The Academy Podcast

This month's episode features teaching from Wilkie Au during the first session of Two-Year Academy #40 in 2018. Wilkie explores how the stories in scripture can be a paradigmatic lens for viewing our current life experiences, helping us to see how God is showing up in our lives today and inviting us into a deeper felt knowledge of God's love for us. Wilkie reminds us that interacting with scriptur...

In this month's episode, Cláudio Carvalhaes asks us to consider how we understand ourselves and our faith in relation to the land. For over 50 years, we’ve commemorated Earth Day in April and yet investment in our planet feels like such an onerous task. What does it mean to recite “The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof” when it comes to honoring Earth Day? What is our task as followers...

For this month’s Academy Podcast episode, in honor of March and the celebration of women’s history, we have chosen to highlight the life of Saint Teresa of Avila through the scholarship and spiritual guidance of Sister Kathleen Flood. Sister Kathleen bears witness to the courageous life of St. Teresa, whose devotion to Christ led her to become a reformer of the Carmelite order, a resister against...

This month's podcast episode features Regina Laroche as she bears witness to the healing and transformation that can come when we risk stepping into the wounded places in our neighborhoods and in our world. Regina cultivates food, connections, and community in her work with DIASPORA GARDENS, Planting Connections, Planting Hope, and the St. Mark Giving Garden. These integrate farming or gardening w...

This month's podcast episode features Juan Carlos Huertas, who currently serves as minister of proclamation and the practice of justice at First-Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, NE. Huertas holds a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University in Atlanta, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana, where he majored in Religion and minored in Spanish—hi...

This month's episode features Roberta Bondi's exploration of prayer. Roberta is a writer, speaker, teacher, and retreat leader. She is Professor Emerita of Church History at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Roberta earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University and completed two years of study at Perkins School of Theology. She holds Mater of Arts and Doctor of Philosop...

Perhaps it is because of Hee Soo’s formation and orientation to Confucianism and Buddhism that we experience a refreshing expansion on the story of Elijah 1 Kings 17-19. Have you had an experience like this? Where you set aside time to dislocate from your regular rhythms and give yourself over to a new road, the hospitality of strangers, and the provision of God? Hee-Soo Jung was born in Kwang hwa...

In this Academy Podcast episode, Rev. Larry Peacock reminds us of our essential nature as God’s beloved. Larry is the Director of the Franciscan Spiritual Center in Milwaukie, Oregon, has led retreats and workshops for groups and churches across the country and is the author of "The Living Nativity – Preparing for Christmas with St Francis," and "Openings: A Daybook of Saints, Sages, Psalms and Pr...

In this episode, we have the gift of hearing from Rev. Grace Imathiu, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Illinois. Pastor Grace is a citizen of the world for whom ‘the world is her parish’. As an African who is married to a European and is raising an American son, Grace is fluent in three languages, was educated in Kenya, U.S.A., in England and Israel. She has preached in...

Our host, Shalom, reflects at the beginning of the episode saying  “As I listen to this previously recorded lecture from Academy 38 in Nebraska in 2017, I’m struck by the bite size and yet weighty spiritual truth present in the text that bears witness to the Resurrection.”   Dr. Hy has a doctorate and post doctorate in the field of psychology. He has taught at numerous universities and his researc...

Spring has sprung. New life is teeming. Resurrection Sunday and Easter tide are right around the corner. We also celebrate Earth day this month. Even as we witness biodiversity waning and people going hungry for lack of nutrition the earth is crying out. In this month's episode, we hear from Susan MacKenzie. Susan talks about sustainability as the long term environment where all things, all creati...

In this month’s episode, we hear from Marjorie Thompson author of Soulfeast, a spirituality classic and best seller. For many church workers this is a seminal book on spiritual formation. Marjorie is ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA and brings to her ministry over 30 years of experience in retreat work, teaching and writing, and Christian spiritual formation. Marjorie considers writing a ce...

In this month’s episode, we hear from Rabbi Chava Bahle at a Two-year Academy in Nebraska on the topic of Hebrew Spirituality and Holy Texts. Chava Bahle is a twice ordained rabbi and maggid, a Jewish inspirational storyteller. Her current work is to live into the teaching of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, her teacher, of blessed memory, who taught that we can and should find nourishment in tradi...

