These are some of the organizations, movements, and communities that have influenced the Alternative Seminary and engage in similar work on theological reflection and Christian discipleship and social justice work and witness. Please contact us if you want to suggest other links for this page.
Word and World is a national collaboration that seeks to link the sanctuary, the seminary, and the streets. Through week-long gatherings, each rooted in a different city, this “moveable institute” seeks to provide education, training, and capacity-building for Christian disciples dedicated to the work of social transformation. Its focus includes Bible study, social analysis, worship, poetry and song, community building, public witness, and movement history.
Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries is an ecumenical ministry that promotes gospel practices of mutual aid, reconciliation, Sabbath economics, nonviolence and social justice. It works in areas of theological animation, restorative justice, and Sabbath economics.
The Catholic Worker movement, founded in the 1920s by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, is a network of communities that provide hospitality and works of mercy, engage in prophetic witness, and seek to build “a new community in the shell of the old.” Part of their work is ongoing “clarification of thought,” through reflection groups that engage in social and theological reflection and discernment on a wide range of issues.
Jesus Radicals is a web-based community of Christians exploring Christian anarchism and a belief that the Gospel rejects militarism, capitalism and the state and promotes a message of justice and love.
New Jerusalem Laura is a recovery community in the poor neighborhood of North Philadelphia, that fuses spirituality, community-building, nonviolence, simplicity, and cooperative living, and political consciousness to bring about personal and social transformation.
New Monasticism is a network of Christian communities committed to exploring the marks of discipleship, anchored in church history, to live faithfully in the contemporary world. Connected to the movement is a migratory School for Conversion, which offers provides theological education and practical formation for the sake of conversion into a new way of life.
The Open Door Community in Atlanta, Georgia, is an intentional Christian community of homeless and non-homeless persons engaging in hospitality, works of mercy, prison ministry, prophetic witness, and theological reflection.
Sabbath Economics Collaborative is a national, membership-based network that encourages cooperation and communication among theologians, economists and activists who are working with contemporary issues of faith and economic justice. SEC is committed to promoting an economic reading of the Bible and a biblical reading of the economy with a focus on the theological basis and political implications of the Jubilee/Sabbath tradition for our time, as well as providing resources and networking for persons and organizations involved in faith-based experiments in alternative economic discipleship.
The Servant Leadership School is an ecumenical center for theological reflection and spiritual formation located in Washington, D.C. that seeks to nurture individuals and communities in discipleship.
The Shalom Center is a Jewish peace, justice, and environmentalist organization founded by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 1983. It promotes a range of political, social, and religious issues, including eco-Judaism, interfaith dialogue, peacemaking, and economic justice.
the simple way is a community and a ministry located in a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia, which promotes community and commitment to the loving ways of Jesus.
Sojourners in a Christian ministry founded in 1971 that promotes social justice and peace through Sojourners magazine and other resources. It also launched Call to Renewal, an ecumenical organization committed to building a movement of faith to overcome poverty.