little bits of nourishment that sustain us on the journey.
As the year winds down, please know that we wish the best for you and hope to continue in acts of kindness, activism, and liberation together with all those who call us community.
Sincerely,
Robert, Anna, and M
sacred incantations: rituals of trans wisdom for every season
this project was a long time in the making and we have been so thrilled to see it come into fruition this year!
featuring 70+ trans, gender non-conforming, and two-spirit contributors, sacred incantations is a book of 76 rituals paired with 76 incantations paired with 76 pieces of custom art, all in the form of an oracle-like deck. while we sold out of our first run of 500 decks, we are eagerly anticipating a second run. you can learn more about the project, our additional inventory related to it, and join the waitlist for a deck at the link below.
enfleshed podcast launch
this year, we took to podcasting! hosted primarily by anna blaedel, the podcast has brought on a number of incredible guests talking pride and healing, Blackness and thriving, disability, a god on wheels, and solidarity with Palestine. In between monthly episodes, we’ve been peppering in mini episodes’ featuring short bits of reading from our liturgy and poetics libraries and other writtten work.
you can find the podcast under ‘enfleshed’ wherever you listen to podcasts or directly on our website at the link below.
events this year
book event with rabbi julia watts belser on “loving our own bones.”
book event with lyvonne briggs on ‘sensual faith’
Black history month instagram live on ‘Black imagination’
enfleshed’s six year birthday celebration!
launched: tough mind & tender heart
a monthly column on living out anti-racist commitments written by Robert Monson
“In this newsletter, we hope to bring both an intersectional and experiential approach to moving forward in liberative acts and knowledge. One of the main things that we focus on here at enfleshed is ‘liberation for all.’ And so, in that spirit, let us journey together in highlighting anti-racist resources, engaging in thoughtful exercises, highlighting actions for solidarity, and more. The hopes for this space is that it won’t just be a one-sided knowledge dump. Once a month this newsletter will be a small gathering ground that will center the wisdom of those considered ‘marginalized’ as we move forward in a freer way.”
mini series on ‘home’
in six essays, m, anna, and robert reflected on ‘home:’ its complications and complexities, invitations and possibilities, sharing our wonderings and explorations, and inviting you to consider your own relationship to what home is and isn’t, feels like, could be, and calls us to practice.
““I have learned that though the world frightens me, and will roar at me to be productive, to deny my feelings, to be a commodity…there is a rest for me. I have recently thought to myself that all of these mornings mean something. That in my attempts to steady myself I have been making a home for myself. Internally. In the parts of me that nobody else can see.” – Robert Monson
“We build nests, and we dream of the hatchlings that will one day fill them. We find ourselves in empty nests, through loss or violence or choice or the natural order of things. We fall from nests, and are pushed out of them. When we are lucky, and blessed, we may find ourselves gently returned to nests we were not ready to leave. And, sometimes we are not. And, sometimes we do not survive. But sometimes, despite extraordinary odds, and no shortage of predators, we do.“ – anna blaedel
“We human animals know how complicated it can be – deciding amidst struggle when to leave home or when to stay. Not everyone gets a choice, one way or another. And those who do, don’t all go or stay with the same resources. Like our creaturely kin, for many of us, in making such decisions, we weigh what makes a home ‘home’ through some of our most innate longings: For Safety. Belonging. Lineage. Pleasure. Connection to the land. Familiarity. Community. Resources. Joy. We can wrestle: Is home still possible here? Or must we seek home elsewhere?” – m jade kaiser
other creative labors of the year
Our 2024 contemplative wall calendar, featuring the theme: “small SHIFTS that make a radical difference in our movements for liberation.” Order yours here.
Hundreds of copies of “HELD:blessings for the depths” were distributed throughout the year to individuals, communities, congregations, seminaries, and more. You can order a copy here.
A new project centered on disability justice is brewing behind the scenes – more to come in 2024.
Liturgy that Matters just completed a second run through the entire lectionary, surpassing 312 issues of fresh sermon commentaries and orders of worship. You can access 4+ years of the library here.
We continue to publish bi-monthly newsletters in our Moments for Common Nourishment column featuring one essay each month from anna blaedel as well as an interview with a featured guest and a round-up of the months’s highlights at enfleshed. Read the archives here.
We parsed out our free liturgy and poetics libraries on our website. Our liturgy library contains everything explicitly related to a Christian orientation, especially useful for worship settings or Christian-centered small groups and rituals. Our poetics library contains writings more applicable to situations and individual use wherein a broader spirituality is desired. This collection uses minimal explicit god-language and may be most useful in rallies, memorials, and other more public, less christian explicit circumstances. We are regularly updating both libraries as new content is written. Please feel free to use as your leisure, with attribution to ‘enfleshed.’
a note from the enfleshed board chair
To all those who love enfleshed as much as I do:
I know you likely receive many fundraising requests at this time of year, but it feels important to be transparent that we’re at a critical time for enfleshed. The co-directors (M, Anna, and Robert) and board members are working hard to fundraise an additional $4,000/month to make our finances sustainable, but we have acknowledged that, due to financial reasons, we may have to make shifts to the structure and scope of enfleshed as early as January 2024. Transparency is a value the Board has committed to prioritize in this moment, alongside learning from earth’s wisdom about resource sharing, prioritizing collective liberation over profit or nonprofit existence, and self and communal care for the people who are getting paid by enfleshed.
The work of enfleshed means a lot to me – to all of us – and I humbly ask for your partnership to help resource enfleshed to thrive.
If you turn to Liturgy that Matters as a worship prep companion, would you consider inviting four additional monthly subscribers to Liturgy that Matters to help sustain our work? You could reach out to your colleagues, seminary alumni newsletters, clergy networks, conferences, even bible study or other small groups.
If you find resonance with our larger body of creative spiritual work, would you consider activating five people to become monthly donors to enfleshed to help sustain our work? You could reach out to friends who enjoy enfleshed resources you share, members of your faith community, or friends who share your values toward collective liberation.
I hope sharing this request with others feels like welcoming them into a nourishing community. Thank you for your deep care and commitment as a steadfast supporter of enfleshed. 🌱🌻🍂
Allison Brinkhorst, enfleshed board chair
p.s. If inviting others to join enfleshed isn’t up your alley but you’d like to support, consider:
– Buying or selling copies of HELD: blessings for the depths (maybe for a group such as a class, conference, or congregation)
– Making a special year-end donation here or at the button below