The first biography of its kind about Desmond Tutu, this book introduces readers to Tutu's spiritual life and examines how it shaped his commitment to restorative justice and reconciliation. Desmond Tutu was a pivotal leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and remains a beloved and important emblem of peace and justice around the world. Even those who do not know the major events of Tutu’s life—receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, serving as the first black archbishop of Cape Town and primate of Southern Africa from 1986–1996, and chairing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995–1998—recognize him as a charismatic political and religious leader who helped facilitate the liberation of oppressed peoples from the ravages of colonialism. But the inner landscape of Tutu’s spirituality, the mystical grounding that spurred his outward accomplishments, often goes unseen. Rather than recount his entire life story, this book explores Tutu’s spiritual life and contemplative practices—particularly Tutu’s understanding of Ubuntu theology, which emphasizes finding one’s identity in community—and traces the powerful role they played in subverting the theological and spiritual underpinnings of apartheid. Michael Battle’s personal relationship with Tutu grants readers an inside view of how Tutu’s spiritual agency cast a vision that both upheld the demands of justice and created space to synthesize the stark differences of a diverse society. Battle also suggests that North Americans have much to learn from Tutu’s leadership model as they confront religious and political polarization in their own context.

One of the first books of its kind addressing how young adults are living in an intentional community in the Episcopal Church. Young adults (18-30) are searching for a church that demands their involvement, whether it is in mission, worship, theology, or daily life. They want a church that is relevant and offers a vision of the Divine. This book places the church in context with consumerism, freedom of choice, war and terror, and the impact of technology now dominating the worldview of young adults. Drawing upon the proven success at St. Hilda s House in New Haven, CT, this book provides stories and narratives from young adult interns, who are involved in its mission and ministry."

In the days when New York City's most populous area was below Fourteenth Street, what is today the oldest theological seminary of the Episcopal Church enrolled its first students at St. Paul's Chapel. Founded in 1817, before a decade had passed the Seminary moved to the woods and fields of Clement Clarke Moore's country estate just north of the town in Chelsea. There its stone buildings soon became a familiar landmark. The General Seminary still occupies that site, now Chelsea Square, on the lower west side. For a hundred and fifty years its life has been intimately interwoven, not only with that of the Episcopal Church, but also with the changing scene of New York City. Dr. Dawley's history of the Seminary begins with the circumstances leading to its establishment by the General Convention, and describes the experimental years of the new institution, when there were few precedents to guide the pioneering venture. Much of the subsequent story is told in biographical vignettes, giving the reader vivid glimpses of a continuing community of men, teachers and students, priests and candidates for the ministry, who strove to fulfill in their successive generations the vocation to which they were called. Chapters deal with the ministry and theological education in the early nineteenth century, old New York and its churches, the growth of the Seminary, its years of crisis and controversy, the development of the theological curriculum, and the story of the institution during the recent years of change. The theological community in Chelsea today is a landmark, not only of the long history of the Seminary, but also of the Church's determination to remain close to the inner-city that has become an urgent frontier of Christianity in the contemporary world. At a time when reform in theological education is believed to be essential to any effective program for the renewal of the Church, the experience of the past, recaptured in these pages, may be both enlightening for the present and instructive for the future.

For Christians, practicing Ubuntu means entering deeply into the compassionate, forgiving love of Gospel. As defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. The African spiritual principle of Ubuntu offers believers a new and radical way of reading the Gospel and understanding the heart of the Christian faith, and this new book explores the meaning and utility of Ubuntu as applied to Western philosophies, faith, and lifestyles. Ubuntu is an African way of seeing self-identity formed -through community. This is a difficult worldview for many Western people, who understand self as over, against, or in competition with others. In the Western viewpoint, Ubuntu becomes something to avoid—a kind of co-dependency. As a Christian leader who understands the need, intricacies, and delicate workings of global interdependency, Battle offers here both a refreshing worldview and a new perspective of self-identity for people across cultures, and of all faiths.

Get to know the first five Black women to be elected diocesan bishops within the Episcopal Church. During this moment, with the #metoo movement, Black Lives Matter, and the increased feelings of division in our country, Black women clergy in the Episcopal Church have voiced a need to come together, believing that their experiences and concerns may be very different than those of other clergy. That need is answered here in This Band of Sisterhood. The five Black women bishops featured in this book can provide a compass for how to journey along these new paths. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Carlye J. Hughes, Kimberly Lucas, Shannon MacVean-Brown, and Phoebe A. Roaf offer honest, vulnerable wisdom from their own lives that speaks to this time in American life. Both women and men will find this book invaluable in discerning how God might be calling them to use their own leadership skills.

Fireweed, always the first flower to spring up and bloom in ruins and burned-over places, is Elizabeth Geitz's metaphor for evangelism that comes from the heart. It is the motivation that makes some Christians eager to welcome the stranger and invite people into their churches, while others hang back. In this prequel to Entertaining Angels: Hospitality Programs for the Caring Church, Geitz explores this missing ingredient in Christian hospitality, reminding us that in a multi-faith world where Christians wish to honor the validity of other religious paths, we may hesitate to talk about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Her book helps both individuals and communities to understand what holds them back from evangelism and discover the path that is right for them. This book unfolds in three sections. In the first we look at the factors that inhibit our evangelism, including the awareness that we live in a pluralistic world and do not wish to offend those with other faith commitments. Geitz offers both reflection and exercises to help us discover our own motivation for evangelism. Part 2 addresses the question of context. Where does evangelism take place, and for whose benefit? To what sort of communities do we invite those to whom we reach out? Section 3 focuses on the uniqueness of Christian hospitality and describes the nuts and bolts of newcomer ministry and the programs needed to sustain Christian hospitality in a pluralistic society. It includes workshop and group process material.

A call for Christians to move past the shallows of idealized beliefs and into a deeper, more vibrant, beatitude-like faith rooted in sacred practices and intimate experiences with God. When the limits of his own faith experience left him feeling spiritually empty, Niequist determined God must have a wider vision for worship and community. In his search, Aaron discovered that there was historical Christian precedent for enacting faith in a different way, an ancient and now future way of believing. He calls this third way "practice-based faith." This book is about loving one's faith tradition and, at the same time, following the call to something deeper and richer. By adopting some new spiritual practices, it is possible to learn to swim again with a renewed sense of vigor and divine purpose.