Liberating Church:
A 21st Century Hush Harbor Manifesto
Enter the hush harbors.
During antebellum America, a hush harbor was a place where enslaved African would gather in secret to worship and organize. We working to glean from the wisdom of these antebellum hush harbors to cast a vision for a liberating church in the 21st century.
What the Spirit began in the hush harbors, continues still.
This work of the Spirit is being evidenced through eight marks that were present when our ancestors were gathering and organizing. These marks give us a guide on how to build liberated faith spaces.
“While the plantation church enforced chattel slavery through the racist proof-texting of biblical submission narratives, another Christianity was being born in the antebellum hush harbors.”
— Liberating Church: A 21st Century Hush Harbor Manifesto
Our mission:
We at Liberating Church are working to build a network of communities that exemplify the structural critique and the spiritual power of the hush harbors.
Who we are:
We are a team of pastor-activists who believe that the Antebellum hush harbors reveal a church from the margins. We are on a journey together into 21st century hush harbors places where Christianity is radically liberating, and where we believe the Spirit is most on the move.
We hope to deepen kinship with the church in its riskiest and holiest incarnation, and nurture continued courageous ministry. It is also our hope that the 21st century hush harbors will inspire others to steal away from plantation church, to discover the God waiting among the wild things, bringing risky freedom still.