Books and Anthologies

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As the Fortress Press website describes:  Theologian, pastor, and seasoned activist Rebecca M. M. Voelkel offers a theological vision of embodied love, informed by her own experience, research, and pastoral and organizing work with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gender-queer persons. Voelkel lays out a theological approach that includes the Via Positiva, asserting and celebrating bodily integrity and empowerment; the Via Negativa, acknowledging and analyzing the ways in which vulnerable bodies are colonized; the Via Creativa, artistic expressions of social alternatives; and the Via Transformativa. The transformative way grounds action in what Voelkel calls “inaugural eschatology,” which anticipates and works toward a different future. Her theological vision is interwoven with wisdom gained from social change movement building, offering principles that will enable allies to work strategically to take advantage of what Voelkel and others see as a building "progressive wave."

Please order your copy now from Amazon.
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Marilyn McCord Adams (1943-2017) was a world-renowned philosopher, a theologian who forever changed conversations about God and evil, a compelling preacher, and a fierce advocate for the full belonging of LGBTQ+ people, especially in churches. Over the course of her career, she mentored philosophers, theologians, pastors, and activists. In this book, authors from each of these fields engage and expand upon McCord Adams's work. Chapters address theodicy and the Holocaust, the nature and limits of human free will, sexual violence, Trinitarian relations, beatific vision, friendship, climate change, and how to protest heterosexism with truth, humor, and cookies. Examples of McCord Adams's revised Episcopal liturgies--previously unpublished--are used to affirm the expansive love of God. Accessible and varied, these essays attest to McCord Adams's vocational integration, as she claimed and proclaimed God's goodness in her different professional roles.

I am honored to have an essay in this book which honors my beloved mentor, teacher and friend, Marilyn McCord Adams. And I'm thrilled to be included with some of my best friends whose essays also appear. Please buy yourself a copy here.
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I am honored to have worked with Rev. Dr. Malcolm Himschoot to edit The New Queer Desire: An Anthology of Intersectional Writing by LGBTQ+ Faith Leaders as a digital zine.Featuring Miss Major Griffin Gracy, Rev. Louis Mitchell, Beth Zemsky, Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, Urooj Arshad, Rev. Lynn Young, Peterson Toscano, Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kwong, Rev. Lawrence Richardson, Bishop Yvette Flunder, Dr. Wendy Harbour, Rev. Alba Onofrio, and the editors, this collection celebrates the desire that draws us into deeper connections, intersections and transformations. With art, poetry, story-telling and narrative essays, this anthology is a gift to all of us who care about sacred justice and joy.

Find it here: ​www.lyndaleucc.org/q/
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I am honored to have contributed to this collection. Please consider buying a copy.

For generations, the Bible has been employed by settler colonial societies as a weapon to dispossess Indigenous and racialized peoples of their lands, cultures, and spiritualities. Given this devastating legacy, many want nothing to do with it. But is it possible for the exploited and their allies to reclaim the Bible from the dominant powers? Can we make it an instrument for justice in the cause of the oppressed? Even a nonviolent weapon toward decolonization?

In Unsettling the Word, over 60 Indigenous and Settler authors come together to wrestle with the Scriptures, re-reading and re-imagining the ancient text for the sake of reparative futures.

Created by Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations program, Unsettling the Word is intended to nurture courageous conversations with the Bible, our current settler colonial contexts, and the Church’s call to costly peacemaking. 

 Price: $25.00 (Canadian)   To order: www.commonword.ca/ResourceView/2/19793

Contributors include:

Marcus Briggs-Cloud, Kathy Moorhead Thiessen, Kwok Pui-lan, Christina Conroy, Leah Gazan, Joerg Rieger, Norman Habel, Stan McKay, Rachel and Chris Brnjas, Jennifer Henry, Lori Ransom, Rebecca Voelkel, Peter Haresnape, Robert O. Smith, Susanne Guenther Loewen, Carmen Landsdowne, Cheryl Bear, Joshua Grace, Rarihokwats, Darren W. Snyder Belousek, Joy De Vito, Tamara Shantz, Marc H. Ellis, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Sara Brubacher, Benjamin Hertwig, David Driedger, Pekka Pitkanen, Celine Chuang, Alain Epp Weaver, Musa W. Dube, Katerina Friesen, Anita L. Keith, Derrick Jensen, Roland Boer, Neil Elliott, Daniel Hawk, Randy Woodley, Lisa Martens, Tobin Miller Shearer, Walter Brueggemann, Miguel A. De La Torre, Vivian Ketchum, James W. Perkinson, Sara Anderson, Deanna Zantingh, Peter C. Phan, Sheila Klassen-Wiebe, Bob Haverluck, Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Chris Budden, Ellen F. Davis, Rose Marie Berger, Wes Howard-Brook, Gerald West, Julia M. O'Brien, Dan Epp-Tiessen, Ryan Dueck, Mitzi J. Smith, Sylvia McAdam, Robert Two Bulls, Ched Myers, Jonathan Dyck, Sarah Travis, Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, Kyla Neufeld

ISBN
9780995973312
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I am honored to have contributed to this collection and hope you will consider buying a copy of it.

Edited by Robert E. Shore-Goss and Joseph N. Goh and Published by Routledge.

