people of faith engaging creation and justice
Once a year a slim publication arrives in the mail. The cover is a textured paper, always quite dark in color so the print is a little hard to read: The Iron Mountain Review. A publication of Emory and Henry College in southwestern Virginia, each volume is devoted to an Appalachian author. This year the author is Silas House, a writer of “fiction” and “non-fiction,” but better understood as “storyteller.” He is embedded in a culture that has lived with a rapacious coal industry for generations and now lives with mountaintop removal. He has become an activist on this issue; he does it by listening to stories. Read more of this post
“Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin.”
What is the role of the church now, in these times of great change? Abraham Heschel says the role of religion is to help us wonder. Wonder, or radical amazement, he says, “is the chief characteristic of a religious attitude toward life and the proper response to our experience of the divine.” (words from Judy Cannato, Radical Amazement)
If indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin, wonder, awe, surprise, gratitude are the remedies, the avenues to grace. Read more of this post
The word “relationship” implies some kind of intimacy. We can have relationships of any kind – good ones, bad ones, healthy ones, hurtful ones – but if we are in relationship there are interested parties involved. “Relationship” means engagement, investment, goals, and values. My best relationships are balanced, truthful, filled with give and take and an underlying commitment to hang in, one way or another, no matter what. With this in mind, we named the first Greenblade conference, Healing Our Relationship with the Earth. Read more of this post
