Topic: Summer Finale in Music: Sunshine, Healing, and Transformation

Presenter(s): Jay McDaniel

As pain and fear rage through the current moment of global history, people ask what can we do and where can we find direction. One frequent response is “music.” The Process Explorations program on July 29 will focus on music and its role in lighting dark and dangerous spaces, in healing, and in the radical transformation of persons and societies. The program is in three parts. First is a focus on the power of music in communities where people are living with new realities, such as aging or increased physical or memory-challenges. The second focus is on protest songs or music that sings out hard realities and inspires response. The third focus is on the intertwining of spiritual, personal, communal, and global transformation.

We are fortunate to have Jay McDaniel as the MC for this “Summer Finale in Music.” He will also provide some narrative and music in which he is involved. We will have music of the Broadsides era sung by the Troubadours of Pilgrim Place, focusing on protest music from the 1960s and 70s. The Troubadours include teachers, scholars, pastors, and musicians – Dwight Vogel, Cheryl Brown, Dennis McDonald, Dan Gara, Ward McAfee, and Mary Cooper. Sheri Kling also joins us. Sheri is a composer, singer, pastor, and director of Process and Faith. She will share some of her newest compositions. This program will be our finale for the first half of 2025. After an August break, we will begin again with weekly conversations on Tuesday, September 9, with the ecological activist and storyteller Susan Strauss.

About the Presenter(s)

Jay McDaniel, PhD is Willis Holmes Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Hendrix College in Arkansas, and founder of the website Open Horizons, which focuses on exploring a process outlook on life and way of living in the world. Active in the development of process thought in China, he is a consultant to the China Project of the Center for Process Studies in Claremont, California, and a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China. His books include With Roots and Wings: Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue, Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism; and Gandhi’s Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace.