OSLA Graduate Spotlight: Four Questions and a Blessing — Rev. Ava Schlesinger

A monthly spotlight celebrating One Spirit’s kaleidoscope of alumni – each a prism of lived experience, reflecting radiant, raw, and beautifully human expressions of sacred action and service.

My name is Rev. Ava Schlesinger. I am a 2012 graduate of One Spirit Seminary and former board member and 2nd-year dean. Each month, I’ll turn the lens of curiosity toward a graduate whose work reflects One Spirit’s vision to: “inspire and advance the evolution of sacred consciousness in service to individuals, communities, and the earth.”

To launch this series, I’ve been invited to begin with my own story. I will do my best to humbly, openly, and honestly share a little about my own One Spirit – choose-your-own-adventure experience. It is a journey, probably much like your own, weaving my lived personal and professional experience with a desire to be of purpose and service in this profoundly complicated, and sacred, human life.

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What first called you to One Spirit?

At the time, I had just finished a two-year respite from a decade of clinical social work, most of it spent with adults healing from childhood sexual abuse. I had been completely burned out, but I was beginning to feel ready to reengage with work in some way. My daughter had just left for Oberlin College to study world religions and began sending me her papers to edit. I was fascinated and somehow lit up. I wanted to study, too – not to get a degree or become a minister necessarily, but to explore the language of meaning and metaphor her writing had awakened in me.

I began searching for programs, but every M.Div. or doctoral program I found felt too Christian-centered (I identify as Jewish), too bound by a tradition that didn’t quite fit. Then, almost by accident, I stumbled upon One Spirit. With few expectations and a lot of excitement, I began my first year of seminary.

My first year was goodish, though marked by ambivalence. One year under my belt and I could hardly use the word God in a sentence without cringing. I nearly dropped out after another student at the first-year intensive asked why I would be there if I didn’t have a deep and abiding belief in God. I remember feeling gutted – maybe they were right, maybe I didn’t belong, echoing a lifelong sense of not quite fitting in. Rev. David Wallace, who happened to be in earshot of the conversation, turned to me after the other student left and gently offered his wisdom. He suggested that if I wasn’t sure what I believed, then I was actually in exactly the right place. We spoke for a while – eager to have more of this kind of conversation, I chose to stay on for year two.

David ended up being my second-year dean, and under his guidance and companionship, I began to understand that the word God – a word I had always resisted – was, for me, interchangeable with the word Love. That realization reshaped so much of what had become a barrier to surrendering to what I have come to understand as God. One Spirit had gifted me with language and meaning for what I had already been living; for this I will be forever grateful.

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Do you identify as a minister in the world?

I really do, but it might surprise you to hear that what I am doing is tattooing. Just as Covid was lifting, I longed to get off Zoom and be in the presence of living, breathing people. In the recesses of my mind, I remembered that I had heard about tattoo artists who were tattooing areolas and nipples on people who had lost their own due to cancer, trans-affirming top surgery, or other surgical procedures. Before I was a social worker, I had been an art director, and I had this wild idea that this would be an amazing intersection of my training as an artist, trauma therapist, and minister.

I will tell you that the learning curve was much steeper than I expected, but I refused to give up. I have been a tattoo artist for about four years at this point. I fully see my work as a ministry of touch, trust, and transformation – a continuation of what I first learned at One Spirit: that love is the Divine at work in the world. I have a mission to offer this service to anyone who wants it, using a sliding scale which makes it affordable and accessible to all.

Each session is a collaboration, a sacred exchange between my client and me. Whether I’m restoring an areola after breast cancer or trans-affirming surgery, camouflaging a scar, or creating fine-line art that marks a personal milestone, the work is always about helping individuals find a sense of healing and wholeness. It’s a ministry of presence as much as of skill. I listen, breathe, and move slowly, allowing this artistry to become a language of healing. For many, the process becomes a quiet ritual of reclamation – body, story, and spirit realigned. In this space, the sacred isn’t lofty or distant; it lives in the ordinary, or rather, extraordinary moment when someone looks in the mirror and sees their beauty, grace, healing, and wholeness reflected back.

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Where do your personal experiences intersect with your capacity to serve?

About nine months ago, this question stopped being a soft background rumination asking me to live into my work with consciousness and presence. Just as I was finally ready to concentrate on marketing and networking with the hopes of building my tattoo practice, my 33-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Everything in me shifted – my sense of time, of purpose, of what really matters. The very work I do for others – helping people reclaim their bodies after trauma and surgery – suddenly became the work I was watching my own child prepare to need.

There’s a wound that opens when you love someone who is suffering, and at the same time, there seems to be an ancient knowing that rises to meet it. My capacity to serve has grown right alongside my heartbreak. The empathy I thought I understood has deepened into something bone-deep and raw. Some days I think I should just close my practice, and other days it feels like I am in exactly the right place at the right time. If inclined, please add my daughter Brianna to your prayers… it would mean a lot.

My daughter’s journey has stripped away any sense of separation between my life, my work, and my very existence in the world. I’ve come to a brand-new understanding of the illusion of separateness – there truly is no ‘other.’ I know I’m supposed to appreciate this awareness, but sometimes the illusion feels easier, even comforting, and I find myself longing for it to return in all its misunderstood glory! This experience has been a very difficult part of my journey, both professionally and personally.

At this juncture, I am giving myself permission to allow time and space to intersect with my plan to focus on building my business; I am honestly and authentically (perhaps for the very first time) not attached to the outcome. My intention is for my tattoo studio to flourish as I aim to serve, but it’s also OK if that is not how the story unfolds. I surrender. 

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What do you hope future ministers learn from your journey?

I would love to inspire a living, breathing notion that you don’t need to fit your ministry into a box someone else built – especially if you feel as if what you have to offer isn’t good enough, important enough, or traditionally ‘ministerial’ enough. I believe that, especially right now, the world needs ministers in boardrooms and at protest marches, behind the scenes and on the front lines.

We are needed in tattoo studios, art studios, kitchens, hospitals, animal shelters, courtrooms, and classrooms – you get the idea. Truly, we need to show up anywhere and everywhere where love, courage, authenticity, and vulnerability move the needle toward love, peace, and connection. I believe with all my heart that the light we carry from One Spirit is infinite; it never fades, even when we feel we aren’t ‘doing’ enough – it simply bends and refracts, finding its way into the world through the diverse, creative paths our divine energy chooses.

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If you could offer a blessing to your fellow One Spirit graduates/students, what would it be?

May your work find you, even when you feel lost.
May you remember that ministry wears many disguises – a brush, a spreadsheet, a prayer, a meal.
May you trust that what you offer matters, even when no one’s watching.

Thank you for taking the time to read this first offering of Sacred Refractions. My hope is that something in it touches a chord, reminds you of your own unfolding, or simply lets you feel a little less alone on this wild, sacred path. The beauty of our One Spirit community is that the light and love keep moving – bending, shimmering, and finding new forms through each of us.

If you’re a graduate or student of seminary or ISCC whose work in the world reflects that light, and you want to share your story, I would love to hear from you (contact me: beautyandgraceink@gmail.com) so that we can discuss spotlighting you in the future. Sacred Refractions is meant to be a living conversation – a collection of stories that show how ministry continues to take shape in every imaginable place and form.

With love and curiosity,
Ava

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P.S. If you or anyone you know might like more information about paramedical tattooing, areola repigmentation, or scar camouflage, please visit my website at https://www.beautyandgraceink.com/ or Instagram @beautyandgraceinknyc.

Life-Giving Connection: Alia Edwards on the Ministers of Color Sacred Circle

Within the One Spirit community, the Ministers of Color Sacred Circle (MOC) has become one of the most vital and life-giving spaces of connection. What began in the early days of the pandemic as a response to isolation has blossomed into a thriving community of ministers who gather regularly to exhale, laugh, share, and refresh their spirits. The circle was created as a wellness check, a healing space, and a safe harbor for ministers of color who were especially vulnerable to the emotional and spiritual strain of shutdown life.

Today, MOC continues to honor that origin story while evolving into a source of ongoing renewal and strength. It’s a place of joy, reflection, and “real talk,” where ministers remind one another that they are not alone in the sacred work of service.

We recently caught up with Alia Edwards, the group’s facilitator for the past three years, who shared her reflections on what this experience has meant for her and the community.

“The MOC has become one of the most life-giving spaces within the One Spirit community,” Alia told us. “Each month, we come together to breathe, to laugh, and to remind one another that we are not alone.”

For Alia, facilitating the circle has become a spiritual practice in itself. “Showing up each month—no matter the size of the group—has become a kind of spiritual discipline,” she reflected. “It’s an act of accountability and care that helped bring MOC back to life after a period of dormancy.”

As the circle continues to grow, its impact reaches beyond those who attend. “Our community has re-formed around a shared intention,” Alia shared, “to keep refreshing ourselves while extending the web of connection among ministers of color within One Spirit and beyond.”

Now, MOC stands as a living testament to the power of community—how a shared commitment to renewal can sustain those who give so much of themselves in service to others.

An Invitation
All ministers of color—within One Spirit and beyond—are warmly invited to join the circle. Come refresh your spirit, reconnect with others who understand the unique joys and challenges of this work, and remember: you are not alone.

