Jen Bailey

Rev. Jennifer “Jen” Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian and leader in the multifaith movement for justice. She is the founder and executive director of the Faith Matters Network, a womanist-led organization focused on “healing the healers” by equipping community organizers, faith leaders and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability and accompaniment. 

Rev. Bailey is co-founder of The People’s Supper, a project that aims to repair the breach in our interpersonal relationships across racial, political, ideological and identity differences over shared meals. A sought-after commentator and public speaker on the intersection of religion and public life, Rev. Bailey has spoken at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, Makers, TEDxSkoll and the White House. Her work has been featured on On Being with Krista Tippett, CBS This Morning, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and dozens of other publications. She is the author of To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss and Radical Hope (Chalice Press 2021). Rev. Bailey is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Follow her at @revjenbailey.

Pathways to Repair is a partnership between Faith Matters Network, The Rural Assembly and The Dinner Party. Too often, we and those in our communities have found ourselves ill-equipped to navigate the everyday bumps and bruises of relational work: the passing comment laced with an unintended barb, the casual dismissal of one’s experience, an awkward silence followed by a subject change. The result is that sometimes those harmed must either swallow their hurt to remain involved, or extricate themselves; in other cases, a minor incident that could have been handled in the moment escalates into something bigger, leading to a group’s dissolution or to a person’s banishment, absent a pathway to repair. I am excited to continue strengthening this work through the fellowship and discovering new avenues to share our learnings.