The Forum at St. Luke's: Recent Episodes
St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Dr. Ellen Ott Marshall joins us for a conversation about the book, "Parenting for a Better World," which she co-edited. Ellen is professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation for the Candler School of Theology. She is director of the school's Graduate Division of Religion. We also hear from Don Saliers, Anton Flores-Maisonet, Carlton Mackey and Isaiah Mackey.
The Rev. Isaiah Shaneequa Brokenleg serves as the Staff Officer for Racial Reconciliation for the presiding bishop. An epidemiologist in her previous career, Brokenleg's call to priesthood offered a union of her professional and cultural life. She is a member of the Lakota tribe and a Winkte - a sacred healer. As an epidemiologist, Brokenleg traveled to many reservations and native communities throughout the Midwest to develop outreach programs to address health issues and challenges. Her current work draws on many of those same skills and approaches.
Restorative Justice was one of the calls to come out of the Anglican Bishop's meeting at Lambeth. This model addresses the harm done to people and communities through a relational approach to resolving conflicts and building community to make things whole. Join us in a conversation with Jacquel Clemons Moore, who is the City of Atlanta's Director of Violence Reduction.
The Rev. Winnie Varghese sits down with The Rt. Rev. Dr. Vicentia Kgabe to discuss the Lambeth Conference , her work as bishop of Lesotho, and answer questions from St. Luke's parishioners.
Georgia Justice Project returns to engage in a talk back session with us around mass incarceration after a performance of the one man show "Calf"
Talking About Climate Change Without Sounding Partisan. Join us for a conversation with Mark Douglas, professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary. We will talk with him about dialogue tools and faith-specific resources to engage leaders on climate change and its impacts on Georgia's communities.
Dr. Kim Cobb, climate scientist and professor has studied the effects of climate change on oceans and reefs for over 20 years. She is now focusing on climate change solutions, informed by her research of not only oceans and reefs, but also upon the coastal communities in Georgia. Our discussion will center on how her prior work led her to this current direction, including her work in underserved communities whose concerns are often different and often unheard.
Join us in a conversation as we think through the various ways that we celebrate the gift of our loved one's life, the various ways that they impacted those around them, even as we ourselves are in the midst of grieving their death. In the burial service we proclaim: "yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia." This is a time of to talk about funeral planning, planned giving, various ways to celebrate a life well loved and well lived.
As a Christian community, we know what to do at the time of death. We say prayers, we gather together and share the Eucharistic meal. We celebrate the life of our loved one and we commend them to God's eternal care and peace. Then we congregate for a reception (when possible) to tell stories, laugh, cry, and name the pain of grief and loss. Once the reception has finished, and family and friends have returned to their homes, how do we begin to go about the work of befriending our grief
What is a Vocational Deacon? God brings us from dust to life, from conflict to peace, from stranger to neighbor. For everything there is a season and through our liturgy, we are empowered to hold each season in hope. Yet, our world and her needs are constantly changing. The role of the Vocational Deacon is to stand in the doorway and interpret the changing needs, concerns and hopes of the world to the Church in order to help animate the peoples' response to provoke healing and peace.
Respite Care Atlanta's mission is to provide spiritually integrated respite care for adults with cognitive challenges. Supported by nine Atlanta congregations, this program provides an environment for intellectual stimulation, physical exercise and meaningful connections for participants while also offering support for caregivers through information and community resources. John Stewart and Carter Morris are the ministry leaders facilitating St. Luke's involvement in this vital ministry.
The Rev. Winnie Varghese speaks with director Julie Cohen about her latest film "My Name Is Pauli Murray"
The Rev. Winnie Varghese is joined by The Rev. Pat Merchant to discuss the legacy of Pauli Murray
Living in a time of trauma: what we can do to help one another with Training and Counseling Center (TACC) Executive Director Dorothea Lotze-Kola and psychiatrist and parishioner Lisa Boswell.
