Lsf Newsletter Pentecost 05

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Unthinkable to Say No

By Bethany

When I taught high school U.S. History, I was always eager to introduce students to the journalist and civil rights activist Anne Braden. Anne and her husband, Carl, went against the norm of 1954 Louisville, KY and helped Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a Black family, buy a house in a segregated White neighborhood. In her memoir, The Wall Between, Anne described how the Wades had the money and wanted a new house with a low down payment, but there just weren’t any houses like that in the sections red-lined for Black people. Carl and Anne purchased the house for Andrew and Charlotte because they believed that every person has a right to a decent home regardless of the color of their skin; it would have been unthinkable for them to say no. They lived in a segregated world, but they were part of a community of Black and White people who were opposing it.

This past February, Duncan’s ministry mentor from 20 years ago, the Rev Dr. Rebecca Pugh of First Church in Ipswich, MA, reached out to us about the possibility of doing a weekend retreat at La Sagrada Familia with the youth from her church. Our first thought was, “What will we do as an emerging community with a bunch of young people?” Our next thought was, “It would be unthinkable to say no.” What emerged over the ensuing months in our conversations with Rebecca and Beth, the youth leader, was a weekend centered on the values of the Catholic Worker: prayer, manual labor, nonviolence, and the acts of mercy.

The last weekend in April, seventeen kids and chaperones came to La Sagrada Familia for two nights. They slept in tents in the hay loft of the barn, planted potatoes in the garden, painted the chicken coop, prayed, read scripture, marched to a downtown peace vigil accompanied by fiddle tunes from one of the chaperones, and helped us to clean and decorate the barn for a dance for the wider community of La Sagrada Familia.

People often associate the Catholic Worker with protests and soup kitchens, but Dorothy Day also emphasized “the duty of delight.” The dance was delightful: live music with a stand up bass, two fiddles, a banjo, and a rhythm guitar; our friend Ana calling a contra in both English and Spanish. About 75 people, including the group from Ipswich, came from as far as Boston and as near as next door. The kids played soccer in the yard while friends from Ecuador and Peru grilled chicken on a newly purchased BBQ grill I had rushed to assemble with Ana’s help that afternoon.

Anne Braden wrote a pamphlet in 1964 “HUAC: Bulwark of Segregation” in which she documented how the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) actively worked to destroy the Civil Rights Movement. Anne’s point was that HUAC created a social atmosphere of fear and suspicion that caused people to censor themselves and stay in their own backyards. Anne Braden understood that separation was constructed through policy and practiced through a trained suspicion of those just outside one’s immediate circle. The antidote, she argued, was to abolish government sponsored committees that manufactured fear and to practice concrete entanglement: shared meals, shared work, shared risk.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, herself a Catholic, has strongly supported collaboration between New Hampshire law enforcement and ICE. The police department in a neighboring town has signed on to the federal 287(g) program, which partners state and local officers directly with ICE. Police from that department have crossed town lines to make immigration arrests at the courthouse in Keene. Legislation in the current session of the New Hampshire Congress will deepen practices of criminalization and exclusion for people without documentation.

The dance was our best attempt to start weaving together a holy, knotty, tangle of a community - one that, in the face of the legislated fear in our own community today, can make the type of choices Andrew, Charlotte, Carl, and Anne made. What matters is not that we meet along every cultural line, but that we refuse the habit of keeping so separated along those lines that we can pretend that our fortunes are not already bound together. What matters is that we’re entangled enough that when the moment to act arises, saying no is unthinkable.

“It Takes a Lot of Rich People to Keep the Catholic Worker Poor”

We laughed when an elder in the Catholic Worker movement shared this quote with us, attributed to Dorothy Day. We understand the quote to name a phenomenon we have found to be true: choosing to live by voluntary simplicity, rather than a wage or salaried position, requires the support of many generous laborers. We feel humbled by the many small and large donations that have enabled us to organize our time and energy around La Sagrada Familia’s mission and our family. We hope that as we build beyond these foundational stages of the ministry there will be more ways for others to enter into the work.

