This past Friday, Sept. 21, some thirty students from seminaries all over Chicago gathered here in Hyde Park to begin a new era of inter-campus and inter-religious cooperation. Student government leaders and newspaper editors; eco-justice and worker justice and LGBTQ and anti-oppression networks formed to brainstorm ways of working together to address the issues they cared so deeply about. We also gathered to meet organization leaders from around the city who offer the ministry training opportunities that can’t happen solely inside our classrooms: Interfaith Worker Justice, Urban CPE Consortium, Inc., and Interfaith Youth Core were among the speakers. We left with new friendships and new excitement over possibilities for the future months. Check out some of the ads in this week’s issue of the Chicago Seminarian to see some of the ideas raised. If we find enough interest to form groups around a topic, we’ll do it.
Also, we began the process of writing two collaborative books to be published at a future by SeminaryAction: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting Seminary, the first book of its kind to include multiple denominations, genders, ages, ethnic backgrounds, orientations, etc; and The Seminary Student Activist’s Handbook, a guide for campus organizing tailored to the needs of seminarians--including working with administrations and Boards, advocating for denominational policy changes, raising funds, recruiting volunteers, and planning for service trips and major events (such as a March on Washington or participation in national conferences).
Would you like to join us? It’s not too late. Just send a note to info@seminaryaction.org with your contact details and a little about your interest areas. We’ll connect you with the folks who share your passions. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for our posters, e-mail announcements, and newspaper ads in upcoming editions of the Seminarian.
Peace,
Le Anne
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Whew! What a Month!
Greetings everyone,
It's been a while since we've written an update, mostly because we opened the new GlobalServe Co-op, and were waiting for internet to get connected. As of tonight, we're back on line and time to catch up.
The Tribune and Hyde Park Herald articles went over extremely well and have generated a lot of excitement about our project to purchase the monastery. We're starting a letter-writing campaign locally to raise the down payment, and the North American Students of Cooperation www.nasco.org is going to help us arrange the financing for a major portion of it. So, things are getting pretty exciting...
In other news, our FaithAlive interfaith visiting program is up and running with the efforts of Heather Remaly and Rachel Minnaar, and our first congregational visit is this weekend. Some professors are offering credit to students for participating--exactly the kind of cooperation we're hoping for. If you'd like to know more, you can contact the coordinators at faithalive@seminaryaction.org.
This weekend we're having our Seminary Student Leadership Event, which will bring together a few dozen students from seminaries in Chicago to network and prepare for the year ahead. Lots of last-minute registrations, but actually this is pretty exciting. We have speakers coming from Interfaith Youth Core, Interfaith Worker Justice, Urban CPE, Inc., SCUPE, and the LGBTQ studies center.
The last update is regarding GlobalServe, which we started as a 'practice project,' an interfaith cooperative community where members commit to volunteer service as part of their student or working lives. Well, we filled one house, and now two, and are trying to handle the logistics for perhaps four more apartments! The interest has been incredible, and rather than turning some 20 people away, it made sense to at least try to expand, and to create it in such a way that each apartment could operate on its own within a larger network.
It's been a while since we've written an update, mostly because we opened the new GlobalServe Co-op, and were waiting for internet to get connected. As of tonight, we're back on line and time to catch up.
The Tribune and Hyde Park Herald articles went over extremely well and have generated a lot of excitement about our project to purchase the monastery. We're starting a letter-writing campaign locally to raise the down payment, and the North American Students of Cooperation www.nasco.org is going to help us arrange the financing for a major portion of it. So, things are getting pretty exciting...
In other news, our FaithAlive interfaith visiting program is up and running with the efforts of Heather Remaly and Rachel Minnaar, and our first congregational visit is this weekend. Some professors are offering credit to students for participating--exactly the kind of cooperation we're hoping for. If you'd like to know more, you can contact the coordinators at faithalive@seminaryaction.org.
This weekend we're having our Seminary Student Leadership Event, which will bring together a few dozen students from seminaries in Chicago to network and prepare for the year ahead. Lots of last-minute registrations, but actually this is pretty exciting. We have speakers coming from Interfaith Youth Core, Interfaith Worker Justice, Urban CPE, Inc., SCUPE, and the LGBTQ studies center.
The last update is regarding GlobalServe, which we started as a 'practice project,' an interfaith cooperative community where members commit to volunteer service as part of their student or working lives. Well, we filled one house, and now two, and are trying to handle the logistics for perhaps four more apartments! The interest has been incredible, and rather than turning some 20 people away, it made sense to at least try to expand, and to create it in such a way that each apartment could operate on its own within a larger network.
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