Civic Saturday
A civic analogue to a faith gathering.
Civic Saturday brings friends and strangers together to nurture a spirit of shared purpose.
It’s a place to connect around the values and practices of being an active citizen. To reckon with and reflect on our nation’s creed. To build relationships that create new civic traditions that are joyful and communal.
There aren’t many places for us to come together and reflect our faith in democracy, so we’ve created one of our own. A gathering designed to rebuild belief in our civic institutions and in each other.
Civic Saturdays are a wonderful forum to say…. What are your civic values? How do we form a cohesive fabric together?
A civic analogue to a faith gathering
America is not defined simply by the promises on parchment, but rather by our willingness to reflect on and keep working toward them. Indeed, democracy works only when enough of us believe that democracy works.
In 2016, we hosted our first Civic Saturday gathering in a local bookstore in our hometown of Seattle. After a seismic election, we knew our community needed a place to process, reflect, and figure out what to do next. These gatherings quickly became a regular civic ritual.
At Civic Saturdays, we share music, poetry, readings of civic scripture, and what we call a civic sermon. If these elements sound familiar, it’s because we’ve designed Civic Saturdays as a civic analogue to a faith gathering. We recognize the power of coming together in this way — with a sense of ritual and structure — in service of deepening connectedness and belief. In this case, belief in democracy.
Ready to feel some civic spirit?
Growing gatherings
People across the nation are yearning for fellowship, a connection to common purpose, and a bigger story of us. That’s why we’re spreading this revival of spirit across the country. From Wichita, Kansas to Miami, Florida, Civic Saturdays are happening in banquet halls and street corners, art stores and Zoom rooms.
Our Civic Saturday Fellowship is a place for you to learn how to take the Civic Saturday format and adapt it to the needs of their hometowns. The Fellowship is a six-month experience of learning, connection, and transformation.
We are building a nation-wide movement of civic rituals and gatherings. Are you our next Fellow? Learn more about the Civic Saturday Fellowship →
Eric Liu's civic sermon delivered at our virtual Civic Saturday on December 4, 2021.
Taking a counterintuitive approach to busyness and burnout: a rejuvenating Zoom call.
We joined with people across the nation for a gathering full of heart, reflection, and renewal.
