The Episcopal Center at Duke has hosted WholeSpirit events led by Mara Bishop, shamanic counselor, intuitive and energy healer. On their website they say: “The Episcopal Center community gathers to worship the divine, to serve the world, and to care for one another. Therefore, your faith and doubt, your intellect and intuition, and your passions and questions are welcome here.

The Episcopal Center is an inclusive community that honors the image of God in each person, regardless of race, gender, age, sexuality, or class. The Episcopal Center has an active history of service to its neighbors, both locally and globally. Our students have worked with Urban Ministries of Durham, the Human Kindness Foundation, the Inter Faith Food Shuttle, and numerous other community partners. As an example of the quality of their thoughts, read this sample from their blog:

The parable of the workers in the vineyard calls us to re-evaluate our own economy, to value people over productivity.

Let’s talk economics, old school. The Greek word “oikos”, which means “home”, is the root word for our English word “economy”. We get it by way of the Greek oikonomia, which means “household.” This is a worthwhile connection to point out, I think, because today’s Gospel calls for a new perspective on our own economy.

Farmworkers today are often paid by weight for what they pick. Their wages are based on their productivity. This is not a scandalous notion to most of us. We are taught that you work hard for everything you get. A farmworker here in North Carolina, the nation’s leading sweet potato producer, can expect to earn roughly 26 dollars for each ton of sweet potatoes they pick, which comes out to less than minimum wage.

Small farms are often exempt from wage laws, and if the worker is undocumented, as they very often are, they have little power to argue for better pay. But I can easily chalk all of that up to market forces at play. The market values the strenuous work of picking 2,000 pounds of sweet potatoes at $26. Those wages, low as they may be, draw people from other countries to come work here. It isn’t scandalous. It should be scandalous.

For more about the Duke Episcopal Center, visit their website.

For more shamanic events hosted by WholeSpirit, see our Event Calendar.