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August 2011

 

In This

Issue:

 

"Hope of All the World" blog to be taken down

 

Meet the EP: Matt Morin

 

Publication Noted:

The Politics of Practical Reason by Mark Ryan

 

Gathering 2012: Slow Church, Fast Friends

 

New on bLOGOS 

  

Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the recent earthquake and hurricane . . .

Transparent Heart - Gwen Meharg

  

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

Psalm 46:1-3

"The Hope of All the World" blog to be taken down

 

Our newly redesigned Ekklesia Project website has drawn a very positive response, and we are grateful to our friends at Dayspring Technologies for making it more attractive, useful and navigable. We are currently doing a bit of "housekeeping" to ensure that we present ourselves through our website, Facebook page, and newsletter in a manner that is clear and consistent. In keeping with this goal, the EP Board believes that it is time to take down the freestanding blog,The Hope of All the World, that was created as a vehicle for responses to the speech President Obama made in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. 

 

Many readers will remember this project. We believed that the President's reflections on just war deserved and demanded a response from thoughtful Christian voices. Stanley Hauerwas agreed to provide the initial essay, which generated many responses, and a number of other EP endorsers offered essays of their own. It was a rich and constructive vehicle for dialogue, and we will likely offer similar opportunities in the future.

 

But in the belief that "The Hope of all the World" has served its intended purpose, we will soon be taking it down. Those whose personal blogs or websites provide links to it should take note, while others may want to make a final visit to the blog before it is removed.

 

Meet the EP: Matt Morin

 

Matt Morin and his wife Kerry currently live in North Carolina where he is entMorinering the final year of his Master's of Divinity degree at Duke Divinity School. They are expecting their first child in February. Matt was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at home, Matt and Kerry worship with Milwaukee Mennonite Church and while in NC they participate in Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship. They hope to eventually return to Milwaukee. 

 

Matt first heard about the EP while he was a part-time seminary student at North Park in Chicago. He has since been following the EP online and attended his first gathering this past summer. Shortly after, he preached a sermon relating the parable of the prodigal son to our immigration theme; a link to that sermon appears below in "New on bLOGOS." Matt also recently published a piece in The Other Journal entitled "The Confessions of a Cage Fighter: Masculinity, Misogyny, and the Fear of Losing Control," revealing a whole other side of this Mennonite from Milwaukee. 


The Politics of Practical Reason

Why Theological Ethics Must Change Your Life

by Mark Ryan 

 

Mark and Jaimee Ryan are well known to many of us who have shared time with them at our Gatherings through the years.  Mark's book has just been published by Wipf and Stock, who describe it in these words:

 

"Ought we conceive of theological ethics as an activity that draws from a marks bookcommunity's vision of human goodness and that has implications for the kind of person each of us is to be? Or, can students of the discipline map the ethical implications of what Christians confess about God, themselves, and the world while remaining indifferent to these claims? Habituated by modern moral theories such as consequentialism and deontology, Mark Ryan argues, we too often assume that Christian ethics makes no claim on the character of its students and teachers. It is rather like yet another department store within the shopping mall of ideas and ideologies to which advanced education provides access. By arguing that theological ethics is an activity by nature "political," the author endeavors to show us that to do Christian ethics is to be habituated into ways of talking and seeing that put us on a path toward the good."

 

Read more about the book on Wipf and Stock's website. 

Slow Church, Fast Friends

 

slow church sign

The 2012 Gathering planning team is now fully assembled with the addition of Patti Hom of Grace Fellowship Community Church. Patti will serve as 'czar of logistics,' with Joel Shuman serving as planning chair. The team is meeting regularly, and has begun by sharing thoughts on the attraction to and need for a focus on slow church. Here are excerpts from their reflections: 

  

Slow Thoughts

  

Patti Hom challenges us to examine "the sentiment behind our restlessness and our giving up on the church before we've even tried to embrace God's call/story."

 

Stan Wilson points out that "It's not just that we're too busy, which we are, but that we seem to lack a telos. We're rushing toward nothing in particular; just rushing."

 

Chris Smith shares this from his forthcoming book: "The [Slow Church] vision of our life together is one that is both holistic in its scope and slow in its pace.  There is a great temptation, of course, to err toward one of these facets over the other.  We get so consumed by the broadness of our call to follow God holistically in the reconciliation of all things that we become frantic in our efforts to see that vision brought to fruition. On the other hand, it is easy for us to get so comfortable with the pleasures of our slow life together and the friendships we have in our church community that we lose sight of God's reconciling work beyond our community." 

  

Ragan Sutterfield directs us to listen to David and observe Oscar: Psalm 131 perhaps expresses best what attracts me to this idea of slow church.  A slow church is a humble church, a church that waits upon God, a church that is patient and does not act because it must fill the silences required for listening. I recently watched the movie Romero about the journey of Oscar Romero in his struggle for justice for the people of El Salvador.  Romero is a model of the slow church-he waited upon God, he resisted the desire for the expedience of violence that many of priests were drawn into, and yet his slowness was no passivity-he demanded love and justice and was willing to wait for them patiently, directly as a great inconvenience to those ready to take up violence against the Salvadorian people or in defense of them.  He is the patron saint of the Slow Church perhaps-a saint I want to learn from. This prayer often attributed to Romero may be a good guide as we continue to discern what the Slow Church is.

 

New on bLOGOS    three dudes

 

The Far Country

 

BY MATTHEW MORIN

 

"In the story that Jesus told, a young man has found himself starving in a land that-according to verse 14-has been devastated by severe famine. We tend to rush right past this part, blaming the young man's wretched condition on his own personal irresponsibility-again, finding exactly what we hoped we would find in God's word. But in the story, the young man has been brought low, in large part, by circumstances that lie far outside of his control-a famine has spread throughout the land. Whether the famine was caused by drought, disease, or "free-trade" agreements, we do not know."

 

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