Circle of Hope
A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church
By Eliza Griswold
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 352 pages, $30
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church is the profile of a worshiping community with all its strengths, doubts, weaknesses, and, in the end, sadness. Circle of Hope is a compelling book for those who deal with, and work within, religious structures and in church-planting. Eliza Griswold deftly addresses changes in society and leadership and all the implications that those changes bring out in people, both good and bad.
Griswold begins each chapter with a Gospel quote from Matthew, thereby setting the stage for what will happen. A different player and journey in the church named Circle of Hope is featured in each chapter.
In a style known as immersion journalism, or long-form journalism, Griswold maps out the creation, initial energy, growth, pinnacle, downslide, erosion, and eventual demise of Circle of Hope. Her ability to convey feelings and actions is rooted in her comprehensive reporting and her deep insight into her subjects. Her research is impeccable as she paints detailed images of people, situations, and issues.
The action centers in Philadelphia, and nearby South Jersey. She reports that the Circle of Hope was founded in 1996 by Rod and Gwen White, “hippie church planters from Southern California.” On a drive to Philadelphia, after working in California and other parts of Pennsylvania, they decided to name the church they were about to launch Circle of Hope because “hope was the missing ingredient” in other churches.
The author delves into the behind-the-scenes workings of Circle of Hope. She doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, including the deepest issue that touched the entire society: the COVID pandemic. She notes that from 2019 to 2023, churches were struggling on various levels, allowing that online worship made popular during the lockdown was often difficult for both leaders and viewers.
By the time Griswold is writing, Circle of Hope had three thriving congregations in the City of Brotherly Love and one in New Jersey. She weaves in the extreme difficulties of being based in a major city surrounded by drugs, opioids, and homelessness.
The hours of interviews and research are unsurpassed, thereby allowing each in their own words to share their experiences and feelings. Griswold crafted a well-rounded history of Circle of Hope and its people.
Griswold is an author and a poet. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Amity and Prosperity, is a writer for The New Yorker, and is the Ferris Professor and Director of the Program in Journalism at Princeton University.
Griswold was the ideal writer for this saga, as she possesses an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of religion and the business of religious hierarchies. Her father was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the late Frank T. Griswold. She dedicates her book to her father, who died in 2023, and offers poignant remembrances of his final days at the conclusion.
Throughout her book, she nails the issues facing the Circle of Hope, from joy and fellowship to mistrust and backbiting, as well as attempts at new leadership, which sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed. She explores feelings and relationships between siblings, leaders, spouses, and those in ministry. While the subjects focus on their relationships with each other, primarily they also look at their relationship with God.
One can feel the pain as the reader witnesses the dissolution of trust and the crumbling from within.
There are historical benchmarks, and mentions or remarks from important people, authors, preachers, and key writings interspersed throughout the narrative that many religious readers and leaders will find familiar: Billy Graham; the “sea change” brought by Ronald Reagan to evangelicalism; Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved; Tony Campolo; Jim Wallis; the Left Behind books series; Angela Davis; Rick Warren and his megahit The Purpose-Driven Life; Julian of Norwich; Richard Rohr’s 1989 Breathing Under Water, a landmark book examining AA’s gospel principles; the Barna Group’s 2021 report on burnout; and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
She provides examples of how popular culture affects all aspects of life, including religion, referencing pop-up churches and other movements. Sometimes the reader asks which effect is it: culture on religion or religion on culture. For example, one of the founders called Circle of Hope the Friends model for church-planting, referring to NBC’s popular TV show about young adults working, living together, and supporting each other.
The Anabaptists, the Brethren in Christ, and the city of Philadelphia played significant roles in the Circle of Hope.
Ultimately, there were core societal issues that Circle of Hope could not ignore, primarily racism as experienced by African American members and people of color. But there was more. “The issues arising at Circle of Hope weren’t just about race; they swirled around all kinds of marginal identities, including who Jesus meant when he said, ‘the least of these.’”
Members of all ages were not happy about how Circle of Hope would react to LGBTQ questions, George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, and police violence in Philadelphia. This in turn brought deep-seated issues like racism and white supremacy to the forefront and the obvious need for reconciliation. To that end, Circle of Hope took steps to combat racism and, at one point, an organizational specialist/intervention group was called in, which didn’t end well.
Dissatisfied, members started leaving. As one said, “I’m grateful for the good parts: grassroots spirituality, motherly as opposed to fatherly spirituality, social justice being central, an openness to allow folks in who had all kinds of questions and critiques so we could truly be together without being judged.” The former member also shared what bothered her: “Lack of boundaries, professional and spiritual. Emotional enmeshment, leaders, followers, staff, power plays, and manipulation.”
“As of January 1, 2024, Circle of Hope, as a church, would officially cease to exist.”
Griswold offers an eloquent reflection on the people, beliefs, and actions of Circle of Hope. “Maybe churches need to die, to rid themselves of their old bodies, their advanced pathologies, to make themselves new again,” Griswold writes. “To be free of the weight of a past none can carry. This cycle is the foundational principle of the faith.”
Neva Rae Fox is a communications professional with extensive Episcopal experience, serving the boards of The Living Church Foundation, Bible and Common Prayer Book Society, Episcopal Community Services of New Jersey, and others.