Sara Miles will be our preacher at the opening Eucharist. She is the founder of St. Gregory’s food pantry, and lives in San Francisco with her family. The Food Pantry was founded by Sara Miles in 2000. It currently provides free groceries to over 450 hungry families every week, around the altar at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
Sara authored Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. The story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert, Take This Bread is not only a spiritual memoir but a call to action. Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and writer. Then early one morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. "I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian," she writes. "Or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut." But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed....
Sara will also join us Friday morning on a panel with our other speaker, Samuel Torvend. Later on Friday, she will lead a workshop about St. Gregory’s.
Samuel Torvend will be our speaker on Thursday morning and will join Sara Miles on a panel Friday morning. He is Associate Professor of European Religious History and Associate Director, Center for Religion, Cultures, and Society in the Western United States.at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA). He has served as adjunct professor of Liturgical Studies in the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University and St. Mary's University (Winona, MN). As a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Dr. Torvend has served on the Liturgy and Social Justice Study Group. He holds the Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, M.A. (Aquinas Institute of Theology), and M.Div. (Wartburg Seminary). He was the first editor of Sundays and Seasons, Welcome Home, and the catechumenal resources, Welcome to Christ. He currently participates in PLU's Lilly Foundation Wild Hope Project and the Center for Religion, Cultures, and Society in the Western United States. He has authored the following books: Daily Bread, Holy Meal: Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion 2004; Luther and the Hungry Poor: Gathered Fragments 2008.
Sandra Wasko Flood will set-up a labyrinth in Terry Center in Baumhart Hall for use by participants, as well as conduct a workshop on labyrinths. She has studied at University of California, Los Angeles, Museo de Arte Moderno in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and graduate work at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Although an accomplished artist in many genres, labyrinths are now part of her life’s mission. She recently designed a labyrinth meditation wheel for the Potomac hospital in Woodbridge, VA. She is currently painting canvas and playground labyrinths with children in the DC schools. As a founding member of the labyrinth Society, she directed its inaugural traveling show “Labyrinths for Peace 2000” – which was first exhibited in the Cannon Rotunda of the House of Representatives, Washington DC.
Kim and Reggie Harris will be our musicians-in-residence and provide our worship music and present a workshop.
Located in upstate New York, Kim and Reggie have performed original contemporary folk music and traditional African-American Spiritual and Freedom Songs in congregations, schools, and entertainment venues for almost 30 years. Over the course of their career they have recorded over 8 CDs – the most recent “Get on Board” Vol. 2 which features Underground Railroad and Civil Rights Freedom Songs. As singers, songwriters, storytellers, educators, historical interpreters, and cultural advocates, they have used their remarkable voices and their unique talents to bring new insights to their audiences. Kim has most recently earned a M. Div. from union Theological Seminary and when not touring, Reggie coaches girl’s varsity basketball.
Larry Clark: information will be available soon!
