Our values
Earth
1
Something ancient is holding us right at this very moment. Earth has sustained life for billions of years. Long before humans came about. The Earth isn’t just the ground we stand on. She is our oldest kin, our first community, our home.
Awe
2
Something happens when we stand at the shore of the ocean, look up at the tallest redwoods, or notice a wildflower growing somewhere unexpected. Our sense of self softens and our ego, just for a moment, subsides. Time slows. We feel that we belong to something vast. Science calls this awe. The reminder that we are part of an enormous ecological community. We’re not at the center, but part of a chorus of living beings.
Each Other
3
Everything that lives is bound up in relationship. Trees communicate through roots. Rivers carry memory. Humans need each other the way mycelia need soil. Not as a preference but as a condition of being alive.
At Kin SF we practice relationship. Showing up for one another is ecological, relational, and radical.
A Welcome from Josh, eco-chaplain of Kin SF
We live in San Francisco, a city shadowed by some of the most powerful industries in human history. Companies that are scorching our planet for profit, monetizing our attention, and engineering our loneliness.
We live in a world where organized religion has too often chosen power over people, certainty over compassion, and empire over Earth.
Kin SF is a different kind of community.
A remembering. Of something older and truer than algorithms or doctrine. The reality that we belong to each other, to this living world, and that we have a responsibility toward all living beings.
Where we are
Meet Kin SF Leaders
Joshua Hersh
Eco-Chaplain, Kin SFStarting Kin SF came to me after years of spiritual exploration, experimentation, and finally finding my spiritual home in the living world.
I believe the estrangement we feel from other people and the disconnect we feel from the Earth are the same wound—and that mending one requires mending the other.
I value building community, coming alongside people, and doing what I can to bring some joy to the world.
My thinking has been shaped by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sherri Mitchell, Patty Krawec, adrienne marie brown, Mary Oliver, John O'Donohue, Dacher Keltner, Carl Jung, Thomas Berry, Andreas Weber, and many others — all teachers who understood the Earth not as a backdrop to human life but as its very ground.
I almost went to seminary twice. Turns out, this is the community I was meant to build.
One of the things I value most is getting to know people beyond Sunday mornings. If you'd like to share a walk, a cup of coffee, or just some time to talk — about life, about what you're carrying, about whatever's on your mind — I'd love that. Reach out and let's find a time.
Interested in our mission?
Kin SF is just beginning — and we’re looking for one person who wants to help tend it.
Specifically: a small group & volunteer coordinator. Someone who loves people, wants to help members connect beyond Sunday mornings, and feels called to help Kin SF show up for the Earth in tangible ways. This is a volunteer role for now.
Kin SF is currently self-funded and volunteer-led, with a vision to become a 501(c)(3). The right person will grow with us.
If this stirs something in you, reach out.