In the Anglican World, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally said this earlier this month an an address to the House of Lords.

"God made us creative beings, and AI and wider technologies are a remarkable product of human creativity. They have led to extraordinary discoveries and breakthroughs at speeds that we could never have imagined….

"But this extraordinary product of human creativity, and the power it places in our hands, also raises urgent new questions. What are the implications for our human relationships, for our connections with family and friends? How does it impact on our working lives – the existence of, or the quality of our jobs? What are the implications for warfare, for climate change, for our engagement with information and democracy? Just because we could create something or deploy technology in a certain way, does that mean we should?"

For some, the answer is no.

Recently an Episcopal priest in Massachusetts, has been circulating something called the St. Dunstan Pledge  .. it’s a pledge to keep generative AI out of any part of sermon work… brainstorming, planning, drafting or writing.”  Around 150 preachers have signed it so far.

Like much of any discourse these days, conversation about Artificial Intelligence in the church tends to cluster around the poles of fawning and fear. Today’s guest, the Rev. Peter Levenstrong, takes a more nuanced approach.

Peter is a priest at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, and he co-produces the AI Toolkit, a podcast exploring the intersection of ministry and artificial intelligence, is the TryTank Institute’s senior research fellow on AI, and authors the substack The Human Part, which advocates for retaining genuine human connection, spiritual labor, and empathy in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Peter joins us for a conversation at the intersection of artificial intelligence and the church … and we talk about AI’s potential for good, the legitimate concerns surrounding it and some of the nature of the reactive fear surrounding the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence.

You can read more from Peter on his substack The Human part at thehumanpart.substack.com. You can learn more about living stories at livingstoriessermons.org, where you can also pre-order his book and you can find all sorts of resources at aichurchtoolkit.com … including the first season of his podcast.

If you like this podcast, please give it a good rating and share it with your friends. As always, if you have ideas of people you’d like to hear from or topics you’d like me to cover, email me at mkinman@gmail.com.

Those of us who even long ago began ordaining women need to understand that our work for gender equity and justice is far from over.

Official studies in mainline denominations that ordain women report between 50 and 75% have experienced instances of gender-based harassment and abuse.  Ordained women will tell you that the percentage is much higher than that … upwards of the high 90s. Much like anyone who is not white and male in the church, lack of discrimination, harassment and abuse is such the outlier that many have told me that it is just an accepted part of life.

For much of the past year, I have been honored to be working with the Rev. Chantal McKinney, who is dedicating her life to gathering healing communities of women who have experienced and are experiencing harm in the church, creating safe spaces and platforms for them to share their stories and to call the church to a new life of justice not just in its structure and practice but in its very theology.

She has a new book out, Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls, where she talks about her own story of harassment and abuse, her healing journey and then in what is really a love letter to the church, extends an invitation to the church into a new way of being that begins with truth telling and continues with reparation and a changed way of life.

A movement is growing around her work called Water + Light. It is becoming a powerful place for truth-telling and healing for women … and others .. who have experienced church harm. Women who are refusing to be silent anymore and who are calling the church to be true to her calling in Christ and give much more than the lip service it has given justice in this arena since its inception.

Chantal McKinney joins me today for this episode of the Mutual Aid podcast. She talks about her story, the reaction of church leadership to her book and to this new movement, the depth and breadth of the epidemic of church harm and much, much more. She also talks about how you can find healing community if you have been harmed and how everyone can join in a growing movement of solidarity … which is the heart of what mutual aid is about.

Order Chantal's book here - https://www.chantalmckinney.com/about-the-book

Join the solidarity group here - forms.gle/M2Re2rwYEiaHbeGK9

Find out more about Water + Light here - https://www.chantalmckinney.com/water-light

Join a circle of support here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScopX-eNkNIrGRdV0lSl0Zpkl4MhZJXpHrkGRtaIPWMDbHRTQ/viewform

Sign up for a healing circle here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfj6wieQj20xEginXrKLGH4ou1IXDpYPC-CDFvQyAKjJfNY5g/viewform

Donate to Water + Light here - https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/water-and-light-support-women-harmed-in-the-church

It’s not unusual … people go through it all the time whether through voluntary retirement or involuntary job loss … and it can be hard.  I had no idea how hard.

Over the next seven months, I lost my job, I left my marriage and I spent the next year living in spare bedrooms of wonderful friends in Culver City, Tucson and Marin County.  And I realized how much of my sense not just of self but of worth had been tied up in those identities. I still had some important identities left … I was still a father, a friend, even a priest … though even those relationships and identities were undergoing some significant shifts.  

And, thanks to a wonderful community of friends and the gift of time, what could have been – and frankly, sometimes felt like, a tremendous crisis of meaning, purpose and identity – ended up being a wonderful opportunity to learn from the past 30 years of my life and begin the process of being remade … and getting back to the core identity that for three decades I had been telling other people but had struggled with believing myself – that I was a child of God, beautiful, powerful and good – and that was the only worth I would ever need.

One of the friends who helped me and is still helping me through this time is my guest today. His name is Jeff Koziatek. Jeff and I have known each other for about a dozen years and have walked through a lot of life events together. He has gone through a lot of challenges and changes in his own life and has found a vocation helping people walk just the journey I have been on. He is the founder of Core Authenticity, a leadership coach, a dynamic speaker and leader but more than that for me he has been a source of deep wisdom and even deeper joy.

As I listen to so many of you in this changing world today, I realize these struggles for identity and meaning are not unusual they are everywhere … and so is an epidemic of silence of how deeply we are struggling with it all.

So I thought this would be a great time to bring Jeff on and have him share some of the principles and practices that have guided him and that certainly helped me … and that I hope can bring some wisdom and joy for you as well.

Jeff's website - https://www.coreauthenticity.com/

Mask Trilogy - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jeff+koziatek+mask

Juggling Jeff at All Saints Church for Joy Sunday - https://youtu.be/Vucx8SJfC_I?si=cgTv6eaVYn9GjqiG

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Context
• 06:17 Personal Stories and Representation
• 13:32 Emotional Resonance of Voting Rights
• 20:30 Importance of Community Engagement