Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

The Rev. Senator Kim Jackson speaks with the quiet power of someone doing the work she was put on earth to do: pastoring those who are often overlooked, while holding them in the light to those who would rather not see. It is a role to which she is uniquely suited. As a Black lesbian clergyperson elected to political office, she literally crosses the street from her unhoused congregants to her statehouse colleagues. And her experience as both person and priest gives her unprecedented credibility – as well as responsibility – in her mission to make real, positive change in the world. In this extended conversation, Kim shares the critical importance of seeing and of being seen.

“I believe that as Christians, we serve and love a God who loves us just as we are and says we are enough. And that’s what the world needs. The world needs people who are willing to stand up and show their authentic self and stand in the deepest conviction and knowledge that God loves us just as we are.”

Rev. Senator Kim Jackson has served as a college chaplain, a nationally renowned consultant and preacher, a parish priest, and a social justice advocate. In 2018, the Georgia House of Representatives commended her for her “tireless efforts on behalf of the disenfranchised, disenchanted, and dispossessed” (GA House Resolution 1188). Now serving as the vicar at the Episcopal Church of the Common Ground, Kim co-creates church with people who are unhoused in downtown Atlanta. She and her spouse, Trina, live on a small farm in Stone Mountain with two Great Pyrenees dogs, goats, bees, ducks, chickens and a cat.