Interviews – Watershed Discipleship

Christian Food Movement: an interview with Nurya Love Parish

May 18, 2018June 24, 2018Cherice Bock

by Cherice Bock and Nurya Love Parish

In 2014, Rev. Nurya Love Parish began organizing a network she called the Christian Food Movement, and started a farm-based ministry called Plainsong Farm in Michigan. A former Unitarian Universalist and now Episcopal priest, Parish preached on ecology, food, and faith as far back as 2002, but her vision for putting the themes of faith and ecology together in her life and ministry began to coalesce in 2014 when she encountered Fred Bahnson’s Soil & Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith, which led her to Wake Forest School of Divinity’s Food, Faith, & Religious Leadership Initiative. There, she heard about watershed discipleship, and hatched the idea for catalyzing a Christian Food Movement that connects Christians who are integrating food and faith, in the style of the Jewish Food Movement. Read more →

Challenging a Theology of Waste, or “On Dealing with Our Crap,” part 2

March 11, 2018April 12, 2018WD Editors

by Sarah Thompson and Cherice Bock

In a recent post, Sarah Thompson shared about her understanding of the theology of waste that grips much of the church in the United States: a theology that sees this world, its people, and its resources as disposable, and that has a hard time dealing with physical and emotional crap (waste, trauma, colonialism, racism, etc.). Thompson connects the idea of learning to deal with our physical waste with learning to deal with our emotional and spiritual waste. In this week’s post, she discusses what challenges to this theology of waste look like in environmental activism. We particularly discussed her recent work as the director of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), and we also discussed the work required of white environmentalists in order to deal with the theology of waste spread by the combination of Christianity and Western imperialism.

CB: How do you think Christians can actively challenge the theology of waste you’re outlining? I know you recently worked for CPT, so I would love to hear more about how you see their work relating to helping people deal with their crap. Read more →

Challenging a Theology of Waste, or “On Dealing with Our Crap,” part 1

February 23, 2018February 23, 2018WD Editors

by Sarah Thompson and Cherice Bock

Sarah Thompson contributed an excellent chapter to Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith & Practice entitled, “An Ecological Beloved Community: An Interview with Na’Taki Osborne Jelks of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance.” I loved reading their thoughts and conversation focused around the question, “What might it mean to be in solidarity with struggles in other watersheds to build the ecological Beloved Community?” (102). Recognizing that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King, Jr. in “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”), Osborne Jelks and Thompson discussed the concept of SSDP: “Same Struggle, Different Place,” between the communities with whom they work. Osborne Jelks has been working with the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) to advocate for the predominantly African American community living in a region of northwest Atlanta where a sewage overflow system results in raw sewage running through a creek in residents’ backyards. Learning about WAWA’s activism and successes is an inspiring read, and covers some important ground regarding the intersection between racism and environmental degradation.

I also wanted to learn more about Sarah Thompson. She shares a bit of her story in the chapter, and what she shared made me want to learn more about her own work, and the directions she would like to go with watershed discipleship. Until recently, Thompson worked as executive director for Christian Peacemaker Teams, so I was particularly interested in hearing her insights about the connections between nonviolent direct action, international conflict, civil rights, environmental justice, and faith. Read more →