Podcasts about Catholic Worker Movement

Lois Swimmer, Paul & Louise Freid, and Mike Miles will talk with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves about their plans for a Catholic Worker Retreat and Resistance event being planned for April 24-27, Friday through Monday.  Swimmer is from the Minnecouji Band within the Blackfoot Tribe, which is part of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She is a member of the Elders Circle at Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House in Kansas City, Missouri. Paul & Louise Freid are with the Lake City Catholic Worker Farm near Lake City, Minnesota. Mike Miles is with Anathoth Catholic Worker Farm a few miles out of Luck, Wisconsin.  Midwest supporters of the Catholic Worker Movement are organizing a retreat and resistance in Kansas City, April 24-27, focusing on the Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures 80 percent of non-nuclear components that go into US nuclear weapons. If those weapons are ever detonated in a war, the most likely outcome would include lofting so much smoke to the stratosphere from burning cities that it would cover the earth and not get above freezing even in the summertime for several years in places as far north as Iowa, according to a team of 10 leading experts in climatology, food production and economics. Ninety-nine percent of humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Eighty percent of humans worldwide would similarly die. Over 90 percent of the fatalities would be in countries not directly involved in the nuclear exchange.  The US plans to spend $2 trillion dollars over the next 30 years making new nuclear weapons and delivery systems to make them faster, “smarter”, and bomb deeper into the earth. That's $6,000 for every man, woman, and child in the US -- $200 per year per human in each of the next 30 years. To achieve this, the KC plant is doubling in size. This is under the Dept of Energy. A cynic might insist that this facility is more accurately described as the "Kansas City National Insecurity Campus", as part of the Department of Nuclear Bombs, whose budget is not included in the official Department of Defense budget, to make it harder for the public to know how much the US is actually spending on military equipment, supplies and operations.  Over a year ago, DOE agreed to hold public hearings in Kansas City and four other cities, discussing their plans for this and other facilities nationwide. This agreement responded to a lawsuit filed by antinuclear activist organizations. However, PeaceWorks has not yet heard a schedule. Are they planning on holding those hearings in 2060, after the nuclear winter?   Whenever the hearings are scheduled, PeaceWorks will ask supporters to submit comments in person and online. PeaceWorks will offer trainings to help prepare humans to make informed statements. Supporting the Retreat and Resistance April 24-27 can help humans prepare as well. PeaceWorks and the Catholic Workers coming for this insist that everything currently done at the Kansas City National Insecurity Campus is an enormous waste of money and part of a very dangerous new arms race. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which half the world's nations have now agreed to, makes nuclear weapons illegal. Humans associated with PeaceWorks plan to attend the TPNW review conference at the United Nations in November. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability will also be lobbying the first week in June against new nuclear weapons and new nuclear power plants and for cleanup of the thousands of tons of US nuclear waste. To join us, see pwkc.org, especially pwkc.org/register-resist.

The Catholic Worker is a newspaper based in New York City. It is published seven times a year by the flagship Catholic Worker community in New York City. It focuses on themes such as social justice, Catholic social teaching, pacifism, and activism. As of May 2023, it has about 26,000 mail subscribers. Despite transitioning towards decentralized distribution, specifics on circulation remain limited. Notably, the publication has refrained from offering a digital edition. Established in 1933 as a platform for the Catholic Worker Movement by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the newspaper operates without formal leadership following the passing of its founders and is currently managed by editors Amanda Daloisio and Joanne Kennedy.PICTURE: By The Catholic Worker - The Catholic Worker, Volume 1, Number 1, 1 May 1933. Retrieved from https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=CW19330501-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148154801

