When a harvest arrives in full bloom, providing sustenance and bearing fruit, we are summoned to pause. We pause to savor. We pause to honor the labors of caring and tending, planting and pruning. We pause to be stunned by beauty, and to behold the magic and mystery of growing things, wild and tender and uncontained.
As enfleshed nears our five year anniversary, we are pausing to celebrate all that has thus far germinated and rooted and blossomed. We feel awe at all that has grown, and so deeply grateful for the many and multitude who have enabled it to be so. So much is possible in community, and through collaboration.
Abundance! Nourishment! Tastes of flourishing that lure us toward collective life, liberated, liberating, free. A weekly liturgical resource grounded in liberation and transformation, facilitated by a team of exquisite writers and thinkers. A book of blessings and art to hold us in the depths. Queer spiritual practices, creative and provoking. Words crafted for meaning-making in moments intimate and collective. Conversations that hold pain with honesty, grief with tenderness, courage with accountability.
Even as we savor, we are opening to the next season and welcoming emergent possibilities. The soils of enfleshed, nutrient dense. New seeds, being planted. Radical roots, reaching deeper still.
In the turning of this season, it is with deepest delight we introduce our new colleague and collaborator, Robert Monson. enfleshed is transitioning to a new staffing model, and Robert is joining co-founders Anna and M as co-directors. We three co-directors bear gifts, passions, and dreams that are resonant and overlapping, distinct and deeply aligned.
As a cultivator of resources, Robert’s leadership will deepen, broaden, and help to sustain the work and offerings of enfleshed. His expertise at the intersections of fundraising and development work, Black liberation and spirituality, and creative and contemplative writing will significantly shape what enfleshed becomes and is able to co-create.
“I am so excited to join this team in dreaming about and thinking about liberation, justice, and equity,” Robert shared.
During this collective season, with no shortage of devastation, we need beauty and nourishment and the care that flourishing requires. As we move into this new season together, enfleshed depends on your support, generosity, and co-laboring. Will you consider making a contribution to enfleshed in honor of Robert and all that is yet to be and become?
For the sake of blooming things,
Anna and M
Robert Monson (he/him)
Robert (he/him) is a runner, musician, and a Black theologian committed to softness, contemplation, and liberation for all. As a recent seminary graduate (with distinction), Robert studied in depth the intersection of Black Liberation Theology and womanist theology. Weaving together these two strands of liberation have been important work as well as other liberation based theologies. “How can we help facilitate community and provide answers to a hurting world that is reeling?” remains an important question in his work. While in school, Robert’s scholarly work was recognized and presented at various national conferences/outlets. Podcasting (two shows) and writing remain important aspects of his daily life as well as marathoning the latest Star Trek show(s).
