The Vancouver School of Theology proudly presents the 2024 Somerville Lecture | Solidarity Forever: Faith and Politics

Thursday, October 2 at 7pm | Epiphany Chapel and online

Join Sara Miles, Founder and Director of The Food Pantry and former Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, for the 2024 Somerville Lecture at the Vancouver School of Theology.

This free public lecture invites students, theologians, committed church-goers, and curious seekers alike to reflect deeply on the meaning of solidarity in our relationships—with God, with each other, and within systems of power. It offers a space to wrestle with difficult theological and political questions, and to imagine how faith might guide us in confronting injustice and fostering more equitable communities.

Please note:

This public lecture will be available to watch online via livestream. Please select "General Admission (online)" and you will be emailed a Zoom link in the days leading to the event.

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Abstract:

Like us, the people of the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels live in relationship with God. And, like us, they live in complex human networks of unavoidably political power relationships—colonized and invader; subject and ruler; worker and owner; soldier and prisoner.

In the current moment, what does solidarity mean for all our relationships? And how do we faithfully confront the political challenges we face?

The Somerville Lecture 2025 will address the spiritual, practical, and political implications of solidarity, at a time when communities—including faith communities— are painfully divided.

About:

Sara Miles is the author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion; Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead, and City of God: Faith in the Streets. She served as Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco for ten years, and is the founder and director of The Food Pantry. She developed the immigrant accompaniment programs for Faith in Action Bay Area, and speaks,preaches, and leads workshops around the world. Her political reporting includes the book How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley, and her journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and on National Public Radio.

Supported through the generosity of Archbishop David Somerville, a former VST faculty member, the Somerville Lecture Series has become one of VST’s most prominent offerings to the faith community. The series was launched in the early 1990s by a group of students who were eager for VST to be a place for students to learn about the spiritual side of life and pass on to others the insights and methods of seeking God’s presence.