Category: Uncategorized

Praying for a Voice

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

our-walmartA Thanksgiving Prayer from OUR Walmart, courtesy of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice:

Spirit of Life/Most Divine/God/Beloved Community/Creator,

We give thanks. We give thanks for those of us gathered at table. We give thanks to those who bring us this day our food. We give thanks for the food farmers and workers collected. We give thanks for the hands who helped set this table: factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, stock people, cashiers, managers. Continue reading “Praying for a Voice” →

The Doctrine of Discovery and Watershed Conquest

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

doctrineOn November 3, 524 clergy went in solidarity to Standing Rock as part of a call for clergy to join the struggle. As part of the action, the clergy repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery (which coincidentally is 524 years old). They presented a copy of the doctrine to an elder who burned it.

Below is an excerpt from Kat Friesen’s chapter in Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice where she explores the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Doctrine of Discovery and its resulting “Watershed Conquest” provide an exceptionally relevant case study of the harmful outworking of Christendom theologies. Any work toward reconciliation as mission must take into account these exploitative theologies, and begin with repentance as metanoia. Metanoia, translated from Greek as repentance (e.g. Mark 1:4), carries a connotation of changing both mind and action. Thus, repenting of the theologies of placelessness that persist today means recognizing their error and actively changing direction. Continue reading “The Doctrine of Discovery and Watershed Conquest” →

This is the time

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

timwe have been preparing for this time,
we were called, told only to be ready,
and we have been practicing and connecting.

she said that this is not a time for self-doubt and trying to please everyone,
for withholding any gifts, for wasting any time delaying your life’s work.

this is no time for ego, drop into the place where your work becomes divine.
this is the time to unleash all our healer clarity, we are all needed.
-adrienne maree brown

Marcella Althaus-Reid

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

indecent-theologyBy Grace Aheron.

This piece was developed during the first Bartimaeus Institute Online Cohort (2015-2016), aka “The Feminary.”  These pieces will eventually be published in a Women’s Breviary collection.  For more information regarding the Feminary go here.

 “Only in the longing for a world of economic and sexual justice together, and not subordinated to one another, can the encounter with the divine take place. But this is an encounter to be found at the crossroads of desire, when one dares to leave the ideological order of the heterosexual pervasive normative. This is an encounter with indecency, and with the indecency of God and Christianity.”

– Indecent Theology, 2000

While the drum beat of the purity cult of Christianity rings through our bodies and bones, causing our feet and hands and desires to fall in step, there are voices— high and descant, low and elemental— that waken us from the single-file lines of decency. Marcella Althaus-Reid was one of those voices. Continue reading “Marcella Althaus-Reid” →

#NoDAPL Day of Action at Army Corps of Engineers- A Call to be a Visionary Engineer

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

defend-the-sacredToday people across the United States are standing in solidarity with the water protectors at Standing Rock demanding that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the federal government halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. To find an action in your city, go here (https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/nov-15-nodapl-day-of-action-at-army-corps-of-engineers).

Today is a day for engineers to listen and heed their call as one which honors indigenous voices, protects the waters and earth, and upholds justice in our communities. Below is an excerpt from Erinn Fahey’s chapter in Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregionalism Faith and Practice which discusses her vocation to become a “visionary engineer.”

“Engineers have an opportunity to be visionary: to reimagine our work as a craft that manages the human footprint while also restoring right relationship with the earth; and to create opportunities for people to engage in self transformation. In the Next American Revolution, Grace Boggs calls people to be visionary organizers: Continue reading “#NoDAPL Day of Action at Army Corps of Engineers- A Call to be a Visionary Engineer” →

People and Prayers

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment
laurel-dykstraBy Laurel Dykstra, Salal and Cedar
I am home again in Coast Salish Territory praying about how to be an accomplice to the work of Indigenous Water Protectors at Standing Rock, to speak only for myself but centre Indigenous and traditional voices. Greg, of the Cheyenne River Sioux was my host at Oceti Sakowin Camp. When I asked what I should tell people at home, he said, “Pray, keep praying.” And when I asked what they needed he said, “More people and more prayers.”
I am a priest but I have never been any place where they prayed so much—I averaged 5-6 hours per day in prayer and ceremony here doing things that most people think of as prayer—with special words, objects and actions. But prayer here includes healing dance on a critical river crossing that held off police and security, a sweat lodge on the pipeline path, sacred pipes in front of armored vehicles. Prayer is not a limp sending of good feelings that excuses your absence it is practical and concrete. So as Greg is calling for more prayers and you can send them from your wallet here http://www.ocetisakowincamp.org/donate you can bring them with bike locks to your financial institution that funds DAPL, you can head to your centres of government and law enforcement and invite them to sit down and pray with you and refuse to leave until they do.
Greg also called for more people, and to his call out I will add these words from Kelly Sherman, Oglala Lakota: “If you visit Oceti Sacowin please remember you are a guest. Please remember it is not about you. Please remember the traditions and ceremonies you are welcomed into are sacred. Please remember your visit is not a vacation. Please remember some moments are sacred and do not need your camera.Please remember that sacred moment, that sacred time, will be a picture embedded on your soul. Not on your phone. Donations are helpful, social media sharing is helpful. But what Standing Rock needs is your physical presence. However when you are there please remember if you do not know what to do first you listen. Secondly you listen. Thirdly you listen. And if you do not know how to do that…stay home.”
For more information on solidarity and allyship-
http://www.standingrocksolidaritynetwork.org/

Change comes from actions, not votes

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Subverting Empire, UncategorizedLeave a comment

dor-dayBy Brendan Walsh, Viva House Baltimore Catholic Worker. Reposted from The Baltimore Sun.

It is noteworthy that November 8 is Election Day and Dorothy Day’s 110th birthday. Dorothy was co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and is currently on track for sainthood in the Catholic tradition.

Long before Dorothy was involved with the worker movement she was a journalist writing for The Call and The Masses in New York City. She was also a suffragette advocating for the right of all women to vote. She was arrested at the White House demanding that right and went on a bitter hunger strike while imprisoned in Occoquan, Va. Continue reading “Change comes from actions, not votes” →

Solidarity at Standing Rock

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, Subverting Empire, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Oil Pipeline Key PlayersOn Thursday, November 3rd, 2016, over 400 clergy will be in North Dakota, hosting a multi faith solidarity circle for Standing Rock. We all cannot be there physically, but we can be there spirituality. We urge everyone around the country to take a few minutes at 9am Central Time to pray with them.

We offer this prayer, written by Lyla June Johnson (a descendent of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) lineages) to say:

We pray for our family at Standing Rock.
We pray for Our Sister Water who is our life.
We pray for the healing and safety of the Water Protectors. Continue reading “Solidarity at Standing Rock” →