The Rev. Winnie Varghese interviews the Rev. Kim Jackson, vicar of Church of the Common Ground and Georgia state representative for Senate District 41, on her spiritual roots, her ministry with the unhoused, and Pride in pandemic times.
The end is nigh! The seas are rising, the mountains are burning, and the moon has turned red with blood. These are not the lines from an ancient apocalyptic text. Rather, they are headlines from media coverage of anthropogenic climate change. What should we make of this apocalyptic talk that so often comes up as we engage our planetary emergency? Join Dr. Kyle Lambelet of Candler School of Theology to explore what wisdom we can glean from apocalyptic tradition
Join Ed for a conversation with John Philip Newell who shares the wisdom of Celtic Christianity explaining how this earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover the natural rhythms of life and deepen our spiritual connection with God, with each other, and with the earth. His new book "Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul" will be published in July.
Stay connected with John Philip Newell: https://www.earthandsoul.org/
Join Ed for a conversation with Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, about the situation in the Middle East. It's a fast-paced masterclass on the history of the region from Israel's creation in 1948 up to today's painful realities.
Leaving The Security of Our Tribes: Healing Gang Violence Ed welcomes David Lee Windecher, a trailblazing criminal defense attorney, author, and activist in the social justice movement to end mass incarceration, reduce recidivism, and redress racial inequity in the criminal justice system, to this Sunday's Forum. For the last three Forums, Ed has interviewed men who were involved in gang violence (the KKK, the Skinheads, and a Miami Latino Gang). After their emancipation/redemption, they all found ways to pass help others. Hear about David Lee's nonprofit to advance restorative, not retributive, justice.
Growing up poor in Miami David Lee was arrested 13 times and spent over 7 months incarcerated as a juvenile. He dropped out of high school and joined a gang for protection. Another resurrection story, David's story of transformation from defendant to defense attorney challenges our notions of justice and criminality. David believes his story sheds light on the loss of humanity within the legal system in which a punitive approach damages people and the community at large.
Maggie Fox, a nationally prominent environmental lawyer, advocate and educator, is Ed's guest for the Forum tomorrow - Creation Care Sunday.
Maggie is the founder of the Global Biodiversity Narrative Project and is past president and CEO of the Climate Reality Project and the Climate Action Fund, with global campaigns training citizens and leaders. She was the national president of America Votes as well as the Southwest Regional Director and Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
Maggie began her career as a classroom teacher and community organizer on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations of Arizona and New Mexico.
Gun Violence, Public Health, and Following the Science Dr. Arthur Kellermann, CEO of Virginia Commonwealth University's Health System and former Chair of the Emergency Medicine Department of Emory University, has looked at gun violence through the lens of public health for three decades. He and Ed Bacon talk this Sunday about the difference it makes to follow the science on the issue of guns as opposed to polarizing and divisive ideological fighting. Ed poses to Dr. Kellermann, a former member of St. Luke's, two important questions, "Where Are We Now?" and "Where Do We Go From Here?"
St. Luke's welcomes the author of "The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation." Anna Malaika Tubbs speaks with Ed about the impact of these three mothers of had on the course of American history.
The weekend of March 6 and 7, 2021 marks the one year anniversary of our last Sunday worshipping together before COVID -19 paused our physical in-church gatherings for worship. Our guest speaker that March 8-9, 2020 weekend was the acclaimed Princeton professor and scholar of the gnostic gospels, Elaine Pagels. At the Forum, March 7, Professor Pagels and Ed Bacon will reflect together on her life, thinking, teaching, and writing during the pandemic.
Rev. angel Kyodo Williams is an esteemed Zen Buddhist priest and the second woman of African descent recognized as a teacher in the Japanese Zen lineage in the world. Krista Tippett of "On Being," says, "She is one of our wisest voices on social evolution and the spiritual aspect of social healing." Rev. angel and Ed Bacon have been friends for almost a decade. They co-led an interfaith pilgrimage to Pando, the one-tree forest. She's the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace and Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation. In 2020, she created the first annual Great Radical Race Read.
