This ecumenical, inclusive event marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Stringfellow, a lay theologian whose grasp of the Powers and Principalities continues to shape radical discipleship and resistance in an age of renewed empire. We experimented with the concept of Biography as Theology as we celebrated Stingfellow's life and legacy.

We joined together for Bible study, social analysis, worship, and conversation (Rose Berger leading worship at right).

We gathered around beloved friends in a healing circle (below) as we honored our own stories of struggle and pain, and we brought Stringfellow’s legacy and work into conversation with a new generation of activists.

Who was William Stringfellow?

Theological critic of Imperial America; reviver of biblical theology and ethics with reference to the "principalities and powers;" civil rights activist helping goad white mainstream Christianity into the black freedom struggle of the sixties; participant in post-WWII ecumenism, helping shape the worldwide student Christian movement; 1956 Harvard Law School graduate who took up street law in New York's East Harlem; early critic of the Vietnam war visiting there in 1966; notorious interlocutor with Karl Barth in his 1962 visit to the States; friend, counsel, and biographer of Bishop James Pike; federal indictee charged with harboring Daniel Berrigan while underground in August of 1970; founder of the underground seminary; correspondent of Jacques Ellul; subject of FBI surveillance; advisor and canonical defender of the Episcopal women priests irregularly ordained in 1974; caller for the impeachment of Richard Nixon (well before Watergate); reformer and environmental activist in the small town politics of Block Island; connoisseur of the circus; host and cook extraordinaire; "monastic" contemplative and island recluse; author of sixteen book...

... Parable of the Word of God.