april 2014
Ekklesia Project News

 

In This Issue
  • Gathering 2014 Speakers and Preachers and Workshops
  •  New Endorsers
  • New on BLOGOS 
  • Call for Documentary Films
  • Update from EP Board

 

Visit the

Ekklesia Project Website   

 

the Ekklesia Project  

 from "Noli Me Tangere"

Jorie Graham, The End of Beauty

   

Out of the light which holds steel and its alloys,

 

into the words for it like some robe or glory,

     and all this rising up into the deep unbearable thinness,

the great babyblue exhalation of the one God

     as if in satisfaction at some right ending

come,

 

then down onto the dustiness that still somehow holds

     its form as downslope and new green meadow

through which at any moment

     something swifter

might be cut.

     It is about to be

Spring.

     The secret cannot be

 

kept.

 

 

Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

John 20:17-18

Gathering Update: All Presenters and Registration Open

 

Tilling and Keeping: Fitting Practices for a Very Good Creation will give us plenty to discuss and ruminate on while we reunite with old friends and meet new ones. Come to Chicago from July 10-12 as the Ekklesia Project worships together and considers the ways we must care for God's creation.

 

Norman Wirzba, Ched Myers and Philip Bess are the plenary speakers for this summer, and Bill McKibben will contribute a video presentation recorded specifically for the Gathering. Worship services will be led by Jesse Schuman Larkins, Sally Youngquist and Jim McCoy. Workshop topics include poetry, green burials, sabbath practices, and craft.

 

In an effort to learn from Christian communities who are already working on creation care, this year's gathering will include a film festival. We will view short documentary films from a variety of groups to help educate and inspire us as we return to our own faith communities.

 

Registration is now open! Please plan to register soon for the Gathering. With all the great speakers and topics we have to look forward to, we expect that there will be many people attending. Find out more specifics on our web page.

 

NEW ENDORSERS:

 

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

 

Roger Dowdy (Richmond)

Keith Uffman (Greensboro)

William Marshall (Cheshire, England)

Luis Gutierrez (Maryland)

Colin Hoogerwerf (Holland, MI)

Timothy Peebles re-endorsing (Chicago)

Amanda Holder (Smyrna, TN)

 

New on BLOGOS: 
  
What Is There To Say?

by Debra Dean Murphy

  

Easter A
John 20:1-18 (RCL); John 20:1-9 (Lectionary for Mass)

 

You have to preach to those for whom the resurrection narrative is known inside and out, is loved and adored, is the sense-making story of their life in God, their life with others, their life in relation to all the world. What is there to say?

 

You have to preach to those for whom the resurrection narrative is science fiction or harmful propaganda. They may be in church this day only to please a mother or grandmother. (There are worse things). They may smirk. They may sleep. They may pity your benighted ignorance. What is there to say?

 

To read the rest click here.

Creation Care Film Festival: Submit Now!
 

Is your congregation doing something to care for creation?  Have you dedicated an outreach team to cleaning up after an oil spill?  Have you turned your church kitchen into a distribution point for local farmers?  Are you offering support to activists fighting the Keystone XL pipeline?  We want you to witness to the work to which your community has been called in answering the ecological crisis.  This year the Ekklesia Project will be holding its first film festival with videos telling the stories of Christian communities (churches, new monastic communities, seminaries, etc.) working to care for creation.

You don't need to be a professional filmmaker.  We are simply looking for stories told through the medium of video.  If you have a phone video camera and a computer you may have all the equipment you need to share your community's story. 

 

The top ten films submitted will be shown at the Ekklesia Project gathering this summer. 
  

The filmmaker and a representative from the community in the film will attend the gathering for free with both travel and registration covered!

 

Start your cameras rolling and let communities doing extraordinary creation care work know about the festival.  Visit EkklesiaProject.org/filmfest for details.

 
BOARD MEETING 
 
The EP Board of Directors met for their winter/spring board meeting at Wesley United Methodist Church in Kingwood, WV (a CFI congregation), March 28-30, 2014. Pastor and board member, Jenny Williams, and the members of Wesley welcomed the board, nourished them with delicious food, hosted them in comfy beds, shared their families, offered hospitality in Sunday morning worship, and even ordered up a spring snowfall for our California- and Texas-based board members.
 
Among the issues discussed at the meeting was the next phase of leadership when Brent steps down as Coordinator in 2015. The board has put in place a three-person team structure (which says something about the workload Brent has carried for years), with a Gathering Planner and a Communications Director working with and reporting to the Coordinator. We hope to announce soon who will be filling these roles as the mission of the Ekklesia Project continues to evolve and adapt.
 
The board continually covets your prayers.
 
Debra Dean Murphy,
Chair