Meet an innoFaither: Brittany Koteles
Meet Brittany Koteles, Co-Founder and Director of Land Justice Futures, where she accompanies religious communities to discern choices for their land that promote racial and ecological healing. Brittany, who lives two blocks away from Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI, thoughtfully embraces tradition and innovation in her quest to live out love and support others to do the same. A community of Catholic sisters that Brittany and her team accompanied recently returned land to a Native nation, the first land transfer of its kind from a Catholic order.
What faith(s), if any, do you practice? How does your tradition and/or spiritual practice inspire or influence you as an innovator?
I am a contemplative who was formed by various streams of the Christian tradition: I grew up a secular Catholic, spent my teenage years in the Evangelical church, and most of my twenties exploring Unitarian and interfaith spaces. In my late twenties, the Nuns & Nones movement brought Catholic sisters into my life, who brought the more mystical, radical roots of the tradition alive for me. I believe in “incarnation” not just as the single story of Jesus, but as a divine order of the universe that unites spirit and matter. I’m grateful to the nuns who put books by Teilhard de Chardin, Ilia Delio, and Diarmuid O’Murchu into my hands to help me find words for what I believe, and who showed me the role of tradition in holding us steady as we learn to discern the will of God.
In other words, whether I am “Christian” or “not” isn’t a straightforward answer. I resonate with a lot of Simone Weil’s writings on the matter; I have a deep love of both God and Christian tradition, but I also feel a clear call to remain on the outside of the institution as it stands.
Through the work of Land Justice Futures, I’ve seen how the expression of “Gospel living” – living out of love, challenging the misuse of power, pursuing healing in a broken world – has required the collaboration between people on the inside and the outside of the Church. And I believe we are all moving in the same, shared alignment to Spirit’s call, which far transcends any institution.
When imagining the future of monasticism, Raimon Panikkar left us with a simple image: “Well-trodden paths from house to house.” I think Panikkar would be pleased to see what I’m seeing now: channels of wisdom-sharing at the borderlands of religion, between devoted friends of many paths, serving the needs of our time.
What are you currently working on?
My organization, Land Justice Futures, accompanies religious communities as they discern the future of their lands. We help to root that discernment process in land justice — centering racial repair, ecological healing, and community power into decisions about how land is loved, used, and governed.
Rather than an administrative burden, we believe that religious land transitions can be a prophetic opportunity for new life. We work with religious communities to incorporate land justice into the heart of the property planning process, bridging the gaps that often inhibit communities from more fully embodying their values and creativity. We do this by offering practical tools, transformative education, tailored coaching and facilitation, and all kinds of site-specific research and relationship-building support.
To date, we’ve provided direct, long-term accompaniment to 19 communities across the country, and our resources have been used by over 4,000 Catholic sisters and other landowning Christian institutions.
On October 31st, we just celebrated the first land return from a Catholic order to a Native nation in the name of reparations for boarding schools. I was honored to attend the transfer ceremony, which was an unbelievable coalescence of relationship and healing. I’ll never forget it.
What can we find you doing when you’re not working?
Most of my mornings start with a five-mile run along Lake Michigan. I love the community on my block, which is also home to my godchildren, the best pie shop in Milwaukee, and a feisty women’s mahjongg night.
I am a childless auntie by choice, and I plan a good chunk of my life around the kids in my life. I love reading the Auntie Bulletin by Lisa Sibbett.
What is piquing your curiosity these days?
On a personal level, I yearn for a new expressions of “church” and communal worship that speak to these times, and I love learning about different experiments in this regard. We need new kinds of place-based spiritual homes for these times, ones that embody an interspiritual consciousness, without shying away from the rigor of commitment, shared practices, and a radical politic of love.
And of course, I am continuously fascinated by all the creative ways people are moving, stewarding, transitioning and governing land that breaks the mold of “private property”!
What is something you’d like help on?
I would love advice on three things:
1. Next year, we’re experimenting with more ecumenical offerings. What would need to be adapted from our work in order to be relevant to dioceses, presbyteries, churches, and retreat centers?
2. Inviting more Catholic funding partners into the work. Right now, our funder base skews heavily secular/justice.
3. Expert advice on how to adapt curriculum/programming for scale. We have an AWESOME, effective curriculum that we want to make more accessible.
What is something you can offer others in the innoFaith network?
Our website has amazing resources for Christian communities who want to be thinking differently about their land. We specialize in supporting communities who are discerning the transition of land and buildings, but there’s also a lot of great offerings for those who just want to be more involved in the land justice movement as a whole. Check out our learning platform here, and reach out if we can be of support!
You can find Brittany via email and Land Justice Futures at landjusticefutures.org or via Facebook or Instagram.
Meet an innoFaither is our series to introduce the inspiring optimists in the innoFaith world and what they’re working on and thinking about. We hope it helps you find and engage with each other across the network to advance faith-rooted social innovation and interfaith collaboration for social impact. Or just meet some cool people. Find the full series at innofaith.org/meet-an-innofaither.