This book enters a new liminal space between the LGBTQ and denominational Christian communities. It simultaneously explores how those who identify as queer can find a home in church and how those leading welcoming, or indeed unwelcoming, congregations can better serve both communities. The primary argument is that queer inclusion must not merely mean an assimilation into existing heteronormative respectability and approval.
Chapters are written by a diverse collection of Asian, Latin American, and U.S. theologians, religious studies scholars and activists. Each of them writes from their own social context to address the notion of LGBTQ alternative orthodoxies and praxes pertaining to God, the saints, failure of the church, queer eschatologies, and erotic economies. Engaging with issues that are not only faced by those in the theological academy, but also by clergy and congregants, the book addresses those impacted by a history of Christian hostility and violence who have become suspicious of attempts at "acceptance". It also sets out an encouragement for queer theologians and clergy think deeply about how they form communities where queer perspectives are proactively included.
This is a forward-looking and positive vision of a more inclusive theology and ecclesiology. It will, therefore, appeal to scholars of Queer Theology and Religious Studies as well as practitioners seeking a fresh perspective on church and the LGBTQ community.

To order: ​https://www.routledge.com/Unlocking-Orthodoxies-for-Inclusive-Theologies-Queer-Alternatives/Shore-Goss-Goh/p/book/9780367277413
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I am honored to have contributed to this important collection of devotions for the work of justice.

​Click here to order your copy.

Whether you’re leading a justice effort at church or headed to the nearest protest, resistance work can be spiritually exhausting.
Rise Up is a year’s worth of devotions to keep you burning bright without burning out.
52 weeks. 52 reflections on the call to Rise Up for justice.
Devotion titles include:
Naps of the Bible
Resistdance
Stomp on Satan
Is My Work Enough?
Hope is a Verb
CLICK here FOR PREVIEW.
Single copy: $11.95
5-Pack: $35.00
Publications
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Emerging out of deep relationship and listening with Black and Indigenous elders, and the friendship and support of BIPOC and white settler-colonizer colleagues, Sacred Reckonings: White Settler-Colonizer Churches Doing the Work of Reparations is a congregational guide for the organizing and education needed to help accompany white settler-colonizer congregations through a reparations process. Its central teaching is the Reparatory Eco-Map which focuses our work in the overlapping circles of Truth Telling, Relationships, Political Solidarity, Spiritual Practices, and Wealth Return.

Written and compiled by myself and Jessica Intermill, Esq and supported by grants from the Louisville Institute and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Sacred Reckonings is rooted in a posture of calling in and an understanding that the work of reparation is liberatory and healing for white settler-colonizer folx as well as BIPOC communities.

You can find the curriculum and training opportunities here: https://www.sacredreckonings.com/

​To listen to a Nurture the Soul: Sacred Reckonings, a conversation between Rev. Traci Blackmon and me about Sacred Reckonings, click here.
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This is my DMin dissertation which formed the basis for Carnal Knowledge of God. It is a theological reflection on the 225 interviews I did with LGBT-identified women and genderqueer humans as they reflected on questions of sexuality and spirituality. It is available here.
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In collaboration with Dr. Sharon Groves, I edited this excellent resource which was written by Dr. Miguel De La Torre and Lisbeth Melendez Rivera.  To download it for free, go to http://www.welcomingresources.org/a_la_familia.pdf
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After working with thirty-five colleagues in a convening of religious organizers, I wrote this analysis of the Proposition 8 campaign from the perspective of religious organizing and movement building.  To download a free copy, go to  http://www.welcomingresources.org/ATimeToBuildUp.pdf
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In order to both highlight the vibrancy, faithfulness and power of the Welcoming Movement and to counter the 'false witness' of those who seek to quash this movement of hospitality and justice, the Institute for Welcoming Resources surveyed pastors and leaders of 1,200 Welcoming congregations to ask them about their work and witness. Two areas emerged that warrant particular focus and celebration:

  • Successfully completing a Welcoming Process makes a congregation more likely to work and witness on other justice issues.
  • Congregations that directly engage the question of welcoming LGBT persons have low levels of conflict.
AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!
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Sexual Abuse Prevention:  A Course of Study for Teenagers

I co-authored this curriculum with Marie Fortune.  It is published by Pilgrim Press and is available for sale here:  https://secure3.convio.net/ucc/site/Ecommerce/445861253?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=13283&store_id=1401

Explores the issues of sexuality faced by today's teenagers and the role the church should play m response to sexual abuse. This revised edition addresses the experiences of date rape, stranger rape, and incestuous abuse and looks at the cultural context in which these experiences are occurring.
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 Sermons

Keynote Addresses

          April 15, 2024- Charleston, SC
         Georgia Harkness Lecture (online)
         Oct 17, 2024

Film Projects 
Most of these projects can be found on the Center for Sustainable Justice's Vimeo account

Sacred Places, Sacred Stories: A Journey into Healing Justice
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 Good Friday Walk for Justice: Stations of the Cross  This collaborative project was created by The Center for Sustainable Justice, Healing Minnesota Stories, the Racial Justice Program of the Minnesota Council of Churches, ICOM (Interfaith Coalition on Immigration) and several Twin Cities congregations and filmed and edited by Angela Jimenez Photography. It is a creative and powerful examination of historical and current crucifixions and how we can act in solidarity with justice-love. ​https://vimeo.com/405958256
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Join us for an Advent Journey of Las Posadas as we visit several sacred sites in the Twin Cities and practice place-based story-telling. Liberation amidst desperation, justice amidst oppression, resistance and solidarity amidst seeming annihilation, these are some of the stories we hear on this Advent journey. We light the first candle of Hope at the Four Oaks and tell the story of these grandmothers. We light the second candle of peace and ask what makes for peace at the Survivors of Sexual Violence Memorial. We light the third candle and claim the joy that comes from resistance and persistence at B'dote. And we light the fourth candle and tell the story of love at George Floyd Square. To access the videos go here: Week One: https://vimeo.com/483591780​ Week Two: vimeo.com/user112322978  Week Three: ​vimeo.com/user112322978  And Week Four: vimeo.com/user112322978