This month’s featured Soulful Revolutionary is the Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin (they/them), who serves as Priest-in-Charge of The Episcopal Church of Grace and Resurrection, East Elmhurst Queens. Living in Brooklyn, New York, they are active in collective projects for mutual aid and social transformation, especially in the areas of racial justice, housing, LGBTQ+ liberation, and care for migrants. They love their cats, biking, and playing music with friends.
Our conversation covered a lot of (holy!) ground, including rituals for radicals (listen for the anarchist funeral and the goth wedding), what they learned at Standing Rock from Indigenous elders during the water defense movement, and building a church culture that sees all people as beloved children of God. They way they speak of humility as a spiritual practice is going to stay with me for a long, long time.
Listen to the interview in full using the player above, on Apple Podcasts, or on Spotify. If you prefer to read a text version of the interview, just click on the tab that says “Transcript.” Here are a few highlights of our conversation:
On ritual: “People don’t tend to think of radicals as people who need ritual, and yet, we made a space for grief and celebration in the backyard of a gallery. It was a necessary and beautiful moment.”
“A lot of (ritual) comes down to traveling light. A lot of it can be done very DIY. People relish and savor these moments they can come together and participate in ritual. It’s a lot more based around practice than around ideological uniformity.”
On activism: “People think more about the fire and less about the balm. What’s less visible is the dreaming that happens of a better world. And that can be enacted through collective ritual.
On staying grounded: “If I’m walking but I don’t feel where my feet are planted, that’s a wake up call. I’ve gotta be able to connect to the natural world around me if I’m going to be able to connect to the people around me. It's also about seeing the beauty and seeing the joy and seeing what people are creating, being open to where that leads, encountering people in a compassionate way and hoping that they connect to you in the same way.”
I’d love to hear from you! What resonated with you from this month’s interview? What practices might you like to try? What questions will you carry with you on your journey?
A Soulful Revolution Podcast: The Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin on rituals for radicals