Community Calendar

Join WTTW for THE BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG, from executive producer, host and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. This moving two-part series traces the 400-year-old story of the Black church in America. The documentary reveals how Black people have worshipped and, through their spiritual journeys, improvised ways to bring their faith traditions from Africa to the New World, while translating them into a form of Christianity that was not only truly their own, but a redemptive force for a nation whose original sin was found in their ancestors’ enslavement across the Middle Passage.

WTTW OVEE Link Provided with RSVP and Reservation.

Spring Convocation!

WEDNESDAY REFLECTIONS continue at CTS through the academic year. Invited speakers, community partners, and members of our community will gather with the intention of putting our faiths into action. Engaged discussion will give space for many voices to share. We come together to inspire, encourage, and challenge one another to use our voices, bodies, and spirits to build the world we believe is possible. Join us.

Zoom link: https://qoo.ly/35cj3m

GUEST SPEAKER: Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

Join us this week for a discussion on reclaiming progressive Christianity. Graves-Fitzsimmons creates a rallying cry for a bold progressive Christianity that unapologetically fights for its values to impact the biggest political battles of our time–from immigration and economic fairness to LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights–so that progressive Christians can stop lowering their voices when they identify as Christians.

WEDNESDAY REFLECTIONS continue at CTS through the academic year. Invited speakers, community partners, and members of our community will gather with the intention of putting our faiths into action. Engaged discussion will give space for many voices to share. We come together to inspire, encourage, and challenge one another to use our voices, bodies, and spirits to build the world we believe is possible. Join us.

Zoom link: https://qoo.ly/35cj3m

Join us February 18, 2021 from 6-7:30 p.m. Central for Black Voices of Transformation: A Spoken Word Event for Black History Month. The event will feature 6-8 Black artists from Christian and Muslim communities expressing socially conscious and personally inspiring messages. This event is being coordinated by Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago’s Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement in partnership with the American Islamic College and the Inter-Religious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary. Other collaborative partners are Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Interfaith Youth Core, Silk Road Rising, and Young Chicago Authors. FEATURING: Adarah Hale  Jason Williams J.Kwest  K-Love  Maggie Brown Obbie West Preacher Moss Emcee: Tasleem Jamila Please RSVP to receive participant links and details: bit.ly/2021spokenwordevent.

GUEST SPEAKER: Rev. Billy Honor

No Longer Innocent: Reflections on how a pandemic, a 1988 film and my grand mother’s kitchen table are helping me understand faith in the reshaping of America

Billy Michael Honor is a public scholar and civic organizer whose progressive and compelling insights have made him a sought after lecturer and social commentator. Billy is currently the Religion and Racial Justice fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Inclusive America Project. In this role, Billy researches, writes and convenes conversations about the importance of religious pluralism in the fight for racial equity and justice. Prior to joining Aspen Billy was the Director of Faith Organizing for the New Georgia Project, which is a respected civic engagement and civil rights organization founded by noted politician Stacey Abrams. In this position Billy mobilized faith communities to break the chains of injustice through organized civic engagement. While at NGP Billy’s innovative campaigns and activism were celebrated and written about by many media outlets and recognized for being one of the promising contemporary movements of public faith witness. As a result, The Center for American Progress named Billy one of the 20 faith leaders in the nation to watch in 2020.

WEDNESDAY REFLECTIONS continue at CTS through the academic year. Invited speakers, community partners, and members of our community will gather with the intention of putting our faiths into action. Engaged discussion will give space for many voices to share. We come together to inspire, encourage, and challenge one another to use our voices, bodies, and spirits to build the world we believe is possible. Join us.

Zoom link: https://qoo.ly/35cj3m