How stories invite empathy
Here’s an interesting essay, full of links to other resources, that is exploring how we might be “wired for empathy” and why stories cultivate emotions.
Believing
Unleashing the power of elders’ stories
Deborah Jorgens recently successfully defended her MA capstone project at Luther Seminary. Her paper is a lovely, concise, and eloquent description of the power involved in creating room for elders in a community to share their stories with the wider community. She was particularly focused on a Christian ministry setting that was predominately white and …
Indigenous Storytelling
A lovely piece from the Duke Faith&Leadership blog about the epistemological convictions embodied in indigenous storytelling.
Storying resources from a specific congregation
Here’s a lovely post about the First Baptist Church of McMinnville, Oregon, and its use of storytelling to create community, remember history, and engage people beyond the sanctuary. The post includes a variety of very useful resources for doing this kind of storytelling particularly in the context of worship.
Digital stories to reform criminal justice
“I’ll tell my story” is a project of the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice. Formerly incarcerated persons tell their stories through the creation of digital stories using the CDS methodology.
Photovoice and justice
Photovoice is both a practice and a research methodology, and it is energizing and empowering to see the ways various people are using this medium to nurture justice: Wendy Ewald, professional photographer who is a passionate advocate of photo voice work the Chiapas Photography Project, a photo voice project in the Chiapas region of Mexico …
Photography as spiritual practice
Sr. Liz Thoman, long time advocate of media education, spoke with me often about her joy in doing photography as a spiritual practice. It is lovely to see that Eileen Crowley has extended this idea and developed a website to help people engage photography through this lens.
Storytelling as ministry
Dr. Eileen Crowley, professor at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, has created a lovely website on “storytelling as ministry” in which she shares pragmatic resources and lovely examples.
Stories of grace in renewing church life
The McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame has a regular podcast featuring “stories of grace” which are often quirky and interesting stories fro specific contexts which are aimed at “nourishing Catholic imagination.” It’s fun to listen to these stories, many of which are by undergraduates at ND. You can access …
Becoming a “story collector”
This essay is a powerful illustration of what is possible when we allow ourselves to live in wonder and curiosity, to approach other stories with an open mind, and to hold our own stories with a degree of humility that makes learning possible. I’m making it a practice to collect stories from my more conservative …