Mile High Theology

On the newest season of Mile High Theology, we are engaging in conversation with ancient texts. This fall, we are exploring the three Abrahamic religion's sacred texts: The Torah, The Bible, and The Quran. In this episode, Rabbi Emily Hyatt of Denver's Temple Emanuel guides us through a Torah study.

While the climate crisis may make us feel fearful, overwhelmed, or exhausted, many organizations in the Denver area inspire hope for our future. Altius Farms is a local urban farm, which is working toward building stable and lasting farms that produce beautiful greens all year round, locally. In this episode, Sally Herbert, co-founder and CEO of Altius Farms, discusses seed to table process, vertical urban gardening, and their journey to sustainability.

As the city of Denver grows, many of our neighbors are becoming displaced due to high cost of living and gentrification. The Globeville Elyria-Swansea Coalition Organizing for Health and Housing Justice (GES Coalition) is advocating to protect historically marginalized neighborhoods, to preserve affordability in housing, and to build a culture of welcome and hospitality. In this episode, Alfonso Espino of GES Coalition explores how these efforts are interconnected with the climate crisis and environmental justice.

Historically marginalized people suffer disproportionately from the climate crisis. Environmental hazards, such as pollution, contaminated materials, and industrial waste, often plague low-income communities of color. Pastor Eugene Downing, Senior Pastor of New Hope Baptist Church and member of Governor Polis' Community Access Enterprise, discusses how black communities in Denver are being affected by the climate crisis and how local government is responding to marginalized communities.

Canon Broderick Greer and Christina Rutland recap the first half of this season on the climate crisis and give us a preview of the final episodes coming this spring.

American systems actively silence and minimize the voices within Indigeneous communities, resulting in young Native Americans struggling to find representation. Spirit of the Sun, an Indigenous womxn-led nonprofit in Denver, empowers Indigeneous youth to become leaders and amplifies their voices as they advocate for systematic change. Join us on November 15 as we welcome Shannon Francis, Executive Director of Spirit of the Sun, who will discuss the interplay of environmental racism, indigeneity, and the climate crisis. The article by Olga González in the Denver Post was edited down in this interview due to length. Read the article in its entirety here.

As we learn more and more about the effects of climate change, we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed rather than driven to create change. In his album "Still No Mother," musician Logan Farmer tells the story of our reckoning with the impending reality of climate change through American folk music. In this episode, Logan Farmer plays a few selections and discusses his inspiration to explore the climate crisis in his album "Still No Mother" and how he uses music to weave our personal struggle into this global crisis.

When youth activist Greta Thunberg became a global leader against climate change, she inspired people around the world to recognize the already existing youth activists in their own communities. Earth Guardians, a nearly 30-year-old organization representing young activists, caught the attention of many Coloradans as they led the climate rally in October of 2019, which featured Greta Thunberg herself. In this episode, Leala Pourier, an Earth Guardians Youth Council Member, shares her own story as a youth activist and as an Indigenous woman fighting against the climate crisis.

As European settlers came to the Americas, they prepared to claim and conquer the land, exploiting its various resources to further human life. Dr. Tink Tinker, Professor Emeritus of American Indian cultures and religious traditions at Iliff School of Theology, explores in many of his works how this worldview contrasts with Native American religious and cultural ideology. In this episode, Dr. Tinker discusses the Eurochristian roots of the climate crisis and indigenous understanding of human relationship to the land. 

When Canon Broderick's parents renovated their home a few years ago, he gave them one of Lanecia Rouse Tinsley's paintings as a house-warming gift. In a note to his parents, Tinsley wrote, "I am happy one of my creations has found a home with you." It has been said that Lanecia’s art is known for its subtle manipulations of color, texture, materials, and form—a practice of improvisation and play that mirrors the intricate layers and landscapes of individual and communal formation, memory, experience, and history. It is these themes, and the paschal candle Lanecia designed for Saint John's, that she and Canon Broderick will discuss to close season 4 of Mile High Theology.Show Notes:The Art Project HoustonFollow Lanecia's work on social media at @larartstudio and at laneciarousetinsley.com.If you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

"They say, Lord, piety is speaking to you, // but madness is hearing you // speak back." And so Natasha Oladokun stings her audience in her 2020 poem "Black Credit." In line after line, essay after essay, and poem after poem, Oladokun teases out of us what good literature usually teases out of us: An unmistakable smallness before the vast expanse that is our fragile and beautiful cosmos. In this special National Poetry Month episode, Natasha and Canon Broderick will discuss Audre Lorde's 1985 essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury" and Lorde's assertion that poetry is "a vital necessity of our existence."Show notes:Audre Lorde's "Poetry Is Not a Luxury"Natasha Oladokun's "Black Credit"Follow Natasha on Twitter and Instagram to say up-to-date with her work.If you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

