The service was co-sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Seminary and led by graduate students Makinto and Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava. It included musical selections from Makinto, as well as the EMU Gospel Choir led by Kay Pettus ’25, and biblical readings from Mukarabe.

Reflections on Easter were shared by English Professor Dr. Kevin Seidel, who teaches and writes about the changing relationship between religion, secularism, and literature. His message, titled “Women Explain Things to Me: A Sermon on Luke 24,” focused not so much on Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead but on the “slow, difficult coming to terms with the significance of the resurrection by Jesus’ followers as portrayed in Luke 24.”

“In Luke, the resurrection of Jesus isn’t a simple, triumphant end of the story, but a kind of difficult beginning that unfolds in the Book of Acts,” Seidel said. “The resurrection doesn’t settle debate among Jesus’ followers about who he is. The resurrection proves, I think, profoundly unsettling for them.”

After the service, Seidel said he was glad for the chance to reflect on parts of the resurrection story in Luke 24. “The service was a good way to mark and celebrate the beginning of the seven-week Easter season in the church calendar,” he said.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder said Wednesday’s Easter celebration follows EMU’s practice of honoring and observing significant Christian traditions and holidays, including Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

“This morning, as we gathered, there was an opportunity for education about Easter,” he said, “as well as an invitation to worship in the spirit of Easter through Scripture, singing, and reflection.”

Makinto, a frequent worship leader at chapel events, performed Jesus Is Risen, an original song he wrote in 2013, as the opening song for this year’s Easter worship service. The song tells the Easter story and connects it to our own lives, he said. 

“So, as he is risen, we as well can rise above all the challenges we have, above the pains we have, above the solitude we have, and also conquer death and situate ourselves squarely in life with our community around us,” Makinto said.

Makinto and his wife, Mukarabe, moved from California to pursue degrees at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, respectively. They are the directors of , an organization that connects people at the local and global levels for the purpose of development, unification, and spiritual and physical well-being.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder speaks during a campus worship service on Wednesday in Martin Chapel.

Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava reads a selection from Luke 24 (left). Members of the EMU Gospel Choir (right) sing during Wednesday’s campus worship service.

About Campus Worship

Campus Worship is an invitational space for gathered worship in Christian traditions and a variety of styles. Services are held in Martin Chapel of the Seminary Building on Wednesday mornings every other week. 

Campus worship continues with a final service of the academic year on April 22 recognizing EMU’s senior student chaplains: Emily Suarez Nunez, Dia Mekonnen, Sara Kennel, and Miranda Beidler. The event will be livestreamed on .

Watch a video recording of the service below!

Explore past integration projects:, , 2017,  2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Schedule

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 (chapel period)
Jimmy Calhoun: “The Wounded Healer: Clergy and Grief”
Jenn Parsons: “Companioning One Another Through Disenfranchised Maternal Grief”

Thursday, March 23, 2023
Hailey Holcomb: “Do I Matter? Using Theatre to Address Religious Trauma in Queer Community”
Virginia Basden: “Why the Wilderness: An Exploration into Wilderness as Spiritually Healing”
Greg Kropff: “An Examination of Clergy Trauma and How to Address It”

Thursday, April 20, 2023 (ACE Festival)
Carrie Dengler Wenger: “Toward Wholeness: How Chaplains Integrate the Sacred Work of Healing”

Capstone Descriptions

Tuesday, March 21  

Jimmy Calhoun: “The Wounded Healer: Clergy and Grief”

My CIP will develop a Wounded Healer program. This project is important to me because I am a Pastor and over the past eight years, I have lost three core members of my family and was diagnosed with a disease that is gradually taking away my ability to walk. While I know I am not the only person to deal with loss, as a Pastor I am struggling with how to heal. The problem is there is no program or group to my knowledge that helps Clergy deal with their grief. So, my research question is: How can fellow clergy walk with the wounded healers who are trying to help others? I will give an anonymous poll to clergy to access online as well as on paper. This will allow the individuals to write about their fears and pain. They will be asked whether they have someone who can walk with them during tough times. As the in-person course continues the participants will be placed in small groups to work on Lectio Divina questions. My presentation and paper will report on the experience and results and point out further areas for work.

Jennifer Parsons: “Companioning One Another Through Disenfranchised Maternal Grief”

Grief surrounds us. Yet, we are often uncomfortable in its presence. We rely on familiar rituals to accompany us through the loss of a loved one. We send or receive flowers, homemade casseroles, and sympathy cards. We dress in appropriate attire and attend a memorial or funeral service. But what happens when the loss is not the death of a loved one? What if we find ourselves or those we care about stranded in a space absent from social support? This presentation weaves together Kenneth J. Doka’s concept of disenfranchised grief, contemporary grief theory, and personal experience to offer examples of accompaniment through the turbulent waters of disenfranchised maternal grief. 

Thursday, March 23

Hailey Holcomb: “Do I Matter? Using Theatre to Address Religious Trauma in Queer Community”

This project draws on my ten years of experience in theatre. It combines the forefront of modern theatre research and practices with ministry and pastoral care to address religious trauma in Queer community – my community. I am writing an extensive theoretical “this is how EMU could apply these practices to address this specific trauma event” in relationship to the 2015 experience of a production of the play Corpus Christi. Methodology includes embodied practices used to address trauma, anxiety, and PTSD  and organizing time out of the rehearsal schedule for cast and crew to have conversations about the particulars of their religious trauma, their experiences of religious community, how we approach scripture, finding ourselves in scripture and biblical narrative, finding community, setting and enforcing healthy boundaries, and other relevant topics. All of this includes discussions of the specifics here at EMU and within the context of this production. Emphasis is on the process and the conversations rather than on a showcase for an audience.

Virginia Baisden: “Why the Wilderness? An exploration of Disability theology through the Wilderness Motifs in the Hebrew bible”

My project is designed to build on my personal experiences in exploring the wilderness, and a careful study of biblical themes related to wilderness, to encourage pastors, chaplains, and other spiritual leaders to incorporate wilderness experience into their practice.  I hope my project will help clergy, pastors, chaplains and Christians in all walks to feel more equipped to understand the theological grounding for time spent in nature, ways to enrich our experiences in Wilderness, and have informed and grounded conversations defending the importance of time spent in the Wilderness as not only a special retreat, but more so a necessary integral part of the Christian journey. In whatever manner I am ministering as a Chaplain, I am positive the Wilderness and nature will be integral. I may end up working with memory care, based on time I spent with my grandmother as well as my background with children with special needs. I have first-hand have experience with what nature and being outdoors can offer to children…especially children who have internalized differences from their peers and find solace and confidence in being in an open outdoor environment.

Gregory Kropff: “An examination of clergy trauma and how to address it”

Exploring clergy trauma and how to address it is an important topic as clergy trauma is often overlooked and not always understood. Clergy work very long hours and are often confronted with significant issues on top of being responsible for managing the local church and ordering and conducting worship. I can often feel like we are doing it all alone. Recent research argues that clergy are suffering from moral injury in conflictual ministry settings. Other data indicates that clergy experience suicidal ideation frequently. I will employ methods learned in CPE that can be beneficial in support of my clergy colleagues. I am hoping to help form clergy support groups where pastors can seek out informal confidential emotional support, receive aid with reflecting on difficult situations and feel less isolated. Based on a questionnaire circulated among clergy colleagues, I intend to make a call to action to both parish and denominational leaders to broaden resources of support for the clergy with whom they relate.

Thursday, April 20

Carrie Dengler Wenger: “Toward Wholeness:  How Chaplains Integrate the Sacred Work of Healing”

Chaplains in clinical settings are facing unique ministry challenges.  As they are more integrated into the medical system, they must shape their work in ways that harmonize and complement the interdisciplinary team.  Additionally, they carry the responsibility of spiritually supporting people across a wide spectrum of beliefs and faiths.  How can chaplains bring theological integrity to their role amidst systemic healthcare practices and when companioning people on various spiritual journeys?  How do they contribute to the health of each individual and integrate their assessments into the plan of care?  Questions related to the theology that grounds and guides chaplains, the chaplain’s role on an interdisciplinary team, and the professional chaplain’s integration with the healthcare system are vitally relevant parts of the growth of the profession of chaplaincy. 

The primary lens I will bring to my work will be that of a theology of wholeness.  I will engage scholarly work and biblical studies to create the framework for this theology.  Then I will bring this lens to several different disciplines including perspectives from medicine, social work, grief theory, and family systems theory.  In each area, I will be looking for indicators of wholeness and interventions that serve the telos of wholeness. 

To address both the goal of theological integrity and the realities that accompany interdisciplinary work in a hospital setting, I will propose the use of an appropriate spiritual assessment tool.  My process will include both the study of and experimentation with various tools as well as a proposal for how they might be improved.  In short, I will be aiming to discover and/or craft a tool that is theologically grounded, practical, relevant, and translatable. 

Nancy Elizabeth Bedford – author, professor, and global feminist and decolonial theories and theologies researcher – will visit ��ݮ���� March 29-30 as part of the annual Augsburger Lecture Series, in collaboration with Virginia Mennonite Conference and Park View Mennonite Church.

Bedford will give three different lectures at EMU, all in the seminary’s Martin Chapel. All will be livestreamed page and recorded as well. Translation into Spanish will be available for the Tuesday evening lecture.

Her talks include:

• Tuesday, March 29, 11 a.m.: “Why Does Theology Matter? Malleability”
• Tuesday, March 29, 7 p.m.: “What’s the Matter with Theology? Materiality”
• Wednesday, March 30, 10:10 a.m.: “How Might Theology Become Materialized? Mission”

“We are so very excited to welcome Dr. Bedford to our campus and for her to hopefully agitate our thinking in the way we view and understand mission,” said Professor Andrew Suderman, program director of Bible, religion and theology and co-chair of the Augsburger committee. “Dr. Bedford’s work in decoloniality and deconstructing whiteness will undoubtedly help us in our journey of being a community that better lives into the diversity and beauty of God’s good creation.”

Bedford lives in Evanston, Illinois, where she has been Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary since 2003. From 1995-2002, she taught theology at Instituto Universitario ISEDET and Seminario Internacional Teológico Bautista, both in Buenos Aires. Nancy Elizabeth Bedford was born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. 

Her latest book is Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him? (Herald Press, 2021). Bedford has written or edited ten books and written over 90 book chapters and journal articles, which have appeared in five languages. 

Bedford is a member of Reba Place Church (Mennonite) in Evanston, where she is on the preaching team and the racial justice group. She is married to Daniel Stutz, with whom she has three adult daughters, Valeria, Sofía and Carolina.

The Augsburger Lecture series was founded in 1984 by Myron S. and Esther Augsburger to address “topics in the area of Christian evangelism and mission for the stimulation and development of a vision for evangelism and missions for the EMU community.”

Previous Augsburger lecturers include: 

• 2019: Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath, author, educator, United Methodist Church elder and co-founder of the Neighborhood Seminary. Heath’s presentation was titled “Is There Good News for a World in Trauma?” Article podcast
• 2018: N.T. Wright, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland. Wright presented on “Promised Glory: Thinking Straight about God and the World.” Article podcast
• 2017: James Krabill ‘71, senior mission advocate with Mennonite Mission Network, who convened a panel with Leonard Dow ’87 and Esther Augsburger ’72, all alumni who have served in Christian evangelism and missions. Article podcast
• 2016: The Reverend Canon Dr. Scot McKnight, New Testament scholar, theologian, historian, and author. Article podcast
• 2015: Nelson Okanya MDiv ’03, president of Eastern Mennonite Missions, who spoke on the changes in global missions over the last half-century. Article podcast

Drew Strait, at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, will explore biblical perspectives on Christian nationalism at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and at Park View Mennonite Church later this month.

The seminary’s worship service will be Wednesday, March 16, at 10:10 a.m. in Martin Chapel (room 215) and the fellowship area (room 218). It will also be livestreamed on .

The seminar will be Wednesday, March 16, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Park View Mennonite Church, located at 1600 College Avenue. The seminar will be livestreamed on the or the .

Strait will grapple with the challenges patriotism and Christian nationalism present for Anabaptist discipleship. Through personal stories and engagement with biblical texts, Strait hopes to empower Christians to become an alternative global community of love, peace and justice that bears witness to Christ’s peaceable kingdom by embracing human difference rather than fearing it.

His lecture at Park View defines what white Christian nationalism is in biblical and theological perspective, and offers suggestions for how congregations can faithfully challenge Christian nationalism with the way of Jesus.

Strait completed his PhD at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in 2015. His passion for the church’s potential to uplift the brokenhearted has led him to mission work with Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic and an interim pastor role at Living Water Community Church in Chicago. Most recently, he served as an elder at Peace Fellowship in Washington D.C. He formerly taught at St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was awarded the Dunning Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship in 2016. 

NOTE: The Sunday 1/16 performance of “Anne and Emmett” is cancelled due to weather.

��ݮ���� will host the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Legacy, Service and Learning Friday, Jan. 14, through Monday, Jan. 17. Some events are limited to EMU students, faculty, and staff [view the full schedule at www.emu.edu/mlk]

This year’s MLK Day theme centers around King’s words from Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958):  “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

_{Public Invited}

Events open to the public include:

• Saturday, Jan. 15: 2 p.m., live performance of Anne and Emmett, Lehman Auditorium. Masks are required. Limited to 100 in the audience. $5.
• CANCELLED: Sunday, Jan. 16: 5 p.m. live performance of Anne and Emmett, Lehman Auditorium. THIS PERFORMANCE IS CANCELLED.
• Monday, Jan 17:
  • 7 a.m., noon and 7 p.m. EST. VIRTUAL: “Dancing Resilience.” Join a 20-minute dance session via Zoom. Dancing Resilience honors Alice Walker’s belief that “Hard times require furious dancing.” Hosted by STAR lead trainer Katie Mansfield. Music playlists will lift up the struggle for liberation.
  • 10 a.m. VIRTUAL. Convocation, celebration and worship with The Rev. Glen Guyton, executive director of Mennonite Church USA. Watch the livestream at [you do not need a member to participate].
  • 4:15 p.m. VIRTUAL. Anne and Emmett talkback with producer Celeste Thomas, director of EMU’s Multicultural Student Services and Bob Berrson, Jewish Scholar in Residence at EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement programming and a retired James Madison University professor. Watch the livestream at [you do not need a member to participate].

EMU students, faculty and staff are invited to live performances of Anne and Emmett on Friday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m. and Monday, Jan. 17, at 3:30 p.m. Free with EMU ID; no ticket required. Check the webpage for more information about other events for EMU students, faculty, and staff.

_{More on Anne and Emmett}

Janet Langhart Cohen’s play Anne and Emmett is a special production sponsored with grants from Interfaith Youth Core, the Arts Council of the Valley, EMU Multicultural Student Services and the EMU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is produced by Celeste Thomas and directed by Ezrionna Prioleau ’17.

“This play aims to create dialogue around race, religion, oppression, healing and reconciliation,” said Thomas. Her motivation to produce the play is linked strongly to the “continuation of hate” in the world today, she added. “I wanted to bring Anne and Emmett’s stories to light. We must never forget that their lives were short-lived but meaningful.”

“Anne and Emmett” tells the story of Anne Frank, a Jewish child killed in the Holocaust, and Emmett Till, a teenager murdered in Mississippi, and their parents, who refused to be silent in sharing the stories of the hate that killed their children.

 Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, a member of EMU’s Board of Trustees, joins students Greta Schrag, Thaddeus Jackson, Isaac Longacre and Andrew Stoltzfus to present the stories of Emmett Till and Anne Frank and their parents, Otto Frank and Mamie Till.

Prioleau has been working to direct this play at EMU since 2019, when she first discovered it.

“Anne Frank and Emmett Till were two children who were unable to escape the hate in the worlds they lived in,” she writes in her director’s notes. “Mamie Till-Mobley and Otto Frank both lost their children …They both spoke up and told the world what happened, Mamie with a picture and Otto with words. The parallels in their stories are important and without them we may have never known about what hate was doing.”

Read more from Thomas and Prioleau as well as composer Joshua Overacker ‘21 in the play program. 

The production crew includes several alumni:

• Prioleau, a 2017 graduate of EMU’s theater program, is a graduate student in the MDiv and MA in organizational leadership programs. She has acted, produced, directed and designed scenery and lighting for multiple productions.

• Composer Joshua Overacker ‘21 contributed original compositions. 

• Costume designer Hailey Holcomb ‘17 is a graduate student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. As a graduate of EMU’s theater program, she has worked for EMU theater in various capacities,  including stage management, scene shop crew, props, costuming, acting, and her current role as a production assistant.

• Lighting designer Robert Weaver ‘18 is a freelance theater artist in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, currently working as a stagehand and lighting designer at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. He recently enjoyed working with Step Afrika! as an assistant master electrician for their touring production of The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence.

• Production assistant Akiel Baker ‘21 is a residence director at EMU. He is pursuing a master’s degree in social work and working as a site coordinator for On the Road Collaborative, a nonprofit based in Harrisonburg dedicated to closing the learning gap and empowering youth.

• Media designer Kara Painter ‘18, an EMU visual and communications arts graduate, recently earned her MBA and Master’s in Health Administration degree from Mary Baldwin University.

• The crew also includes student Jareya Harder, stage manager, and EMU faculty member Shannon Dove, scene designer.

Poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama will spend the second week of September virtually touring ��ݮ����: speaking in chapels, colloquia, and classes; chatting with pastors and LGBTQ+ groups; and networking with community organizations, including NPR’s local radio station affiliate WMRA and JMU’s Furious Flower Poetry Center. 

All of these events will be . Those who register to attend will receive a webinar link and will be able to interact with Ó Tuama through Q & A.

His book In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015) is this year’s Common Read selection, one book the campus community is encouraged to read, reflect on, and engage with.

The author of four books of poetry and prose, Ó Tuama is known for integrating themes of language, power, conflict and religion. He is also a peacebuilder and mediator. From 2014-19, he led the , Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation. He hosts the podcast from On Being Studios.

Monday, September 14 

• 6 p.m. – Writers Read

Ó Tuama will read excerpts from his poetry and prose. The event is open to the public via Zoom and live stream. 

Tuesday, September 15 

• 11 a.m. – Seminary Chapel and Talkback

Ó Tuama will speak on “Jesus of Nazareth: Strange man in strange times,” looking at Jesus through the lenses of story, poetry, literary analysis, and imagination. This event is open to the public via Zoom and live stream. 

• 3 p.m. – Books and Brews with WMRA

This live event, open to all, will also be available via Zoom and live stream. moderator Mary Katharine Froehlich will speak with Ó Tuama about “how poetry, books and reading kept me safe.”

Wednesday, September 16

• 10:15 a.m. – Convocation and Talkback

Hello to Language. What does it mean to use language today? — in a time of pandemic, in the latest racist decade of a racist era, in a time where truth is questioned and language is fake if it’s labelled fake. Pádraig Ó Tuama will explore the power of language; power to harm and power to heal, and consider that power in conversation both with story and time. How do we tell stories about the times we are in? How long do we imagine the times we are in will be the times we are in? How do we speak today in order to consider new stories?

 This event is open to all: EMU students and employees may attend the event in Lehman Auditorium, with overflow space in SC 106 and UC 170; the public may tune in via Zoom and live stream.

• 4:15 p.m. – University Colloquium

Ó Tuama will speak on “Reading can save your life: living our lives in conversation with received narratives.” This colloquium will touch on the practice of reading poetry, religious texts, and the stories of our own lives, as well as narratives about belonging. Available via Zoom and live stream. 

Thursday, September 17

• 12 p.m. – Discussion with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

Insights and Mistakes from Ireland for Isolated Times

In 2021, Ireland will mark 100 years since partition. During that time, there have been numerous sustained periods of conflict about British-Irish dynamics: conflict that has been witnessed both on the streets and in policies. Given this hundred years of conflict and attempts at brokering peace, what lessons might be relevant for today?

Friday, September 18

• 10 a.m. – Talk with the Furious Flower Poetry Center at JMU

The is the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry. In “The shelter of stories in uncertain times,” Ó Tuama will talk with Executive Director Joanne Gabbin about the poet’s role in modeling truth-telling, social justice, and activism. This event is open to all via Zoom and live stream. 

• 1 p.m. – “How shall we go from here?” Closing session

What is the role of the imagination in peacebuilding and public life? Building on years of LGBTQI advocacy, Pádraig will reflect with us — on the last session of his residency — on how the imagination might nurture public action, change and witness. This event is hosted by Patience Kamau and Catherine Barnes. 

Register for any event here.

It took a few years of persistence and many phone calls on the part of ��ݮ����’s Director of Multicultural Services Celeste Thomas to bring The Rev. Dr. Cornell William Brooks to campus. The former president and CEO of the NAACP from from 2014-17, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School for the last two years and serves this academic year as professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice, and director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. 

And it was relationship that eventually made all the difference. Brooks, a fourth-generation ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church, has preached locally several times.

“I had met Sister Celeste years ago on one of my visits to Bethel AME here in Harrisonburg and once you meet someone, it’s hard to say no,” he said to Bethel parishioners, including senior pastor The Rev. Dr. Chinita Richardson, and EMU campus community members at a Sunday worship service in Mainstage Theater.

“It was quite a blessing to have the former CEO and president of the National NAACP, reverend and civil rights attorney here on campus,” Thomas said. “He is the epitome of what it looks like to live into Micah.  So, if you are asking what can I do to promote a social justice way of life, he talks the talk and walks the walk. He is genuine in word and deed.”

Brooks spoke twice during his visit to commemorate Black History Month on the theme of Sankofa, a Ghanese metaphor about

“In his Sunday message, he emphasized that we can’t do social justice well without letting our God lead us,” said Maya Dula, co-president of EMU’s Black Student Alliance. “He reiterated over and over that without prayer, work for racial justice would not be where it is today. We won’t get where we want to get without God at the forefront, and I think he may be right.” 

Brooks took his Sunday text from 2 Kings 4 of the widow and the miraculous supply of oil. “What do you do when you’re doing without?” he asked. “I lift up three lessons for spiritual contemplation. Take your problem to the Lord. Take stock, assess what you have. Take to your closet.”

In Brooks’ sermon, the Biblical story reflects the depth and richness of God’s presence in Black history, then and now, and becomes a spiritual guide to lift listeners who are “morally depressed, empty of hope, aspiration, love, faith for the future.”

In response to the prophet’s question, the widow says at first she has nothing.

“Then She considers what she has. Because she says in answer to the prophet’s question, nothing except a little oil. What’s our little oil? Our little oil looks like a little history, a little history. A little oil called Rosa Parks, MLK…Richard Allen, AME, our history of resistance.”

Black History Month “brings us to the Intersection of history and hope,” he said. “All of our history bears witness to God’s movement among us.”

Monday’s convocation included readings by members of the Black Student Alliance and music by the Gospel Choir. Brooks’ theme was “History and Hope on the Slave (Auction) Block.”

The history of Black people in this land, beginning with 16 Africans in 1619 and continuing through the horrors of oppression and suppression, is “the kind of history that calls into our morality, our sense of civichood as a nation,” he said. “It calls into question the consistency of the Constitution and the hypocracy of those who say they believe in the Bible … What do we do with this history?”

Yet this history, whether read in books or heard in stories from relatives or even activism and narratives shared on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, is “testimony … Black history, surviving and thriving in spite of what they came up against. Those are stories you cherish … Black history is about this moment. It is not only about what is being recorded but about what is made and done.”

Through it all is God’s work, he said, and it is the story of all of us.

“…if you believe in God, if you believe in Jesus, if you believe God the Father, if you believe in the Holy Spirit, if you believe in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then you gotta believe in the history of black people. You’ve got to believe in God’s power and presence and movement in the history of Black people and if you believe in that, you’ve got to claim it, you got to read it, you have to love it.” 

Brooks’ visit was sponsored by EMU’s Multicultural Student Services, the Black Student Alliance, the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, and the Bible, Religion and Theology Department.

Several other events, including the BSA’s annual Town Hall on Race, also commemorated the month.

��ݮ����’s MLK Day celebrations included service projects, lectures and workshops, a convocation, film showings and much more. Enjoy photos of highlighted events by Macson McGuigan, Kiana Childress and Jamie Reich.

A co-hosted by Northeast Neighborhood Association, EMU and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church, brought state senator Jennifer McClellan, Harrisonburg mayor and EMU trustee Deanna Reed, and other speakers to commemorate the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Students and Black Student Alliance officers Maya Dula and Jakiran Richardson at the morning’s solidarity march.

Students from EMU’s main campus, including (from left) KC Argueta-Rivas, Morgan Bradley and Dulce Shenk Zeager, traveled to Washington D.C. to participate with the nonprofit Community of Hope in Anacostia’s MLK Day Peace Parade. The visit to DC was hosted by Kimberly Schmidt and Jamie Reich, of The Washington Community Scholars’ Center, and students in residence there for the semester. Residence director Scott Eyre and his son Nolan also made the trip from Harrisonburg.

EMU staff and students met neighbors along the route through the heart of D.C.’s historic Anacostia neighborhood and handed out stress balls, chapstick and pamphlets about Community of Hope’s services. “The parade is a big event with African American Civil War re-enactors on horseback, lots of clowns, marching bands from as far away as Tallahassee, and a number of local organizations, non-profits represented in the parade,” said Schmidt. Prior to the parade, the group visited the MLK Memorial for a ceremony and gospel music. On Sunday, students at WCSC also traveled to Anacostia to a special worship service at Saint Teresa of Avila Catholic Church, the first of its kind built east of the Anacostia River and known as the “mother church” for African American Catholics.

Drummers on stage in Lehman Auditorium, including Jonas Masiya (shown here), Victor Parker and Rodrigue Makelele, began the convocation festivities.

Convocation speaker Dr. Jalane Schmidt, from the University of Virginia, shares about her involvement as an activist and organizer before, during and after the events surrounding the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville.

Members of EMU’s Gospel Choir, joined by community musicians, perform at convocation with drummer Terry Jones and pianist Earnest Kiah. From left: David Chun, Natalie Brown, Amanda Jasper, Kiara Kiah, Rebecca Yugga, Jami Miles, Ariel Barbosa, Patricia Dunn, Carolyn Jackson, Sonja Myers and Janelle Birkey.

Rap artist and EMU alumnus Meechy Jay takes the stage.

Tyrone Sprague gives a haircut in the Royal Treatment student lounge, which opened last year in University Commons. A longtime contributor to EMU’s MLK Day celebrations, Sprague had hosted his annual barbershop talk in his business downtown until the new lounge space opened.

Professor Mark Sawin lectures on “Remembering the Confederacy: A Monumental Debate” in Common Grounds.

Student Tone Parker (right) leads a community drumming circle, joined by (from left) Emerson Brubaker, Andy King, Ariel Barbosa, Avery Trinh and Zavion Taylor.

The first event – which combines community members and worship in collaborative artistic creation – will be on Palm Sunday, April 14, at 7 p.m. on Thomas Plaza.

The second event on Wednesday, April 17, highlights the traditional alfombra created during Holy Week by EMU’s Latino Student Alliance. This is the fourth year LSA has created the artwork and hosted the service, which takes place in EMU’s campus center from 10:10-11 a.m.

The two events will create unique but complementary worship spaces for Holy Week, said Campus Pastor Brian Martin Burkholder. “We want to gather the campus and broader community to explore the spiritual significance of creating and using alfombras both in their cultural contexts and in our shared experience. On Palm Sunday, we will worship together, build simple alfombras with readily available natural items, and hear about the alfombra created by the Latino Student Alliance, which will be completed for the service on Wednesday.”

What’s an alfombra?

Communities in Mexico and Central America decorate their streets to commemorate Jesus’s welcome into Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion.  Traditionally, community members gather in a processional to walk over the alfombras on their way to church.

For the past three years, LSA has created one of these expansive and colorful works of art on the EMU campus. The process begins months before, with the selection of a theme and the symbolic elements. Materials, including coffee grounds, rice, sawdust and flour, are gathered and prepared. Teams of students spend many hours patiently contributing to the finished work.

LSA’s alfombra provides a beautiful centerpiece for a mid-week Holy Week service during which worshippers walk together around the art, stopping to listen to scripture readings, participate in a litany, and sing hymns together in English and Spanish. After so many hours of labor, the alfombra remains intact for viewing and reflection.

Bring materials to the Palm Sunday service

LSA’s tradition of creating the alfombra inspired the idea to create what Burkholder is calling an “interactive alfombra made of found materials from the natural world” on Palm Sunday.

Participants are welcome to bring their own materials to contribute, such as wood chips, sand, gravel, branches, or flowers. A design will be present, but there will also be open space.

Creation will be “festival-style,” family friendly and fun. The artistic creation will be “free-flowing and interactive, alongside the music provided by our student worship team, Celebration,” said Burkholder. “We invite everyone to come and participate and share in this collaborative creation.”

Weather permitting, Thomas Plaza at the center of campus will be the site. If rain or wind is likely, the event will move inside.

Taking Galatians 3:27-28 as his main text, Pastor AJ Mosley’s sermon on the theme of ubuntu Wednesday offered practical advice. “Putting on Christ” is more than just putting on clothes, he said. It is “putting on” divine unity.

His listeners included some 60 ��ݮ���� students and many more campus community members, some of whom attend  in Harrisonburg where Mosley is executive preacher. (Founder and lead pastor Chris Johnson is a 2010 Eastern Mennonite Seminary graduate.)

The convocation worship service, sponsored by Black Student Union and Multicultural Student Services, was the final event among others in recognition of and tribute to Black History Month.

Mosley’s message, along with a musical selection by Divine Unity’s Every Nation Campus musical group and a litany by Black Student Union members, focused on ubuntu, a South African word meaning compassion, humanity and togetherness.

Mosley pointed out that the concept of unity is not only part of the name of his church but is among the characteristics that “define us.” One of those characteristics, called “house habits” on the DUCC website, is “We Choose You.”

“This is an understanding that there is nothing we will qualify or make you do outside of what God has done to make you be chosen,” he said. “When you come into our family, we choose you.”

Taking the rest of his sermon from Paul’s instructions on how to choose each other, Mosley expounded on the metaphorical and literal meaning of “putting on Christ”: For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).

While everyone in the congregation is dressed and covered, clothing hides our flesh and gets in the way of true seeing. “When I see you, I don’t necessarily see you,” Mosley said. “…Some people put on labels before they put on Jesus.”

Being truly clothed in Christ, he said, happens through spiritual practices of prayer and Biblical reading, preparing yourself and living authentically into God’s call to service, and being in community with your brothers and sisters who will “hold you to your confessions,” he said.

Then if we are properly clothed, we can “push past our divisions,” those divisions which Paul named so long ago that still exist today.

“Jew and Greek, that’s racial divisions. Slave nor free, that’s socioeconomic status. Male and female, those are gender lines. Paul is teaching us that when we put on Christ, all that gets covered in Christ. It’s not wrong to wear your status, it’s not wrong to wear your race, it’s not wrong to wear your gender. It’s wrong if that’s what covers you. When we talk about race, class and gender, that is internal to what you are enclosed in. Your race isn’t a proper cover for you, your class isn’t the proper cover for you, and your gender isn’t the proper cover for you. Christ is the proper cover for you.”

Unity, he said, lies in “the wardrobe change,” the awareness of Christ in all of us.

Music, the word, arts and more

Every Nation Campus, a music group from Divine Unity, began the service with a musical number that included Earnest Kiah on the piano, Bruce Cypress on drums, and vocalists Jenna Hostetler, Norman Jones, Joshua Gomez, Courtney Ott, Nicia Whitcomb and Sierra Orr.

Pastoral assistant Tae Dews gave the opening prayers and Bobby Simmons provided a scripture reading.

Black Student Union members and officers Jourdyn Friend, Anthony Parker, Jakiran Richardson and Precious Waddy gave a litany.

During February, BSU also sponsored the annual Town Hall on Race, a candid and space for members of the campus community, as well as a film showing of “The Hate U Give”and a talkback.

BSU also kicked off a new monthly event, “The Black Box,” a showcase of student art and performances hosted in the Campus Center’s Black Box Theater. Alumnus Maleke Jones ’18, who performs as Meechy Jay, was February’s guest of honor.

“We believe through art we can come together as a community and celebrate each other,” said Alexa Lahr, speaking on behalf of the Art Club and BSU.

The international fashion show was rescheduled for April.

See photos of the grand opening for the new student lounge “The Royal Treatment,”  styled as a barbershop and salon.

The celebration theme was “A Time to Break Silence,” words from the title of an anti-Vietnam War and pro-social justice speech delivered by King April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” said Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, quoting King while welcoming the crowd to Lehman Auditorium. “His words rang true back then and they ring truer today. Simply being silent is no longer an option, not today, especially in the climate we’re in. We must speak out.”

Reed called EMU “our bridgebuilders, our moral compass, our peacebuilders of the Valley,” and urged the campus community to uphold their continued commitment to those descriptors: “When you feel in your soul that something is not right, I give you the open invitation to stand up and say something.”

The program also included reflections from President Susan Schultz Huxman, a scripture reading by Jakiran Richardson, co-president of Black Student Union, and Ariel Barbosa, co-president of Latino Student Alliance; spoken word by Ezrionna Prioleau; selections performed by a gospel choir of EMU students and Northeast Neighborhood residents; and the introduction of the speaker by Brittany Caine-Conley.

Caine-Conley, a graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, is a United Church of Christ (UCC) pastor and organizer of Congregate Charlottesville. In that capacity, in the days preceding the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, she invited to train and join with those confronting white supremacists.

The convocation address, titled “”This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Civil Rights Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” was brought by Sekou, an activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker and musician from St. Louis, Missouri.

Sekou joined with student and pianist Earnest Kiah to sing “Bury Me,” by Rev. , a Charlottesville UCC minister and songwriter.

Here are excerpts from his address:

Another challenge that faces us, particularly those of us who are slightly older, is not to lie to you, but to tell the truth about the times that were before so that we might honestly engage the times to come. One of the lies that we tell you is that everybody over 50 marched with Martin Luther King, and this is not simply true. … Though he is loved, he was not loved when he was alive. In fact, he was hated.

There’s a certain kind of ubiquity of a Martin Luther King. We have a national monument. All over America today people shall gather in places … but it seems the case that liberals and conservatives alike tend to appropriate his legacy and language to adorn their own political wardrobes and buttress their ideological construction. Corporations such as Apple have used his words and images to sell their wares, and pundits of all persuasions have invoked his name to browbeat a younger generation of [activists] and their tactics. Such is the case for the Movement for Black Lives, commonly known as the Black Lives Matter movement.

Often denigrated in public discourse, Black Lives Matter is the largest movement for racial justice in the United States since the civil rights movement. … Martin Luther King and Black Lives Matter as a broader movement were both held in general disdain by the popular opinion. And that popular opinion renders to us something to us in a way in which we can come to understand not only the past but the present, because if we hold up the civil rights movement as a movement that had extreme popularity over and against how young people’s activism is viewed today, we create the possibility of them never achieving the kind of success that they believe is necessary, because we have lied to them….

I suspect the reason why Martin Luther King was so hated during his own life and why Black Lives Matter as a movement is so hated during its particular moment has more to do with their commonality than their difference. … We must come to understand the ways in which our country has always found itself in opposition to a level of progress that called into question what it meant to be American. …

Martin Luther King comes from a tradition of a mighty people, and that these mighty people had an understanding of the world that was theologically rich and dense, because they understood that … the beginning of black religion in the context of the American empire begins not with the lack of presuppositions about who God is and what the nature of the church is. It begins with one fundamental assumption that black people are human, and that is a revolutionary notion in America. It begins with the humanity of black people, and … begins with an understanding that black people look at the darkness and they tell the truth about the darkness but they never let the darkness have the last word.

And so they say interesting things, like “Jesus is a bright and morning star.” That’s theological sophistication because it looks at the darkness. You can’t see the morning star without the darkness. And they look at the darkness and they acknowledge it, and they say, “He’s a bright and a morning star.” They say, “He’s the lily of the valley, water in dry places.” These are theological richness that acknowledges the darkness. It acknowledges the pain and agony and despair, and never lets it have the last word. It comes from a semi-literate people who had dense theological understanding of the world, so they said things like “Jesus is a doctor in a sick room, a lawyer in a courtroom. … He is a keeper and a friend to the friendless and a mother to the motherless.” These were people who were stolen away from their mothers and their fathers and they understood that Jesus could be a comfort to them even in these contexts.

These are the people who produced Martin Luther King. Mighty people. …

We have a moral and ethical obligation to stand against all forms of racism, all forms of anti-Semitism, all forms of discrimination, and that we have the right and moral and ethical responsibility to say that the life of a baby in Ferguson is just as important as the life of a baby in Palestine, just as important as the life of a baby in Yemen, just as important as the life of a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender baby….

We are called seriously as Christians to take without question … that whenever people are catching hell, we are morally and ethically obligated to show up. And on the question of gay, lesbian and bisexual and transgender people, particularly for older Christians: You don’t have to get it, because comprehension is not the prerequisite for compassion.

Whenever people are catching hell, we see in [King’s] life that we must show up, so whether that be in solidarity with Palestinians in 1967, whether it be with sanitation workers in 1968, whether it be with striking union workers in a pen factory in North Carolina, he showed up wherever people were catching hell.

Now let’s be clear, we do not want to romanticize him. He had contradictions. His sexism was evident. … He was human just like you. And so your contradictions do not disqualify you from struggle, and in fact they mandate that you struggle even harder. … We are all fallen. … Paul talks about the notion of those of us who are being saved, that salvation is not a destination, it’s something we’re on our way to. We are being saved. We are becoming. …

We all have contradictions and those contradictions do not invalidate our commitment to struggle.

Christopher Clymer Kurtz contributed to this article.

In addition to presenting in EMU and Eastern Mennonite Seminary chapel services, Wright will give the annual Augsburger Lecture. He will also address area pastors and speak at James Madison University.

Wright, currently the research professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, has also been Bishop of Durham, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, and Dean of Lichfield Cathedral, as well as a professor of New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford universities.

His books include Simply Jesus, Surprised by Hope, The Day the Revolution Began, Jesus and the Victory of God, Paul and the Faithfulness of God and more, and his writing has appeared in The Times, the Independent, and the Guardian. He has been interviewed by ABC, CNN, FOX, NBC, NPR and PBS.

“Wright has spent decades providing insights into Christian thought and has raised provocative questions for many,” said EMU pastor and campus ministries director Brian Martin Burkholder. “We are looking forward to engaging with him about discerning hope in our current day.”

The two-day visit is sponsored by the Missional Church Partnership, a coalition that includes Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Park View Mennonite Church, Virginia Mennonite Conference and Virginia Mennonite Missions, and ��ݮ����’s campus ministries, Bible and religion department, and this year the Augsburger Lecture Series. Aubrey Spears, rector at the Church of the Incarnation and director of Café Veritas, joined the group in hosting Wright.

Events open to the public include:

Tuesday, Nov. 13:

• Eastern Mennonite Seminary chapel service in Martin Chapel, 11-11:45 a.m.: “The Spirit and the Church’s Task” (based on John 16:4b-15)
• Memorial Hall, James Madison University, 7-8:30 p.m.: “Signposts from a Suffering World: How God Reveals Himself Despite Everything”

Wednesday, Nov. 14:

• EMU campus worship in Lehman Auditorium, 10:10-11 a.m. (Q&A until 11:30 a.m.): “The Day the Revolution Began: Atonement the Right Way Round”
• EMU Augsburger Lecture Series Colloquium Address in Lehman Auditorium, 7-8:30 p.m.: “Promised Glory: Thinking Straight about God and the World” and Q&A.

“Be open to the plot twists,” he said, even while being faithful to the reasons behind what you’re doing. “Be open to what friends and family are saying to you, are seeing in you.” And, he said, give yourself “permission to fail.”

Case in point, he said during his EMU visit: Paul, who wrote the Book of Romans – a summary of his theology – to lay the groundwork for fundraising in Rome for an anticipated trip to Spain. Paul never made it to Spain, but succeeded in another way: “He wrote Romans, and the church has been blessed for 2,000 years,” Cavey said.

Cavey, who is also speaking at an Eastern Mennonite Seminary chapel service Thursday and interacting with students in multiple other venues, is the senior pastor at The Meeting House. From Oakville, Ontario, the Anabaptist “church for people who aren’t into church” provides programming to various sites across Ontario and elsewhere, with community connections taking place through a network of house churches.

His books include Reunion: The Good News of Jesus for Seekers, Saints, and Sinners (Herald Press, 2017) and The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus (NavPress, 2007).

Cavey said he never wanted to be a pastor – a “professional holy man” – but a radio disc jockey. First, though, he had questions about himself, and so studied psychology. Then he had bigger questions, and got a master’s degree in theology. Then he accepted an invitation to speak at a small church that his sister attended; the church ended up inviting him to a meeting to explore the possibility of becoming their pastor. He accepted the invitation, but, he broke down and confessed at the meeting, with a bad attitude: he’d come only because he wanted a funny story for his future grandkids. The gathered body counseled him, however, and “breathed into me a vision of my future that I didn’t even know myself,” he said.

Now Cavey’s work is dispersed via The Meeting House’s to 19 sites, primarily in Ontario. Additional small groups that use its content are in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The Gospel in 30 words, he said, is that “Jesus is God with us, come to show us God’s love, save us from sin, set up God’s kingdom and shut down religion so we can share in God’s life.” Living as part of that kingdom has “this-worldly implications starting here and starting now,” he said.

 “What kind of life do you want to live in for eternity?” he asked. “A life of peace? Start now…. We are reconcilers. We rush to help the reconciliation process where there is brokenness.”

The convocation opened with a performance of two songs by , a Bridgewater, Virginia, native who attended Eastern Mennonite Seminary and is now based in Nashville. She released a four-song EP Honestly earlier this fall.

Consolidated into one weekly meeting that alternates with convocation, campus worship is now twice the time, supported by a multitude of volunteer leaders, and hosted in a multitude of different places.

Word is, too, that the multitudes are responding.

That makes absolute sense to pastoral assistant Lindsay Acker. “One worship style is never going to fulfill everybody’s spiritual needs,” she says. With different “break-out groups” meeting around campus, Acker summarizes the new format as “so much opportunity to do your own thing.”

STEM fans gather in Suter to explore science and faith. Seminarians host “welcoming prayer.” A residence life director offers co-exploration of a book about the journey from Christian to Christ follower. A staff member opens space for entering the Gospel through informal dramatics.

And there’s more, Acker says. “There is a queer theology break-out, celebrating a community that is too often ostracized and silenced in Christian spaces, including EMU. Peace Fellowship is working on an interfaith break-out group to co-host with the Center for Interfaith Engagement. And have you heard about the ‘Chronicles of Yarnia’ group? They are gathering for knitting and reflection. I love that spaces like these are now being welcomed and supported by the university, and I hope it can lead to greater change and understanding.”

A long-term re-visioning

This revisioning has been years in the making.

During many chapel worship services of the past, campus pastor Brian Martin Burkholder kept an eye on the clock, watching the 30 minutes trickle away. So, too, did some of the audience – heading out of Lehman Auditorium to class or other commitments while music was playing, a speaker was wrapping up final conclusions, or announcements were being completed.

The amount of time for chapel wasn’t the only concern shared by Burkholder and the campus ministries council. They were asking questions attentive to enhancing faith and spiritual life on campus.

Would other formats for gathering be more formational? Could more options be offered to meet more community and individual needs?

