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As the looming defunding of SNAP approached, I, like many of my pastoral colleagues in the city, was taking action to find out how we might best support people in need of food. Was I ever wowed! Quickly, awareness spread, and the PROP Food Shelf began receiving a surge of needed support (and let’s keep it coming!).
But it didn’t stop there. The next thing I saw was an effort by the “Buy Nothing EP” group on Facebook mobilizing to gather gift cards for grocery stores and gas stations. Dozens of people contacted the organizer for help, expressing their gratitude for the immediate support in such touching ways.
As a Christian leader, I often think about what it means to be “the Beloved Community.” The idea of a beloved community grows out of the New Testament vision of koinonia — the deep fellowship and mutual love among believers in Christ. It’s a vision of human society grounded in the love, justice and peace that flow from God — a community where all people live together in dignity, equality and mutual care. The term has deep biblical roots and has been developed by theologians, mystics and social reformers across centuries, most famously by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
As I watched my friends and neighbors mobilize, all I could think of was, “This is the beloved community in action.” When I was growing up, the word “community” conjured images of villages, neighborhoods and parishes — places defined by geography and shared daily life. Today, community looks different. It still includes the warmth of proximity — neighbors sharing meals, kids playing in the same park — but it also exists across vast distances, connected through digital networks, shared causes and chosen affinities. In an age of mobility, migration and technology, community is less about where we live and more about how we live together — how we cultivate belonging, mutual care and shared meaning.
Despite all the talk about individualism and increasing fractiousness between people with differing viewpoints, human beings continue to hunger for connection. How can we continue to keep the momentum of care and connection here in Eden Prairie, particularly around ideas, issues and causes where we can find common ground?
At its simplest, community begins with place. Our community gardens, Night to Unite parties, and gatherings at our beautiful library and many coffee shops help us connect and get to know each other. When neighbors organize a cleanup (a special shoutout to those from Indivisible who helped clean the overgrown U.S. Post Office property), plant a pollinator garden, or join the Scouts or city in keeping up our parks, they make “place” central.
Where do you find community? Is it a book club or one of our many regional choirs? The Eden Prairie Schools Early Learning Center, the Senior Center, the Community Center, or another fitness facility? Is your community built around civic action or activism, such as the Eden Prairie Lions, the Chamber of Commerce, the Citizens League, the Historical Society, or others? Are your connections through your children, the PTO, the EP Schools Foundation, sports, or activities?
I would be remiss, as one of the city’s pastors, not to mention that religious congregations continue to be among the most enduring forms of community. Whether that’s a church, mosque, synagogue, temple or meditation group, faith communities can offer belonging through shared rituals, moral vision and mutual support. Across traditions, the impulse is the same — people gathering around meaning, offering presence in times of joy and suffering, and striving to embody compassion in the world. If that’s of interest, I can say with confidence that the dozens of communities in Eden Prairie are eager to welcome you.
I’ll also add that, unlike some naysayers, I’m a fan of virtual community — at least one-third of the assembly every Sunday at Charis is either in another state or another country. The internet has profoundly expanded the geography of belonging: Online platforms allow people with rare conditions, niche interests or dispersed identities to find one another. Digital community is real community, particularly when it fosters empathy, listening and shared purpose. The challenge, of course, is depth — how to ensure that these connections move beyond the superficiality of likes and comments toward real solidarity and mutual growth.
The Gallup organization, a leading research group in the U.S., reported that about 20% of U.S. adults felt lonely “a lot of the day” or “daily” in recent polling — roughly 52 million people. Among older adults (ages 50 to 80), a 2023 poll found about 34% reported feeling isolated (5% “often,” 29% “some of the time”) in the past year; 33% reported a lack of companionship.
As colder weather looms, let’s celebrate the countless entry points to community connection that we have here in Eden Prairie. If you’re someone struggling with loneliness, consider connecting with something meaningful before the snow flies. If you’re a social media user or someone who enjoys online research, you can find dozens of ways to connect with just a few keystrokes.
At its heart, community is about belonging — the sense that one’s life is interwoven with others. It reminds us that our well-being is bound up with our neighbor’s — that it is very, very hard to thrive alone. In this era of increasing social fragmentation, the practice of building and sustaining community is a radical act of hope. It insists that cooperation is still possible, that empathy is still powerful and that love still has a public face.
Editor’s note: This column was written by the Rev. Trish Sullivan Vanni, Ph.D., pastoral director and priest of the Charis Ecumenical Catholic Community in Eden Prairie.
Interested in contributing a faith-based column to EPLN? Email editor@eplocalnews.org.