Welcome to Inviting Oneness, a podcast where we explore true stories from friends and members of EquaSion—stories where the illusion of separateness gave way to the deeper truth of our shared humanity. Oneness isn't an idea, it's an experience. And today we continue listening for it one story at a time.
My guest today is Rev. Dr. Lauren Jones Mayfield, Executive Director of the Center for Interfaith Relations. Her organization hosts the Louisville Festival of Faiths — the event that inspired Cincinnati’s Festival of Faiths. This year’s festival takes place November 12th to 15th.
Before returning to her home state of Kentucky in 2012, Lauren served the Riverside Church in New York City as the Director of Worship and held pastoral leadership positions in Baptist, Mennonite, and United Church of Christ churches across the country. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, Lauren completed her Doctor of Ministry degree at the Pacific School of Religion where she focused her research on social justice and transformation.
As part of her doctoral project, she created liturgy for the communal work of advocacy, considered the role of faith in the public square, and led an innovative Reparations Task Force as the Associate Pastor of Care and Justice at Highland Baptist Church (Louisville, KY). During her tenure at Highland Baptist, the church voted to darken the image of Jesus in one of the sanctuary’s stained-glass windows and began paying reparations to local Black organizations.
Lauren believes that when we embody our interconnectedness to one another and our planet we will discover joy and Presence, and it is interfaith dialogue that connects us through collective curiosity and communal wondering.
Lauren finds ongoing nourishment at the local, independent bookstore, by celebrating the art of Georgia O’Keeffe, and in wondering about the compassionate mystery of the Divine at work in the world.
If today’s story moved you and you’d like to get involved visit us at equasion.org.
Until next time, may we keep inviting oneness—within ourselves, and with one another.
