Ali Sevilla

2009 Ministry Fellow

		Ali Sevilla Student Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Community is at the heart of my experience as a Christian, and it is the foundation by which I have explored pastoral ministry. Drawing from Desmond Tutu’s ubuntu theology, the intricacy of the weaving of our humanity is both a testament to God’s love and to God’s call for us to care for each other.

I am certain that further discernment and prayer will lead me to paths that allow me to embody God’s call.

My greatest teachers on this journey have been the women of Magdalene and Thistle Farms—a residential community for women who have survived lives of addiction and abuse through the support of its business enterprise, an all-natural bath and body care company. The women have reminded me not only to love the world, my friends and strangers, but also to love myself. I have been reminded to be grateful for the birds' sweet melodies and for the thickness of air on hot summer days, and I have been reminded that gathering together in community is a generous way in which God showers mercy upon all of us. In a grand way, the community of Magdalene and Thistle Farms has reminded me that every part of creation, with all of our brokenness, is part of God’s kingdom. In our poverty and in our richness, we are enough. 

In my own reflection of poverty and richness, I remember the valley in which I was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The vibrancy of my family’s culture is one that infuses my understanding of God as it defines the importance of community and leads me to pastoral ministry.