The Season After

In the church year, June-December is known as the Season After Pentecost. As we saw last month, the new Season of Creation has been taking shape in the global church for September. My friend Emily from New Mexico just turned me on to a new movement occurring among justice-oriented churches during the season after.

As you know, accounts of violence in the Bible, like the story of Joshua's Conquest, have perpetuated a violent Christian imagination, and have been used to theologically rationalize colonialism and genocides across the globe. But archaeological findings from the Iron Age Hebrew Highland Settlements north of Jerusalem suggest that early Israelites emerged as a peaceful, egalitarian social movement of people retreating from oppressive Bronze Age city-states. It is essential for many churches today to take responsibility for healing past harms fueled by distortion in the biblical narrative, while other churches need to heal from the harm inflicted upon them.

The book Undoing Conquest by theologian Kate Common suggests a tangible way forward for decolonial healing work, through a new justice-centered liturgical season named the Season of Origins. Origins is a four-week season focusing on the origins of the Hebrew people and biblical traditions that challenge violent conquest narratives in October, starting on the Sunday before Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Origins encompasses education, relationship-building, reparative actions, and reconciliation. Like Advent, each week centers on a theme: Invite, Name, Repair, and Imagine. In conjunction with Orange Shirt Day on September 30th, perhaps the Season of Origins in October will be the next big thing? There's a lot going on in the Season After Pentecost!

with love, Pr. Chelsea