ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how teaching worship theologies and practices in a way that emphasizes environmental justice encourages students to attend to the problems, peculiarities, and possibilities of their contexts and to explore how they can do theology in transformative ways in and with communities in the contexts. For students accustomed to more traditional and often linear approaches to courses about Christian sacraments, central worship elements were innovations that linked ancient worship practices to contemporary questions, concerns, and opportunities in local contexts. Students shared in class their bread-baking stories, stories that sometimes involved family recipes, baking with friends or family members, and recipes from their personal first communion experiences. Students demonstrated by their responses that they were learning how to “do theology” as they consider the nuances of worship leadership in varied contexts. Attentiveness to local places is a stance from which religious leaders can invite their communities to see links between their lives and global concerns and possibilities.
