Radical Incarnation | St. Columba's

RADICAL

INCARNATION

Ecological Discipleship
for
Radical Times

AVAILABLE TO VIEW

An In-Person Retreat at St. Columba's Inverness

from June 24 — 26, 2022

with

The Right Reverend Dr. Marc Handley Andrus
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California

Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr.

Founder of Green The Church, Oakland, CA

Father Vincent Pizzuto, Ph.D.
Vicar of St. Columba's Church & Retreat House

and

Sheila Moore Andrus, Ph.D.
Environmental Scientist

The Christian doctrine of Incarnation affirms that in Jesus of Nazareth the eternal God is present not only alongside creation, but as creation. Without diminishing the significance of Jesus’ humanity, a number of insights from scripture and tradition insist on a more radical understanding of Christ who “is all and is in all” (Col. 3:11). “Radical Incarnation” then (from the Latin radix, root), implies a comprehensive embodiment of God extending to the deepest roots of the material universe. Our vicar, Fr. Vincent Pizzuto, and the St. Columba’s Council for Ecological Discipleship invite you to view sessions from our In-Person Retreat from Friday, June 24 through Saturday, June 26 with Bishop Marc Andrus (Diocese of California),The Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll (Founder of Green The Church) and Sheila Moore Andrus, PhD, on Radical Incarnation designed for Christian contemplatives who seek to deepen their understanding of climate and racial justice in our world today.

Through our conferences, outdoor meditations, communal gatherings, and a Sunday celebration of our Celtic Rite Eucharist, we will explored the theme of ecological discipleship grounded in the scriptural, theological, and spiritual wisdom of the Christian contemplative tradition. Each of our conferences delivered by various speakers examined the Four R’s of our mission and ministry:

Refugio: offering respite in a place of beauty, deep listening, and practices of stillness that allow for renewal and inspiration;

Resources: an exploration of contemplative, educational, and advocacy-based resources to assist in keeping retreatants informed, connected, supported and encouraged;

Resilience: engaging contemplative practice, personal action, and community collaboration that will help in building spiritual, personal, and collective responsiveness to the climate crisis;

Resistance: learning from methods of peaceful resistance against oppressive social structures embraced by marginalized people and how we might learn from these practices in resisting corporate greed, social apathy, and a lack of political will to address the climate crisis.

The Right Reverend Dr. Marc Handley Andrus is the 8th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California. Before coming to California in 2006, Bishop Marc served as Bishop Suffragan in Alabama. Raised among the hills and rivers of East Tennessee, Bishop Marc developed an early love for the beauty of the Earth and heard a call to help protect it. Bishop Marc’s activism centers on race, environmental justice, gender equity and immigrant rights. Since 2015 Marc has led the Episcopal delegation to the United Nations climate summits. Bishop Marc is the author of the critically-acclaimed book, Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. He is also the co-author of the award-winning publication, Stations of the Cosmic Christ, which he wrote with the Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox, activist and theologian. Bishop Marc lives in San Francisco with his wife, Dr. Sheila Andrus.

Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll, Sr. is one of the nation’s premiere Practical Theologians. He has been converted and has been in the Gospel Ministry for over 30 years. At present, he is the proud pastor of “The Renewal Worship Christian Church, in Oakland CA. and the founder of Green The Church, which is a national environmental organization for the Black Church Worldwide. Dr. Carroll is also the Co-Founder of the Coalition for Environmental Equity and Economics which is a grassroots organization attempting to save Net Metering and Roof Top Solar in California and also was appointed last year by Administrator Michael Regain to sit on the NEJAC (National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A 1987 graduate of Oakland High School and a 1991 graduate of Florida Memorial University in Miami, Ambrose now holds Theological degrees from Morehouse School of Religion in Atlanta GA, and United Theological Seminary in Dayton Ohio, along with a Master of Business Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco CA.

Father Vincent Pizzuto, Ph.D. is Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. He received his doctorate in New Testament Exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2003) and has since published and presented internationally in the areas of New Testament christology, ecological discipleship, marriage equality, inter-religious dialogue, Christian mysticism and contemplative Christian spirituality. In 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life with Liturgical Press; translated in Spanish, Contemplar a Cristo: Los Evangelios y la vida interior, (Desclée de Brouwer) in January 2022. As an Episcopal priest Fr. Vincent serves as Vicar of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House in Inverness, California. Working for the advancement of contemplative Christianity, he has reinvigorated the mission and ministry of St. Columba’s through the introduction of contemplative eucharistic liturgies, public lectures, online courses, directed retreats, thought provoking sermons, an online blog and a weekly online study of his book through the Meditation Chapel.

Sheila Moore Andrus, Ph.D. has a dedicated career as an environmental scientist, science manager and educator with a focus on global health, climate change and sustainable development. While leading research for the USDA Forest Service from 1987-2002, Dr. Andrus also led agency international collaboration. In that role, she facilitated partnerships to address nonnative invasive species, transboundary environmental problems, and ecosystem management practices. Sheila carried her deepening appreciation of the principles for sustainable development into her work in global and environmental health research and capacity building (2002-2011) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Sparkman Center for Global Health and the University of California San Francisco’s Global Health Program. She is an active lay person in the Episcopal Church, participating in conferences on climate change and served as an Episcopal Church delegate to the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change, 2015-2018.