CIRCLE OF HOPE A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church

Jennifer Pickens adopts an even-keeled reportorial cadence and timbre well suited to Griswold's immersion journalism, which recounts the rise and fall of Circle of Hope. Founders Rod and Gwen White began the church as a California commune based on Anabaptist values of hospitality, simple living, and assisting the poor. Moving to Philadelphia in the early 1990s, the Whites eventually set up four mostly white congregations fiercely committed to loving all of their neighbors--addicts, the sick, the mentally ill, and the LGBTQ+ community, people ostracized from many evangelical churches. Then came Covid, and in its wake the church felt called to focus on anti-racism . . . and fell apart. Pickens navigates the heartbreaking downfall by steadfastly maintaining her unhurried pace and gentle tone, allowing Griswold's text to take center stage. S.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2024]