Throughout the day, learners:
- Co-identified an Economy of Life: Explore the ecological consequences of our current systems and uncover alternative economies rooted in life support systems, where nature is not an externality. Through discussion and clips from the Indigenous speaker series, you'll delve into Gospel-rooted prayer, actions, and cosmologies to carry into your communities.
- Got Grounded in the Soil: Delve into how Indigenous cosmologies and the Gospel can harmonize for restoration and healing with a grounding, outdoor spiritual practice. We’ll examine Romans 1:20-23 and Matthew 6:25-34 with new eyes, deepening your spiritual connection to creation, fostering a sense of trust in God and God’s creation, rejecting capitalistic and materialistic anxieties, and promoting responsible ecological practices as an integral part of Christian faith.
- Started or Continued to Develop a Decolonizing Lens: Learn to view theology and worship through the perspective of those who have been marginalized and made poor. We will reimagine stories like the Exodus, explore Rizpah, and examine Luke 4. You will learn methods for examining and developing decolonized liturgy, music, and worship spaces.
Workshop participants experienced decolonizing liturgy, music, and worship space in the celebration of the Eucharist Friday evening at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Escanaba, in partnership with the annual convention of the Diocese of Northern Michigan.
This workshop was designed for hands-on engagement, featuring working table groups throughout the day to help identify actions and commitments, encounter fellow community members, and commit to action and communal accountability.
While in-person attendance was encouraged for the fullest experience, a hybrid option was available to increase accessibility.
1 From the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery website: “The ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ is a philosophical and legal framework dating to the 15th century that gave Christian governments moral and legal rights to invade and seize indigenous lands and dominate Indigenous Peoples. The patterns of oppression that continue to dispossess Indigenous Peoples of their lands today are found in numerous historical documents such as Papal Bulls, Royal Charters and U.S. Supreme Court rulings as recent as 2005. Collectively, these and other concepts form a paradigm of domination that legitimates extractive industries that displace and destroy many Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable communities, as well as harm the earth.”
Schedule
- 9:30 - 10:00am
- Registration with Continental Breakfast
- 10:00 - 11:30am
- Session 1: Co-identifying an economy of life
- 11:30 - 1:00pm
- Lunch (provided for those attending in person)
- 1:00 - 2:30pm
- Session 2: Getting grounded in the soil
- 2:30 - 3:00pm
- Break
- 3:00 - 4:30pm
- Session 3: Developing a decolonizing lens
Continental breakfast, buffet lunch, and coffee throughout the day were provided to all participants. No cost to attend. Childcare was provided free of charge.
Resources
Video Clips from Indigenous Speaker Series
Sophie Pierre Clip #1 Timestamp: 5:50 - 10:47
Tela Troge Clip Timestamp: 43:42 - 47:20
Sophie Pierre Clip #2 Timestamp: 38:38 - 43:21
Diane Shenandoah Clip Timestamp: 52:17 - 58:51
- Slide deck with graphics on ecological overshoot
- Slide deck with scripture and Decolonization Framework Questions
- Worksheet with Decolonization Framework Questions
- So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis by Sarah Augustine and Sheri Hostetler
- Sacred Lands Playlist (free resource where you can find many of the songs we sang together)
- Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast
We highly recommend staying in touch with the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and using their resources to share these learnings with your faith communities. Explore their calendar to find entry-level ways to get involved, including orientation and decolonizing worship. If you’d like to reach out to them directly, email [email protected].
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Sarah Augustine, who is a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant, is co-founder and executive director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. She is also the co-founder of Suriname Indigenous Health Fund (SIHF), where she has advocated for vulnerable Indigenous Peoples since 2004. She has represented the interests of Indigenous community partners to their own governments, the Inter-American development bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a host of other international actors including corporate interests. She has written for Sojourners, The Mennonite, Anabaptist Witness, Response Magazine and other publications. She is currently a columnist for Anabaptist World, and co-hosts the Doctrine of Discovery podcast with Sheri Hostetler. She and her daughter live in Tacoma, Washington.
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Sheri Hostetler ’90 cofounded the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery in 2014 with Sarah Augustine and continues to serve in leadership. She is the cohost of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery podcast with Sarah. She was also one of the founders of what is now called Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church. She has been the lead pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco since 2000. Her writing has appeared in Anabaptist World, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Leader magazine, and more, and her poems appear in A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry. She is a graduate of Bluffton College and the Episcopal Divinity School. She is trained as a spiritual director and a permaculturist, and lives with her husband, Jerome Baggett, and their son, Patrick, on an island in the San Francisco Bay. She comes from a long line of Amish and Mennonite settler farmers.