According to this year’s list, the topic for January is Beloved Community.
This concept was first introduced by the philosopher Josiah Royce (1855 – 1916) in the course of his work on the concept of Loyalty.
He is quoted as saying “My life means nothing, either theoretically or practically, unless I am a member of a community” (1913).
Martin Luther King began expanding on the concept beginning in 1956, as shown in the speech delivered at the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott – https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/facing-challenge-new-age-address-delivered-first-annual-institute-nonviolence
Today, according to Google, many different congregations seem to be trying to bring the concept home to their own communities, with different ideas about how that should/could look for them. Feel free to Google “Beloved Community” and dive about 4 – 5 pages in.
And as always, please feel free to share this link with anyone you would like to invite to the conversation.