Peace Community,

We trust this note finds you well! It’s been some time since you’ve heard from us. As individuals, a lot of the core group has been developing and growing in amazing ways. We also name that you are growing and shifting too, and are grateful to bear witness to one another.

As some of y’all may know, the Sister Circle Collective had its first gathering on December 21, 2012. This day marks five years since that moment. Each year we’ve discovered and rediscovered our work and how it has taken varying forms, including and not limiting, herbalism workshops, farm days, writing workshops, venting sessions, celebrations, movement classes, cooking demos, protesting, political campaigns, and campus organizing.

Each time our work took on different forms, so did the the interests of the folks who steer this work. As folks have stepped up, others have stepped down and this level of knowing is one of the reasons you could argue how we’ve made it this far. Yet we’d be lying to you that process has not also been met with pain. That we did not met all the expectations that we had set for ourselves and each other, no matter how well intentioned. Or that were not harmful towards one another. All movement work is messy, no matter the outward appearance, because we are a reflection of the collective.

In sharing these reflections with you, we want to emphasize that there is a need for the collective to stay true to one image in particular – the Phoenix. A symbol of creative energy and beauty, the Phoenix is also a symbol of the power of death and rebirth. At this stage of the game, we are naming that this is a time for the Sister Circle Collective to be reborn. We also name that we invite you all to be a part of that structured process with us.

Creating that structure, including how to accurately foster leadership development so that the collective is sustainable, is our primary focus in 2018. Hosting simple, monthly circles in a community space or home will be our secondary goal. You may catch members throwing down in conferences or events on their own though, and we hope that you’ll share events with this community as well! We’re happy to share out information to this network and support in as many forms as possible.

In the teachings of Octavia Butler, if we are truly to move from a place of understanding that honors God as change, then the SCC is blessed to have changed as much as it has. It will continue to change and grow, but with the guided practice of staying true to our origins. No matter how you’ve shown up in this collective, please known that you are seen, you are loved, and you are appreciated.

New Moon and New Years Blessings,
the SCC