Visiting Scholar: Diana Butler Bass
October 1, 2023
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
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On 10/1, Diana will join us for worship (9 & 11), and a workshop (6:30 p.m.). She will be launching our fall stewardship campaign with her writings from the book Grateful. Read Hal's Reflection.
Outline of the day:
Join Bruce Ronda on September 17 and 24 and October 8 and 15 (10 am in the Fireside Room) for a discussion of our Visiting Scholar Diana Butler Bass's book Grateful. A lively, personal, and provocative book, Grateful examines gratitude as a personal practice and a shared commitment. Interested? Sign up here to let him know you'll be participating. Find Diana's book using link below and read Part I for the September 17 session. Buy her book, Grateful, here.
Learn more on her website.
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share a special day on video with Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
- Wes gave the sermon at our morning service: "Our Pilgrimage through the Pandemic," Luke 10:1-11.
- He presented a Zoom interactive program “Walking Forward: The Practice of Pilgrimage”
- He spoke at our evening Zoom service: "Re-entry: Our Congregation's Pilgrim Progress" Acts 11:19-24
In our “Plymouth Reads” book, Without Oars, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson blends history, storytelling, biblical insights, personal reflections, and spiritual formation in an inviting call to discover pilgrimage as a way of life. This book offers a unique perspective on the faith journey as an embodied practice of heading into the unknown and unknowable--with all the excitement, risk, and rewards that come with letting go.
Rev. Richard Rohr, director of the Center for Action and Contemplation, says, "Wes Granberg-Michaelson describes the promise and joy of 'casting off into a life of pilgrimage' in ways that make us want to start walking. A wonderful book." The way of the pilgrim begins with what we leave behind--not so much a journey to a holy place, but a holy practice of leaving the comforts of the familiar for a radical vulnerability, letting the very breath of God direct us on the unknown, stripped-down path of trust.
Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson is a global ecumenical leader whose work has highlighted the intersection of faith with public life. Having served as General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America for 17 years from 1994 to 2011, Rev. Granberg-Michaelson was and has continued to be very active in ecumenical work, including having been director of World and Society at the World Council of Churches in Geneva. In the fall of 2012, Granberg-Michaelson was appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. He played a leading role in establishing Christian Churches Together in the USA, and presently helps guide the development of the Global Christian Forum. Over the course of his ministry his ecumenical work has taken him to all corners of the world.
Granberg-Michaelson is the author of several earlier books, including From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church, and Future Faith: Ten Challenges for Reshaping Christianity in the 21st Century (Fortress Press), Underexpected Destinations: An Evangelical Pilgrimage to World Christianity and Leadership from Inside Out: Spirituality and Organizational Change. Wes has authored numerous articles in such journals as Sojourners (of which he was a founding associate editor), The Christian Century, Christianity Today, The Church Herald, and the Ecumenical Review. For some of his articles, see https://sojo.net/biography/wesley-granberg-michaelson-0
If you missed our Visiting Scholar program on Nov, 14, 2020,
you may see the recordings here:
Session 1: Opening/Overview and The Great Reformation
Session 2: The Gift of Uncertainty
Session 3: The Gift of Failure
Interlude: Singing Bowls
Session 4: The Gift of Getting Lost
Session 5: The Gift of Misfit Community
Session 6: Closing Blessings
Session 2: The Gift of Uncertainty
Session 3: The Gift of Failure
Interlude: Singing Bowls
Session 4: The Gift of Getting Lost
Session 5: The Gift of Misfit Community
Session 6: Closing Blessings
"Exploring Gifts of the Dark Wood"
Do you sometimes feel a bit empty or lost in the midst of the current global pandemic and the political turmoil of our nation? Do you ever experience uncertainty, ambivalence, or downright exhaustion in your work … or your life? Welcome to the Dark Wood – a place explored, if feared, by the medieval poet Dante, but which generations of Christian mystics and biblical sages knew as one of the surest places to meet God. In the Dark Wood, you don't need to be a saint or spiritual master to experience profound awakening and live with God's presence and guidance. All you really have to be is struggling! Your greatest assets on the journey may be the very "gifts" you're seeking to be rid of, such as failure, uncertainty, emptiness and temptation.
Dr. Elnes’ work has been described as “reflecting the heart of a mystic, the soul of a poet, and the mind of a biblical scholar,” (Frank Schaeffer) who shows us how to "follow the Spirit in an age that is appropriately skeptical of spiritual claims." (Phyllis Tickle) His most recent book, Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Spiritual Skeptics (and Other Wanderers), will serve as background material for this retreat.
Dr. Elnes’ work has been described as “reflecting the heart of a mystic, the soul of a poet, and the mind of a biblical scholar,” (Frank Schaeffer) who shows us how to "follow the Spirit in an age that is appropriately skeptical of spiritual claims." (Phyllis Tickle) His most recent book, Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Spiritual Skeptics (and Other Wanderers), will serve as background material for this retreat.
Dr. Eric Elnes is the Senior Minister of Countryside Community Church (UCC) in Omaha, NE, and a biblical scholar with a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. Elnes is the author of several books and publications including, The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity (Jossey-Bass, 2006) and a book on experiential worship, Igniting Worship: The Seven Deady Sins (Abingdon, 2004).
Dr. Elnes also helped lead a 2,500 mile walk from Phoenix to Washington, DC, in 2006 to promote awareness of progressive Christian faith and practice and meet with Christians at a grassroots level to hear their hopes and dreams for the future of faith in America. His journey, is recounted in his book, Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith on the Highways of America (Jossey-Bass, 2007).
Dr. Elnes also helped lead a 2,500 mile walk from Phoenix to Washington, DC, in 2006 to promote awareness of progressive Christian faith and practice and meet with Christians at a grassroots level to hear their hopes and dreams for the future of faith in America. His journey, is recounted in his book, Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith on the Highways of America (Jossey-Bass, 2007).
To learn more about Rev. Elnes, check out these links:
https://www.darkwoodbrew.org/covid/ (Rev. Eric Elnes is a COVID-19 survivor)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=QereRSvH7xI&feature=emb_logo
https://countrysideucc.org/sermons/
https://www.darkwoodbrew.org/covid/ (Rev. Eric Elnes is a COVID-19 survivor)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=QereRSvH7xI&feature=emb_logo
https://countrysideucc.org/sermons/