2013 BROTHER'S IN THE STRUGGLE
Recently I was privileged to participate in a Word & World retreat. It was the first involvement I have had with the organization, and I was profoundly moved.
As a young activist, it was powerful to spend time engaged with men who have been living the work of justice movements for decades. Hearing the stories of men who have been able to balance their personal lives with their work toward justice has been immeasurably helpful – just being able to look to some exemplars that have integrated their commitments to marriage, family, and avocations with their commitments to socially transformative efforts is huge. I have often struggled to direct my own activism in a way that is personally sustainable, so having men who have achieved a working steadiness over time hear me and help to draw out my own insights has been a very real source of encouragement as I engage this process myself.
Word & World aims at something of an integration of theology and thought, radically reading the texts of tradition with an eye toward illuminating the work of justice movements as they issue forth from a biblical grounding. This much was clearly in evidence during our retreat time. As someone who came back to the church through a more secular humanist style of activism, my spiritual heritage has been so enriched as I’ve uncovered such deep and enduring links between these efforts and those of a faith-driven resistance. It has in many ways been a coming home for me, recognizing the very, very deep roots from which my own enthusiasm grows. This retreat was a huge breach in the dam holding back a genuine integration of my sometimes-tentative faith and a real fearlessness in my work toward justice. I only hope that others may share in this recognition of the rich soil from which our shared efforts spring forth.
Also quite moving was a very authentic sense of sharing in the work’s call. Each of the men at the retreat comes to the various struggles for justice from a particular place, yet the feeling of mutuality in our mission was palpable. These modern times seem to lead us toward ever-greater atomization of preference, process, and personality, but our time together at Stony Point provided an antidote in a real rekindling of the common between and within us. Our retreat group’s movement inward toward a shared center has enabled me to turn outward again with a renewed vigor borne of a living kinship in struggle. As I undertake daily the work of bringing light in the ways I am given strength, I feel blessed to hold fast this unity, and I look forward to encountering more spaces within which Word & World encourages this tender shoot to grow.
Contributed by: Hazel
As a young activist, it was powerful to spend time engaged with men who have been living the work of justice movements for decades. Hearing the stories of men who have been able to balance their personal lives with their work toward justice has been immeasurably helpful – just being able to look to some exemplars that have integrated their commitments to marriage, family, and avocations with their commitments to socially transformative efforts is huge. I have often struggled to direct my own activism in a way that is personally sustainable, so having men who have achieved a working steadiness over time hear me and help to draw out my own insights has been a very real source of encouragement as I engage this process myself.
Word & World aims at something of an integration of theology and thought, radically reading the texts of tradition with an eye toward illuminating the work of justice movements as they issue forth from a biblical grounding. This much was clearly in evidence during our retreat time. As someone who came back to the church through a more secular humanist style of activism, my spiritual heritage has been so enriched as I’ve uncovered such deep and enduring links between these efforts and those of a faith-driven resistance. It has in many ways been a coming home for me, recognizing the very, very deep roots from which my own enthusiasm grows. This retreat was a huge breach in the dam holding back a genuine integration of my sometimes-tentative faith and a real fearlessness in my work toward justice. I only hope that others may share in this recognition of the rich soil from which our shared efforts spring forth.
Also quite moving was a very authentic sense of sharing in the work’s call. Each of the men at the retreat comes to the various struggles for justice from a particular place, yet the feeling of mutuality in our mission was palpable. These modern times seem to lead us toward ever-greater atomization of preference, process, and personality, but our time together at Stony Point provided an antidote in a real rekindling of the common between and within us. Our retreat group’s movement inward toward a shared center has enabled me to turn outward again with a renewed vigor borne of a living kinship in struggle. As I undertake daily the work of bringing light in the ways I am given strength, I feel blessed to hold fast this unity, and I look forward to encountering more spaces within which Word & World encourages this tender shoot to grow.
Contributed by: Hazel