Graceann F. Beckett preaches for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, inviting us to consider how humility, honesty, and trust in God's love open the way to true justification:"God desires relationship, to be able to draw near, and this desire is certainly not dependent upon a grand presentation of one's most pious actions or traits."Graceann Beckett is a M.T.S. student at Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM), where she is also an editor for "Lumen et Vita," the student academic journal at the CSTM. Her academic interests include ecclesiology, Appalachian studies, and ethnography. In addition, her work with the Dorothy Day Guild and the Catholic Worker Movement has shaped her life, faith, and academic pursuits significantly.Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10262025 to learn more about Graceann, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Elaine Heath is the abbess of Spring Forest, a new monastic community in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Spring Forest centers around communal prayer and meals, a vibrant farm, refugee support, and other ministries you can read about here. You can learn more about Elaine's work as an author and speaker on her website, or in articles like this one from the Center for Action and Contemplation.Many thanks to Elaine and her husband Randall for welcoming Ron and I and our audio producer, Colin, to the farm last June. Besides relishing the good company of our hosts, we enjoyed harvesting cabbage, feasting and praying with the Sunday evening group, walking through the woods, and petting some good-natured goats.Dr. Elaine HeathOn the farm.Someone had to help harvest the cabbage, so Ron and Colin and I pitched in.Elaine, husband Randall, and I in their lovely home.TRANSCRIPTElaine Heath If you are nurtured by traditional church—or let's say, conventional church—keep doing it, but also realize that for other people that's not nurturing. It feels dry and lifeless, and it's clear the Spirit is doing something new. So instead of insisting everybody stop doing the new thing, and everybody has to come and do the conventional thing, you can be conventional in your worship and bless and make space for others so that we have a plethora of experiments going on.Debra Rienstra Welcome to the Refugia Podcast. I'm your host, Professor Debra Rienstra. Refugia are habitats in nature where life endures in times of crisis. We're exploring the concept of refugia as a metaphor, discovering how people of faith can become people of refugia: nurturing life-giving spaces in the earth, in our human cultural systems, and in our spiritual communities, even in this time of severe disturbance. This season, we're paying special attention to churches and Christian communities who have figured out how to address the climate crisis together as an essential aspect of their discipleship.Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Dr. Elaine Heath. Elaine is founder and abbess of Spring Forest, a new monastic community centered on a 23-acre forest and farm property near Hillsboro, North Carolina. The farm supplies a CSA and supports food security for refugees and serves as the setting for outdoor programs for kids, cooking classes, potlucks, forest walks and more. But the Spring Forest community is a dispersed network of people who move in and out of the farm space in a variety of ways. They live on the farm for a time, they visit often to volunteer, or they simply join the community online for daily prayer. We got to visit the farm last spring, and I can tell you that Elaine's long experience with new monasticism, trauma-informed care, and contemplative practice make her an ideal curator of refugia space. The vibe on the farm is peaceful, orderly, and full of life. It's a place of holy experimentation in new ways to form Christian community and reconnect with the land. Let's get to it.Debra Rienstra Elaine, thank you for talking with me today. It's really great to be with you.Elaine Heath Yeah, I'm glad to be with you too.Debra Rienstra So you served in traditional parish ministry and in religious academia for many years, and then in 2018 you retired from that work to found Spring Forest. Why a farm and a new monastic community? What inspired and influenced this particular expression of faith?Elaine Heath I've always loved farms and forests. But actually, my dream to do this started about 25 years ago, and my husband and I bought a 23 acre property in North Central Ohio, right when I was right out of my PhD program and I got my first academic job at my alma mater, which is Ashland Theological Seminary. So I went there to direct the Doctor of Ministry program, and we bought this beautiful property. It had a little house that looked like the ranger station, and it had a stream and a big labyrinth cut in the field, and it had beautiful soil to grow, you know, for market gardening. And what we planned to do was gradually develop retreat ministries there. My husband was going to build some hermitages up in the woods, because I did a lot of spiritual direction with pastors who were burned out and traumatized, and we felt like that, you know, as I got older and phased out of academia, that would be something we could do together.So we were there for a couple years, and then I was recruited to go to Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. And we were very sad to leave our property behind, but we were clear that we were being called to Texas. So we bought a home in the city in a sort of mixed income, racially diverse neighborhood in Garland, and it was a big house with a nice yard, and soon after starting to teach evangelism—which, I kind of created my own path for how to teach evangelism, because I don't believe in selling Jesus or any of those kinds of colonizing things. So I was teaching about living a contemplative life and practicing social and environmental justice and being good news in the world, and being good neighbors to all our neighbors, and thinking of our neighbors as us and not them. And I had them reading Shane Claiborne and the people writing with the emerging church movement at the time, and pretty soon, I had students in my class coming to my office every week. It was a different student, but the same tears and the same kind of narrative: “Dr. Heath, I think I'm going to have to leave the church to answer my call. Tell me what I should do.” And it was because they were being called to do innovative, new monastic ministry, missional, new monastic kinds of things. But our denomination in particular didn't quite get it, even though early Methodism was very much like that.So I realized fairly quickly that this was God calling me through these students to focus my research and writing and my teaching in the area of emergence. Emergence theory, what's happening in the world. How do these currents of emergence intersect with what's happening politically and environmentally, and what's happening, you know, in the economy and with the church. So pretty soon, I don't know, it wasn't very long, I felt God was calling me to gather students and start some experiments outside, out in the city. And so I had a prayer partner, and we were praying for a house to come available, so that we could start a new monastic house. And she came to me one day and she said, “I saw the house coming. It'll be here soon.” And I said, “Okay.” I had no money for a house. You know, kind of a lowly professor, didn't make that much. And within two weeks, one of our neighbors came to me, who didn't really know me well at all, and said, “Hey, my mom has a rental property. It's been in our family for a long time, and we wondered if you might have some students that would like to live there. We won't even charge rent, just pay their utilities and not have drug parties or whatnot.” And I said, “No, that's unlikely,” you know. So I said, you know, I could throw the phone down and ran down to get in her car and go over to this house with her. And we were driving over, and she says, “You know, it's not the best neighborhood.” I said, “Perfect!” But we got there, and it was a really great little three bedroom house in a predominantly Latina neighborhood, and that was our first new monastic house. So I asked three of the students who'd been crying in my office, “Would you be willing to break your leases wherever you live and come and live here for a year?” And I can assign a spiritual director to work with you, and I can write a curriculum for an independent study on the theory and practice of new monasticism. And we can develop a Rule of Life based on our United Methodist membership vows. And they all immediately said yes, and so that's how we got started with our first house.Elaine Heath And then right around the same time, I started a missional house church that was quickly relocated into the neighborhood where most of the refugees are resettled in Dallas, because one of my students brought six Congolese men to our little house church worship, and that that was the beginning of realizing we were called to work with refugees.Debra Rienstra Oh, I see.Elaine Heath So that all got started around 2008. And by 2009, there was a student who came to Perkins who had been a commercial real estate banker on Wall Street. And he came to Perkins as a student. He was an older man. And we were going on my very first pilgrimage to Iona, Northumbria, and Lindisfarne, and Michael Hahn was with us too. He and I team-taught this class, so it was my first one. But it turned out that Larry Duggins, the student, had come to seminary because he really wanted to be equipped to help young adults who were feeling disillusioned with the church but wanted to be out in the world doing good work. And he started describing what he was called to, and I'm like, “Well, that's what I'm doing with these students.” So we joined forces and created a nonprofit called Missional Wisdom Foundation, and within three years, we had a network of eight new monastic communities across the metroplex. They were all anchored at local churches. Some of them were parsonages that weren't being used. And we wove into the expectations and sort of the lifestyle of those houses, urban agriculture.Debra Rienstra Oh, I was waiting for the farm to come back into it. Yeah, because I'm seeing these threads of experimentation and monasticism and place. We're sitting here today on your current farm land. So it's really interesting to hear all these threads being developed early on in an urban context.Elaine Heath Yes, it was quite something. These houses were all in different social contexts. There was one house, the Bonhoeffer house, that was in East Dallas, in a neighborhood that was not only mixed income and racially diverse, but also used to be where the mayor lived. And now there are people who are unhoused living there, and there are also people with nice houses living there. So it was a very interesting neighborhood. So that house, we learned quickly that you needed to take a year to get to know the neighborhood before you try to figure out how you're going to support whatever justice work needs to happen in the neighborhood. But that house got really close with the unhoused community and did a lot of good ministry with the guys and a few women. Then there was one for undocumented workers, the Romero House, and just different social contexts. But all of them had a backyard garden or, you know, some type of growing food kind of thing. And I used to take students to this farm that was an urban farm in DeSoto, which is just south of Dallas, where it was quite small, but these were former missionaries, the type that have crusades and show the Jesus film and everything in sort of poor countries. And then they had an awakening that happened, and they realized they were being called to help people in orphanages learn how to grow their own food in a sustainable way and raise the living standard for the whole village. So they had this little farm, and I would take students there every semester to experience the conversion of thought that this couple had over what mission is, and to experience the beauty and joy of tilapia that provide food for the lettuce, that provide for the bees, you know. So this closed system. So that also affected my imagination about what I really wanted to do in the future.And so gradually, the years—we were there for 11 years, and we lived in community the whole time that we were there. By the time we came here for me to work at Duke, we had a very clear picture of what we wanted to do here. And so we looked for the property back when we had to sell that first farm, when we were so sad about selling it, I had an experience in prayer where I sensed God was saying to me, “Don't give up on this dream. It's sacred, and it will happen in the future on a better piece of property, at a better time in your life for this.” And so when it was time to move here, I said to Randall, “This is the time. Let's look for that property.” So that's how we landed here.Friendly, very contented dairy goats, hanging out in the afternoon.Debra Rienstra Yeah. When talking about your students, you mentioned yesterday that you like to “ruin them for fake church.” So what do you mean by fake church, and how exactly do you ruin them for it?Elaine Heath Well, you know, church is really the people and not the building. You all know that. It's the people and we're called to be a very different kind of people who are a healing community, that neighbor well, that give ourselves away, that regard our neighbors—human and non human—as part of us, whether they think they're part of us or not. We have this sort of posture in life. And when I think of how Jesus formed the church, Jesus had this little ragtag group of friends, and they traveled around and did stuff and talked about it, and they got mad at each other and had power struggles and drama and, you know, and then Jesus would process the drama with them. And he would do these outrageous things, you know, breaking sort of cultural taboo to demonstrate: this is what love really looks like. And so we don't get to do much of any of that, sitting in a pew on Sunday morning, facing forward while the people up in the front do things. And so many churches—maybe you've never experienced this, but I certainly have. The pastor's sort of the proxy disciple while people kind of watch and make judgments and decide whether or not they want to keep listening to those sermons.Debra Rienstra Oh yes.Elaine Heath So when you experience Christian life in a community where it's both natural, it's just the way you live in the world, and it's also liturgically rich, and the life is a contemplative life, and it's also a life of deep missional engagement with the world— that other version of church, it's like oatmeal with no flavoring in it. It makes you, I mean, it's about the life together. It's how we live in this world. It's not about sitting somewhere for an hour once a week and staring forward.Debra Rienstra Right. Yeah, so I would, you know, of course, I would describe what you're describing as refugia, being the people of refugia. You know? Not that I'm—we'll come back to traditional worship and traditional forms of faith and religion. But it seems like what you're doing is living into something you say on your website that we are in the midst of a new reformation in the church, and I certainly sense that too. I think the evidence is all around us, and the research bears out that we've reached this inflection point, and it's a painful inflection point that a lot of people think of as decline, because living through it feels confusing and bewildering and dark and full of loss. So what is your sense of when we are, in this point in history, in particular, for those of us who've been part of church communities, where are we finding ourselves? Why is it so confusing?Elaine Heath I really believe we're in a dark night of the soul as the church in the West and perhaps places in the East too. I know we've exported a capitalist version of church all over the world, sadly. But I believe we're in a dark night of the soul, you know, classically understood, where it's spirit-breathed. It's not that the devil is doing something to us. It's spirit-breathed to detach us from our sort of corporate ego that thinks we get to show up and boss the world around and act like we own the joint.Debra Rienstra We call that church of empire.Elaine Heath Yeah. And so I think that's what's happening. And when, you know, if you study the literature, if you work in spiritual direction, and you're looking at what happens with the dark night of the soul. That's a real dark night, not a clinical depression or something like that, but an actual dark night. You have to go through it. You can't bypass it. You can't work your way out of it. You can't talk your way out of it. And what happens is you find yourself increasingly hungry for simplicity, for a simple but clear experience of God, because it's like God's disappeared. There's a deep loneliness, even a sort of cold hell, to being in a dark night of the soul. And so there's a restlessness, there's a longing for actual experience of God. There's a feeling of futility. Things that used to work don't work anymore. So you know the threefold path? The purgation, illumination and union is one way that we've learned to think about what happens. The purgation part is— we're there.Debra Rienstra We're being purgated.Elaine Heath We're being purgated, yeah. And at the same time that we're having these flashes of intuitive knowing, this sort of illumination is coming. “Oh, let's pay attention to the saints and mystics who lived through things like this. What gave them life? What helped them to keep showing up and being faithful?” And we're having moments of union too, when we feel like, “Oh, discipleship means I make sure that the trees are cared for and not just people. Oh, all living things are interconnected. Quantum physics is teaching us a spiritual truth we should have known already.” So the three parts of that contemplative path are happening simultaneously. But I think what feels most forward to a lot of people is the purgation piece where you're like, “Oh, things are just dropping away. Numbers are dropping. Things that used to work don't work. What's going to happen now?” Sort of a sense of chaos, confusion. Tohu va bohu, yeah.Debra Rienstra Yeah, do you want me to explain what that is?Elaine Heath Yeah, chaos and confusion. From the beginning of time.Debra Rienstra It's the realm out of which creation is formed. So the idea that the spirit is drawing us into this dark night is actually really reassuring. We are where we're supposed to be. And even though it feels confusing and painful, there are these moments of wisdom—that's so reassuring. In fact, one of the things you write: the new reformation is all about the emergence. So this emergence is happening of a generous, hospitable, equitable form of Christianity that heals the wounds of the world. What is your vision about what the church needs to release and hold and create right now?Elaine Heath We need to release everything that even slightly has a hint of empire, that we have thought of as what it means to be the church, because that completely reverts what church is supposed to be about. So giving up empire, we need to take up the great kenotic hymn of Philippians two and actually live it.Debra Rienstra The self emptying hymn.Elaine Heath The self emptying. And it's not—I know that that can be problematic when we're thinking of women or, you know, groups that have been forced to empty themselves in an exploited way. But that's not really what that's all about. It's about showing up to God, paying attention, seeing what God's invitation is, then cooperating with that and just releasing the outcome. That's what that's about, and really finding out, what am I in this world for? What are we in this world for? And being about that and not about something else.Debra Rienstra Yeah, it's hard to release the ways that we have done things. Well, you have a congregation, you have a pastor, you have a sanctuary, you have programs, you want the kids to come, you need tithes, all of those systems. And actually, what you're doing here at Spring Forest—let's talk about that. What you're doing here at Spring Forest doesn't have any of that. Sunday services. There's no church building. You have barn buildings, you have farm buildings. No Sunday school, no adult ed, no choirs, organs, praise bands, any of that stuff, right? Do you think of Spring Forest as a new model for church? Perhaps one among many?Elaine Heath It's one among many. We're definitely shaped by traditional monasticism. We're shaped by early Methodism. We're influenced by the Catholic Worker Movement, and definitely Bonhoeffer's work and a number of others: the Clarence Jordan and Koinonia farms. And so we're influenced by all of those. We do have music sometimes at Forest Feast, if we have someone that can lead it, and, you know, do a good job. But the backbone of our worship life is morning and evening prayer. And that is so wonderful. You were here last night for Forest Feast, and we use the same structure we use for morning and evening prayer, and we have a group of about six people who are writing the liturgies for us, who have been writing for a year and a half now.Debra Rienstra Who are those people?Elaine Heath Well, there's Steve Taylor is our lay leader, and his wife, Cheryl, and then there's Donna Patterson, who's—none of them were here last night. They all had to go somewhere. But some of them are lay people. Some of them are clergy.Debra Rienstra And they don't live here?Elaine Heath No, they live— well, some of the people that write live far away, and they're in our digital community. But, yeah, Steve and Cheryl live in Lumberton, which is, you know, almost two hours away. But they're beautiful. I mean, if you go online and look at some of the last month, look at the prayers and see the—they're just truly beautiful, and they reflect our spirituality of our community.Debra Rienstra Yeah. So the community, it seems to me, you have had people living on the farm itself, but your community, like the Iona community, is both located here on this land, but also dispersed. And so you have that interaction, that conversation between this residential life. So let's try to describe for listeners: there's the farm. You live here with your husband. You have interns from Duke. You have a farm. What do you call Larry?Elaine Heath He's our farm coach.Debra Rienstra Coach, yes, I love that. They have the farm coach who has the farming knowledge that you all sort of follow. You have chefs. They don't live here either, but they come in. So you have a lot of people coming in and out on this farm. And you do regenerative farming. You have programs for kids, you have refugee support, and you can talk about that, trauma informed rest for spiritual leaders. And then a number of other things. The farm produces vegetables and those go to a CSA, and also a lot of it is donated. Why this particular assembly of activities? How does it all fit together? And what are the theological principles beneath each of these endeavors?Elaine Heath The overarching principle is that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every believer and to every person, let's just be honest. And the job of the pastor, the pastor teacher, is to fan those gifts into flame, to help them have the support they need to use their gifts and that the ministries should be shaped by the gifts of the people, which means you can't use a cookie cutter. And we have numerically a small community, but incredibly high capacity of people. So we have these gifts that they have, and then the ministries are emerging out of those gifts. And it might seem like, why do you have refugee support? And you know, just name anything else we're doing. How does this fit together? The organizing principle—okay, so you have the foundation. These are gifts given by the Spirit. Our ministries are emerging from our gifts. And the organizing sort of a cohesive piece is our rule of life that ties everything together. And so our rule of life is prayer, work, table, neighbor and rest. And that rule of life came about after we lived here for a year, when we first started Spring Forest with—there was another pastor that co-founded it with me, Francis Kinyua, who's from Kenya, and he was my student in Dallas, and did all those other things with me. So we invited him to come. We had to work with three different bishops to kind of make it work. But it worked, you know. Anyway, we just waited for a year to see. We had lots of work to do with getting the farm ready to go and Francis and I went to Church World Service right away to say, “Hey, we have a lot of experience supporting refugees, and we would like to do that here as well.” So we got started with that, but we waited a year and then just articulated, what are the practices that we do that are keeping us grounded here and keeping us right side up. And it was those things, so we named it.Debra Rienstra Okay, you were just doing it, and then you named those things.Elaine Heath Instead of creating sort of an aspirational rule and tried to live into it, we named what was actually working, what was actually grounding us and felt life giving.Debra Rienstra Hi, it's me, Debra. If you are enjoying this podcast episode, go ahead and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. If you have a minute, leave a review. Good reviews help more listeners discover this podcast. To keep up with all the Refugia news, I invite you to subscribe to the Refugia newsletter on Substack. This is my fortnightly newsletter for people of faith who care about the climate crisis and want to go deeper. Every two weeks, I feature climate news, deeper dives, refugia sightings and much more. Join our community at refugianewsletter.substack.com. For even more goodies, including transcripts and show notes for this podcast, check out my website at debrarienstra.com. D-E-B-R-A-R-I-E-N-S-T-R-A dot com. Thanks so much for listening. We're glad you're part of this community. And now back to the interview.Debra Rienstra You do partner a lot with, you know, “regular church folk.” It's that sort of in-and-out permeable membrane. How do you think about the relationship of what you're doing here, with Spring Forest, with the work of sort of standard congregations, is there like a mutuality? How do you think about that?Elaine Heath It's just like traditional monasticism. You've got a community that have this rule of life they follow. People who are not living in the community can become Oblates to the rule of life and have a special relationship. And usually those people go to church somewhere else. Part of our ethic here is we want to resist competition between churches, so we don't meet on Sundays to do things like programmatically. We usually just rest on Sundays and watch a movie and eat popcorn, you know.Debra Rienstra That's a spiritual practice.Elaine Heath But also, so there's that sort of historic piece, and people from churches come here for retreats. Lead teams come for retreats. People come—pastors, we have a lot of pastors who come here for a retreat. But also we are a mission community, so we're very active with supporting refugees. We're very active with the food programs that we have, and that gives people from a church—lots of churches don't have things like that going on. They don't have the resources for it, or they haven't figured it out. But that way, we can partner with churches and people can come here and they can actually get their hands in the soil, and they can teach somebody to read, and they can see little children learning where food comes from. They can help the chef with her kitchen things, you know. So it's a wonderful way to provide spiritual formation and missional formation to congregations that don't have those resources. And we can do these things together.Debra Rienstra Yeah. And that's that's premised on this being a place, an embodied place, a refugia space that people can come to. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful model. Do you yourself ever feel a sense of loss for “the old ways?” And I'm just thinking of this because at the beginning of your book, God Unbound, which is about Galatians, you write about how Paul challenges the Galatians to let go of their tight grip on the past, and you write about how you, reading that, felt yourself like a little bit of a traditionalist, you know, sort of defending, “But what about the past? What about the old ways?” Which you have loved too, right? So, how would you counsel people who have loved traditional church despite everything, and really do feel this sense of loss and wonder anxiously about what's next?Elaine Heath Yeah, I feel empathy. You know, something was going on in the Middle East at the time. I can't remember exactly the situation. There's always something going on, but it had to do with people's culture being wiped out and being told that what they believed didn't count and wasn't right and everything. And I was feeling such grief for them, and then all of a sudden, you know, I'm in Galatians, and think, “Well, that's how those people felt.” And even myself, there are things in my own daily practice that are—they're precious to me. My way of praying in the morning, the facing into the forest, you know, and things like that, that are rituals for me. And thinking, you know, if somebody told me “that doesn't matter,” how hard that would be. So I think in the spiritual journey, we come to the place, if we keep maturing, where we realize, in Merton's words, that so often we think it's the finger pointing to the moon, we think the finger is the moon. And it's that way about rituals and all sorts of things that we do, and we get to a place where we realize that intellectually and even spiritually, in an emotional way. But you can't force people to get to that point. This is something that happens as we grow and mature as life goes by. So what I have said to many people is, “If you are nurtured by traditional church, or, let's say, conventional church,”—because which traditional church are we talking about? One, right here, middle class, white, are we talking about Brazil? —”So if that nurtures you, keep doing it. But also realize that for other people, that's not nurturing. It feels dry and lifeless, and it's clear the Spirit is doing something new.” So instead of insisting everybody stop doing the new thing, and everybody has to come and do the conventional thing, you can be conventional in your worship and bless and make space for others so that we have a plethora of experiments going on. Because we're in a time of great emergence, as Phyllis Tickle wrote, and we need lots of experiments.Debra Rienstra Yeah. I appreciated what you wrote about trial and error. It's a time of trial and error, and it's okay to try things and have them not work. And that fits the refugia model too, really, really well. I mean, refugia don't always work. They just sometimes fail. Let's talk about a couple of key metaphors that I've noticed in your writings and in the website for Spring Forest too. One is that metaphor of the mycelial network, so the underground fungus that connects the creatures, the beings, the plants, the trees of the forest. I think is a wonderful metaphor too, for the way that faith and climate people, people who are worried about the climate crisis, and also people of faith—it's a great metaphor for how they're finding each other and connecting and building this sort of cultural and spiritual soil where the seeds of the future can grow. How is that metaphor meaningful for you here at Spring Forest?Elaine Heath Well, it means a lot in terms of the first of all, the diversity of expressions of ministry that are even here on the property, but also, especially in our dispersed community, through following the rule of life together, which—we are a practice-based community, rather than a dogma-based community. So as people are practicing those practices where they live and work and play, then they are forming community in a very specific, contextual way where they are. I think of Steve and Cheryl again, the friends I mentioned earlier. He's our lay leader. They live in a, I think a working class neighborhood in Lumberton, which is the land of the Lumbee here in North Carolina. And they have developed a wonderful, just neighborhood ministry there with—and they've been able, through potluck dinners and front yard barbecues and remembering people's birthdays and things like this, they've developed this friendship network in the neighborhood with people that are on complete opposite sides, politically, racially, and this is in the South, where you've got all sorts of issues. And they've taken the sort of ethic of Spring Forest here, but it's caused a mushroom to bloom there that looks really different from here. They don't have a farm, they don't have a forest, they've got this neighborhood. But the neighboring, the praying, the tabling, resting, all of those things are part of how they live there. And so it's fruiting there. And it's the same in other places in the world where we have people that live there.Debra Rienstra It's a good example, too, of how eating together is sacramental, both here and in these other networks that are connected to you. The Garden of Eden and the vision of the New Earth in Revelation are both important to you, that that whole long scriptural arc begin in a garden, end in a garden city, and then the Tree of Life is also your symbol, your logo. So how would you situate our work today as people of faith in that long arc of history, from the garden to the Garden City, and how does the Tree of Life fit into that for you?Elaine Heath There's a way in which the whole story is happening simultaneously. Does that make sense?Debra Rienstra Yeah.Elaine Heath It's all happening beyond time, sort of simultaneously. So sometimes we're living in the garden and we've been deceived, and now we have to figure out what to do, and sometimes we're rebuilding the wall, and sometimes we're on our way to Bethlehem, and sometimes we're in the garden of the new creation. And we can see it, and we're living that truth even while there's still the wall being built. There's a simultaneity to it all. But for me, I think especially of the theology of Julian of Norwich. That's why we have her icon here. There's this vision of love making all things new, that God, Christ, the risen Christ, says in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.” All things, not just a handful of people who get the right doctrine, not just—no, all things: horses and amoeba and all things are being made new in mysterious ways that we can't completely know.Debra Rienstra And that's Colossians one and Romans eight as well.Elaine Heath It's this thread that comes through scripture, and we get to participate in that, even while we don't see all the things completely made new, we get to be part of that. And to me, that's what it means to follow Christ. That's what it means to be a disciple. And to be the love of God enfleshed in this world is to keep participating in the making of all things new. This is why healing has such a central role in my theological vision and my practice, is it's making all things new.Debra Rienstra Healing land, healing people, healing communities.Elaine Heath Yeah, yeah. Healing theology. Theology has been so damaged by patriarchy and philosophy and all sorts of things, you know, and racism.Debra Rienstra Colonization. Yeah, so that embodiment is important even theologically, because we're not aiming for some abstract doctrinal perfection. We're not aiming to become disembodied creatures. We're aiming for this embodied redemption. And so working on the farm, healing, you know, getting muddy, walking through forests, harvesting veg, and you're able to invite people into that embodiment. Little kids doing yoga, I think that's wonderful. You know, just finding this kind of rest in their own little bodies. Eating—one of the most embodied and kinship-with-creation things we do, right? Taking it inside ourselves. And that, I think, is condensed in ritual. So I know that you have been playfully experimenting with rituals. I was able to be a part of the Forest Feast last night with my husband Ron and our friend Colin. And it was this beautifully curated event where we shared table together and then went through this prayer sequence that you described, and it was beautifully participative. I noticed you do a blessing of the animals too on the farm. So good thing these are blessed chickens and blessed dairy goats, blessed dogs and cats. What other sort of liturgical shenanigans have you tried to help people live into this embodied faith practice?Elaine Heath We do so many things. It's so much fun. It's never boring. It's never boring. We have a ritual in the fall, in late November, where we tuck the farm in and put it to bed for the winter, and we have the children come, we get some compost. You know, we've cleared out the beds, and they're gonna rest now. And so the children put some compost in. And we have a liturgy that we use. We light candles, and we thank Mother Earth for the food, we thank God for the opportunities. And so this is one of the things that we do ritualistically. We also have a spring ritual. It's very Hebrew-Bible like, right? With these seasons and the crops and the things with the liturgical seasons, we also have done a bunch of things. My favorite one so far was for epiphany, and this was two years ago. And so I had the interns from Duke Divinity School do the bulk of the planning. I just gave them a little bit of guidance about the four-fold order of worship and just some things like that. So we had a journey through the forest. It started here. We went on the forest trail. Of course, it was dark outside, and they had gone ahead and set up fairy lights at certain places where we're going to stop. And one of the interns' fiance was a musician, so he had his guitar, and he had one of those things where you can play the harmonica and play the guitar at the same time, but he was our troubadour, and all of us were the Magi. So there's this troop of Magi, and we would stop at each station along the way, and there were prompt questions that we would take five minutes, and people could respond to these questions. There would be a scripture reading, and we respond to the question, we go to the next station. And it was so amazing. People shared from their lives in a very deep way. It surprised me how quickly they went deep. Well, it was dark, and there were these twinkle lights, and there was the troubadour. Then we finally got up to the Christ child, and we went into the goat barn. And honestly, I get chills every time I even remember this. But the students had set up in the goat barn—and the goats were in the barn. Okay, they were behind a little chain link thing so they didn't step on the icons and everything. But they had set up an altar at the base of the feeding trough with a big icon of Mary with the Christ Child, candles, and some other things there. There were different icons and some fairy lights. And we went in there, and we all crowded in and began to sing. We sang “This Little Light of Mine,” we sang some Christmas carols, and finished the story. And then we came back to the house and had some snacks and talked about what kind of wisdom was given to us since we were Magi. We were going to be people seeking wisdom and seeking—it was the most beautiful thing. And we've done lots of things like that. We see the land here is a primary text to learn from and to listen to and to observe, not as a metaphor, but as, it's actually a conversation partner. So we do things like that.Debra Rienstra That playfulness is so exciting to me, this sense of using our tradition, using our scriptures, using the skills that we've honed as people of faith over generations, singing together, praying together, but experimenting with those things in new contexts and new ways, in new forms of embodiment that are just faithful and yet playful. And so, as you say, people go deep because they're sort of jarred out of their habitual ways, and that can be such a great formational moment and bonding moment too, and it's very memorable. We remember that in ways—you know, you had such joy on your face as you're describing that. What would you say as you look back over the last, well, let's see, it's been almost eight years? Seven, eight years here at this location. What would you say has given you the most anguish and what has given you the most joy?Elaine Heath Oh, anguish. Which story should I tell?Debra Rienstra Yeah, I don't want to make it sound like it's all been beautiful and romantic and perfect.Elaine Heath Whenever you have community, you have drama. Well, you know, at your typical church, you're gonna have drama sometimes. But what we've found a few times, and it's pretty predictable. This happens in traditional monasteries too, which is why they have novitiate periods that are sometimes quite lengthy and sort of staggered, like you put your toe in the water. People of very high capacity who are deeply grounded spiritually and have a real vision for the gospel, are attracted to community life like this. People who are really hurt, who've had a lot of brokenness, especially from religious institutions or abusive situations, trauma that that is unresolved, that has a lot of unhealed wounds, are also attracted to places like this, often with a sort of utopian hope, because of, you know, life's deficits.Debra Rienstra And they feel that this is a place of healing, and they're right about that.Elaine Heath They're right about it. And so what actually happens is sometimes with the person, the second category of person, will come and join in and just be so full of gladness, because, “Oh, these, these are real people, like they're really doing things in the world. This is what I've longed for.” But then, as relationships form, and we're doing life together, and we all bump up against each other at times, the unhealed wounds fester. And the way I see it is, God's bringing them to a place where, if they'll just do their inner work now, now that it's clear what's the next step—if they'll take the next step, whether it's get some therapy, stay on your meds, get some support for your addiction recovery, whatever the things are—if you'll take the next step, then this is a very supportive community that can help you. It's a village that can be around you and you will heal here in the context of this village. But sometimes people are not willing or not able, or it's not time in their own sense of what they can do, and so then they'll leave. Sometimes when people leave, this happens in traditional churches, for whatever reason, this is a common sort of psychological reaction, they'll create some sort of chaotic drama to be the excuse for leaving, rather than have to face the fact that it was time for me to take the next step, and I was too scared. Because that takes a lot of self awareness, you know, to come to realizations about things like that. So I know from talking to people, from, you know, friends that are in traditional monasteries and convents that this is a common thing that happens there. So it happens here sometimes, and it's never easy. It's always painful and always challenging, you know, but with God's help, we get through it. And so that's the anguish, when those kinds of things happen. We've had a time or two where, over the last 20 years, really, where a person would come in, usually a young adult who's very idealistic, and they're like, “This isn't a new monastic community. You're not forcing people to pray three times a day!” You know, whatever the thing is that they have in their head that is supposed to be, because we're pretty gracious, you know.Debra Rienstra You don't get up at three in the morning.Elaine Heath Yeah, that's not us. We can't do that because, especially if you've got families with children and, you know, you've got to get up and go to work in the morning. So sometimes there will be somebody that figures they know more than everybody else in the room, and they want to take over and run the joint. You know, that's not going to happen. So then that sometimes creates some anguish. What about the joy? The joy is—and there's so much to give me joy. I really, really love seeing people come alive, like I really love seeing people who have, especially people who have been harmed by religion, because of their identity or because of anything, and they find deep spiritual friendship. They find how to connect, in Buechner's words, their deep passion with the world's great need, and start a new thing. And it gives them so much joy. And it's actually helping people. It's helping the world. And just sort of fanning that flame, that gives me a lot of joy. I have so much joy being in touch with the land and the animals. I just really experience them directly mediating God to me. I feel the divine life in them, and I feel, I guess I get a lot of dopamine hits when I'm out there harvesting and when I'm, you know, brushing the goats and talking to the chickens and whatnot.Debra Rienstra They are blessed chickens!Elaine Heath They are blessed chickens.Debra Rienstra What advice would you give to church people who, even though they love their church and their community, recognize that something needs to change, but they don't know where to start? What advice would you give?Elaine Heath To start in their own home, if at all possible, start in their own neighborhood. Start having neighbors over for dinner. Do not tell them we're going to have a Bible study now, because that's—it's not to have a Bible study. It's to form friendships with our neighbors. Start neighboring well. Figure out who lives on my street. Who lives across the street? Invite them for dinner. Have neighborhood potlucks. We did this in Texas, right after we moved there, I think they're still going. We'd have 50 people in our house sometimes. But just invite the neighbors for dinner. Have a potluck. Get to know them. Remember their birthdays, go to their kids' graduation. When you find out their mother died, go to the funeral. It's so simple. It's just such basic neighboring. That's where to start. It's not a church program. It's not making you stop going to church somewhere, to go to church over here. What you're actually doing is living church in your own neighborhood. Start doing that.Debra Rienstra Elaine, it's been such a pleasure to be here on the farm with you and to talk with you, get to know you a little bit. Thank you for what you do, and thank you for spending some time with me today.Elaine Heath It's been a joy. Thank you for the interview.Debra Rienstra Thanks for joining us for show notes and full transcripts, please visit debrarienstra.com and click on the Refugia Podcast tab. This season of the Refugia Podcast is produced with generous funding from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Colin Hoogerwerf is our awesome audio producer. Thanks to Ron Rienstra for content consultation as well as technical and travel support. Till next time, be well. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit refugianewsletter.substack.com

