Shalomic Imagination

Multi-Faith Presence @ COP28

While I wasn’t able to attend COP28 in person, it’s been so great to the reports from my multi-faith colleagues about the remarkable advancement in the active participation of world’s faiths, religions, and spiritualities in the conversation. 84-85% of the

Dwight J. Friesen January 30, 2024January 30, 2024

Mennonites Singing for Cease-Fire

Earlier this week – Tuesday, I think – a couple of hundred Anabaptists convened in the House of Representatives’ Cannon House Office Building, in Washington DC, to call for a permanent cease-fire in Palestine. The Mennonites sang songs of peace

Dwight J. Friesen January 21, 2024January 21, 2024

Spirituality & Polycrisis

Some of the people of faith I’ve been collaborating with to activate our respective traditions to engage the SDGs for a more sustainable urban future for all everything alongside UN-Habitat and the World Economic Forum have just published a new

Dwight J. Friesen January 19, 2024January 19, 2024

Grenz Lecture 2024 . Tonight

This lecture series is offered in honor of the great Stanley J. Grenz; former Professor at The Seattle School, (then known as Mars Hill Graduate School). Stan was a prolific Christian scholar with a pastoral heart and deep intellectual presence.

Dwight J. Friesen January 12, 2024January 10, 2024

Save the Date… WUF12

UN-Habitat, World Urban Forum 12 (WUF12), will be assembling around this time next year… November 4-8, 2024. Mark your calendar and begin making plans. I am hoping to convene – or co-convene – two gatherings in Cairo, Egypt to coincide

Dwight J. Friesen November 1, 2023November 1, 2023

Urban October 2023

For a number of years now, UN-Habitat has been earmarking the month of October as “Urban October.” Our goal is to draw humanity’s attention our cities in order foster conversation, engagement, and movement toward a better urban future for all

Dwight J. Friesen October 1, 2023October 14, 2023

Dying for Change: Two Loops Model

Systems thinkers, organizational innovators, and localists Deborah Frieze and Margaret Wheatley, with the Berkana Institute, have developed a very helpful model for better understanding the complex process of systems change. Their model – among other things – thoughtfully attends to

Dwight J. Friesen September 13, 2023September 13, 2023

Wowie, Wow, Wow!

Well, Sunday was my final Sunday serving at St Luke’s. And today was my final staff meeting. As challenging as transitions can be in the life of any community, this one was so beautiful and warm. It was filled with

Dwight J. Friesen August 29, 2023September 5, 2023

Helpful Reports

Here are links to three very helpful UN-Habitat reports reflecting back on 2022. My apologies for not posting these sooner, but here they are: Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen August 27, 2023October 14, 2023

C-TEN Interview

podcast interview “Church after Mars Hill” In this episode, I am hosted and interviewed by Dr Joel Kiekintveld.

Dwight J. Friesen July 18, 2023August 18, 2023

The SDGs in their Rightful Place

UN-Habitat goes Local… putting SDGs in their rightful Place “Part of loving loving neighbor as oneself involves loving and serving one’s place, its peoples, & systems sustaining shared life.” – dwight j. friesen “My Neighbourhood” ‘MY Neighbourhood’ provides an extensive

Dwight J. Friesen June 8, 2023June 8, 2023

Vatican Repudiates ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ 

Yesterday the Vatican formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a legal concept based on 15th-century papal documents that European colonial powers used to legitimize the seizure and exploitation of Indigenous lands in Africa and the Americas, among other places. As

Dwight J. Friesen March 31, 2023March 31, 2023

SDGs as a Faithful Expression of One’s Spirituality

Last Saturday, at the end of the end of the Winter trimester low residency retreat, The Seattle School held its “Day of Scholarship.” There was a fantastic scholarship poster session showcasing some exciting submissions from current students, alumni, staff, and

Dwight J. Friesen January 16, 2023January 16, 2023

“O Holy Night”

O Holy Night performed by Ben Caplan I have to give a shout out to Zach W. Lambert for his outstanding Twitter thread in which he walks through the story behind “O Holy Night,” highlighting the prophetic invitation of its

Dwight J. Friesen December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

…But I’m Ready Now!

