Todd Hunter: From Mere Optimism to True Joy Through Lament

A conversation with Bishop Todd Hunter on the conclusion of Soong-Chan Rah’s book Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, our C4SO Reads book for Lent. Todd talks about the pandemic moving him from a cognitive acknowledgment that “the full range of human emotion is expressed in the Psalms” to an embodied, emotional connection to lament as he prayed the Psalms this past year. We also discuss the connection between lament and joy, and the trouble we get into when we try and bifurcate them into separate, unrelated experiences.

Links from this episode:

• Watch Bishop Todd’s video reflection from Lamentations 5
• Find out more about our C4SO Reads For Lent Series
• Our online Stations of the Cross installation
• Our first Cycle of Prayer Spotlight this week is Holy Trinity Silicon Valley in Mountain View, California, led by the Rev. John Gorin.
• Our other Cycle of Prayer Spotlight this week is The Trinity Mission online and Trinity on the Border in La Feria, Texas, led by the Rev. Michael Jarrett