The Mission of La Sagrada Familia

Our mission, as it has emerged from our time in El Paso and the last few months in New Hampshire, is to bear witness to the Holy Family–Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - in two ways:

• By helping biological families torn apart by immigration enforcement and incarceration to live in greater dignity.

• By helping families like ours who have benefited from these systems to discover a call beyond the bonds of blood and into the fulfillment of baptismal bonds through migrant accompaniment, jail ministry, nonviolent advocacy and training, and study of Jesus’ teachings around sharing wealth for the sake of our individual and collective salvation.

What We Need Financial Support For

Our goal is to raise $25,000 in 2026. We have begun hosting people at our Catholic Worker house, including young people, youth groups, and local groups. To keep people safe and not run the risk of kids munching on lead paint chips, we need to hire professionals to do some lead paint abatement and repairs to the roof and stairs. Rather than try to do the entire house this year, we want to address the most urgent lead paint issues closest to the entrance to the barn and both apartment units of the house. We need $10,000 for these capital expenses.

We also need help with day-to-day costs. Additional expenses have come with entering a more active stage of ministry, e.g. board insurance, food for events, and chairs and tables for large gatherings. Even living simply requires a few thousand dollars a month to pay for food, diapers, car repairs, and utilities. From now through the end of the year we hope to raise $15,000 for day-to-day costs.

The Specifics

To meet our goals for 2026 we hope to have folks of all different capacities contribute:

• 4 lead donors to make a one-time donation of $5000 or more

• 12 generous donors to make a) a recurring donation of at least $50/month or b) a one-time donation of $300

• 23 loyal donors to make a) a recurring donation of $10/month or b) a one-time donation of $60

The Mechanics of Donating

• Make a one-time or recurring monthly donation online. This method accepts major credit and debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay)

• Mail a check payable to ”La Sagrada Familia” to: 111 Adams St #2, Keene NH 03431

• Contact us to make a bank transfer or stock gift

We have filed for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS and our application is pending. We have every reason to believe it will be approved, at which point any donation would be tax-deductible retroactive to the incorporation date in February; however, deductions are not guaranteed until the final approval letter is received. We promise to send an updated confirmation/receipt upon receiving an IRS approval letter.

Announcements and Prayer Requests

• We have a new website: lasagradafamiliacw.org. There you can find newsletters, listen to our recent live webinar interview with Robert Ellsberg (and other past podcast episodes. See link to the episode and subscribe to the podcast below), or sign up to receive this newsletter as snail mail.

• Help us pray for the healthy and joyful arrival of our daughter, due June 1!

Meet the Board of Directors

Background

Not all Catholic Worker communities choose to become non-profits for myriad reasons. We discerned that it was best for us based on the particulars of New Hampshire laws and our appreciation of the accountability and support that being an official entity brings. We had our inaugural quarterly board meeting over Zoom on April 30th. We’re grateful for the variety of gifts and experiences that each member brings and their willingness to share those with La Sagrada Familia.

Dylan Lazerow

Dylan is a nonprofit executive, fundraiser, and organizer with over 15 years of experience advancing economic justice, immigrant rights, and civil resistance. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Wealth Redistribution Center and previously held leadership roles with Movimiento Cosecha and the American Cancer Society.

Lisa Mahar

Lisa served as administrator of the Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene, New Hampshire for 27 years and now consults with Waldorf schools across North America, supporting organizational health and administration. She co-founded Noonday Farm Catholic Worker in north-central Massachusetts and is active in Project Home, assisting asylum seekers in the Monadnock region. Lisa lives in Warner, New Hampshire with her husband, Reverend Bill Beardslee.

Anabel Marquez

Anabel is Executive Administrative Assistant at Maryknoll Lay Missioners in El Paso, Texas. Along with her work at Maryknoll, Anabel has her own business consulting with small businesses and organizations on social media strategy. Anabel grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico but now calls El Paso home with her parents and daughter Maya.

Eila Shea

Eila grew up along the coast of Maine and New Hampshire and attended schools across Latin America and Asia. A graduate of Skidmore College, she has worked with asylum seekers in Maine and at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. She now teaches ESOL in Somersworth, New Hampshire.

