Charis welcomes Cassidy Hall in conversation with Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown for a discussion of Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality. What would it mean to queer contemplation? To disentangle contemplative spirituality from heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity, and instead engage with openness, curiosity, and a little weirdness?

The world of contemplative Christianity has yielded to the same voices for far too long, many of whom are from centuries before our time, with lives unlike our own, and often from experiences disconnected from marginalization, oppression, and what it feels like to be an outsider.

Cassidy Hall, an LGBTQIA+ Christian contemplative scholar and podcast host, takes us on a journey to queer the contemplative tradition. For Hall, queering is not solely about identifying as queer or applying queer theory; it is about what is gained by seeing things differently. "Queer," she says, " is the way I tilt my head to look at the world."

As queerness reawakened her own contemplative life, Hall discovered that queering and questioning the tradition allowed her to listen more closely to voices that are queer, marginalized, and oppressed--voices that have long existed but have often been overlooked or silenced. For Hall, that also meant moving differently into contemplation, into silence, into liminality and ritual. In showing us the way, she helps us envision what contemplative faith can look like, what spiritual spaces we can reclaim for welcome--and how queering contemplation, and lifting up queer contemplative voices, frees us to seek the infinite possibility of our own identity and engage our spiritual lives with open hearts and open hands.

Whether you're queer or want to queer your own perspectives, or whether you want to uncover the queerness and queer voices in the contemplative tradition--Hall throws open the doors of contemplative spirituality for all, bringing us to contemplation in very new, sometimes old, but always queer ways.

Cassidy Hall (she/her/hers) (MA, MDiv, MTS) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger.  Her forthcoming book, Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality is set for release in May of 2024. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.

Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, is a spiritual director/companion, writer, retreat leader, and speaker.  She earned her BA from UC Santa Cruz and PhD from Harvard University. Lerita completed the Spiritual Guidance Program at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and promotes contemplative spirituality, the living wisdom of Howard Thurman, and uncovering the peace and joy in one’s heart on her website, leritacolemanbrown.com and other social media platforms. She appears in the documentaries, Back Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story, and The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song. Her book, When the Heart Speaks, Listen—Discovering Inner Wisdom was published in 2019. Her newest book, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman was published in 2023.. Lerita is a most grateful heart (28 years) and kidney (17 years) transplant recipient and survivor of several other medical ordeals.

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Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality--Cassidy Hall in conversation with Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown