Speaker: Jessica Knight

Today, Jessica Williams explored ideas about what it means to be seen by God. She began with the story of Hagar, relying on womanist midrash for deeper insights into the lived experience of Hagar. After this introduction everyone was invited to share what they noticed through this lens, and all of these perspectives created a fuller, more empathic understanding of the text and of  Hagar’s life. Then she shared a personal “Hagar story” from a difficult season in her life. Reflecting on this, Jessica points out that when we understand that the God who sees us loves every part of us we can begin to come out of hiding and open ourselves up to experience what it’s like to be seen, to be known, and to be loved. To end the service we listened to Everything by Alanis Morrissette, and after the service we conspired about road trips to catch Alanis on tour this summer. 

Jessica Williams talks about the experience of deconstruction in her own life, and reflects on how the reality of this experience has been a little more like the work of careful excavation to recover something precious. She uses this metaphor and others to share a bit about her history of losing the ability to believe certain church doctrines while maintaining a deep love and affection for church communities throughout her life. She sees this process of losing, or letting go of what was, as a gift that can reveal a truer beauty that’s been there all along.

In this talk, Jessica Williams reflects on the longings that drew her to St. Stephen’s University and to the St. Croix Church community. She explores the cracks in the foundation of the church and within herself that “let the light get in,” as Leonard Cohen sings. Jessica ends this talk by reading a letter written by Walter Thiessen earlier this week, offering an update for those who “Joined Us As We Stepped Away” from Vineyard Canada in 2020.

Today, Jess Williams talked about the humanity of Mary of Nazareth, exploring how God’s arrival in Mary’s womb served as a proclamation of human dignity and worth. She thinks this message is one she needed and missed in her evangelical upbringing, which mostly emphasized the pursuit of Christian morality or perfection in order to achieve holiness. Jess points out that, like Mary, it’s our humanity that most qualifies us for partnership with God. She draws inspiration from Mary’s response to this invitation, particularly in the way it’s revealed in the Magnificat, and she believes that Mary’s story is our story too.

Today’s message was brought by Jessica Williams and we wish everyone who has ever attended a Christian church could hear it. Gracefully, and kindly, she leads us through some of the horrible comments that respected people in church history have made about women. Then she explains the four waves of feminism and shows why Christianity has made feminism necessary. Finally, she gives some instructions for a way forward. This is a brilliant talk. It affected the people gathered in such a deep way that it’s hard to explain. The music for today was also outstanding, led by Mayara Goncalves e Lima. There are two songs before the talk and one that follows. This last song was written by Mayara about the effects of colonialism in Brazil and around the world.

Today, Jessica Williams shared drawing parallels between the lectionary reading in Mark 5 (the healing of Jairus’ daughter and the bleeding woman), the history of Pride, and St. Thecla. She asks the question, “what does faithfulness look like?” while pointing out how in each of these stories the rules/law had to be broken in order to be faithful to the greater law of Love, and to the voice within their own hearts. To end, we watched Glennon Doyle’s animated short-story from her most recent book, Untamed. 

We also listened to the song “Liberty” by Isa Ma.

Here are the notes to today’s talk.

Please take time to listen to this lament by Brian Doerksen and Cheryl Bear, 215

Jessica Williams spoke this morning from her recently finished MA thesis entitled “Kenotic Love and the Soul’s Transformation.” She shared teachings that have touched her life from St. Macrina the Younger, from 4th century Cappadocia, and some similar ideas from 20th century Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. It is a beautiful talk. It will help people believe that the best way to reveal the true self is through acceptance and generosity rather than through constant wallowing in a sense of shame.