Senior Partner Transition
Join us in welcoming Marchaé to the Senior Partner Team and thanking Monique for leadership!
Many people join the Spiritual Direction Practicum at Still Harbor because they know what spiritual direction is and feel called to integrate spiritual direction into their lives.
I was not one of those people.
I didn’t learn what spiritual direction was until shortly before I applied for the Practicum.
I was sitting at my computer one day, Googling the terms “spirituality and social justice,” and one of the first things that popped up was Still Harbor’s website.
I couldn’t have known that in a few short years, I’d journey from finding Still Harbor in a Google search to introducing myself as a Senior Partner at the organization.
That’s the beautiful thing about Still Harbor. Its leadership knows the inherent value of investing in folks who know they have a calling, but are still in discernment about how that calling will be manifested. Still Harbor is a place for people who are unapologetically curious about spirituality and unapologetically clear about the call to pursue justice in the world.
I’m excited to join the Senior Partner Team at Still Harbor because the Spiritual Direction Practicum and Group Facilitation Immersion were such meaningful containers for my development as a spiritual practitioner. As a Black, queer woman who isn’t ordained, my spiritual leadership is often dismissed in a lot of spaces.
But at Still Harbor, I can bring all of me.
My hope as a senior partner is to ensure that the next generation of activists and healers live into their spiritual gifts, even though these gifts are often overlooked or dismissed.
That’s why it’s especially bittersweet that I’m joining the leadership team as Rev. Monique Harris departs it. Monique wouldn’t let me give up on my spiritual gifts and helped me grow into them. She was my first spiritual director and mentored me as a practicum student. She gave me such a deep sense of belonging just by modeling what it means to be a pro-Black, queer affirming woman in ministry.
On behalf of the many people in the Still Harbor community who have encountered Monique’s wisdom and abundant spirit, I want to thank Monique for her time as a Senior Partner with Still Harbor.
So many of us are better because she came to this work with such love and care. Although she will be maintaining a connection with the Still Harbor community, Monique completed her Senior Partner responsibilities in June. We send her so much love as she moves into the next phase of her calling.
Rev. Perry Dougherty, Lauren Spahn, and I are already digging into our work as a new leadership team, dreaming about what could be and making changes to adapt to the world in this present moment.
Why are you a part of the Still Harbor community? What spiritual work is exciting you, within Still Harbor and beyond?
I’d love to hear from you at marchae@stillharbor.org. I can’t wait to get to know many of you within my new role.
In faith & solidarity,
Marchaé