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Crossing the Divide: Race, Racism and the Body of Christ
Gathering 2008: July 7-9 at Depaul University in Chicago
As we turn toward Easter, the summer
Gathering cannot be far away. As the
planning committee continues to finalize the
schedule, it is pleased to announce the
following:
Plenary Sessions will be led by:
Rodney
Sadler, Union Theological
Seminary
Victor
Hinojosa, Baylor University
Kelly
Johnson, University of Dayton
Michelle
Loyd Paige, Calvin College
Mike
Budde, DePaul University
We will also feature a congregational forum
in which
we hear from two congregations with different
approaches to the ministry of racial
reconciliation.
Tentative Workshop titles include:
Wrestling with Scripture (led by Mic
hael
Cartwright)
Race, Immigration and the Divided Church
The Christian Community Development Association
and EP in Conversation (led by Craig Wong of
Grace in San Francisco and Glenn
Kehrein in Chicago.)
The Liturgical Landscape of Race
As always we will worship together. James
Lewis will
be our opening preacher, we will close with the
washing of feet, and we are planning a hymn
sing in
which we explore the power of various hymns to
overcome racial division.
Finally, we consider this gathering an
opportunity to
practice hospitality, and to open our own
work to the
challenges and gifts of the greater diversity
of the
church. So we invite you to invite new
friends to this
gathering, especially colleagues and friends
of color
who can help us speak faithfully
about habits of race and racism in the
church. There
is no substitute for a personal invitation,
so we
challenge our fellow endorsers to help us
make this a
hospitable gathering.
For further information, visit our website.
We hope to have online registration for the Gathering
available by Easter Monday at the latest.
Planning Committee: Nekeisha Alexis-Baker,
Victor
Hinojosa, Erin Martin, Stan Wilson and Craig
Wong.
An Evening with Clapp and Cash
Longtime EPer Rodney Clapp
has
just
published
Johnny
Cash and the Great American Contradiction
(Westminster, 2008). Far more than an ode to a great
singer, this book draws "attention to the tensions that
are at the heart of that project called 'America'"
(Stanley Hauerwas).
St.
Barnabas EpiscopalChurch in
Glen Ellyn, Illinois will host an evening
with Rodney,
including a talk, questions and a book
signing on
March 29 at 7 pm. All are
invited.
Meet the EP: Chris McMahon and Jason King
"Consuming Jesus: Saving Soteriology in a
Market Driven Culture." This title, from an
essay by EP member, Chris
McMahon,
nicely captures interests that he and fellow
EP member, Jason
King, share. Chris and
Jason are recipients of a Louisville Grant
focused on connecting soteriology and
ecclesiology to substantive church practices.
They attended EP's gathering last summer and
were particularly drawn to the rich
understandings of Christian formation
narrated and discussed in the sessions and
over meals.
Chris and Jason both teach theology at Saint
Vincent's College, a Benedictine institution
in Latrobe, PA (former home of both Mr.
Rogers and Rolling Rock Beer!). Chris is a
member of Saint Vincent Basilica Parish, but
also attends a Mennonite church with his
wife, who is Mennonite. Jason grew up
Catholic, post Vatican II, in the
predominantly Baptist culture of small town,
Kentucky. He describes himself as a "cradle
Catholic" that converted to Catholicism at
the hands of two Lutherans (two professors at
Berea College). Jason's wife directs service
learning at Saint Vincent's and they have two
wonderful children (4 and 1 years old and one
on the way).
EP is delighted to have Chris and Jason as
fellow travelers for God's kingdom.
Amy Laura Hall's "Conceiving Parenthood"
reviewed by Jon Stock
EP endorser Amy
Laura Hall challenges
us all
in her book Conceiving
Parenthood: American Protestantism and the
Spirit of Reproduction (Eerdmans,
2008). Hall
seeks out the genesis of issues like genetic
manipulation, designer babies, prenatal
screening, and the genomic revolution. Her
disturbing finding is that mainline
Protestantism is complicit in the history and
development of reproductive biotechnology. A
tradition that should have welcomed all
persons equally has instead fostered a
culture of "carefully delineated, racially
encoded domesticity." Hall encourages new
conversations within communities of faith --
conversations enabling individuals, couples,
congregations, even entire neighborhoods to
conceive of parenthood in ways that make room
for families and children who are deemed to
be outside the proper purview of the right
sorts of families.
"It's the sort of book that threatens not
only to change our vocabulary but to make us
better people" - Jason Byassee
Free to be Bound: Church Beyond the Color Line
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Ann Atwater at BSTR
On March 25th and 26th, the Baptist School of
Theology at Richmond (in Richmond, VA) hosts
the Lawrence Hoover Lectures, which this year
focus on race and the church. Jonathan
Wilson-Hartgrove, EPer and major voice in the
new monasticism movement, will be speaking on
March 26th, along with Ann Atwater. The
lectures are free and open to the public.
For more information click here.
"Pop Christianity"
In the course of more than thirty years of
parish ministry, I was gifted with many books
by church members. Most of them fell into
three broad categories: books that attempted
to make Christianity "practical" ("The
Biblical Guide to Raising Upright
Children!"), books that tried to make
Christianity mysterious ("The Secret
Behind the Secrets of the Secret Dead Sea
Scrolls!") and books that sentimentalized
the Christian faith ("Seven Highly
Effective People you Meet in Heaven").
When I cleaned out my office at the church I
felt almost guilty for keeping such books in
circulation by donating them to Goodwill.
So I take some encouragement in noting that
two books currently drawing a great deal of
popular attention are Gary Wills' examination
of the Gospels and Ann Rice's fictionalized
account of the life of Jesus. At the least,
each appears to encourage the reader to take
Jesus seriously and to wrestle with the
summons to discipleship (even while
speculating on the possibility that young
Jesus had a girlfriend). Just my luck: we
are finally seeing interesting popular works
about Christianity now that I no longer have
parishioners eager to give them to me.
John McFadden, editor
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