A
"liberal" listens and learns at the Celebrate! student
conference
[1-7-03]
Witherspoon
staffer Ann Euston attended the recent quadrennial ecumenical student
conference in Albuquerque. She reports on the excitement of the event,
and reflects on the challenge that concerned students present to older
progressives today, to "Help us to do right in a world forever
doing wrong."
What do a 19 year
old considering the Catholic priesthood, an almost graduating University
of North Carolina senior eagerly anticipating her TeacherCorps
assignment and a prodigal New Mexican, home at last after wandering
around the country, have in common? They, along with 1100 other college
students from around the country and around the world, gathered last
week for the 5 day long ecumenical college student event - Celebrate!-weave
us together - here in Albuquerque. It was a rich and rewarding
as well as troubling experience for me, an (almost) middle aged person,
to meet and talk with these as well as many other of the attendees.
Here's some background and some personal reflections.
Facts:
About 1100 students (including seminarians) came to the Albuquerque
Convention Center from December 28, 2002 through New Year's Day, for
this quadrennial event. Dominated by Catholics and Lutherans (who
schedule a youth gathering every year at this time), other denominations
included UCC, Methodist and Disciples of Christ. There were about 75
Presbyterians. The event is sponsored by the Council for Ecumenical
Student Christian Ministry (CESCM), of which the PC(USA) is a partner.
Events:
A large variety of workshops were offered, ranging from beadcraft to
wilderness spirituality to peacemaking to the Legacy of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer. Every day included worship, bible study and
"denomination" time. Like most events this large, there were
meetings from early morning to after 10:00 pm. It was intense, joyful
and challenging.
The World
Student Christian Federation:
This global Christian student organization, which partners with CESCM,
sent representatives from each of the world's geographic regions. At a
large gathering one night each spoke briefly and passionately about the
issues facing their regions. They also took time for ethnic music which
culminated with hundreds of us snake-dancing around the auditorium.
Why I went
and What I heard:
I went to college in 1968. Not to be an activist - for peace in Vietnam,
free Bobby Seale and Don't eat CA. grapes - in college made you weird.
Now, as we approach a very questionable war, in a shaky economy, with
injustice all around us, it struck me that college students were
strangely quiet, at least in media reports. I wanted to know why and
more to the point I wanted to know what was really going on "out
there." I also see a time when all of us old style liberals will be
gone and I want to be sure there are people there to take our places. I
wanted to know how to reach those to whom we will leave this continuing
broken world.
I started with the
premise of introducing myself to any attendee I could collar and to ask
how to talk in the new paradigm beyond the language that I instinctively
fall back on. And I wanted to know what they see as our legacy that
they'll have to deal with. Wow, was I deluged with responses!
To give the range
of answers I received, I want to focus on 3 events: a workshop titled
"Being a Liberal Christian. Am I an Oxymoron?"; the global
students event; and a meeting with Presbyterian students and the
moderator, Fahed Abu-Akel.
The Workshop: This
was an event attended by over 100 people. Student after student related
instances of being accused of not being Christian as well as condemned
to hell by those around them, for whom Christianity is a cut and dried
series of rules and judgements to which these students didn't adhere.
(Obviously the judgement was awfully heavy!) Among their peers,
ecumenism was to be shunned and to suggest "I might be wrong"
an impossibility. How to respond, precisely without direct
judgement, left many feeling confused and isolated. At first I thought,
what a bunch of narcissistic whining; just get on doing what needs to be
done! But as I reflected more deeply, I found myself stunned and deeply
saddened that this was the level of discourse to which those late-night
tell-all-about-belief sessions had been reduced. It was like retrograde
motion. Imagine being called not Christian. I had been called Communist
but that could only describe my political leanings (decidedly
erroneous). No one ever questioned my faith so directly and with such
condemnation.
The Global Student
Event: Speaker after speaker stood before the entire assembled group and
spoke of the lack of understanding North Americans display about the
rest of the world - the poverty, political uncertainty, AIDS. Real
issues for Christians. The last speaker was the North American
representative who approached the podium, paused and was almost unable
to speak for emotion and perhaps embarrassment. The first words she said
were "I want to tell you to wake up. But others have already told
you how things really are." How exquisite to hear such simple
eloquence and such humility. There's nothing like an eyewitness account
of how so many are forced to live their lives, to provide our cultural
blindness with the reality check we so desperately need. I hope that
that is the message that the conference participants will remember most
vividly from this event.
Meeting the
Moderator: Meeting the Moderator followed a Presbyterian worship service
designed and led by the college team. Taize-like in its approach, it was
moving and eloquent. But it was also after 10:00 pm before Fahed arrived
and began to speak. After brief remarks he said "ask me
anything!" and that's just what happened. He talked about being
Palestinian and what he thinks needs to be done to ease tensions in the
Middle East (a true geographical Palestinian state) as well as his deep
dedication to international student exchange. For me the best question
of all came from a guy who asked "What's the talk about calling the
214th GA into special assembly? Why?" It was
wonderfully refreshing and instructive to see that the polity wars and
dueling interpretations of the Book of Order had not penetrated his or
many of his cohorts' cyberspace. I said a quiet prayer of thanks;
perhaps the younger generation will give room to focus on the spirit not
the law.
What does this
mean for the Witherspoon Society and progressive Presbyterianism
(Protestantism)? I came away with a deep sense that we continue business
as usual at our great peril - not only in consideration of the
organization we call Witherspoon, but for the greater issue of
progressive witness in the church and the world. Many Presbyterian
students know Witherspoon (by our highly YAD-attended GA dance) but
don't know, aren't involved, or to be honest, don't care about the
intricacies of GA fights.
I sense that we
really need to get out there on the campuses - they're waiting for us at
Columbia Seminary, for example. We need to overcome reverse ageism and
ask and respect the answers to the question, How do we reach equity and
justice? What do we need to do now?
I know that one of
the necessary ingredients is to mentor and begin to pass on the baton to
those whose world we are creating. These are fine, earnest, hardworking,
thoughtful people. They are struggling. Their message to us is, I
believe, "Help us to do right in a world forever doing wrong."
They need our support and our affirmation. How can we begin to provide
help? Just ask; the next generation is waiting to answer those questions
and show us the way.
