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USE THESE QUESTIONS AS A GUIDE. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ANSWER ALL OF THEM.

Your ministry story: What kind of ministry—digital or otherwise—do you do right now, or hope to do in the future?

Your context: What is your ministry context offline, if you have one? How does that connect (or not connect) to the work you imagine online?

Your community: Do you sense that you have a community that has commissioned you into this work, or are you still discerning what that support might look like?

Your contemplative lens: When you imagine doing ministry contemplatively in digital spaces, what does that mean to you? What pace, posture, or practices feel important?

Your longings: What do you hope digital ministry could make possible—for you, for your community, or for those you are called to serve?

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Hi, I'm Maggie. I'm the priest at a small, independent (independent meaning non Roman) catholic church. We have a small online presence--more reporting on where to join us in person than actually doing ministry online. A large part of my work right now is building the infrastructure to support truly hybrid Masses, where folks worshipping remotely have as rich and participatory an experience as the folks in pews.

Beyond hybrid Mass, I know the next step (and equally important step) is having a more robust digital ministry.  Though we are part of the largest independent catholic tradition in the US, we’re still a small tradition (40ish churches).  When people find out about us, there is often not a community physically near them.  I believe there are folks who want connection to their catholic roots, but can't stomach the abuse and exclusion of the Roman church. Where do they go?  We can offer them a place to connect to their childhood tradition authentically and holistically. My folks are hungry to share this kind of acceptance with others, and know that digital ministry needs to be part of it, though I think they struggle to know what that looks like.

With regard to digital ministry, I lot of what I see feels corporate and...manipulative/performative?  I want to show up as me, not a brand.  Since it's probably going to be me doing this work, I want it to be lifegiving for me. I want it to be grounded and non-reactionary. Playful and creative.  I want purpose and connection.  Relationships, not another checklist.  Focus, not more scattering.  I want it to be an extension of my work, not an additional job.  My church folks tend to be contemplative (as do most of the folks in the wider tradition), and so it makes sense to me that a more contemplative approach to digital ministry would be nourishing for them, me, and for the folks who are looking for communities like ours.

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Hi, my name is Katie Rouse (she/her). I'm a writer/author/freelance marketing manager living in Raleigh, NC with my husband Chris and our 3 kitties. I'm also chronically ill/disabled and in a very rough season of it currently. I have a complicated history with the word "ministry," as an ex-missionary who thought I was going to be a missionary forever in India. My calling shattered during my initial 2-year term and I began deconstructing my faith.

But I do view writing as a sort of ministry. I help write collects and confessions at my church--something I dearly love. I've rewritten psalms and meet with a small group of people from church to co-write together each month.

When I first started writing about my deconstruction journey back in 2020, I felt like I thrived writing on social media. Now, it feels like the absolute worst. During a bout of insomnia last night, the YouTube video from the syllabus played in my head: how the algorithm constantly makes us feel like we're not trying hard enough or doing enough. That's definitely where I feel caught/burnt-out right now, and I'm hoping to regain a sense of why I'm doing this (social media, substack), and also a better how that works for me, through this class. I've loved reading rose's journey with this on her substack, but felt like I needed help connecting the dots of it a bit more.

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Hi, I'm Suzi. Someone once asked someone else on Twitter if they knew about me, and the gospel of cupcakes. That someone is lost to me now, as Twitter has changed, and the tweet is gone too. I'm a children's librarian whose ministry is vague, but I give out "cupcakes" (via emojis) online when people are having bad days: lemon cupcakes and regular: when people are celebrating. I'm on the governing board at my PCUSA church, Arlington (VA) Presbyterian Church. I haven't really thought about my "digital ministry" before applying to attend this class. But I love rose's work and I am interested in learning more.

