The Reverend Adriene Thorne is a native of Washington, D.C. where she grew up the eldest daughter in a family of four siblings. Raised Roman Catholic, Adriene attended parochial school from second grade through high school. She left college following her junior year and moved to New York City to pursue a life-long dream of becoming a classical ballerina. Adriene completed her undergraduate studies towards the end of a nearly 20-year career in the performing arts, and currently serves as the Executive Minister at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village of New York City where she has creatively shared the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ for eight years. 

Reverend Thorne received her undergraduate degree from The State University of New York — Empire State College, concentrating in the field of Cultural Studies with a Creative Writing focus. She went on to earn her Master of Divinity degree in Art, Religion, and Psychology from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., where she was awarded the school's highest honor. She completed post-graduate studies in pastoral care and counseling at The Blanton-Peale Institute and is certified as a coach and disaster chaplain. 

Ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America, Adriene celebrates the priesthood of all believers and holds an understanding of all God's people as "called." She has served as a member of the Reformed Church in America’s Commission on Christian Worship, the RCA’s Global Mission Task Force, and as a Room for All board member, advocating for the full inclusion of LGBT persons in the life and ministry of the Reformed Church in America. Adriene is active with interfaith and ecumenical organizations and professional ministry groups, seeking justice and joy for all God’s children.

Healing and the arts are central to Adriene's ministry and life. Her theology of healing says the arts have the ability to drop us into the center of ourselves and our healing, more quickly than anything else we can access. From that center, she says that we touch the holy and that we reconnect with that in ourselves which is authentic and creative.  Prior to ministry, Adriene danced professionally with the Dance Theatre of Harlem's Workshop Ensemble and toured the U.S. and Canada in a Broadway musical. She has performed at The Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, and Radio City Music Hall where she held the center spot as a World Famous Rockette. Reverend Thorne is the founder of Everything That Breathes, a national organization connecting artists with faith communities for the purposes of sharing the gospel in fresh and creative ways. 

Reverend Thorne has taught throughout her career, both nationally and internationally, developing curricula for all age groups that integrates movement with concepts of teambuilding, identity, and healthy living. She has served as visiting artist/theologian at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, as lecturer, in the area of spiritual formation, at Union Theological Seminary, and as keynote speaker and preacher at The Pacific School of Religion. Her work has been published in the Huffington Post Religion section, That Reformed Blog, and in The Twelve, where she has appeared as a guest writer.

Reverend Thorne is passionate about retreats, prayers, and preaching. She enjoys good food, good music, and good community. She is thrilled to offer her gifts in faith communities interested in following God’s lead and living the good news with playful imagination. Adriene resides in New York City with her husband, Colin, her stepson, Christopher, and her daughter, Petal.

Posts By This Author

Our Nation's Moral Leprosy

by Adriene Thorne 06-27-2016

Image via /Shutterstock.com

We need healing from the disfiguring moral leprosy of "better than." My political viewpoint is right. My faith is true. My country is best. The illness that plagues us crosses partisan lines. It includes people of faith. It includes "the nones.” Moral leprosy is blemishing our best ideals, our best faith, our best selves. It infects us, whether we arrogantly place our affinity group above all others, or apathetically fail to speak and act against those who do. Caught in the festering wound that pits God's children against one another, we are called to make the fetid mess right. We are called to heal.

How the Church Fails Women and Girls

by Adriene Thorne 04-14-2016
It's Been Two Years Since Boko Haram's Mass Kidnapping. The Girls Still Haven't Been Brought Back.

Rebecca Samuels. Image via On Scripture.

Too often in the biblical witness, violence against women and girls focuses disproportionate energy on the feelings and actions of men. King David is furious. Absalom feels hatred. And the desolate Tamar is instructed to be quiet. Her rapist was, after all, her kinfolk, her half-brother, a member of her tribe.