Racial Reconcilliation

By Bude VanDyke  My core belief is that the economy of God pays both directions. That means that if I do something for someone, and I am not willing to receive their gift, the action is not God-centered; it is something else, something not healthy. For that reason, I struggle with the notion of “mission”…

By Stephanie Spellers I have not watched the film of five Black Memphis police officers beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to a pulp. I have not seen the EMTs who did so little while a beloved child made in God’s image lay dying at their feet.   I have not looked, yet it is all I…

By Chanta Bhan and Melina Dezhbod Melina and I met when we were at Virginia Theological Seminary. Melina was entering her Middler Year and I was completing an Anglican Year in preparation for ordination to the priesthood. In some ways, Melina felt more like family to me. I liked to think of her as my…

by Rachel Taber-Hamilton, Shackan First Nation  “What have you done?” asked my mother in weighty staccato, stressing each word individually. The sharp glare from her eyes pinned me like a bug to the place where I stood. The tone in her voice conveyed a gravitas as though I had robbed a bank, assassinated someone, or kicked her…

By Gabrie’l Atchinson On a snowy morning in 2019, I drove to the southern campus of Erie Community College to teach the environment segment for my section of Introduction to Sociology. We discussed the activism of young environmentalists Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, and Leah Thomas. During my lecture, I pointed out that in a place…

By the Rev. Peggy Lo During Asian American-Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, I invite you to seek out a diversity of stories and writings about AAPI history in general and of women and theologians in particular– not to arrive at answers or draw conclusions, but to listen and walk alongside.  Here is what being an…

“‘Anamnesis’ is the Greek word ‘to remember.’ It is the word Jesus used in the institution narrative in the Eucharist: ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ Its spiritual meaning is that in the sacrament, what is being remembered becomes a present reality.” – the Rev. Ken Swanson from “The Way Forward,” in the Absalom Jones Episcopal…