Margaret Ernst

Margaret Ernst is spiritually rooted community organizer and minister ordained in the United Church of Christ, who has served churches in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Her passion is popular education and helping people to find their roles in movements of transformative systemic change, because there’s room for everyone in creating a society worthy of the beauty of the human spirit and the many creatures we share this planet with. She is the proud, queer daughter of a trans woman, a graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, and loves to sing, laugh, and swim in lakes and creeks.  For several years Margaret proudly served on the team at Faith Matters Network to support spiritually grounded leaders on their journey to heal themselves and their communities.

Margaret came to Kirkridge for the first time after leading a nonviolent civil disobedience shutting down a military manufacturer in her community, which is something we can all learn how to do if we believe in breaking bread, not bodies.  She is pleased as plum punch to serve on Kirkridge’s board to ensure Kirkridge can be available as a source of refuge and hope for people resisting empire in all its forms and to live out Kirkridge’s lineage of resistance and creativity long into the future.

Margaret is a member of Liberating Lineages Collective and is on the co-founding leadership of Christians for a Free Palestine. She lives on Lenape land.