I have had an amazing life journey, growing up in poverty with many hard experiences, including having to leave home and find my way when I was a junior in high school. After my children were born I went to college, then seminary, then earned a PhD in theology. I’m ordained in the United Methodist Church, served as a professor for eleven years at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, and as Dean and Professor of Missional and Pastoral Theology at Duke Divinity School, Duke University. I retired from Duke to lead Neighborhood Seminary, which I co-founded with several friends.   

I live with my spouse at Spring Forest, a new monastic community in rural North Carolina, where along with friends we tend a forest and small farm. Spring Forest supports refugee resettlement through sponsorships, temporary housing, and an ESL program. We also donate fresh produce to refugee families, host a range of spiritual formation ministries, children’s programs, and much more. I serve as Abbess for our our gathered and dispersed community.

Pat Watkins is an ordained elder and member of the VA Conference of the UMC.   He was formerly a missionary working for the UMC General Board of Global Ministries as our first “Missionary for the Care of God’s Creation.”  His mission position involved integrating care for God’s creation into the greater overall global ministry of the church.  He understands the connections between poverty, disease, environment, and violence to be intimately related.   Currently he is part of the leadership team for the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement.  Pat tries to live out his passion for God’s creation by living his life in such a way as to make a smaller footprint on God’s earth.  His passion is to raise the awareness, particularly among people of faith, that there is a connection between faith and a responsibility to care for and heal God’s creation.  Pat is retired and currently lives in a small passive solar net zero home in Pittsboro NC.

I live with my spouse at Spring Forest, a new monastic community in rural North Carolina, where along with friends we tend a forest and small farm. Spring Forest supports refugee resettlement through sponsorships, temporary housing, and an ESL program. We also donate fresh produce to refugee families, host a range of spiritual formation ministries, children’s programs, and much more. I serve as Abbess for our our gathered and dispersed community.