Who we are

Angie Thurston

is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where she served for five years as a Ministry Innovation Fellow. She is a co-founder of Sacred Design Lab, which works to ensoul American culture.

It took a lot for me to go inward that first time. Even though I’d been raised in a spiritual home, I spent my young adult life in very secular environments, where the idea of “communing with Spirit” was totally outside of scope. I remember being in college and listening to jazz every morning to try to feel less empty inside. By the time I was 28, my body had started to respond to the stress and anxiety, and I developed chronic muscle tension. That’s what finally got me to sit down for 5 minutes, swallow my pride, and try connecting to the inner Spirit I (quietly) claimed to believe in. It wasn’t much that first day, but in the years since, it’s become everything. 

With Spirit’s help, I’ve redirected my life, and doing this project with my mom is one of many unpredictable turns the journey has taken! We each go inward daily and share what we are discovering, and as each of us continues to experience the positive impacts in our lives, it has become untenable to keep it to ourselves. We’re both impelled by the crisis of disconnection in our culture. I’m especially moved by the depths of despair among rising generations. If there’s anything we can possibly offer, we have to try. So here we are, beginning!

Claire Thurston

recently retired from the Federal Executive Institute after 15 years with national government leadership institutions. She is an artist and mother of three amazing children.

I am on my journey with you as a fellow traveler. Early, I faced abuse within the appearance of a materially successful home life and struggled to overcome my fears in pursuit of a different reality. Raising a family of my own and deepening into spiritual experience helped with the healing. As an artist, writer, and public servant, I’ve enjoyed collaborating with others to share our gifts. Despite hardships, I now believe in and am inspired by the unlimited potential for growth within a friendly universe.

Angie and I have been friends for a long time, not in the way parents try to act younger to appeal to their kids, but because Angie’s been an old soul—by the time she was four, I found that, at least part of the time, I talked with her as a peer.

As adults, we share a passion for the inner life, and a common background, both having pursued religious studies. But the motive that we share deeply and drives us both, is combatting spiritual deprivation. I can’t stand to see people being blocked from access to the riches within themselves and others. I feel this drive so viscerally—the need to fling open the gates to an expanded experience of meaning.