Where the Water Goes Around

Where the Water Goes Around is a biblical and political reading of Detroit over the course of three decades by an activist pastor.

Detroit is a place where one can take the temperature of the world. Think on the rise of Fordism and auto-love, the Arsenal of Democracy, the practice of the sit-down strike, or the invention of the expressway and suburban mall. Consider more recently the rebellion of 1967, the deindustrialization of a union town, the assault on democracy in this black-majority city, the structural adjustments of municipal bankruptcy, and now a struggle for water as a human right.

Bill Wylie-Kellermann tells the story of working out his ""place-based vocation"" with a simultaneous commitment to gospel nonviolence. He evokes the place Anishinabe peoples tread lightly the banks of Wawiatanong, ""where the waters go round."" One narrative thread walks a procession through the streets, a contemporary ""stations of the cross,"" to the locations of crucifixion today. It names the occupying principalities and their outposts on the ground. Another tells the story of resurrection in struggle and human community. Herein are public disruptions, liturgical direct actions, and courtroom trials. In resistance and risk, this book proclaims gospel in context.

""Bill Wylie-Kellermann knows that deep neighborly truth about a great city must be told in poetic playful idiom. He knows that ordinary prose has become the dialect of corporate fascism. This book is Wylie-Kellermann's welcome read of Detroit from below. . . . The book is a truthful counternarrative about the city. It offers an urban epitome of our national narrative. It must be read, heard, and noticed because it is a history of conscience, a history of despair, and a powerful story of relentlessly body-engaged hope.""
--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
 
""When so much of our modern discussion about the role of white folks in social movements centers around being an 'ally,' Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a freedom fighter. He is one of the greatest pastors and courageous theologians of our time. Where the Water Goes Around is liberation theology at its best--a place-based biblical witness."" 
--Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
 
""Wylie-Kellermann gifts us with his inimitable touch, at once butterfly-light and stiletto-deep, bearing witness to a generation's struggle with the city's 'angel.' 'Schooled' into ever-deepening truth by powers Black, Latino, and indigenous, this prophet-pastor's witness renders the Car City itself a sign of the times, whose testament we dare not ignore.""
--James W. Perkinson, Ecumenical Theological Seminary

Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a writer and nonviolent community activist, a Methodist pastor serving St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Detroit. Author of Seasons of Faith and Conscience: Reflections on Liturgical Direct Action (Orbis/Wipf & Stock), he also edited A Keeper of the Word (Eerdmans) and William Stringfellow: Essential Writings (Orbis). His teaching, writing, and action are generally framed by an analysis of ""the principalities and powers,"" in the hope of resistance and resurrection.