Refugee Voices in City Hall (Hamburg)

Also inspired by this photo exhibit at the Rathaus (city hall), smack on the central plaza of the city of Hamburg, Germany, featuring the faces and everyday stories and interests of just a few of the more than 35,000 refugees welcomed into the city of Hamburg alone since 2014. As you can see, the city hall lobby is a public place for tourists and visitors. When I was there, a peaceful rally on behalf of diversity and tolerance within the European Union was taking place amidst ice cream stands, clowns, and panhandlers in the plaza just a few steps away.

Let there be light

I cannot begin to express what it meant to gaze recently with my own eyes at this exquisite relief of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhnaton, Queen Nefertiti, and their three daughters with their message of light and peace (click on image to view hi-res). My awe is tempered by Barry Kemp’s recent studies of the “workers’ cemetery” showing how many men, women, and children actually suffered, starved, and died during the labor of building Amarna, Akhenaten’s idealized new city to his god. Yet the sheer beauty of this art and the eternal vibrance of those three little girls continues to blow me away.

Food Access: Making it Work

This is a very exciting clip about a key issue in getting healthy foods to poor kids in suburban neighborhoods. Listen to the podcast or click on screenshot for story.

Learn more about new Director Michael Reinke’s inspiration, expertise, and vision.
Learn more about the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter.

Sustaining gaze

Read Patristics Next Week

The Pappas Patristic Institute
Annual Summer Patristic Studies Program
July 30 – August 4, 2017
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology,
Brookline, Massachusetts

This summer’s faculty (tragically mono-gendered, but good men, for all that…) and their course offerings include:

1. Wealth and Poverty in the Patristic Tradition, taught by Brian Matz, Fontbonne University
2. The Ascending Pilgrimage: The Spiritual Life according to Irenaeus of Lyons, taught by Don Springer, McMasters Divinity School
3. Reading Scripture with the Fathers, taught by Bruce Beck, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
4. Economia and Ecology: The Church Fathers on the Creation, taught by David Goodin, McGill University
5. Virtues and Vices in the Eastern and Western Fathers, taught by Kevin Clarke, Ave Maria University

This is a unique opportunity to study and discuss classic Patristic texts through small group-study brief faculty lectures.  The intended audience for the program includes theology and religious studies students at the masters and undergraduate levels, clergy, interested lay people, and undergraduates with an interest in learning more about the Church Fathers.  Doctoral-level students are also encouraged to participate, or to apply for teaching fellowships.

“If you are interested in attending, please fill out the web registration form here. Please send any questions about the program to Dr. Bruce Beck at bbeck@hchc.edu. Registration fees are not due until the beginning of the program, July 30. Please register online even if you have already indicated that you plan to come.”

 

Refugee Tales 2

Worth. Reading.

On the road to Whitby

See Whitby Abbey (that dark square in the distance) a little more clearly here.
Learn about Hilda of Whitby
Read more on Hilda by author Ray Simpson