Rev. Cassidy Hall (she/her/hers) (MA, MDiv, MTS) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger. Her book, Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality was released in May of 2024. Cassidy is widely published and resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.

Cassidy is ordained in the United Church of Christ and serves as Director of Communications for the Heartland and IKC Conferences  – overseeing Communication needs for hundreds of churches in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana. 

Throughout her time at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, she worked as a Teaching Assistant while studying for her MDiv and MTS degrees (December, 2021). During her time there, she also served as the Secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society and on the board of enfleshed.  Her MTS thesis is titled “Awakening Mysticism with the Scholarship of Three African American Women,” and features the work of the Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, Spiritual Directors of Color Network Founder Therese Taylor Stinson, and Dr. Joy R. Bostic. 

Cassidy co-authored Notes on Silence (2018) and has had her work published in a number of places including: Thirsty, and You Gave Me Drink; Homilies and Reflections for Cycle C, from Clear Faith Publishing (2021). Her essays have been published in the Christian Century, Convivium Journal, The Thomas Merton Seasonal, The Thomas Merton Annual (Vol.  32), and has been featured on The Huffington Post, Patheos, and the National Catholic Reporter. She has also worked on the editorial staff of the Wilbur Award-Winning Blog, Sick Pilgrim.

In 2012, while working as a counselor and reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, Cassidy made a pilgrimage to all seventeen Trappist/Cistercian Monasteries of the United States. While there, she wrote, interviewed monks and nuns, and photographed her entire experience within these seventeen spaces. Her personal quest for silence was written about in this Des Moines Register feature article by Mike Kilen.

Cassidy is available to be booked for lectures, presentations, retreats, and film screenings. Contact Cassidy.

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