Theosophia Podcast

The Rev. Janie Kirt Morris. Mother Janie was the 6th woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Diocese of Oklahoma.  The priesthood was a second career for Janie as she was a well respected teacher in Norman, Oklahoma for many years and a lay leader at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Janie recalls her discernment process and how she had an inner message from the Holy Spirit urging her to do more with her life. She shares the challenges of raising a family as a single mother while in seminary as well as how her various church contexts handled having a female priest. What I find most compelling about Mother Janie is her calming, strong presence and steadfast devotion to her faith and call. And you will hear that in her voice. Towards the end of the episode she shares some stories of how she ministered to families who didn’t want a female priest to be their rector and ya’ll, her faithful witness of love literally transformed people. In her retirement, Janie serves on the Board of Directors of Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma and chairs the Many Beliefs Serving Together committee. She also volunteers her time as a Spiritual Care Provider at Palomar, our Oklahoma City Family Justice Center. 

The introductory episode features a three episode mini series about the History of Women's Ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma. This oral history project helps unfold the details of the trailblazing efforts of men and women in Oklahoma to make ordained ministry a reality for the Episcopal Church in the United States.

This episode features the Rt. Rev. Robert Moody, the 4th Diocesan Bishop of Oklahoma serving from 1989-2007.  Most notably, during his Episcopate, Bishop Moody dealt with the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Murrah building bombing, supporting the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to become bishop, and increased ministry to the prisons, Native American communities, college campuses and Anglican schools and health clinics in the West Ankole Diocese of Uganda. In this first episode of the mini-series on women’s ordination in Oklahoma, we chat about his perspective on the gifts women bring to ordained ministry and what the national and local landscape of the church looked like during his episcopate. Bishop Moody also gives his insights on how the Church can stay faithful to tradition while responding to the ever changing needs of a society and community in our modern times. 

This episode features Beverly Bradley, a former Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Oklahoma who was the first woman Bishop Moody ordained to the priesthood in 1988. She was the second woman in the Diocese of Oklahoma to be ordained to the priesthood and the first woman in the Diocese to serve as Rector of a parish.In this episode, Beverly shares intimate details of her path to ordination including gaining the graces of the patriarchal authorities in her life and how she managed being a lone ranger female priest in Oklahoma when there wasn’t much support for ordained women at that time. I’m especially delighted and thankful to share Beverly’s story as we continue to unfold the history of women’s ordination in this mini-series. Her story is one of boldness and faithfulness to the Spirit’s call in her life. She is sharp, witty and truly a pioneer in the Church in Oklahoma. Thank you for your witness, Beverly.

I am so excited to share with you a lively conversation with my friend, Dr. Susannah Larry about her new book entitled “Leaving Silence: Sexualized Violence, the Bible and Standing with Survivors.” Dr. Larry is an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.  She is dedicated to reclaiming the Bible as a liberating Word to the contemporary Christian life and exposing flaws of biblical interpretations that use the text to justify sexualized violence in anyway. Content Warning - we discuss topics that are graphic and violent in nature. But this book ya’ll, is so needed in our world today. Dr. Larry tackles some tough tough passages in the Bible and teaches in such a clear, intentional and pastoral way. We get into issues of power analysis, trauma informed exegesis, gender roles, ancient contexts verses our contemporary contexts, how Jesus experienced sexualized violence and so much more. 

Our hundredth episode features the Rev. Teresa Pecinovsky. Reverend Teresa was born in South Korea, raised in Iowa, holds a master of education from the university of Houston and a master of divinity from Vanderbilt university. She’s an ordained disciples of christ minister and currently serves as a hospice chaplain, preacher and children’s minister. We chat about her upcoming children’s picture book called Mother God illustrated by the incredible artist Khoa Le. With lyrical, rhyming text and exquisite illustrations, Mother God introduces readers to a dozen images of God inspired by feminine descriptions from Scripture. Children and adults alike will be in awe of the God who made them as they come to know her as a creative seamstress, generous baker, fierce mother bear, protective mother hen, strong woman in labor, nurturing nursing mother, wise grandmother, and comforting singer of lullabies.Pre-order the book at  tkpcreates.com or https://www.beamingbooks.com/store/product/9781506479019/Mother-God. Follow Teresa on instagram and twitter @tkpcreates

