Let the cracking open continue: Believing in kenosis, practicing solidarity for the common good

Abstract

Stephanie Spellers’ The Church Cracked Open should be required reading for every Episcopalian and Christian who seeks to follow the liberative, loving, compassionate, pastoral, and prophetic way of Jesus. The “cracking open” of the church and of our lives, however painful and traumatic, can be leveraged for the good, as it allows for the structural injustices and spiritual wounds aided and abetted by dominant forms of church to be uncovered, examined, and possibly healed and transformed in the liberating way of Jesus. In this reflection, I focus on two of the core spiritual and ethical practices that Spellers proposes in the culmination of her book—kenosis and solidarity—asking questions and offering examples of how these practices might show up in our church polity, our places of worship, and in the broader communities in which we minister.