Certificate of Contemplative Activism Cohort 26.10
Pacific School of Religion
About This Course
Embrace These Hours is led by Osheta Moore, a trained spiritual director, appointed Moravian pastor, and author of Shalom Sistas and Dear White Peacemakers. She shepherds a community of misfits on a mission in Saint Paul, MN, and draws from Howard Thurman's contemplative theology to guide learners into sustainable rhythms of rest, reflection, and justice-centered action rooted in the way of Jesus.
Cosmic Peace is led by Drew Jackson — poet, speaker, public theologian, and Director of Mission Integration for the Center for Action and Contemplation. Author of God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth, Drew leads learners through a multisensory six-session study of cosmic peace as a biblical and embodied reality, drawing from Scripture, poetry, visual art, personal testimony, and in-depth interviews.
Writing for Change is led by Michael Stalcup — a Thai American poet, recipient of Fuller Seminary's 2025 Frederick Buechner Award for Excellence in Writing, and co-leader of Spirit and Scribe. Michael leads the PAX Fellowship's Writing as Spiritual Formation cohort and guides learners to use their words as instruments of hope, justice, and transformation across a range of genres.
The live cohort sessions across all four sessions are facilitated by Jonathon Murillo, who holds the community, coaching, and commissioning space for the cohort. The three instructors may be invited to join the Content Breakout session as guest contributors, offering learners direct engagement with the course creators in a live, peer-learning context.
Course Components
View AllHow to Engage with this course
This learning path is structured as a semisynchronous cohort experience. Here is how it works: learners move through three video-based courses on their own schedule within the Kwaray platform — there is no fixed weekly schedule and no requirement to complete everything before moving to the next session. Alongside the async course content, each learner participates in four live, facilitated cohort sessions over a twelve-week arc, held via Zoom. These sessions are not additional lectures — they are structured spaces for community, peer application, coaching, and commissioning.
Cohort sessions are led by Jonathon Murillo, a strategist, facilitator, and formation leader with a Master of Divinity from Azusa Pacific Seminary. Jonathon is not the instructor of the video courses — each track has its own subject matter expert leading the curriculum. Jonathon's role is to hold the live session space: facilitating connection among learners, guiding peer application of the course content, and leading the formation coaching process. Subject matter experts from each track may be invited to join the Content Breakout session as guest contributors.
Learners in the cohort will be joined by peers from all three PSR Collective learning tracks — Wisdom-Based Leadership, Design Thinking for Social Change, and Contemplative Activism. While the video course content is track-specific, the four live sessions are shared across tracks. This creates an intentionally diverse learning community of spiritually rooted change leaders pursuing different but complementary work.
Between sessions, the Kwaray platform hosts cohort forums where prompts are posted after each live session. Learners are invited — not required — to engage these forums as a way of processing and staying connected between sessions.
Upon completing the assigned coursework and participating in the cohort arc, learners are automatically issued a PSR Collective Professional Certificate for their learning track. The certificate is awarded through the platform upon completion — no separate application required.
Learning Objectives
• Define and practice Contemplative Activism as the integration of contemplative formation and justice-centered action
• Identify and cultivate sustainable rhythms of rest, reflection, and action rooted in the way of Jesus
• Articulate a theology of Belovedness and apply it as both a personal foundation and a prophetic posture toward others
• Develop a biblical framework for cosmic peace as an eschatological and present reality of the kingdom of God
• Name and critically examine the myths and false teachings that diminish or domesticate peace within church and society
• Identify and practice meaningful, embodied ways to pursue peace in ordinary and extraordinary circumstances
• Apply writing as a spiritual formation practice — developing attentiveness, voice, and purpose in their own writing
• Produce written work across multiple genres — personal narrative, opinion, article, or long-form — with authenticity, clarity, and a justice orientation
• Develop strategies for addressing burnout and sustaining personal vitality in long-term justice and social change work
Your Instructor
Jonathon Murillo
Director of PSR Collective