A Meditation on Watersheds | by Leslie R. Kryder

Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries

Leslie Kryder of Albuquerque, NM (Rio Grande watershed) recently coordinated a group to work through the Bartimaeus Institute Online (BIO) classes, offered by BCM. The fifth class in the series is BIO-B01 Watershed Discipleship, and as a final class project, Leslie has undertaken “A Meditation on Watersheds” — a contemplation of her “place” and part of her journey of coming into her watershed. Please note that if you are interested in the kind of detailed mapping of your watershed that Leslie has done for hers, she is open to discussing a fee-for-service arrangement. If interested, please contact her here.

Of Watersheds and Sub-Watersheds: How local is local?

A group from Albuquerque Mennonite Church recently completed the Bartimaeus Institute Online courses, the last of which was titled, “Watershed Discipleship.” In it, we were encouraged to identify with “place” as a way of coming to really know and love where we live. The local watershed was recommended as the area of interest.

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Big Elkin Creek: Watershed Discipleship in Action

Big Elkin Creek: Watershed Discipleship in Action

WD Editors

One way to practice watershed discipleship is to work on waterway restoration projects, such as the project in this video, depicting a restoration project along Big Elkin Creek in North Carolina. Rev. Stuart Taylor, retired minister of Elkin Presbyterian Church, has been integrally involved in this project. He has helped communicate and mediate between members of the community, particularly those with land bordering the creek, and he has participated in fundraisers and volunteer projects to restore this creek. This work takes many different kinds of partners, from government agencies and engineers to local business owners, from community organizers to those with knowledge of plants. Individuals from the town formed Watershed NOW to work together toward stewarding the gift of water in their region. Rev. Taylor and his congregation have been participants in this work as people of faith and as community members with a range of skills, as well as showing up when there was a need.

We hope the story of Big Elkin Creek inspires you in implementing watershed discipleship in its myriad forms in your community!

Interfaith Delegation: Stop Line 3 | Treaty People Gathering June 5–8, 2021

Interfaith Delegation: Stop Line 3 | Treaty People Gathering June 5–8, 2021

Cherice Bock

Indigenous water protectors are inviting people to come to Minnesota June 5–8, 2021, for a massive action to stop the Line 3 pipeline. They have requested an interfaith delegation. Might this include you? Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light and GreenFaith are partnering to form an interfaith delegation to peacefully protest the building of this pipeline.

This tar sands pipeline has received its permits from the state, so activists are calling on President Biden to cancel the pipeline. Ensuring that the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from that pipeline’s construction never reach the atmosphere is of utmost importance, as is making sure that a pipeline does not cross waterways, does not illegally cross lands that by treaty belong to the Anishinaabe people, and does not disturb the wild rice—sacred to the Anishinaabe—that only grows in that region of Minnesota.

Learn more and register for the Treaty People Gathering, and also register for the interfaith delegation. You can see the schedule here. This interfaith delegation will include cabins for many people to stay in, as well as space for tent camping.

Those who attend will engage in peaceful actions to draw attention to this pipeline and put pressure on President Biden to cancel its construction. You can also add your name to this letter to the president.

Are you interested in learning more? You can attend an info session with GreenFaith on Thursday, May 20, 2021, and/or leave comments with questions. Shared transportation is being arranged from many parts of the United States.

Actions in solidarity and other ways to support this endeavor will be available soon.

Eco-Lent Resources

Eco-Lent Resources

Cherice Bock

Lent is a meaningful time in the church calendar to focus on watershed discipleship: How will you be a more faithful disciple within your watershed this season?

We suggest below a number of Lenten devotionals focused on care for creation and environmental justice. A member of the watershed discipleship community, C. John Hildebrand, put together a daily reading schedule for Elaine Enns and Ched Myers’ new book, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, so you can read through it during Lent, knowing others are doing the same. Here are some of our suggestions for focusing your Lenten practice on watershed discipleship:

Image: “Sunset through Horatio N. May Chapel,” Tim Nafziger

Pre-order “Healing Haunted Histories” | Discount code

Pre-order “Healing Haunted Histories” | Discount code

Cherice Bock

In Healing Haunted Histories, Elaine Enns and Ched Myers invite readers to consider how the call to follow Jesus is also a summons to racial justice and decolonization. They chart a path for how we can dig into our family histories to face our own “ghosts” of settler colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and white supremacy.

This 400-page book is equal parts: memoir (mostly focusing on Enns’ Mennonite family and community, who endured the Russian Civil War, fled the Soviet aftermath, and settled on Indigenous land in Saskatchewan in the 1920s);  social analysis; theological reflection, and workbook for those ready to “do their own work.”

For a limited time, friends of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries are eligible for a special discount off the softcover edition of Healing Haunted Histories $38 USD retail price. Get the coupon code and learn more>

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Celebrate MLKJ with a special (online) gathering

Celebrate MLKJ with a special (online) gathering

Cherice Bock

What a week it’s been! Epiphany indeed shed light on toxic white supremacy, challenging us to go deeper in our discipleship of decolonization and racial justice.

As we prepare for our upcoming Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute 2021 online next month, we invite you to the second of two pre-Institute “stepping stone” programs: celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. this Sunday, January 17, 2021 from 3:30–4:30 PST.

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BARTIMAEUS KINSLER INSTITUTE | February 12–15, 2021

BARTIMAEUS KINSLER INSTITUTE | February 12–15, 2021

Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries

Registration and Information

The BKI2021 theme is “Deepening Practices of Restorative Solidarity.” For a third consecutive year we’ll explore the work of decolonizing discipleship. We’ll look at how white settlers can build just relations with Indigenous and other communities of color in North America, hearing from seasoned faith leaders who are theologian/activist/pastors. This online BKI will include “community mixers,” book and film debuts, and for the first time two pre-Institute Zoom gatherings and several post Institute workshops for ongoing engagement. Schedule and resource persons will be announced as they are confirmed.

–BKI program planning committee

Image above: Braided River, Blue Green by Robert Valiente-Neighbours, Lino-Monotype. artbyrvn.com As a braided river, we diverge and connect. We contour the land we travel through, shrinking and growing with each season. And we are shaped by our journey, from the peaks of our source to our destination in the oceans. This piece was created through a linocut monotype process.

 

Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute 2020 | February 17–21, 2020

Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute 2020 | February 17–21, 2020

Cherice Bock

Unsettling Histories | Decolonizing Discipleship | hukišunuškuy

Forest Home Camp, Oak View, CA

Register now through January 29, 2020 for this year’s Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute (BKI) hosted by Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. This year’s BKI builds on last year’s theme (although you don’t need to have gone to the Institute last year to gain much from this year’s experience). The gathering will focus on: Read more →