New Heaven, New Earth: Anarchism and Christianity Beyond Empire
August 14 & 15, 2009
Location
Caritas Village
2509 Harvard Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38112
Updated August 1, 2009
Layla AbdelRahim
Layla AbdelRahim grew up in different languages and cultures and in a variety of social and natural environments that spanned five continents. Her experience and occupations are just as multi-varied: journalism of war and international so-called development in North East Africa, anthropologist in Europe, wanderer, researcher and university lecturer, writer, and most important, an unschooling mother. In the last decade, she has been synthesizing these experiences and perspectives in critical essays on the domestication of parenthood and childhood as well as working on a doctoral dissertation on knowledge in children’s books from an anti-authoritarian perspective while keeping a travelogue and a blog on learning matters.
Session: A Lullaby for the Planet: Undressing Ourselves for a Viable Parenthood
Jeannie Alexander
Jeannie Alexander, co-founder of Amos House–a homeless Catholic Worker community in Nashville), pastor, homeless outreach worker, ex-lawyer, Christian anarchist and Catholic, hangs out in tent cities and monasteries, and can be found most days roaming the streets of Nashville looking for Jesus.
Session: Revealing the Kingdom in the Midst of Empire: Reimagining Citizenship, Reimagining Economics.
Eric Anglada
Eric Anglada has been a member of the Catholic Worker movement for the past six years. He currently lives on the New Hope Catholic Worker Farm outside of Dubuque, Iowa where they have created an educational project in the spirit of Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin’s idea of an “agronomic university.” He has attended all but one Jesus Radicals conference.
Session: Anarchism and Christianity Primer
Brenna Cussen
Brenna Cussen is a current member of the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, MA, and a former member of the Catholic Worker in South Bend, IN. A Catholic anarchist, she is working toward cultivating Peter Maurin’s vision of sustainable living. Brenna has traveled several times to Palestine/Israel and once to Darfur, Sudan with nonviolent peace teams. She also coordinated work at the Catholic Peace Fellowship, supporting conscientious objectors to war. She holds an MA in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Session: Anarchism and Christianity Primer
Gene Davenport
Gene L. Davenport is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Lambuth University, Jackson, Tennessee, and Theologian in Residence at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Jackson. As a young pastor, he was targeted by the Ku Kulx Klan. In addition to being a professor he currently serves on Tennessee’s Holocaust Commission and is a columnist for the Jackson Sun. Gene is also an Ellul scholar and has done extensive study on the biblical theme of jubilee. He is also the author of several books including Into the Darkness: Discipleship According to the Sermon on the Mount, Powers and Principalities, and Though the Mountains Tremble.
Session: Revealing the Kingdom in the Midst of Empire: Reimagining Citizenship, Reimagining Economics.
Eileen Fleming
Eileen Fleming has traveled to Israel and the Occupied Territories seven times since 2005 in an effort to end the military occupation of Palestinian land. She attributes this, her life work, to her faith in the nonviolent Jesus, who wept – and still weeps – over Jerusalem. Eileen is the author and founder of the website, www.wearewideawake.org, producer of “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu,” and author of Keep Hope Alive and Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory. She is also a feature correspondent for “The Palestine Telegraph” and “Arabisto.”
Session: Nonviolence in the Holy Land: A spiritual journey and nonviolent political odyssey from the Middle East to the USA
Ethan Hughes
Ethan Hughes lives in an intentional community, The Possibility Alliance, outside of La Plata, Missouri. There they live on 80 acres, with no electricity or fossil fuels. Ethan has committed to traveling only by walking, biking or public transportation. Their community is dedicated to activism, radical simplicity, permaculture/organic gardening, joy and seeking God’s will. Ethan taught for five years at the Aprovecho Research Center in Oregon. And he often likes to do random service dressed up as a Superhero.
Session: How to Transform the Industrial Military Corporate Complex in 24 Hours or Less: A Practical Approach to Creating a Nonviolent Society from the Bottom Up
(Rev.) Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a priest of the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church. He has served as either a teacher, spiritual director or acting rector during this 27 years at St. Gregory the Theologian Byzantine Melkite Catholic Seminary in Massachusetts. Formerly a lawyer and a university educator, he founded The Program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution at the University of Notre Dame and was the program’s original director. He also co-founded of Pax Christi-USA and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of peace. McCarthy has directed educational programs and conducted spiritual retreats throughout the world on the issue of the relationship of faith and violence. He was the keynote speaker for the 25th anniversary memorial of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King died. He is the author of Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit and All Things Flee Thee, For Thou Fleest Me!, and has written numerous articles on violence and religion.
Session: Christian Anarchism and Emunah (Trust)
Ewuare Osayande
Ewuare Osayande is an award-winning author, poet and political activist. Rooted in the Biblical prophetic tradition, his word and work speaks truth to power and seeks justice on behalf of the oppressed. His faith is guided by the lived experience of enslaved Africans and Black abolitionists that believed resistance to oppression is obedience to God. From 1996 to 2002, Osayande facilitated Healing the Wounds of Racism, a project of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2002, he co-founded POWER (People Organized Working to Eradicate Racism) and has since facilitated workshops at churches, schools and community centers throughout the United States. A dynamic lecturer on race, class, gender, culture, and religion, he has spoken at over 500 different educational, religious and community centers across the country. In April 2005, Osayande was a keynote speaker at the Damascus Road Anti-Racism 10th Anniversary Conference for the Mennonite Church. He is the author of several books including Are White Christians Anti-Racist, or Do They Just Want to be Forgiven? and Misogyny & the Emcee: Sex, Race & Hip Hop. His work is also featured in several anthologies, including The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.
Session: Jesus and the Money Changers: Rioting Against the Economic Crisis
Lee Van Ham
Since 1999, Lee Van Ham has worked with Jubilee Economics Ministries to connect an economics of abundance (enough for all) with spirituality. He has written several booklets on this topic, including Portfolio Prophets: Investing in a Jubilee Economy; The Rich-Poor Gap Turned Upside Down: Reflection on Lazarus and the rich man story in Luke 16; Reading the Bible Economically; and Inviting the Sabbath-Jubilee to Shape Your Congregation’s Practices. His writing and teaching are motivated by the current events in ecology and economics, which he sees as part of the social shift from empire to community, especially community with all of creation. Lee has pastored three Presbyterian churches in Chicago and Nebraska. He and his spouse, Juanita, an artist, have grown children, three grandchildren. After living in the Peaceweavings Community in Chicago, they now live near San Diego. They love being in nature, tent-camping, hiking, listening to music, dancing, bicycling, art, and coffeehouses.
Session: Seeing What Greenspan Couldn’t: A New, Partnership Economy
John Zerzan
John Zerzan is an anarchist and philosopher whose critique of civilization and call for a non-domesticated form of life has been described as ‘primitivist.’ Zerzan has analyzed agricultural and industrial society in detail and has drawn on anthropological research on prehistoric and other ‘primitive’ societies in describing egalitarian and non-alienated ways of communal life. Zerzan has contributed to anarchist theory for decades, especially on topics of ecology, anti-technology, post-leftism and postmodernity. He is the author of several books, including Against Civilization, Running On Emptiness and Twilight of the Machines. He has also served as editor of Green Anarchy: A Journal of Anti-Civilization Theory and Practice since 2001.
Session: Anarcho-Primitivism versus a Darkening Reality
