Faith Firestarter
Founder and Executive Director, Faith Matters Network
Nashville, TN
@revjenbailey
Instagram
Personal Website
TOPICS
Race
Democracy
Leadership
Gender
Faith
Reverend Jen Bailey is a critical thread in the fabric of the multi-faith, multi-racial movement for justice in this country at this critical moment. An ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, this is a woman who knows how to testify and gather. Whether she’s healing the healers through the Faith Matters Network she founded and leads, or emboldening people to talk across differences through The People’s Supper, which she co-founded–she embodies depth at scale. She is also a highly awarded organizer and thinker–an Ashoka fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being fellow, and Truman Scholar.
Jen is a sought-after speaker on religion and public life, gracing stages at the Obama Summit, Makers, TEDx, and the White House. Her beautiful book, To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss, and Radical Hope, conveys the power of our generational inheritance–both wound and wisdom–and points a gentle way forward.
Because our trauma is political, our healing must be as well. It is not adjacent to our cries for justice. Healing is the work of justice. People of color engaging in the act of loving themselves, fully, in a society that deems them disposable is indeed both countercultural and revolutionary.