CTS participates in President Obama’s Interfaith & Community Service Challenge

On August 3, 2011, Chicago Theology Seminary (CTS) representatives joined more than 250 colleges and universities at the kick-off event of President Barack Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The President’s appeal encourages institutions of higher education to build interfaith understanding and work together toward the common good. CTS’ Ayanna Johnson, Director of Community Life, and Master of Divinity/Master of Sacred Theology student Lisa Seiwert (’12) traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the event at the White House on August 3.

CTS’ submission to the challenge is a proposal that involves interfaith collaborative action against community violence largely in and around the Hyde Park/Woodlawn neighborhoods of CTS on Chicago’s South Side, and includes a pledge to strengthen and build cooperation between local interfaith groups, ministries working against violence, and members of the CTS community.  The proposal states:

“We want to equip and inspire the CTS community to affect change on a local level—connecting our academic setting to the community in which we live and learn. It is a chance for all of us to build lasting networks of interfaith understanding and service at a neighborhood level, especially important for those who will go on to do ministry in any number of communities. It also reinforces our commitment to make a transformative difference in our neighborhood and city.”

The program at CTS is spearheaded by Lisa Seiwert, the Office of Community Life, the President's Office, and a number of other CTS stakeholders.

Upon her return from D.C., Ayanna Johnson reflected on the event.

“Back in Chicago on Thursday, still high on the Washington experience, I turned on the evening news.  I was greeted by the handsome face of 13-year-old Darius Brown.  Darius, Holy Angels Catholic School student and rising basketball star, had been playing ball with some friends at a nearby park early Wednesday evening when someone drove by and opened fire on the park.  Darius was shot in the neck and later died at Comer Children’s Hospital, just a few blocks from CTS.  Heartsick and angry, I stood in front of the television, hearing the details of Darius’ young life, watching friends and relatives try and react to his death—sadness, fear, and frustration in their voices.  It was instantly clear: this effort, this initiative, is not about a trip to DC or the fanfare of the White House or the opportunity to meet interesting people.  It is about Darius, and the hundreds of other children who died in the past year due to violence.  It is about developing religious leaders who can transform our communities from being sites of deadly pickup games to places where children grow and thrive in safety and promise.  It is about religion being not divisive, exclusive, and damaging, but relevant, connected, and life-giving.”

Lisa Seiwert’s reflection took a similar tone. “I, for one, am tired of hearing about young lives ending in tragedy.  I am ready to grab hands with sisters and brothers—Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Humanist, Christian, Atheist—and throw my energy down a new path.”

CTS’ work on campus toward this initiative will begin in the fall.