Today we’d like to introduce you to Aurelia Dávila Pratt.
Hi Aurelia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a pastor of Peace of Christ Church, a radically inclusive and loving group in the Round Rock area. We are interested in reimagining sacred community in a post-church world. I was a part of starting this congregation nearly ten years ago and have been the lead pastor since 2018. We have had many rebirths along the way and are practiced in the art of evolving as necessary. I love this community because it offers space for authentic faith journeying.
I’m also a licensed social worker, a podcast co-host and a writer. My podcast is called Nuance Tea, and my book “A Brown Girl’s Epiphany” will be published via Broadleaf books in the fall of 2022.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The challenge in my work and any work is always to hold things lightly – beliefs, expectations – any of it. Come with an open, listening posture. One that is willing to unlearn as necessary and reimagine where crucial. In everything I do, I seek this kind of a posture. It offers clarity, grounding, and direction along the way.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an imago dei enthusiast: I believe we were each made in the image of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. We don’t need permission or authority to navigate our faith. We have what we need already within us!
I’m a sacred spacemaker. In all of my work the intent is the same: to create sacred spaces for people to do their faith work. To create safe spaces for people who have deconstructed to land. And to provide support in those spaces as people navigate a reimagined faith.
I’m a paradigm shifter. I am interested in liberation. In getting free and in helping usher people (who are seeking it) into freedom. It is difficult, painful, and uncomfortable stepping into new paradigms that are no longer informed by shame, guilt, or fear. I have compassion for any person willing to engage this work.
Mostly, I am a fellow sojourner. I like to look at my work as an offering that is hopefully helpful on our collective journey.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I like to think about risk in terms of dreaming. Many of us have been afraid to dream or dreaming has felt like a privilege we don’t always have access to. For me, healing work looks like moving away from my trauma-informed scarcity mindsets and into the abundance of dreaming. Dreaming is one of the biggest aspects of risk taking because we must be willing to disrupt our own patterns and rhythms. Plus, failure and disappointment are inevitable parts of creating the realities we want to see via our dreaming. The point is that by just being willing to dream at all, we are expanding our capacity to believe good things for our lives. This shapes and informs everything from our creative projects, to our work, to our relationships.
Contact Info:
- Email: aurelia@peacewilco.com
- Instagram: revaureliajoy
Image Credits:
All the HQ photos are Crowned by ck photography
