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A LETTER FROM CHINA

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moving forward with our efforts:

 

At a moment when our nation and world are yearning for healing, meaning, and deeper connection, we invite you to help steward a rare and powerful opportunity.

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The Black Madonna Initiative at the San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS)—in partnership with the University of Redlands, Oakland Venue Management, and Curator-in-Residence China Galland—is emerging as a national center for sacred art, racial healing, and global spiritual dialogue. This initiative brings together one of the world’s most significant collections exploring the Divine Feminine with innovative education, public programming, and community-based dialogue grounded in compassion and truth-telling.

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At the heart of this work is the Black Madonna Collection and Archive, the culmination of more than three decades of global research, pilgrimage, photography, and documentation by China Galland. These images and materials—drawn from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States—bear witness to a sacred tradition that has sustained communities through oppression, displacement, and transformation. Now housed at SFTS, this extraordinary cultural treasure is being preserved, studied, and—most importantly—activated for our time.

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But this initiative is not a static archive. It is a living, generative ecosystem.

Through a growing series of community-facing courses, beginning with the flagship offering The Black Madonna: Sacred Art, Racial Healing & the Womb of Wisdom, students and community members engage the Collection directly—learning to interpret sacred imagery, explore racial and cultural histories, and develop tools for pastoral leadership, artistic expression, and reconciliation. These courses are designed to seed future leaders: educators, clergy, artists, facilitators, and cultural stewards who carry this wisdom back into congregations, schools, and communities.

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In parallel, the Initiative is launching a robust public events and exhibitions series, positioning the SFTS campus in San Anselmo as a regional and national destination for sacred art and dialogue. These programs will include co-sponsored gallery installations, artist and scholar talks, ritual experiences, pilgrimages, and film screenings that invite the wider public into meaningful encounters with art, history, and healing.

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A cornerstone of this public engagement is China Galland’s documentary film, Resurrecting Love. The film explores the long-suppressed history of Love Cemetery in East Texas—an African American burial ground to which descendants have been denied access for generations—and the ongoing effort by their families, by HBCU Wiley University and the larger community descendants to reclaim dignity, memory, and justice. Resurrecting Love is a powerful meditation on land, ancestry, race, grief, and repair, and it resonates deeply with the Black Madonna’s global symbolism of fierce compassion and protection.

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At SFTS, the film is more than a screening—it becomes a catalyst. Resurrecting Love will anchor facilitated dialogues, courses, and public conversations developed in partnership with the Global Dialogue Initiative and its internationally recognized Safe Conversations framework, led by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. Together, we are adapting Safe Conversations tools to help participants move beyond polarization toward empathy, deep listening, and relational healing—across racial, cultural, and ideological divides. This integration of film, sacred art, and dialogue creates a replicable model for community healing that can be shared nationally and globally.

Your support makes this possible.

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Philanthropic investment enables us to preserve and digitize the Collection; develop and sustain courses and faculty leadership; mount exhibitions and public programs; support student scholarships; and build the infrastructure for long-term impact, including an endowed Curatorship and dedicated Preservation Fund. Donor support also allows us to expand digital access, host symposia and residencies, and ensure that this work remains accessible to diverse communities—not just academic audiences.

This is an invitation to legacy-making.

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By supporting the Black Madonna Initiative, you are helping to:

• Preserve a global sacred tradition for future generations

• Advance racial healing rooted in spiritual wisdom and honest dialogue

• Cultivate leaders shaped by art, ritual, and justice

• Establish SFTS as a global center for sacred art and theological imagination

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The Black Madonna has long appeared in times of upheaval—as a symbol of resilience, truth, and love strong enough to hold suffering and transform it. With your partnership, this initiative will ensure that her wisdom continues to guide, challenge, and heal in our own fractured moment.

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We would be honored to explore how your philanthropy can help build this sacred legacy.

With gratitude and hope,

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China Galland
Curator-in-Residence, The Black Madonna Initiative

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Now housed at 

The San Francisco Theological Seminary
University of Redlands, Marin Campus

105 Seminary Road, 

Montgomery Hall, Room 212
San Anselmo, California

 

 

​​​​And to return to the film: Resurrecting Love has a powerful effect on audiences.  We are presently focusing on distribution and getting as many people as possible around the world watching it.  We know that it moves people every time it is shown.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Love Cemetery, the small, two-hundred year old African American cemetery in East Texas represents the endangered landscape of Black burial grounds all over the United States, graveyards that today are getting built over, cut up, covered by freeways and dividing neighborhoods.  With your help, we can offer our documentary on Love Cemetery to audiences countrywide to help stem the tide.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

 

 

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