In this month's episode we hear from Luther Smith on the topic of meeting God in our justice seeking. Luther Smith is an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, longtime Academy faculty person, and a member of The Academy Advisory Board. Luther spent 35 years of his career as an activist, scholar, and professor at Candler School of Theology, and he is known to be an authority o...

In this month’s episode we hear from Amy Oden on the topic of tradition and what we are handing over to those who follow. Born and raised on the prairies of Oklahoma, Amy has found her spiritual home under the wide-open sky. She earned her PhD in Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University, writing her dissertation on Augustine. Over the last 30 years, she has served on the faculties of Okl...

In this month’s episode, we hear from Ray Buckley on the topic of "Bearing Witness." Ray offered the following teaching at Five Day Academy in 2019. Ray is the interim Director for the Center for First Nations Spirituality and longtime faculty member of The Academy for Spiritual Formation. Ray has served the United Methodist Church as a staff member of the United Methodist Publishing House, Direct...

This month's podcast features Elaine Heath, Academy faculty, Upper Room Books author, and so much more. Elaine’s scholarly work is interdisciplinary, integrating pastoral, biblical, and spiritual theology in ways that bridge the gap between academy, church, and world. And it’s because of this approach that I’m excited for her words to us today that were a portion of her time with Academy 34. Her c...

This month's podcast features teaching from Dan Wolpert at Two-Year Academy #39 in Malvern, PA in 2018. He and his wife, Debra, co-taught the topic on Spirituality and Embodiment. The clips in this episode are excerpts from the final lecture of that session. Dan, is author of multiple spiritual formation books, and is Executive Director and co-founder of MICAH, the Minnesota Institute for Contempl...

Today’s conversation features Christopher Carter, Assistant Professor and Assistant Chair & Department Diversity Officer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. Christopher Carter’s teaching and research focuses on philosophical and theological ethics, Black and Womanist theological ethics, environmental ethics, and animals and religion. He approaches religious studies as...

In this episode, our host, Claire, is joined by Jenny Booth Potter. Jenny is the Co-Host and Producer of The Next Question, a video-based web-series devoted to expanding the imagination for racial justice. In the first season, the show has already hosted conversations with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Rachel Cargle, Andre Henry, and Brené Brown, and includes co-hosts Austin Channing Brown and Chi Chi Okwu...

In this episode, we’re joined by Cole Arthur Riley, who is a writer, speaker, and liturgist. She currently serves as the Content and Spiritual Formation Manager for a Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University called Chesterton House. In her role, she produces and curates written content for spiritual formation and leads care and spiritual support for staff and students. While working for...

In this episode, we’re joined by Safiyah Fosua, beloved Academy faculty and one of our four renowned teachers for our new one-year online offering, Spiritual Formation in Today’s World, that begins February 25, 2021. Learn more about Safiyah and the other faculty, curriculum, and sacred spiritual rhythm the one-year offers by visiting academy.upperroom.org and consulting the schedule for 2021. Cla...

December's episode is a compilation of the best moments of 2020 from Claire's podcast conversations with Lisa Yebuah, Dan Wolpert, Ben Boswell, Amos Disasa, Frank Rogers, M Barclay, Lanecia Rouse, and Amy Stroup. Of course, we hosted many more conversations than these in 2020 with Academy leaders and friends—conversations that challenged us to act, opened us to joy, and reminded us that justice an...

Today’s conversation features Luther Smith, who is an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, longtime Academy faculty person, and a member of The Academy Advisory Board. Luther spent 35 years of his career as an activist, scholar, and professor at Candler School of Theology, and he is known to be an authority on the life and theology of Howard Thurman. Luther is Professor Emer...

In this episode, we’re joined by Rev. M. Jade Kaiser (M Barclay at the time of recording) who is the co-founder and executive director of enfleshed, a nonprofit creating and facilitating resources of spiritual nourishment for collective liberation. M is passionate about bringing fresh and relevant perspectives to the questions, traditions, and theologies that have sustained faith communities for c...