Grit and Grace: Creativity, Spirituality, and Justice Work

Writer/composer Amanda Udis-Kessler is pleased to offer the six-hour virtual workshop “Grit and Grace: Creativity, Spirituality, and Justice Work.” Optional-use pre-workshop materials will include essays on various ways of thinking about creativity, covering theology, sociology, ethics, spirituality, liturgy, and justice work, as well as practical writings and exercises designed to assist people with developing their creativity. Workshop time will include conversations, individual exercises, pair and small-group discussions, and creative opportunities supported with spiritual grounding practices. During the workshop as well as the two weeks before and after, participants will build supportive community through conversations about creativity. The final hour of the workshop will be reserved for coverage of topics and answers to questions raised ahead of time by participants with the intent of enabling them to contribute to the workshop structure and make the experience more useful to them.

Amanda is a published and award-winning songwriter, hymnwriter, and progressive sacred music composer with a hundred original free-use hymns, songs, and rounds posted on her website. Her other writings include an academic book, sonnets, worship materials, essays for a variety of audiences, adult faith formation curricula, blog posts, college course materials, and about a hundred and fifty sermons. Amanda is a sociologist by training (PhD, Boston College, 2002), a lay ethicist by avocation, and a long-time social justice educator (primarily in church settings). She is a covenantal partner at Vista Grande Community Church UCC in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she serves informally as composer in residence.

Register at the Damascus Project webpage