In the late winter of 2016, Alana Levandoski and her family traveled to Beausejour, Manitoba to give a concert in a small country church, one of the oldest buildings in the rural town. Alana was promoting her album, Behold, I Make All Things New.The acoustics were gorgeous, and attendees were hungry for an authentic, living voice to sing songs of praise and longing in the century-old, near-defunct sanctuary. A little group called Saint Julian’s Table was trying to keep alive the embers of a worship life in the building of Saint James Anglican, a local parish that had ceased to gather. The experiment of Saint Julian’s Table would die within a year. But the next morning, Alana had a conversation with the group’s convenor that would birth The Ferment podcast.
Alana had connected with Marcus Peter Rempel previously as a Kickstarter backer of his book, Life at the End of Us Versus Them: cross/culture/stories. After breakfast at Ploughshares Community Farm, where Marcus homesteads with his family and some fellow Christian agrarians, Alana and Marcus got to talking about collaborating on a podcast that would call itself “The Ferment” – referring both to a moment of social unrest, and to the magic that preserves the integrity of good, homegrown food by feeding a good culture instead of by sterilizing and killing bad culture.
Like good wine or good sauerkraut, it took a while. Now it’s time to taste and see if this thing is good! In this episode, Alana teaches and sings her way through the church calendar as a Christ narrative. Consider it the starter culture for The Ferment.
Episode References
- Richard Rohr’s Living School
- Alana’s discography
- Alana on Patreon
- Hildegard Von Bingen
- Frederich Buechner’s sermon series “The Birth”:
- saint benedict’s table Anglican Church
- You Are Stardust – children’s book
- St. Benedict’s Monastery
- Truth & Reconciliation Commission
- James Finley
Alana’s voice reminds me of Emmylou Harris…good tunes…music, in my opinion, is spirit given form.
Farmer Wayne! Hello. I’m tickled that you are listening to The Ferment. Yeah, Alana’s voice is a very special gift. I’ve got a pretty special team here. So grateful. Talk soon.