Resisting the Illusion of Separateness

One of the things I love about One Spirit is its commitment to resist that illusion of separateness through education and the sacred practice of being together. People come together at One Spirit to practice being a manifestation of love in the world—rooted in the truth that we’re more than connected… we are interdependent. We come from the same Source. Therefore, your survival and thriving are bound up in mine.

When I first began leading at One Spirit, I got a lot of pushback from my Christian community.

It wasn’t blatant, open questioning—it was more of a lingering “Are you sure about that?” that hung in the air whenever I would talk about my work.

So much of the Christian identity is about being separate. I’m reminded of the verse where Jesus says:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”(Matthew 10:34).

I understand the call in that verse—the need to ritualize a kind of consecration, to be exclusively used by God. But in this season, authentic coalition building is necessary. The times demand that we come together across difference, without losing the depth of our convictions, to resist the forces that would keep us apart.

What made me know this was the work for me was the vision of justice and solidarity—a spirituality of interdependence made possible.

I had always worked in fields committed to building momentum and capacity for people from different races and vantage points to work together to build a more just and loving society.

So the idea of rooting that kind of solidarity in spirituality not only made sense to me—it was a welcome strategy that brought together two key values in my life. The theory that undergirds this is the notion that we are all connected by a common source.

We are all created by God and made in God’s image—Imago Dei.

Many religions echo this truth in their own ways: that there is a divine imprint in every person, and that to harm another is to harm something sacred. Whether in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, or countless Indigenous traditions, this conviction grounds the belief that every human life carries infinite worth.

Some call it Spirit. Some call it God. Others call it the Universe. What matters isn’t the name—it’s that we recognize a shared responsibility for one another. That’s the work we need right now.

That’s the kind of leadership, friendship, and community that challenges division the most.

For me, that means building in a way that doesn’t just serve my own growth, but reinforces the truth we’re all a part of something bigger.

That our lives are tied together.

That there is no “them.”

There is only “us.”

Courtney Bryant

CEO, One Spirit Learning Alliance

Meditation on Relational Repair and Spiritual Care at One Spirit

In the aftermath of fracture, there is often a desire to "fix what is broken."  Yet Spirit frequently reminds us that Her language is that of wholeness and Oneness; thus, there is nothing to fix because nothing is "wrong" nor is anything broken because we are "never separate."  Therefore, tending to the after-effects of a fracture and the arising emotions of a rupture, albeit needed and necessary, will not get us to the "heart of the matter" where restoration lies.  Restoration is not simply tending to relational repair but must also include "reconciling consciousness."  Reconciling the moment that we placed another "out of our heart" where they became "other."  That is where restoration begins, in the heart.  Restoration is the process of renewing "right relationship" with The Divine within ourselves, with another and in the world. Right relationship not as what I deem right or what you deem right but what is in alignment with the Divine Order of Creator, Created and Creation.

When we look upon the aftermath of a fracture, it's not the "creation" as an outcome that needs most of our attention, rather it's "the intention of the creator" that requires the majority of our focus. What is my intention, what is your intention, what is our collective intention when it comes to restoration?  Are we first and foremost, restoring love in our hearts, compassion in our thinking, relationship in our actions?  And how do we do that when we have so many thoughts and feelings to move through?  BREATH is how we do it.  Breath doesn't  “do” anything with all of those feelings yet it does allow us “to be with" them instead of feeling at the effect of, victimized by, powerless in the face of them.  Breath enables us to "have our feelings instead of our feelings having us."  Breath can ground, center, restore, renew, uplift and connect us to ourselves, one another, the world.  Through breath and connecting to The Divine Within, we access our agency, own our sovereignty, stand in our power and engage with our world and each other from our interconnectedness.  

Relational repair is only possible from our interconnectedness.  It is the consciousness of our interconnectedness that we need to renew for restoration to be fulfilled and transformative.  Thus, we invited the community (past and present) to come together at the end of July for a moment to “catch our breath and take a breath.”  Not as a bypass of the fracture but as an acknowledgment of the byproduct of BREATH as the ever present container that holds each and every one of us right where we are and just as we are….every experience, every emotion, every expression and every embodiment of our humanity.  Breath is the “active” presence of Oneness that holds ALL OF US AND ALL OF LIFE. Perhaps if we allow our awareness of it as such, it may serve as the pathway to “activating Oneness” on every level of our existence—-individually, collectively, environmentally and globally. 

Just as breath restores our minds, bodies and souls individually, let's allow it to do the same collectively. Let us collectively breathe in the words, "I Love You" as we breathe out the words, "I'm Sorry."  Let us breathe in the words, "Please forgive me" as we breathe out the words, "Thank You."  Let us allow breath to restore Oneness, the practice of Ho'oponopono to restore wholeness and our "nephesh" to breathe new life into our sense of spiritual solidarity as Community.

—Rev. Laurene Williams
Seminary Class of 2013, ISCC Class of 2017