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Howdy, my name is Jenny (she/her). I'm a lover of coffee, solitude, and my cat. I'm also a wife, first time mother (baby is due in January 2026), and spend a lot of my waking hours as a Starbucks Coffeehouse Leader. My favorite writer is John Green, I'm a huge fan of jigsaw puzzles, and love to play competitive sports related video games.

Honestly, the difficulty I have writing introductions is part of why I'm here. I went to college in the late 2010s to study writing and communication. I wrote thousands of words over the course of my 4 year education, but hardly any since then. Especially when it comes to the internet I know I want to write and share, but don't know how to strike a good balance that is safe and healthy for me but also adds value to what seems like an already clogged environment.

I don't necessarily feel like my calling is to be making a living sharing on the internet, but I'm hungry to know how to use the space in a balanced way. I want to share my perspective and amplify the voices of others, but it's hard not to feel like it's work that's already being done by other people who can probably do it better.

I first encountered rose's work in the context of "moving at the pace of flourishing" and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. I want to be the kind of person on the internet who isn't posturing, but is able to be vulnerable in a way that helps other people feel like they are seen and safe.

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Hello! My name is Brittany Mangelson and I serve as my denomination's social media specialist as well as a pastor in Salt Lake City. My local context is largely exMormons who are really jaded on organized religion, especially anything that smells or looks like Christian Nationalism (an understandable concern...me too!) We're extremely progressive and have a big tent of progressive beliefs and progressive values. We primarily see the gospel through the lens of liberation theology and contemplative practices. This all spilled over into the online world and more and more, I am realizing the need for something to break and stop the doom scroll that myself and my congregation are used to doing.

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Use this space to share something you do/are working on that you'd consider digital ministry or contemplative practice—or both! I would give examples but I don't want to limit your imaginations! If it's possible to share through the various mediums this Padlet allows, go for it!

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Hello,

I'm Zana. It was lovely to connect with you all yesterday. Thank you for this space rose, I can already tell it will be transformative for me.

I am a writer, public health researcher, and a Kenyan. I was raised Catholic and have since explored multiple Christian groups, including Pentecostal churches and the United Church of Christ. I also engage in aspects of my cultural group's traditional spiritual practices. I describe my spiritual beliefs as largely syncretic, though I remain a follower of Christ. I conceptualize my ministry and its corresponding context and community in three strands.

Strand 1: Ministry - personal, Context: one-on-one, Community: family, friends, near-acquaintances. I have always been the churchy and/or spiritual person whom people came to for spiritual advice, prayer, and support. My friends have considered me a guide of sorts over the years, though I don't have formal training and always share that disclaimer.

Strand 2: Ministry - professional, Context: public health research, Community: public health students, educators, researchers. Over the past 5 years or so, the overlap between my faith and work has become more explicit. My public health research began to incorporate the faith-based context, specifically examining the role that faith-based organizations play in health systems. I also sit on the board of a faith-based non-profit. I am perceived as a faith-based expert of sorts in the public health context, and I am still orienting myself to what that means.

Strand 3: Ministry - public, Context: digital (Substack, Instagram, Threads), Community: social media friends

Over the past three years or so, I've started sharing more about my beliefs, musings, and how I perceive the Divine showing up in my life. I started on my IG stories. And about a year ago, I started a Substack. I write broadly, about things I want to say regarding any topic. My personal essays feel like testimonies about how I navigated a given thing. I sprinkle in my core takeaways, which adds an instructional element.

When I imagine engaging in ministry in contemplative ways, I imagine ritual (sharing with a relatively structured cadence, and/or sharing by theme or developing series of sorts), vulnerability (using my personal narrative as an opening to instruction/guidance), and not being prescriptive (having a loose enough tone that feels like an invitation rather than a "should"). Most importantly, I imagine honesty and truth-telling; an acknowledgement of the history of Christianity, including the systemic harms caused along the way.

I hope that digital ministry makes it possible for me and my community to be willing and able to slow down, think deeply, and think freely (i.e. to dream and imagine new ways of living, doing, loving). I look forward to learning with you all!

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I’m Lisa Jo and I’m a United Methodist pastor in New Mexico and Colorado. I’m also a spiritual director interested in creative expression and nature. I missed the first meeting because I lost the link.

Neither of my churches have a digital presence. I thought this might be interesting after being in a program that had difficulty with contemplation in a digital space.

Hope to see you next week!

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Hi, I'm Jane and I'm UK based so taking this course in the early hours of the morning. I belong in two church congregations: an evangelical free church that meets in a shopping centre unit and a tiny house church that meets mid-week where I am exploring and growing my teaching and preaching skills. For the last year or two I have also been part of an online community of contemplative women.

I worked for many years teaching software engineering to university students and since stepping away from from this I am studying for an MA in digital theology. I don't know what the next step will be on my journey but it increasingly looks like something in the blend of church and computer.

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I'm Joanne and I've been serving the United Methodist Church of Martha's Vineyard since July 2023. Currently our online presence is a semi-neglected website, a Facebook page (also semi-neglected), and two Instagram accounts: one for our church and one for our clothing ministry. We know we need a better online presence, but we don't have the people with the time and the skills to maintain the various elements. We don't have the technology to live stream right now, but we'd like to at least record the weekly sermons to post on our website.

The Island has a reputation of being a playground for the rich, but until recently, Duke's County MA (Martha's Vineyard) was the poorest county in the state. Now it is the second poorest. Addiction, homelessness, food insecurity, and poverty, lack of affordable housing are some of the challenges we face here. We also have a significant immigrant population, mostly Brazilian. Faith communities and other justice oriented organizations are doing our best to support and protect our immigrant neighbors from ICE.

I'm still discerning what a contemplative digital ministry would look like in this community, and what it might make possible. I'm hoping that we can create something that would be an uplifting alternative to the outrage machine that is social media. I'm hoping for an online an experience that is unhurried and non-transactional, and a space where people can embrace their true identity as beloved children of God.

I've been following rose's work for years now, and had the privilege of taking several classes together at seminary.

So glad to be here with y'all!

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Hello, I'm Christin. I serve on the Communications team at my denomination's international headquarters. As a progressive religion we are seeing our numbers shrink and the ages of our members rise. We need to take action to ensure that our ministry will continue and social media is an important partner in that plan. We have websites, fb, insta and threads but should probably use tik tok as well. I'm interested to know other people's experience with social media in their churches-what works well and what doesn't.

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Hi, I’m Jillian (she/her)! I’m a lifelong Christian newly received into the Episcopal Church. I live in Rhode Island, where I run a studio called Blanket Fort Creative. We mainly focus on film, photography, and other image-making, as I’ve been a documentary filmmaker for 18 years. I teach workshops and host mini creative retreats.

My dad is the filmmaker who trained me, and he taught me “the film is a prayer.” Many of my films are for ministries and non-profits, and regardless of the subject matter, filmmaking is a lot of how I pray my way through the world and also how I pray for the communities that hire me or with which I intersect.

I’m about to take on a potentially enormous social media storytelling initiative for the Episcopal Diocese of RI. I was working on that proposal when Rose mentioned this class, and I recognized the synchronicity. I want to approach this diocesan initiative as a form of community care and digital ministry, and I need both better personal practices and some reinforced hope that this is actually possible. Social media has felt so shallow, dis-eased, transactional, and frenetic to me lately, and it feels daunting to try to build a body of meaningful work there. Am I building on sand? The films and other media we make will also become part of a public story archive; there may be other "clearings" I can populate with these stories as well. I want to learn my options and better form my own digital disciplines, so that I can better lead my clients in the "wilderness" -- and breathe deeply while doing so.

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Thanks to Demarius in breakout room 4 for this question!

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The Center for Humane Technology would be a great place to start researching for those interested in answering this question.

