Special Course: Healing Haunted Histories
March 9, 2026 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
$200Event Navigation
Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler’s Discipleship of Decolonization
Register and view full schedule at the bottom of this page
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course utilizes social analysis, communal narratives, historical literacy, and biblical reflection to address deep-rooted injustices between settlers and the worlds of Indigenous (and other marginalized communities) in North America. Participants will engage with the Landlines-Bloodlines-Songlines (LBS) model tailored to their context, focusing on practical research and engagement rather than passive learning. Commitment to readings, research, and mutual accountability is essential for fostering Restorative Solidarity and deepening decolonization efforts. Please visit this website for more information about Healing Haunted Histories.
This course will require 3.0-3.5 hours per week for course preparation and attendance, and is 4.0 CEUs.
Meet the Course Facilitators
Rev. Dr. Lynne B. Caldwell, Pastor and Educator
While Lynne Caldwell’s “re-schooling” and personal work with her racism began in college, she only became connected with Healing Haunted Histories a few years ago. She sensed from the beginning that ‘doing the work’ (Audre Lorde) through Elaine Enns’ and Ched Myers’ model for Healing Haunted Histories is one of the best
Born in Asheville, NC, Lynne grew up in Black Mountain, NC. She earned a B.A. in Child Development, Berea College, Berea, KY; an M.Div., Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY; D.Min., Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC and two certificates in leadership from the Divinity School of Duke University. She has served appointments through the Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church for more than 35 years, including 10 years “on-loan” to the Virginia Conference. Assignments/appointed positions include Associate Minister, Lead Pastor, Senior Pastor, District Superintendent, faculty member, and administrator of a non-profit.
Among Lynne’s passions is the exploration of the intersection of real faith and real life through meaningful relationships, spiritual practices, and a commitment to learning something new every day. She’s energized by a lifelong curiosity about human development and community. Inspired to sustain learning about how we grow in love for God, self, neighbors, and our enemies, she seeks to pursue integrity between words and behaviors. And, so…she seeks to press on, in the company of others, daily practicing what it might mean to become God’s beloved community, until we’ve practiced our way into becoming embodiments of love, justice, equity, inclusion and forgiveness.
Lynne currently serves as pastor of Danbury Community Church in Stokes County, NC; and is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Religion, Ethics and Philosophy Department of Greensboro College. Lynne makes her home in Winston-Salem, NC.
Home Missioner Steve Taylor, Activist and Educator
Steve Taylor is a Home Missioner in the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church, serving as Director of Anti-racist Discipleship and Beloved Community at Spring Forest New Monastic and Missional Community. Steve leads a transformative ministry integrating Christian discipleship with the pursuit of racial equity and justice. His work extends throughout the United Methodist Church, local congregations, and ecumenical partnerships, centering on peacebuilding, healing, and the creation of beloved community.
At Spring Forest, Steve develops and leads trainings and conversations addressing systemic racism—its historical roots, present realities, and spiritual paths toward reconciliation. He organizes community partnerships and advocacy efforts, helps congregations integrate antiracism into prayer and worship, and facilitates the Healing Haunted Histories process created by Dr. Elaine Enns and Ched Myers. Through these practices, Steve helps communities confront the past and embody God’s reconciling love in the present.
Steve’s vision is shaped by the Beloved Community — a vision of justice, equity, and unconditional love reflecting the Kin-dom of God on earth. “In intentional actions of education, advocacy, deep listening, honest and confessional truth-telling, and the work of antiracism as worship,” Steve says, “we build a community where every person is valued. Discipleship—patterning our lives after Jesus—must include the work of antiracism. It is the work of building peace and beloved community.”
Previously, Steve served as Executive Director of Connectional Ministries and Director of Missions for the North Carolina Conference and as a Church and Community Worker in Robeson County. His 35-year ministry has included work in both rural and urban settings and in Slovenian refugee camps during the Balkan wars. Across all contexts, he helps congregations engage deeply with their communities through shared spiritual and social transformation.
Steve is married to Sheryl Taylor, “the portrait of God’s grace,” and they have two children and four grandchildren.
Special Class Sessions with Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, Co-authors of Healing Haunted Histories
Elaine Enns has worked in the field of restorative justice since 1989, first focusing on victim-offender dialogue in the Criminal Justice System, and over the last decade looking at how restorative solidarity applies to historical violations, including issues of intergenerational trauma, healing and decolonization. With a DMin from St. Andrew’s Saskatoon, Elaine trains and teaches throughout North America, and her latest book, co-authored with her partner activist theologian Ched Myers, is Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization (Wipf & Stock, 2021); in 2009 the two-volume Ambassadors of Reconciliation: A New Testament Theology and Diverse Christian Practices of Restorative Justice and Peacemaking (Orbis Books, 2009); and has published over a dozen articles. An ecumenical Mennonite, Elaine was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and lives in southern California where she co-directs Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries on traditional Chumash land.
A fifth generation Californian, Ched Myers is an activist theologian who has worked in social change and radical discipleship movements for more than 45 years. With a degree in New Testament Studies, he is a popular educator who animates scripture and its relationship to issues of faith-based peace and justice. He has authored over 100 articles and more than a half-dozen books, including Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus; Ambassadors of Reconciliation: A N.T. Theology and Diverse Christian Practices of Restorative Justice and Peacemaking (with Elaine Enns); Our God is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice (with Matthew Colwell); Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice; Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization (with Elaine Enns, Cascade, 2021); and most recently Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics (Fortress, 2024). Ched’s articles and books can be found on the linked sites.
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