You are invited to join an online summer book study. Details about the book and how to register here. No fee except you need to purchase your book or loan from a library.
open to anyone – bring a friend!
no fee except for purchasing your book
email acastellon55@gmail.com to join/get Zoom link
It’s summer – if you’re away and miss a session – no worries!
4-5 pm CST
3-4 pm PST
Timeline
July 4
Assigned reading to prep for the session:
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
eg. pages 11-26
Welcome, Territory Acknowledgement and Opening Prayer
Book Overview and Commentary: Adrienne Castellon
BREAKOUT #1: Share your favoUrite quote from the assigned reading
General Discussion
July 25
Assigned reading to prep for the session:
Chapter 1 (Pages 27-68)
Welcome, Territory Acknowledgement and Opening Prayer
BREAKOUT #1 (10 minutes): What resonated from the reading? Why?
Commentary: Fr. Joseph Salihu on “The Primacy of Scripture”
BREAKOUT #2 (15 minutes): Choose one or both of the following quotes to discuss:
“The Anishinaabe understood medicine power to be anything that brought healing or restored balance and harmony“ (p.33). For a long time, to survive, Indigenous peoples accepted that “white men had stronger medicine” (p. 33). This has changed recently. Comment on your understanding of this. While the Catholic perspective would highlight the primacy of Sacred Scripture (The Bible) – how might we approach/ respect the idea that the myths, stories, and spiritual traditions of the Anishinaabe should be interpreted as “our First Testament” which “Jesus came to fulfill just as surely, he did to fulfill the Jewish Testament. Our First Testament God-story must stand side by side with our Christian Old and New Testaments...” (p.53).
General Discussion
Aug 15
Assigned reading to prep for the session:
Chapter 2 (Pages 69-94)
Welcome, Territory Acknowledgement and Opening Prayer
BREAKOUT #1 (10 minutes): What resonated from the reading? Why?
Commentary: Fr. Matthew Ramsay on “My Experience of Interculturation”
BREAKOUT #2 (15 minutes): Discuss Solomon’s definition of interculturation
“Interculturation is, therefore, a faithful integration: we are Anishinaabe children of Gitchi Manitou whose Son took flesh and gave us the power of his Spirit to transform ourselves and our culture. The shadow of the cross and the glory of the Son’s resurrection takes on different shapes and colours in the light of our culture. Anishinaabe interculturation of faith is a dialogue with life, a way of being, understood in terms of the medicine wheel -the sacred circle of life. Interculturation does not endeavour to cover or conceal a Western European expression of Christianity; rather, it enriches and transforms our being … An integral part of the process of interculturation of faith thus involves healing, transformation, and reconciliation at the individual, community, and cosmic levels” (p. 91).
General Discussion
Aug 29
Assigned reading to prep for the session:
Chapter 3 (Pages 95-142)
Welcome, Territory Acknowledgement and Opening Prayer
BREAKOUT #1 (10 minutes): What resonated from the reading? Why?
Commentary: MaryAnne Morrison on “My Experience of the drum as heartbeat and dancing as prayer and healing”
BREAKOUT #2 (15 minutes):
The drum as the “heartbeat of Mother Earth” in essence the presence of God’s Spirit among the people and the Pow-Wow as a means of restoring harmony and balance in the universe. The idea of dancing as a form of prayer and healing disharmonies with others and creation.
General Discussion
Sep 19
Assigned reading to prep for the session:
Chapter 4 (Pages 143-169)
Welcome, Territory Acknowledgement and Opening Prayer
BREAKOUT #1 (10 minutes): What resonated from the reading? Why?
Commentary: Falynn Baptiste on My Experience of Traditional Ways and Historic Churches
BREAKOUT #2 (15 minutes): Choose one or both of the following quotes to discuss:
The “medicine wheel, as the sacred circle of life is the core organizing symbol of reality” and “the subconscious process of conceptualizing the thought of the Anishinaabe’ (p. 146). • “The Sacred Tree is at the centre of the medicine wheel” reflecting the understanding that “I am because we are and because of who God is, the one who creates and sustains all life, remains at the centre” (p. 147).
Sr. Solomon endeavors to build a bridge between the complex religiously polarized religious environment in many First Nation communities among those from historic churches and those who practice the traditional ways. However, the question remains, how will such a theology of interculturation be received? What do you think?
General Discussion