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We’re a nonprofit exposing the negative effects of persuasive technology and social media and empowering people to take action. Discover The Social Dilemma, our podcast, course, and more.

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I also recommend the work of Carole Cadwalladr (her Substack "How to Survive the Broligarchy" is good but chilling...you've been warned.) This TedTalk is a sobering one about the political realities behind what is happening in the world of tech

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This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED

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Hi! Looking to crowdsource something I'm wrestling with. I recently moved to Substack, largely in part because my client marketing work is in Mailchimp, where my newsletters lived too--and it was too much trying to log in for personal vs work reasons. But my client saw me as a guinea pig for substack, and when I told her I was enjoying the move and that it was helpful having separation between work and writing, she then asked me to mock up a Substack for her (that I'd be running), to use passively as a blog-type space. I don't feel like I can say no, so I'm trying to troubleshoot how to at least feel like there is separation even though it is the same platform I now use. I keep putting it off. Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!

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My name is Bo Dautruche (she/her pronouns). I am a Brooklyn born, raised, and based afro descendant by way of Haiti. My ministry involves many things, mostly the use of language in reality creation. I am also interested in process, death, and connection which has led me on a path of writing, research, death doula training, and yoga-teacher training. My practice Cxlture Vxlture is an explorative and speculative practice that focuses on communications importance in reality creation. As I continue to connect the different parts of myself and my practice (back) together, I'm hoping this digital ministry course unearths how to connect vs perform online.

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Hi all, I am Coburn (he/him), and I'm participating from the Pacific Northwest. I am a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, as well as a mystic universalist (with a particular affinity for the Christ), and a creator/artist/imaginative thinker.

I have been mostly absent from social media for the last few years, but as I have grown my practice, I have felt the pull to get back into the digital space with a website and digital presence for my practice, MYST Psychotherapy. My aim is to create and hold space in the digital world for community, specifically with creators and healers.

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I use the following to maintain boundaries between different things:

different email address and log-in

coupled with using different browsers eg chrome, firefox, edge etc usually with different colour schemes

So my suggestion would be to set up an email address to use for your client(s) work, then create a substack account linked to that email and then use a different browser just for that email address / substack account eg if you usually use firefox only look at the new email address/substack account on a chrome browser and choose a chrome browser colour scheme which is distinct to your usual colour scheme.

This should then actively separate your personal substack usage from that for your client with the differences in colours acting as a visual prompt for where you are.

At the end your working day for the client you can then close your client specific browser and only reopen when you start work for them again.

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Hi! I'm eager to learn about effective tools that help minimize distractions and interruptions while online. For example, I love using the internet browser Brave because it does a good job at reducing pop ups and ads. Any other suggestions?

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A good source of information surveillance capitalism and practices for opting out across your digital tech use—what I like about them is that they care about liberation and justice!

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Liberatory Strategy + Tech Justice for our expansive world

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These daily meditations from Maria Bowler are amazing. This one made me think of this class even more than the rest: https://mariabowler.substack.com/p/the-world-doesnt-need-necessarily

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The world doesn’t need necessarily your art

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Rewatching week 2, it reminded me of the feelings I felt in reading glitch feminism for the first time. Specifically thinking of fragments and finding ourselves and/or various pieces of ourselves that we may see reflected offline and/or is discarded or whathaveyou, I think understanding the digital space as a place of reminding us of ourselves and much as remembering we aren't alone. Anywho, I think it would be a great read!

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In 2013, I coined the term Glitch Feminism and began producing scholarship surrounding this socio-techno construct of gender and sexuality.

First published as an item forThe Society Pages, and then later expanded upon in a commission for Rhizome, The Glitch Feminist Manifesto observes:

"In a society that conditions the public to find discomfort or outright fear in the errors and malfunctions of our socio-cultural mechanics-illicitly and implicitly encouraging an ethos of "Don't rock the boat!"-a "glitch" becomes an apt metonym. Glitch Feminism, however, embraces the causality of "error", and turns the gloomy implication of glitch on its ear by acknowledging that an error in a social system that has already been disturbed by economic, racial, social, sexual, and cultural stratification and the imperialist wrecking-ball of globalization-processes that continue to enact violence on all bodies-may not, in fact, be an error at all, but rather a much-needed erratum. This glitch is a correction to the "machine", and, in turn, a positive departure." (L. Russell, The Society Pages, 2013)

To read more about Glitch Feminism, please refer to the articles embedded in the publication titles above.

--

My "Glitch Feminism Manifesto" was first published in 2013, commissioned by digital theorist Nathan Jurgenson for The Society Pages, and then later expanded into a short essay as a commission for new media art publication Rhizome. In the spring of 2013 my paper on Glitch Feminism was accepted into University of Sussex's "Queer Feminist Social Media Praxis Symposium" and in the fall of 2013 my paper was also accepted into University of Surrey's "Corporeal Computing: A Performative Archaeology of Digital Gesture" conference. Since then Glitch Feminism has gone viral, included in feminist art history syllabi at a variety of institutions such as The Cortauld Institute of Art (UK), The Royal Academy (UK), Evergreen State College (US), University of California at Santa Cruz (US), and beyond. It has also been included in publications and productions put forward by Res. (UK), Kingston University (UK), The Photographers' Gallery (UK), Stockholm University (SW) University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), Boston University (US), McGill University (Canada), and more. I've lectured and participated in panels speaking on Glitch Feminism at the " Theorizing the Web" conference in New York City (2015); the Institute of Contemporary Art in London (2015); Arcadia University (2017); Castlefield Gallery (2017), London School of Economics (2017), Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (2018), and more.

Glitch Feminism the book was published Verso September 2020.
ClickHERE to order your copy :)

--

On #GLITCHFEMINISM and The Glitch Feminism Manifesto

--

I have had the honour of speaking at several universities and conferences regarding this topic. Please see below for select videos of some of my presentations.

--

This conversation is ongoing; it's been wonderful to see Glitch Feminism become part of a larger academic dialogue internationally. If you would like to join the discussion, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. If you have relevant links or articles to share that integrate Glitch Feminism, please feel free to Tweet @legacyrussell using the hashtag #GLITCHFEMINISM.

Many thanks.

Listen to GLITCH SHORTS @ ICA London

RECENTLY GLITCHED!

Eyebeam, NYC

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

MAPPING FESTIVAL 2018

REWIRE 2018

SVA

IMPAKT 2018

BOT CLUB

IMAGE CREDIT: Legacy Russell, Screen still from "#GLITCHFEMINISM", Video Essay, 2018.

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In 2013, I coined the term Glitch Feminism and began producing scholarship surrounding this socio-techno construct of gender and sexuality.

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Sabbath as Resistance, New Edition with Study Guide - WJK Books

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In this new edition that includes a six-session study guide, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Brueggemann calls out our 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and

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Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity: Dalton-Smith, Dr. Saundra: 9781478921684: Amazon.com: Books

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Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity [Dalton-Smith, Dr. Saundra] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity

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Affirmation: Metrics & productivity aren’t everything – resonance isn’t either; although it’s closer–it’s what I value in writing. Writing that makes you say “mmm” or “me too” is what I want to read and to write myself. But I’ll write it for myself first. And I’ll rest first first first.

Practices: journaling, rest both actively (movement) and passively (stillness), prioritizing taking care of my health

This was one of the "sections" I made in my rule of life, and as we've talked about rest tonight, I added beneath the practices a list of what extended rest could look like in each season (winter, spring, summer, fall) and that's really sticking with me tonight.

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literary collections / american / african american

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social science/lgbtq+ studies - lesbian studies

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literary collections / american / african american

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social science / ethnic studies / american / african american studies

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social science / feminism & feminist theory

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social science / lgbt studies / lesbian studies

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