Baptized Into Resistance Work

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, Subverting Empire1 Comment

tridentThis is the first question of a longer interview that Dan McKenzie did with Wes Howard-Brook in Seattle in October.  A read of the full interview is well worth it, available HERE on Dan’s blog.   

Dan: You mention that between the years of 1979 and 1983, you were working in Washington as a government attorney.  Then, something happened and by 1985 you were completing an M.Div.  You seem to allude to a remarkable, and unexpected transformation taking place in your own life.  I wonder if this is also why you emphasize some of the more mystical and experiential components of faith, not to mention things like communal readings, faith-based readings with the assistance of the Spirit, and hiking in the mountains or on trails by the waterways close to you.  Your studies and your areas of focus, seem to arise from deeply personal spiritual experiences.  Am I wrong it wondering about this?  Could you share a bit about your personal journey and how you ended up where you are today? Continue reading “Baptized Into Resistance Work” →

Let it be Christmas, the real one

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

solidaridad201617.jpgBy Pedro Casaldáliga (English translation by Rebel Girl), Reposted from Religión Digital

Que sea Navidad, la verdadera.
Las barbas crecidas y blancas,
y los supermercados del consumismo,
deben quedar al margen.

Y nosotros debemos plantarnos en medio del egoísmo
y negarnos a la profecía absurda,
para abrir espacio al llanto y al canto de la solidaridad
y al grito de los pequeños y excluidos.

Que sea verdad todo lo que decimos en la liturgia y el folclore.
Que sea una Navidad de las raíces de Belén,
el Misterio de la Encarnación llamándonos a hacer Reino cada día.

Que sea Navidad, que no nos perdamos la Navidad. Continue reading “Let it be Christmas, the real one” →

Christmas Beatitudes 2016

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized2 Comments

carter.jpgBy Carter Heyward

Blessed are those who are kind, especially when it’s hard

Blessed are those angry for justice in situations of unfairness and oppression,

Blessed are the compassionate in times of hatred,

Blessed are those who speak honestly when pummeled by lies — and who seek truth when confronted by fake news,

Blessed are those who keep their courage in the face of belligerent bullies, Continue reading “Christmas Beatitudes 2016” →

Reflection on an Advent Morning

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship2 Comments

turkeys.jpgBy Joyce Hollyday

I know the contours of this land as intimately as I know the arc of Advent: the slope of the pasture and height of the ridge, the thick canopy of the pine forest and black deep of the pond. I walk every morning on an unchanging trail, secure in the embrace of these steadfast mountains believed to be the oldest in the world. Continue reading “Reflection on an Advent Morning” →

Five Musings on Mary Magdalene

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

mmThis 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

By Adella Barrett

I.
I sometimes wonder if Christ will always be an abstraction to me.
Some days I do not know much of him but that he, too, was tended by women, fed by them.
Some days I think of Mary Magdalene keeping the fire or cooking the fish,
the way she baked the bread and the way she was trusted,
and this
I can understand. Continue reading “Five Musings on Mary Magdalene” →

Divestment Now!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

dean-mooreAn excerpt from Kathleen Dean Moore’s recent speech “The Moral Case for Divestment from Fossil Fuels” at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota:

Divest. Etymologically, di-vest means “take off your clothes.” In an ethical context, it means, take a moral stand by shedding investments in immoral practices. In the context of a university’s endowment fund, it means a conscientious and forward-thinking Foundation officer standing up and saying something like this: Continue reading “Divestment Now!” →

Our Essential Oneness

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

vincentFrom Vincent Harding in Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement (1990):

Who knows, perhaps with insight, courage and serious study we could introduce ourselves and our students of all ages to some of the basic tenets of this nonviolent way, exploring such convictions as:

  1. The fundamental unity of all creation, including our essential oneness with those we call “enemy.”
  2. The deep and often hidden capacities in human beings to become much more than we realize; to approach much more closely the essential oneness of life; to create many more social, political, and economic manifestations of our unity than we dream.
  3. The purpose of true civilization is not to focus on higher and higher technology or greater material wealth; it is to help us live more deeply and grow more fully in the humanizing work of mutual responsibility and respect.
  4. The necessity of challenging anything–or anyone–in society (or in ourselves) that appears to destroy the God-ordained oneness, or which seeks to damage our great capacities for an ever-expanding development of our humanity.
  5. The greatest necessity of all is to seek out and hold firmly to the truths of our oneness, our hope, our mutual responsibility, our capacity to create, our refusal to destroy.  Included here, of course, is a willingness to dies, if necessary, for such truths, but not to injure or kill others.
  6. The constant, disciplined quest for personal and collective communion with the One, the divine and ultimate source of all our unity.

Continue reading “Our Essential Oneness” →

A New Boycott for a New Era

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, Race, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

rosa-parksTomorrow, Shaun King and Injustice Boycott will be announcing specifics about an ongoing boycott of cities, states, businesses, and institutions which are either willfully indifferent to police brutality and racial injustice or are deliberately destructive partners with it.  Sign up to join the boycott and get more details HERE.

On this Dec. 5, the anniversary of when Dr. King and others began the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, we are launching our own Montgomery Bus Boycott to show every city, state, institution and corporation in this country that meaningful, reasonable, achievable reforms on police brutality and injustice are not our long-term dreams. They are our immediate emergency priority… Continue reading “A New Boycott for a New Era” →

Ready for Silence

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized1 Comment

By Madeleine L’Engle

snow.jpgThen hear now the silence
He comes in the silence
in silence he enters
the womb of the bearer
in silence he goes to
the realm of the shadows
redeeming and shriving
in silence he moves from
the grave cloths, the dark tomb
in silence he rises
ascends to the glory
leaving his promise
leaving his comfort
leaving his silence
So come now, Lord Jesus
Come in your silence
breaking our noising
laughter of panic
breaking this earth’s time
breaking us breaking us
quickly Lord Jesus
make no long tarrying
When will you come
and how will you come
and will we be ready
for silence
your silence