About
Jeff Wells strives to live intentionally with compassion, care, commitment, courage, and love for all creatures and the ecological systems in which we are all interconnected, interwoven, and upon which we all depend. He serves as the Convener / Organizer for the Ecocivilization Visioning Forum, which dreams and promotes the vision of ecological civilization as part of the Ecocivilization Coalition.
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Jeff is a lifelong passionate advocate for social and economic justice and for the common thriving of humans and more than human beings. He is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America since 2016.
In 2022, Jeff helped found and co-chaired the Living Earth Movement. With theologian and environmentalist, John B. Cobb Jr., he authored the short book, Is International Cooperation Possible?A Bold Appeal for a Living Earth (2022).
Jeff previously served as the lead pastor of the Church of the Village, a progressive, radically inclusive, and anti-racist spiritual community in the New York City. For more than 20 years, he helped lead the struggles against racism within the United Methodist Church and for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons as lay and clergy members.
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Jeff promotes process-relational and open & relational theology, which are loving and life-giving understandings of God and God's relationship with all life and the whole cosmos. They help to overcome false and hurtful aspects of classical Christian theology that have driven millions of former Christians to leave church. Jeff co-edited (with Thomas Jay Oord, Vikki Randall, and Nichole Torbitzky) the book, Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open, Relational, and Process Theology, SacraSage Press, 2024.
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​Jeff’s non-fiction writing has been published widely in print and online. He loves hiking, kayaking, singing, and playing acoustic guitar.​