Creating Sacred Space for Social Justice

We were called into silence and asked to say the words from texts, songs, or leaders that keep us going in our justice work. My eyes were closed and a busy morning rush of hanging direction signs and helping lost guests navigate the building quickly dropped from my mind and body.

The sacred space we entered was a gift I gladly received. Voices called out Biblical verses, well-known lines from ballots and hymns, poetry, and lines from public addresses. We were 110 faith leaders from thirteen different traditions hosted at United for a day to learn about storytelling, effective listening, and organizing within our faith communities to defeat a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to one man and one woman in MN. That powerful opening reminded of what happens when people of faith come together to work for justice and equality. I was reminded of why I chose to be in seminary instead of other places of higher education such as a school of public policy or law school where I could also work for justice.

I was proud to share more about United as participants of who knew I was a seminary student asked me more about the school. There were many reasons to feel proud. The night before the training an interfaith group of leaders hosted a worship service at a local synagogue. United alumni were among 29 clergy who lit candles in remembrance of the 29 states where we have lost similar ballot measures; two United students raised their voices in powerful words of reflection and reconciliation; I had the distinct honor of asking for financial contributions to support the faith work; and another classmate opened the service. The day after at the faith leader’s training the United chapel’s beauty comforted and held us as we heard the somber news of where we stand today in terms of polling numbers. I can feel my connection with United deepen and I move from a student in the classroom to a faith leader out in the world.

It inspires me to see other United colleagues actively engaged in the world. There are seven Center for Public Ministry interns working on faith organizing to defeat the constitutional amendment in November 2012. The Center launched last year and is dedicated to equipping the church to be a powerful and sustained force for social justice. I am grateful for the opportunity to weave together my classroom learning, my love of prayer and ritual, and my desire to actively work to create a more just world supported by United. Framing this work in a faith perspective pushes all of us to do this work from a deeper place focused on connection, healing and love.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

There is a field.  I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn't make any sense.

-Rumi-

- Laura Smidzik, MDiv student

Creating Spaces

We’re in the last two weeks of the semester, when the tension over papers and projects due comes on us in earnest. The greetings and responses we give as we pass each other in the hall bear the same themes: anxiety, commiseration, encouragement. Sometimes we stop and tick off the list of our projects for each other: “Two long papers, one shorter paper, and a final.” It is a way of relieving anxiety, at least for a moment: if we are all similarly burdened, it must be because what we have been assigned is in the realm of the possible, and we will get through it, right? Somehow?

In the middle of my own anxiety this week, a memory came to me unbidden from my internship last year at a local church. I was assisting my field instructor in serving communion. A line of parishioners gathered at the altar rail. As I stood before each individual, citing the words, “Take and drink from the cup of life,” I was struck by the vulnerability in their raised faces, expressions of solemnity and tenderness, expressions that seemed universal in this moment, common to all.

My readings in Constructive Theology for the next day were on the sacraments – I didn’t know that was the topic; I was writing a paper and waited until the last minute, I admit, to read them -- so my remembrance of the communion service the day before seemed apt. Eucharist theology usually centers on the ways that the bread and wine are transformed during the sacrament (or not). But what happens to us during the sacrament, I wonder? What was the beauty that came into each face as the parishioners waited by the altar rail? And how can we give life to that expression beyond this moment?

My sentiments toward our common humanity are not always so charitable. Earlier in the week I was reading the news, which often turns out to be a day’s tally of our common inhumanity. At the same time, I was musing over thoughts for a theological paper which has, as its purpose, a scope I think of in the words of the Dishwalla song: “Tell me all your thoughts on God, and tell me am I very far.”  The litany of destructive human behavior in the news collided with my own thoughts on God and I blurted out the words: “Really? God just loves everybody?” My partner, who is used to sudden bursts of theology on my part, answered, “No.” (This is why he is a good foil for my musings.) “Well, I can’t believe it at the moment,” I said, “Regardless of how much we talk about God as love at seminary.”

Lest I am misunderstood, we don’t, as a rule, spend our class time simply talking about God as love. If we did, these papers I’m struggling to write would be done in a snap. But I think that, as a rule, we do believe it. How does belief become action? How does bread become a body? How can love overcome the merciless marks of our destruction in the world?

What was the beauty that came into each face?

I may try to answer that question in my paper. Or, I may not be able to answer it. Not yet; maybe not ever. I have seen it, is all I can say. Even if we don’t know how to say what it is, we can make spaces for it to happen in the world. In our Worship class, we are learning how to create such spaces, and for a chapel service planned with my small group in the class we chose a theme of centering, rest and silence for this last rush of the semester. What could be more incongruous? But the space worked, at least for a time; I saw expressions of calm in the faces of those around me.

And now, I must write, and fast. I have one long paper due, one shorter paper, a reflection, and a project. We will get through it, right? I thought so.    

- Kathryn Price, MDiv student