The Rev. Katie is the Staff Officer for Church Planting at Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s office. She founded The Abbey, a missional worship community based in a coffee shop in Birmingham, Alabama. There she served many folks on the margins including folks experiencing homelessness, mental illness, addiction and many more. In our conversation, the Rev. Katie and I explore the ups and downs of church planting. She explains the difficult balance of creating sustainable community while also being a business enterprise, how covid is breaking down the Church’s idolatry of the Eucharist and how good Church is not fast, easy or cheap! 

Sara and Sarah chat about stewardship and parenting during covid-tide.  Sara explains how her family of five are caring for one another and being extra thoughtful about how they are spending their time in their small town Tennessee life.  We are keeping all our friends and family who are navigating these hard times in our prayers.  Parents, teachers, administrators ya’ll are doing the lord’s work out there and we appreciate you.  We hope this episode gives some guidance and framework for thinking about how to create a healthy family dynamic by centering our lives in, on and through God’s Love.

This week’s podcast features a very inspiring lay leader in Sarah's community of Oklahoma City, Ann Ali or as some folks in her call her in her community, “Rev” Ann Ali.  Ann and Sarah chat about her life and service to her community and country as a police officer, army reservist, pastor and teacher.  They also discuss what god is calling us to during this time of corona virus.  Ann is full of cultural and familial wisdom antidotes and speaks of a faith that moves mountains and restores weary souls to their Maker.  Ann is an agent of change and seeks to share the love of god to all those she meets especially those on the margins she works with in homeless outreach as an Episcopal lay leader in her home church of St. Augustine’s Oklahoma City.

Happy Pride Month! In celebration of the rich, beautiful, diversity God created in LGBTQ folks we wanted to share this episode on ethical non-monogamy! Sara and Sarah chat about their experiences with ethical-non monogamy.  They explore the theological and practical expressions of this relational practice as they de-mystify its use in the world.  They hope you all find this helpful as you navigate your own relationships and relational ethics.  

This episode is a two part combined episode of a conversation around Nadia Bolz-Weber’s latest book entitled “Shameless - A Case for not feeling bad about feeling good, about sex.” The first part our co-host from last season, Kelsey Davis joins Sara and I for an Instagram Live session about the first half of the book.  The second part is just the Sara’s talking about the second half of the book and what stood out most to us and how we could use the book practically in our contexts. 

Sarah explores what it means for mothers to image the Divine and how we can practically relate to God as Mother as we honor all mother figures today.  The music before the sermon is Grace Church Episcopal Yukon’s amazing praise band’s rendition of This is My Mother’s World.

Kate McElwee is the Executive Director who works from Rome Itay and Katie Lacz is the Program Associate who works from Denver, Colorado. The Women’s Ordination Conference is the uncompromising feminist voice for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church since 1975.   The Conference has been championed and ran by some incredible women in theology including theologians Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Mary Hunt and Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz to name just a few.Sarah's conversation with Kate and Katie explores the meaning of Catholicism in their lives and how the Conference provides support and valuable ministry to women who feel called to the priesthood.  In the second part of this episode, Sara and Sarah digest her conversation with their Catholic friends and how much they admire their strength, tenacity and fiery spirits.  

Yadenee is a playful and fierce scout for the oracles of ease, wholeness, and liberation. Her practice and ministry are to cultivate spiritual wellness and healing as a lifestyle. She is a Unitarian Universalist minister based in Tulsa, OK.  The first half of the episode is Sara and Yadenee chat about her pilgrimage to India and how space/place impact our spiritual lives.  In the second half of the episode, Sara and Sarah digest Yadenee's wisdom and reflect on how her wisdom shows up in their current life situations especially in the aftermath of the Nashville tornado.

