Central to this project is a rootedness in location. Charlottesville is home to one of the most influential research universities in the south, the University of Virginia. More recently, Charlottesville has become central in conversations about race in America. It is a UN resettlement location, which means that hundreds of refugees from around the world arrive in our small town each year. Lastly, just outside of town is Innisfree Village, which brings individuals with disabilities from nearby DC and Richmond to our small town for extended care; our church works extensively to bring adults with physical and intellectual disabilities to worship each week.

In short, our small Charlottesville town of roughly 40,000 people is a unique meeting place of undergraduates and scholars, international students and researchers, black, white, and latino southerners, immigrants and refugees, and people of all abilities. I work as the Director for Worship at a church of 2,000 people, which makes our church a microcosm of that reality, representing about five percent of the city's population each Sunday morning in worship. It is for this reason that my church has approved a 12-week study leave so that I might make a series of site visits and have a series of conversations with communities that have demonstrated sustained success in these areas, including the worshiping community of Taize, several communities of L'Arche, and the Green Olive Arts community in Morocco. This pastoral study project is intended to precede a Collaborative Inquiry Project which we intend to begin in my Charlottesville community in 2019. Broadly speaking, this project will stand at the intersection of scholarship, local congregational ministry, and service to the church at large through my additional work as Director of Bifrost Arts, creating worship resources for churches all around the country.