Bartcast

Mauricio and Ched got together in August 2020 for a CLBSJ Scholar-Activist Encounter and discussed their work to create capacity for movement-building through arts, documentation and scholarship, and the way this work has shaped and been shaped by their faith.

Mauricio is a BCM friend and Partner, former intern and is currently an Assistant Arts Professor of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Occasionally we feature guest voices on our Bartcast. We are pleased to introduce you to Mark Pestak from Cleveland. Mark is a longtime participant in Bible study at the Catholic Worker there, which along with the Los Angeles house, is exemplary in the Catholic Worker movement for its devotion to scripture study. This is a community Ched has visited many times, and co-founder Mike Fiala has been very supportive of our Bartimaeus Institute since its beginnings, often sponsoring his community members to attend.

Mark Pestak, a physicist, delivered this fine homily on Jeremiah Ch. 19 and 21 on Father’s Day 2020. His Community of St Peter is a Roman Catholic church excommunicated for its refusal to disband during massive closings of Roman Catholic churches in Cleveland by the Bishop over ten years ago. Ched had the pleasure of staying with Mark and his family during a visit to Cleveland in October 2000 to work with the Interreligious Task Force on Central America. Thanks to Mark for his permission to share this reflection, which we hope you’ll enjoy.

On Summer Solstice 2020 Elaine & Ched led an online liturgy for our local Farm Church. As it was also Father’s Day and Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, we had a conversation with our friends and colleagues Harry and Germaine Lafond from the Muskeg Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan. The Lafonds talked about the importance of the Sundance among Plains peoples, and their own indigenized Catholic faith.

Photo: Germaine and Harry pictured at the 2020 BKI.

On the Thursday morning of the BKI2020, Ched looked 'haunting' as it relates secrecy, lies and 'myths of innocence' plaguing our settler histories, and compares this to Jesus' diagnosis of, and unmasking of 'unclean spirits', both political (Mark 5) and personal (Mark 9). He looks further at Luke 11 (v24-26) and the twin healing stories in Mark (8:22-25 and 10:46-52) which speak to the complex healing and 'strong medicine' required in the journey of decolonization .

On the Wednesday morning of the 2020 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute: Unsettling Histories | Decolonizing Discipleship | hukišunuškuy, Elaine again set the scene for the day's work by looking at the place where her ancestors came to and their complicity in the impacts on people of the not-vacant land, but a land under siege by government programs to drive the indigenous inhabitants (Cree) off the land. Ched contrasts this with the story of the settlement of the area around the Ventura River Watershed.

Image: Young Chippewayan First Nation hereditary chief George Kingfisher raises the Treaty 6 flag at Mennonite Central Committee board member Ray Funk’s farm (left) near Stoney Knoll, SK during the Spruce River Folk Fest

On the Tuesday morning of the 2020 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute: Unsettling Histories | Decolonizing Discipleship | hukišunuškuy, the day's work was framed by Elaine as she told of her family's history, their former home places and the circumstances of their leaving Europe.

On the Tuesday morning of the 2020 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute: Unsettling Histories | Decolonizing Discipleship | hukišunuškuy, Ched looked at 1 Kings 21 and Naboth's nahala.

On the opening night of the 2020 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute: Unsettling Histories | Decolonizing Discipleship | hukišunuškuy, Elaine and Ched set the scene with the presentation "The Nightmares of Sleeping Dogs"

At the 2019 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute, June Lorenzo (Laguna Pueblo and Dene) presented an overview of the process, creation and the contents of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. June is a lawyer and a member of, and in house attorney for, the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. She is a member of the Laguna Presbyterian church, where she is an elder and currently the Clerk of Session.

Elaine recently recorded some reflections on her work in Restorative Justice and life in the United States, over the last thirty years. The text of this reflection is also available here: www.bcm-net.org/programs/restorative-justice