“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:28)

How do we strive and struggle with God and each other today?

How do we strive and struggle with the past of the Church?

How do we strive and struggle with who we were, who we are, and who we want to be?

How do we strive and struggle to imagine the church and fullest embodiment of God’s divinity on earth?

Our event scripture is Genesis 32:28, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

We know the church has been formed and fashioned with many layers of complexity, and unfortunately sometimes complicity or even violence. But we also know that we are called to learn, grow, and create evolving understandings of ourselves, our community, and our communal relationships with the Divine. Come join us for the 2025 APCE Annual Event as we grapple with how to move toward a more beloved community.

During our time together, we’ll wrestle with fallibilities – acknowledging our own shortcomings and the struggles in the historical narrative of the Church. We’ll wrestle with disenchantment – navigating that tricky tension between our personal faith and the church’s occasional hiccups. Finally, we’ll unleash our imagination as we call for innovation, openness to new perspectives, and a commitment to envision a church that’s a powerhouse of love, justice, and equality.

Gather with us at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis TN, January 29 – February 1, 2025, as we contend with these questions under our theme, A Stirring in our Souls: Wrestling with God and Church Toward a More Beloved Community.

We invite you to join us in person or online for the APCE Annual Event as we delve into the topics of Wrestling with fallibilities, Wrestling with disenchantment, and Wrestling with reimagination so that we might work individually and collective to stir a change in and around us for the betterment of our churches and ourselves,

As we journey together through this week, we will commune with friends, new and old alike, we will hear the word proclaimed, we be invigorated by compelling and challenging plenaries, we will find solace and contemplation through the spirituality center, we will find practical lessons and take aways in our workshops, and of course we will enjoy duck breaks to see the Duck Marches in the magnificent Peabody hotel!

We know that this event will be one of great learning and fellowship, and with your presence we can make it one for the ages! So we hope you will join us in Memphis as we wrestle and strive to become a more beloved community!

Your 2025 Co-chairs,

Tatayana Richardson and Jaime Staehle