The leadership of The Jarena Lee Preaching Academy 2026 is ready to receive our cohort! We’re about a month away! Let’s hear it for our #JLPA Faculty!
First up: our Founder & CEO: Rev. Valerie Bridgeman, PhD!
Dr. Bridgeman will serve as a plenary leader during the academy.
It’s the top of the year so that means we’re in our #WPThree giving season. Our goal is to raise $10,000 over the next three months. We give in honor of these three inflection points at the top of the year:
JANUARY: our founder’s birthday.
FEBRUARY: Jarena Lee’s birthday.
MARCH: Women’s History Month.
Make your gift today! And remember, generous giving is consistent giving! Visit /givetoday!
Final of 3 long Posts, this one with a video:
As you know, January is my birthday month and WomanPreach!, Inc. kicks the year off honoring me as founding president by raising money. This year's goal is $10k. I'm giving $1k, so help with the rest. We need to expand our base, so consider becoming a monthly giver. If this ministry has blessed you in any way, don't delay. I know everyone can't give a huge amount, but know that every amount counts. Please go to /givetoday and provide your gift. I appreciate each of you.
Long Posts w/pics in 3 parts:
Part 1
First, thank each of you who called, texted, or posted on social media greetings for my birthday. January 15, I was in Chennai, India, which is 11.5 hours ahead of Delaware, OH. So my birthday started when it was still Jan 14 at home. I had the longest celebration, and of course it's not over. I enter a birthday season. But this one was especially meaningful as I was on pilgrimage with the grant-funded Enfleshing Witness Preaching cohort, that I am privileged to help lead with Mihee Kim-Kort , Theresa S. Thames, Wesley Morris, Matthew Ian Fleming, Winnie Varghese, Eric Barreto. The leadership team alone has been a saving grace in this process. This team and the cohort members celebrated me all day while we also sojourned as pilgrims, not "sightseeing," but encountering and being encountered. The level of spiritual openness and vulnerability those almost 2 weeks required was strengthened and affirmed in community. Post 2 will be about the cohort members. We missed having Eric and Matthew with us.
February is coming so you know what time it is at WomanPreach! Our annual Jarena Lee digital conversation is back and our guest of honor this year is Dr. Monica Coleman! Don’t miss this. Register via: /jl-legacy
This World AIDS Day, Lest We Forget will gather preachers, storytellers, and faith leaders to reflect on how we bear witness from the pulpit. As we honor those lost to HIV and AIDS and uplift survivors, we also acknowledge the heavy toll of compassion fatigue in communities that have long carried grief and responsibility.
Together, we will explore storytelling as a sacred tool for remembrance, resistance, and renewal. Through testimony, theological reflection, and shared dialogue, we will consider how the realities of HIV and AIDS can shape preaching that inspires justice, healing, and hope. Our aim is to reignite voices, renew spirits, and remember that this work continues in the sermon, the sanctuary, and the streets.
Our special guest for, Lest We Forget: Preaching Hope in the Face of Compassion Fatigue is Bishop Tonyia Rawls
Pastor, Sacred Sould United Church of Christ
December 2, 2025
7PM ET
Register via: /wad
Forks & Futures: A Prophetic Conversation in the Shadow of Empire. We can’t even summarize this in a way that would do it justice. You had to be there… #WP15
A signature element of WomanPreach! programming is our intentional use of poetry and art as a homiletical methodology. For fifteen years, @jaha0903 has been our WomanPreach! Artist-in-Residence. Our 15th anniversary celebration held an evening of “Art as Voice” centering both her poetry and her visual artistry.
We laughed, we cried, we pondered, we prayed. #WP15
Photo credits: @colurmety@villagecam_@treyc17
About last week at Northern Seminary, October 9-10: we came from across the country to support the president of the school in her installation. Why we came is not what happened, but we were there as witness, as prophets, as prayer warriors, as support. I'm just now posting about it.
As we approach marking 15 years of impact with WomanPreach! we are honored to see organizations make sponsorship commitments to our #WP15 celebration!
Thank you to our sponsor:
Affinity Missionary Baptist Church
Cleveland, Ohio
A Christ Centered Church, Of Committed Christians, Connecting the Community, with the Cross of Christ!
Website
Senior Pastor: Rev. Dr. James T. Thomas
