Our Story
Incarnation was formed with the goal of collaborating with lots of other good things already happening in the city. With regard to other churches, we are happy to join the work of the many churches - old and new - who help make the city a great place to live. With regard to community development and social justice, we are happy to join the work of so many groups who work to make the city hospitable to an ever widening group of people. We're not interested in re-inventing the wheel. We just want to gather a group of people interested in adding their energy to projects that make a difference.
Religious faith isn't the primary story of New York City. In fact, faith takes a back seat to a wide range of stories that color the history of the city and what it means to be a New Yorker - stories about the economy and business, politics and power, fashion and design, art and creativity, freedom and transgression, ambition and wealth, media, technology, and education.
Important as these cultural stories are to all of us, they often fail to sustain us as human beings who want to live deeply and in ways that are healthy for ourselves and others. Incarnation is a community that feels called to embody the Christian faith as a way of life that functions as a vivid alternative to ways of living that ultimately diminish rather than deepen our lives.
A wide variety of life experiences can trigger questions about faith, community, and flourishing. Maybe that experience is failure in some life project, or success that doesn't feel like success. Maybe that experience is the loss of someone or something that surfaces questions previously buried. Maybe there is a strain of joy or contentment in your life that, mysteriously, beckons to be explored. Maybe your imagination was once shaped by a religious tradition but is so no longer and you wonder what happened. Maybe you find yourself wanting to be a part of a group of friends working to serve and bless others. Maybe your anger at injustice and your desire for the city to be a good place for all is leading you to want to make a difference.
Incarnation is a place for people who have come face to face with those kinds of experiences, people who desire the time, space, and relationships that enable them to imagine the world, and live in it, differently.