Adriann Barboa is a New Mexico policy director of Forward Together, an organization dedicated to ensuring "rights, recognition, and resources for all families" that recently led a people-powered coalition to defeat state infringements on access to reproductive healthcare. In this interview, we hear how Forward Together, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and other groups fight every day to protect the rights and dignity of our most vulnerable communities. Show Notes:Forward TogetherArt as Power ProgramForward Together Art Feed On Bustle – How Indigenous Women Repealed New Mexico’s Longstanding Abortion BanThe Road to Reproductive Justice: Native Americans in New MexicoAttitudes Towards Reproductive Health in Among Rural New MexicansIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

Kali Fajarado-Anstine's "Sabrina & Corina" seemed to barrel onto the literary scene not so much with a bang, but with the elegance of an experienced skydiver, every short story landing gracefully inside her readers' imaginations. Set primarily on the ancient lands of Colorado and New Mexico, "Sabrina & Corina" spotlights the tension between memory, ancestry, and the present moment. Kali discusses her book, what led her to write it, her connections to Denver and to the peoples of the lands of Colorado and New Mexico. Show Notes:kalifajardoanstine.com"Sabrina & Corina" by Kali Fajarado-AnstineIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

Myth-making is a central dimension of being human and fiction writers are the midwives of that process for the rest of us. Manuel Aragon, a Denver-based Latinx writer, director, and filmmaker reads his short story "The Last Snowstorm" and discusses the role of good fiction in the creation of a more just and compassionate future. Manuel is community engagement director for Lighthouse Writers Workshop and is currently working on Norteñas, a collection of speculative fiction short stories centered in the Northside, a Mexican and Mexican-American centered part of Denver, and the people, ghosts, and demons that live there.Show Notes:ManuelAragon.com"A Violent Noise" by Manuel AragonLighthouse Writers WorkshopIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

In 2013, Patrisse Cullors coined the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter when she used it to comment on her friend Alicia Garza's Facebook post in response to George Zimmerman's acquittal of the killing of Trayvon Martin. In the months and years that followed, well-meaning white Americans reacted to the hashtag with #AllLivesMatter, a saga Dr. Andre Johnson wrote about in "The Struggle over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter" with co-author Amanda Nell Edgar. In this episode, Dr. Johnson discusses the two hashtags and what they say about the ongoing movement for Black lives.Show Notes:"The Struggle over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter" by Dr. Andre Johnson and Amanda Nell Edgar"The Spirit Led Me," Chapter Three of "The Struggle over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter" "When protest becomes prayer" by Renée Darline Roden for AmericanMagazine.org"Protest As Prayer: Paul Ricoeur and the Surplus of Political Meaning" by Timothy Harvie"Protest as Prayer" by Hayley Lerner "Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church" by Barbara Holmes "Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like: Radical Pneumatologies of Black Resistance" by Broderick GreerIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want this programming to continue, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

In this episode of Mile High Theology, Canon Broderick speaks with the Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey. As we reflect on last week's election, Dr. Lightsey unpacks the circumstances that led her to write "Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology," how the centering of certain stories reveals our core values, and the 2020 presidential election results. Dr. Lightsey is Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs and Associate Professor of Constructive Theology at Chicago's Meadville Lombard Theological School. Show Notes:"Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology" by Dr. Pamela LightseyIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want to see similar programming, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.This podcast was recorded on the land of Ute, Cheyenne, and Araphao peoples.

After the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Department officers on Memorial Day weekend, a wave of law enforcement reform proposals flooded city halls and legislative chambers in cities and states across the country. State Representative Leslie Herod has spearheaded those efforts in the Colorado. Our very first guest on this podcast returns to discuss qualified immunity, the limitations of public policy, and the ongoing struggle for the liberation of Black people. Leslie Herod was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2016 where she represents the 8th district and is the first gay African-American to be elected to Colorado's General Assembly.Show Notes:Bill 217Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) on Denver Justice ProjectCaring for Denveriwillvote.comIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want to see similar programming, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcathedral.org/give.If you don't know your status as a voter in the United States, please visit iwillvote.com to check your registration status and make a voting plan.This podcast was recorded on Araphao land.

The Rev. Canon Broderick Greer speaks with his friend, Bianka Emerson, for a special episode of Mile High Theology. Bianka is deeply involved in politics, holding degrees in law and social science.Show Notes:Proposition 115 on BallotPedia.orgProposition 115 Explained on the Colorado Sun Ballot PediaBell Policy CenterConnect with Bianka Emerson on LinkedIn and read her research on affirmative action.

Dr. Apryl Alexander discusses the death of Elijah McClain in Aurora, the history of policing in the U.S., and the Movement for Black Lives with Canon Broderick. Dr. Alexander is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver.Show Notes:In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina SharpePushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique MorrisWhy black girls are targeted for punishment at school – and how to change thatIf you enjoy Mile High Theology and want to see similar programming, support Saint John's Cathedral by giving at sjcd.org/online-offering/plate.

In this special episode of Mile High Theology, Canon Broderick Greer talks with Adrienne Norris, a local artist and activist who designed and led the painting of the Black Lives Matter mural in Denver in front of the Colorado Capitol. This conversation was hosted in partnership with the Christian Formation Department.

In this episode of Mile High Theology, Vic Vela, a weekend host and reporter for Colorado Public Radio, discusses addiction, meaning, and recovery.

