Maria Gwyn McDowell
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Conjure, Plan, Debate, Convince: Justice over the long-haul
Strategize. Shift the boundaries. Make new laws and revoke old ones. Vote, campaign, create local safe spaces that trickle up. Go read books that show just how slow social change is, and then spend time “conjuring, planning, debating, and convincing.” Continue reading
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There is no ‘acting alone’ in a society that will not regulate gun ownership
It may be that the gunmen who killed blacks in Buffalo and children in Texas feel alone, deeply alone. But there is no such thing as ”acting alone” when we are raised to consider violence a normal response, and granted… Continue reading
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The Cost of Silence
Katie Kelaidis, finally among Orthodox, broached the subject that it seems so many Orthodox commentators are delicately avoiding except in the most vague of terms: the justification of Russia’s war on the Ukraine as a defense against forced “gay parades.”… Continue reading
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Anointing Women
On this day, where in the Christian East Christ descends to the dead, and raises Adam and Eve as a representation of raising all people, male, female, and all those who travel between those two poles of variously sexed/gendered creation,… Continue reading
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Leaving Egypt: A Sermon on Looking Back
Every church has a “back to Egypt” committee. I heard that this week, “every church has a back to Egypt committee.” Right now, that committee is excitedly planning our first full Eucharist together, or working out a coffee hour that… Continue reading
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Discerning through Bias: on calling the 11th Bishop of the Diocese of Oregon
This Saturday, August 29th, the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon will elect its 11th Bishop. Over the last few weeks, we have all watched interviews and listened to a wide-ranging set of questions and discussion around topics that are close to… Continue reading
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The Stories We Tell: Progressive Rewriting of History
While Oregon was never a slave-holding state, our economic success was significantly built on the labor of black and brown bodies. Innovations, like pre-paid healthcare, are developed when that labor is valued, and dropped when it is no longer useful.… Continue reading
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Be Troubled (by the Spirit)!
We are troubled, and we live in troubled times, and maybe that trouble is the Spirit, moving, shaking, wandering, cracking open our illusions and prejudices, exposing our insides so that new life can burst forth. Continue reading
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Fat Pills and Sexbots: A serious Orthodox engagement with sexual diversity
The implication is that sexually active same-sex intercourse is an enterprise characterized by an impersonal and utterly hedonistic lack of discipline. This is hardly a new analysis of same-sex sex. What is so utterly shocking, and as a result, so… Continue reading
