Six New Things – Week of February 21, 2022
This week’s line-up is all about engaging all ages in healing our understanding of God so we can heal our selves, our relationships, and the world.
ONE
There’s no better place to start with healing for all than with the Sacred Black Feminine: God Is a Black Woman (HarperCollins) dismantles ‘the cultural “whitemalegod”‘… and introduces “a Black Female God who imbues us with hope, healing, and liberating presence”. Read this book!!!
Let this theology emerge further with This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us (PenguinRandom House), a “compelling” and “potent” weaving of family stories that lift up the Sacredness of black bodies and Black experience – for youth and adults.
TWO
Encourage young ones to grow up confident in themselves and their sacred identities with The Year We Learned to Fly (for kids – Nancy Paulsen) and for youth: Ain’t Burned All the Bright (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy).
For a lighter take on self-awareness and the confidence and compassion it creates, share How to Train Your Pet Brain (Beaming).
THREE
Help Littles develop a healthier understanding of God – and avoid the need for future ‘dismantling’ – by exploring creation with Wonder Awaits! (Chalice), which encourages kids to get close, get dirty, look carefully, look up, make art, make friends, be brave, be curious, be present, and be amazed.
Adults can engage all of those practices with Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth (Fortress).
FOUR
Further exploration of God can be had with Church Anew’s new 15-minute video Bible study series, Old & New – for youth and adults – which features local theologians exploring Genesis with a current context lens.
Bring everyone along on the theological exploration with New Directions for Holy Questions: Progressive Christian Theology for Families (Church) – an interactive workbook approach to Godly-justice questions at home.
FIVE
Develop healthier intergenerational relationships in the congregation by training up more confident and capable leaders through Lifelong Faith’s FREE Designing & Leading Faith Formation with All Ages & Generations videos – they cover just about everything.
And get inspired for a radical overhaul of what a healthy church and community look like with Church at the Wall: Stories of Hope at the San Diego-Tijuana Border (Judson).
SIX
And, since Lent is nearly here, we’ve got a slough of last-minute options for healthy gatherings that strengthen faith and community:
- Our own Openings encourages intergenerational exploration of challenging feelings, walking with Jesus through his final days. Weekly Wonder Stations prepare the congregation for a Good Friday Stations of the Cross; liturgies for the remainder of Holy Week continue the theme through Easter Morning.
- Virginia Theological Seminary’s FREE 40-minute video Stations of the Cross is bilingual – Spanish & English – and comes with different ideas for how to share it with your whole community.
- UCC MN’s Family Faith Toolkits are just about ready. They’ll feature a video, family activity, outdoor contemplative movement, song (from Richard Bruxvort Culligan!), book lists, and more!
- and if you want to curtail the atonement theory so prevalent during Holy Week, check out Traci Smith’s video conversations exploring A Theology of the Cross and Children: Beyond Substitutionary Atonement with Laura Alary and Rethinking Original Sin: A Conversation with Danielle Shroyer. [See Smith’s Great Idea – Fresh Perspective on Resurrection Eggs – for specific help in this department.]
That’s a lot – but I can’t help it when so much good stuff comes my way in the same week…
I hope this list leaves you feeling healthier!
