Co-mingling of mischief

On July 16, 2019July 15, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Biography as Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

20190813-DSC05253 — Geez staff: Em Jacoby, Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, Lucia Wylie-Eggert, and Kateri Boucher Photo credit: Daniel Wylie-Eggert

Dear Radical Discipleship readers,

These last few months my life has intertwined between daily posts on RadicalDiscipleship and the crafting of word and images for Geez magazine. I love the work. My heart rises to the gathering of stories and the power of word in our work for liberation.

I am struck by the ways that RadicalDiscipleship and Geez co-mingle in their theologies, their work, and the communities of writers and readers. They bless one another and I am blessed by them both. They are different looking limbs in the common struggle. I long to conspire more holy mischief between the two. My mind is percolating and if you have thoughts, send them my way.

In the meantime, I want to make sure the invitation for both readers and writers is explicit. RadicalDiscipleship is a daily online dose of spirit. Geez is a strictly off-line oasis of beauty and story arriving in your mailbox four times a year.

If you don’t believe me, Tom Airey, my fellow co-curator and friend said “Over the past few years, Geez magazine has been like an ice cold IPA for my soul.”

So, we are offering a rare deal to RadicalDiscipleship readers to subscribe to Geez for 20% off. (A one year subscription normally $39 a year would be $31.20 or a three year subscription for $105 is now just $84.) Simply click HERE and put in the code “RD”.

Also, if you want to join Geez’s monthly newsletter or sign up to be in our writers/artist list, click HERE.

Ok, that is as close to an ad as you are going to get on RD.

Love and gratitude for this community,

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
lydia@geezmagazine.org

My Prayer (August, 1980)

On July 8, 2019July 31, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Biography as Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary

In his work on his manuscript-size memoirs, charting a life between the two Poor Peoples Campaigns, Oz Cole-Arnal (photo right) has reached the decade of his early to latter ’40s, the most broken period of his 78 years. He recounts betraying virtually all his values, barely able to sustain his faith & vision toward radical equality, stumbling along in brokenness, hurting all those he loved most. One help in such tumbling was the turning to poetry, which he has rediscovered & re-absorbed. This is the first of two poems to be posted on RadicalDiscipleship.net.

Agonizing over bills, wanting more money, always more.

Always hungry, often empty, craving the offered promises.

Success, manhood, recognition, love,

Happiness in pills, food, the quick win, casual sex.

I deplore it, yet want it all.

Forgive my bourgeois ways!

Continue reading “My Prayer (August, 1980)” →

Some prayers can only be written in the summertime…

On July 3, 2019June 20, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Uncategorized2 Comments

“Gnats”
By Kateri Boucher

Let us be gnats in the ears of Empire —

ever-multiplying
ever-agitating
ever-disturbing the so-called peace

Let us be so small and so numerous
that they cannot ignore us.

Individually, let us take turns.
Collectively, let us never rest.

The Gift of Vulnerability

On July 2, 2019June 19, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized1 Comment

By Joyce Hollyday

The jangle of an incoming text woke me from a deep sleep. “We’re in trouble,” it began. It was 5:16 a.m. California time. I was 2,000 miles from home, jet-lagged and groggy. I managed to send a reply to Michael along the lines of “Be there as soon as I can.” Michael and me with Sparky at the beach

Michael Galovic and Tamara Puffer met almost 25 years ago at the Open Door Community in Atlanta, when he was living there as a resident volunteer and she showed up one day to help out in the soup kitchen with the youth group from the suburban Presbyterian church where she served as associate pastor. Tamara kept coming back. Her time at the Open Door reshaped her theology and calling, and she began seeking a position where she could serve marginalized people like the homeless ones and former prisoners who were revealing Jesus to her there in transformative ways. Continue reading “The Gift of Vulnerability” →

Trans Mountain Lament

On June 26, 2019June 21, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Just Peacemaking, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Photo-by-vikki — Photo by Victoria Marie

By Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie (June 13, 2019)

The State says they want to make things right with First Nations
Yet their actions lead to more and more desolation
Reconciliation’s just a word to those who hold power
As policies continue to make relationships sour Continue reading “Trans Mountain Lament” →

Eco-ministry

On June 25, 2019June 20, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Ric Hudgens

The first week of June I joined with fifteen other “ministers” for a six-day eco-ministry intensive. This retreat was sponsored by Ecology of Awakening and the Chaplaincy Institute and funded by the Riverstyx Foundation.

