Exploring the Simple Way

Geoff Ryan interviews Shane Claiborne

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hane Claiborne is an author, activist and peacemaker who unveils the tragic messes we’ve made of our world and the tangible hope that another world is possible. Shane is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped connect radical faith communities around the world, many of whom have become known as a “new monasticism.” These communities seek to follow Jesus, to rediscover the spirit of the early Church, and to incarnate the “Kingdom of God.” At the Simple Way, their revolution is lived out locally, as days are spent feeding the hungry, doing collaborative arts with children, running a community store, hanging out with neighbours and reclaiming trash-strewn lots by planting gardens.

Shane’s ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta to a year spent serving at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. During the current war in Iraq, Shane spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team.

At The Salvation Army’s Urban Forum in Atlanta last January, Shane was a guest speaker on the topic of “scandalous grace.” In an interview for Salvationist, Major Geoff Ryan sat down with Shane to discuss his ministry.
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In the image of God

Areopagus #18

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his is a big week for Keri Shay. On Friday the 22-year-old Chicago-based Salvationist graduates from a four-year degree program in photography. Then she plans to work as a freelance photojournalist. As someone steeped in the Army’s predisposition toward the poor, Shay has a calling to use her photographic gifts to celebrate the dignity, the stories and the moments in time of people often forgotten and neglected. She is called to serve… but with her camera.

She also serves the body of Christ as a vocalist for The Singing Company, a contemporary ensemble that tours and performs throughout the US and elsewhere in the world.

In this Areopagus feature we bring you Shay’s photographs, a Singing Company song in which Shay is the soloist and portions of an interview with this young woman who seeks God’s glory in wisps of light. Click on the photo of Shay in India to view the presentation which runs 4:17.

Areopagus #15: artist profile

Phil Laeger speaks to Bramwell Ryan

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e’s like a young Billy Joel - a piano man who goes it alone with hard-wrought songs about love, faith, questions and actions. Phil Laeger, 29, is not only studying music in Boston, he’s making it and people throughout The Salvation Army and elsewhere are listening and paying attention. Bramwell Ryan, editor of theRubicon, recently interviewed Laeger about his music for this Areopagus episode. The focus is on three songs that best capture how Laeger is trying to shape the world through his craft. To listen to this mix of music and words, click on the arrow below. Or click here to download this episode from the Areopagus podcast section on iTunes. A pdf with the lyrics of the three profiled songs can be downloaded here. Runs: 12:15

A note about the audio quality - this interview was conducted using VOIP (i.e. over the internet). As is often the case, the technology didn’t work as well as it should and accordingly there is some line noise - sorry.

No Turning Back

“And how will you do this?” she wants to know. “A political party? A march? A revolution? A coup?” “A magazine.” – Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Legend tells that when Julius Caesar was marching toward Rome – about to become the first general to lead his troops inside the city walls and thereby setting off an irrevocable chain of events leading to his dictatorship and, eventually, his assassination – he came to a small river that runs on the dividing line between France and Italy called the Rubicon. As he stepped in the river, he supposedly said: “I’m crossing the Rubicon, there is now no turning back.”

theRubicon.org launches April 1 and there’s no turning back. Featuring a mix of essays, short articles, poetry, visual art and audio, theRubicon is an online journal of opinion that exists to challenge, contradict, confirm and converse. For more information, visit our Rubiconography page.

Rather than publishing a whole slew of content at once, we’ve decided to post items over the course of the month, providing ample opportunity for reflection and dialogue.

Here’s what to expect in April.

Saturday, April 1
The Salvation Army as a Prophetic Movement?
By Geoff Ryan

Monday, April 3
Rooted in Mission not Maintenance
By Rob Perry

Tuesday, April 4
Audio Feature: Areopagus Episode #1
Produced by Bramwell Ryan

Wednesday, April 5
Poem: The Market Urges
By Cornelius Buller

Thursday, April 6
When Words Are Not Enough
By Gordon Cotterill

Friday, April 7
Real Men Don’t Sing (Or Do They?)
By Geoff Ryan

Monday, April 10
Hope in the Concrete City
By Kevin Metcalf

Tuesday, April 11
40 Days in the Desert
By Si Smith

Wednesday, April 12
Poem: Sacrificial Offerings
By John McAlister

Thursday, April 13
Anatomy of a Death Sentence
By Bramwell Ryan

Friday, April 14
Human Trafficking Exposed
By Rochelle McAlister

Monday, April 17
Here is the Love?
By Russell Rook

Tuesday, April 18
Audio Feature: Areopagus Episode #2
Produced by Bramwell Ryan

Wednesday, April 19
Poem: An Awakening
By Joel Ivany

Thursday, April 20
Heroes of the Faith: Charles de Foucauld
By John McAlister

Friday, April 21
Sex, Drugs, Rock ’n’ Roll
By Geoff Ryan

Monday, April 24
Redemptive Theology of Salvation
By Dion Oxford

Tuesday, April 25
A Journey in Picture and Prose
By Matt Rawlins

Wednesday, April 26
Poem: The Rabbit Hole
By Cornelius Buller

Thursday, April 27
The Salvationist Mind for the 21st Century – An Ambiguous Heritage
By Barb Robinson

Friday, April 28
Time to Think
By Gordon Cotterill

See you April 1. And please tell your friends, neighbours, co-workers and enemies about theRubicon.org.