Bishops Marianne Budde of the Episcopal Chuch, and Leila Ortiz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, join Bishop LaTrelle Easterling as the first women to serve as episcopal leaders in their judicatories. In this lively conversation, the three share the joys, challenges and lessons of leadership they’ve been experiencing and how each of their distinct identities shape the way they’re living out their call. 

Guest Bios

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde serves as spiritual leader for 86 Episcopal congregations and ten Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties. She also serves as the chair of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the ministries of the Washington National Cathedral and Cathedral schools. Prior to her election as a bishop, she served for 18 years as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. She is an advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation.

Bishop Leila Michelle Ortiz is a pastor and theologian in The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and serves as the Bishop of The Metropolitan Washington D.C. Synod since September of 2019. She works alongside pastors, councils, and church members as they discern their call in the church for the sake of the world. She joined the synod staff in 2016 as Assistant to the Bishop. Ortiz is an alumna of the 2015 Lewis Fellowship, at Wesley Theological Seminary and describes herself as as a Luthercostal. Among her many interests is the impact of Latina hermeneutics on Lutheran ecclesiology. 

If you are longing to enter more fully into the uniquely bold and joyful power of transformation, don’t miss this interview with Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries. During this conversation with Bishop Easterling, he shares his wisdom from 30 years working – heart and soul –  in a community in Los Angeles that was the poorest neighborhood in the diocese which had two different pain points. At first it was primarily a community of people who were immigrants and migrants and ten years later experienced the highest concentration of gang activity . In their conversation, he shares his spiritual strategies, the importance of rolling up our sleeves to work alongside the afflicted in society’s margins, and how churches can better invite people into lives in fullness and abundance.

Guest BioFather Gregory Boyle, S.J., is a Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world, and the former pastor of Delores Mission in Los Angeles. He is the author of the 2010 New York Times bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion; Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, and his most recent publication, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, the author of Fierce Love, A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World, is the Senior Minister for Public Theology and Transformation at Middle Church in New York City. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and Fordham University, Lewis  created two national television programs: Just Faith, an on-demand television program on MSNBC.com, and Chapter and Verse at PBS. She uses her gifts and her national platform as a speaker, Presbyterian pastor and author to create a world based on a public ethic of love.

With Rev. Dr. Willie Jennings

When Bishop Easterling started talking with the Rev. Willie Jennings about some of the deepest things they know, the conversation was so rich that it couldn’t be contained in one episode. Part 1 explored how the church thinks about God, the reasons why people read hierarchies of worth into God’s creation, the potential of us working together and the powerful gifts of understanding what we receive from indigenous cultures when we re-examine our conceptualization of ownership. In this second part of the conversation explore ideas about  whiteness, home and belonging, and where the Holy Spirit may be calling the church. 

Guest Bio

The Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings, an ordained Baptist minister,  is an associate professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University. He is the author of  The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race and After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging. He is now working on a major monograph provisionally entitled Unfolding the World: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation as well as finishing a book of poetry entitled The Time of Possession.

When Bishop Easterlings started talking with the Rev. Willie Jennings about some of the deepest things they know, the conversation was so rich that it couldn’t be contained in one episode. In order for you to hear it all, it’s been divided into two parts. The first segment explores how the church thinks about God, the reasons why people read hierarchies of worth into God’s creation, the potential of us working together and the powerful gifts of understanding what we receive from indigenous cultures when we re-examine our conceptualization of ownership. Savor the richness of thought and passion inherent in this conversation at the table. And don’t forget to tune in for Part 2 when we launch Season Two of Thursdays at the Table on September 7, 2023.

Drawing on the works of philosophers who shaped this nation, Joel Goza, the author of America’s Unholy Ghosts,  provides insights into how the United States was built on intentional and destructive systems designed to promote white supremacy. He and Bishop Easterling engage in conversation on how these devastating foundations can be reversed and the role that church and people of faith might play in creating equity and justice.

Young adult voices too often go unheard in The United Methodist Church. In this episode of At the Table, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling talks with two young thought-leaders, the Rev. Dorlimar Lebrón Malavé and JJ Warren,  about  the future of the church, the true meaning of love, ideas about queerness, and the possibilities of grace.