Our Collective

Amelia Mae Paradise

Amelia Mae Paradise (she/they) is the founder of the Jewish Bridge Project where she works locally (Tiwa Land/Albuquerque NM) and nationally as an antiracism educator, consultant, and facilitator nurturing conversations that bring awareness to antisemitism and community safety practices in support of growing multiracial democracy and collective liberation. Amelia is a white Ashkenazi, lesbian member of Tzedek Lab, a multi-racial, multi-ethnic network of Jewish political educators, organizers, and spiritual leaders inspiring the Jewish community into collective action against racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy. A founding core member of Honor Native Land Tax, Amelia worked with the Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) national Faith based work, including starting the Facing antisemitism working group and the Jewish Caucus. Guided by the responsibility to honor and continue the work of her feminist foremothers in dismantling systemic oppression, Amelia embraces the wisdom that living in a less brutal and racist culture benefits all members of society. To see Amelia’s extended bio and
professional background, click here.

Rev. Anne Dunlap

Nurtured into faith-rooted organizing in the Central America solidarity movement in the 1980s, Rev. Anne Dunlap (she/her) is a United Church of Christ pastor, organizer, and herbalist committed to racial justice and collective liberation that’s rooted in healing practice with the land. A skilled facilitator, teacher, preacher, and mentor, Rev. Anne is the founder of FierceRev Remedies, and is a consultant partner with the Jewish Bridge Project.  She was the curator of the podcast for anti-racist white Christians, “The Word Is Resistance,” led the creation of the Building Congregational Community Safety Toolkit and campaign, has served as adjunct faculty at Iliff School of Theology, and is the co-editor and a contributor to “Building Up a New World: Congregational Organizing for Transformative Impact.”  She lives on and tends to Haudensaunee land currently called Buffalo, NY with her beloved and their kitty.

Rev. Brigitta Vieyra

Rev. Brigitta Vieyra (she/her) is a mystic-activist devoted to companioning others in learning how to trust their own inner resourcing and harness deep spiritual wisdom to bring transformative healing to their lives. She is inspired by communities that take seriously the liberatory charge of their faith movements and cultivate the dispositions needed to be the spiritual revolutionaries of our time. Ordained in the Unitarian Universalist faith tradition, Rev. Brigitta supports congregations through practices of deep listening to discern their identity and purpose in the transitional time of preparing for a new minister. She is currently the Interim Minister at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church. In this season of her life, Brigitta is learning how to take play seriously and move at the pace of her soul.

Rev. Liz Kearny

Rev. Liz Kearny (she/her) is an ordained Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor with experience in congregational ministry, healthcare chaplaincy, and community organizing. She is a supporting member of the Building Congregational Community Safety team, helping faith communities create safety outside of the carceral system. She was also a regular contributor to The Word Is Resistance podcast, which (prior to its conclusion) was a weekly podcast by white anti-racist Christians based on the Christian lectionary, offering an anti-racist Word for other white Christians. Rev. Liz lives on the occupied homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe in so-called Longview, Washington where she enjoys hanging out with her clergy spouse Dexter and their two cats, Tennessee and Jersey.

Rev. Margaret Ernst

Rev. Margaret (she/they) is a minister and community organizer based in Pennsylvania. Ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC), she completed her Masters of Divinity at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2018. She has served as an organizer and movement chaplain in movements for racial, immigrant, and economic justice since 2013, and as a congregational pastor. Margaret has been on the staff with Faith Matters Network since 2017 and is on the founding national leadership team of Christians for a Free Palestine, an ecumenical, grassroots movement mobilizing Christians across the U.S. to take nonviolent action in solidarity with Palestinians and to counter Christian Zionism. She is passionate about the intersection of religion, spirituality and the political Left, and loves to sing and to laugh.  

Dr. Sharon Fennema

Dr. Sharon R. Fennema (she/her) is a facilitator, ritualist, activist, teacher, and scholar whose work lives at the intersections of critical race, decolonial, and gender theories and embodied spiritual practices which form identity and craft theology. She is passionate about empowering faith communities and changemakers to become the communities of justice and love we seek in the midst of the struggle for freedom, because she believes that each moment, from the most mundane committee meeting to the most profound direct action, can be an inbreaking of the kindom of God.

Dr. Fennema currently serves as the Join the Movement toward Racial Justice Curator and Storyteller for the United Church of Christ. In this position, she helps lead the denomination’s antiracism initiative using stories as both inspiration and lessons for cultivating a life of practices that move us toward racial justice. Prior to joining the UCC national staff, she was Assistant Professor of Worship and Director of Worship Life at the Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley CA.  One of Sharon’s greatest passions is creating prayers, rituals, and worship resources that help communities respond to the needs of the present moment. You can find much of her liturgical writing on Instagram and Facebook.