BIO

STATEMENT OF FAITH

I believe in God as community:
        Creator, Child, Spirit.
I believe that belief is in and of itself
        a gift of the Spirit,
                nurtured in grace, fed with hope, appreciated through trial.
I believe scripture is the word of God, and as God’s first word we have                                                                       
        was “Light,”
                I believe scripture is meant to enlighten, and bring life,
                not death, or fear, or hatred.
I believe we humans are made in the image of God
        bearing her goodness even in our
                failures
 And I do believe we fail (which is another word for sin),
        mainly in mistaking God for our own
                face, privilege, politics, indoctrinations, and comfortable      
         idolatries.
But mostly, I believe that grace has the
        final word.
I believe Jesus was God’s child
        born of a brave woman who sang a song of lifting up the
                lowly and bringing
                        down
                                the proud and powerful.
I believe Jesus sang his mother’s song all his life, even in his death,
        and that resurrection means he will never stop
                healing, redeeming, and restoring.
I believe in a church I do not always see
        where a wild Spirit is poured equally on all
        where disaster is met with broken bread
        and division is met with a common cup.
I believe this church has some help (God knows we need it)
        and thus ministry is so much more than who’s speaking,
                what the carpet looks like, or
                        marketing the church into artificial immortality.
The church is Spirit-breathed, fallible you and me, and about the
        gospel work of
                walls being recognized for what they are
                        and then coming down,
                and one new, messy humanity to show that
        on the other side of death and chaos
God speaks that word again and again:
        “Light,”
and all creation is baptized with the radical hope that
        God is with
                us;
                We
        are with each other.
We are not alone.

PREACHING

Sermon (Facebook video) on Proverbs 31 entitled “Her Worth.” Preached at Bentwood Trail Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas on September 19, 2021 (begins at 22:38).

Sermon (written text) on John 6:1-21 entitled “Gather Up the Fragments.”

WRITING

Mountain Theology
February 2023
Political Theology Network
https://politicaltheology.com/mountain-theology/

2023 Christian Day Planner with Prayers
November 2022
Simply Soulful Designs
https://a.co/d/iuVkd9J

Confronting Antisemitism and Islamophobia
November 2022
The Presbyterian Outlook
https://pres-outlook.org/2022/11/confronting-antisemitism-and-islamophobia/

Looking into the Lectionary
June 12, 2022
The Presbyterian Outlook
https://pres-outlook.org/2022/06/trinity-sunday-june-12-2022/

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Monster of Whiteness
(Print title: Promethean Dreams) April 2022
The Christian Century
Vol. 139 No. 8
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/opinion/mary-shelley-s-frankenstein-and-monster-whiteness

Liberating Church: A Hush Harbor Manifesto (Contributing author)
May 2022
https://wipfandstock.com/9781666730043/liberating-church/
Brandon Wrencher and Venneikia S. Williams, eds.
Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishing

her coffee grounds (poetry blessing)
January 2022
Held: Blessings for the Depths
Enfleshed 
https://enfleshed.com/additional-blessings-for-the-depths/#coffee

Looking into the Lectionary
August 8, 2021
The Presbyterian Outlook 
https://pres-outlook.org/2021/08/august-8-2021-11th-sunday-after-pentecost/

Looking into the Lectionary
August 15, 2021
The Presbyterian Outlook
https://pres-outlook.org/2021/08/12th-sunday-after-pentecost-august-15-2021/

Life That Does Not Demand Death
April 2021
Political Theology Network
https://politicaltheology.com/life-that-does-not-demand-death/

Paul’s Propertied Incarnation
December 2020
Political Theology Network
https://politicaltheology.com/pauls-propertied-incarnation/

The Old, Evil Idea of Humans as Units of Production
June 2020
(Print title: At What Cost?)
The Christian Century
Vol. 137 No. 13
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/old-evil-idea-humans-units-production

Places of Power and Promise: A Pilgrimage into the Enslaved African Hush Harbor
May 2019
Liberating Church Project
http://liberatingchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Places-of-Power-and-Promise.pdf

Fungibility: A Vocabulary Lesson for White People
March 2018
Fidelia Magazine, Young Clergy Women International
https://youngclergywomen.org/fungibility-vocabulary-lesson-white-people/

Grace in a Mason Jar
July 2016
The Presbyterian Outlook
https://pres-outlook.org/2016/07/grace-mason-jar/

The Rest is Commentary
October 2015
Mercy Community Church Publication
https://mercyonline.net/2015/10/05/the-rest- is-commentary/

The Power of Plastic
August 2015
Fidelia Magazine, The Young Clergy Women International
https://youngclergywomen.org/the-power-of-plastic/

“Divine Dining” Weekly Food Column
October 2012–August 2015
The Sanford Herald, Sanford, NC
http://www.sanfordherald.com/

get in touch!

Feel free to email me: whitney.wilkinson@duke.edu