November News from The Ekklesia Project

November 2013

In This Issue

Gathering 2014
Podcasts from Gathering 2013
New Endorsers
New on BLOGOS
Call for Documentary Films

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Gathering 2014 Announcement

Tilling and Keeping: Fitting Practices for a Very Good Creation

Whether it is God speaking out of the whirlwind to Job (12:7-10) or Jesus telling his disciples to look to the birds (Luke 12:22-32), creation is repeatedly offered as a place where we can find our way into God's kingdom. Despite this, the creation has been unraveled by those old sins of greed, pride, gluttony and waste-all augmented by the extensions of human power through technology. In the face of this the Church must join in the work of reconciliation through a prophetic witness to the truth and a life formed toward the recreation of the world. We need churches to be communities of practice where we can discover together how to live into the abundance of creation and resist the false economies of empire. It is to this end that the Ekklesia Project will gather in the summer of 2014 to explore "Tilling and Keeping: Fitting Practices for a Very Good Creation."

At this gathering we will hear plenary speakers who will spark our imaginations and offer prophetic calls toward the Church's care of the creation. We will participate together in workshops in which we will find the language and tools to begin tilling the soil of our particular places and churches. We will also see examples of the work of churches reconciling with the creation through documentary films shared by the congregations that made them (see the article below for more details). In addition to the main gathering events there will also be opportunities for pre-gathering field trips to various creation care sites around the Chicago area.

Plan to join us July 10-12 for a time of worship, learning, and conversation centered on God's work of renewing the creation. Confirmed plenary speakers include Norman Wirzba and Fred Bahnson.

Podcasts from Gathering 2013 Now Available

Podcasts of plenary sessions and worship services are now available on the EP website. You can find them HERE.

NEW ENDORSERS:

J. Michael Sohlberg (Chicago area)

Collin Mueller (Durham)

Bess Garrett (Baltimore)

James Spitzkeit (Jackson, MS)

Erin Kidd (Milwaukee)

Justin Thornburgh (Indianapolis)

Matthew Holmes (Spokane Valley, WA)

Patrick McManus (Ontario)

Lister Bowdoin (Mississippi)

Peter Moen (Minnesota)

Dan McLain (Baltimore)

H. Kevin Derr (Pennsylvania)

Scott Williams (West Virginia)

Barry Harvey (Baylor) - long-time endorser re-establishing his online endorser account

Matthew Beal (Waco)

Kathleen Nussbaum (WI)

Micah Weedman (Nashville) - long-time endorser re-establishing his online endorser account

Julius McCarter (TN)

Ryan Hansen (Chicago)

Bryce Ulin (Des Moines)

Myles Werntz (Waco)

We welcome (or welcome back to electronic access) all the new (or old) friends!

New on BLOGOS:

To Feel as Christians

by Mark Ryan

The Christian life goes hand and hand with a peculiar palette of emotions. At times I've reflected that to be welcomed into Christian community-to realize that these defining convictions have become one's own-is the prelude to (and condition for) feelings of anger and even a sense of alienation or being a stranger among one's own.

Emotions may seem a superficial matter, especially in comparison to Christian doctrines of God and the commandments by which God binds us. But, like thepsalmist who ties both delight and anger to God's law, theologians like Thomas Aquinas found emotions worth discussing in the Christian moral life. Thus, in the Summa Theologica, Aquinas considers the "passions" in his discussion of voluntary human actions. For him, freedom was key to understanding human beings as made in God's image and thus to "the return of humans toward God," the subject of the "Second Part" of the Summa.

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Call for Documentary Films on Church Creation Care Practices

We invite you to create and submit a short video sharing the unique and creative work your church or faith community is doing toward the flourishing of creation. We will host these on our website, selecting the ten best for presentation at the Gathering, and paying registration and travel costs for two members of each community/documentary team. More details on this website page .