Sociologist and Critical Race Theorist, Nikki Blak & Cultural Anthropologist and Theologian, EbonyJanice have joined forces, once again, to bring to you all the blackity black woman truth and perspective on the divine.

It is commonly assumed that Jesus had 12 male disciples, the number being fashioned after the 12 tribes of Israel. Whether or not there were 12 tribes named after 12 men is a question for next week. The question for today is: did Jesus have women disciples, and who were they?

As suggested by the title, the book takes a progressive approach to religion, seeing the critical biblical analysis of the past 200 years and the discoveries of science as friends rather than enemies in the ongoing quest for truth.

Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder and Rev. Deshna Charron Shine discuss what makes a healthy and thriving church community, how to continually feel nourished by the teachings of Jesus, and how our beliefs inform our actions.

Ignorance will never be defeated with judgment.

Oh yes, I meditate. I have genuflected and even made the sign of the cross on occasion.  But, I wonder, do these salutations assure me of clear Divinity or not? I would call these functionary activities some semblance of being one with Spirit!

I’ve been introducing scripture passages this way from the pulpit for decades.  At first I was a bit nervous about speaking my mind in such an unambiguous fashion.  But when I discovered that hardly any parishioners blinked, I lost my trepidation. 

“Those now last will be first, and those now first will be last.”

Let me just be honest and say that this was hard for me to read, if not a bit repugnant as it goes against everything I have come to understand about Jesus as an open and inclusive teacher who frequently transgressed conventional norms that were exclusionary.

After his daughter’s murder, a grieving father confronts God with desperate questions — and finds unexpected answers — in this riveting and deeply moving #1 NYT bestseller.

In “ZeroTheology”, John Tucker argues that not only can one be a Christian without holding any traditional beliefs but that one can only be a Christian by getting out of religious belief altogether.

The Cosmic Christ existed at the beginning of time, billions of years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. Watch as Rev. Salvatore Sapienza, pastor of Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ, talks about the “Universal Christ” and the “Spirit of the Cosmos.”

Uncertainty is the essence of the human condition, and nothing is more uncertain than God. Yet passions run hot when it comes to God, both among believers and non-believers.

Jesus saw him in his lostness – alone in that tree. He looked past all the judgements and self-imposed values the people of Jericho were heaping on Zaccheus and he saw him as a lost human being, fully deserving of love. And in that he saw that Zaccheus, just as each one of us, possessed uncommon value.

Sermon at Peace of Christ Church, August 25, 2019 – “Give the Sabbath” – Rev. Aurelia Davila Pratt

In his book Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, Fox set out to find a way for today’s spiritual seekers to understand Aquinas whose works, set in a scholastic mode of learning, often prove difficult for contemporary minds to cipher.

Sermon at Peace of Christ Church, September 9, 2018 – “God as She: Why it Matters” – Rev. Aurelia Davila Pratt

Because I identify as a [Hip Hop] Womanist, I have sacred text that has not been historically acknowledged as “Sacred Text;” but it is my work to talk about the ethics of excluding these texts from a conversation on what is sacred, holy, worthy, or right.

Sermon at Peace of Christ Church, February 11, 2018 – “Beautiful Heretics: The Survivors” – Rev. Aurelia Davila Pratt