Overview

The vicious fighting which was the landscape of the 2019 United Methodist Church seemed to spill into the chaos that became 2020. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, rampant inequity, and the loss of millions stressed our communities and our churches. As a seminarian, local church pastor, and mom of three, the sudden thrust into disarray brought with it a unique set of challenges and a newer, more visceral way of praying. In embracing the honest, authentic relationship with the Divine forged in the crucible of this ministry season, the prayers and poems contained in these pages are the byproduct of that union. Witch. Bitch. Heretic. has become the celebration of ministry in these words offered to Solar (and her clergy-sisters) before sermons and worship services, baptisms and funerals, when they dared to speak the word of God to the people of God. As God called forth creation from the chaos in the beginning, may believers continue to be co-Creators and speak truth even now. Siblings, beloveds, all are welcome here. Welcome home.

Full Product Details

9798385253234

Table of Contents

Reviews

""We are taken on a ride that is part lamenting rant and part stubborn hope--all of it seared with a vulnerability that invites our own. It is plain spoken--an economy of words that pack in large amounts of poetic power on the impossibility of life and the possibility of new life. This is unabashed and honest dialogue with the Divine in their many forms about the heartbreak and insatiable lure of being a spiritual leader dwelling within institutionally defined margins."" --Marcia McFee, Creator, Worship Design Studio ""Solar writes with piercing honesty about the realities of motherhood, womanhood, and daily life. She challenges us to see faith and lived experience as one holistic truth. Part reflection, incantation, critique, lament, and prayer, this book confronts a church that goes through the motions and calls us toward a more authentic, courageous, and compassionate faith."" --Bridget Cabrera, Executive Director, Methodist Federation for Social Action ""Rebekah Solar has done a brave thing by opening the contents of her heart to the page and letting us readers bear witness to the complexity of religious leadership in trying times. . . . One shouldn't try to pin down Solar's writing, not only because it moves fluidly from poetry to memory to manifesto and back again, but because there is so much life in her words, and we should not try to pin living things down."" --Anastasia Kidd, Director of Contextual Education, Boston University

Author Information

Rebekah L. Solar serves as Associate Director of Missional Excellence for the Upper New York United Methodist Church. She graduated from Boston University School of Theology (2024).

Tab Content 6

Countries Available