Radical Kinship in Action

Having grown up in the church and gone to multiple Jesuit schools, I have heard the word kinship many times. In college, when I heard this word in a class or at a conference, I thought it was simply a synonym for “solidarity.” I thought of it as standing with marginalized people via service trips or petitions or learning about important justice issues as an ally.

I lived in Belize City with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for two years after college. It was here that I not only gained a deeper understanding of kinship but got to live and experience kinship in deeper ways. I extended kinship to those around me and was also invited into kinship by our neighbors, originally complete strangers. Proximity became encounter, encounter became relationship, relationship led to community and, ultimately, kinship and family.

At the “Prophetic Communities” conference in May, one of my favorite quotes was: “I am Catholic because I’m an organizer, and I am an organizer because I am Catholic.” It perfectly sums up how I feel about my vocation and what has led me to become a full-time community organizer. Organizing is not just what I

BY ALYSSA PEREZ

do for a living or my job title; it is who I am. It is my way of being in the world. Radical kinship is not just something I talk about, but something I live out in my everyday life. Organizing allows me to put my faith into action, to practice a faith that does justice.

clothe, house, and feed those in need. This is holy work, and I pray that I never lose sight of the sacredness of my vocation.

While community organizing allows me to live out radical kinship in my work life, how am I living out this value in all other aspects of my life—with my family and friends, in my community, and among my coworkers? Am I able to easily build relationships and extend kinship to those I don’t necessarily get along with or agree with? I pray that I continue to take seriously the holy work to which I have been called, and I pray that each person reading this finds how to live out radical kinship in their life.

I currently work in a multi-faith and multi-racial community organizing network, LA Voice. One of the most life-giving experiences I’ve had here has been while working on our Home is Sacred legislative platform. The campaign centers around a legislative package of three housing bills that protect, preserve, and produce affordable housing, and it has truly allowed me to live out the gospel. Home is Sacred— that name is intentional. There are many examples in the gospel that direct us to

Alyssa Perez serves as a community organizer for LA Voice, a multiracial and multifaith organizing network in Los Angeles County. She was a Jesuit Volunteer in Belize City from 2015–2017. She holds degrees in theology and political science from Loyola Marymount University and a masters of nonprofit administration from the University of San Francisco. Having been Jesuit educated for 12 years, she is deeply committed to Ignatian spirituality and building the beloved community.

Servant of God, Sister Thea Bowman inspires me greatly. She was a peacemaker; throughout her work she was relational and intentionally reached across barriers to build bridges. I see much of who I am and who I want to be as an organizer in her.

Sister Thea had passion for unity and cross-cultural understanding; it was the backbone of her ministry. She was adamant about the need for different races and cultures to be relational and to listen to one another’s experiences. She lived out the gospel call to love your neighbor with the understanding that we need to know our neighbor deeply: not just those within our parishes but everyone we encounter.

From a young age, I understood that injustices were the causes of despair and unrest around me. Things as they were didn’t match up with things as God wanted them to be. Growing up in one of the most diverse cities in the country exposed me to many different people, but it also further highlighted the inequity in my community. As an immigrant and child of immigrants, I learned pretty quickly that being welcome and being welcomed were two different things. For some, that invitation came with conditions.

My parish, St. Rose of Lima, provided me with many opportunities to live out my justice-minded heart in direct service with communities and service in the church. It led me to believe that I and my family could practice stewardship no matter our income, and it allowed me to give my time and talents to the parish and surrounding community. In this work, I found a love of relationality that has stuck with me for many years.

My parish was one of the founding congregations of Action in Montgomery (AIM), a community power organization in Montgomery County, Maryland. One Sunday, during the announcements,