This Advent season, you’re invited to join us in reading Trash: A Poor White Journey, a compelling debut by Cedar Monroe, who earned their Masters in Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School in 2013. Through poignant narratives from a small town, Monroe sheds light on the struggles of unhoused people and the community's fight against eviction and neglect.
In Advent, Christians experience a season of sacred waiting and hoping. We stand ready as midwives to birth a more just world. Monroe is frank about the depth and scope of the labor before us - the challenge of liberating those made and kept poor in a nation with abundant wealth. In this holy season of waiting, Trash will challenge us to reconsider harmful stereotypes of poor white Americans and urge us to build coalitions across race and class for our collective liberation.
Monroe co-founded Chaplains on the Harbor—a ministry for and with people experiencing homelessness, incarceration, and addiction, in western Washington state—and Harbor Roots Farm, a project supporting people coming out of jail to learn how to farm and connect with the earth.
On December 12 at 3pm ET, the EDS community will gather online to discuss our learnings from the book in conversation with Cedar, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, and others. Order your copy of Trash today!
All are welcome and encouraged to join this conversation as a diocese, parish, prayer circle, or other group. Whether you’re joining as a group or individual, you are welcome to use these discussion questions to guide your reflections.