Process & Faith
Organization
Sheri D. Kling
Director of Process & Faith
Dr. Sheri D. Kling is director of Process & Faith and interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, FL. Sheri earned her Ph.D. in Religion: Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology. She is a theologian, teacher, songwriter and spiritual mentor who draws from wisdom and mystical traditions, relational worldviews, depth psychology, and the intersection of spirituality and science to help people find meaning, belonging, and transformation. Sheri is a faculty member of the Haden Institute, adjunct faculty with Claremont School of Theology, and the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation. She regularly delivers dynamic “Music & Message” presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She may be found online at sherikling.com.
Richard Livingston
Process & Faith IT Specialist
Dr. Richard Livingston is the Executive Director of the Cobb Institute, and a member of the Process & Faith Core Team. He received his PhD in 2015 from Claremont Graduate University, where he specialized in Philosophy of Religion and Theology. Richard taught as an adjunct instructor in philosophy and religious studies at four colleges in Southern California from 2011-2019, and has worked in IT since the early 1990s. He holds a Master’s Degree in Theology from the University of Chicago (2005) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University (2001).
Kathleen Reeves
Process & Faith Core Team Member
The Reverend Kathleen Reeves is the leader of the Spiritual Integration group, and a fundraising and social media consultant at the Cobb Institute as well as a core team member at Process & Faith. She is also a hospice chaplain and bereavement coordinator for a hospice in Riverside, California. She is a writer, artist and published poet. She holds a Master of Divinity in interfaith theology, and is an ordained interfaith minister. She has been active in interfaith peace, and is a member of the Inland Valley Interfaith Working Group for Middle East Peace. She is the President of the Upland Interfaith Council, and has held leadership positions in Unitarian Universalists congregations. Her community interfaith ministry led her to volunteer with Syrian refugees as they settled into their new country. Her deep connection with one special family is captured in her series of stories she wrote for the Huffington Post. She is a student of Japanese tea ceremony through the international Chado Urasenke Tankokai associations of the Urasenke school in Kyoto, Japan. Kathleen has also trained in Restorative Practice, and she follows an earth-based religion and belongs to The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids. She is working on ways to build a process-relational community through small group ministry.
Jared Morningstar
Communications Director
Jared Morningstar is an independent scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue. His work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the “meaning crisis,” among other things. Jared graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018 with degrees in religion and Scandinavian studies and currently works for the Center for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute, and the Psychedelic Medicine Association.
Process & Faith
Process & Faith (P&F) is a multifaith network for relational spirituality and the common good. P&F was founded in 1983 as a program of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology, by faith leaders and theologians who believed that theology grounded in the process thought of philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne makes the most sense of both historical faith and contemporary experience.
Process philosophy and theology offer a comprehensive vision of the world and better hopes for the world, inviting a sense of wonder and a recognition of the sacred, based on the interconnectedness, intrinsic value, and beauty present in all living things. This vision has been incredibly useful for many different religious and spiritual communities, including those who understand themselves as spiritual independents.
Many in the Process & Faith network are influenced by the “organic” philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and the various “process philosophies” and “process theologies” that are indebted to it. The first phase of the Process & Faith movement focused primarily on Christian process theologies. The current phase recognizes many different forms of process or “organic” thinking: Christian, to be sure, but also Buddhist and Native American, Jewish and Muslim, Taoist and Confucian, etc. We explore ideas, forms of spiritual vitality, and healing forms of action for the sake of enriching faith communities.
Our Core Values (Four Hopes)
Whole Persons: We hope that individuals around the world can grow in happiness — a sense of wonder, playfulness, joy, inner peace, compassion, zest for life.
Whole Communities: We hope that people can build local communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, humane to animals, and good for the earth, with no one left behind.
Whole Planet: We hope that the planet as a whole can avoid humanly-imposed disaster and can flourish with multiple forms of life, each with its unique beauty. We want to help people create ecological civilizations that are conducive to the Earth community.
Holistic Thinking: We hope that forms of thinking can emerge that draw from science, art, and spirituality; that are honest to the way that the world is: that show how things are connected to one another; and that inspire living with respect and care for the community of life.
Holistic thinking affirms ideas such as . . .
- Everything is interconnected; all beings inter-become.
- All living beings have value for themselves as well as for others.
- The universe is purposive: beauty, creativity, and life are part of its makeup and are intimately related.
- The universe is alive with creativity; the idea of entirely “dead” matter is an illusion.
- Humans are part of, not apart from, this larger whole, and find fulfillment by living with respect and care for all life, both human and non-human.
Guided by these core values, Process & Faith seeks to help its community members respond to the major issues of our time, such as economic disparities between rich and poor, dysfunctional politics, global climate change, war and the threat of nuclear war, abject poverty, the debilitating effects of consumer culture on family and community life. It thus works to develop actionable hopes for alternative forms of human togetherness that are good for people, other animals, and the earth as a whole.