Liberating Church: 21st Century Hush Harbors

“What if the decline of participation in organized religion in the US is due to the institutional church’s captivity to what the abolitionist Frederick Douglass called “slaveholding religion”? The Liberating Church project seeks to amplify, equip, and mobilize expressions of innovative and decolonized Christian community in the US through the example of the antebellum hush harbors led by enslaved Africans. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Brandon Wrencher The Good Neighbor Movement Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

Hush harbors were secret meetings, often in the wilderness, where enslaved Africans would gather to worship and organize for personal and political transformation. In the hush harbors communities, enslaved Africans blended their native religious beliefs and practices with Christianity. From the hush harbors emerged the Spirituals, Underground Railroad, slave rebellions, and the Black Church. The hush harbors were revolutionary decolonizing monastic missional communities. Virtually overlooked when interrogating what faithful Christian community entails in the US, the hush harbors are a needed witness to cultivate new liberating expressions of church for these spiritually and politically volatile times. I will engage in historical research on hush harbors to distill their essential characteristics. I will visit contemporary sites amongst marginalized communities to assess their alignment with the essential characteristics of the hush harbors. I will share my findings through a book, curriculum, and workshops with hopes to cultivate more varieties of hush harbor spaces of spiritual and political organizing for liberation and healing to midwife the beloved community!

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
Liberating Church: A Twenty-First Century Hush Harbor Manifesto 2022 Book Brandon Wrencher