Liberation Theology in North America

Summary

When I entered Harvard Divinity School in 1982, I had my own experiences of Liberation Theology and Base Communities, but no academic foundation undergirding my new understandings. I had no idea who Henri Nouwen was. My room was across the hall from Divinity Hall's chapel and so my dorm mates elected me to be the one in charge of our chapel's services. The first morning we had a service, I found the priest in the chapel arranging the chairs in a circle in a base community style of worship. And so we sat in a circle, with the priest among us, as one with us. During the homily, our celebrant looked up and away, frequently, as if communicating with another being. He also gestured, frequently, with hands that seemed larger than life size (when in reality they fit his size and frame). As I soon found out, this was Henri Nouwen, a man I came to know, a man I learned from, a man who blessed me with his friendship, his books and at my installation as rector at St. Stephen's Parish in Portland, Oregon, with a very special chasuble and stole from Guatemala.