Text us your questions!What happens when political labels lose their meaning? Dr. Laurie Johnson, political philosopher and president of the Maurin Academy, joins us to unpack the tangled roots of America's culture wars and explore pathways toward overcoming our divisions. We discuss her book The Gap in God's Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars.The conversation begins with a clarification of political terminology. Laurie explains how American understandings of "liberal" and "conservative" have drifted far from historical and global meanings, with both Democrats and Republicans representing different flavors of liberalism while "true" conservatism remains rare in American politics. This terminological confusion reflects a deeper problem: an increasingly narrow political imagination that limits our ability to envision alternatives.In Laurie's view, at the heart of our cultural divisions lies capitalism's continuous transformation of communities and human connections. She describes how economic changes have hollowed out rural areas, separated families, and created profound insecurity. When people feel economically adrift, they become susceptible to scapegoating others rather than recognizing systemic problems. This resentment fuels the political extremism we see today.We also explore potential remedies. Laurie suggests churches could play a crucial role in rebuilding community if they moved beyond superficial fellowship toward genuine cooperation. By creating structures that provide mutual benefit, such as shared childcare, elder support, or time banks, people might rediscover how community offers security that money can't buy.Though unflinching in her assessment of our challenges, Laurie maintains a tempered hope. Perhaps only through experiencing genuine hardship will we rediscover the value of community and cooperation. Her work offers an invitation to attempt this rediscovery before crisis forces our hand.*Note: This episode was recorded before the appalling assassination of Charlie Kirk.=====Want to support us?The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast Watch & comment on YouTube Email us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.com Cheers!

