Spirit in Action | Northern Spirit Radio

Each week, Spirit In Action brings you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. We will trace the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all, we will seek out Light, Love and Helping Hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life.

Spirit In Action is an hour of interviews with those providing leadership in peace, justice and "good works", interspersed with relevant music. The theme music is "The Turning of the World" performed by Sara Thomsen (written by Ruth Pellham).


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First Air Date

October 4, 2009

We visit with 3 people connected with the Building Bridges anti-racism training sponsored by the Lutheran Human Relations Association. Marilyn Miller is Executive Director and Kenneth Wheeler is President of the Board of the LHRA, both persons of color, and Geri Murtaugh is a past participant of the Building Bridges training and is the Coordinator of Youth and Family Ministries for the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA.

First Air Date

September 27, 2009

Joe Elder received on October 3rd, 2009, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice. Joe has traveled the world with quiet off-the-record messages and worked for peace from Vietnam to Sri Lanka. A University of Wisconsin professor of sociology and Asian studies, he has inspired thousands of students to broaden their horizons. Raised in Iran, son of Presbyterian missionaries, he was a CO in the Korean War and has been a Quaker since the 1950's.

First Air Date

September 20, 2009

The Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice will be presenting its Lifetime Achievement award on October 3, 2009. One awardee, Esther Heffernan, is a Dominican nun and Sociology prof at Edgewood College, with a lifetime concern for prison reform. Steve Burns, program coordinator for WNPJ also joins us.

First Air Date

September 13, 2009

Sara Thomsen is strongly called to heal the world through her music. One of her songs, "Is It For Freedom", has been heard repeatedly on Democracy Now, because of its poignant call for our nation's self-examination following 9-11. Her concerns are wide - women, LGBT issues, care for creation, peace and more - and she writes and sings with soul-deep sensitivity.

All the songs in this program are performed by Sara Thomsen

First Air Date

August 30, 2009

The book "Hands At Work: Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands" combines striking and intimate photography with inspiring prose to talk about work in a way is too often ignored in the USA. This book is a visual meditation to help restore the life to "making a living".

First Air Date

August 9, 2009

Gabriel Constans is a free lance writer whose newest book is Buddha's Wife, a book that explores different approaches to compassion and the role of women in Buddhism (and much more). Kathryn Erskine is the author of Quaking, set in a post 9-11 community where people have to wrestle with the promise and demons of peace-making in a fearful, war-eager, world, seen through the eyes of a troubled teen.

picture of book titled "Fit for freedom not for friendship"

First Air Date

August 2, 2009

A visit with Donna McDaniel & Vanessa Julye, co-authors of Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice.

photo of African woman smiling and carrying a tray on her head

First Air Date

October 14, 2007

David Zarembka is a tireless force behind the African Great Lakes Initiative to deal with the aftermath of the Hutu-Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. His daughter, Joy, whose mother is Kenyan, has a newly released book, "The Pigment of Your Imagination: Mixed Race in a Global Society" which explores the experiences of those of "mixed race" - including her own.

First Air Date

July 12, 2009

Ellen Seagren called on her community, Twin Cities Friends Meeting, for clearness and to support her in her leading to travel to Rwanda in connections with Friends Peace House. Ellen spent a month in Rwanda and returned with glimpses of life there and a sense of changes she wanted to bring back with her, for herself and for our nation.

First Air Date

September 2, 2007

Too few Americans know about Estonia's amazing, non-violent, "Singing Revolution" for independence from the USSR, but it is but one of the characteristics that make the country fertile ground for Leon Miller's work with the International Association for Religious Freedom.

Building Bridges Anti-racism Training

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Messenger for Peace

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WNPJ Awards - Esther Heffernan & Prison Reform

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The Freedom Song of Sara Thomsen

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Hands At Work - Iris Graville

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Books to Heal the World - Buddha's Wife and Quaking

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Fit For Freedom, Not For Friendship - Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye

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Healing Racism Around The World - David & Joy Zarembka

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Ellen Seagren Goes to Rwanda

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Estonian Artists for Peace and Unity

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