Voices of Black Female Mysticism: The Lenten Series

Wednesdays, February 24 – March 24
7-8 pm

It is the insistence of mysticism . . . that there is within reach of every [person] not only a defense against the Grand Invasion but also the energy for transforming it into community. It says that a [person] can seek deliberately to explore the inner region and resources of [her] own life. . . . [She] can become at home within by locating in [her] own spirit the trysting place where [she] and God may meet. Here it is that life may become private, personal, without at the same time becoming self-centered; here the little purposes that cloy may be absorbed in the big purpose that structures and redefines; here the individual comes to [herself] the wanderer comes home, and the private life is saved for deliberate involvement.
Howard Thurman, Mysticism and the Experience of Love (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1961), 4.

Someone somewhere said that Hagar is the first Black female mystic in scripture.  She goes out into the wilderness and finds there a meeting place with the God who sees her.  In that encounter and relationship, she find a spiritual home for her wandering body and a new hope for her people.

In St. James’ Reads and the Wednesday Night Lenten Series, we are going to meet with five Black female mystics who met with God and who transformed their communities.  The St. James’ Reads packet will offer you some artifacts, written and otherwise, to help you hear the voice of the mystic and set down some footholds of understanding within her life story.  You don’t have to do the reading to enjoy the Lenten Series, but it will enrich your experience.

Thea Bowman: Songs of My People

Thea Bowman was a Roman Catholic religious sister, teacher, and scholar who made a major contribution to the ministry of the Catholic Church toward her fellow African Americans. She became a great evangelist, assisted in the production of an African American Catholic hymnal, and was a popular speaker on faith and spirituality in her final years. She helped found the National Black Sisters Conference to provide support for African-American women in Catholic religious institutes.

Presenter: Maria Bautista Vargas

Maria is the church planter for the Episcopal Church Northshore. Prior to church planting, Maria was the Missioner Associate for Houston Canterbury, an Episcopal Campus Ministry in the Diocese of Texas, she also worked as a Community Organizer with The Metropolitan Organization (TMO).

Embodied Wordplay: the Practical Theology of Fannie Lou Hamer

Born the twentieth child to a family of Mississippi sharecroppers, Fannie Lou Hamer grew up hearing the good news preached at home and from her Baptist minister father’s pulpit each Sunday. By age 13, Hamer had left formal schooling to support her aging parents, picking hundreds of loud of cotton while living with polio. In her young adulthood she participated in community organizing and activism through involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences. Her experiences with racist voting laws, racist neighbors, and forced sterilization all contributed to her powerful, prophetic voice. While she is known at large for her speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Hamer’s lifetime of advocating for all of God’s children deserves exploration.

Presenter: Ari L. Monts

Jarena Lee: The Liberated Subject

Jarena Lee was a nineteenth century African-American female preacher. Born into a free black family, Lee nonetheless experienced deep alienation and dislocation when she was hired out for labor as a child and separated from her family. She found her voice in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she became one of the most compelling preachers of the Second Great Awakening. She was also the first African American woman to have an autobiography published in the United States.

Presenter: The Rev. Eileen O’Brien

The Rev. Eileen O’Brien is the Rector of St. James’ Episcopal Church, Austin.  She became fascinated with Jarena Lee’s distinctive voice in her studies of the reception of Paul’s writings by African American theologians and preachers.

All that You Touch You Change

She had an uncannily insightful way of reading the history and nature of human beings. This gift allowed Octavia E. Butler to write realistic, yet timely prophetic tales that transcended fiction and science-fiction genres. From a young age she pursued writing with all of her soul’s vigor, and dedicated her whole being to telling stories and creating worlds. Before becoming a full-time writer, Butler’s disciplined routine had her waking up at 2:30 in the morning to write until it was time for work. Some of the most recognized fruits of this labor include Kindred, Lilith’s Brood/Xenogenesis series, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and Bloodchild: And Other Stories.  In Parable of the Sower, a young woman living with hyperempathy plants the seeds of a new religion in a desolate and apocalyptic future United States. Though Butler was a self-professed and unapologetic hermit, many interviews can be found online. If you have a chance, listen to her deep and resonant voice speaking from the depths of her soul.

Presenter: The Rev. Lindsey Ardrey

Lindsey Ardrey is a transitional deacon from the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, enjoying her time as a St. James’ seminarian. She is sponsored by St. George’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans where she served as Children’s and Youth Minister in the four years prior to attending Seminary of the Southwest. Lindsey is passionate about books, reading, creative writing, and using artistic mediums as vehicles for personal and communal healing.