Dr. Ellen Davis spends most of her waking hours writing and teaching (or getting ready to write and teach) about the Bible in ways that may illuminate the difficulties and beauties of being human. Those difficulties may be personal (getting along with our neighbors), spiritual (getting along with God), or public and global (climate change, interfaith relations). Her latest book, Opening Israel’s Scriptures, was published in 2019. She is currently collaborating with professional dancers, musicians, and painter Makoto Fujimura on interpreting the Psalms through the arts.

We read these stories over and over again not because we think they’ll turn out differently but because we find ourselves in the stories and we get a glimpse in them of what we can bear.

God's evolving call in the Rev. Lisa Anderson’s life has led her from pediatric chaplaincy and parish ministry to caring for those experiencing homelessness. As founding director of Room in the Inn-Memphis and pastor of Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Anderson lives each day in an atmosphere of holy hospitality. She experiences being welcomed into the lives of people who are living unsheltered as a sacred gift. Through the Room in the Inn, Anderson oversees an ecumenical network of congregations who welcome strangers and experience the incredible joy this service brings to each community of faith. As places of worship in Memphis open their doors in reaction to God's call to justice, love flows in all directions.

Rabbi Katie Bauman serves as the senior rabbi of Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bauman was blessed to spend the first ten years of her rabbinate at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee, where she focused on worship renewal, youth and adult education, young adult engagement, and counseling and pastoral care as an assistant and then associate rabbi. Along with her Temple Israel work, Rabbi Bauman was the founding chairperson of MICAH, Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, and was a passionate advocate for social justice as described by the Hebrew prophets. Bauman’s sense of purpose as a rabbi is derived from the experiences of revelation she has encountered through relationships across lines of difference. She believes that our capacity to bring healing and wholeness to the world is predicated on our ability to trust and love each other. Her work inside the synagogue and beyond is inspired by and devoted to bringing people into authentic and even courageous relationships with one another, believing that holiness springs from that place.

The Rev. Rufus Smith IV is the senior pastor of Hope Church (EPC) in Memphis. He joined Hope’s staff in September 2010 and became senior pastor in 2013. Under Smith’s leadership, Hope has transitioned from a predominantly Caucasian church to a multi-ethnic, multi-generational congregation. In 2016, he founded the Memphis Christian Pastor’s Network (MCPN), an ethnically and denominationally diverse clergy-only network that builds trust and broadens impact via candid conversation and collaboration. The MCPN works to reduce economic disparity in Memphis. Smith was born in Houston, TX and for 12 years served as the senior pastor of The City of Refuge (COR) Presbyterian Church. He founded The FORGE for Families (FFF), a CDC that empowers underserved neighbors in the greater 3rd Ward community in Houston. In addition, he was for three years the lead chaplain for the NBA Houston Rockets. Crazy about baseball, reading, and walking, his real claim to fame is his wife of 36 years, Jacqueline, and their three children: Ruth Abigail, Rufus V, and Rhoda Anna.

Rabbi Katie Bauman serves as the senior rabbi of Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bauman was blessed to spend the first ten years of her rabbinate at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee, where she focused on worship renewal, youth and adult education, young adult engagement, and counseling and pastoral care as an assistant and then associate rabbi.

She is interviewed by the Rev. Katherine Bush, associate rector at Calvary.

Jesus taught that God isn’t waiting to wreak havoc on people who go astray, but there is an urgency to our lives, and we may have to change course to find the abundant life we were made for.

Dr. Nichols, a native of Memphis, TN, is the organizing pastor of Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church (DOC). Following the death of a childhood friend, Dr. Nichols created A More Excellent Way, Inc., an organization with a mission to help individuals from all walks of life to enter into, engage in, and maintain spiritually healthy relationships while eliminating relationship violence. She is a founding member of MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope) and serves as Inter-Faith Officer for MIFA (Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association). She has been a visiting professor in Gweru, Zimbabwe, a church planter throughout China, and a Holy Land pilgrim. Dr. Nichols’s deepest passions are transformational teaching and working with others to seek justice, love, and mercy.

The Rev. Joshua Narcisse is a proud native of Queens, NY, who now calls Memphis home. He is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a co-host of “The Mystic,” a monthly discussion forum on spirituality, faith, and meaning hosted at Crosstown Concourse. He currently serves as director of spiritual care at Church Health, a faith-based healthcare organization caring for the uninsured and underserved in Memphis. There he offers pastoral and spiritual support to staff and patients and coordinates interreligious programming. He is interested in the intersection of the Black church and Mysticism traditions; he is a fan of Howard Thurman, Barbara Holmes, and Richard Rohr. Narcisse is motivated by the possibilities within life-giving and God-honoring human relationships and our broader connectedness to all creation.

Pádraig Ó Tuama’s interests lie in language, violence, and religion. Having grown up in a place that has a long history of all three (Ireland, yes, but also Europe) he finds that language might be the most redeeming of all three of these. In language, there is the possibility of vulnerability, of surprise, of the creative movement towards something as yet unseen. He is inspired by any artist of words: from Krista Tippett to Lucille Clifton; from Patrick Kavanagh to Emily Dickinson; from Lorna Goodison to Arundhati Roy. Ó Tuama loves words — words that open up the mind, the heart, the life. For instance — poem: a created thing.