Lament: passionate expression of grief, regret, disappointment and sorrow
-What adversity have you faced this year?
-What have you worked to overcome?
-What have you learned from this adversity?

Hope: a feeling of expectation, anticipation and desire for a certain thing to happen
-What is one of your achievements?
-What are you looking forward to for the coming year (hope, vision, dreams, plans)?
-How can EMU support you now and in the future?

These groups/people are planning to share statements of lament and hope:

Eastern Mennonite Seminary – Courtney Joyner
Earthkeepers – Andrea Troyer
Deanvost Team – Tara Kishbaugh
Sustainable Food Initiative (SFI) – Felicity Zimmerman
Executive Leadership Team – Jackie Font-Guzman
Safe Space – Hannah Beck and Ani Beitzel
Faculty Senate – Mark Metzler Sawin
Eastern Mennonite Student Women’s Association (EMSWA) – Molly Piwonka
Young Democrats – Meredith Lehman

Olivia Michael is a youth pastor at Harrisonburg First Church of the Nazarene (COTN). She grew up in Mount Crawford and graduated from Eastern Nazarene College in 2017, studying Business and Religion. She moved back to the valley after graduation and joined the COTN staff that Spring.Ìý

Chris Cruz Osorio is a youth pastor at Harrisonburg First Church of the Nazarene (COTN). He grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and has served alongside his family in ministry since 2011. He graduated from Northwest Nazarene University in 2021, studying Multicultural Leadership and Christian Ministry. He joined the staff of COTN shortly after graduation. Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Olivia and Chris currently work together in ministry by leading Movement, the middle and high school bilingual youth ministry at COTN.

Grapple with the challenges patriotism and Christian nationalism present to discipleship in Anabaptist perspective. Through personal stories and engagement with biblical texts, this address empowers us 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.

Melody M. Pannell is a native of Harlem, New York City, where her interests developed concerning addressing social inequities and disparities. Pannell holds a Bachelors in Social Work from ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University in New York City and a Masters of Divinity and Masters in Christian Education from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. Pannell also holds a Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice from The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. Pannell is also the Founder and CEO of Destiny’s Daughters Inc., a Therapeutic Spiritual Mentoring Program dedicated to the personal transformation, holistic development and self – empowerment of young women and girls and Embodied Equity Leadership Institute LLC. Recently, Melody was officially initiated as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Charlottesville Alumnae Chapter and was accepted into the Inaugural Womanist Preaching Doctorate in Ministry Program at Memphis Theological Seminary.

Pannell was recently appointed as the inaugural Director of Diversity and Community Engagement at UVA Health in Charlottesville, VA. In her previous positions, Melody M. Pannell served as Assistant Professor of Social Work in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Chairperson for the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Vice – President of the Faculty Senate and Director of Multicultural Services at ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø. Pannell also serves on the leadership of the Coming to the Table Charlottesville Local Affiliate and as the Board Chair of Anabaptist World Inc.ÌýIt is her life’s mission to develop inclusive communities, build the capacity for resilience and embody social justice through the values and ethics of womanist theology and encourage those that she serves to engage in a transformative journey of racial reconciliation, holistic healing and human flourishing.

Storytellers from the Harrisonburg community:
Rev. Costella Forney, serves as pastor of John Wesley United Methodist Church here in Harrisonburg.

Darrel Hostetter, graduate of of Eastern Mennonite College (1977) and Seminary (1982), served as Chaplain of Rockingham County Jail from 1975-79, partnered with Swazi indigenous church leaders in Bible studies and leadership development in Eswatini, southern Africa for about 11 years, was a volunteer chaplain of Lancaster County Prison 2013-18, and is presently retired but relating to 5-10 incarcerated individuals and returning citizens in PA and VA.

Dr. Jerry Holsopple, professor of visual and communication arts, shares original songs inspired by his meeting Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy.ÌýJerry Holsopple is an artist, photographer and renowned videographer, teaches photography and digital media-related courses at EMU.

Dr. Benjamin Bergey serves as Assistant Professor of Music at EMU and was the music editor for the Voices Together project.

Dr. Benjamin Bergey serves as Assistant Professor of Music at EMU and was the music editor for the Voices Together project.

Pastor and author Melissa Florer-Bixler teaches from her newest book, How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace, in which she looks closely at what the Bible says about enemies—who they are, what they do, and how Jesus and his followers responded to them.

 is a writer and pastor with degrees from Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. Her ministry at Raleigh Mennonite Church has been featured in The Atlantic and Sojourners. She writes for Geez Magazine, Christian Century, Mennonite World Review, and The Mennonite, among others. She lives with her husband and three children in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It’s been quite a time these past 18 months continuing into today and here we are in a new academic year gathered together for the opening campus worship. University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder and student chaplains share reflections on journeying through a pandemic.  How do we process our individual and shared experiences? What new awareness has emerged? How might we reflect faithfully while moving forward together?

Students sharing reflections include: Justice Allen, James Dunmore and Yonas Ketsela. (maybe a few more)

Carmen Schrock-Hurst, Instructor in Bible, Religion and Theology, will invite involvement with the Ministry Inquiry Program (MIP) this summer and we will hear reflections from Mia Swartley, former MIP participant and EMU alum.