On Labor Day Sunday we honor Dorothy Day:  A journalist, writer, and a co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, whose work championed social justice, labor rights, and direct aid to the poor through the establishment of Houses of Hospitality. Dorothy Day's life and legacy continues to inspire the social issues of the day, with the aim of transforming both individuals and society.

What are the implications of Jesus's radical ethics of love and shalom? How far are Christ followers meant to go with the compassion and witness of the gospel? Philosopher Tom Crisp (Biola University) reflects on how a powerful religious experience transformed his academic career and personal faith. Once focused on metaphysics and abstract philosophy, Crisp was confronted in 2009 by the radical compassion of Jesus in the Gospels. That moment led him toward the Catholic Worker movement, the teachings of Dorothy Day, and ultimately, deep involvement in labour and immigrant justice through Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). He describes participating in civil disobedience, forming solidarity with marginalized communities, and serving as a nonviolent presence in immigration courts where migrants face arrest and deportation. Through these stories, Crisp testifies to the cost and invitation of discipleship: following Jesus into the margins with courage, humility, and love. Episode Highlights “What struck me was Jesus's deep compassion, mercy, fiery concern for people in the margins. And it came to me as deeply convicting.” “I immersed myself in the writings of Dorothy Day… she's had an enormous influence on how I've come to think about what it would look like to be a Jesus follower in our context.” “I was having this very powerful sense of God's presence, feeling broken by it, feeling like I'd hit a turning point in my life.” “If Jesus really is the Jesus of the margins that I'm seeing in the Gospels, then I need to figure out how to get to the margins.” “This isn't a matter of guilt, it's invitation… we're always being invited further in.” “When you're with someone who's been separated from their children, when you're with someone who's shaking with fear… it's just a completely different thing.” “So a horrific violation of human rights is happening around us in our immigration courts, and it's happening here in Orange County.” “We are trying to be a presence of love for everybody there.” Helpful Links and Resources Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) Shalom Ethics: Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself, by Thomas M. Crisp The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, by Shane Claiborne About Tom Crisp Tom Crisp is professor of philosophy at Biola University, specializing in ethics and justice. After completing his PhD at Notre Dame, Crisp shifted his academic work toward Christian ethics following a transformative religious experience in 2009. He is a community member of the Orange County Catholic Worker and active in Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), advocating for immigrant and labour rights through nonviolent action and accompaniment. Show Notes Religious Experience and Transformation Tom Crisp recounts his 2009 religious awakening while reading the Gospels. “Fire—my soul is blowing apart, I need to quit my job.” Realization of Jesus's “deep compassion, mercy, fiery concern for people in the margins.” Movement from abstract philosophy to Neighbour Love Command. Catholic Worker movement and Dorothy Day Influence of Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution and new monastic movement. Encounter with Dorothy Day's writings as a model of radical discipleship. Involvement with the Orange County Catholic Worker community. Attraction to Catholicism Inspired by Notre Dame liturgy and Benedictine practices. Influenced by saints like St. Francis, Maximilian Kolbe, Oscar Romero. “As I spend time in Catholic spaces, I feel the presence of this cloud of witnesses.” CLUE and Nonviolent Action History of CLUE: founded by Rev. James Lawson, trained in Gandhian nonviolence, connected to Martin Luther King Jr. Focus on labour justice and immigrant rights. Training in nonviolent presence, civil disobedience, and accompaniment. Example: shutting down LAX in a five-hundred-person protest for hotel workers. Court Observation and Migrant Accompaniment CLUE partnership with Orange County Rapid Response Network. ICE arrests of migrants who believed they had lawful parole status. “A horrific violation of human rights is happening around us in our immigration courts.” Strategy of nonviolent presence to “dramatize bureaucratic and physical violence.” Clergy presence offers spiritual authority and comfort. Judges and ICE agents sometimes allow moments of prayer or comfort before deportation. “We want to accompany migrants into this dark, dark space and be there as a source of comfort to them.” Formation and Solidarity “When you're with someone who's been separated from their children, when you're with someone who is shaking with fear … it's just a completely different thing.” Experience of humility, solidarity, and courage among migrants and workers. Philosophy, theology, and action integrated in discipleship. Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.

