Pilgrimage to Radical Discipleship

Last month I made a pilgrimage to many sites in Berlin, most especially the church where Dietrich Bonhoeffer first served. It was transformative.

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Hello, friends. What a week it has been. It is terrifying, especially for trans people and immigrants in the US right now. The assumption of power by Trump in the US is already having devastating impacts on the poor and marginalized and on the wider Earth community. I experienced hope, however, in listening to the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde preach during the inaugural prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Monday. She spoke truth to power. Speaking truth to power can give us hope. I invite you to listen here.

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In the meantime, the fight for social justice and climate action continues. I want to share with you a recent document that is an example of this fight!

Accra+20 Global Consultation Final Statement

Members of the Accrs+20 Global Consultation in Hannover, Germany, December 2024.

The first is the final statement from the Accra+20 Global Consultation I participated in last month in Hannover, Germany. The Accra Confession, written in 2004, is a remarkable commitment to social and ecological justice written by members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. In Hannover, I was invited, along with about 30 other people, to review the Confession and determine what we wanted to lift up in celebration of the Confession, what we needed to confess were weaknesses or blind spots in the text, offer additional considerations unique to our time and place today, and covenant together again to work for social and ecological justice around the world.

The final statement from Accra+20, while incomplete in some ways (I don’t feel it goes far enough in recognizing the unique value of the Earth community beyond human concerns), is a remarkable testament to listening to the cries of the poor and marginalized. Among other things, it identifies:

• the problematic ways in which the language of “covenant” has been used to justify colonialism and land theft, such as in Gaza. Christian Zionism is named as a perversion of the Gospel;

• how churches have failed to engage adequately in responding to the climate emergency and species extinction;

• the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on African-descended peoples around the world, as well as continuing to call for reparatory and restorative justice for Indigenous peoples;

• the need to recognize LGBTQIA+ peoples as full members of the people of God, and the need to work for their full inclusion in the church and an end to queer oppression; and

• a critical reflection on AI, the technology-driven Capitalocene, and the continuing need for the churches to resist consumerism and the commodification of justice movements.

This summary is insufficient to convey the depth and nuance of the statement that resulted from the Accra+20 Consultation. I encourage you to read it and incorporate its words into your life of faith and action. Here is the Final Statement.

Pilgrimage to Radical Discipleship

After the consultation in Hannover, I travelled to Berlin for what I thought would be a few days of vacation. Instead, it turned into a powerful pilgrimage that transformed my mind and heart. Here is a recounting of that time. I have included numerous photos of the places I visited.

Standing before the life-sized portrait of Dietrich Bonhoeffer last month, in the church where he first served after being ordained, undid me. I’m not usually a crier, but I stood before the black-and-white photo of Bonhoeffer in his early 30s and let the tears roll down my face.

Discipleship in the Life and Work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Part I)

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