Season 26: Episode 1 | Tarrying For the Spirit: Waiting to Receive What We Need From God
We are journeying through Lent with a podcast season entitled “Tarry with Me Awhile: Learnings from the Black Church.” We will use Dr. Selina Stone’s book, Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith, as a guide. Black spirituality has much to offer us in understanding the practice of tarrying as a Lenten practice. Together we will seek a deeper understanding of waiting on God in the liminal space—where the resurrection feels far off, and our deaths and suffering are present.
In this inaugural episode of season 26, Ruth sits down with Dr. Selina Stone, herself. Dr. Stone, a lecturer in theology and ethics at the University of Edinburgh, shares her journey and the inspiration behind her book. They discuss the profound concept of ‘tarrying’ as a spiritual practice, its roots in Black Pentecostal traditions, and its significance in contemporary faith practices. Dr. Stone highlights the intersection of spirituality and social justice, the role of women in leading spiritual spaces, and the transformative power of waiting on the Holy Spirit. We conclude with a guided ‘tarrying moment’ accompanied by the music of Julian Davis Reed, emphasizing reverent waiting in the presence of God during the Lenten season.
Dr. Selina Stone is a lecturer in theology and ethics in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is a theologian whose work is focused on the questions of justice, power, and healing within the church and in our shared life nationally and globally. Prior to her work at Edinburgh, Dr. Stone was based at Durham University and in the theological education sector. She is a trained community organiser, a preacher, and the author of several books, the latest of which, A Heavy Yoke: Theology, Power and Abuse in the Church, will be published in summer 2025 by SCM Press. She is the host of the Sunday School for Misfits podcast.
Music this season is provided by Julian Davis Reed. Julian Davis Reid (TC20) is an artist-theologian from Chicago who uses sound and word to offer hope to the searching, presence to the sorrowful, and rest to the weary. A pianist, composer, and producer, his projects featured on this podcast are the two solo piano records Rest Assured (2021) and Beside Still Waters (2024) and his single Moan (Matthew 2:18) featuring Tramaine Parker, released on Inauguration Day 2025 on the project When Souls Cry Out. Julian steadily releases music under his own name and with his group The JuJu Exchange. You can learn more about his work at juliandavisreid.com.
You can also access podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.
Listen to other episodes from Season 26 Access past podcast seasons
Mentioned in this episode:
- Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith by Dr. Selina Stone
- Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging by Keri Day
Music Credit:
- Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist
- Returning from Lent- Music in Solitude
- They Comfort Me from Beside Still Waters by Julian Davis Reid
Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes with each guest, exploring different practices associated with Lent, such as solitude, self-examination, confession, and more. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!
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I am always so touched by the authenticity of the conversations that come from the Transforming Center. I am so grateful. I was especially touched by the sharing by Ruth and Dr Stone’s experience of the Dark Night.
This is a iPhone generated transcript of an excerpt I recorded off of The Divine Ambush. A retreat with Richard Rohr and James Finley in 2013 in Santa Fe New Mexico. This describes for me the experience I had in 2017 of the “Dark Night”. And it describes how true faith actually works in the human soul. My personal experience in 2017 is inside the parentheses.
“I live in Marina Del Rey. I live in the area of a yacht basin there along the beach of California. If you’ve ever spent time in a boat where they have a slip, you know, they put a boat in a slip. It’s kind of a u-shaped then you pull a little boat in and and you moor it on the two sides. And imagine you get into this little boat one of these little slips and you lie down in this little boat, which is your life? And just before you drift off to sleep, you say your night prayers, get your bearings and faith, and then your plans for the next day, and when you fall sound asleep, this is the dark night, in the middle of the night God quietly tiptoes out, goes around to one side to the rope that moors you to your customary ways of experiencing God’s presence in your life. (I loss the “felt” sense of God) And God slips the rope off the mooring and lowers it into the water. Then God tiptoes around to the other side, your customary way of experiencing your relationship to your life on this earth.(I wanted to die and I thought I might die. I was alone in a state lodge motel room in a fetal position in the bed.)And being careful not to laugh and wake you up, God slips the rope off, drops it into the water, gives the boat a little nudge, the tide carries you way out. And when you open your eyes, you sit bolt upright in the boat, no shore in view. God says, gotcha! (I woke up the next day still alive, not depressed, curious about how to proceed. Life felt more solid. It was a gotcha moment. I drove home.)
Looking forward to this Lenten experience.
Wow, beautiful conversation to which I can relate: 1) the seeming incapacity of white believers to welcome styles of worship and Christian spirituality from “different” sources. We shared our facility, beginning in ’84 with Laotian, Hmong, Cambodian, Lao/Prai and Hispanic congregations. We were the 4th option. The first two options were, “Why yes, you can have space at our church and we will teach you how to “do church.” The 3rd option was a direct “no” despite the fact that they had plenty of room. Despite cultural and denominational differences, we were happy as long as Jesus was preached. 2) In our senior year at Wheaton, John Fischer was my suitmate. What he and other early “Jesus Freaks” went through from ’69 – ’73 is similar to the Azusa story. John was the first in America to come out with a Jesus Movement album. Protestant recording companies would not give him the time of day. Finally, the Catholics agreed to record and produce the “Cold Cathedral” album. When Beth and I married that same year (’69), John sang The Lords Prayer at our wedding, that is, after talking and talking and talking. The church was sure that because John played the guitar that his Christianity was dubious. We have so much we can learn and enjoy from brothers and sister in Christ who come from entirely different backgrounds and cultures!!! Yea Jesus.
I sat at my desk this morning and wept while listening to this deeply moving and passionate spiritual journey of Dr. Stone. I grew up in the Black classical Pentecostal church where my grandfather was the founder of a small Black pentecostal denomination in 1910. I could immediately identify with her observations and lived experience. A must worth sharing. Thank you. I purchased the book and can’t wait to read it.