Re-Placing Christian Spirituality: A Catechism for the Upper Mississippi Watershed

“… those that work towards social justice. I'm interested in exploring models that address these concerns with core ecclesial practices and sacraments. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Mark A Van Steenwyk Mennonite Worker Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

My goal is to create a year-long catechesis for adults organized around Mark's Gospel that directly integrates with social and ecological realities. The catechists will engage in learning, practices and rites of passage that help root Christian spirituality within their bodies, ecosystems (in our case, this will be the upper-Mississippi watershed), and regional political contexts.

Towards that end:

1) I will talk weekly with Ched Myers from Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Ojai, California. Ched is a biblical scholar perhaps best known for his book Binding the Strong Man, a political reading of the Gospel of Mark. Ched is deeply engaged in the work of Christian discipleship and watershed ecology. Ched will serve as a mentor throughout my period of study.

2) I will visit four communities that exemplify a Christian spirituality rooted in body, place, and politics: Wilderness Way Community in Portland, Jeanie Wylie Catholic Worker Community in Detroit, the Carnival de Resistance based in Philadelphia, and Church of All Nations in Minneapolis.

3) I will participate in the Animas Valley Deep Imagination Training program. This is a nature based program for clergy and other healing professions that help folks find healing and wholeness as part of creation rather than as beings that exist above creation. I've participated in one of their Animas Valley Quests and found striking similarities between it and Jesus' experience in the wilderness. Learning from Animas Valley will inform those parts of the catechism that draw catechists into a deeper relationship with their ecosystem.

4) Finally, I will engage in a series of study retreats both in Minneapolis and in rustic locations in the upper Mississippi watershed. By the end of my project research period, I hope to have a functional year-long program that can be launched in autumn 2017.