Canon Broderick conducts a Zoom interview with Pastor Anne J. Scalfaro about practicing resurrection in the time of quarantine. The Rev. Scalfaro is senior pastor of Denver's Calvary Baptist Church.

Bobby LeFebre, Colorado's Poet Laureate, joins us on Mile High Theology for an evening of poetic reflection on our common life as a city, state, and nation. Canon Broderick conducts the interview with Mr. LeFebre, an award-winning Denver slam poet, writer, playwright and performer.

Dr. Eric Smith, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity and Contemporary Christian Practices at Iliff School of Theology, discusses his new book about St. Paul.

The Rev. Eunjoo Kim, Ph.D., professor of homiletics and liturgics at Iliff School of Theology, discusses the interplay between ethnicity, memory, liturgy, and preaching.

The Rev. Dr. Valerie Jackson, senior pastor of University Park United Methodist Church, discusses Advent; Mary, Mother of God; and black womanhood.

The Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee, Dean of the Faculty at Iliff School of Theology, discusses how post-colonial readings of theology and embodiment empower marginalized groups to unapologetically claim their unique personhood.

A two-part episode, The Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee, Dean of the Faculty at Iliff School of Theology, discusses how her day-to-day, her childhood, and her education impacted her place as a theologian.

Daniel Ramos, Executive Director of One Colorado, will discuss how the embodiment of LGBTQ people is a gift to the world and how those we understand least need the most protection.

Shea Watts, Associate Director of Contemporary and Family Worship at Christ Church, Charlotte, NC discusses the role of our unique embodiments in Christian liturgy.

You are invited to a night of poetry, music, and theology at Saint John’s Cathedral featuring performances by poet Andrea Gibson and musician Julien Baker. In addition to the performances, Canon Broderick Greer interviews the artists about love, heartbreak, meaning and what those themes say about being fully alive human beings.Julien Baker's music used by permission of Matador Records. Check out her latest album "Turn Out The Lights."Andrea Gibson’s poems used by permission of the artist. Check out their latest collection of poetry, Lord of the Butterflies wherever books are sold.

Dr. Eric Smith, New Testament professor at Iliff School of Theology, leads us in a Bible study on the Samaritan woman at the well story from John.

Canon Broderick interviews Adrian Miller, soul food scholar and culinary historian, about the spiritual and political dimensions of soul food and other black culinary traditions.

Canon Broderick interviews Sommer Browning about art, meaning, and creativity. Browning is a poet, artist, comedian, and curator of GEORGIA, a pop-up art space located in Denver's La Alma neighborhood.

Canon Broderick Greer interviews the Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D. about her new book "Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to Women of the Torah and the Throne." Dr. Gafney is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas.

Canon Broderick interviewed the Reverend Emilie M. Townes, Ph.D., about the cultural production of evil and what she calls the "ultimate queer, womanist move." Dr. Townes is an African American Christian social ethicist and theologian, and is currently Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Canon Broderick interviews writer, reporter, television, and podcast host Bree Davies about Denver's most pressing systemic issues.

Canon Broderick Greer interviews Michael Hidalgo, Lead Pastor of Denver Community Church, one of a handful of LGBTQ-affirming evangelical churches. They will discuss DCC's journey toward becoming LGBTQ-affirmning and what that means about the future of US evangelicalism.

How does our own reason, or experience, speak into our faith?

What is tradition in the Episcopal Church?

Canon Broderick interviews the Reverend Mihee Kim-Kort, a Presbyterian minister and author of the book "Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith." Music: "Orange Sunshine" on Enchanted Forest by Rod Hamilton and Tiffany Seal is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canon Broderick interviews the Reverend Mihee Kim-Kort, a Presbyterian minister and author of the book "Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith." Music: "Orange Sunshine" on Enchanted Forest by Rod Hamilton and Tiffany Seal is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canon Broderick Greer interviews Dr. Gregory Robbins about the playful dance between film and religion. Dr. Robbins is Associate Professor of Christian Origins at the University of Denver and Canon Theologian at Saint John's. This will be the final Mile High Theology interview before its summer hiatus. Programming will resume in September.

Canon Broderick and Dr. Jennifer S. Leath, assistant professor of religion and social justice, Iliff School of Theology discuss the physics, particularity, and universality of womanist theology and queer theory.

Canon Broderick and the Reverend Reagan Humber discuss what it means to observe a holy and meaningful Lent in the context of the season's history, its misuses, and humorous moments. Reagan Humber is Pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. An Episcopal priest, Reagan lives in Denver with his partner Brian and their dog Ogre.

Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D. is Senior Minister of Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan's East Village, a multiracial and inclusive congregation in the Reformed Church in America. Canon Broderick interviews Dr. Lewis regarding her presence in Charlottesville, VA earlier this year in the wake of the Unite the Right Rally last August and how people of faith in Denver can partner with people of goodwill everywhere to tackle evil in all its systemic forms.

For the inaugural Mile High Theology, Canon Broderick Greer intrviews Leslie Herod, the first LGBT African-American to be elected to Colorado's state legislature. They discussed her journey to politics and how her Episcopal faith informs her perspective.

Welcome to Mile High Theology.