God's Tapestry: Understanding and Celebrating Differences [Paperback]

William M. Kondrath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2008

Our differences are our greatest blessings and our greatest challenges, maintains William Kondrath, Episcopal priest and seminary professor. Theologically and ecologically, differences foster life and growth, but discord within denominations and congregations frequently have to do with the inability of individuals and groups to deeply understand and value differences.

In God's Tapestry, Kondrath shows us how to embrace our multiculturalism--our differences of race, culture, gender, age, theology, language, sexual identity, and so forth. He does this by exploring differences on four levels--personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. He also demonstrates a threefold process for becoming multicultural: recognizing our differences, understanding those differences and their significance and consequences, and valuing or celebrating those differences.

While ministry is the work of the faith community, not only ordained or professional staff, it is critical that leaders learn the art and skill of recognizing, understanding, and valuing differences. Then the congregations and agencies they serve, having learned and practiced the art and skill of celebrating differences, can be the yeast that brings this awareness of God's diverse blessings to the wider world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book sneaks up on you. Its gentle tone creates a space for learning about self and others--a soul-space where risks may be taken, relationships deepened, and change navigated in grace-filled ways. Bill Kondrath invites congregations into a new way of being together in the midst of differences, and offers a sturdy guidebook for leaders who need help "walking the talk" of inclusion and hospitality. --Alice Mann, Senior Consultant, The Alban Institute

Kondrath deftly shows how ongoing divisions connected to race, gender, and other differences are tangled up in powerful emotions that need to be respected and addressed before change can happen. He invites us into the awkward but essential dance of untangling, wherein we are made whole. --Katrina Browne, director/producer, Traces of the Trade: Stories from the Deep North

Drawing from the studies of power dynamics in race and gender relations, relational theory, and his personal experience as a European American male pastor, William Kondrath presents in this book an approach to community transformation that values feelings, imagination, and relationship. This approach is a valuable contribution to the field of congregational transformation in which so many existing models center around linear thinking and analysis, and are often action oriented and solution-driven. Employing relational theory in this ministry is a new paradigm to understanding what the real stumbling blocks are to community change. --Rev. Eric H. F. Law, founder and director of the Kaleidoscope Institute

About the Author

Rev. Dr. William M. Kondrath is professor of pastoral theology and director of theological field education at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has devoted more than twenty years to congregational ministry and hospital and university chaplaincy and has worked with congregations, judicatories, and theological schools on leadership development, staff retreats, change and conflict, and understanding and valuing differences. He is also a program consultant for VISIONS, Inc., providing multicultural training and consultation to corporate, educational, nonprofit, and ecclesial organizations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: The Alban Institute (April 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566993636
• ISBN-13: 978-1566993630
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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