BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260827T040728Z UID:369-764252@lutheransnw.org DTSTART:20261113T170000Z DTEND:20261113T203000Z CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20260826T124047 DESCRIPTION:The Urgent Need for the Liberation of Everything in 2026 and B eyond\nFriday\, November 13\, 9:00am to 12:30pm at Edmonds United Methodis t Church\n\nRostered Ministers are invted to this fall convocation gatheri ng featuring Dr. Joerg Rieger\nCo-sponsored by the United Methodist Church of the Greater Northwest and the Northwest Washington Synod\, ELCA\nMore details and registration link coming soon\n\nAbout This Gathering\nLiberat ion movements have transformed the world for the better\, but in many plac es\, the pressures against them are only increasing. Liberation theologies \, now more than five decades old\, are being called to evolve. In this ke ynote and workshop for pastors and deacons\, Dr. Joerg Rieger\, Distinguis hed Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University and author of Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God\, brings a working cons tructive theology\, developed across his published work\, in which questio ns of anthropology and ecclesiology are never far from the center: what do es it mean to be human\, and what is the church for\, in an age that still hasn't figured out solidarity across lines of labor and class?\nRieger na mes what isn't working on either side of the church's usual divide. The co nservative path\, he argues\, is a dead end. But the liberal alternative i sn't automatically the answer\, too often it has settled into a self-congr atulatory mode\, content with gestures of inclusion\, especially to margin alized identities\, that stop short of the deeper\, structural transformat ion those gestures were supposed to represent. Protests that “speak trut h to power” without building power\, tables that welcome “marginalized voices” without turning the tables\, “diversity” celebrated without disturbing the system beneath it\, these are the deficient approaches Rie ger has spent his career naming.\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 th an merely to sponsor it from a comfortable distance. That's a harder quest ion than either the conservative or the liberal church has been willing to sit with.\nThis day is offered specifically for those who carry pastoral and diaconal responsibility for leading congregations and/or diaconal mini stry\, and serves as a professional-track companion to the following Satur day's retreat on November 14\, in which Dr. Rieger takes up these same que stions with churches and lay leaders.\nAbout our presenter\nDr. Joerg Rieg er is Distinguished Professor of Theology and the Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesleyan Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School\, and founding d irector of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbil t University. Born and educated in Germany before completing his doctoral work in the United States\, he holds an M.Div. from the Theologische Hoc hschule Reutlingen\, a Th.M. from Duke Divinity School\, and a Ph.D. in r eligion and ethics from Duke University. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church\, he spent over two decades on the faculty of Perkins Sc hool of Theology at Southern Methodist University before joining Vanderbi lt. Rieger is the author or editor of 27 books and more than 200 academic articles on theology\, economics\, and the misuse of power in religion an d public life\, including Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving th e Wrong God (2018) and Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology\, Identity\, Class\, and Solidarity (2022). His work has been translated into Portugues e\, Spanish\, Italian\, Croatian\, German\, Malayalam\, Korean\, and Chine se\, and he lectures widely across the Americas\, Africa\, Asia\, and Euro pe on faith\, solidarity\, and justice. LAST-MODIFIED:20260826T124047 LOCATION:Edmonds United Methodist Church SUMMARY:Fall Convocation w/UMC Partners URL;VALUE=URI:https://lutheransnw.org/events/fall-convocation-w-umc-partner s/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