The Ekklesia Project
newheader

   September 2010 Ordinary Time 
In This Issue:
 

New on bLOGOS
 
"Wordcare" pamphlet now available
 
Meet the EP: Mark and Jaimee Ryan
 
Berkeley Global Church Conference
 
Gathering 2011
 
Book Review: Mirror to the Church 


good shepherd




New on bLOGOS
 
  Not Enough For Everyone's Greed by Ragan Sutterfield
lazarus 
"Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus provides a stark view into the reality of maintaining wealth without concern for the well being of our neighbors. The nameless rich man is told that he received his reward while he was living while Lazarus did not. I am reminded here of Gandhi's statement that there is enough in the world for everyone's need, just not enough for everyone's greed."  Read More.


Dives' Sin of Omission by Tobias Winright
 
"In the Catholic Mass, we often recite a prayer, confessing our sin, for "what I have done and what I have failed to do." Jesus' story about the rich man (tradition has called him Dives, Latin for "rich man") and the poor man, Lazarus, has to do with the rich man's sin of omission. Dives did not maliciously do anything to harm Lazarus. Rather, Dives, who had more than he needed, neglected to make sure that Lazarus' needs were satisfied."  Read More.
 
 
 Signs, Sheep, and Shepherds by Kyle Childress
 
"Our church's logo is a shepherd's staff, based upon the parable of the lost sheep, along with Psalm 23 and the Good Shepherd of John 10. We've had this shepherd's staff with our congregation's name written beside it out front on our sign since 1979 and it is on our letterhead, Sunday order of worship, and website. This shepherd's staff is a constant reminder to us and to others of our vocation - who we hope to be and are called to be. More than that, it always reminds us who God is." Read More.

WordCare: Hauerwas, Language, and the Church
 
This new publication in the EP pamphlet series, presented as a surprise gift to Stanley Hauerwas at the 2010 Gathering in celebration of his 70th birthday, is now available as a download on the EP website. The August 24 issue of The Christian Century included a brief excerpt from Roy Terry's essay about the advice he received from Stanley when he was considering a call to lead a new congregation: "Don't start a Sunday school.  Never have a men's or women's group.  Get the congregation involved in a soup kitchen or helping the homeless.  Never use the language 'New Church'; instead use 'Becoming God's Church.'" 
 
Meet the EP: Mark and Jaimee Ryan 
 
 Mark and Jaimee Ryan live in Lakewood, New Jersey. They have been married for three years and have two daughters, Chloe (2) and Meredith (4 months). Mark and Jaimee met in Charlottesville, VA, where Mark completed his PhD in Religious Studies at UVa and Jaimee taught high school biology.
Mark is an assistant professor in the Religion Department at Georgian Court University. He teaches introductory theology and Christian ethics to undergraduates, as well as a number of graduate courses. Mark's forthcoming book from Cascade is entitled "The Politics of Practical Reason."
 
Jaimee 
Jaimee is primarily a stay-at-home mom. In her spare time, however, she is attempting to complete her Master's degree in Public Health. She is interested in nutrition, health education, and reproductive health. Jaimee is currently working on her Fieldwork project to develop a nutrition education program for low-income pregnant women.
 
Since they were drawn toward Hauerwas' work, it seemed only natural to seek out his friends. Jaimee and Mark find it wonderful to have discovered how having attended Gatherings in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the EP has become an important coordinate along their journey to be God's church.

Global Church Conference in Berkeley
 
Chi-Ming Chien shares news of an upcoming conference:
 
"First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley's Global Church Conference brings speakers from places in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to offer the perspective of our brothers and sisters from a different context. Past conferences have challenged attendees on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and the concept of "missions" as practiced by North American churches. The theme for this year's conference (October 15-17) is 'Who Is My Neighbor? Embracing and Extending the Welcome of God'. Given the overlap with our 2011 Gathering theme, I thought this might be of interest to some in the San Francisco Bay Area."

 
GATHERING 2011: Consider a Journey of Friendship  
 

Would you like to bring a neighbor home from Gathering 2011? Here's an idea: we make new friends and cultivate old friendships at each year's Gathering. Yet many of us have never experienced one another's local context for discipleship. What could be more exciting than mutual journeys of discovery, either before or after the Gathering? We encourage the various EP communities to consider issuing invitations to fellow EPers for pre- or post-Gathering journeys of discovery.

The EP Board has for some time wanted to engage the questions that cluster around the migration of peoples, the borders of nation states, and the church's practice of love. "Who Is My Neighbor?" is the working title of Gathering 2011.  With Arizona's immigration law much on people's minds, our topic seems timely. As timely as Genesis 12 and the book of Ruth. The planning team will include Mark Lau Branson, Brian Volck, Nekeisha Alexis-Baker, Barry Harvey, and Brent Laytham. No details yet on date, but we will be targeting early to mid-July again.
Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda
by E
mmanuel Katongole with Johathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Reviewed by Jake Wilson
 
 Mirror to the Church tells the story of the Rwandan genocide with an emphasis on the power of stories to shape our identities and actions.  Any book about genocide must be a book about human bodies, but Katongole's work is also a book about bodies politic, both secular and sacred.  Katongole surveys the stories that made Rwanda as well as the stories that have shaped the U.S., leveling powerful indictments at the mirrorU.S. as a body politic and the Church, the Body of Christ.  The book's title 'Mirror to the Church' indicates that the Church has much to learn from Rwanda. 
 
Primarily the Church needs to learn the danger of allowing the identity of its members to be shaped by stories that are false.  When the genocide began, Hutu Christians killed Tutsi Christians, sometimes in the very church buildings where they worshiped together.  In the face of such acts Katongole asks whether one's identity as a Christian made any difference at all; in Rwanda, the blood of tribalism ran deeper than the waters of baptism. 
 
EP endorsers will find that Katongole (with Jonathan-Wilson Hartgrove, who was a key note speaker at the 2009 Gathering) has written a powerful book that takes many of the EP's deepest theological commitments and explores them in relationship to the stories that made Rwanda and the stories that continue to shape Christian life in the U.S.