about ethan
Ethan Jewett views the Christian vocation as a journey of spiritual companionship in which we deepen our inner lives by sharing life practices that nourish the soul, mind, and body. Achieving spiritual maturity requires discipline, just as being in peak physical condition requires intense physical training. Ethan views Christianity as a pathway for creating spiritual athletes, who can ask difficult and meaningful questions about existence and live in sacramental relationship with others. Central to Ethan's approach to spirituality is an understanding of Christianity as a way of living
that empowers individuals to pursue personal discovery, growth, and healing through membership within a faith community.
Critical to this empowerment
is participation in the sacraments of the Church, spiritual literacy grounded in the ancient practices of the Christian tradition, and the creative exploration of contemporary spirituality and everyday sacredness. This spiritual
maturity, moreover, enables us to move beyond either/or thinking to embrace both/and
possibilities where opposites can be held fruitfully in tension.
Raised in the Conservative branch of Judaism, Ethan is now preparing for ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church. He is a third-year student in the Master of Divinity program at Chicago Theological Seminary, and is the seminarian-in-residence at an Anglo-Catholic parish, the Church of the Atonement, in Chicago. Ethan's ministries include preaching, education, postmodern spirituality, and pastoral care. He is also active in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, serving on its Congregational Development Commission and offering workshops on spiritual practices, electronic evangelism, emergent Christianity, and other topics. Prior to seminary, Ethan did master's and doctoral work in French literature at the University of Chicago, and then spent 10 years conducting public policy, health services research, and child advocacy for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Ethan's spiritual practices include recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, monthly confession and spiritual direction, and daily exercise.
