LAFAYETTE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

In the Pulpit - This Sunday, November 9

Rev. Sophia Jackson

 

Sophia Jackson is a graduate of Pacific School of Religion where she earned her Master of Divinity and Certificate of Spirituality and Social Change. She is a member of First Christian Church of Alameda and City of Refuge UCC. Sophia is currently the Moderator for the Bay Association in the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ and clergy lead for WOSA (Women of Spirit Action), a women’s ministry group in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. Sophia is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples). She has served as a Chaplain Intern at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, interim pastor of New Community of Faith in San Jose California, and she preaches as pulpit supply in the Episcopal church, as well as the United Church of Christ; her hope is to one day become a Prison Chaplain. Sophia is founder of Phoenix Outreach, a Recovery and Re-entry program designed to assist those most impacted by incarceration who are seeking change and transformation.

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As a formerly incarcerated and substance involved individual, Sophia, as a member in two denominations realized that there was a void in the work of the church regarding  how the Church at large was responding to the blight that the Prison Industrial Complex is having on Black and Brown men, women, and youth; while on her journey in answering God’s call to ministry, she found that prison ministry was more than just a “call”, it was/is a passion. She discovered that places where people gather around values and shared identity are also places where we can extend belongingness, but she noticed that there was a disparity in how churches were not representative of what they were saying, especially as it related to how prison and jail have long been separating families. She also realized that this in fact meant there are people, like her, missing from the Table, which is where we remember the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in many congregations across all denominations.

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Sophia believes that because congregations are meaningful to the community, these spaces can be leveraged to reduce violence against marginalized populations in order to dismantle the systemic injustices that occur in these communities. In her work Sophia seeks to assist churches in widening the circle of their concern in order for them to build bridges across difference so that the practice of Restorative Justice can begin to create the change we wish to see manifested in this world.

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Sophia knows and believes that incredible transformation can and will occur when powerful partnerships between community activists, law enforcement, city officials, and social service providers are nurtured by leaders of all faith paths so that God’s Beloved Community can be established NOW.