One week left! As a child I found this final week was almost unbearable… anticipation overload! Time off school, gifts to open, gifts to give, fun events in my neighborhood, school, church and extended family. Just a different kind of

Dwight J. Friesen December 18, 2022December 18, 2022

Fusion & Consent?

Lot’s of excitement from US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California because for the first time ever they have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain. On

Dwight J. Friesen December 15, 2022December 15, 2022

One Who Wrestles with God

This weekend, one of our lectionary readings is a story of encounter, wrestling, and transformation. It’s the story of Jacob’s name being changed to Israel. As you may recall, it is Jacob’s sons for whom the twelve tribes of the

Dwight J. Friesen October 13, 2022January 31, 2023

Real . Story . Life

Below you will find the latest letter I sent to the congregation with whom I am serving. For some reason I went a little philosophical with this one. I sure hope it makes sense. I hear in my writing an

Dwight J. Friesen September 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Marking the Changing Seasons

I’m roughly nine months into my 20 month commitment at St Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue. The church has commissioned its pastor to go on pilgrimage to Holden Village for about a year and an half, and I get to

Dwight J. Friesen September 9, 2022September 9, 2022

Laying Down our Hammers

Over the last few weeks the Lectionary Sunday Gospel readings have awakened our Sabbath rest imaginations. It seems fitting that this weekend, many of us will participate in an observation of Labor Day… a much-needed extra day of rest. I

Dwight J. Friesen September 1, 2022September 26, 2022

Iona – Affirmation of Faith

Today, during The Seattle’s School’s “Sacred Assembly” – which is part of our learning community’s back to school rituals – Paul Steinke shared an all-age “Affirmation of the Faith” from Scotland’s Iona Community. I loved it so much. Paul let

Dwight J. Friesen August 29, 2022February 23, 2023

Great Article by Kevin Neuhouser

In the wake of Seattle Pacific University’s Board of Directors’ decision to double down on its policy to proactively exclude queer faculty, student protests and sit-ins have gained national… even international attention. Kevin Neuhouser, who is a professor of sociology

Dwight J. Friesen August 25, 2022September 6, 2022

Seattle Times on “Reconnect South Park”

David Kroman, a staff reporter for the Seattle Times, has been covering the story of a grassroots movement to decommission a section of Hwy 99 and to reconnect two parts of Seattle’s South Park neighborhood that was cut in two.

Dwight J. Friesen August 23, 2022August 31, 2022

Insightful New Research

Dr. Josh Packard and the team over at Springtide Research Institute recently released their latest study of young people and religion. Springtide conducts qualitative and quantitative research on the inner and outer lives of young people, ages 13 to 25.

Dwight J. Friesen August 18, 2022August 31, 2022

Off to Poland

This Friday I am on my way to Katowice Poland to participate in the United Nations Habitat’s eleventh convening of the World Urban Forum. So I thought I’d offer a bit of an explanation of what I will be doing…

Dwight J. Friesen June 22, 2022September 26, 2022

100 Million Refugees Worldwide

Currently we have surpassed 100,000,000 refugees on our planet. That’s more than 100 million people just like you and me, who have had to make the terrible decision to flee the place they love, their home, and what they know

Dwight J. Friesen June 20, 2022December 9, 2022

Trinity Sunday

This weekend is “Trinity” Sunday.  I’ll let you in on a secret.  I’ve never experienced a Trinity Sunday; it simply wasn’t part of my upbringing.  I was raised in a church culture which held a stated belief in the Threeness

Dwight J. Friesen June 10, 2022June 11, 2022

Wednesday is “World Oceans Day”

Recovering or relearning how to live in harmony with creation is vital to our survival. I call on all people of faith to search their sacred texts for examples of, teachings about, or practices for living in harmony with the

Dwight J. Friesen June 6, 2022December 16, 2022

Nationalism & Resurrection?

For weeks and weeks now, Putin’s attack on Ukraine has dominated the news cycle and has captured many of our hearts. We are rightly concerned. Then this week in the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (son of former dictator) won that

Dwight J. Friesen May 13, 2022June 7, 2022

A Vital Resource for Church & City

Since its creation, United Nations Habitat has been striving to put practical tools in the hands of local people and communities to equip them with the needed information, inspiration, and ideas to mobilize grassroots people to bring about real change

Dwight J. Friesen May 11, 2022December 19, 2022