Role: Faith Initiative Coordinator
Reports to: Faith Initiative Director
FLSA Status: Hourly, Part-time, Non-Exempt (20-29 hours)
Location: Tuesdays and Saturdays on-site with some flexibility to work remotely on other days
Faith Initiative Overview:
Grace Farms Foundation aspires to advance good in the world, providing a peaceful respite and porous platform to experience nature, encounter the arts, pursue justice, foster community, and explore faith. The Faith Initiative offers opportunities for dialogue and reflection to explore the shape of flourishing life.
The great treasure of the Faith Initiative is our question: What is the shape of flourishing life? This question is the most important of our lives. As human beings, we are purposive creatures; everything we do is aimed at something we judge worthy of our humanity.
The problem is that we can be fundamentally deceived about the shape of flourishing life: deceived by systemic moral psychologies like white supremacy, patriarchy, and anthropocentrism; deceived by moral myopathy that gives disproportionate weight to our own experiences and viewpoints; deceived by moral lethargy that resists the thought that our humanity might demand so much of us; deceived by moral masochism that rejects the possibility that some aspect of flourishing life might lie close at hand.
The result is that we need spaces to reflect and discern together the shape of flourishing life in one another's presence in the company of wisdom gleaned from the breadth of human experience. The Grace Farms Faith Initiative offers these sorts of spaces to the public (through the seven-week "Life Worth Living" course, the self-guided "River Retreat," daily engagements, and other public programming), to chaplains (through curricular development with the US Army chaplain corps), to educators (through annual pedagogy workshops and retreats in partnership with the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools), and to students (through social and emotional learning field trips).
The Faith Initiative at Grace Farms is not meant only for those who identify with a particular religious faith or a particular philosophy. All are welcome-and all are necessary-to advance this conversation. We each have our own importantly different visions of flourishing life and these visions are a crucial part of any work we might want to do together.
As we discern together, we inevitably disagree. In the Faith Initiative, we don't want to hide or deny this. Rather, we enter into dialogue in order to discern together the sorts of lives we take to be worthy of our shared humanity. Knowing our vision is always limited, humbly holding our insights with open hands, we nevertheless seek to act courageously in the urgency of the moment.
The Role:
To further this work, we are looking for a Faith Initiative Coordinator to support the Faith Initiative Director and the work of Grace Farms Foundation. The Faith Initiative Coordinator is a thought-partner and collaborator in designing and facilitating public programming, which includes but is not limited to daily engagements, field trips, workshops, retreats, and public conversations.
Key Responsibilities:
In this role, you will advance the mission of the Foundation by supporting work in the following distinct areas:
- Writing, Research, and Content Creation
- Along with the Faith Initiative Director, design half-day and full-day social emotional learning field trips for middle- and high-school students inspired by the Life Worth Living curriculum.
- Along with the Faith Initiative Director, curate and write curriculum related to Life Worth Living for both the general public and middle- and high-school students.
- Research trends and keep current in areas including middle- and high-school education, social emotional learning, interfaith dialogue, religious and philosophical inquiry, and good-life exploration.
- Programming
- Facilitate daily visitor engagements, Life Worth Living social and emotional learning field trips, Life Worth Living Workshops and Retreats, and other Life Worth Living programming, including dinner conversations and moderated discussion panels.
- Assist in planning and executing events in collaboration with the Design for Freedom Movement, Advancement team, Arts Initiative, and Education team.
- Create a welcoming and friendly environment where program participants receive prompt, efficient and pleasant attention, whether it be in person, on the phone or via email.
- Administration
- Support the Faith Initiative Director with preparation for internal and external events, including workshops and retreats, meetings, and both public and private events.
- Organize the Faith Initiative team throughout the week and send weekly updates to the Faith Initiative Director.
- Connect with internal teams including Marketing, Communications, Events, and Advancement.
- Provide support to cultivate relationships with mission-aligned organizations, industry leaders, and external partners, including the US Army Chaplains, Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, and others.
Qualifications
- Willingness to be a thought partner and collaborator with colleagues from across diverse sectors.
- Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills with exceptional attention to detail.
- Experience in teaching.
- Ability to facilitate dialogue across enduring lines of difference to diverse groups of people (ages, experiences, religious and philosophical traditions).
- Interfaith competency - rootedness in a particular tradition, with an openness to exploring a variety of perspectives.
- Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and thrive in a nimble, fast-paced and collaborative environment.
- A depth of experience in spiritual and religious leadership, including the ability to teach, create and facilitate dynamic programming, and collaborate across diverse communities, within and between distinct religious traditions
- Experience designing and facilitating programming
- Demonstrated effectiveness in framing discussions and facilitating difficult dialogues across difference.
- Demonstrated personal character traits of integrity, maturity, collegiality and a deep commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity.
- Thoughtful spiritual and theological insight and an ability to integrate spirituality and scholarly engagement.
- Enthusiasm and capacity for working imaginatively with people of diverse cultural backgrounds and religious, spiritual, and ethical traditions.
- Knowledge of multiple religious traditions and a depth of multi faith experience.
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on a team and across diverse departments.
- Ability to work independently, complete assignments, accomplish administrative tasks, and exercise sound judgment in determining priorities.
Education & Experience
- Minimum of 5 years' experience. Combination of education and relevant experience will be considered in lieu of minimum work experience.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel) and Adobe Acrobat
Compensation range based on experience $27 to $30 per hour.
Grace Farms Overview
Grace Farms is a center for culture and collaboration in New Canaan, Connecticut. We bring together people across sectors to explore nature, arts, justice, community, and faith at the SANAA-designed River building, situated on 80 acres of natural landscapes. Our humanitarian work to end modern slavery and foster more grace and peace in our local and global communities includes leading the Design for Freedom movement to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain.
Learn more about our internationally-acclaimed architecture, news about our humanitarian work, and Grace Farms' leadership.
Grace Farms is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.