Winnipeg, Canada

“The pupit is making a comeback,” with geez magazine’s launch of the Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest. The 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.”

Maybe the key to social change and spiritual growth is found in stumbling, fumbling, oafish awkwardness? The geez pulpit is set up and awaits activists, anarchists, atheists and good old-fashioned Christians to step up and confront or comfort, pontificate or confess, urge or encourage.