In this Sunday Forum, Ed Bacon continues a series of conversations with national leaders during which he poses two questions, "Where Are We Now?" and "Where Do We Go From Here?" This week's guest, the Rev Kim Jackson is both Episcopal priest and State of Georgia Senator. As the vicar of The Church of the Common Ground, Rev. Jackson serves a parish of those who are experiencing homelessness or who have had that experience. She also is the first out lesbian elected to the state Senate. She tells her story of experiencing a call to ordination as well as a call to elected public service. Her witness to the Heritage of prophetic leadership is transformational.
We continue a series of conversations about "Where Are We Now?" And "Where do we go from here? Dr. Catherine Meeks directs the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. A keen prophetic voice about Church, Culture, and the Human Heart, Dr. Meeks explains the inspiring leadership of Absalom Jones as well as God's call for healing to each of us after 500,000 COVID-19 deaths and a post-insurrection America.
"Where are we now?" "Where do we go from here?" These are two questions all of us are considering in the context of transitions the new year has brought us. Ed Bacon continues a series of Forums with thought leaders who are grappling with these questions and whose leadership is impacting lives. Paige Alexander, CEO of the Carter Center, is explicitly charged with "building peace, health, and hope for the world's poorest and most vulnerable people." Ed met Paige during the series of Mourning Into Unity prayer vigils St. Luke's hosted. She has much to say about moving forward with hope in unsettling times.
Ed welcomes author and scholar Diana Butler Bass to the St. Luke's Forum this Sunday, January 24 immediately following the 10am service. Dr. Butler Bass has written extensively on the history of Christianity, the church in America, and spirituality. She will bring her knowledge of the terrain of religious America to help us understand the religious expressions and dynamics feeding so many who took part in the siege of our Capitol.
Interim Rector Ed Bacon continues his exploration of Kingian principles this Sunday welcoming Dr. John Vaughn, Executive Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Dr. Gwendolyn Middlebrooks, longtime member of Ebenezer and veteran of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Middlebrooks also is a personal friend of the King family - she was a babysitter for the King children. They will discuss which values are core, which ones are most frequently invoked at Ebenezer, and how those values look in daily practice.
"Wonder" is a powerful word in life and in Christianity. "Star of wonder!" brings to heart the impact of the Christmas message. Christmas may be the most wonder-filled liturgical season of them all. Join Ed as he continues his exploration of wonder with Barbara Brown Taylor, whose most recent book is Always a Guest.
"Wonder" is a powerful word in life and in Christianity. "Star of wonder!" brings to heart the impact of the Christmas message. Christmas may be the most wonder-filled liturgical season of them all. This Sunday, Ed welcomes Lois Reitzes of WABE's, "City Lights" to talk about the wonder of the Arts in Atlanta during COVID.
"Wonder" is a powerful word in life and in Christianity. "Star of wonder!" brings to heart the impact of the Christmas message. Christmas may be the most wonder-filled liturgical season of them all. This Sunday, Ed welcomes Dr. Gregory Ellison to discuss the poetic mysticism of Howard Thurman.
The Rev. Ed Bacon speaks with psychologist Dr. Paula Green about her Hands Across the Hills project and the dangers of polarization. Hands Across the Hills formed in response to the 2016 election with the goal of meeting face to face with others who voted differently, eliminating the voices of politicians and the media, who seek to divide us, to see us as enemies, red versus blue. Two small groups, progressives in rural Western Massachusetts and conservative voters in Eastern Kentucky coal country, met for three immersive weekends of dialogue and cultural exchange.https://www.handsacrossthehills.org/
Today is Ingathering for our Stewardship 2021 Campaign: Big Love Finds a Way, so it is appropriate to hear what St. Lukers are saying about why stewardship is so important to our community and why they give. We also find out what Big Love means to each of them.
Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker returns to St. Luke's for a post-election day conversation with Ed. For seventeen years, she served as editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, overseeing the newspaper's editorial policies on everything from local elections to foreign affairs. After leaving the newspaper, she spent three years as a visiting professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she was also a Charlayne Hunter-Gault writer-in-residence. She is currently the journalist-in-residence at the University of South Alabama, where she teaches in the communications and political science departments.
