Let us Govern around the Kitchen Table: Embodying the Guild’s Anti-Colonial Commitments

Abstract

AbstractThis article, developed from an oral presentation of the Presidential Address offered at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Religious Education Association, invites the guild to repurpose its governance and discourse practices around Indigenous feminist kitchen table methodology. It names the process of this methodology, and invites the guild to participate in the actualization of its own anti-colonial future through the practices of reciprocity and mutual recognition that shape this methodology.Keywords: Religious educationanti-colonialismgovernanceIndigenous feminismkitchen table methodology Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 I am a citizen of Cherokee Nation (Tahlequah, OK).2 I encourage you to read Kayla Meredith August’s paper, “Preaching from the Kitchen: The Proclamation of Black Women from Seemingly Ordinary Spaces and How It Transforms the Faith of Youth” from the 2023 REA Annual Meeting Proceedings (August Citation2023).3 Dori Grinenko Baker offers an excellent template for story-sharing that includes theological reflection: Listen, Immerse, View, Explore/Enact (Baker Citation2023). Likewise, Yohana Junker and Aizaiah Yong offer “SpiritLetters,” a story-sharing process via letter-writing designed to “bless the space between us” in the digital classroom (Junker and Yong Citation2022).Additional informationNotes on contributorsAnne Carter WalkerAnne Carter Walker is Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and Vocational Formation at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, OK. Email: annecwalker@gmail.com