When Tears Sing - MK Mission Institute - May 17-21, 2021

WHEN TEARS SING: Lament as a Way Home to the Heart of God

May 17-21, 2021 Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, PhD

[THIS WORKSHOP IS FREE TO ALL MARYKNOLLERS!}

MARYKNOLL MISSION INSTITUTE, MARYKNOLL, NEW YORK 10545-0311 he violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.” Words of Tennessee Williams, on his tombstone, mirror a way home to the heart of God. When vulnerable and fragile persons find one another, when vulnerable and fragile communities come together, a spirit of hearty resilience and deep joy germinates verdant life between the fissures of a terrible broken world. The Christian tradition names this experience koinonia. Where koinonia is, there is ecclesia, church.

During this program, participants will create koinonia, church, by bringing their lived experiences into plenary and small group conversations and exercises. Particular “voices” will join the conversations and experiences: the Civil Rights Movement of the South; the Missing Generation those who died from AIDS from 1992 to 1993; lament psalms; as well as fiction, non-fiction, and cinema. Over the course of the week, participants will learn practical models of relation that will make a difference for the good in the communities to which they will return. Bill, with the help of biblical, theological, psychological, literary and visual resources, constructs lament as fundamentally relational. His research and experiences in parish and non-parochial settings has led him to trust that when more of life-the-way-it-really-is, is addressed in communities through relational practices and commitments, greater solidarity emerges, deeper joy is aroused, and more fervent passion for justice is awakened.

CONTACT: Sr. Peg M. Donovan, MM, Director

Maryknoll Mission Institute

P.O Box 311

Maryknoll, NY 10545-0311

(914) 941-0783 Ext.5671 (direct line)

(914) 941-7575 Ext. 5671

email: mdonovan@mksisters.org