These sixteen religious leaders all recognized the need to re-hear our original calls to ministry. Our communities are anxious and fatigued. We minister among them in times of crisis, injustice, polarizing and sometimes paralyzing despair.

Can we embody a faith-rooted activism that protects the sacredness of the Earth?

If the Earth community is to flourish, if our future is to be regenerative, then we must change at a very core level. We need prophetic imaginations that affirm the whole of life and not merely promote our brand, or expand our tribe. Continue reading “Eco-ministry” →

Wild Lectionary: Guerilla Exegesis

On June 20, 2019June 19, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship2 Comments

9781610974011 Pentecost 2C
The Demon Legion

By Obery Hendricks

An excerpt from “Guerilla Exegesis: ‘Struggle’ As A Scholarly Vocation,” Libertating Biblical Study (Cascade, 2011).

Guerrilla exegesis is transgressive. Irreverent. Asks questions: Silly Wabbit, how can the possessive demonic presence called “Legion” in Mark 5, the occupying presence tht wrought the bitter pathology of oppression in Mark’s community and sought to remain in possession of the country, not the man (v. 10), be anything but the Roman military? Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Guerilla Exegesis” →

Learning from Laughter and the Trees: An Armful of Bones

On June 19, 2019June 17, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

I had never noticed how the melting snow of spring makes way for bones. One May morning, we wake early to walk the few acres of woods in the thumb of Michigan. Every few minutes, someone calls out “over here!” and we all rush over with our eyes on the composting leaves. A spine bone here. A skull there. Teeth still nestled in a jaw bone. A river otter? Fox? Racoon? Isaac tries to fit the bones back together in place and using his overly abundant 6-year-old animal knowledge attempts to determine the mysterious creatures. Later he will riffle through pages of his animal track books for further guessing. Cedar on the other hand just wants to fill his small arms with bones until he has so many he asks me to carry the extras. It’s not my first instinct to hold skulls in my hand with any delight or ease. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter and the Trees: An Armful of Bones” →

Wild Lectionary: First Peoples Day Reflections

On June 18, 2019June 12, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Metis-elder-Ken-Pruden4-7028-1024x681(1) On June 21 Canadians celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day and many churches observe a day of prayer. Rene Inkster reflects on the readings appointed for the Anglican Church.

Isaiah 40:25-31
Psalm 19
Philippians 4:4-9
John 1:1-18

I pray that my words will be acceptable to You, Creator; and to the people who read them.

Psalm 19:7-9

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean; the ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

Bowsur, tawnchi, hello. I am a mixed blood person, born in Regina, Saskatchewan and also a Canadian history researcher. My name is Rene Inkster. I honour my Cree, Scottish and Métis heritage. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: First Peoples Day Reflections” →

Wild Lectionary: The Trinity, An Invitation

On June 13, 2019June 17, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship2 Comments

il_fullxfull.1697253059_vwcz — The Trinity, Andrei Rublev, 15^th C

Trinity Sunday C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8:4-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

By Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie

Several years ago, Sarah and I were on a Global Awareness Through Experience or GATE program in Mexico. One of the places we visited was a café-general store and guest house in Cholula (Mexico) run by an Aztec family. While we were chatting with owner’s daughter, our GATE program director asked her, if God was male or female in Aztec theology. Her answer gave me one of those “Yes!” moments. She said, “God is neither male nor female. God is energy.” The gods and goddesses in the Aztec pantheon are aspects of the Divine Energy that attends to a specific need of the people at a specific point in cyclical time, for example, harvest time or during drought , etc. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: The Trinity, An Invitation” →