The experimental answer is programming that is both “invitational and intentional,” Burkholder says, offering multiple spaces in a variety of venues facilitated by volunteer campus community leaders – students, faculty and staff. “This structure expands our time together, offers choices for how a person wants to engage and brings people into spaces around campus where they are both comfortable and challenged. We are broadening our ministry to better meet the growing diversity of our student body in connected and collaborative ways.”

Lehman service brings together different worship styles

As worship coordinator for the campus worship service hosted in Lehman Auditorium, Abigail Shelly coordinates between the many student music groups on campus, including Hymn Sing and Celebration worship music teams, “to form different worship experiences in song.”

Though gathering in Lehman may have a traditional feel, Shelly says the space has opened up to explore the “meshing of different worship styles” through music and speakers. It’s still “collective, corporate worship,” but with an edgy feel that she describes as “a call to step into the inclusivity of a collective, community-supported space of worship while also embracing the new – and, potentially uncomfortable – ways that other brothers and sisters express Christian faith.”

‘Some kinks,’ but also a new energy on campus

Pastoral assistant Luke Hertzler calls the new format “a beautiful and energizing space for the EMU community to come together centered around Christ … embracing unity in diversity.”

“We all have different ways we experience and love God,” he said. “We hope the break-out groups will be an outlet for those who feel more comfortable in a smaller setting or have a desire to be a part of other learnings and conversations. Regardless of what our God-given calling or passion is, we can still be a part of the same revitalizing, Spirit-led movement emerging across campus this year.”

Though Lindsay Acker agrees that the break-out groups are a “great way to celebrate our differences,” she sees some “kinks to work out.” She’s not convinced yet that all students feel welcome or that they really understand how convocation, break-out groups and campus worship relate to each other. The fact, though, that EMU is trying something new towards the goal of engaging with the community’s diverse spiritual needs is meaningful.

“I hope that in doing so, we can grow and keep ourselves accountable to students’ needs,” she said.

The new format will be reviewed and evaluated throughout the semester, Burkholder said.

Only the LSA reunion remains. This event is in University Commons 211 from 1:45-3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, during EMU’s . (LSA is also active throughout the year; stay tuned for their fourth annual popular Easter-time alfombra creation and worship service. Read more here and follow .)

On Friday evening, approximately 190 guests enjoyed savory food prepared by local restaurants Las Chamas, Pollo A La Brasa, El Milagro and El Charro.

LSA officers Ariel Barbosa and Fred Flores-Cano mc’ed the event, which included speakers Keyri Lopez-Godoy ’17 and Andrew Suderman, professor of theology, peace and mission who spent 10 years living in Costa Rica, Bolivia and Colombia, as well as reflections from students who had traveled on relevant cross-culturals.

The Jazz Combo and Jazz Ensemble, led by Kaleb Branner and Bob Curry respectively, provided musical interludes, and two dances were performed: a Bolivian folk dance called “Taquirari” by Maria René Saucedo and Rachel Loyer and the merengue dominicano by nursing professor Laura Yoder and Otoniel Suero Escalante.

Fuller professor speaks

LSA also hosted Fuller Theological Seminary professor ���ܲ������Ѳ�����í�Ա�� earlier this month for a series of talks, including a worship service at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, a convocation address in Lehman Auditorium, and an evening event, open to the public, with students in Professor Adriana Rojas’ 400-level Spanish course that engages with the theme of marginalized voices.

Martínez shared a historical perspective that challenged the American narrative regarding the annexation of northern Mexico and then recounted his own experiences with discrimination in the education system and racial profiling, Rojas said in an email. He went on to discuss immigration and deportation, specifically addressing “ways to advocate for immigrants and continue conversations with people that support border walls and deportation.”

“Dr. Martinez stressed that, instead of debating values and morals or resorting to tribalism, our narratives have the power to shift dominant narratives to create more inclusive nation,” Rojas said. “He also expressed the need for humanizing language to talk about migrants. In conclusion, he argued that the deportation of Latinos, who whether protestant or Catholic tend to profess and practice their faith, is in fact making the U.S. less Christian.”

Student Elizabeth Nisly said she appreciated hearing from Martinez that arguments themselves don’t work to change minds, and “that first we have to change our own narrative … to to build common bridges between people, by talking about work that immigrant people do that is a blessing others or by joyfully talking about our own immigration narrative.”

“I think the most important thing he said, for those of us who already consider ourselves ‘pro-immigration”‘ is to be in relationship with migrant people, not in a position of power, of ‘helping,'” Nisly reflected. “He challenged us to listen to stories and also be willing to share our own, to serve and to be served.”

Voices from the margins hold wisdom, vision

In his convocation address, Martínez spoke on the challenge of finding a clear path in times of darkness and confusion.

The path is indeed not always clear for followers of Christ, Martinez said. Yet, in the Bible, “in those moments when the people of God seem on edge and have lost their hope, when many just give up, some pray and seek out God, and in that process … out of those difficult times, those with eyes to see find that God has always been there creating new paths.”

“God puts in our mix people that God wants to use to speak into our lives and in for our future,” Martinez said. Many times these are the marginalized, the outsiders, the fresh converts who see with new eyes and bring a new perspective.

Consider the vibrancy of the churches and followers of the global south, he pointed out. “Christians around the world are in places where they don’t have power or they can’t go to a Christian university. They live where they often have to hide the fact that they are followers of Jesus Christ or they suffer because they are followers of Jesus Christ. Many of these churches are poor and on the margins of society, yet they seem to be intuitively missional in their approach to be in church.”

Martínez has served in multiple roles at Fuller since 2001, including vice president for diversity and international ministries, vice provost, associate provost for diversity and international programs, and director of the Center for the Study of Hispanic Church and Community.

He joined Fuller from the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he served as rector for nine years. A Mennonite Brethren pastor, Martínez also has experience in church planting and teaching in both religious and secular venues. He served as director of Hispanic Ministries for the Pacific District Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church and of Instituto Bíblico del Pacífico, a Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute.

Read more

Read more about Latino Student Alliance, which started on EMU’s campus in 1996, and is led during the 2018 by officers Ariel Barbosa, Anastasia Dronov, Kayley Scottlind, Fred Flores-Cano, Joshua Gomez and Donaldo Lleshi. Ana Cruz ���Ի���Maria Esther Showalter are the advisors.

Since 1996, Latino Student Alliance celebrates cultural pride and offers a welcoming space to all