In this transformational time of unprecedented diversity and change, twenty-first century American culture bears a remarkable similarity to the first century Palestine of the Roman Empire. In this light, the person of Jesus may be more relevant to us today than ever before. The increasing confluence of different cultures, ethnicities and religions; the presence of a preeminent political power; and the existence of poverty amidst enormous prosperity, take us back to the setting into which Jesus was born.

It is a conviction at the Ark that human healing and wholeness are needed by us all. In this need, Jesus always went out into the margins of the world, where he was received and celebrated for the Godly truths he bore. The universality of his truth came not by the dynamic of domination and exclusion – i.e. “My God is more universal than your God” – but by mutual relationship, whereby his universality was generated by the Godly dynamic of including everyone in the universe.

In such a spirit, The Ark is dedicated to embracing all who come. And in such a spirit, it is committed to recognizing the gifts each of us brings, and celebrating them as a sign of God’s gift of life that is all around us. If, as Jesus evoked, “the margins” mark "the center" of life in God, then the arts, new ideas, our sometimes lonely selves, are all fertile ground by which we can grow in relationship to God.