Please allow me introduce myself

I’m a Christian theologian in the Episcopal tradition—a scholar-activist, educator, speaker, mentor who is an expert in helping people overcome multi-religious challenges. Having been the eldest child in a military family that rarely lived on a military base, my growing-up years gave me lots of practice in walking deliberately into difference. So has my adult lifetime of parenting a multiracial household.

I teach, research, and write about religious manyness—the phenomenon itself and theological understandings of it. I publish at least one book each year—plus journal essays, book-chapters, and other short items that define issues and move the interfaith conversation forward. I’ve taught in prep schools, universities, and seminaries, churches, mosques, campgrounds, a federal prison, and healthcare facilities. I’ve constructed online curricula, designed and convened colloquia, keynoted at conferences, conducted retreats, and much more. As a consultant, I also like to be proactive. Under the NeighborFaith Consultancy banner, I host small gatherings (face-to-face or via Zoom) to consider a multifaith matter or simply to share wisdom and fellowship.

I am multi-vocational. I hold advanced degrees from General Theological Seminary and Hartford Seminary; but I’m also a professional musician (bassoon, recorder, organ) with degrees in music from Boston University and University of Massachusetts (Lowell); and I am a practitioner of the fabric arts—particularly, handweaving.

Hartford Seminary's Faculty Associate in Interfaith Studies

Hartford Seminary's Faculty Associate in Interfaith Studies

Since the early 1990s, I’ve been helping people deal with diversity—primarily of the “religious commitments and practices” sort. I’m a specialist in Christian-Muslim understanding who has played a direct role in the training of dozens of Christian and Muslim congregational leaders, chaplains, and scholars. So, it delights me that it was a rabbi called me “your first stop when you need help from someone who is religiously multilingual;” and that it was a well-known Hindu activist who quipped, “when I grow up, I want to be just like Lucinda.” I’m known as a capable spiritual-journey guide. I like to help people become more comfortable in articulating their own convictions, more cognizant of the convictions of others, more able to understand the relation between theology and empathy in action.

Conducting a class at the Episcopal seminary in Haiti

Conducting a class at the Episcopal seminary in Haiti

I enjoy projects that allow me to combine my interreligious expertise with the arts. So, I’ve chosen my floor-loom as an apt metaphor for what NeighborFaith Consultancy is all about. Successful weaving requires a strong, resilient warp—but that need not restrict creativity. Even when weaving traditional patterns, I prefer a warp that multicolored (andperhaps multi-textured as well). As your consultant, the warp of my work for you is hued and textured by my deep and multi-disciplinary academic training and varied practical experience. Your needs and desires provide the weft. The cloth we’ll produce together will be uniquely yours—designed to cover your unique, urgent multifaith concerns.