PUBLIC THEOLOGY FORUM, Saturday, September 17
Workshop Titles and Information
WORKSHOP 1 CHOICES (9:45-11:00 a.m.)
#1--Doing Faith in the Public Square
Led by: Dr. Terri Erwin, Organizer for New Leadership Development, Virginia Interfaith Center
Description: Practical community organizing skills can translate faith values and discernment into visible, positive outcomes when we engage decision-makers on issues we care about.
This workshop will focus on modeling and practicing essential relational techniques, basic power analysis, and an exploration of unique tools in the tactical toolkit of faith-based advocacy.
#2--Volunteering and Community Engagement in Urban Agricultural Spaces
Led by: Carena Miles
Description: Participants will learn and discuss different ways to support food justice initiatives within urban agricultural spaces. This workshop will highlight ways to engage and inspire community members to actively use gardening and farming as tools to increase food access as well as understanding the importance of upholding healthy relationships and group facilitation within communal spaces. There will also be discussion on how our identities and relationship to food and land shape our perspectives on what food justice means to us.
#3--Women with Bibles
Led by: Dr. James Taneti, Director of the Global Mission Center of Union Presbyterian Seminary and Assistant Professor of World Christianity
Description: Despite being relegated to the margins, women in the global South ministered in their communities and the public square.
In this workshop, participants will learn about professional female evangelists in the erstwhile British Commonwealth during the early twentieth century and draw implications for ministry at the margins.
WORKSHOP 2 CHOICES (11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
#4--From 1st to 21st Century: The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles as Resource for Community Engagement Today
Led by: Dr. John Carroll, Harriet Robertson Fitts Memorial Professor of New Testament, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Description: Among the pressing social issues of our times are wealth disparity and poverty; limitations in access to affordable housing and quality education and health care; barriers to acceptance and inclusion for persons on the social margins; persistent, systemic racism; and climate change and environmental justice.
Luke's two books in the New Testament may be nearly two millennia old, and they may not explicitly address all these issues of our time, but Luke's narratives do offer a vision for public life that can inspire community engagement today--engagement that makes a difference.
This workshop will explore some of the ways in which Luke challenges us to imagine new possibilities for our common life.
#5--Ecological and Community Storytelling
Led by: Emily Hodges Nyce, Founder and Director of Yaupon Place, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Description: Learn how ecological and community storytelling can serve as an expression of public theology. Participants will engage in the practice of storytelling and learn practical ways to implement this practice into their own ministry context.
#6--Freedom Requires Us All
Led by: Dr. Charlene Sinclair, Chief of Staff, Race Forward
Description: After decades of fighting back against blatant voter suppression and discrimination, the Voting Rights Act of 1964 was a major victory for the civil rights movement.
The landmark legislation prohibited racial discrimination in voting, but since the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013, voter suppression has run rampant. Almost instantly, states began creating barriers for Black voters, brown voters, and young voters. This has included closing polling places in Black and brown communities, enacting strict voter ID laws, and purging 17 million people from voter rolls between 2016 and 2018.
If the last several election cycles have been any indication of how the 2022 midterm elections will be for Black and brown communities, we, like the activists on the frontline who fought for decades to win our right to vote, must continue the fight to ensure our communities secure the right to engage in and thus affirm and strengthen our democracy.
In this workshop, participants will develop a greater understanding of:
- The struggle for civil rights (and full citizenship) through the (re)discovery of the people, groups, and events behind historical and current Socio-political Movements
- The role of government not as a problem but as a tool for change
- The need for government/political intervention to secure and expand our citizenship and rights
- How to deepen our collective stake in building a multiracial democratic society
#7--Understanding Environmental Justice in Virginia Communities
Led by: Kidest Gebre and Leah Jones, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light
Description: Join Virginia Interfaith Power & Light to learn more about how the organization envisions overcoming the climate crisis, eradicating environmental and social injustices, and living in a just, thriving, and equitable world.
Kidest Gebre (Communications and Campaign Manager) and Leah Jones (Organizing Coordinator) will highlight the intersections between caring for Creation and environmental justice, environmental injustice in local communities, and our ongoing advocacy efforts to support our most vulnerable neighbors.
