A Call to Prayer: Remembering Trayvon Martin and All Who Have Been Affected by Gun Violence

Less then 24 hours from the verdict being delivered for George Zimmerman and the number of Facebook posts, tweets, articles, and blogs regarding Trayvon Martin already seems immeasurable. Within the Garrett-Evangelical community a number of responses, prayers, laments, and insights have been lifted up from faculty, students, and alumni/ae. While there are too many to share, here are a few highlights:

"[I] find that the Lectionary can be eerily timely. Tomorrow's chosen gospel text is the Good Samaritan."

-Thomas Winslow Harris, alumnus

"Outraged. . . and mourning"

-Anne Joh, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology

"Tonight we see (again) that our justice system does not value the lives of young African Americans. I do. So from this day forth, I propose a new campaign. As a white person with undeserved privilege, I want to be available to help. Should you need a walk home, I will walk with you. Even if the protection you need is from officers of the system itself. Let us come together to make safe neighborhoods where our teenagers can walk home without being shot for the color of their skin."

-Audrey Krumbach, alumna

"Listening in church to see if the gospel is preached today."

-James Poling, Professor Emeritus

"The world won't get no better if we just let it be. The world won't get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me."

-Reginald Blount, Assistant Professor of Formation,
Youth, and Culture, quoting lyrics from Wake Up Everybody

"There is a Trayvon Martin in your service of worship today. There is a George Zimmerman in your service of worship today. Both pray 'in Jesus' name.'"

-Shonda Nicole Gladden, alumna

"I won't be posting a picture of myself in a hoodie because the truth is, in our racist society, white men in hoodies are never coded as a threat. Ask Justin Bieber and Bill Belichick. Trayvon Martin wasn't killed for wearing a hoodie, he was killed for being a young black man. That's what was 'threatening' about him."

-Chris Baker, current Ph.D. student

"The crucial point to remember is that it is not only Black people who grieve tonight. Certainly our pain is made acute by the history we have lived as a people. We cannot and should not deny that. Ours is a righteous anger born of this story too often told. We must remember that there are many of our white sisters and brothers who grieve with us in their way. Do not make them pay for the evil in this land, and do not forget that God sends allies to the people as they trudge through the wilderness. Melchizidek to name but one. By the same token people of good will of all colors never forget that while you may understand our pain, you can never know our pain. This was the mistake that Job's friends made. It may well be enough to stand with people in their pain and by your presence communicate more than your words ever can. To us all, this land, this world belongs to us ALL; not just the ones with malice and hate in their hearts. So, we must fight together against injustice anywhere, anytime. Do not coddle the unjust, neither be concerned of their feelings at the expense of those who suffer because of their actions, nor seek their favor foolishly believing they will change. Grieve with those who grieve because of injustice, stand with those who seek to bind up their broken hearts because of dreams shattered again, and again. And know, with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind that God will be with you because it is, as it ever has been that hears the cry of God's people sorely oppressed, and strengthens the last and the least and any who stand with them in the light of God's justice, grace, and mercy. Amen."

-Stephen Ray, Neal F. and Ila A. Fisher
Professor of Systematic Theology

A Call to Prayer

Beginning Monday afternoon (1 p.m.) you'll find a gray Garrett-Evangelical hoodie and some sharpies in the chancel area of the Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful. You'll also find candles. For those mourning, questioning, hurting, and in need of prayer we invite you to write or draw on the hoodie and to light a candle in memory of Trayvon Martin and all of those who have been affected by gun violence. If you are unable to be on campus this week and would like to offer your own prayer or thoughts please feel free to do so in the comments section of this blog.

Rest in peace Trayvon Martin and God be with the Martin's, the Zimmerman's, our nation, and the world.

