Jennifer Copeland
Jennifer Copeland is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Prior to coming to the Council, she spent 16 years as the United Methodist Chaplain at Duke University, where she also taught undergraduate and divinity school classes, served on committees and task forces, and attended lots of basketball games. The North Carolina Council of Churches is a statewide ecumenical organization promoting Christian unity and working towards a more just society. Founded in 1935, the North Carolina Council of Churches enables denominations, congregations, and people of faith to individually and collectively impact our state on issues such as economic justice and development, human well-being, equality, compassion and peace, following the example and mission of Jesus Christ. Our members include 25 judicatories of 17 denominations and eight individual congregations.
Dance the Story: Creating Non-verbal Storytelling/Embodying the Story
Storytelling does not have to involve words; we have the ability to tell stories with our bodies. Movement is a universal language in which all people everywhere can express themselves and understand one another. Everyone has the power to embody the message and stories of God in a way that truly connects with people. (Jennie Belle)
Troubling the Parables of Jesus
Jesus’ parables are seemingly simple and memorable stories, often with imagery, and all convey a moral or spiritual lesson. In this co-creative workshop participants will recreate the parables for themselves in order to see how the stories we tell change from different perspectives. The goal of this workshop is to use the parables to teach participants to tell their own stories and to see how often our own pretexts confine us and make us unable or unwilling to see the world through the lens of someone else. Participants will learn new ways of reading the parables and new ways of thinking about how we fit into Jesus’ stories. To this end we will also explore how the parables are connected to the work of the North Carolina Council of Churches in promoting Christian unity and working towards a more just society.
