Jed Dearing

05/16/19

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, ‘20, Diocese of Southern Ohio

Jed Dearing is a seminarian of the Diocese of Southern Ohio and a recipient of SIM’s Becoming Beloved Community scholarship for 2018-19. His seminary journey is marked by work among both the wealthy of the Silicon Valley and the homeless and working poor of Southern Ohio.  Out of this experience, he shares this question, “How will the Episcopal Church respond to economic stratification? What does it mean for the church today to host a Eucharistic meal across class and cultural lines?  I believe it will take practical changes to accepted norms of Episcopal worship life in order to make room for communities beyond middle class and wealthy families…It is time for the church to break conventions, raise questions, and figure out how it is going to make room for the other in our worshipping communities.” Citing the struggles of the early Christian community of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Jed comments, “The road to inclusion has never been easy in the history of the church...”  More contemporaneously, the economic stratification of the Silicon Valley paints a challenge for the church within and well beyond that region.
 
Jed will be continuing his work with his field ed parish engaging with professionals in the tech, financial, and law sectors, exploring how the business practice impacts the possibilities for Beloved Community. He will also be leading a workshop for the Diocese of Southern Ohio at their Becoming Beloved Community Convocation, exploring what parishes are willing to change to welcome new people and especially the marginalized to our churches by learning how stories OF the community can lead to co-creation BY the community FOR the benefit of the entire community.  This will be followed by participation in the Preaching Excellence Program hosted by the Episcopal Preaching Foundation.
 
Jed will also be spending 18 days in Panama, thanks to a grant from the Seminary Consultation on Mission (SCOM) immersed with a thriving Episcopal church in the middle-class community of David, exploring how liberation theology has influenced their neighborhood ministry. The final five days will be spent in a surrounding rural community as a chaplain supporting the non-profit, This Is Health, providing critical health care to families among the indigenous Ngäbe people in long term partnership with a Seventh Day Adventist school and clean water project.