20. Revolution of Love Ministry with Rev. Felicia Parazaider
"If one is committed and married to systems, structures, and any forms of hatred, oppression, and violence, it's probably not going to work for you here. You might want to keep it moving."
Today we are speaking with Reverend Felicia Parazaider about her Revolution of Love Ministry. We discuss what prompted her to create this community and why community is important. Rev. Felicia also shares her thoughts on the following topics:
what it means to show love to another
unprocessed grief and the connection to violence
her work with transformative justice and social justice movements
triaging pain
the importance of inner child healing
self-compassion
the disease of oneness
Rev. Felicia Helen Parazaider is an ordained interfaith minister, speaker, author, and expert in the field of nonviolence. She attended the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministry, and was ordained in March 2012. She holds degrees from University of California Berkeley in both Religious Studies and Peace & Conflict Studies, and has completed training programs in Spiritual Psychology, Tree of Life Teachings, and Clinical Pastoral Education. For 20 years, Rev. Felicia has been involved in ministry and activism. In the early aughts, she began with the Anti-Defamation League and the Feminist Majority Foundation. During this time she cut her teeth in the world of social justice. After moving to the Bay in 2006, she began working with Pace e Bene (PeB), a nonviolent nonprofit organization. While working for PeB she deepened her skill set by leading workshops and trainings in nonviolence and de-escalation techniques. She has ministered extensively to drug addicts and alcoholics, both on the streets of Los Angeles and in the Bay Area. For several years she served as a Hospitals & Institutions (H&I) chairperson, in charge of taking panels of recovering alcoholics into USC County Hospital to carry the message of recovery. She also worked at Kaiser Hospital Oakland and Walnut Creek as a chaplain. Her more academic work has led her to teaching classes in nonviolence and meditation at UC Berkeley. Since she is the only minister from The Chaplaincy Institute to launch an all faith/no faith ministry, she has since returned to her alma mater and taught students how to create community ministry from the ground up. Rev. Felicia is a radical sacred activist, traveling to India and the Middle East on peace delegations, walking over 500 miles through the Nevada desert against nuclear proliferation and for peace, as well as being arrested over 20 times for participating in nonviolent civil resistance protesting drone warfare, nuclear weapons, and the separation of migrant families from their children, to name a few. She is the founder of The Revolution Of Love (ROL), a ministry which emphasizes the intersection of inner work and outer work in the world for the purposes of healing and radical change. They met over 200 times in the San Francisco Bay Area for service from 2012-2017. Upon moving back to her hometown of Los Angeles, she relaunched ROL services. In Aug. 2019, the latest branch of ROL, Speak Boldly, was born. These covered a variety of topics, redefining violence, anger, forgiveness, to name a few. We meet every Sunday pm via Zoom. All are welcome. She is the creator of The Prayer Rope and The Love Challenge, both branches of ROL that are specific ways to begin to transform oneself and this world. A seer, energy worker and intuitive, she is also trained in Jewish Mysticism and Indian Way. Her speaking is a blend of her Roma roots of storytelling, channeling, and performance art. She is committed to agitating people into new paradigms in a bold and loving way, for the sole purpose of world changing.
Stay tuned for updates about her one person show. Rev. Felicia’s life is a dedication to love and justice.