Cite
SDI Encounters - Conversation on Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfoR4UXW5wU.
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FirstDirector:: SDI - The Home of Spiritual Companionship
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Title:: SDI Encounters - Conversation on Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses
Year:: 2024
Citekey:: sdi-thehomeofspiritualcompanionshipSDIEncountersConversation2024
itemType:: videoRecording
LINK
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Abstract
We’re experimenting with a video version of our podcast on spiritual direction and companionship. In this first video conversation, we chat with Larry J Morris III about the broader themes of our upcoming webinar series, Beyond Binaries: Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses. .
Notes
Speaker: Larry J Morris III and Matt Whitney Length: 16:42
Highlights
Transcript
Matt
Hi, everybody. I’m Matt Whitney. I’m the creative director for SDI. And in this video podcast, we are talking about our upcoming series, Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses.
And I’m talking with Larry J. Morris III, who’s going to be a host for this series.
I will be there as well. We’re very excited about this series. It is open to all people, and all identities, all backgrounds, all types of spiritual companions. The invitation for this series is to explore our lives and our work as spiritual companions, and investigate that work in our very spiritual selves through the prism of queer perspectives. Indeed, we can understand queerness as a wisdom path, as one which, along with our other spiritual traditions and orientations, offers deep wisdom to us. It offers profound insights, and can offer liberation, spiritual liberation. And in true openness and inner spiritual dialogue, which we do at SDI, all of us, queer or straight, can glean insights from the spiritual jewels of the mystical path of queerness.
If that statement invites excitement and possibility for you, then this webinar is for you. And also, if it invites some discomfort, we would also invite you to join us. And we’ll get into that a little bit in this conversation. Hope you enjoy.
Okay. I can do that. I can show up and- You can show up and ask questions.
Larry
And ask questions and be in conversation.
Matt
I think what you bring, Larry, is like a real thoughtful, I don’t want to say academic, but I mean, we were just talking about it, as part of your PhD, is the intersection of Black queerness and spirituality and preaching and theology. And so, I’m going to be, we will be kind of leaning on you to kind of hold the torch, as it were, for this broad perspective on queerness. And really, it’s perspectives, right? Which is why this was your idea to call it Queer Lenses, Spiritual Companionship through Queer Lenses. Yeah. So, maybe I’ll just ask you that question.
Why is it important to say that in a plural sense?
Larry
Yeah. I think it’s important because there’s not just one understanding or interpretation or definition of queer, right? This idea of moving beyond binaries, but I think naming that there are many lenses opens up space for us to really talk about the different understandings of queerness and the ways in which people see and experience and define queerness in much of a broad way. And I think for us, it’s important to be intentional on helping people understand that there are many perspectives. And I think sometimes we say a particular perspective, one particular lens, one particular voice. And lenses almost requires us to be aware, to look out for, to pay attention to the various queer voices and lenses and experiences.
Matt
It seems like there is a tension between the, and I want to ask you about even just how you would define queerness, which to me, beyond binaries is the name of the webinar, right? The idea of queerness is like being critical of these boundaries that are learned or cultural and moving past, but while also kind of maintaining sort of a rigorous eye for, like for what? Whether we’re like too narrow in our definitions or too broad, like how do you understand that?
Larry:
Yeah. So I think, I mean, queerness, the term queerness is used in many different ways. So one, I think we talked about before in our previous webinars around an umbrella term for LGBTQIA folks, right? And then queerness as pushing beyond binaries, right? Like, you know, like you said, as a tool of interrogation is a term that I’ve been thinking about lately, like pushing against what’s considered normal, right? Like this is the thing that's normal, whatever it is, whether it's sexuality, whether it's spiritual companionship. And then how do we understand what's normalized, even in spiritual companionship, right? And then how do we push beyond that? Not in a way of like, we just tearing stuff down for the sake of tearing it down or pushing beyond for the sake of pushing beyond. But because we know the divine is expansive, right? And the divine cannot be limited.
And spiritual companionship, like how do we push beyond, you know, our narrow definitions of a divine, our narrow definitions of what it means to accompany someone. And I think a queer lens allows us to do that, is to understand what's normalized, but also it invites us and almost kind of demands for us to look beyond what's normalized and to think about other possibilities.
Matt
So that sounds really generative. And so two approaches, I think, to this webinar and how queerness applies to spiritual companionship. And one is just maybe there’s a sense that like our practice is stale, or we’ve been doing it the same way for a long time and want to give it some new life, some like air it out in a sense, like some new energy. So it sounds like one way of thinking about spiritual companionship through the queer lens is just what you named it as like a sort of methodology or a framework by which we examine what’s stale about our practice and how to give it some new life.
Larry:
Yeah, I appreciate you naming it that way, because I think sometimes we limit the term queer to just mean sexuality.
And so this comes up in conversations often, you know, people push back against my stance on it, which is fine. But this idea if people who identify as heterosexual can be queer or use like a queer lens, and I would say yes, right around this idea of really pushing against what’s normative, being generative, pushing against binaries. And, you know, even if you don’t identify as someone who is LGBTQIA. So you mentioning that this webinar being open to folks whose practice may just be stale, right? They may not identify as queer, as LGBTQIA, but they notice there is a staleness or a sense of normality to their practice that isn’t generative, right? So the hope is that folks can come to this webinar, hear some different experiences, be in dialogue with folks, and leave with some sort of like refreshing or some ideas, some newness that they can bring into their spiritual practice and their companionship.
