Author: RadicalDiscipleship

Look! God’s tent is among humans!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

Diane FairfieldBy Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson

Powerful images from the Bible’s closing chapters, Revelation 21-22, are featured in these ongoing weeks of Uprising. We focus here on the entirety of Revelation’s vision of “New Jerusalem,” and will return to John’s Gospel and Acts in coming weeks (painting right: “New Jerusalem” by Diane Fairfield).

No New Testament text reverberates more with Hebrew Scripture than Revelation. Almost every image in John of Patmos’ visionary description of New Jerusalem has a scriptural antecedent. The “new heaven and new earth” which he proclaims is indeed new, but also the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams of God’s people throughout the ages. Continue reading “Look! God’s tent is among humans!” →

Hovering

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment
Hovering
Photo: Michael Smith

By Tommy Airey

A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion…
Mark 4:37-38a

A violent squall came up,
waves of shame-based codependency,
white supremacy,
addiction to efficiency,
fear of intimacy,
lack of emotional competency
flooding my boat. Continue reading “Hovering” →

Learning from Laughter and the Trees: Tell Me About Easter, Mommy.

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Uncategorized1 Comment
cherry
Photo credit: Erinn Fahey

By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

“Tell me about Easter, Mommy.” Oh, Shit. Has that time come already? How to explain resurrection to a three year old? How do I tell my kid that Jesus died and came back to life? How do I explain our most sacred story?

We’ve spent the last year and a half learning about death, holding it sacred, singing songs, holding fish funerals, burying my Grandma Bea, and visiting my mom’s grave. We’ve tried to hold the tension of telling him the truth and also being gentle with his heart paying close attention to any moments of confusion or fear. We made a decision to be honest with him about the very earthly reality of death, something that even adults in our culture try to ignore. Death is a beautiful, ordinary, and hard part of life. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter and the Trees: Tell Me About Easter, Mommy.” →

¡Grandma Teresa, PRESENTE!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Cloud of Witnesses1 Comment

Grandma TeresaBy Cait De Mott Grady, a eulogy for her grandma, Teresa Jane Shaughnessy Grady (right), who died on Sunday, April 10th in her home in Ithaca, NY

I am Caithraoine Jane De Mott Grady, daughter of Ellen Grady and Peter John De Mott, granddaughter of Teresa Jane Shaughnessy and John Peter Grady, great granddaughter to Mary Baldwin and Tom Shaughnessy. Sister to Marie, Nora, and Saoirse. Cousin to Manny, Gabriel, Isaiah, Ana, Leah, Rosie, Oona, Jack (Jass), Thaddeus, Michael, Seán, Ariel, Madailein, and Clare. Niece to John, Laurie, Clare, Paul, Larry, Mary Anne, Teresa, Oscar and Cesar. Continue reading “¡Grandma Teresa, PRESENTE!” →

Landmark Vatican conference rejects just war theory, asks for encyclical on nonviolence

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Bandiera_pace-300x201Update from Rose Berger

I’m pleased to share news of our phenomenal gathering this week in Rome. Please read the article from the National Catholic Reporter (below). We have had a tremendous week. Today we were able to deliver the final document to the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace. Marie Dennis addressed an envelope to Papa Francesco containing the statement and a personal letter and it was placed on Cardinal Turkson’s desk for delivery. Continue reading “Landmark Vatican conference rejects just war theory, asks for encyclical on nonviolence” →

Miriam

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

DSC_0158.JPGBy Tevyn East, Carnival de Resistance

“So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days; and the people did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again.”      Numbers 12: 15

In May of 2012, I entered into an artistic collaboration with Jay Beck, my now husband and partner in producing the Carnival de Resistance. We had established that I would come up to Philadelphia and together we would create works of theater that re-contextualize stories from scripture, based around each of the four elements: Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Immediately upon landing, we discerned that we would first focus on the voice of water and that I would delve into the story of Miriam, Moses’ sister. Little did I know that this choice would throw me straight into the deep end! Continue reading “Miriam” →

I give them life of the age to come!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

LightBy Wes Howard-Brook & Sue Ferguson Johnson

As we continue through the season of Uprising, the lectionary pulls a passage from John’s gospel totally out of context (John 10.22-30). It finds Jesus in the temple during the festival of Chanukah, the celebration of the military victory of a guerrilla band of Judeans over their Seleucid (Greek) oppressor, some two centuries before Jesus. It is the only mention of Chanukah in the Bible (the books which describe the battles leading to the feast are in 1-2 Maccabees, which are among the Apocrypha and not part of Hebrew Scripture). It comes after a long series of confrontations and challenges in and around the feast of Sukkoth, aka “Tabernacles” or “Booths,” that fills John 7.1-10.21. Chanukah carried no scriptural mandate requiring all male Israelites to journey to Jerusalem, as did the three torah-temple feasts of Pesach (Passover), Sukkoth and Shavuoth (Pentecost), as found in Deuteronomy 16. Thus, we can imagine that those still in Jerusalem during the rainy, winter season would be the “true” Jerusalemites, those most eager to hear a word about a coming “messiah” who would vanquish the Romans with military power and divine authority. Continue reading “I give them life of the age to come!” →

White Ain’t God

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race1 Comment

nick petersonA recent Facebook post from Rev. Nick Peterson, Capital Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg, PA:

As a powerful but vain imagination, white supremacy attempts to imprison God to whiteness. In a white supremacist framework – God has a white sentence without parole. While confined, God must look white, talk white, think white, affirm white, bless white, and value, above all things, “his” own image made in whiteness. White supremacy attempts to hold the very God of the universe in chains – theological, liturgical, spiritual, creedal, geographical, social, emotional, and political.  Continue reading “White Ain’t God” →

Regulation and Resistance in North Carolina

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment
obama
President Obama creates gender inclusive bathroom in the White House.

By Joyce Hollyday

On Easter Sunday, during our sharing of joys and concerns at Circle of Mercy, a longtime member reminded us through her tears that her teenaged transgender nephew moved here to Asheville, North Carolina, from a Navy-centric city on the Virginia coast to be in a safer place. I had breathed a sigh of relief when we welcomed him a few years ago and facilitated connections with Youth OutRight, an empowered and empowering local LGBTQ community. Continue reading “Regulation and Resistance in North Carolina” →