Class of 1963 Memory Book

On the eve of Garrett-Evangelical’s 156^th Commencement, the classes of 1963 from Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) and Garrett Theological Seminary (GTS) returned to their alma mater.  As they do, memories from a previous era are sure to follow. Such was an era of typewriters, not computers; community phones, not iPhones; and chalkboards, not projection screens. In those days, the Garrett Tower housed a basketball court, ETS was a seminary of the Evangelical United Brethren Church located in Naperville, and Lake Michigan was a stone’s throw from the Garrett dorms. The changes at Garrett-Evangelical are certainly numerable and if you see a 1963 graduate, you’ll be sure to hear about it!

The Class of 1963 connects us to the past, but they also connect us to the future. When they graduated, they entered a world where African Americans and Caucasian Americans were far from equal, where an ordained woman was a rarity, and where the United States was still reeling from the assassination of its president. Although their present seemed bleak, they went into the world as pastors, professors, missionaries, social activists, chaplains, entrepreneurs, and counselors. They ministered to multicultural congregations on the South Side of Chicago, soldiers in the war, hospital patients, and the oppressed citizens of South Korea.  In essence, they did what they could do to change the world around them.

The world in which the class of 2013 has entered is better because of the ministries of those from the class of 1963. When the graduates of 1963 anointed the class of 2013 in Senior Chapel, they passed on on the torch. There is a lot of uncertainty for the Class of 2013, but they too will go out as pastors, professors, missionaries, social activists, chaplains, entrepreneurs, and counselors.  They too will minister to diverse congregations, to the sick and dying, and to the oppressed and hopeless and in their own way, they will change the world around them.

Travel Logged

Garrett-Evangelical has been proud to offer a variety of travel course opportunities for our students each year. We are pleased to be able to share some of our students travel stories over the next few weeks.

Becky Wilson (second from the right)
in Bethlehem

One of the many things that stood out on my first visit to the campus of Garrett-Evangelical was a flyer promoting a travel course to Rome. While I have not yet experienced Rome, my experience as a seminarian has been marked by travel.

By whatever means available from my home in Detroit to Evanston.

By train to downtown Chicago for urban ministry conferences at SCUPE.

By bus through the Galilean hillside.

On foot through an Israeli check point from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.

And last summer, by plane to Philadelphia for the travel course, United Methodist Studies: Wesley and the 19th Century.

This was my first trip to the City of Brotherly Love. I ate my first cheese steak, tasted soft pretzels from several vendors and preached a sermon from the pulpit of Historic Old St. George’s United Methodist Church.

Travel courses are a lot of fun. They are also hard work. Each student was required to preach two sermons on the trip. No big deal, right? Except for the fact that the assignment was to preach contemporary interpretations of John Wesley sermons. I considered dropping the course when I was assigned The New Birth. (Seriously, I did.)

Standing in the chalice shaped pulpit of Old St. George’s in the summer heat was a daunting task. Once my body adjusted to the pulpit’s swaying I found my voice and delivered a sermon to my professor and classmates. In this preaching moment I felt a powerful connection to the history of my denomination and my family roots, which are half-grounded in Methodism.

Originally hesitant to embrace the topic, but in the end, encountering a new birth of my own.

Traveling to Lovely Lane Chapel, Old Otterbein, Long’s Barn, Cokesbury College, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Gettysburg and Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, I was reminded of the importance and the power of seeing life and learning history from a location other than our own backyard.

It is one thing to read about the evolution of Methodism in America, but it is another thing to travel through it.

It is one thing to read about Jesus’ travels in and around Galilee, but it is a totally different experience to put your feet in the Sea of Galilee and contemplate your future ministry.

It is one thing to read about violence and oppression, but it becomes real in a whole new way when an Israeli soldier’s gun brushes against your leg as he walks the aisle of your tour bus.

As I begin my final year of seminary, I realize how fortunate I am for the opportunities to travel and experience the world outside of the classroom. All of my courses at Garrett-Evangelical, not just the ones involving travel, have filled me with a boldness to preach The Gospel and with an eagerness to transform the Church and the World.

I am also eager to visit Rome.

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Becky Wilson is a third year Master of Divinity student with a concentration in Urban Ministry.