Matt
Yeah, yeah, which is exciting.
And I also like I want to great lengths to define this webinar as like, it’s not an LGBTQ webinar, right? It is very much for everybody, like however you identify queer, straight, and maybe even especially straight folks, because we’re, you know, I mean, speaking as a straight folk, like there’s, there’s things, and I think we’re all a little bit queer, but like, there’s things we can learn, you know, it’s, and this is the other really important angle, I think, for this series is understanding queerness as a spiritual path, or even a mystical path. One in which we can have a direct encounter with the divine in a queer way. And I wonder if you could speak to that a little bit, or if you have an understanding.
Larry:
I think that mysticism and contemplation are in some ways inherently queer, right? We think about this idea of like slowing down, or really connecting with ourselves and with the divine with community in authentic ways, goes against what is normalized in our, in the world, and most places in the world, particularly the U. S. , so this, you know, we're continually moving, we're trying to reach the next goal, we're trying to follow, follow particular like religious, religious practices, like these things, that like these do this, this, this, and that.
I think mysticism, and really having some intentionality on encountering the divine and encountering yourself is already queer, because it goes against what’s normalized, right? I think even contemplation, like as I said, is inherently queer, but sometimes the way in which we understand contemplation can become limited, it can become like normalized, the only way that you can be a contemplative is if you sit down for 10 minutes. You know, that's the only way that some people understand contemplation, but to queer that, there's many different ways that folks can be contemplatives, and to be into, can enter into a state of contemplation or be a contemplative, and so this webinar, we will explore the various ways that, you know, that contemplation is queer, but also how to queer that. The other thing that makes me think about is, you kept talking about like this newness and freshness in our practice, but sometimes we need newness and freshness in our own lives, in our own like contemplative lives, and sometimes we pick up on something that someone else said, right? A practice that someone else may name or mention, or an experience that someone else may have, that opens up our understanding and opens up the possibilities that we have as we encounter the divine and ourselves in community, and so when I think about, you know, queer lenses, I’m excited to hear what presenters talk about, what may come up in the group, because you know, there’s always some lively conversation when folks bring their experiences as well, and again, I think all of that is pushing against whatever is normative for us, and so, you know, really just excited about the possibilities of the webinar.
Matt
Yeah, me too, and I’m excited, you know, we’ve got some new voices that we’re bringing to the table. I mean, not new, like people from our community, but people who haven’t necessarily like done webinars or conferences for us before, and we have these different perspectives, and just to come, like, well, my hope is just that people come in and are just open-hearted, and just listening, and considering for themselves, you know, like, in what ways is my own spiritual companionship practice queer? What ways is my own spirituality, or the ways that I approach contemplative practice? My own sense of God, or the divine, you know, and so I’m excited for it, I’m excited that SDI is doing it, and I hope as many people as possible join us for it, and so this is me, like, welcoming as many people as possible, like, come join us, like, yeah, you know, it’s like, Larry, you’re gonna be there, I’m gonna be there, our presenters will be there, and hopefully you will be there, as we kind of explore this together for all of our sakes, you know.
Larry:
Can I offer something else about this term queer, or even, you know, to make sure for this webinar, I do think that queer also has this feeling of being transgressive, right, and some, that may make some people uncomfortable, and so I invite folks who are not afraid to enter into just uncomfortableness, right, you know, in their practice, and trying to figure out what is next, and I think sometimes we can be so comfortable with being comfortable in that we know that our practice isn’t working the way that, you know, we want it to, or we know that our own spiritual life is not working the way that we want to, but in order to get to the next phase, or the next experience, there has to be some kind of transgression around what's normalized for us, and so I hope that also happens in this webinar, even with the term queer, that there will be a pushing against, right, of what’s normalized and what we’re comfortable with, and so that we hold that space together as a community when we are uncomfortable, and so we talked about how people who identify as straight can also identify as queer, but just because someone is LGBTQIA doesn’t mean they’re necessarily queer if they’re not comfortable with moving beyond binaries, or they’re not comfortable with being transgressive, like, you know, in the most holy way possible, right, and so I just want to offer that too, that, you know, spirituality is about, you know, oneness with the divine, with ourselves, and with other folks, but there’s also some uncomfortableness that comes with that, and we, it helps us if we are open to experiencing that and kind of moving through that.
Matt
Yeah, thank you for that invitation. I think, I mean, I know for myself that, like, in midlife, that discomfort is an invitation, right, the things that make me uncomfortable or unsettled might actually be, like, a holy call, a divine invitation, and so if you’re watching this, or listening to this, and you’re sensing some discomfort, maybe listen to that, tune into that, and, like, that discomfort is very welcome, Larry, you put it so well, just holding it in community together. Yeah, cool. Well, this is great.
Is there anything else you want to say about the series? Oh, we don’t want to give it all away. We don’t want to give it all away.
Larry:
I would invite people to come, be present, engage, it’ll be a good time. Yeah, well, it’ll be good to be with you, and what else do I want to say?
Matt
We’re doing, like, a free preview at some points before the series, and so that’ll be in late July. We’ll put a notice out about that, but otherwise, it’s four sessions, Mondays in August, and we hope to see you, and I hope to see you.
Larry:
Yeah, I’ll see you too.