This past spring, host Mike Jordan Laskey traveled to New York for a Jesuit Media Lab theatre event. He was coordinating the outing with our JML contributor Renee Roden, who lives at a Catholic Worker house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Catholic Worker, of course, is the movement founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, which grew from a newspaper dedicated to Catholic social teaching and pacifism to a network of houses of hospitality in urban areas and farm communes in rural areas. Renee and Mike had some time before the event that evening, so they visited Maryhouse, a house of hospitality the movement opened in 1975 and where Dorothy Day spent the last five years of her life. It's a pilgrimage site of American Catholicism. And unlike many other pilgrimage sites, Maryhouse isn't a museum – it's still a vibrant and active Catholic Worker house of hospitality to this day. By a great stroke of luck, Dorothy Day's granddaughter Martha Hennessy was in town and could give Renee and Mike a tour of the house. Martha was the seventh child born to David Hennessy and Tamar Day Hennessy, who was Dorothy's only daughter. Martha spends most of the year on a farm in Vermont, but she frequently travels to New York to live and work at Maryhouse. Martha has carried on the Catholic Worker tradition in her own life, including participation in anti-nuclear protests with the Plowshares movement. As Martha showed Renee and Mike around Maryhouse, she spoke of her grandmother with such admiration and love, almost as if Dorothy herself were in the room. Mike invited Martha on the podcast to share stories from her life and reflections on how the Catholic Worker continues its work of mercy and justice today. We know you'll love getting to know this incredibly special person who has carried on her family legacy with so much devotion and passion. More about Martha: https://catholicworker.org/martha-hennessys-revolution-of-the-heart/ Martha's connection with the Plowshares movement: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/ The Catholic Worker Movement: https://catholicworker.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Wolff Peace – Richard Hooker & Dorothy Day A new series on political philosophy, power, and the pursuit of peace. In this opening episode of the Wolff Peace series, host Avis Kalfsbeek introduces the legacy of political philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and his influential book Political Man and Social Man. Each episode in this special series pairs a classic thinker from Wolff's anthology with a modern or historical peacemaker, exploring how ideas about law, authority, and society shape the world we live in—and the peace we hope to build. We begin with Richard Hooker, a 16th-century Anglican theologian who argued that true political authority must be rooted in reason, consent, and the shared moral order of the community. His vision of peace arises not from force, but from lawful agreement shaped by collective participation. To balance and expand Hooker's view, Avis pairs him with Dorothy Day—co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and a living embodiment of radical hospitality. Day didn't argue for peace in the abstract—she fed, housed, and cared for those most in need, demonstrating that love in action is the foundation of community and resistance. This episode includes: An introduction to the Wolff Peace series and its mission A short profile of Richard Hooker's theory of law and reason A peace pairing with Dorothy Day and her radical ethic of hospitality Two reflection questions to take with you into your own life Visit aviskalfsbeek.com to learn more about the podcast, books, and upcoming episodes in the Wolff Peace series. Music: Dalai Llama Rides a Bike by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez. Bandcamp: https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW Robert Paul Wolff's book Political Man and Social Man on Amazon (I am not an affiliate) 

In this episode of 'The Biggest Table' podcast, my guest Laurie Johnson, a political science professor at Kansas State University, delves into the socioeconomic impacts of capitalism, particularly in rural America. Drawing from her books, she examines how historical and economic shifts have led to political and cultural divisions, emphasized by urban-rural divides and the rise of Christian nationalism. Laurie also highlights the detrimental effects of agribusiness on rural communities and the loss of traditional lifestyles. She proposes Christian direct action as a solution, inspired by Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker Movement, promoting community cooperation and support. The conversation underscores the need for rethinking economic systems, community belonging, and direct involvement to address current societal challenges.Laurie M Johnson is a Professor of Political Science at Kansas State University. Most of her eight books have aimed at developing a thorough understanding and critique of classical liberal theory. Building on that background to understand current ideological divisions, her book Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right, was published in 2019. Her latest book, The Gap in God's Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars, was published in 2024 by Wipf & Stock. She provides weekly content on her Political Philosophy YouTube channel, currently with over 24,000 subscribers, and its associated podcast. She is a co-founder and president of The Maurin Academy, which provides free and low-cost online classes and reading groups. She also is associated with the John Paul II Catholic Worker Farm in Kansas City, MO. This episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com. 

This month, hosts Jason and Terry are joined by current cafe employees and Loaves and Fishes members David McComas-Bussa and Terri Drahn to discuss how they came to be part of the Catholic Worker Movement, CWA founders Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, what Loaves and Fishes does in Duluth, Stepping On Up Duluth, and more!For more about Loaves and Fishes, please visit https://www.loavesandfishesduluth.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/loavesandfishesduluth/The Wussow's Podcast, based in Duluth, MN, digs into the venue's rich culture of musicians, artists, and a community of unique personalities. Intriguing folks. all connected to the café. New Episodes on the FIRST TUESDAY of EVERY MONTH!

Send us a textDuring this season of Thanksgiving, and in recognition of Native American Heritage month, the Franciscan Peace Center invites members of our community to reflect on land justice, particularly as it relates to our indigenous neighbors. On today's episode of The “Center” we're joined by Eric Anglada, a Catholic Worker farmer, and lay leader at the Sinisinawa Mound Center in Southwestern Wisconsin. Eric co-founded the St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm in Cuba City, Wisconsin with his wife Brenna Cussen Anglada. When Eric is not farming, or facilitating summer solstice Wild Church activities, he educates communities to advocate for indigenous land justice. Please note: The views expressed here are individual views that do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa.Welcome, Eric! "Sweet Times" is by All Bets Off, and is provided by Adobe Stock.

Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Colin Miller about his book We Are Only Saved Together and his own journey into the vision of Dorothy Day and vocation of being a Catholic Worker in his hometown of Minneapolis.  Colin talks about his Christian upbringing: raised as Lutheran, becoming an Episcopal priest and subsequent conversion to the Catholic Church. Out of his own experience of life in community with the poor, engaging with the gospel implications of Catholic Social Thought, Colin shares insights about the current breakdown in society and church and the alternative celebratory model of living the Sermon on the Mount in community with others.Colin is the director for the Center for Catholic Social Thought at the Church of the Assumption (https://assumptionsp.org/ccst/) in St. Paul. Formerly a priest in the Episcopal Church, he became a Catholic eight years ago after discovering the Catholic Worker tradition of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. In Minnesota, he has co-founded a Catholic Worker house (https://www.maurinhouse.com/) devoted to common prayer, material simplicity and service to the poor.  He lives there with his wife and five children.- Links -For Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkJoining God in the Great Unraveling https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-God-Great-Unraveling-Learned/dp/1725288508/ref=sr_1_Leadership, God's Agency and Disruptions https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-Gods-Agency-Disruptions-Confronting/dp/1725271745/refJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-Remaking-Church-Changing-World/dp/0819232114/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2NHGW8KB7L0SQ&keywords=Alan+J+Roxburgh&qid=1687098960&s=books&sprefix=alan+j+roxburgh%2Cstripbooks%2C130&sr=1-3For Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/For Colin Miller:We Are Only Saved Together: Living the Revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, Ave Maria Press (2024): https://www.avemariapress.com/products/we-are-only-saved-togetherhttps://catholicworker.org/author/collinmiller_55421/Center for Catholic Social Thought: https://www.catholicsocialthought.org/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Colin Miller is the Director of the Center for Catholic Social Thought in St. Paul, MN, and lives at the Maurin House Catholic Worker in Minneapolis. We talk about book We are Only Saved together: Living the revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement published by Ave Maria Press. This book is not a call to become a strange, marginal, or fringe Catholic; it is a call to become fully Catholic by embracing the essential traditions that have always been at the heart of the Church and finding Christ in the places he promised to meet us: in worship, in community, in the poor. Following the little way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (one of Dorothy Day's favorite saints), Miller shares practical ideas to consider when seeking to encounter Christ in these places, such asexploring the power of shared meals and feasts;reframing our encounters with people in poverty through a surprising look at the Good Samaritan parable;ideas on how to live close to the land;discerning the qualities that bring dignity to our work; andsteps to embrace voluntary simplicity.

Dr. Colin Miller is the Director of the Center for Catholic Social Thought in St. Paul, MN, and lives at the Maurin House Catholic Worker in Minneapolis.   We talk about book We are Only Saved together: Living the revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement published by Ave Maria Press.  This book is not a call to become a strange, marginal, or fringe Catholic; it is a call to become fully Catholic by embracing the essential traditions that have always been at the heart of the Church and finding Christ in the places he promised to meet us: in worship, in community, in the poor. Following the little way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (one of Dorothy Day's favorite saints), Miller shares practical ideas to consider when seeking to encounter Christ in these places, such as exploring the power of shared meals and feasts; reframing our encounters with people in poverty through a surprising look at the Good Samaritan parable; ideas on how to live close to the land; discerning the qualities that bring dignity to our work; and steps to embrace voluntary simplicity.

The beginning of Labor Day marked a significant change in American history that brought improved pay and working conditions. On the spiritual side of labor, St. Joseph is the patron of workers. And we take a look at Dorothy Day's journey to Catholicism and the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement.

The beginning of Labor Day marked a significant change in American history that brought improved pay and working conditions. On the spiritual side of labor, St. Joseph is the patron of workers. And we take a look at Dorothy Day's journey to Catholicism and the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement. Episode: https://i.listen.ewtn.com/ENN/ENN15696.mp3 Podcast: https://www.ewtn.com

Colin Miller from the Center for Catholic Social Thought is back. We'll discuss his new book: “We Are Only Saved Together: Living the Revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.”  Learn more about the Center for Catholic Social Thought. Like what you're hearing? Leave us a review, subscribe, and follow us on social media @practicingcatholicshow! Direct social media links: ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠YouTube

Carl Siciliano is the Founder of the Ali Forney Center, which he built up to become the nation's largest organization providing housing to LGBTQ youth. He is also the author of Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging, and a Safe Place for LGBTQ Youth. In his youth, Carl spent several years living with and serving unhoused people as part of the radical Catholic Worker Movement and spent eight months living in Benedictine monasteries. My brief backstory with Carl is that I worked for the Ali Forney Center for the bulk of my time living in NYC where I served as their director of special events and got to see the org grow very quickly. I love the Ali Forney Center and all the folks connected to it- especially the people it serves, and reading Carl's new book gave me a deeper perspective about the importance of this work. We start by talking about Ali Forney, a homeless queer youth who is the namesake and inspiration behind the Ali Forney Center, and we talk about what was so profoundly impactful about that relationship for Carl.  Carl speaks of his admiration of Ali's and their ability to own a relationship with God, describing this as the conscious divinity of Ali. We look at what it was like to bring awareness of the plight of homeless LGBTQ youth by initiating rallies and other forms of activism, and this was a transformational moment of the consciousness of the LGBTQ community (and beyond) in New York.  Next, we dicuss the spiritual significance of supporting our most disenfranchised community members. And then we look at how Carl has contended with the hypocrisy of some religious leaders essentially doing the opposite of God's work by creating more division rather than unity. In addition to looking at the shadow side of religions, Carl also makes a passionate case for what queer Catholicism can look like and how it can be experienced (leaving me wanting to attend mass..!). All these and many more topics in this very personal and inspiring interview. Learn more about the Ali Forney Center-https://www.aliforneycenter.org/Check out Carl's new book-https://www.amazon.com/Making-Room-Decades-Fighting-Belonging/dp/0593444248Connect with Wil-https://www.wil-fullyliving.com/work-with-wilSupport the Show.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Erika Bachiochi - a distinguished legal scholar,  mother, wife, and feminist. Erika shares with us her experience of addiction as a teen, her intellectual search for truth and the healing power of relationships. She explains her spiritual awakening, the transformative power of prayer in her life and the kindness of strangers. Erika also shares her thoughts on:Managing family and career, marriage as a training ground for virtue and parenting for inter-dependence;Meaningful dialogue in a polarised world;The role of the Catholic Worker Movement in shaping her views on service and justice;The concept of Sex-Realist Feminism: the acknowledgement of  biological sex differences integrated with the advocacy for equal rights and opportunities for women; andThe unique capacity of women to get to the heart of the matter.This conversation will provide an insightful view into being Catholic and feminist, healing from childhood traumas, becoming strong as the person you are called to be and being an advocate for women's rights.Resources- The Feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft - Erika Bachiochi | with Louise Perry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_21gyaRB0- Faire disputations: https://fairerdisputations.org/about-us/- Sex, Abortion and Feminism, as Seen From the Right:  https://www.nytimes.com/by/erika-bachiochi------------Hearts + Minds Official website - hearts-minds.ieIG - @heartsandmindsireFB - Hearts+Minds | FacebookEmail: hello@hearts-minds.ieHearts+Minds events in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway and Navan

In this episode William speaks with Dorothy Day's granddaughters Martha and Kate Hennessy. Dorothy Day was one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement (CWM) alongside Peter Maurin. The CWM was based on the principles of personalism and sought to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ" through houses of hospitality, the Catholic Worker newspaper, and the establishment of farming communes. In this episode Martha and Kate share some of their experience in the Catholic Worker, its work today, and discuss political theology and practice. Find out more about the CWM here. For season 3 each episode is accompanied by a blog, this week's blog will release next Monday and can be found with all our SCM blogs ⁠here⁠. Connect with SCM on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠

This conversation is based on a free downloadable resource available at faith.yale.edu. Click here to get your copy today.“We may heed the call of Jesus to follow me and find him leading us right into the home we already have.” (Ryan McAnnally-Linz)What are the possibilities of homemaking in a world out of joint? What does it mean for Christians to be on a pilgrimage? To be sojourners in the world?Ryan McAnnally-Linz joins Evan Rosa to discuss what it means for Christian life to be a journey not from here to there, but from here to … here. Together they discuss what it means for the world to be the home of God; the task of resisting the “dysoikos” (or the parodic sinful distortion of home); the meaning of Christian life as a pilgrimage; and three faithful ways to approach the work of homemaking that anticipates how the world is becoming the home of God—Ryan introduces examples from Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, Julian of Norwich, and a modern-day farming family.

Laurie and Spencer interview Lincoln Rice of Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Milwaukee, and author of Healing the Racial Divide: A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls, about what Arthur Falls’ strategy to combat racism, Falls’ relationship with the CW movement, the humanity of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, and issues of race ... Read more

Laurie and Spencer interview Lincoln Rice of Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Milwaukee, and author of Healing the Racial Divide: A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls, about what Arthur Falls' strategy to combat racism, Falls' relationship with the CW movement, the humanity of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, and issues of race...... Continue Reading →

Dorothy Day lived in the 20th century during the time religious historians know as the second part of the social Gospel period; she founded the Catholic Worker Movement and the social justice focused journal by the same name.  She was responsible for a dramatic increase in public understanding around the realities of poverty and homelessness, and was […]

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss how to best respond to people who are devalued due to intellectual or physical impairment, mental disorders, age, and poverty. Our welcome guest is Jo Massarelli. She leads Social Role Valorization workshops both in the United States and internationally. She has also evaluated dozens of human service programs for schools, hospices, prisons, and homeless shelters. Massarelli and her husband Marc Tumeinski are members of a voluntary community responding the needs of the homeless in Worcester, Massachusetts.Valerie Niemeyer was blessed to meet Jo and her husband, Marc Tumeinski, in Omaha after the interview with Marc on The Open Door. Henry, Valerie's 18 year old, joined her and met a few of Jo's colleagues. Could you tell us about that weekend event? Why did it happen in my home city of Omaha?Can you tell us more about Wolf Wolfensburger? How did he influence you?What is the status of the social role valorization movement here and abroad?What are the goals of the International Social Role Valorization Association? How might folks support its work?You are part of a local Catholic Worker community. What can you tell us about it?What connections do you see between Wolf Wolfensburger and Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement?Do folks in the social role valorization movement and the Catholic Worker movement face similar challenges?What patterns contribute to greater or lesser "success" within the two movements? And how would you define "success" in these contexts?Tell us about your conference this summer. And what's on the agenda for next summer's conference?Any last thoughts, invitations, or reading suggestions for our audience?

In this episode of The Open Door , panelists Jim Hanink and Valierie Niemeyer interview Lauren Onak, the new vice presidential candidate of the American Solidarity Party. Lauren was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She studied English Literature at Barnard College of Columbia University and received a Masters in Adolescent Education from Hunter College. Onak is a stay at home mom to three young children and lives in the Boston suburbs. She teaches natural family planning and is active in several community organizations. Among the questions we'll be asking are the following. Please feel free to ask your own!Lauren, can you share some of your back story with us? Back before you joined the American Solidarity Party? Tell us about your discernment process when invited to represent the American Solidarity Party as vice presidential candidate alongside Peter Sonski. Why did you say yes to such a weighty commitment?The American Solidarity Party believes strongly in the principle of subsidiarity, a principle that reflects the social teaching of the Catholic Church. How do you explain subsidiarity to folks who aren't familiar with it?How do strong communities relate to this principle of subsidiarity?We also affirm the importance of solidarity, and living it out both personally and collectively. Can you give us some examples of what solidarity looks like or could look like from the personal to the national and even international level?Dorothy Day, the co-founder of The Catholic Worker Movement, once said that we don't want to trade one poverty for a worse poverty. What do you think that she meant? At one point Day also said that more than ever she believed we need to foster personal responsibility. How can we balance that with concrete expressions of personal and collective solidarity?How does the evangelical counsel of a personal and even communal commitment to voluntary poverty relate to this dynamic?As a stay-at-home mother, how have you sought to strengthen the communities in which you live? What are your hopes for the future in that regard?What's it like so far on the campaign trail?

Today we have Brian Terrell joining us from Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm in Tiny Maloy, Iowa. Brian discusses what they're growing at the farm, whether it's really worth growing your own beans and what it was like living with Dorothy Day compared to how she is thought of nowadays.

Spencer and Laurie interview Alex Christoyannopoulis, Reader in International Relations, Politics and History at Loughborough University, London. His article "Leo Tolstoy's impact on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement" is the launchpad for an interesting discussion of Tolstoy's pacifism and his influence on Day and the movement, as well as the promises and limits of complete pacifism.

Spencer and Laurie interview Alex Christoyannopoulis, Reader in International Relations, Politics and History at Loughborough University, London. His article "Leo Tolstoy's impact on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement" is the launchpad for an interesting discussion of Tolstoy's pacifism and his influence on Day and the movement, as well as the promises and limits of complete pacifism.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Things I Learned by Spending Five Thousand Hours In Non-EA Charities, published by jenn on June 2, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. From late 2020 to last month, I worked at grassroots-level non-profits in operational roles. Over that time, I've seen surprisingly effective deployments of strategies that were counter-intuitive to my EA and rationalist sensibilities. I spent 6 months being the on-shift operations manager at one of the five largest food banks in Toronto (~50 staff/volunteers), and 2 years doing logistics work at Samaritans (fake name), a long-lived charity that was so multi-armed that it was basically operating as a supplementary social services department for the city it was in(~200 staff and 200 volunteers). Both orgs were well-run, though both dealt with the traditional non-profit double whammy of being underfunded and understaffed. Neither place was super open to many EA concepts (explicit cost-benefit analyses, the ITN framework, geographic impartiality, the general sense that talent was the constraining factor instead of money, etc). Samaritans in particular is a spectacular non-profit, despite(?) having basically anti-EA philosophies, such as: Being very localist; Samaritans was established to help residents of the city it was founded in, and now very specialized in doing that. Adherence to faith; the philosophy of The Catholic Worker Movement continues to inform the operating choices of Samaritans to this day. A big streak of techno-pessimism; technology is first and foremost seen as a source of exploitation and alienation, and adopted only with great reluctance when necessary. Not treating money as fungible. The majority of funding came from grants or donations tied to specific projects or outcomes. (This is a system that the vast majority of nonprofits operate in.) Once early on I gently pushed them towards applying to some EA grants for some of their more EA-aligned work, and they were immediately turned off by the general vibes of EA upon visiting some of its websites. I think the term “borg-like” was used. Over this post, I'll be largely focusing on Samaritans as I've worked there longer and in a more central role, and it's also a more interesting case study due to its stronger anti-EA sentiment. Things I Learned Long Term Reputation is Priceless Non-Profits Shouldn't Be Islands Slack is Incredibly Powerful Hospitality is Pretty Important For each learning, I have a section for sketches for EA integration – I hesitate to call them anything as strong as recommendations, because the point is to give more concrete examples of what it could look like integrated in an EA framework, rather than saying that it's the correct way forward. 1. Long Term Reputation is Priceless Institutional trust unlocks a stupid amount of value, and you can't buy it with money. Lots of resources (amenity rentals; the mayor's endorsement; business services; pro-bono and monetary donations) are priced/offered based on tail risk. If you can establish that you're not a risk by having a longstanding, unblemished reputation, costs go way down for you, and opportunities way up. This is the world that Samaritans now operate in. Samaritans had a much better, easier time at city hall compared to newer organizations, because of a decades-long productive relationship where we were really helpful with issues surrounding unemployment and homelessness. Permits get back to us really fast, applications get waved through with tedious steps bypassed, and fees are frequently waived. And it made sense that this was happening! Cities also deal with budget and staffing issues, why waste more time and effort than necessary on someone who you know knows the proper procedure and will ethically follow it to the letter? It's not just city hall. A few years ago, a local church offered up th...

From late 2020 to last month, I worked at grassroots-level non-profits in operational roles. Over that time, I've seen surprisingly effective deployments of strategies that were counter-intuitive to my EA and rationalist sensibilities.I spent 6 months being the on-shift operations manager at one of the five largest food banks in Toronto (~50 staff/volunteers), and 2 years doing logistics work at Samaritans (fake name), a long-lived charity that was so multi-armed that it was basically operating as a supplementary social services department for the city it was in(~200 staff and 200 volunteers). Both of these non-profits were well-run, though both dealt with the traditional non-profit double whammy of being underfunded and understaffed.Neither place was super open to many EA concepts (explicit cost-benefit analyses, the ITN framework, geographic impartiality, the general sense that talent was the constraining factor instead of money, etc). Samaritans in particular is a spectacular non-profit, despite(?) having basically anti-EA philosophies, such as:Being very localist; Samaritans was established to help residents of the city it was founded in, and now very specialized in doing that.Adherence to faith; the philosophy of The Catholic Worker Movement continues to inform the operating choices of Samaritans to this day.A big streak of techno-pessimism; technology is first and foremost seen as a source of exploitation and alienation, and adopted only with great reluctance when necessary.Not treating money as fungible. The majority of funding came from grants or donations tied to specific projects or outcomes. (This is a system that the vast majority of nonprofits operate in.)Once early on I gently pushed them towards applying to some EA grants for some of their more EA-aligned work, and they were immediately turned off by the general vibes of EA upon visiting some of its websites. I think the term “borg-like” was used.Over this post, I'll be largely focusing on Samaritans as I've worked there longer and in a more central role, and it's also a more interesting case study due to its stronger anti-EA sentiment.Things I LearnedLong Term Reputation is PricelessNon-Profits Shouldn't Be IslandsSlack is Incredibly PowerfulHospitality is Pretty ImportantFor each learning, I have a section for sketches for EA integration – I hesitate to call them anything as strong as recommendations, because the point is to give more concrete examples of what it could look like integrated in an EA framework, rather than saying that it's the correct way forward.1. Long Term Reputation is PricelessInstitutional trust unlocks a stupid amount of value, and you can't buy it with money. Lots of resources (amenity rentals; the mayor's endorsement; business services; pro-bono and monetary donations) are priced/offered based on tail risk. If you can establish that you're not a risk by having a longstanding, unblemished reputation, costs go way down for you, and opportunities way up. This is the world that Samaritans now operate in.Samaritans had a much better, easier time at city hall compared to newer organizations, because of a decades-long productive relationship where we were really helpful with issues surrounding unemployment and homelessness. Permits get [...]--- First published: June 2nd, 2023 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5oTr4ExwpvhjrSgFi/things-i-learned-by-spending-five-thousand-hours-in-non-ea --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. Share feedback on this narration.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Things I Learned by Spending Five Thousand Hours In Non-EA Charities, published by jenn on June 1, 2023 on LessWrong. From late 2020 to last month, I worked at grassroots-level non-profits in operational roles. Over that time, I've seen surprisingly effective deployments of strategies that were counter-intuitive to my EA and rationalist sensibilities. I spent 6 months being the on-shift operations manager at one of the five largest food banks in Toronto (~50 staff/volunteers), and 2 years doing logistics work at Samaritans (fake name), a long-lived charity that was so multi-armed that it was basically operating as a supplementary social services department for the city it was in(~200 staff and 200 volunteers). Both of these non-profits were well-run, though both dealt with the traditional non-profit double whammy of being underfunded and understaffed. Neither place was super open to many EA concepts (explicit cost-benefit analyses, the ITN framework, geographic impartiality, the general sense that talent was the constraining factor instead of money, etc). Samaritans in particular is a spectacular non-profit, despite(?) having basically anti-EA philosophies, such as: Being very localist; Samaritans was established to help residents of the city it was founded in, and now very specialized in doing that. Adherence to faith; the philosophy of The Catholic Worker Movement continues to inform the operating choices of Samaritans to this day. A big streak of techno-pessimism; technology is first and foremost seen as a source of exploitation and alienation, and adopted only with great reluctance when necessary. Not treating money as fungible. The majority of funding came from grants or donations tied to specific projects or outcomes. (This is a system that the vast majority of nonprofits operate in.) Once early on I gently pushed them towards applying to some EA grants for some of their more EA-aligned work, and they were immediately turned off by the general vibes of EA upon visiting some of its websites. I think the term “borg-like” was used. Over this post, I'll be largely focusing on Samaritans as I've worked there longer and in a more central role, and it's also a more interesting case study due to its stronger anti-EA sentiment. Things I Learned Long Term Reputation is Priceless Non-Profits Shouldn't Be Islands Slack is Incredibly Powerful Hospitality is Pretty Important For each learning, I have a section for sketches for EA integration – I hesitate to call them anything as strong as recommendations, because the point is to give more concrete examples of what it could look like integrated in an EA framework, rather than saying that it's the correct way forward. 1. Long Term Reputation is Priceless Institutional trust unlocks a stupid amount of value, and you can't buy it with money. Lots of resources (amenity rentals; the mayor's endorsement; business services; pro-bono and monetary donations) are priced/offered based on tail risk. If you can establish that you're not a risk by having a longstanding, unblemished reputation, costs go way down for you, and opportunities way up. This is the world that Samaritans now operate in. Samaritans had a much better, easier time at city hall compared to newer organizations, because of a decades-long productive relationship where we were really helpful with issues surrounding unemployment and homelessness. Permits get back to us really fast, applications get waved through with tedious steps bypassed, and fees are frequently waived. And it made sense that this was happening! Cities also deal with budget and staffing issues, why waste more time and effort than necessary on someone who you know knows the proper procedure and will ethically follow it to the letter? It's not just city hall. A few years ago, a local church offered up their...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Things I Learned by Spending Five Thousand Hours In Non-EA Charities, published by jenn on June 1, 2023 on LessWrong. From late 2020 to last month, I worked at grassroots-level non-profits in operational roles. Over that time, I've seen surprisingly effective deployments of strategies that were counter-intuitive to my EA and rationalist sensibilities. I spent 6 months being the on-shift operations manager at one of the five largest food banks in Toronto (~50 staff/volunteers), and 2 years doing logistics work at Samaritans (fake name), a long-lived charity that was so multi-armed that it was basically operating as a supplementary social services department for the city it was in(~200 staff and 200 volunteers). Both of these non-profits were well-run, though both dealt with the traditional non-profit double whammy of being underfunded and understaffed. Neither place was super open to many EA concepts (explicit cost-benefit analyses, the ITN framework, geographic impartiality, the general sense that talent was the constraining factor instead of money, etc). Samaritans in particular is a spectacular non-profit, despite(?) having basically anti-EA philosophies, such as: Being very localist; Samaritans was established to help residents of the city it was founded in, and now very specialized in doing that. Adherence to faith; the philosophy of The Catholic Worker Movement continues to inform the operating choices of Samaritans to this day. A big streak of techno-pessimism; technology is first and foremost seen as a source of exploitation and alienation, and adopted only with great reluctance when necessary. Not treating money as fungible. The majority of funding came from grants or donations tied to specific projects or outcomes. (This is a system that the vast majority of nonprofits operate in.) Once early on I gently pushed them towards applying to some EA grants for some of their more EA-aligned work, and they were immediately turned off by the general vibes of EA upon visiting some of its websites. I think the term “borg-like” was used. Over this post, I'll be largely focusing on Samaritans as I've worked there longer and in a more central role, and it's also a more interesting case study due to its stronger anti-EA sentiment. Things I Learned Long Term Reputation is Priceless Non-Profits Shouldn't Be Islands Slack is Incredibly Powerful Hospitality is Pretty Important For each learning, I have a section for sketches for EA integration – I hesitate to call them anything as strong as recommendations, because the point is to give more concrete examples of what it could look like integrated in an EA framework, rather than saying that it's the correct way forward. 1. Long Term Reputation is Priceless Institutional trust unlocks a stupid amount of value, and you can't buy it with money. Lots of resources (amenity rentals; the mayor's endorsement; business services; pro-bono and monetary donations) are priced/offered based on tail risk. If you can establish that you're not a risk by having a longstanding, unblemished reputation, costs go way down for you, and opportunities way up. This is the world that Samaritans now operate in. Samaritans had a much better, easier time at city hall compared to newer organizations, because of a decades-long productive relationship where we were really helpful with issues surrounding unemployment and homelessness. Permits get back to us really fast, applications get waved through with tedious steps bypassed, and fees are frequently waived. And it made sense that this was happening! Cities also deal with budget and staffing issues, why waste more time and effort than necessary on someone who you know knows the proper procedure and will ethically follow it to the letter? It's not just city hall. A few years ago, a local church offered up their...

In our second episode looking at labor within the Catholic Worker Movement, we speak with Lincoln Rice; a Catholic Worker with Casa Maria in Milwaukee. Lincoln recently published The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: Easy Essays from the Catholic Worker.

In this episode we talk with Rosalie Riegle, an oral historian who has both lived in Catholic Worker Houses as well as documented their history. Some of her books include Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her, Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community, and Voices of the Catholic Worker. Today we focus on labor and the labor movement in the Catholic Worker Movement's history. This is the first of a series of three episodes focused on labor.

Episode 58 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Email | RSS | More "We're shaped … and affected by what we love, what we care about, what we pay attention to, what we admire.” - Robert Ellsberg IN THIS EPISODE "Our faith is rooted not in maxims, but in a narrative," shares publisher and editor-in-chief of Orbis Books, Robert Ellsberg, in his conversation with Sister Julia in Episode 58 of the Messy Jesus Business Podcast. Other topics explored in the discussion include the meaning of holiness, the communion of saints and the mess of being a Christian disciple. Robert's own narrative has been a movement to peace and a path to spiritual writing that brought him to Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker Movement and Sister Wendy Beckett; to the ethos of authorship about the lives of saints and their perspectives of the presence of God in all of us. Their humanity, partly through all the difficulties and happy accidents that gave them powerful presence in our lives, has been Ellsberg's inspiration to write, in order to "spread... these seeds of mindfulness and compassion and awareness." ABOUT THE GUEST Robert Ellsberg is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Orbis Books, where he has worked for 35 years. He spent 1975-80 working with Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker, two years as managing editor of the paper; and he has edited Day's selected writings, diaries, letters, and other work. Robert has written and edited 25 books, including six books on saints and holiness. For over 10 years he has written a daily entry, "Blessed Among Us" for "Give Us This Day" (Liturgical). Robert's most recent book is Dearest Sister Wendy…A Surprising Story of Faith and Friendship. Dorothy Day's Selected Writings, edited by Robert: https://orbisbooks.com/products/dorothy-day?_pos=4&_sid=e6af7dd2e&_ss=r Robert's essays in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/robert-ellsberg Follow Robert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobertEllsberg MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh.  Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans. Email us at messyjesusbusiness@gmail.com BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Twitter: @messyjesusbiz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/messyjesusbusiness SUPPORT US: https://www.patreon.com/messyjesusbusiness LISTEN HERE:

Hope Vaughn from Emmaus House in Chicago talk about mutual aid networks, jail support, and being a young person (younger than Lydia and Theo) in the Catholic Worker Movement.

Peter Maurin was the peasant-philosopher who inspired Dorothy Day and co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement. He distilled his vision for a Christian social order into a series of short writings known as Easy Essays. On today's podcast, the boys digest an Easy Essay titled "When Christ is King." Maurin helps us cut through the noise just in time for Christmas so we can say with confidence, hope, and joy, "¡Viva, Cristo Rey!" From all of us at Eden Revisited, Merry Christmas!SHOW HIGHLIGHTSWho was Peter Maurin?Whose voice holds sway in our culture today?What is the history of the Solemnity of Christ the King?How does Plato's Republic compare to the Christian social order?Are Yale graduates equipped to serve the world?What is the role of truth, goodness, and beauty in education?And how to be a peasant-philosophers and servant-king!LINKSWhen Christ is King – Easy EssaysEp. 057 - Who was Peter Maurin?Leave us a Review!Take a few seconds and write a positive review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. This helps us move up in the rankings and reach more people!Connect with the PodcastHave a question, topic idea, gardening tip, anything? Email us at edenrevisitedpodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to give you a sprout out.