To kick off Season 3 of the podcast Sarah interviews her new host, the Rev. Sara Green.  Sara is a Unitarian Universalist minister as well as the youth and young adult of color ministry associate for the UU Association. Sarah and Sara chat about Sara's path to ordination in the UU tradition and what exactly UU theology is all about and how her questions have shaped her life in pursuit of liberation, healing and covenantal relationships.

Margaret Ernst learned what she knows about faith and justice from organizing alongside clergy, school parents and airport workers in Philadelphia and has organized alongside immigrant communities resisting ICE in mid-Tennessee. A program manager with Faith Matters Network, she has helped build a curriculum on Movement Chaplaincy through Faith Matters Network's Daring Compassion Project under the leadership of Micky Scottbey Jones and Hilary Allen. Margaret lived for the past 4 years in Nashville, TN and recently moved back to Philadelphia. There she continues her work with Faith Matters Network, and has joined the pastoral team at Chestnut Hill United Church. As of this Saturday, she is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She loves to sing and laugh at all costs. More background and updates on Faith Matters Network's Daring Compassion project can be found at: https://www.faithmattersnetwork.org/daringcompassion, including a link to download a guide Margaret created for movement chaplains to provide care for communities responding to white supremacist hate rallies. 

Mother Ruth tells the story of how her multi-cultural community came together with all it’s ups and downs.  Holy Family is a mixed congregation of Anglo, Hispanic and Filipino folks from all over the San Jose and surrounding areas.  I had the privilege of worshipping with them this Easter and I can tell ya’ll from first hand experience, this is what the Kingdom of God looks like on earth.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  It is the Beloved community.  Thank you so much Mother Ruth for sharing your heart and wisdom and what thoughtful leadership looks like in holding together God’s diversity in a community.  You are such an example of how the church can and I think how the church should combine cultures and identities together in the one christian identity but at the same time honor their differences and particularities.  Such important work for the church.  

Mother Ruth is the first female priest at Holy Family Episcopal Church, San Jose, CA.  Holy Family is a multicultural and multigenerational community whose mission is to celebrate God through Jesus Christ. She is also a native of the Philippines.  Mother Ruth and I met when I was in California visiting our co-host Kelsey Davis.  Kelsey was giving the Easter homily at Holy Family as Mother Ruth presided over the celebration.  We got to chat for a good half hour before the service and I was captivated by her story and immediately asked her to be on the podcast.  So we are thrilled to share this interview with you all.  Mother Ruth is an incredible woman and one of the most delightful people I’ve ever met.In episode, we chat about her journey to the US working in ministry,  how she transitioned from the United Methodist Church to the Episcopal Church and what her experience has been like in ministry as a woman of color.A Note from Ruth: US embassy in the Philippines was not removed but instead they removed the USCIS.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1000-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, writer, theologian and fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQ equality. Middle Church and Jacqui’s activism for these issues has been featured in media such as The Today Show, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New Yorker, Essence and The Huffington Post. Jacqui is a frequent contributor to MSNBC. Jacqui earned her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and earned a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University. She has been adjunct professor at seminaries across the country, including Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, and the Graduate Theological Union.   Mama Jacqui is nothing short of a super woman theologian and we are so so thankful she took the time to be with us at Wild Goose Festival this year!  We cover a lot of ground in this episode.  We chat about her incredible multi-cultural church in New York, how the center of faith is Love, and all the way to deep theological conversations about why Jesus didn’t need to die.  

This week we are sharing Sarah's latest sermon.  It was her first Sunday morning sermon at her home church of Grace Episcopal in Yukon, Oklahoma led by the wonderful priests Fr. Tim & Mother Kirsten Baer and Deacon Helen.  She took a pastoral approach to the text instead of a strictly theological one.  This means she was meeting the people where they are at and offering a personal story to relate to the congregation.  She wasn’t coming at the text with a teaching head but rather a coming at it with a heart of love and compassion.  These two aren’t necessarily opposites but it does matter how you approach a text when you are interpreting it to make a message to a community. In the Episcopal tradition, we develop sermons around the gospel reading for that particular day in the calendar and last Sunday’s reading was Luke 11: 1-13.