Senior Editor, Sojourners magazine
Photo: Brandon Hook / Sojourners

Invite Rose to Speak

Rose, who lived in Washington, D.C. for 35 years, lives in Oak View, Calif. She has been on Sojourners staff since 1986.

For more than 35 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.

In the course of a 35 plus-year career in faith-based activism, advocacy journalism, and pastoral leadership, Rose 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 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 Ukraine, 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:

She lives in Oak View, Calif., in the Ventura River watershed on traditional Chumash lands.

Posts By This Author

Women Empowered to Fight AIDS

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

The San Francisco-based Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance received a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fight HIV/AIDS in Malawi, Africa.

Wonder-Working Power

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

In January, Maine Interfaith Power and Light—an electricity-purchasing group rooted in the faith community—announced the availability of two green electricity options for homeowners in Maine.

The Working World

by Rose Marie Berger 05-01-2003

Two years of economic slowdown has pushed the number of unemployed to new heights worldwide, according to a recent study by the International Labor Office.

Terrorist Training Camp?

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

Eighty-six human rights advocates from across the United States were tried in January and February in federal court for nonviolent civil disobedience

No Offense

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

It's ironic that peace often brings strife.

Real Product: Got the Cube?

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

EvangeCube slaps the entire mystery of salvation on a Rubik-style cube, enabling instant conversions in friends, family, and neighbors. Flip one way and you'll see our fall from grace.

Reggae to Rachmaninoff

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

For too long civic participation in the arts has been viewed as the domain of the wealthy, but a new study by the Urban Institute suggests otherwise.

Defending Life, Rights

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

Pro-life demonstrators protested the D.C. government's use of surveillance cameras during the January March for Life

News Bites

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003

Healing Hope. Family members of Sept. 11 victims traveled on a peace mission to Iraq in January.

Resources

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 05-01-2003
Building Supplies

A Poetry Roundup

by Rose Marie Berger 03-01-2003

Yesterday I got a call from a friend I hadn't spoken with in more than a year. "I have to tell someone this," she said.

Hyperventilating for the Lord

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

Critics who insist the church is full of hot air finally have their proof: British entrepreneur Mike Gill has introduced the world's first (and hopefully last) inflatable church.

Resources: Building Supplies

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

Still confused about the rules governing political activity by religious organizations? 

Best Practices: Changing Clothes

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

No Sweat apparel has a strict dress code: union-made only.

Exorcise That!

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

Last November, 12 clergy in full regalia—accompanied by acolytes with candles, crosses, holy water, and faith—processed to the federal building in Portland, Oregon...

Demolition Democracy

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

Recently the Associated Press identified some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration through the USA Patriot Act and the Office of Homeland Security:

Pro-Life, Not Execution

by Rose Marie Berger 03-01-2003

Gov. George Ryan cleared Illinois' death row in January when he commuted 171 condemned inmates' sentences...

First Martyr Mourned

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

George Weber, 73, of Chesley, Ontario, was killed in a motor accident on January 6 while traveling with a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation north of Basrah, Iraq.

The Little Train That Wouldn't

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

To protest Prime Minister Tony Blair's threat to attack Iraq, two U.K. train drivers refused in January to move a freight train carrying ammunition

Are You a Terrorist, Too?

by Rose Marie Berger, by Kate Bowman 03-01-2003

Sister Antonia Anthony is a 74-year-old Franciscan nun who raises funds for the poor of southern Mexico.