Hyde Park Church Collective
For decades, the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Knox Presbyterian Church, and Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church have been just a few blocks apart. As such, the lives of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists touched and crossed, whereas their ministries, faith journeys, and testimonies did not. Nonetheless, shared commonalities continued to call for collaboration and relationship-building. Over the past year, pure curiosity and hopeful imaginations motivated three people from these Hyde Park churches to dream bigger for the people they serve and the wider Hyde Park community.
The Hyde Park Church Collective is an educational partnership among Knox Presbyterian Church, Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. We are incredibly excited about this collaborative effort, which is designed to meet the educational and Christian formation needs of God’s people within each church and beyond its physical boundaries. Together, we believe the collective impact will be greater than the sum of its parts. Besides its educational purpose, the collaboration fosters relationship-building, resource sharing, Christian camaraderie, the exchange of ideas, and united efforts to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and to combat injustice and oppression. Most importantly, the Hyde Park Church Collective will offer a foretaste of the unified church Christ deeply desires.
The collaboration is already producing results. On September 17, 2025, the Hyde Park Church Collective will kick off its Fall Lecture Circuit series, featuring three prominent and influential authors and speakers. First in our lineup is the public biblical scholar, recipient of the Society of Biblical Literature Richards Award for Public Scholarship, and New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Dan McClellan. Dr. McClellan will discuss his latest book, The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues.
On October 25, 2025, the lecture series will feature Cole Arthur Riley, creator of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation, author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Cole will be with us at Knox Presbyterian to give a lecture followed by a 30-minute Q&A. Finally, on November 15, 2025, the church collective will host April Ajoy at Hyde Park Community UMC, podcast host, content creator, and author of Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith. April will address the dangers of Christian Nationalism while advocating for a more inclusive faith.
The possibilities of The Hyde Park Church Collective are limitless. They are already extending beyond Adult Education and Christian formation endeavors to Family, Young Adult, and mission-related ministries, pastoral care, and others. The Hyde Park Church Collective has been established for our church communities, the Hyde Park community, and for a world that is desperately in need of the Good News of Christ and tangible expressions of God’s love.
Finally, the vitality, sustainability, relevance, and impact of The Hyde Park Collective will depend on our response to this gift from God. We hope that our communities support and attend The Hyde Park Church Collective events, particularly those not held at their home church. We are better together in a world in which God’s gifts are abundant. I believe that The Hyde Park Collective is one of those gifts.