An Equitable and Healthier Economic System Without Racism: A Profile in Vision and Courage - with Raphael Bostic, chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
In September (2020), Sewanee's Board of Regents stated that it "categorically rejects it past veneration of the Confederacy and of the 'Lost Cause' and wholeheartedly commits itself to an urgent process of institutional reckoning." Join Ed Bacon in a conversation with Sewanee history professor Woody Register, who has led the six year journey of a slavery project at the University of the South.
Bishop Phoebe Roaf Winter Convocation Address: https://youtu.be/oKnahttqSEY
Ed interviews John A. Lanier, chair of the board of directors for Southface Energy Institute, the southeast's nonprofit leader in the promotion of sustainable homes, workplaces, and communities through education, research, advocacy and technical assistance. He joined the Ray C. Anderson Foundation as executive director in May 2013 to advance the legacy of Ray, his grandfather, after practicing law. He earned his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, and he holds bachelor of arts degrees in history and economics from the University of Virginia. He blogs regularly and his TEDx can be viewed on YouTube.
Join St. Luke's clergy and parishioner Dr. Lisa Boswell, TACC therapist Nineshia Mont-Reynaud, and Steve Austin, a pastor who survived a suicide attempt, to discuss how the isolation and physical distancing required by living in a pandemic has increased rates of depression and suicidal ideations. The prolonged crisis of the pandemic is depleting people's resources for resiliency. But there are things that we can pro-actively do for ourselves to build our resiliency reserves and support mental and spiritual well-being. And there are ways, even in this time of physical distance, that we can reach out to support one another which also adds to our capacity to be resilient.
Ed Bacon brings that question to Dr. Evan Anderson, the Emory Medical School physician who heads the coronavius vaccine trial. In this Forum conversation Dr. Anderson describes the steps required to bring a vaccine to market and thus to humanity world-wide. He also addresses our life after the vaccine, the social inequities this pandemic has revealed, and how he as a person of faith finds hope and persistence to do his work
Interim Rector Ed Bacon is joined by program staff and Junior Warden Neil Schemm to talk about what's on tap for the coming months. Neil is the chair of the Return to 435 Committee that is working toward safe ways the parish can begin gathering in person.
The conclusion of a two-part conversation between St. Luke's Interim Rector Ed Bacon and James Lawson, the leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He went as a Methodist missionary to India, where he studied satyagraha, a form of nonviolence resistance developed by Mohandas Gandhi and his followers. He returned to the US where he met Martin Luther King Jr. He joined Dr. King in the work of equality and non-violence, becoming a towering figure in the movement.
The first in a two-part conversation between Interim Rector Ed Beacon and James Lawson, the leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He went as a Methodist missionary to India, where he studied satyagraha, a form of nonviolence resistance developed by Mohandas Gandhi and his followers. He returned to the US where he met Martin Luther King Jr. He joined Dr. King in the work of equality and non-violence, becoming a towering figure in the movement.
Interim Rector Ed Bacon concludes his conversation with Robert P. Jones, a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture, and politics and the author of "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity" and "The End of White Christian America." He is the founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University, a M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a B.S. in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College. In addition to being a frequent contribute to national media, such as CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post, Jones writes a column for The Atlantic online on politics and culture.
Interim Rector Ed Bacon speaks with Robert P. Jones, a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture, and politics and the author of "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity" and "The End of White Christian America." He is the founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University, a M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a B.S. in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College. In addition to being a frequent contribute to national media, such as CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post, Jones writes a column for The Atlantic online on politics and culture.
Join Ed Bacon for a conversation with Peter Berg, senior rabbi at The Temple, the oldest Jewish congregation in Atlanta. Their discussion will touch on several areas including the unique Jewish perspective on racial unrest.
A conversation between the Rev. Ed Bacon and three trusted friends about making deep cultural changes to eliminate inequalities.