Leadership

We are a circle by intention. In an era when the church too often reflects the hierarchy, hubris, and patriarchy of the surrounding culture, we at Circle of Mercy are committed to making a witness to shared leadership and respectful mutuality. We celebrate the “priesthood of all believers,” acknowledging that every person—from the youngest to the oldest—has gifts to bring to our shared life.

Our Pastoral Care Team facilitates the congregation’s compassionate care for one another, staying attuned to members’ needs and coordinating meals, transportation, childcare, and gifts in times of crisis and celebration. Members of the Prayer Shawl Ministry create beautiful homemade shawls, quilts, and afghans as reminders that the Circle is embracing their recipients in prayer. Terri Farless, who oversees these ministries, previously served as a leadership coordinator for Mars Hill College. She also brings to the work her years of experience as a community organizer, youth and children’s minister, and mother.

The Church Council meets monthly to attend to the business of the congregation, bringing items that need the attention or affirmation of the members to our quarterly business meetings—or to special called meetings when an urgent need arises. These meetings are facilitated by the congregation’s Moderator, who is elected by the congregation for a two-year term.

Members also offer their gifts in worship leadership, music, preaching, teaching, hospitality, and overseeing the financial life of the congregation. Mark Siler coordinates our music ministry. Mark, whose primary focus for the past eight years has been caring for his two young daughters, was the first director of Christians for a United Community. He has also served as a hospital chaplain and as co-coordinator of the Asheville Buncombe Living Wage Campaign. 

 We view our co-pastors not primarily as administrators or religious CEOs, but as midwives facilitating the life that we experience anew every time we gather. Two of the three serve Circle of Mercy as volunteers. Nancy Hastings Sehested has been a pioneer and longtime advocate for women in ministry. She has more than twenty years of experience pastoring local congregations and currently serves as senior chaplain at Marion Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Marion, N.C. Ken Sehested served for eighteen years as the director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. He co-founded Seeds, a magazine devoted to ending hunger; has written extensively about faith and political issues; and has been active in peacemaking efforts around the world, including Cuba, Palestine, Myanmar, and Iraq. Joyce Hollyday served for nine years as the Associate Conference Minister for the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ and fifteen years as the Associate Editor of Sojourners magazine. She is the author of several books, including Clothed with the Sun: Biblical Women, Social Justice, and Us and Then Shall Your Light Rise: Spiritual Formation and Social Witness.