BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260904T071930Z UID:369-774899@lutheransnw.org DTSTART:20261113T170000Z DTEND:20261113T213000Z CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20260903T081203 DESCRIPTION:The Urgent Need for the Liberation of Everything in 2026 and B eyond\nFriday\, November 13\, 9:00am to 1:30pm at Edmonds United Methodist Church\n\nRostered Ministers and Pastoral Leaders and are invted to this fall convocation gathering featuring Dr. Joerg Rieger as our presenter\nCo -sponsored by the United Methodist Church of the Greater Northwest and the Northwest Washington Synod\, ELCA\n9-12:30 presentation time\n12:30-1:30 lunch &\; conversation time\nRegistration link coming soon\nRegistratio n questions? Email Susan@lutheransnw.org\nEvent questions? Email David@lut heransnw.org\n\nAbout This Gathering\nLiberation movements have transforme d the world for the better\, but in many places\, the pressures against th em are only increasing. Liberation theologies\, now more than five decades old\, are being called to evolve. In this keynote and workshop for pastor s and deacons\, Dr. Joerg Rieger\, Distinguished Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University and author of Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God\, brings a working constructive theology\, developed across his published work\, in which questions of anthropology and eccles iology are never far from the center: what does it mean to be human\, and what is the church for\, in an age that still hasn't figured out solidarit y across lines of labor and class?\nRieger names what isn't working on eit her side of the church's usual divide. The conservative path\, he argues\, is a dead end. But the liberal alternative isn't automatically the answer \, too often it has settled into a self-congratulatory mode\, content with gestures of inclusion\, especially to marginalized identities\, that stop short of the deeper\, structural transformation those gestures were suppo sed to represent. Protests that “speak truth to power” without buildin g power\, tables that welcome “marginalized voices” without turning th e tables\, “diversity” celebrated without disturbing the system beneat h it\, these are the deficient approaches Rieger has spent his career nami ng.\nThe real question\, he insists\, is how we build solidarity\, genuine \, costly\, cross-class solidarity\, and what it would take for the church itself to be reshaped by that work rather than merely to sponsor it from a comfortable distance. That's a harder question than either the conservat ive or the liberal church has been willing to sit with.\nThis day is offer ed specifically for those who carry pastoral and diaconal responsibility f or leading congregations and/or diaconal ministry\, and serves as a profes sional-track companion to the following Saturday's retreat on November 14\ , in which Dr. Rieger takes up these same questions with churches and lay leaders.\nAbout our presenter\nDr. Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology and the Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesleyan Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School\, and founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University. Born and educat ed in Germany before completing his doctoral work in the United States\,  he holds an M.Div. from the Theologische Hochschule Reutlingen\, a Th.M . from Duke Divinity School\, and a Ph.D. in religion and ethics from Duk e University. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church\, he spent over two decades on the faculty of Perkins School of Theology at Souther n Methodist University before joining Vanderbilt. Rieger is the author or editor of 27 books and more than 200 academic articles on theology\, econ omics\, and the misuse of power in religion and public life\, including Je sus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God (2018) and Theol ogy in the Capitalocene: Ecology\, Identity\, Class\, and Solidarity (2022 ). His work has been translated into Portuguese\, Spanish\, Italian\, Croa tian\, German\, Malayalam\, Korean\, and Chinese\, and he lectures widely across the Americas\, Africa\, Asia\, and Europe on faith\, solidarity\, a nd justice.\nCheck out a recent Homebrewed Christianity course with Joerg - where he makes the case that white Christian nationalism isn't a new pro blem... https://www.youtube.com/live/u6A2jwfjqfc LAST-MODIFIED:20260903T081203 LOCATION:Edmonds United Methodist Church SUMMARY:Urgent Need for the Liberation of Everything URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.lutheransnw.org/events/urgent-need-for-the-libera tion-of-everything/2026-11-13 ATTACH;FILENAME=Fall Convocation w Dr. Joerg Rieger.png;FMTTYPE=image/png:h ttps://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2026/08/26/19/38/44/2fd91952-1035-4afe -8349-0209727ab56d/Fall%20Convocation%20w%20Dr.%20Joerg%20Rieger.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR