
Rose, a native of the West Coast, lives in Washington, D.C. She has been on Sojourners staff since 1986.
For more than 30 years, Rose has rooted herself with Sojourners magazine and ministry. She is author of Bending the Arch: Poems (2019), Drawn By God: A History of the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries from 1967 to 1991 (with Janet Gottschalk, 2012), and Who Killed Donte Manning? The Story of an American Neighborhood.
A native of the West Coast, Rose has lived in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. since the mid-1980s. In the course of a 30 plus-year career in faith-based activism, advocacy journalism, and pastoral leadership, she has proven to be a skilled organizer, exceptional writer, visionary pastoral leader, and innovative teacher of biblical literacy.
With Sojourners, Rose has worked as an organizer on peace and environmental issues, internship program director, liturgist, community pastor, poetry editor, and, currently, as a Senior Associate Editor of Sojourners magazine, where she writes a regular column on spirituality and justice. She is responsible for the Living the Word section, poetry, Bible studies, and interviews – and oversees the production of study guides, discussion guides, and the online bible study Preaching the Word. She is also a religion reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a Huffington Post commentator. Her work has appeared in National Catholic Reporter, Publishers Weekly, Religion News Service, Radical Grace-Oneing, The Merton Seasonal, U.S. Catholic, and elsewhere.
Rose has a veteran history in social justice activism, including: organizing inter-religious witness against the Keystone XL pipeline; educating and training groups in nonviolence; leading retreats in spirituality and justice; writing on topics as diverse as the “Spiritual Vision of Van Gogh, O'Keeffe, and Warhol,” the war in the Balkans, interviews with black activists Vincent Harding and Yvonne Delk, the Love Canal's Lois Gibbs, and Mexican archbishop Ruiz, cultural commentary on the Catholic church and the peace movement, reviews of movies, books, and music.
A founding member of a small creative writing group, Rose Berger has taught writing and poetry workshops for children and adults. She’s completed her MFA in poetry through the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. Her poetry has been published in Sojourners, The Other Side, Radix and D.C. Poets Against the War.
Rose grew up in the Central Valley of California, located in the rich flood plains of the Sacramento and American rivers. Raised in radical Catholic communities heavily influenced by Franciscans and the Catholic Worker movement, she served for nine years on the pastoral team for Sojourners Community Church; five as its co-pastor. She directed Sojourners internship program from 1990-1999. She is currently senior editor and poetry editor for Sojourners magazine.
She has traveled throughout the United States, and also in Israel/Palestine, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosova, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador visiting primarily with faith communities working for peace in situations of conflict.
Rose’s articles include:
- Pursuing the Secret of Joy: What is joy when it's not promiscuously tied to happiness, Hallmark, or hedonism?
- Nonviolence in Najaf?: Will we recognize an Islamic peace movement when we see it?
- A Presidential Option for the Poor? :Venezuela's Hugo Chavez stirs up fierce criticism - and hope.
- Of Love's Risen Body: The poetry of Denise Levertov, 1923-1997
- Glimpses of God Outside the Temple: The spiritual vision of Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe, and Andy Warhol.
- Damnation Will Not Be Televised: Almost everything I know about hell I learned from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer
She lives in the Southern Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the Anacostia watershed on traditional Piscataway lands.
Posts By This Author
Citizens Remember
After a two-year process, the Greensboro (North Carolina) Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first of its kind in the United States, delivered its final report in May on the events surroundin
Judas, We Hardly Knew Ye
César Chávez Saved My Life
Nane Alejandrez had plenty of opportunities to die. Instead he chose life, and brought generations of Latino youngsters with him.
Will The Desert Bloom
In an arid valley of northwestern Afghanistan, diets used to consist of little more than tea and bread, and women remained in the home.
Sanctuary Movement on the Rise
The city council of Maywood, California, declared the town a refuge for undocumented residents in January.
Operation Peaceforce
Amid increased violence in Sri Lanka, Nonviolent Peaceforce members are providing unarmed accompaniment to those delivering aid, as well as applying nonviolent strategies to prote
News Bites
• Olive Branch. In April, 120 former Israel Defense Force soldiers and Palestinian militants publicly launched “Combatants for Peace,” a partnership of former enem
The Art of Savoring
Si, se puede!
Protesters holding an American flag join thousands of people during an immigration rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in April.
News Bites
World Peace. A new Internet service provider, Peacenik.co.uk, will raise money for peacemakers working in conflict zones around the world.
Happy 100th to the Holy Rollers!
Rebuilding Cajun Country
Rodell and Dale Scarabin and their children outside their makeshift house in Venice, Louisiana, in January, following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Green (and Not So Green) Evangelicals
In February, 86 evangelical leaders declared climate change a Christian priority and lent their support to political initiatives to fight global warming, saying “The earth’s natural s
News Bites
•Dish it Up. The employees of Windows on the World restaurant, which was destroyed in the Sept.
Come On Down!
Twenty-five Christian peacemakers, members of Witness Against Torture, walked 50 miles from Santiago, Cuba, to the gates of the controversial U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in December to protest the treatment of prisoners detained there.
Picket And Pray
U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious leaders in front of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., in December while they knelt on the steps to pray and protest the planned federal budget cuts to social programs that aid the poor. The event was organized by Sojourners and Call to Renewal. “I have lived and worked among the poor for 12-plus years,” Denver-based participant Michelle Warren told Sojourners. “I am an evangelical Christian and we, as evangelicals, need to advocate for the poor. Today was just the beginning.”
News Bites
- Give a Hoot. Despite official U.S. opposition, nations that have signed the Kyoto Protocol were able to make progress on binding emission-reduction goals for industrialized countries at a Montreal meeting in December. Nearly 200 U.S. mayors attended in support of the Protocol, as well as many U.S. faith groups.