Kristin Caynor

PROGRAM MANAGER | PHOENIX, ARIZONA

I sum myself up in three phrases: love is my religion, reconciliation is my vocation, and Jesus is my King.

I grew up between several cultures and lands, and each community I’ve loved participates in my scholarly work and on-the-ground efforts wherever I am. Belonging between diverse—and often divided—communities has propelled me to a journey to understand what divides us and to see divisions healed, both inwardly and in our relational connections. The beauty and richness of my cultural influences has also informed the way this work happens.

The love I hold for my communities has led me to the work of building bridges, seeking to tell the truth about our modern social systems, and asking what a new way to be human might look like as the old ones fail. It has led me again and again to the teachings of Jesus, who also arose at a moment of great upheaval, social decay, and disintegration. He also lived in a time when much that was mighty had begun to fall, and yet he proclaimed the coming of something new and better than we can now imagine.

In this hope, I have worked among the unhoused on the streets of U.S. cities. I have worked on college campuses among those in spiritual crisis, in an immigrant church in Spain, and in building coalitions for advocacy work between many ethnic and religious communities in Arizona. I have also worked internationally with persons of peace who are seeking this new way in Europe, the Middle East, and on the African continent. I often find myself in community chaplaincy roles, among those most alienated from the evangelical world I grew up in, and in communities with little or no Christian presence at all.

These experiences leave me gravely concerned for those most affected by the rapidly expanding social, spiritual, and environmental hells of our world. I believe our only hope is to seek the Creator and to again seek out one another across the “dividing walls of hostility” which we have put up (Eph.2:14). In that place, outside the gates of religion, we meet with the truth about humanity and about who Jesus truly is for us all. So my aim is to help people to see the truth about how our humanity is degraded, and to find restoration in renewed connection with other people, the land, and all living things in the Creator.

Currently, I am working to grow these efforts by building collaborative resources between like-minded organizations and individuals. These are set to include podcasts, videos, and written materials which invite a broad spectrum of people to the conversations we most need to have. These resources aim to be both evidence-based, and Spirit-led. They are designed to give both Christians and non-Christians new lenses on ancestral truths, and to move us to new and renewed relationships which are not based in power, money, status, or violence, but rather built on truth, beauty, and love.

In addition to building collaborative resources, I will continue working in community chaplaincy and on-the-ground bridge building, especially between Christians and communities they are not connected to yet (or even in hostility with). I will continue working with local persons of peace to build communities which seek the new ways of the true humanity proclaimed by Jesus. I will also continue in international collaborations with theologians, advocates, and activists, in order to feed our joint resource work and build one another up in love. 

Email - kristin.caynor@peacecatalyst.org
Website - kristincaynor.com