Covenant Community Kids

Jacqueline and Evie are two of six siblings who grew up in the Word of Life covenant community. In this episode we reflect on the new season of conversations, and some common experiences we see in covenant community kids.

Janet was born into the Ann Arbor community, Word of Life and now resides in London, England. She is the middle of five children. In this podcast she discusses the impact on her life of the pastoral system implemented in the Sword of the Spirit.

Sam was never a formal member of a covenant community, but spent over a decade participating and working at Pine Hills Girls Camp and Christ the King. After years of reckoning with her queerness and shifting values, she made the choice to leave her Catholic community and is healthier for it. She lives a happy, humanist life working as a children's librarian and living in Ypsilanti with her husband...

Tom is a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual, middle-aged, socialist (leaning communist), existentialist, American, realist, anticolonialist, antiracist, feminist man who rejects all labels as unhelpful generalizations

Angela Joy grew up in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti covenant community, and specifically the Word of God community even after the “big split.” She now lives in Muskegon, MI with her two children and is happily “living in sin” with her boyfriend. She no longer attends church but will gladly recommend horror movies to watch on Sunday mornings as a suitable replacement

Nora (they/them) grew up in Ann Arbor as the sixth of seven kids in a Catholic family. As a teenager, they left Michigan and the church after considering religious life. These days, they’re a devoted animal lover and creative — always chasing projects (and sometimes cats) that feel true to them.

Vince (he/him) grew up in Lansing, Michigan, in a large homeschooling family within the Work of Christ Community. He lived in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Portland before returning to Michigan, where he and his wife homeschool their two daughters with a focus on curiosity, exploration, and openness. Shaped by these experiences, he’s dedicated to creating spaces that nurture creativity, empathy, and auth...

Mark grew up in Ann Arbor and was heavily involved in the communities of Word of God/Christ the King. His parents, both converts, met through the beginnings of community and is the 7th of 9 Harburg children. Mark shares his perspective on looking back at the good, bad and the ugly (trauma) of growing up in the community and hopes that his story of stepping out of this cult makes others more aware...

Margaret was born and raised in the Word of Life covenant community. She remained in it until partway through college. She is no longer a member and hopes her story inspires others to forgive themselves for past mistakes and live life on their own terms.

Nicole (she/her) was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and was introduced to the Sword of the Spirit by her elementary school, Cornerstone. She dives into her timeline in Sword of the Spirit and the inevitable leaving of community and organized religion. She currently lives in Lansing, Michigan with her husband and daughter.

John Flaherty attended the college of Steubenville in 1974. He would become part of the Music Ministry in the community of God's Love in 1975, and join the local Covenant Community in 1977. About the same time, the Covenant community submitted itself to the word of God Covenant community for formation and training. In 1990 he would resign his membership in the Servants of Christ, the King, a Branc...

Evie and Jacqueline sit down together for a brief check-in. We discuss boundaries, feelings of unnecessary guilt, and how we plan to move forward with the podcast

Jesse grew up the son of a handmaid and a head coordinator in Ann Arbor, contracting a nasty case of Word-of-God-itis in households and clusters and at HVS, Pine Hills Camp, & more. He feels much better now, though, and is hard at work on a vaccine, which is currently being tested by his three kids.

Sophia was born and raised in Dexter, Michigan and was part of the Word of Life Community. She is the last of 6 kids and her parents met whilst in UCO. On this episode Sophia dives into her experience getting involved in a small group called the Healing Team which formed after a Word of Life member got connected with a priest in Wisconsin with “psychic abilities”.

Paul Turner is a former member of the Lamb of God covenant community in Baltimore, Maryland. He talks about how he was brought into the community by his parents, the dysfunctional relationships between men and women in the community, the sense of loss when he left in the early 90s, the love of his parents, and his decision to remain in the Catholic Church with the Traditional Latin Mass. Originall...

Emmet was born and raised in Ypsilanti in the Word of God/Christ the King branch of community. The 9th child of 11 in an (obviously) large homeschooling family. Emmet  happily drifted from the community and now focuses his time on more fulfilling pursuits.

Becky Colson has been happily married to Brad for 28 years. They have four amazing kids together, none of whom are afraid to be the people who God made them to be. They are ex-members of The People of God in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. They are current members of their local Catholic Church, and are excited to see what their spiritual lives will hold as they explore the “corners” of Catholicism.

Tim Rauch grew up in the Ann Arbor Word of God Community as the youngest of six kids born to Gerry and Marla Rauch. The Rauch family left Community around the time of the schism, with Gerry expressing misgivings about the direction of the group he co-founded. A lifelong non-believer, Tim is now an animation director & producer living in Pasadena, CA with his wife, Sharlene, and their two boys.

Hannah (Gornik) Wohlfert was born in to the Word of God community in a “baby boom” of the early 1980s. Over the years she was involved in UCO Ann Arbor, Campus Fellowship of the People of Praise at Notre Dame, Koininia (UCO equivalent) and Antioch in London, and made her public commitment to the Word of Life in 2011. She has not been involved in community since 2016, and has learned that a lot of...

The oldest Jones kid! I grew up in the Ann Arbor community and Catholic Church. Right after high school, I moved to Lansing to be a part of a UCO household… which did not end well. I talk about some differences between Lansing and Ann Arbor communities, my experience with household, and how to provide a support network and stability for my kids outside of community and church. I now live with my b...

Anna was born and raised in the Ann Arbor charismatic renewal, and spent her childhood and teenage years within the community milieu. After coming out as transgender, she was put through conversion therapy and deliverance prayer to “fix” her gender identity. In the process of living authentically, she lost most of her friends, family, and connections. She started a new life from scratch, and is no...

Isaac Kosel is a husband, father, and nurse. He grew up nondenominational and his relation to covenant community was primarily through Mission Christ and Pine Hills Summer Camp.

Evie and Jacquie Jones sit down to discuss the practice of speaking in tongues - a "gift of the Holy Spirit" that was such a common practice in Covenant Community it often felt like a requirement.

Jules went to the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 1982 and quickly became a part of University Christian Outreach (UCO). Despite undergoing a targeted conversion therapy designed to suppress her queer sexuality, ultimately she was unwilling to adhere to the homophobic UCO/Word of God Community expectations, resulting in her being unceremoniously kicked out.

Jess Blatchley was recruited into the Antioch Community in London with her parents in 1979 and left around 1998 with her husband Peter and 3 children. She has since carved a career as a singer, singing teacher and writer. She writes about her experiences in covenant community on her blog site MY WASHED BRAIN as well as the process of healing since leaving. https://jjccbg.wixsite.com/website Jess a...