Weekly Worship

We have chapel here at Drew three times a week.  Our classes are scheduled around it, so we have a break from 11:15 to 1:15. Attendance isn't required, but so far I've been to all of them.  It's a good refresher in the middle of the day, a way to spiritually center myself in the middle of all the academia. Plus, I really just like singing church songs.  We have different speakers each time, and so far they've all had wonderful things to offer us.

On Tuesday, we had a speaker  talk about the controversy surrounding the building of the Islamic cultural center near the site of the 9/11 attacks.  It's a sensitive issue, one that is causing a lot of pain and one this is, unfortunately, inciting violence in some places. He spoke about the long standing issues between Muslims and Christian, and Muslims and Americans. The service itself was beautiful, we read from the Qur'an and sang songs about peace.  After it, there was a discussion about the issue, we were invited to just talk about how we were feeling, what we thought should be done, all of that.  It continues to embarrass me that people like the pastor in Florida are the public face of Christianity.  We need to do more to show that he is not representing our faith or the words of Jesus.

This Wednesday, Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson spoke about the story in Judges about Gideon vs. the Mideonites.  He focused on the fact that the stream they were camped out near's name, when translated, means "fear." I can't do the sermon the least bit of justice, but it was incredibly moving and thought provoking. If you are interested, we have video of all of our chapels at the Facebook page.

Thursday was our matriculation ceremony.  There is a book that was signed by the first few incoming Drew Theological students, the book was "lost" in the archives for a few years, and found again. So our names are now a part of Drew's history.  It's official, we are real Theological students now.

In other news, I have a job!  I'm going to be working for the Parent and Alumni Office, doing general office type stuff.  It's the same place I worked as an undergraduate, so I'll be quite familiar with the work.  So, yay!