Category: Blog

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!

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.

 

Unsettling the Word

Unsettling the Word

WD Editors

Those in the watershed discipleship community will be interested in a recent book called Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization (Mennonite Church Canada, 2018), edited by Steve Heinrichs and illustrated by Jonathan Dyck. With 69 short entries by an excellent list of contributors, this book helps us grapple with ways the Christian tradition has been co-opted by empire, and uncover the stories and themes that help us connect with land, creation, and other people groups. The book is beautifully laid out, with artwork appearing throughout the book (see some examples here). A number of people connected to the watershed discipleship community contributed to the book, including Ched Myers, Katerina Friesen, Randy Woodley, Joshua Grace, Bob Haverluck, Rose Marie Berger, Wes Howard-Brook, and Robert Two Bulls. You may also recognize the names of several of the other contributors from biblical studies and various areas of theology, including Kwok Pui-lan, Joerg Rieger, Norman Habel, Walter Brueggemann, Miguel A. De La Torre, and Ellen F. Davis.

The reflections contained in this book are short — 3-5 pages each — and seek to reinterpret, wrestle with, or reimagine biblical texts, particularly pointing the reader toward Indigenous themes in the text, immigrants, and Read more →

Eco-Stewards | Richmond, VA | June 29, 2019

Eco-Stewards | Richmond, VA | June 29, 2019

WD Editors

The Eco-Stewards Program, an organization that uses a week-long, place-based learning program to create community among young adult leaders (ages 20-30) who care about the importance of the intersection between their faith and environmental stewardship, will be in Richmond, VA on June 29, 2019. This year’s experience will be a little bit different: Eco-Stewards is inviting alumni, those interested in networking with Eco-Stewards, and those interested in participating as an Eco-Steward in the future to join together for an afternoon along the James River.

You may recall the reflection Vicki Machado wrote about the Eco-Stewards Program‘s last visit to Richmond. If that sparked your interest and you’re able to get to Virginia for a gathering of prayer, reflection, storytelling, and connection, learn more here or RSVP here.