A Canadian on Dutch Soil: Bezoek van Sarah K Johnson op de PThU

Bezoek aan Nederland

Sarah ervoer hoe haar visie op gesprekken over grond in Nederland beïnvloed was door wat zij zag tijdens haar reizen door het land. Haar bezoek was een mooi voorbeeld van hoe we theologie beoefenen bij ons onderzoek. 

Feast of Creation

Sarah is universitair hoofddocent Liturgische studies aan Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. Zij was bij project Grond te gast vanwege haar betrokkenheid bij het oecumenische proces rond het nieuwe Feast of Creation dat zich momenteel een plek op de liturgische kalender verwerft.  Vanwege haar onderzoeksinteresses op het gebied van disaster rituals zocht ze ook verbinding met het Instituut voor Rituele en Liturgische Studies dat een lange onderzoekstraditie heeft op dit terrein. Sarah schrijft:

It has been a privilege to spend two months taking soil as a starting point for doing theology. It has been particularly valuable to do so on Dutch soil that is very different from the land that I call home in Canada. Being in an unfamiliar geographic and theological context challenges assumptions and opens up new avenues of thought and action.

Both soil broadly and the connection with this particular Dutch soil have fuelled substantial work on Grounded Liturgy: Earth, Land, Soil, and Christian Worship Practices, the volume I am coediting with Mirella Klomp. I am particularly grateful for the insights of the SOIL Project team on the chapter that I wrote during my time here, “Temporality, Spatiality, and the Feast of Creation: Exploring Unintended Consequences of Ritual Responses to Crisis.”

I was fortunate to co-lead a time of morning prayer and a workshop with Carl Bear for a continuing education event on the theme of “Singing with All Creation.” We developed the workshop together here. I also adapted it to serve as a chapter in a book that I am coauthoring, Singing Justice: Congregational Song as a Practice of Peace (Abingdon), three other chapters of which I also wrote over the past two months.

In addition to publications and presentations related to the SOIL Project, I participated in the expertmeeting, a workshop and liturgy facilitated by Mariken Heitman, and a visit to the Jesse Darling’s Godsworth contemporary art installation at Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Independently, I spent a couple of days in Friesland exploring connections between soil and Mennonites, my tradition of origin and ordination.

Beyond publications and presentations directly related to the SOIL Project, I was grateful for the opportunity to engage the Practical Theology Chair group in conversation in work in progress on ritual responses to gun violence that is part of my larger Crisis and Culture project. I also attended lectures given by André Mulder and Henk de Roest.

I wish to express my gratitude to all of the members of the PThU community who took the time to meet with me individually to share about their research and offer insights into my various ongoing projects, as well as those who shared in more informal conversations over lunch or around events.

Thank you for the warm welcome to the PThU. Please do not hesitate to stay in touch (Sarah.Kathleen.Johnson@ustpaul.ca).

(Beeld: Sarah Kathleen Johnson: View of polders on the bicycle ride from Tienhoven to the PThU)