Postcolonial Practice of Ministry

Leadership, Liturgy, and Interfaith Engagement

Contributions by Stephen Burns, Emmanuel Yartekwei Lartey, Melinda A. McGarrah Sharp, Mona West, Stephanie Mitchem, HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Michael N. Jagessar, Jenny Te Paa Daniel, Lim Swee Hong, Cláudio Carvalhaes, Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Jonathan Y. Tan, Jenny Daggers, Kwok Pui-lan Edited by Kwok Pui-lan, Stephen Burns

Not available to order

Publication date:

13 July 2016

Length of book:

240 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498534499

Postcolonial studies has challenged the Eurocentric frameworks and methodologies in the fields of biblical studies and theology. Postcolonial Practice of Ministry is a groundbreaking anthology that enables a new engagement between postcolonial and practical theologies, focused on three key areas of the practice of ministry: pastoral leadership, liturgical celebration, and interfaith engagement.

Postcolonial Practice of Ministry will make an impact in at least two areas of theological reflection: first, among postcolonial scholars, it will stretch postcolonial theology into an area where it has been neglected; second, it will provide a comprehensive resource for rethinking the practice of ministry. Contributors to this volume are well-known scholars from different racial, national, and denominational backgrounds, bringing with them experiences of hybrid identities and multicultural churches. Many of them are pioneers in introducing postcolonial discourse to their fields.

Introduction: Postcolonial Practice of Ministry, Stephen Burns

I. Pastoral Leadership
1. “Borrowed Clothes Will Never Keep You Warm”: Postcolonializing Pastoral Leadership, Emmanuel Yartekwei Lartey
2. Literacies of Listening: Postcolonial Pastoral Leadership in Practice, Melinda A. McGarrah Sharp
3. Metropolitan Community Church as Messy Space for Revisioning the Other Side of Pastoral Ministry, Mona West
4. In Conversation: Womanist/Postcolonial/Pastoral, Stephanie Mitchem

II. Liturgical Celebration
5. Postcolonial Practices on Eucharist, HyeRan Kim-Cragg
6. Table Habits, Liturgical Pelau, and Displacing Conversation: A Postcolonial Excursion, Michael N. Jagessar
7. Prayer Books, Postcolonialism, Power, and Politics: Some Thoughts from an Antipodean Indigenous Laywoman, Jenny Te Paa Daniel
8. Church Music in Postcolonial Liturgical Celebration, Lim Swee Hong
9. Praying Each Other’s Prayers: An Interreligious Dialogue, Cláudio Carvalhaes

III. Interfaith Collaboration
10. Postcolonial Interreligious Learning: A Reflection from a North American Christian Perspective, Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook
11. Dynamics of Interfaith Collaborations in Postcolonial Asia: Prospects and Opportunities, Jonathan Y. Tan
12. Postcolonializing “Mission-Shaped Church”: The Church of England and Postcolonial Diversity, Jenny Daggers
13. Womanist Interfaith Dialogue: Inter, Intra, and All the Spaces in Between, Melanie L. Harris

Epilogue: Kwok Pui-lan

The book offers a vision for a contemporary church facing issues of globalization and pluralization, a church committed to a renewed repentance for what in our own Christian history has torn at and disrupted the missio Dei which humans collaborate in. It is written for pastors, for teachers, for seminarians, for those committed to exploring new models of liturgy, new models of leadership, and new models of interfaith dialogue. Every seminary library should own it, and every church leader looking forward to the next decades of church life should find a way to check it out.