Kwok ’n’ Roll

"You need to shake the status quo." Rev. Dr. Fadi Diab, Palestinian Anglican priest and co-author of Kairos Palestine II, speaks with postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan about the seismic moment when the Church of England voted to hear Palestinian voices — and why "hearing" is only the beginning.

Six provocations:

•What it meant to sit in the gallery at York Minster as the synod voted.

•Why Kairos Palestine II uses the language of genocide and apartheid?

•How to stay in dialogue when the stakes are existential? •Palestinian liberation theology and reading scripture from the margins

•What ecclesial nakba reveals about the global church's complicity? •Hope as a spiritual practice in a time of loss.

Rev. Dr. Fadi Diab is rector of St. Andrew's Church in Ramallah, Palestine; co-author of Kairos Palestine II: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering; and faculty member of the Palestine-Israeli Theologians Forum.

Deep dive on Substack: https://kwokpuilan.substack.com

Why does Korea embrace AI while the West sounds the alarm? Practical theologian Dr. Boyung Lee reveals how East Asia's communal worldview transforms AI from a threat into an extension of family — and what that means for the future of pastoral care.

In this episode:

▪️ Why Koreans say "our mother" and "our husband" — and why it matters for AI

▪️ How Korea's "I Met You" program reunited grieving parents with VR avatars of their children (40 million viewers watched)

▪️ Grief bots, shamanism, and AI as a medium between worlds

▪️ Pope Francis's AI warnings — and what Boyung wishes he'd done differently

▪️ Practical advice for pastors using AI in ministry

Dr. Boyung Lee teaches practical theology at the Iliff School of Theology. Her research sits at the intersection of AI, East Asian philosophy, and pastoral care.

In the span of two weeks, two major Christian denominations — the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Church of England — took historic stands on Palestine. One used the word "genocide." The other finally decided to listen to Palestinian Christian voices.

Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan unpacks both decisions, shares her personal experience crossing the border into Jerusalem, and explains why she's editing a new book, The Anglican Church and Palestine.

📖 Go deeper on Substack: https://kwokpuilan.substack.com/p/the-church-of-englands-resolution

AI isn't magic. Behind every chatbot and search result is a hidden chain of human exploitation — and Pope Leo XIV just called it out in the first papal encyclical on artificial intelligence.

In this episode, Dr. Susan Reynolds — Catholic Studies professor at Candler School of Theology, Emory University — breaks down Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's groundbreaking document on AI and human dignity. We explore why an Augustinian pope named himself after Leo XIII, how the Church's social teaching tradition speaks directly to the AI era, and what a long-overdue papal apology for slavery means for thinking about exploitation today.

Susan explains why the encyclical insists on protecting the human inner life as the boundary between people and machines — and why, if church doctrine can develop in response to the signs of the times, so can women's leadership.

In this July 4th special, U.S. Army veteran, former attorney, and Villanova theologian Byron Wratee shares his journey from a small South Carolina town to the battlefields of Afghanistan — and what he learned about faith, citizenship, and the America worth believing in.

He traces his family's military service back to the Civil War. He recounts the peacebuilding work that doesn't make headlines: building schools, caring for communities, ensuring Afghan girls could go to school. And he asks the question no one wants to answer on Independence Day: what does the Fourth of July mean to the Black soldier who served it?

This conversation covers:

• Growing up in South Carolina — the first state to secede

• Serving as a medic in Afghanistan and the Muslim interpreter who changed his life 

Why he left a seven-year law practice to study theology

• The Red Summer of 1919 — when Black WWI veterans returned home to race riots and lynchings

• Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited and the roots of nonviolent resistance

• Catholic social teaching, human dignity, and American exceptionalism

• A closing spiritual — "Plenty Good Room"

Dr. Byron Wratee teaches Christian ethics at Villanova University. His research centers on Howard Thurman, the Black prophetic tradition, and the theological dimensions of anti-Black violence.

🔗 Join the conversation on my Substack: https://kwokpuilan.substack.com