Events in 2023

It was an honor to return to Laurinburg, North Carolina to give the Hattie McNair Bible Lectures on November 5, 6, and 7. The event was held at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church.

A Conference for Research in Diakonia and Christian Social Practice was sponsored by VID University College in Oslo, Norway and will be held online and in person at the end of May. I presented a paper on participation of US religious leaders in solidarity protest movements and highlighted ongoing demonstrations in Louisville, Kentucky after Breonna Taylor’s murder. The conference related to research included in the recent publication of the International Handbook on Ecumenical Diakonia: Contextual Theologies and Practices of Diakonia and Christian Social Services – Resources for Study and Intercultural Learning (Fortress, 2021).

I worked collaboratively with a planning team from Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, California to plan a Women’s Retreat held at Villa Maria del Mar in Santa Cruz. The retreat entitled “Listening for the Sound of the Authentic” was held from March 10-13, 2023 and included sessions focusing on storytelling. I spoke on “Opening the Mind to the Illumination of God,” “Drowning Out the External Rumble,” and “Wading Out into the World’s Troubled Seas.” These themes emerge in the writings of social mystics including Howard Thurman and Vida Dutton Scudder.