Michael Simone, SJ

Fr. Michael is Pastor of the Church of the Gesù in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Jesuit priest, Scripture scholar, and former professor at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, he also writes for America Magazine as a contributing editor and columnist. In his free time, he enjoys fishing and cheering for Boston sports teams.

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Jesuit John Haughey lamented that North American Christians tend to, “Read the Gospel as if we had no money, and spend our money as if we know nothing of the Gospel.” What if we read the gospel differently? What do we hear when we listen to Jesus’ teachings on money in the light of our current economic disparities and those that existed in Jesus’ time? How are we called to relate to our wealth and our neighbors? Ched Myers spoke to these questions as addressed in his 2025 book, Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy. He argued that the Gospel of Luke provides an antidote for the ills of the affluent: “Building community with those who have too little can restore the humanity of those of us who have too much.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Catholic Worker communities La Sagrada Familia and Dandelion House.

Ched is an ecumenical activist and theologian who has worked in social change movements for more than forty-five years. You can find out more about his books, activism, and teaching at Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries.

You can support La Sagrada Familia Catholic Worker at their website: lasagradafamiliacw.org

Ellsberg's most recent volume on the saints, Blessed Among Us, can be purchased here at Liturgical Press.

Ellsberg's most recent collection of Dorothy Day's writing, Dorothy Day: Spiritual Writing, can be purchased here.

This podcast is produced by La Sagrada Familia Catholic Worker. Donations go toward sustaining the community, its acts of mercy, and making this online ministry. Donations can be made here: https://givebutter.com/lasagradafamilia

I wanted to interview them for many reasons: I was struck by their courage in speaking out about the grooming and abuse they experienced at the hands of a spiritual director. The power of their new audio documentary podcast “Descent into Light”-- which draws on their experiences as survivors to illustrate the broader picture of how adult abuse unfolds in spiritual settings– has hooked me and Bethany as we consider how to build a ministry and small organization with transparency and accountability. 

On an even more universal level, I was drawn to their perspective on finding vocation and belonging within an institution that has harmed them. How do you relate to an institution, even after it has harmed you? Can you stay with integrity, without your presence tacitly supporting the systems and leaders that failed you? 

I believe their reflections about hearing a call - in the darkness of their suffering and as a response to the harm they endured - is a beacon for all of us who wonder how to follow Jesus within the church. I believe their reflections on choosing to remain in the church, even after its flawed systems enabled abuse against them, are valuable to hear for all of us wondering if and how to find our place in the ancient and imperfect institution.

At the website Sisters of the Little Way you can read more about their journey to leave their former order and start a new one, including time spent ministering to the homeless on the streets of Portland, Oregon, and studying at the Gregorian in Rome to receive a diploma in Safeguarding; learn how to support their mission; follow their writing on Substack; and listen to their podcast.

I hope you find in this interview new understanding about abuse in spiritual settings, practical suggestions for helping survivors and preventing future abuse, and a doorway to the Sisters’ beautiful and important podcast and ministry.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

In a moment when the question of how the church supports the immigrant community is of utmost importance, I wanted to speak to him because of the many perspectives
he holds on that question. As a pastor he can speak about his church’s successes and shortcoming providing sanctuary to an immigrant family for the last ten years. As an academic and ethnographer who has studied the sanctuary
movement he can speak to the opportunities and dangers of partnerships between predominantly White faith communities and immigrants. What are the difficult power dynamics? Can they be avoided or worked with in healthy ways?

We talked about Michael’s joint call to ministry and
ethnography; the racial dynamics of Sanctuary; the screening process for taking in recipients of Sanctuary and the ethics of raising the voice of the “ideal migrant”; if and how Sanctuary as a tactic might still be effective in 2025; what his congregation loves most about hosting a Sanctuary family; Michael’s own prayer practice for examining his conscience around Whiteness; and how Michael became the rare White Baptist pastor from Alabama with a primary ministry focus
on racial justice.

If you want to read more of Michael’s writing there are links to his book and numerous articles here:

- Michael’s webpage with links to his writing and sermons

-     Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness and Sanctuary

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

Alexia’s lengthy list of books and articles can be found at the Fuller Seminary website where she has taught since 2014 and is Academic Dean for Centro Latino and Associate Professor of Mission and Global Transformation. I reached out to her, however, not primarily because of her academic accolades but because of her extensive experience leading faith-based organizations for immigrants rights. As it says in the introduction of her newest book, God’s Resistance,
“Salvatierra offers a firsthand and behind-the-scenes glimpse and understanding of the inner workings of the U.S. Sanctuary Movement. Dr. Salvatierra was a young member of one of the first congregations to declare sanctuary in 1980, a
founding member of the New Sanctuary Movement in the 2000s, and an ongoing leader in the development of other faith-based approaches to the immigration crisis.”

We talk not only about ethical and effective support of migrants in the US at this moment but also about her formation and call as madrina, or godmother, of faith-based movements for immigrant rights; the theology of the border and the limits of Christian love; her involvement in the Sanctuary movement of the 80s and how that experience shaped Alexia to lead the New Sanctuary Movement beginning in 2007; the divide between Right and Left in today’s media environment around immigration and the role of immigrant churches in bridging it; the tactics she expects Trump to take against migrants and which will be most pernicious; how White churches can support immigrant churches; and how as Christians “all children are our children”.

You can see a reference list of legal terms, organizations, and leaders in the movement in my post about the episode at duncanhilton.net

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

I talked about these matters with Heath Carter, Associate Professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary and its  Director of PhD studies. Heath is the author of numerous books and articles, including Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago (Oxford University Press, 2015). We talked about: his call as a professor writing at the intersection of Christianity and American public life; why he thinks we’re living in a “New Gilded Age” and what that means for the direction of the social Christian tradition today; understanding the place of the Catholic Worker in the social Christian lineage; and why he’s an “evangelist for institutions.”

Beyond just the pleasure of learning more about the history of the social Christian tradition, I enjoyed Heath’s honesty and optimism about the decline of mainline Protestant churches. Speaking about Princeton Seminary he said, “We've been in the past a finishing school for elite Presbyterians, and all these worlds that we've long served are now going away. And so, what new life will come up in the midst, even as this thing that is definitely dying is dying, and in my lifetime will be mostly gone?” I appreciated how Heath could hold two things to be true, in a single sentence and in a whole interview: the reality of the breakdown of the “ecclesiastical machinery”, and the simultaneous possibility for the emergence of creative and daring new ministries, and important and long-lasting institutional reforms.

Go to duncanhilton.net or https://duncanhilton.substack.com/ for a post about this podcast and more links to Heath's work and background related to the interview.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

I talked about all this with Chris Hoke – Founder and Executive Director of Underground Ministries, Presbyterian minister, author, father, and husband.  Chris has been working as a jail chaplain in the Skagit Valley for nearly twenty years. In 2015 he wrote Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders (HarperCollins) about his own journey and transformations in the gang members he has worked with. As a chaplain he also founded Underground Coffee, a roasting business employing formerly incarcerated people, and Underground Writing, a writing program for at-risk communities.

For all his success, what stood out most from our conversation was Chris’ honesty and vulnerability about his failure. In 2018 Chris learned about betrayal and deceit committed by Neaners - a former gang member whom Chris had accompanied as a chaplain through prison and release, one of the main people in his book, his Underground Ministry Co-Founder, and a “best friend” and “primary teacher.” Chris reflected on his terror, shame, despair and near nervous breakdown as the truth came to light;  his own willful blindness leading up to the revelation; and how, out of that trial, and despite his initial resistance, Chris started with others the One Prisoner One Parish program to equip faith communities to build supportive relationships with prisoners and accompany them after their release.

Helpful Links:

• I found this article to be a helpful summary of the theological framing for One Parish One Prisoner. It connects the Eastern Orthodox understanding of resurrection as breaking open the gates of Hades with “unburying” people from mass incarceration.

• This written interview with Chris goes into more detail about the connections Chris sees between the history and ecology of the Skagit Valley and its prison population

• You can read more of Chris’ work and listen to him here.

• Chris refers to a handful of academic and theologians whose lives or work has shaped him: Tony Campolo, James Allison, Rene Girard, Michelle Alexander  

• To get involved with One Parish One Prisoner, or to make a donation, go here

• Chris talks about Bob Ekblad at Tierra Nueva as an important mentor. Bob’s book is Reading the Bible with the Damned

• The book Chris recommends for teaching Centering Prayer to men in prison is Finding God Within by Ray Leonardini

• Chris’ book is Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders

• Chris refers to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, and her call for a new Underground Railroad

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

Miguel Escobar, after many years working as a self-described “church bureaucrat” for Episcopal institutions in New York City, had such a nagging sense; so, he researched and wrote a book exploring his questions more deeply, The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today. The book looks at the evolution of Christian thinking about money over the course of its first 500 years through twenty-four “snapshots” of Christian theologians and saints from that time period.

I found Miguel to be an insightful and provocative conversation partner based on his intimate knowledge of very different worlds of faith and wealth. Growing up in small-town Texas, as the grandson of Catholic migrant farm workers, Miguel has a deep appreciation for how the announcement of Jesus’ arrival as the Son of God in the Gospel of Luke heralds good news for the poor. As Mary sings in the Magnificat, “[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” In the world of his grandparents, Mary’s news about what God promised for the rich and for the poor was Good News. As an adult, Miguel has worked for the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church Foundation, and for Episcopal Divinity School at Union. In these roles, he has worked with and for wealthy organizations and individuals. For them (and for me), Mary’s news is challenging news.

Miguel and I talked about the worlds and experiences that have shaped his thinking around Christianity and wealth; the history of the church “stewardship campaign” and its ethical complexity; his advice for wealthy churches like Trinity Wall Street (Trinity has over $6 billion in its real estate portfolio); the parable of the unjust steward as an alternative ethic for “promiscuous generosity” (a phrase Miguel credits to Louie Crew); how to work through feelings of hypocrisy and shame around being wealthy and Christian toward faithful action; and the threat of middle-class churches becoming “boutique version[s] of Christianity” that don’t include the poor.

Helpful Links

• Here is a link to Miguel’s book, The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today.

• Here is a New York Times story about Trinity Wall Street, The Church With the $6 Billion Portfolio

• Miguel talks about the history of pew rentals, a common way that churches collected money prior to stewardship campaigns.

• There is more here about the history of the “every member canvass” replacing pew rentals in the early 20th century.

• Miguel references the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s critique of the stewardship model of Christian fundraising. Here is more about Reinhold Niebuhr. Miguel summarizes Niebuhr’s critique in the introduction of The Unjust Steward.
  

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

Tensie Hernandez and Dennis Apel decided almost thirty years ago to wager their lives on those words of Jesus. They left Los Angeles with just $300 to their names, drove up the coast of California, and found themselves led to Guadalupe, a town of 8,000 people, mostly undocumented farm workers. “The Spirit just kept opening doors,” said Tensie. Those doors led to creating a Catholic Worker house of hospitality called Beatitude House, as well as a free medical clinic, a food distribution center, and a clothing distribution program. Doors also opened to parenting two children and decades of monthly non-violent resistance or “vigils” outside the gates of the nearby Vandenburg Air Force Base. That led to a four-month prison sentence for Dennis, and a supreme court case.

How did their call unfold? What have been the blessings and challenges of raising kids while living a life of voluntary poverty?1 Reflecting on nearly three decades in Guadalupe, what are they most proud of? What have they learned about drawing on the wisdom of Dorothy Day without making an idol of her or the Catholic Worker model? What is their advice for others feeling drawn to create similar communities?

I talked about these questions and more with Dennis and Tensie. Having made that wager thirty years ago, I was struck by Dennis and Tensie’s gratitude and sense of abundance. I hope your heart will be touched, too.

Helpful Links

• If you want to support Tensie and Dennis’ work, you can write a check to “Beatitude House” and mail it to Beatitude House Catholic Worker, 267 Campodonico Ave, Guadalupe, CA 93434. If you want to receive their newsletter, drop me a note in the Substack comments with your email address (or through my website contact page) and I’ll pass along your info to them.

• Read more about Dennis’ decades of nonviolent resistance at the Vandenburg Airforce Base and the ensuing Supreme Court case

• Listen here to Tensie share more on the “Coffee With Catholic Workers” podcast about her call to be a Catholic Worker and the ministry at Beatitudes House

• Listen here to “Worker Kids”, including Dennis and Tensie’s daughter Rozelle, share about their experiences growing up in Catholic Worker communities. You can hear parents reflect on raising kids in community in part two of the episode

• In this podcast Dennis talks about the inspiration of Ched Myers’ writing. Here is a link to Ched’s books, articles, classes, and blog.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

Seven years ago Lisa and Mark Kutolowski created Metanoia Vermont in Strafford, Vermont to live out these multiple calls. (In full disclosure, I am a friend of Mark and Lisa’s and a former board member of Metanoia). On a few dozen acres they welcome guests and interns, and seek themselves, to “live the Way of Christ through prayer, work, and study in relationship with the land.”1 This means raising livestock, growing a garden, tending a woodlot, caring for children, and, in between all that, praying six times a day (see their typical daily schedule).

What led them to create Metanoia? How are they up to something beyond, in Lisa’s words, “doing monasticism poorly with kids running around”? How have their young children enhanced the community’s prayer life? What have been the blessings and challenges of the ministry on their marriage? What are the “shadows” of Metanoia, the temptations and dangers of a life of prayer and work on a Vermont hill farm? How do they think about wealth and poverty and their choices around money? At the cost of inclusion, what have been the benefits of creating a community that is not interfaith, but specifically rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition? As they reflect during their sabbatical after the start up chapter of Metanoia, what are their hopes for the next chapter? I talked about these questions and more with Mark and Lisa this past week.

Helpful Links

• Learn more about Metanoia, including how to visit, at the Metanoia Vermont website.

• The Metanoia ministry relies on donations. You can donate here.

• You can read Mark’s regular reflections from the homestead and ministry on Substack. His Ash Wednesday Post, “The Gift of Ashes”, reflects on the “task of living into something good, true, and beautiful in an age of upheaval, dislocation and loss.”

• Lisa mentions the work of Sister Mary Margaret Funk as helping her think about money and possessions.

• Mark and Lisa refer to the “Liturgy of the Hours”, the daily prayer of the church. Specifically they mention the services of “lauds” and “vespers”, morning and evening prayer respectively. Read more about this ancient rhythm of prayer here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

Helpful Links

• Dandelion House

• The Aims and Means of the
  Catholic Worker and the Catholic
  Worker homepage with links to all 200 communities, and information about how to access Dorothy Day’s writing   

• “A Time of Reckoning for (white) Christianity”, Fumi’s article following the January 6, 2021 insurrection

• An article by Fumi about his arrest in Mass (and release) on the campus of Santa Clara University

• An article by Fumi about starting Dandelion House

• A trailer for the documentary on Dorothy Day, “Don’t Call Me a Saint,” and the website where you can download it

• The Jesuit Volunteer Corps

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

I spoke with Steve Haynes this week about the question at the heart of the book. Can church be more like AA? How exactly? Or, is it a fool’s errand to try to make church more like AA based on the structural differences between the two groups: anonymous membership versus public membership; and paid, professional leadership versus non-professional, decentralized leadership? Haynes is professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, and theologian-in-residence at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He has authored several other books, including The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in the Age of Trump and The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation.

In our conversation we talk about: Steve’s own journey in recovery and how it changed his views on church culture; exactly what aspects of 12 step fellowships churches seek to emulate and how they have failed and succeeded; pastors’ centralized leadership as the “kiss of death” to efforts to incorporate twelve-step culture into churches; race, class, and gender dynamics underlying the question motivating the book; and what a longing for church to be more like AA and other 12-step fellowships says about this moment in the life of the church

One thing that stands out to me after speaking with Steve is how he senses that the 12-step movement gives people a taste of what first century Christian fellowship may have been like. Frank Buchman, one of the Christians who influenced the development of AA wrote, “the age of miracles has returned.” What if the age of miracles really has returned? What if it dawned in 12-step meetings in church basements and now the challenge isn’t just to let the light into the sanctuary, but for people to carry that light inwardly and let it guide the formation of new Christian communities?

Helpful Links:

• Steve’s book is Why Can’t Church Be More Like an AA Meeting?

• In the course of talking about 12-step and politics we also discuss his books, The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in the Age of Trump and The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation

• Haynes recommends reading about the history of Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group. “A.A. grew in part out of The Oxford Group, a Christian group founded by a Lutheran minister named Frank Buchman around the year 1919. The first group was loosely called ‘A First Century Christian Fellowship’ and the Oxford Group name was later attached to the fellowship due to coincidental affiliation with Oxford, England. The Oxford Group enjoyed wide popularity and success, particularly in the 1930’s.2

• Haynes mentions Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopal priest at Calvary Church in New York and member of the Oxford Group who influenced Bill Wilson as he was developing the steps.

• Haynes talks about how Celebrate Recovery is a widespread program among conservative Christians to integrate 12-step spirituality and Christian teaching (He also talks about how it abandons some of the important 12-step traditions).

• Haynes mentions our meeting this past spring at a conference. That event was hosted by the Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church. I recommend their gatherings and resources for anyone who wants to commune with and learn from Christians in recovery. Here is info about their weekly All 12-Step Meeting.

• You can listen to Haynes talk more about his book and the theology and history of AA, in an interview with Father Bill W. on the Spiritual and Religious Podcast

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

I know others who have pondered these questions. Fr. Adam Bucko - Episcopal priest, spiritual activist, author, and Director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, NY -  has wrestled with these questions in reality as cofounder of the Community of the Incarnation, a dispersed New Monastic community based out of the Center for Spiritual Imagination .

For more background on this podcast go to:
https://duncanhilton.substack.com/

Helpful links related to our discussion:

·      Adam’s most recent book: Let Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation

·      An overview of the marks of New Monasticism and Adam’s book about the topic, The New Monasticism

·      The Center for Spiritual Imagination is the center which Adam directs. The New Monasticism page at the Center provides more details and contact information to learn about joining the formation which Adam describes in the podcast.

·      Upcoming public events at the Center

·      Guided audio meditations and written directions for the prayers which Adam discusses

·      For more on the collective Dark Night of the
Soul, see Chapter 9 of Let Heartbreak Be Your Guide. You can also listen to an interview here with Andrew Harvey, one of Adam’s mentors, about the topic.

·      Background about Liberation theology,
including theologians Leonardo Boff and Gustavo
Gutierrez

·      CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education)

·      Benjamin Zephaniah

·      The Contemplative Outreach website has information about Fr. Thomas Keating and the method of prayer, Centering Prayer, which he championed and which Adam discusses.

The prayer/poem which Adam closes the interview
with is “Dream Me God” by Dorothy Soelle

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

They talk about Paul's lessons from the failures of his community, key concepts in launching movements and communities, and Paul's thoughts about starting a new institute for faith-based initiatives.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Here are links to many of the authors and books which Paul references:

• Permaculturist and ecovillage pioneer Starhawk’s website and her book The Empowerment Manual

• Momentum is the “training institute and community of organizers” which Paul co-founded with Carlos Saavedra. Here is their overview of frontloading and movement ecology

• Ivan Marovic, Serbian organizer in the Otpor movement

• Liberation theology and Engaged Buddhism

• Rory McEntee, Adam Bucko, and the Center for Spiritual Imagination

• The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Fr. Thomas Keating, James Finley, Matthew Fox

• Fr. Richard Rohr’s writing on the cosmic egg

• A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

• Books by Joanna Macy

• Camphill communities

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

The script, including references, can be found at https://duncanhilton.substack.com/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lasagradafamilianh.substack.com