Courageous Community Characteristics
Partnering: Courageously Conspiring Together
In 2025, Denver Presbytery gathered around the theme Partnering: Courageously Conspiring Together, a vision that named both the challenges before us and the faithful response required of us. To conspire—from its Latin roots—means to breathe together. This understanding shaped the year as an invitation into deeper partnership with one another, with our congregations, and with God’s Spirit moving among us.
Courageously conspiring together reframed “conspiracy” not as something secretive or harmful, but as a positive, faithful act of shared moral commitment. As Sheri Fry so powerfully articulated, this kind of conspiring has always been present in movements for justice and freedom—when people, facing real risk and uncertainty, chose unity, trust, and courage over isolation or fear. The courage required was not only about confronting external challenges, but also about placing faith in one another: listening well, acting in good faith, following through, and building trust where the stakes were high.
Rooted in Matthew 25 and the PC(USA)’s seven marks of a vital congregation, the presbytery explored how courageous partnership strengthens the whole body of Christ:
Lifelong Discipleship
Intentional, Authentic Evangelism
Outward Incarnational Focus
Empowered Servant Leadership
Spirit-Inspired Worship
Caring Relationships
Ecclesial Health
To reflect the unique context and calling of Denver Presbytery, these marks were expressed through engaging, invitational language that emphasized shared action and mutual responsibility:
Conspiring for Spiritual Growth and Faithfulness (Discipleship Formation)
Conspiring for Authentic Evangelism
Conspiring to Respond to the Call of Transformation (Servant Leadership)
Conspiring for Courageous Worship
Conspiring to Build Courageous Relationships
Conspiring to Build a Healthy Whole Body (Ecclesial Health)
Throughout all presbytery assemblies and major gatherings, three core practices were intentionally integrated and highlighted: courageous worship, courageous relationships, and ecclesial health. These formed the relational and spiritual backbone of our shared life together.
The year unfolded through a series of gatherings, summits, and celebrations that embodied the theme in practice—from the installation of Moderator Ruth Huff in January, to leadership development focused on relational capacity, discipleship and servant leadership with General Assembly Co-Moderator Tony Larson, and deep dives into courageous relationships, curiosity, trauma-informed community, and anti-racism work. Global partnership and evangelism were celebrated through the 20-year Zimbabwe Partnership anniversary, lifting up mutuality, reciprocity, and shared mission with global partners.
Together, these gatherings demonstrated that courageous conspiring is not about power held by a few, but about empowerment shared among many. Individuals and congregations discovered renewed strength by breathing together—choosing trust over fear, curiosity over certainty, partnership over competition, and hope over isolation.
In a time marked by cultural fragmentation and ongoing recovery from collective trauma, the 2025 theme called Denver Presbytery into a way of life: one rooted in courage, unity, and faithful partnership, as we sought to live more fully into Christ’s vision of beloved community—for the sake of the church, the world, and one another.