Solidarity Circles Seek to Build Faith-Based Collaborative Economy

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A United Methodist Insight Feature

What if a group of leaders from different walks of life committed themselves to finding ways to build more collaborative, fairer, more equitable economics? What if they worked together in a virtual peer-to-peer network to confront challenges and learn from one another's experiences?

Those "what-ifs" come together in Solidarity Circles, a program of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. According to the divinity school website, the Wendland-Cook Program is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on justice issues "that arise at the intersection of religion, economics, and ecology." The program was founded in 2019 by a United Methodist scholar, the Rev. Joerg Rieger, Ph.D., and is supported by noted United Methodist author and benefactor Barbara Wendland of Temple, Texas.

Wendland-Cook aims "to develop resources and opportunities for students, scholars, clergy, and activists to envision and create a more just and sustainable world for all." In keeping with those overall objectives, Solidarity Circles rests on a global movement known as the Solidarity Economy that seeks "to build a just and sustainable economy where we prioritize people and the planet over endless profit and growth. Growing out of social movements in Latin America and the Global South, the solidarity economy provides real alternatives to capitalism, where communities govern themselves through participatory democracy, cooperative and public ownership, and a culture of solidarity and respect for the earth."

Now in its third year, Solidarity Circles can be described as a "leadership" curriculum, but it's more than traditional learning and leading methods, said its director, the Rev. Dr. Aaron Stauffer.

"We bring together clergy, faith leaders and organizers who find themselves hungry for communities of practice and learning," Dr. Stauffer told United Methodist Insight in an online interview.

In surveying about 100 pastors over two years, Dr. Stauffer said he and Dr. Rieger discovered that clergy were "over-resourced" with Bible studies and theological resources. Instead, they lacked "communities of practice" that could "walk alongside them" as they tried to engage and energize their institutions.

At its core, Solidarity Circles offers "a laboratory for change-making," Dr. Stauffer said.

The inclusion of businesspeople, labor organizers and non-profit leaders in Solidarity Circles aims to spread its collaborative methods and results into society beyond the church and the academy, Dr. Stauffer said. Rather than hoard their knowledge as is prevalent in a capitalist model, Solidarity Circle participants are encouraged to share their experiences to benefit others and to engage in mutual ways of self-governance.

The Rev. Larissa Romero, a member of Solidary Circles' 2022 cohort, said she found her experience got her thinking specifically about the ways that class and economics can obstruct churches and faith groups from creating movements for needed change.

"A lot of church work is organizing systems of people to move forward in particular ways," she told Insight in an online interview. "Solidarity Circles looks at how it can be done healthily and collaboratively. We looked at the similarities between non-profit or faith-based groups and labor groups and how they use similar ways to get organizations to move forward."

Originally ordained in the Reformed Church in America and now serving a United Church of Christ congregation in Denver, Rev. Romero contrasted Solidarity Circles with seminary using a metaphor from the Rev. Sarah Juist, a pastor and writer in west Michigan.

"Seminary is really like a culinary school where you learn how to make incredible meals, but then as a pastor each day you're trying to figure out what to make with the ingredients you have available," she said. "Even if you have field work or clinical pastoral education in seminary, it still doesn't train you in how organizations work."

In contrast, Solidarity Circles seek to bring pastors together with "people who have failed similarly to you, but who have found solutions," Rev. Romero said. "You learn from one another."

Each Solidarity Circle meets virtually once a month for 90 minutes. Conversations start with an assignment from Dr. Stauffer, but always include discussions around members' projects.

"You're encouraged to come in with an idea for a project," Rev. Romero said. "The Presbyterian congregation I was serving in Nashville at the time was going through a discernment about what to do with its historic building that was eating up resources. I was able to bring that project to the Solidarity Circle and ask what it would look like for the church to change."

Dr. Stauffer said, "Once you are in the rough-and-tumble of ministry you begin asking different questions. Those questions arise from doing the work as it exists now. The work of ministry looks different from even 10 years ago, so theological education has to be adaptive, and Solidarity Circles are adaptive. Each iteration is different from what came before."

Topics that previous Solidarity Circles tackled included questions of business integrity, United Methodist disaffiliation issues, and the contexts of participants' working situations, Dr. Stauffer said. "It's relational ministry, learning how deep and real the crises are."

Rev. Romero said she sees Solidary Circles as an education in "how you use power."

"Seminary education can sometimes breed an attitude of savior-ism, as 'I know best and I know how to handle the problem,'" Rev. Romero said. "Solidarity Circles explicitly focus on class and the ways in which you use power."

She cited Jesus as her leadership model.

"Everything Jesus talks about, it doesn't exist in a vacuum," Rev. Romero said. "Jesus operates in the Roman empire, an occupied space. (In Solidarity Circles) you're starting with that understanding of how we effectively live out our faith in a given situation. It's not something talked about outside the charity model."

This year the deadline for applying to Solidarity Circles is Aug. 31, but Dr. Stauffer said he was willing to extend registration beyond that date for Insight readers. Tuition for the nine-month program running from September through July 2024 is $500; scholarships can be arranged.

Click here for more information and to sign up for Solidarity Circles.

Veteran award-winning religion journalist Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, a journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views from and for marginalized and under-served United Methodists. Email Insight for permission to reproduce this article elsewhere.