Eric and Brenna Anglada describe the origins of the Catholic Worker Movement and the more recent organization Nuns and Nones.Brenna Cussen Anglada is a founding member of the St. Isidore CW Farm in southwest Wisconsin, home of the Ho Chunk, Meskwaki, Sauk, and many other nations. She serves as the Religious Communities Liaison for the N&N Land Justice Project, and works with the Catholic Native Boarding School Accountability and Healing Project.Eric Anglada is a college dropout and co-founder of St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm outside of Cuba City, WI. He is the ecological programming coordinator at Sinsinawa Mound. He works a bit for the Nuns and Nones Land Justice Project. His interests are in the intersections of land, community, spirituality, and decolonization.Contact the St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm at catholicworkerschool@gmail.com.Nuns and Nones: https://www.nunsandnones.org/Learn more about Thoreau College and the microcollege movement at: https://thoreaucollege.org/Driftless Folk School:https://www.driftlessfolkschool.org/

Back in November 2022 -- I attended the christening of the newest -- most modern Staten Island Ferry – the Dorothy Day – named for the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. A half a year later – I am back on Staten Island for the maiden voyage of the Dorothy Day Ferry – asking what is the significance of naming a ferry after the great peace activist and soon-to-be Catholic Saint. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We remember the Queen and then move into talking about misconceptions about the Bible before getting into the parable of the wicked servant.   Notes Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement said "I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least." Charles Spurgeon, a popular British minister and preacher said; "If I hate sin because of the punishment, I have not repented of my sin, I merely regret that God is just" Visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/subversiveundercroft Episcopal Handbook - Here    Music Be Thou My Vision, Jaimie Jorge Jesus On A Greyhound, Mark Fosson   image by Derek Maul    

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. A political and religious radical, she rejected institutional authority.History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.We are offering free ad space on Wonder Media Network shows to organizations working towards social justice. For more information, please email Jenny at pod@wondermedianetwork.com.Follow Wonder Media Network:WebsiteInstagramTwitter

Martin Tomszak discusses his article "'With Desire I Have Desired': Enjoying the Face of the Other as Political Theology: John Caputo and Dorothy Day Situating Hospitality as Divine Encounter," from Telos 198 (Spring 2022).

http://www.patreon.com/thenomikishow » We need your help to keep providing free videos! Make sure to click Like & Subscribe! And we encourage you to join us on Patreon as a Patron for as low as $5/month! Marcus of Left Flank Vets is back to discuss the New York City Subway Shooting, and NYPD's massive budget and ongoing failures, as well as Mayor Eric Adams' choice to bring back failed policies. Left Flank Vets is a leftist anti-war cooperative of post 9/11 veterans fighting against military recruitment efforts» https://twitter.com/LeftFlankVets» https://twitter.com/MarcusHereMeowEric Blanc is assistant professor at Rutgers labor studies, author of “Red State Revolt”, “Revolutionary Social Democracy” & founder of the Labor Politics substack; He is also an organizer with Emergency Workplace Organizing. Eric returns to discuss Amazon Labor Union & Chris Smalls' history win over Amazon in New York and what it means going forward, now that hundreds of other Amazon employers around the United States are looking to unionize as well.» https://twitter.com/_ericblanc» https://ericblanc.org/» https://laborpolitics.substack.com/Jessica Reznicek is a Catholic Worker Movement and climate activist from Iowa. On June 29, 2021, she was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, followed by 3 years probation, & a restitution of $3 million paid to ETP for a series of “attacks” on the Dakota Access Pipeline. She was also designated a domestic terrorist by the court. Two of her supporters, attorney Bill Quigley and activist Alex Cohen join Nomiki to discuss Jessica's case.Bill Quigley is Professor Emeritus, teaching at Loyola Law School in New Orleans. Alex Cohen is a climate justice organizer, friend of Jessica Reznicek, and member of the Campaign to Free Jessica Reznicek.» https://supportjessicareznicek.com» https://twitter.com/FreeJessRezMatthew Kahn is Provost Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California. He is also a Senior Fellow and Director of the Health Markets Initiative at The Schaeffer Center, and author of the new book GOING REMOTE: How the Flexible Work Economy Can Improve Our Lives and Our Cities.» https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520384316/going-remote» https://twitter.com/mattkahn1966» https://sites.google.com/site/mek1966/Nomiki is LIVE » Wed & Fri: 8p ET / 5p PT TNS swag » http://www.TheNomikiShow.comFind Nomiki on:Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NomikiKonst » http://www.twitter.com/TheNomikiShow IG: https://www.instagram.com/thenomikishow» https://www.instagram.com/nomikikonstYouTube: https://www.youtube.com//TheNomikiShowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nomikikonstMusic Credits: Ohayo by Smith The Mister https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com Smith The Mister https://bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_ohayo Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bzCw4RyFqHo Mi-Lo by Smith The Mister https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com Smith The Mister https://bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/mi-lo Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/--4tHbTT97g

The Middle Way welcomes esteemed guest Nick Pickrell—activist, pastor, actor, and musician in Kansas City—to explore Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, experiencing cognitive dissonance in our faith lives, and the Catholic Worker Movement. Together we wrestle with Jesus' teachings on faith, poverty, and Christian community. Living into our faith often means moving from dissonance to deconstruction. We must have the courage to stand back and ask why?

Martha Hennessy is an American peace activist and member of the Catholic Worker movement. She is the granddaughter of Servant of God, Dorothy Day. The books/podcasts/organizations we mentioned on the show: • Catholic Worker Movement: o https://www.catholicworker.org/ • Kings Bay Plowshares 7: o https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/about/bios/martha-hennesy/ Support this podcast! https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E356519&i d=2

"Revolution of the Heart - The Dorothy Day Story" is a new documentary about the woman who helped create the Catholic Worker Movement. Her activism spanned the women's suffrage movement, the great depression, the cold war and the Vietnam war. We talked with filmmaker Martin Doblmeier.

Anna Blackman joins us on the podcast to share how we can use Catholic social tradition (CST) to address political issues, strengthen civil society, and hold government accountable. Anna is a research associate in the area of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at the Center. Through her doctoral work she engaged with the Catholic Worker Movement in the UK and studied their political activism efforts. She discusses ways in which Brexit was influenced by CST but how it ultimately demonstrated a failure of subsidiarity and solidarity and serves as an example of when politics do not serve the common good. Her current research is focused on the Humanizing Institutions Project which aims to look at the ethics of institutions in light of Catholic social tradition. 

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Chris is a peace activist from Chico, California, who serves with the Christian Peacemaker Teams, recently returning from Palestine,  and is the producer of the radio documentary series "Bringing Down the New Jim Crow," which explores the movement to end the system of mass incarceration in the United States. Our conversation today is based on his forthcoming book The Gandhian Iceberg: A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning. Today we talk about nonviolence and the three parts to the Gandhian model: self-purification, constructive programs, and satyagraha. I became aware of Chris and his work through conversations with Ethan Hughes, who gave me a rough copy of The Gandhian Iceberg. Through that, and time spent at The Possibility Alliance, meeting with members of the Catholic Worker Movement, and those practicing nonviolence and building egalitarian communities, a light went off in my thoughts on how nonviolence is a required component of creating the world espoused by permaculture. That lead to this conversation with Chris on how to move from a place of anger and fear, to one of compassion and love. As discussions emerge about how the third ethic of permaculture is the least discussed and most confusing to understand and implement, nonviolence and the Gandhian model provide a way to return this ethic to a proper place in our practice. Before we begin I'd like to thank the sponsors, Good Seed Company, and the sponsors of the day, PermieKids and Your Garden Solution. PermieKids, created by permaculture practitioner and educator Jen Mendez, is a resource to inspire and nurture those teachers, parents, and families interested in incorporating permaculture education into the lives of children in the community or at home. Though the site Jen offers a free ongoing podcast where you can learn about transitioning to a rich, ecologically sound life that includes children and learning at every step of the way. If you want to dive deeper you may be interested in her Community Experiential Education by Design program, or Edge Alliances. Find out more at PermieKids.com. Your Garden Solution is a Pennsylvania company run by a permaculture practitioner and their business partner that helps people to garden using the techniques developed by Mel Bartholomew and popularized in his book Square Foot Gardening. In addition to garden installation and education, they also have an excellent soil mix and compost ready for your raised beds. Find out more at yourgardensolution.org. You can contact Chris at moorebackman@gmail.com and find more about his work via the links in the resource section in the show notes. Creating a more bountiful world requires peace and nonviolence. To continue to exist under old methods and modes that create feelings of scarcity and result in violence and oppression don't fit within the ethics of permaculture. A new revolution is required, lead by the practice self-purification, constructive programs, and satyagraha. Should you choose to embrace this path, and I suggest you explore it further at the very least, there are additional resources in the notes for this episode that include links to the Metta Center for Nonviolence, a series of free books on nonviolence from the Albert Einstein Institute, and further articles on satyagraha and the power of nonviolence. Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you are, get in touch. My phone number is and email is . If digital means are not your preferred way to reach me, you can also drop something in the mail. That address is: The Permaculture Podcast The Permaculture Podcast To connect with the show and other listeners, you can become a sustaining member at Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast, on Facebook as The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann, and on Twitter where I am @permaculturecst. I'm also using Instagram quite a bit, and you can find me there as PermaculturePodcast. From here I'll be on the road in April, returning to Berea Kentucky and the Clear Creek Community. While there on April 23, 2016 we're holding Spring into Permaculture hosted by Clear Creek Schoolhouse. The day starts at noon and heads on into the evening with a potluck and in-person recording of the podcast, and Jereme Zimmerman, author of Make Mead Like a Viking, will be there teaching a meadmaking workshop from 1 - 3pm. Find out more at clearcreekschoolhouse.org. After that, on June 18, 2016, is the Mid-Atlantic Permaculture Convergence outside of Charles Town, West Virginia, hosted by Emma Huvos of The Riverside Project. The keynote speaker for this day is Michael Judd, talking about his experiences as a permaculture practitioner, and there will be classes and workshops on Living in the Gift, Animals in Permaculture, Broadacre permaculture, whole systems learning, as well as plant walks and tree ID sessions. As this event is limited to 100 tickets, pick yours up today at midatlanticpermacultureconvergence.eventbrite.com.   Sponsors The Good Seed Company PermieKids Your Garden Solution Resources Chris's Email: moorebackman (at) gmail.com Bringing Down the New Jim Crow Chris's Articles at Truth-Out Dr. Michael Nagler, author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future Martin Luther King, The Inconvenient Hero by Vincent Harding Brene Brown Gene Sharp Michael Brown “The Presence Process” Charles Eisenstein Peace Projects Be the Change Reno, Nevada The New Community Project Harrisonburg, Virginia Canticle Farm Oakland, California Additional Resources Nonviolence: Working Definitions (Metta Center for Nonviolence) Satyagraha (Wikipedia) Non-violence, the appropriate and effective response to human conflicts Collection of free books on nonviolence (Albert Einstein Institute) The Power of Nonviolence /r/nonviolence (reddit)