Parish Collective

Happy Good Neighbor Day!!

Today is a simple reminder that neighboring starts close to home.

Small acts of presence can grow into deeper connection and a stronger neighborhood.

Today, take a moment to notice your neighbors today.

A table does more than hold food. It makes a place for people.

This fall we're paying attention to tables like the ordinary ones already set in our neighborhoods, and the ones still missing a chair.

The invitation isn't only to become better hosts. It's also to become better guests. To accept an invitation. To taste something unfamiliar. To let our neighbors give us something.

Who has been setting tables on your block long before you noticed?

➜ Read our new blog by .rooker called Taste the Table — Click the "blog" link in our bio!

What has the place you live taught you about caring for your neighbors?

Nathan Daniel Blake is a writer, storyteller, and spiritual wildling from post-industrial Appalachia, rooted in Victorian Old Town in Wheeling, West Virginia, and one of our Residents in Place. He's the founder of Seven Story Studio and Abbot of The Appalachian Order.

A few years ago he wrote down five characteristics of the spirituality his place had formed in him. His list belongs to the hills that raised him, and it's also an invitation to name what your own block has been teaching you all along.

Read all five on the blog. Link in bio.

What are you doing for National Good Neighbor Day on September 28th? Tell us in the comments and help spark an idea for someone else!

Still deciding how to celebrate? We put together a free downloadable guide filled with 25 simple, playful ways to connect with the people who share your place.

Host a dinner hop.
Share something from your garden.
Play music on the porch.
Gather for sips and snacks.
Leave a cheerful note.
Start small or invite the whole block.

There's no wrong way to do it! Just begin with what you have, pay attention to who is nearby, and see what grows.

Download Good Neighbor Day: 25 Ways to Celebrate Right Where You Are at the link in our bio.

As another school year begins, may we learn to pay attention.

To the children finding their way, the teachers and caregivers showing up, and all the people whose everyday work helps hold a school community together.

And to those of us who share the same sidewalks, parks, libraries, businesses, and streets.

Our schools are part of our neighborhoods, too.

May this school year invite us to notice one another, celebrate where there is joy, tend to where there is hurt, and remember that even one small act of neighboring can matter.

Save this prayer and share it with a neighbor, teacher, caregiver, or friend. 🤍

Back to school changes the rhythm of a neighborhood.

But what if going back to school could also mean going deeper into our neighborhoods?

Schools bring us into contact with teachers, parents, coaches, crossing guards, local businesses, and families we might not otherwise meet.

Neighboring can begin simply: learn a name. Start a conversation. Pay attention. Show up.

Because going back to school doesn't just mean kids are returning to their classrooms.

It can mean we're returning to our communities, too.

Read our new blog, Back to School and Back to the Neighborhood. → Link in bio.

What could good neighboring look like this week? 🏡

National Good Neighbor Day is coming up on September 28, and we think it's a pretty good excuse to practice something that matters all year long: being present to the people and places around us.

And good neighboring doesn't have to be complicated.

Invite someone over. Share something from your garden. Pull a few chairs into the front yard. Check in on someone you haven't seen lately. Pay attention to what's happening on your block.
Start small. Start close to home.

We've created a National Good Neighbor Day sharable to help you celebrate and invite others into the practice, too.

📥 Download the free sharable through the link in our bio, then share it with a neighbor, your church, or your local community.

Who knows? One small invitation might be the beginning of something beautiful.

There’s still time to join us!

September 18–20, we’re heading to Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice in Yamhill, Oregon, for a weekend of learning, listening, and being on the land together.

We’ll spend time with Dr. Randy and Edith Woodley exploring the Harmony Way and what it means to live in right relationship with Creator, creation, and one another.

If you’ve been thinking about coming, consider this your nudge. There’s still a seat for you.

📍 Eloheh · Yamhill, Oregon
📅 September 18–20
💵 $300 + your own travel and lodging

Come learn with us and the land. Link in bio to join!

What if the map of your city could be read as a confession?

Theologian and artist , one of our Residents in Place, rooted in LaGrange, Georgia, led her congregation through a practice she calls confessional mapmaking. It begins with an uncomfortable premise: that sin isn't only personal, but can be written into a place itself, into how a neighborhood was zoned, who was left out, the histories a place would rather forget.

Over a season of Lent, more than fifty members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church made a twelve-panel work together. It moves from confession, through the real and painful history of their own city, to a final panel where the wounded map of LaGrange is covered in gold, its divisions still visible, but transfigured.

The damage isn't erased. It's made new.

Read the full story at the link in bio. 🕊️

National Good Neighbor Day is September 28. 🏡 Of course, we’re big fans of any day that gives us an excuse to celebrate and practice neighboring!

Want to join in? Sometimes it can feel intimidating. We get it. But we believe that being a good neighbor rarely starts with something big. It starts with paying attention.

Learning the name of the person two doors down. Sharing something from your garden. Pulling up another chair. Checking in on someone you haven’t seen lately. Gathering a few people around a table. Noticing what is happening on your block and finding a small way to join in.

These ordinary practices are part of how we become more rooted in our places. They help us know our neighbors and their stories, discover the gifts already present, and pay attention to what God might be doing right next door.

So for National Good Neighbor Day, we put together a collection of simple, practical ways to gather, connect, share, and celebrate with the people around you.

Pick one. Give it a go! Try something you’ve never done before.

And then maybe keep doing it long after September 28.

👉Download our Good Neighbor Day resource through the link in bio.

Because neighboring isn’t something we celebrate once a year. It’s part of who we are.