- The Mix!
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Matthew 28:17 This powerful moment in Matthew’s Gospel occurs after the resurrection. The disciples have followed the instructions to meet Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. When they see Him, they respond in worship yet…
- Scarritt Bennett & MOJO Impact Present Powerhouse Conversations Series
To say that Rev. Dr. Sondrea Tolbert and Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones are leaders in the Nashville community committed to creating positive impact is a grand understatement. When Tolbert, Executive Director and CEO of Scarritt Bennett Center, and Holmes-Jones, CEO and Chief Impact Office of MOJO Impact,…
- R.I.S.E. Early Bird Pricing ends April 10
R.I.S.E. is a sacred two-day retreat created for Black women who are carrying heavy loads—emotionally, physically, spiritually, and communally—and need intentional space to rest. In a season marked by economic strain, caregiving demands, health disparities, and ongoing spiritual labor, R.I.S.E. offers an invitation to slow…
- Lenten Meditation: The Women Were There… at the Cross and the Tomb
Many women were there, watching from a distance… Matthew 27:55 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. Matthew 27:61 During this sacred movement of Holy Week, the Gospel writers make a quiet yet powerful observation…the women were there. When the…
- Rev. Kelli X Moderates Dialogue at Vanderbilt Divinity School
On a clear spring morning, Rev. Kelli X crossed the streets between Scarritt Bennett Center and her alma matter, Vanderbilt Divinity School, to moderate a panel discussion centering on the history of the segregated Christian church in the US. Rev. X pastors The Village Church…
- Poetry of Light: SNAP Opening Reception & Poetry Reading April 15
Scarritt Bennett Center, Nashville’s historic mid-town conference and retreat center, will host an artists’ reception and poetry reading on April 15th, in the Laskey Art Gallery. Come celebrate our exhibit of new photographs from the artists of the Society of Nashville Artistic Photographers (SNAP) entitled Poetry of Light,…
- A Tribute to Bernard Lafayette
by Sue Thrasher, Scarritt College Alumna Class of 19663 I met Bernard Lafayette at just the right time in my life. I arrived at Scarritt in the fall of 1961. Nashville had an exceptionally strong Freedom Movement, whose student leadership included Bernard, John Lewis, Diane…
- Lenten Women’s Month Meditation: Here is My Worship
She did what she could. Mark 14:8 In Mark 14:3–9, Jesus declares of the unnamed woman: “She did what she could.” These words are profound in their simplicity and power. She did not wait for perfect timing.She did not wait for approval.She did not measure…
- Clergy Respite: Scarritt Bennett Hosts Ecumenical Women of Faith Breakfast
“I call myself a mutt,” said one of the 40 clergy women gathered in Bennett Hall the morning of March 24th for a moment of community. “I grew up Southern Baptist, was ordained Church of Christ, I’ve served as a Chaplin and now I pastor…
- Experience Holy Week with Scarritt Bennett Center
Rev. Linda Furtado, Scarritt Bennett Director of Spirituality and the Arts, is preparing two special services during Holy Week 2026. Please plan to join us on Good Friday, April 3rd and on Easter Sunday April 5th. On Good Friday we will gather in historic Wightman…
- Lenten Women’s Month Meditation: A Persistent Plea
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Matthew 15:22 NIV emphasis added. Scripture: Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30 During this Lenten season, the Gospel accounts in Matthew 15:21–28…
- Hope for a New Song: Scarritt Bennett & TWKUMC Present Healing Blues and Jazz 2026
“Long before therapists called it emotional expression, our ancestors understood something powerful: sometimes healing begins when you let the pain sing.” With these simple words, Rev. Sondrea Tolbert welcomed those gathered for Healing Blues and Jazz 2026 on Sunday, March 15th. Rev. Tolbert, Executive Director…
- Lenten Meditation Women’s Month: A Cry That Echoes Through Time
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Jeremiah 31:15 Lent is a season of reflection, repentance, and remembrance. It is a time when…
- Week 5: Women’s Empowerment Month
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
- Week 4: Women’s Empowerment Month
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
- Week 3: Women’s Empowerment Month
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
- A Lenten Meditation for Women’s Month: Where do you sit?
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. Luke 10:39 Read Luke 10:38-42 Many women today live in Martha’s world juggling responsibilities, responding to constant demands, and carrying the invisible labor of leadership, caregiving, and community service. The…
- Scarritt Bennett Center & Nashville Black Music Association Host 3rd Annual Black Sacred Music Weekend
Scholars, students, singers and sacred music aficionados gathered in the historic Wightman Chapel and Harambee Auditorium on the Scarritt Bennett Center campus for the 3rd Annual Black Sacred Music Weekend (BSMW). On the evening of Friday March 27th, the W. Crimm Singers kicked off the…
- A Litany of Service . Linda Furtado
By Beth A. StockwellSecretary, TWK Conference United Women in Faith Editor’s note: Rev. Linda Furtado is an integral part of Scarritt Bennett Center where we develop and host programming that educates and activates people to become engaged with women’s empowerment, racial justice, transformative education and…
- RJM Moment: Teresa L. Fry Brown . When Sacred Speech Shapes a Just World
Editor’s note: Author Rev. Kelli X serves as the Scarritt Bennett Director of Racial Justice Ministries (RJM). At Scarritt Bennett Center, our commitments to Racial Justice, Women’s Empowerment, Transformative Education, and Spiritual Formation are not separate lanes. They intersect. They shape how we lead, how…
- Lenten Meditation: A Clean Heart
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 Read: Psalm 51:1-12 Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of deep contrition after recognizing the weight of his own wrongdoing. It is a psalm of confession but also a…
- Jesse Jackson: Expanding the Moral Imagination of American Democracy
Today we honor the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson—pastor, organizer, presidential candidate, and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Rev. Jackson expanded the moral imagination of American democracy. Through the Rainbow Coalition, he brought together Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, poor white, labor, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities…
- Week 2: Women’s Empowerment Month
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
- Ella Baker: Building Power Without Hierarchy
Ella Baker believed deeply in the wisdom of ordinary people. While many celebrated charismatic leaders, Baker quietly organized communities, nurtured young leaders, and rejected systems that concentrated power in the hands of a few. She taught that injustice thrives when people are made to believe they…
- Legacy of Hope: An Ash Wednesday Reflection in Honor of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrew 11:1 At Scarritt Bennett Center, where faith and justice have long walked hand in hand, we pause to honor the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.: preacher,…
- Week 1: Women’s Empowerment Month
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
- North Nashville Family Loses Home Minutes
After Power Comes Back On Editor’s note: News Channel 4 reporter Steve Mehling covered the aftermath of Rickey Washington’s Family house fire. Check out his coverage and donate to help Rickey, his Mom and Dad rebuild. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A North Nashville family lost…
- Guard Your Heart
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 Proverbs 4:23 reminds us that the heart is the command center of our spiritual, emotional, and moral life. In Hebrew thought, the heart (lev) and the mind are deeply connected,…
- James Baldwin: Facing the Truth We Fear
By Rev Kelli X, Director of Racial Justice Ministries James Baldwin insisted that America’s deepest crisis was not political but spiritual. He warned that when a nation refuses to reckon with its history, it turns fear inward and outward—scapegoating the vulnerable rather than confronting its own…
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Matthew 28:17 This powerful moment in Matthew’s Gospel occurs after the resurrection. The disciples have followed the instructions to meet Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. When they see Him, they respond in worship yet…
To say that Rev. Dr. Sondrea Tolbert and Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones are leaders in the Nashville community committed to creating positive impact is a grand understatement. When Tolbert, Executive Director and CEO of Scarritt Bennett Center, and Holmes-Jones, CEO and Chief Impact Office of MOJO Impact,…
R.I.S.E. is a sacred two-day retreat created for Black women who are carrying heavy loads—emotionally, physically, spiritually, and communally—and need intentional space to rest. In a season marked by economic strain, caregiving demands, health disparities, and ongoing spiritual labor, R.I.S.E. offers an invitation to slow…
Many women were there, watching from a distance… Matthew 27:55 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. Matthew 27:61 During this sacred movement of Holy Week, the Gospel writers make a quiet yet powerful observation…the women were there. When the…
