Hi all - here are some resources related to the Pendle Hill conversation (last night) on the occasion of the publication of Pamphlet #500 - God Bless the Grass: Liturgies of Imperialism, Liturgies of Resistance. It was a really great experience to get to share about the pamphlet in this way. I loved seeing so many friends from all over the country join in as well. Thank you to all of you who came. Below is a list of resources and links for folks who want to do a little more follow-up or watch/re-watch/review what we did.
See my previous post about the pamphlet here and if you'd like to facilitate a reading group Pendle Hill has a great resource. Let me know if you and your faith community decide to read the pamphlet together. I'd love to hear who is reading it and if I can come for a session to meet folks/discuss questions, I'd love to.
Thanks!
Wess
From the event itself:
The video of the conversation can be found on YouTube. Please note, the video got a little cut off so you're missing about the first 5-10 minutes where we mostly listened to the song, God Bless the Grass from Seth Martin (link below).
The link to the presentation slides can be found here - Keynote Share Presentation
Resources and footnotes and some background to the pamphlet:
- Parker O'Keefe - Artist behind the cover art above "Rise Like the Sun" (Guilford College '26)
- Kairos books (Clergy, theologians, and activists from Union Theological Seminary and the Poor People's Campaign) - I owe a lot to the Kairos Center for my thinking on these issues.
- We Cry Justice - Reading the Bible with the Poor People's Campaign - https://kairoscenter.org/publication/we-cry-justice/ (two chapters from Wess on Revelation here)
- Souls of Poor Folks Audit - a study of poverty in the U.S.
- https://kairoscenter.org/projects/songs-in-the-key-of-resistance/
- https://kairoscenter.org/projects/cultural-arts/
- Seth Martin/Mountain's God Bless the Grass
- James Alison's essay: Worship in a Violent World was deeply formative for me in thinking through this subject.
- Doug Gwyn's book on the Lamb's War:
- Relevant Works and Writings from Wess
- Video from New England Yearly Meeting on "Silence as a Practice of Resistance in the Age of Attention Fracking."
- Learn as we Lead: Victims of Empire and The Great Multitude in Revelation 7
- Let’s Get Bored Together: The Practice of Silence and Resisting the Attention Economy
- Attention and Empire's Algorithms (Luke 10:25ff)
- Q&A: A Quaker Perspective about the Issues of Empire and the US
- Book: Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance