Episcopal community were going to hear about. Youre not from here. Im interested how you got from the deep south to bay area. Please introduce yourself and welcome. Thank you so much its a great pleasure to be with you. Well, you know, when i speak to groups here in the bay area, sometimes i ask how many are born here like you. Or even right here in San Francisco. Theres usually two or three people in the room. Then i go on to make the point, everybody including the ones born here have chosen to stay here or come here. This is a place people very deliberately choose. For big, big reasons that have to do with aspirations of freedom, ability to innovate and bring all their powers of creativity to bear. So i think thats important as we think about who we are and why were doing what were doing here in the bay area. Sheila and i, my wife and i, came from alabama. I was the bishop like the Lieutenant Governor of diocese of alabama which is most the state of alabama. I was elected. We elect a
Helpful to understand our tenants of the church. And we had the scholar greg burke west with this. Thank you for coming here from sacramento and for making the effort to be here. If i wanted to be part of a methodist church, and i know that many of the churches do not like the denominational names and what does it mean to be at united . What it means to be a United Methodist is consistent with what much of culture and society is looking for. We try to hold together the personal spirituality and we believe that many of us are looking for ways to grow within our spirit and our faith. And in secular terms we talk about selfhelp, personal growth. But in spiritual terms, it is better understanding the relationship with humanity, the divine and the influence. There are tons of people in society and culture asking for that similar spiritual question. Alongside of this we realize that is not enough, that we are looking for more. We also have a strong tradition of being active socially, and soc
Opens the arm to embrace us. Breeze praise be to you, my lord. And he says, the sister, the earth, cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by irresponsible use and abuse. And it is a call to renew the earth and make that a religious calling. A beautiful wonderful first sermon first big deal encyclical from pope francis. Ron, how about you . I think when you talk about pope francis let me also add i think of a quote from dr. Martin luther king jr. When he said that religion that does not concerned only for the souls of people, but not for the political social Economic Conditions that strangled the soul that drives religion i think some of our stories interfaced with some of the political social issues of our time. Pope francis along with the environment that he came to america you first came to cuba. And then he came to america to address washington and the congress. He was also in new york and philadelphia. And mention him because, in that speech, the joint session
Descriptive conclusions to share with us. Well, i have always been prompted or provoked to look into the past because of contemporary circumstances. Sometimes consciously sometimes not. In my recent work, it has been motivated or at least in large part stimulated by some rather cream infants that the world is going through in the last 20 years or more. You can read about it in any newspaper. Im the only one reading the newspaper everyone else was reading on my pants iphones or other instruments. Type in particularly concerned with ethnic conflicts that our Company Country has been wrapped up in. People think about the syrups and muslims and kurds, lebanon, a whole range of conflict conflicts, it goes on and on. Some of that is punctuated by or aggravated by negative stereotyping. 18 and 19 of the other, a demonizing of the other who is inferior and instructional objectionable. Needs to be dealt with. This is a plague that has been around for quite some time and we have been increasingl
The world who came and spoke in the service i dont think we cared, it was four hours. It was great words and music contribute to this great theme. He is probably in florence for a century. Today its a privilege to have as a guest that we had as a guest years ago the presiding pastor at the church with the fellowship of people where doctor Howard Thurman was cofounder. Great to have you. Its great to be on your program. Reverend doctor dorothy play. You have done so many things. What you doing now . I am serving as a visiting associate professor of pastoral leadership and social change at the school of religion, my alma mater. I started the semester teaching one class each semester. Will teach more. I will also be advising students. This comes after nine years basically at stark king. When i looked you up, i thought he resign. And now one of the courses they have again, the first course is spirituality and nonviolent social transformation. Gandhi, king and the day. You see the influence