Advent Study: What are We Waiting For? Christ and Peacemaking

December 18, 2025, 7:30pm Eastern US Time

What Are We Waiting For? Scriptural and Social Justice Approaches to Christology

Will O’Brien, in conversation with Rabia Harris, will seek to rescue our understanding of Mary and the birth of Jesus from patriarchal and misogynistic readings that have distracted us from the call to radical peacemaking that is embedded into the birth narratives.

First, we will wrestle with how the doctrine of the Virgin Birth has been distorted by the institutional church to mute awareness of the political context of the birth narrative. Then we will explore how the Hebrew Testament scriptures referred to in the birth narratives, as well as Quranic texts that comment on Mary and the birth of Jesus, can help us to correct this error. In conversation across faith traditions, we will seek to deepen and our understanding of Jesus Christ as an embodiment of God’s desire for peace and justice on earth, and clarify our commitment to responding to the Living Christ in all aspects of our lives.

Please Note! Registration closes one half hour prior to the start of the event.

Image: “Our Lady of the Qur’an” by Br. Robert Lentz OFM

Speaker Bios

Will O’Brien is the coordinator of the Alternative Seminary, and is currenting serving as interim pastor at Frazer Mennonite Church outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent several years on the editorial staff of The Other Side magazine, an independent progressive Christian magazine. He has written and taught extensively on issues of scripture, discipleship, social justice, peace, and culture. He has also spent years working with Project HOME, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that develops solutions to homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia. He has done extensive advocacy and political organizing with and on behalf of homeless persons.

Rabia Terri Harris, the child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother, is a U.S.-based speaker, writer, activist, and chaplain. She received forty years of Islamic spiritual education through apprenticeship in the Halveti-Jerrahi Tariqa, a traditional Turkish Sufi order. In 1994, Rabia launched the Muslim Peace Fellowship for the theory and practice of Islamic nonviolence. In 2009 she was chosen founding president of the Association of Muslim Chaplains. That same year she became one of the four co-founders of the Community of Living Traditions, a continuing multireligious learning experiment in peace, justice, and care of the earth. Rabia holds a BA in Religion from Princeton University, an MA in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, and a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary. Rabia serves as editor of Fellowship, the magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.