On a clear spring morning, Rev. Kelli X crossed the streets between Scarritt Bennett Center and her alma matter, Vanderbilt Divinity School, to moderate a panel discussion centering on the history of the segregated Christian church in the US. Rev. X pastors The Village Church…
Scarritt Bennett Center, Nashville’s historic mid-town conference and retreat center, will host an artists’ reception and poetry reading on April 15th, in the Laskey Art Gallery. Come celebrate our exhibit of new photographs from the artists of the Society of Nashville Artistic Photographers (SNAP) entitled Poetry of Light,…
by Sue Thrasher, Scarritt College Alumna Class of 19663 I met Bernard Lafayette at just the right time in my life. I arrived at Scarritt in the fall of 1961. Nashville had an exceptionally strong Freedom Movement, whose student leadership included Bernard, John Lewis, Diane…
She did what she could. Mark 14:8 In Mark 14:3–9, Jesus declares of the unnamed woman: “She did what she could.” These words are profound in their simplicity and power. She did not wait for perfect timing.She did not wait for approval.She did not measure…
“I call myself a mutt,” said one of the 40 clergy women gathered in Bennett Hall the morning of March 24th for a moment of community. “I grew up Southern Baptist, was ordained Church of Christ, I’ve served as a Chaplin and now I pastor…
Rev. Linda Furtado, Scarritt Bennett Director of Spirituality and the Arts, is preparing two special services during Holy Week 2026. Please plan to join us on Good Friday, April 3rd and on Easter Sunday April 5th. On Good Friday we will gather in historic Wightman…
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Matthew 15:22 NIV emphasis added. Scripture: Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30 During this Lenten season, the Gospel accounts in Matthew 15:21–28…
“Long before therapists called it emotional expression, our ancestors understood something powerful: sometimes healing begins when you let the pain sing.” With these simple words, Rev. Sondrea Tolbert welcomed those gathered for Healing Blues and Jazz 2026 on Sunday, March 15th. Rev. Tolbert, Executive Director…
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Jeremiah 31:15 Lent is a season of reflection, repentance, and remembrance. It is a time when…
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
Scholars, students, singers and sacred music aficionados gathered in the historic Wightman Chapel and Harambee Auditorium on the Scarritt Bennett Center campus for the 3rd Annual Black Sacred Music Weekend (BSMW). On the evening of Friday March 27th, the W. Crimm Singers kicked off the…
By Beth A. StockwellSecretary, TWK Conference United Women in Faith Editor’s note: Rev. Linda Furtado is an integral part of Scarritt Bennett Center where we develop and host programming that educates and activates people to become engaged with women’s empowerment, racial justice, transformative education and…
Editor’s note: Author Rev. Kelli X serves as the Scarritt Bennett Director of Racial Justice Ministries (RJM). At Scarritt Bennett Center, our commitments to Racial Justice, Women’s Empowerment, Transformative Education, and Spiritual Formation are not separate lanes. They intersect. They shape how we lead, how…
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 Read: Psalm 51:1-12 Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of deep contrition after recognizing the weight of his own wrongdoing. It is a psalm of confession but also a…
Today we honor the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson—pastor, organizer, presidential candidate, and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Rev. Jackson expanded the moral imagination of American democracy. Through the Rainbow Coalition, he brought together Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, poor white, labor, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities…
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
Ella Baker believed deeply in the wisdom of ordinary people. While many celebrated charismatic leaders, Baker quietly organized communities, nurtured young leaders, and rejected systems that concentrated power in the hands of a few. She taught that injustice thrives when people are made to believe they…
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrew 11:1 At Scarritt Bennett Center, where faith and justice have long walked hand in hand, we pause to honor the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.: preacher,…
During the month of March we are praying together as we celebrate women from across many professions and backgrounds during the month of March. This guide to daily prayer is designed to be simple, accessible, and invites all in the Scarritt Bennett community to prayer…
After Power Comes Back On Editor’s note: News Channel 4 reporter Steve Mehling covered the aftermath of Rickey Washington’s Family house fire. Check out his coverage and donate to help Rickey, his Mom and Dad rebuild. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A North Nashville family lost…
By Rev Kelli X, Director of Racial Justice Ministries James Baldwin insisted that America’s deepest crisis was not political but spiritual. He warned that when a nation refuses to reckon with its history, it turns fear inward and outward—scapegoating the vulnerable rather than confronting its own…