Radical Generosity – Giving and the Church

(12+)

with Elliot Gunn

We need to talk about how our money and our faith interact – because when we don’t, we risk inheriting oppressive attitudes towards both! We’ll begin with a whirlwind tour through the history of tithing as a part of Christian discipleship. We’ll look at creative ways to talk about money and build church communities around biblical principles like jubilee and koinonia. You’ll be asked to consider the role that your personal finances play in forming communities of radical generosity and embodied grace.

about the facilitator

Elliot runs Faith & Big Ideas, a Bible study group through the Student Christian Movement Canada & First Lutheran Toronto, that provides intensive peer-led conversations that focus on existentially overwhelming questions in our spiritual journeys. He loves engaging with big questions and messy ideas through conversation grounded in Christ. He works in tech and enjoys nerding out about all things money.

Climate Grief

(13+)

with Anna Bigland-Pritchard

Participants can expect to create a container to uncover inner resources for coping with climate grief, and more safely explore our feelings about the climate crisis. Participants can expect an expressive arts approach, which can include movement, music, visual art, and writing. No experience with those mediums is necessary to participate.

about the facilitator

Deeply resourced by studies in expressive arts therapy, as well as extensive classical music and community leadership training, Anna uses a mindful, earth-centred practice of art-making to help others to feel supported through the joys and challenges of life. Anna believes art must be activism, true self-care and community-care are an act of bold resistance, and that the expressive arts are a tool for both self-care and social change.

Playing the Holy Fool

(12+)

with Mäki Ashe Van Steenwyk

Within Christianity there is a strange subset of the prophet called the “Holy Fool.” Holy Fools defy social convention in both word and action–sometimes in bizarre ways–out of their religious devotion. In this workshop, we will engage this “archetype” of the Holy Fool. We learn about specific historical examples, spend time in spiritual practice, and explore ways of allowing the Holy Fool to shape our praxis in the world.

about the facilitator

Mäki Ashe Van Steenwyk (they/them) is a writer, teacher, organizer, and spiritual director. For nearly 15 years, they have sown seeds of subversive spirituality throughout North America. Ashe is is the Executive Director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination in Minneapolis. They co-founded the Mennonite Worker in Minneapolis in 2004 with their spouse Amy. Ashe is the author of That Holy Anarchist, unKingdom, and A Wolf at the Gate.

Housing Justice and Multi-Tenant Co-operatives – Past and Future

with Tristan Laing

The Student Christian Movement (SCM) played a crucial role in the founding of the Student Co-operative movement in the 1930s. How did the values of SCM become central to this part of the Co-op movement? How has that movement evolved to become a means of providing affordable and community-oriented housing across the continent, to both students and non-students? In an age of $2000+ one bedroom rents in Toronto is it time for a return to multi-tenant co-operative housing – not just for students this time?

about the facilitator

Tristan (he/him) first attended a meeting of SCM after his research on Student Co-op History led him to discover the important role the SCM had played in starting the Student Co-op movement. Tristan’s main focus is on supporting and creating multi-tenant housing co-operatives that are organized democratically and contain elements of intentional community. He is involved with North American Students of Co-operation and he is a co-founder of HOUSE (Housing Ontario Students Equitably), a non-profit startup aiming to build co-operative housing for students and youth around Ontario Universities.

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