College Retreat

This week classes start back up again, but before that we were required to attend a retreat for all Masters students in their first year.  The new intake of 45 students was a big increase on our orientation when there were only 5 of us, but it made for quite a buzz and a lot of new people to meet.  The photo was taken during a socratic seminar discussing intersectional justice.  It seems the traditional silos of racial justice, justice for the poor, for women and LGBTQ are being encouraged to work together, partly because quite often people fall into more than one group that has been subject to oppression or disadvantaged.

The retreat was held at a Baptist church in Fort Worth in an area that in the recent past was the red light district and even some of the roads are named after owners of brothels from back then.  The church has been there since 1883 and so has a history of ministering to some of the most disadvantaged people in the city, but they were also able to purchase very cheap land decades ago that they are now using to create affordable housing.  In addition, because the church has a very big building, and their membership is not big enough to justify the space, they have created what they call shared spaces - where different parts of the building are dedicated to looking after people in need.  The extra is of the food bank they have, plus they have a clothing bank, and a room with 30 beds called 'Room at the Inn' to house those without anywhere to live.  And then there is the group that rent a space to help those with autism and downs syndrome.  And lastly, they have a number of people involved in the prison that is actually 2 blocks from our home in the city center.

I don't think I have been so impressed with a church really living out the mission of justice for those in need and it made for a bonus on top of the retreat.  In the meantime, classes started today with a really stimulating discussion about ethics.  We spent quite a bit of time discussing a very interesting paper written by the ex Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan WIlliams.  That's all for now folks