renaissance
(lowercase) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival
I’ve felt like a permanent outsider since the day I was dropped off at Forestwood Middle School after being home schooled by a Catholic charismatic theologian my whole life. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll just say this: it sucks being the one kid at the table who doesn’t understand the rules of football and gets laughed at every time you try and ask a question.
I get that feeling and I want you guys to know that we’re not about that.
CC started as an in person event and a network of relationships far before it was a Facebook group. The FB group is a forum for conversations, a way to stay in touch, but it never was meant to be our foundation because honestly, Facebook sucks at community.
It’s really hard to keep the feeling that we had at the beginning of being a tight knit crew where everyone knew each other, felt comfortable giving and taking critique, respected the other, and (for the most part) appreciated one another’s unique perspectives. We had that in the Facebook group at 150 people, and kept it till we got to 300. We’re now sitting at almost 1,800 people, and there’s just no way to keep that same kind of connection with everyone. It’s impossible to reply to every email we get, and it’s impossible for us to set up Google Hangouts with every new person who gets added to the group like we used to when things first kicked off.
But here we are, trying to create a living, breathing community with the 2,000+ people that are a part of this movement online and off it. We’re trying to create a place to belong, be welcomed, be known, and be pushed to be all that you can be.
The truth is, typed language without relationship is very easily misread, misunderstood, or misused. Even as Catholics we say things to each other online that we would never say in person, and I am as guilty of this as anyone else.
For any of you who have felt alienated inside of the Facebook group, I’m sorry you’ve felt that way. Whether or not this community is ultimately the place for you or not, you matter. Your spirit matters, your calling matters, and your ideas matter.
Here’s the deal:
Catholic Creatives is something like the combination of a Franciscan-style household, a radical political movement, a secret society, and a professional association like AIGA.
Not everyone is gonna be into that, and that’s OK.
Our vision is that though we are spread out across the world, though many of us run businesses that compete with each other, though many of us have very significant disagreements on liturgical style or politics, though some are Republican, some are Democrats, some are as anarchist as they come, some are traditional, some charismatic, some struggle with calling themselves Catholic, and others with calling themselves creative, that we would be bound together by a commitment to a few core beliefs and the desire to see a new renaissance of beauty birthed into the world through us, His Church.
Everything we do comes from that foundation. We thank you for your patience as we figure out what that means together, and we hope that you will not be silent with your thoughts and your feedback. I look forward to hearing from you guys!
Email us: hello@catholiccreatives.org