In October 2023, clergy and lay members from eight Livingston County churches met for the first time to discuss how their faith communities could come together to better our community. They envisioned a future where people of faith from all walks of life could join together around the values of hope-fueled faith, truly and deeply unconditional love, a commitment to unyielding justice, a culture of extravagant welcome, and a desire for community connection with the rest of Livingston County. From this earnest vision, the Livingston Faith & Justice Network (LivFaith), was born. This group is open to those of all faith traditions, or even those without one, as long as you seek to love your neighbor and honor the divinity and human dignity of all people around you.

LivFaith is a community action committee of the Livingston Diversity Council

Mission: The Livingston Faith & Justice Network (LivFaith) is a community-based workgroup promoting a deeply inclusive, faith-honoring community for our neighbors through education, mutual aid, collaboration, and advocacy, in order to recognize the divine worth of all those around us — especially our most marginalized.

Who is livfaith?

The Livingston Faith & Justice Network is made up of committed community clergy and laypeople from various local churches and human service organizations. Some members have elected not to share their information, but the following groups have agreed to be listed on our page:

The deeply racist history of Livingston County is an unfortunate blemish on our past that continues to linger, showing up in the extremely white racial makeup of our county and the continuing racially-motivated hate and violence that’s still taking place. LivFaith aims to address these issues head-on through faith-based community education, outreach, and advocacy.

We see that our LGBTQIA+ neighbors are nervous to attend church because of a culture of unwelcome that’s been cultivated by our modern climate. LivFaith is committed to creating inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ and gender-diverse people in our county, especially within our faith communities. LivFaith is doing this through faith-based community (and often church) education, outreach, and advocacy.

Meetings for both of the above focus groups occur during our monthly LivFaith meetings. We are hoping to add more focus groups around poverty relief, mental health, addressing Christian Nationalism, coordinated crisis response, and more as our group grows. Have a passion that you want to grow? Maybe you’re the next focus group leader!

In the fall of 2024, leaders from LivFaith’s Faith & Race Project facilitated a nine-week course for community members entitled “Faith & Racial Healing”. Designed by Just Faith Ministries, the course aims to guide participants in sharing of the accurate history of racism in the United States, in order to work toward true reconciliation with God and restoration with one another.

In addition to the coursework based on books, articles and videos, the group participated in deep reflection through prayer and conversations. Participants were most impacted by the immersion experience which included a community trip to the Charles H Wright Museum and following conversation on race at the Gesu Parish in Detroit.