After years of prohibition and delay, executions were again taking place in the Deep South, and most of the people crowded on death row had no lawyer and no right to counsel. There was a growing fear that people would soon be killed without ever having their cases reviewed by skilled counsel. We were getting frantic calls every day from people who had no legal assistance but whose dates of execution were on the calendar and approaching fast. I’d never heard voices so desperate.

–

This year’s Common Read selection at ��ݮ���� (EMU) is the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau, 2014), in which Stevenson tells the story of one of his first cases as a young attorney with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee, an organization based in Atlanta that assisted condemned people on death row. It was adapted into the multi-award-winning movie by the same name, which starred Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

EMU’s Common Read establishes common ground for discussion in classrooms and other venues.

In Just Mercy, Stevenson, who is Black, vibrantly paints pictures of his time commuting across the South, interacting with defendants and judges and police officers. He weaves together his own and others’ personal stories alongside threads of statistics, case law examples, and regional and racial history. 

The book focuses on one man he represented in particular: Walter McMillan, a Black man who was convicted of murder in 1988 by a nearly all-white jury. Their decision was based solely on eyewitness testimony, in spite of the nearly one dozen friends, family members, and a police officer who accounted for his whereabouts the day of the killing.

“This book is about getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America,” writes Stevenson. “It is about how easily we condemn people in this country and the injustice we create when we allow fear, anger, and distance to shape the way we treat the most vulnerable among us. It’s also about a dramatic period in our recent history, a period that indelibly marked the lives of millions of Americans – of all races, ages, and sexes – and the American psyche as a whole.”

Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the , a nonprofit based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to those who have been “illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons,” according to their website. The organization also works on education initiatives concerning race in America, such as the , a memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people and those affected by lynching, racial segregation, and police violence. 

“I hope readers will use the information and stories from this book to take a critical look at the criminal justice system, mass incarceration and harsh punishments that don’t seem to look for the truth but just want to seek retribution,” said Jennifer Ulrich, technical services librarian at EMU. “I hope we think about bias and racism and poverty and how these things can make it impossible for someone caught up in this system to get out. I hope we take Mr. Stevenson’s quote on page 17, ‘Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,’ to heart.”

Previous Common Read selections at EMU have included In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015), Exit West by Moshin Hamid (Riverhead, 2017) Callings by Dave Isay with Maya Millett (Penguin, 2017), Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Random House, 2015), and Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (Teos, 2012).

Heath’s main lecture at EMU, open to the public on Wed. evening at 7 p.m. in the seminary’s Martin Chapel, is titled “Is There Good News for a World in Trauma?” Heath will address what it means to be a “missional church” ministering to individuals and neighborhoods dealing with trauma.

Other public events include:

•  Wednesday, Nov. 20, 10:10 a.m. – Convocation, Lehman Auditorium, on “Reclaiming Apostolic Soul.”
• Thursday, Nov. 21, 11 a.m. – Seminary service, Martin Chapel, on “Wilderness Credentials.”

Heath will also convene a workshop for local pastors called “Forming and Leading Micro-Communities of Hope,” offering guidance for those starting “new forms of faith communities in post-Christendom contexts.” She will visit with students, faculty, and visiting pastors while on campus – including a breakfast with area pastors.

The pastors’ breakfast is an ongoing corollary to the Augsburger series, which Park View Mennonite Church Pastor Phil Kniss says aims “to open up mutually beneficial dialogue between area Anabaptist-Mennonite pastors, and missional practitioners and theologians from outside the Anabaptist stream.”

“We are excited to have Dr. Heath, with her scholarship and practice in new approaches to evangelism and Christian community, with us for this year’s Augsburger lecture,” said Andrew Suderman, assistant professor of Bible, religion and theology.  “Her background in the field of trauma and ministry will help our community grapple with what it means to participate in the ‘Good News’ and how to embody it with, among, and as people who have experienced trauma.  She will help us reflect on how following Jesus in our broken and violent world challenges us to meet people where they are – physically, spiritually and socially – and what it looks like to offer hope and healing.”

Heath writes that her life’s work is “interdisciplinary, weaving together the study of Scripture, theology, and Christian spirituality in ways that help the church to reach beyond its walls and into the community.” This approach of taking “church to the people,” as Heath says, characterizes the aims of the Neighborhood Seminary, where Heath is president and co-founder.

The Neighborhood Seminary offers a two-year, non-degree program which provides theological and spiritual education to lay people using the cohort model. Currently, four cohorts are active in North Carolina and Virginia. The seminary’s goal is to teach students “how to neighbor well, how to help their neighborhoods flourish, and how to foster life-giving community,” according to its .

Her newest book, (Abingdon Press, 2020) delves into the “spiritual discipline of celebration when facing grief, trauma, failure, or a dark night of the soul.” It is part of the eight-volume Holy Living Series, of which Heath is also an editor. 

As an educator, Heath served as dean of the Divinity School at Duke University, and as a professor at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and the Ashland Theological Seminary.

Heath now lives at an intentional Christian community and farm in North Carolina, Spring Forest, where she serves as the community abbess.

The 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: 

• 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

The Augsburger Committee includes Professor Andrew Suderman (co-chair), Professor David Evans (co-chair), Technical Services Librarian Jennifer Ulrich, Campus Pastor Brian Martin Burkholder, and Emily North, administrative assistant to the Dean of the School of Theology, Humanities, and the Performing Arts.

In the book, Isay and Millett present the stories of people and the work they love. A waitress, a public defender, a teacher, an engineer, a doctor and many more “demonstrate how work can be about much more than just making a living, that chasing dreams and finding inspiration in unexpected places can transform a vocation into a calling,” the publisher’s blurb states. “Their shared sense of passion, honor, and commitment brings deeper meaning and satisfaction to every aspect of their lives.”

EMU’s Common Read establishes common ground for discussion in classrooms and other venues. This year, nearly 300 students in classes ranging from first-year writing to a graduate career counseling course will receive copies of the book.

“The book provides an excellent opportunity for faculty and staff to share their own stories of calling and vocation, and to invite students to consider the directions their own stories are taking,” said core curriculum director Kirsten Beachy, a professor of visual and communication arts. “It has the benefit of bringing diverse, personal voices from a broad spectrum of occupations into the classroom.”

Campus events will focus on the theme of calling. An October Suter Science Seminar will highlight Dr. Jill Stoltzfus’s path from studying psychology at EMU to becoming research institute director at St. Luke’s University Health Network. On Nov. 7, faculty members will share from their own experiences in a convocation titled “.” The Academic and Creative Excellence Festival on April 18 will feature keynote speaker , professor of wildlife at Clemson University, who will talk about his work as a naturalist.

“I like that we’ll read stories from a variety of persons and professions,” Jennifer Ulrich, technical services librarian said of Callings. “I hope it helps students and all of us think about our work and calling. Is it the same thing?”

Callings is the fifth book from , which seeks “to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world,” its website states. It began in 2003 as a booth in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, and last year released the 500th episode of its podcast.

Previous Common Read selections at EMU have included Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Random House, 2015), Memory of Water  by Emmi Itäranta (Teos, 2012), Searching for Zion: the Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau (Grove Press, 2013), The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr (W. W. Norton, 2010), and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown, 2007).