Rounding Out The Year: FMN’s Impact in 2025
As we close out another transformative year at Faith Matters Network, we find ourselves returning—again and again—to the truth that has guided us from the beginning: healing and justice take root in community. This year, we witnessed faith leaders, activists, and healers show up with courage, tenderness, creativity, and longing. We gathered in circles of grief and joy, learned from one another across faith traditions and practices, tended to the spiritual sustainability of movement leaders, and celebrated milestones that reminds us why this work matters.
Looking back at the programs, retreats, conversations, and collaborations that shaped this year, we see a tapestry woven from countless moments of connection and collective wisdom. This is a reflection of that journey, and an offering of gratitude and hope as we carry the lessons of this year into the next.
Rooted in Resilience
This year’s Rooted in Resilience cohort, nine fellows gathered across two retreats—creating a deeply imaginative and rich learning environment. Participants drew inspiration from one another’s experience as leaders and healers in their communities, sharing generously from their diverse faith traditions, and engaging in spiritual conversations not often welcomed in leadership spaces. Through this journey, the cohort shared their collective desire to reconnect healing justice with the land and how these types of rejuvenating gatherings can continue to be a vital anchor for leaders committed to resilience and liberation across the globe. You can learn more about our 2025 cohort members here.
“I have been thinking a lot about how we define healing and how much learning, unlearning, and relearning it requires. So many of our ideas about justice and wellness come from societal norms that do not actually serve us. I am realizing that healing must be a companion to social justice work because it helps us approach community care in ways that feel meaningful, relevant, and sustainable.” – Tierney Ridley
Spiritual Innovation
Beloved Community
A group of 10 spiritual innovators, representing diverse identities, faith commitments, and locations, gathered each month to discuss the practical wisdom of the Beloved Seeds curriculum and to build community. Over the course of nine months, this cohort celebrated their successes, provided tender support during times of loss, and confronted the challenges of a world in turmoil, all for the sake of living and creating together. By drawing upon the collective wisdom of the group, the spiritual innovators left these meetings feeling restored and empowered to pursue the work their souls must have.
“I have been able to connect with few cohort members consistently and it’s sweet to see them in both the Beloved and FMN sessions”
“The first session with the FMN cohort was filled with joy, the conversations and connections have been valuable.”
Micah Fellows
Micah Fellows’ third cohort launched this year, supporting eight pastors and community leaders in Arkansas who are working to end poverty and champion economic justice in their state. These leaders came together to learn, reflect, and take action through our monthly conversations, retreats, 1:1 support, and a mini-grant to design a project with their local community. The projects had to focus on advocacy, awareness, and building resilience for families known as A.L.I.C.E (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). The fellows used these grants to bring their visions to life– creating new opportunities for their neighbors and sparking important conversations about equity and economic mobility. You can read more about their projects here.
Disciples of Welcome
This year’s Disciples of Welcome welcomed their second cohort of 25 UMC clergy for a 12-month hybrid experience that includes spiritual formation and skill-building sessions on bridging divides and wellness practices as faith leaders. Seeing that congregational leaders are often in need of mutual support and restoration from burnout, our intention was to create a rythym of connection that would remain strong and deeply collaborative with UMC partners. FMN hosted 1:1 spiritual formation sessions, public grief and wellness workshops, and both in-person and virtual gatherings to nourish and resource a community of leaders rooted in resilience, care, and welcome.
Wisdom Learning Journey
This 14-month learning journey began in 2024 with eight women leaders from North Carolina and Pennsylvania who together explored the theme of democracy as a spiritual practice through the education, investment, and community care needed to engage local constituents, especially Black and BIPOC women (who statistically are often under-represented in our country’s democratic process). Participants spent months working together and collaborating on creative projects that encouraged sisterhood and shared responsibility in reimagining a new democratic approach that effectively serves the needs of their communities. This cohort of women birthed three projects during their time together in their focus states– which you can read more about here.
Public Programming
Immigration Justice Now!
Faith Matters Network partnered with The ReMix TN, a Nashville-based community organizing group, to share resources and educate our network of leaders on how communities of faith can act in solidarity during an era of mass deportations. 2025 was the year we witnessed increased hostility and action against our immigrant neighbors under this new administration. We at FMN felt it was important to partner with organizers on the ground in sharing their expertise and offer a framework so that faith communities nationwide can begin mobilizing their own networks in response to this crisis.
Womanism Around The Table
Faith Matters Network launched a new series in the fall, Womanism Around the Table. This bi-monthly virtual gathering centers on Black women’s spiritual innovation in times of trouble and was inspired by the sacred work of protest and the prophetic witness of our ancestors and foremothers. Building on this legacy, this webinar series is meant to explore how womanist wisdom continues to shape our pursuit of justice and collective liberation. Our inaugural conversation, Making a Way Out of No Way, served as a sacred pause on our first year under new leadership and the legacies that sustain us. Stay tuned for out next gathering in February 2026.
