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THE PULPIT IS MAKING A COMEBACK . . .
Geez magazine launches awkward sermon contest
December 2008

Winnipeg, Canada –– Geez magazine is bringing the stodgy old pulpit back from the brink of cultural oblivion with a sermon contest of holy mischief.

The dark, wooden bulwark of yesteryear has little currency today, but what if the pulpit was torn from its moorings and planted closer to the action? What if it was available to anyone who wished the voices of spiritual authority would say less about other-worldly glory and more about the spiritual side of the big issues of our times?

Building on last year’s “30 Sermons You’d Never Hear in Church” contest,” Geez magazine’s 2009 Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest is ushering in a new and – make no mistake – decidedly different era of proclamation.

“The world needs bold voices of spiritual depth,” says Geez publisher Aiden Enns. “But maybe the message can have an element of holy mischief, a smirk instead of a furrowed brow, and, at the same time, more connection to the pressing issues of the day.”

The Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest invites entries that explore the aspects of social change that make us squirm, things like privilege, right-wing relatives, the drunk stranger in the back pew, guilt feelings, or litter in the poor part of town. Constructing a more fair and compassionate world involves awkward people, pauses and topics, and we want to find the wisdom in the awkwardness.

The Geez pulpit is set up and waiting for activists, anarchists, atheists and good old-fashioned Christians to step up and confront or comfort, pontificate or confess, urge or encourage.

The top three sermons will receive $400 each. The winners, plus a selection of other entries, will be published in the Spring 2009 issue of Geez. Deadline for entries is February 28, 2009. Word limit is 800.

Submissions can be sent to contest[at]geezmagazine.org or Geez Contest, 400 Edmonton Street, Winnipeg MB R3B 2M2, Canada. See entry forms at geezmagazine.org for full details and entry form.

Geez is a quarterly magazine of spirit and social action. It is aimed at over-churched, out-churched and perhaps even unchurchable souls on the North American fringes of faith. In its three years of existence it has been nominated for three Utne Independent Press Awards and won Magazine of the Year at both Canada’s Western Magazine Awards and the Canadian Church Press Awards.

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Contact: Aiden Enns, Publisher, aiden[at]geezmagazine.org, 204 942-1058

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