Listening for Community and Family

By Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement

May 4, 2022

A Listening Year ~ May 2022

Center Message - Red

Listening for Community & Family

In the month of May, we are listening for community and family as you’ll see below. CEIE Director and Spehar-Halligan Professor, Dr. Michael Trice, reflects on the path forward for the Center.

Welcome. This new Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement at Seattle University – CEIE - where I’m sitting now in Hunthausen Hall, began on July 1, 2021. It draws deeply from the ecumenical heritage and religious wisdom so important to the individuals, families and faith communities who have historically supported Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, who have been shaped in these halls and on this campus, and whose presence here continues.

Joined by friends, students, alumni, advisory councils, and neighbors, this Center is a gathering place for learning and equipping for service in our communities and in the world.

Knowing these realities, these leaders have gathered with us this year as we asked good questions … listened … and learned … and we built the supports that are necessary for what comes next.

And here is what excites me about what is coming next: This Center recently received permission to create certificate programs that are non-credit bearing at Seattle University. Yes, the Center will be a place of learning through in-person and online courses and a Summer Institute. In the next two years, we will be constructing a certificate program in spiritual direction. That’s our first certificate coming. We are currently considering a certificate in social justice that centers the margins that is mindful and heartful of bIPOC communities, the trans community and other vulnerable populations and identities.

We are also committed to developing cohort-based learning to provide educational modules for whole leadership teams within communities of faith. We will be working with colleagues in and around Seattle University for developing courses to assist those in specialized community leadership, such as chaplains and hospice workers, who have served as frontline spiritual-leaders through the pandemic with its surplus of grief and lack of ritual for mourning. And … we all know about the strain of these past two years for those who are leading community organizations and places of faith and action. We see assisting these leaders as part of the Center’s sacred calling.

I’m Michael Trice and I serve alongside a leadership team as the Spehar-Halligan Professor and founding Director of the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement at Seattle University.

What continues from here requires all of us, and I welcome your participation.

Thank you,

Michael Reid Trice, PhD

Spehar-Halligan Professor and Director

Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement

School of Theology and Ministry

Seattle University

Center FAQs

Eventbrite link to register: https://ceie-stearman-webinar.eventbrite.com

Temple De Hirsch Sinai and the Seattle University Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement co-sponsor the Clergy Institute each year. This year we invite Dr. Dara Horn to present at a time when anti-Semitism and Hate Speech have been growing in the United States. Dr. Horn’s scholarship has made crucial inroads to understanding and for responding to our historical moment. Please register below and join us on May 19^th!

Go here to register: https://templedehirschsinai.org/clergyinstitute

Advisory Council Member Featured on Regional News

CEIE Advisory Council Member Janice Tufte discusses her initiative Green Ramadan, a community-based project in the greater Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. Tufte focuses upon how Ramadan provides a time to focus on renewal, recycling, and additional ways of practicing care for the earth.

Student Stories: Community and Family

Question #4: How has your community supported you throughout this pandemic? 

Seattle University Undergraduate students at the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement interview their peers on the pandemic and ways they connect with their community and family. -- Watch and listen below:

Sparking our Imagination each month at the Center:

Listening for Community and Family

How has your community supported you throughout the pandemic?

Created by Center Student Affiliate Genevieve Kennebrae

Words: Listening with the Religica Theolab over graphic element

CEIE’s theological laboratory – Religica – is committed to public theology for the shared good. In May, as the world’s attention is drawn to the invasion of Ukraine, we include these podcasts with a commitment to multifaith approaches to peace. Take a listen by clicking the images below! Click and Engage the Religica Theolab

Appreciation from the Director:

“The CEIE team is grateful for Diane’s insights and wisdom, and broad and informed perspectives that are a boon to our collective work. Her work in university systems, including Seattle University, is a gift of perspective as well!” - Dr. Michael Trice

A Month to Engage: We are providing significant resources related to coming out of the pandemic for use in community and classroom below.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community, and its recognized partners and allies, grounded in biblical witness and our shared traditions of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Our goal, through worship, theological reflection and opportunities for learning and witness, is to strengthen our Christian voice and to mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues. CEIE Director Dr. Michael Reid Trice presented during this event on April 25th – 27th.

(EAD) Conference: https://advocacydays.org/

An honest look at American history (Family, Community, Society) created by Smarthistory for the Khan Academy

Best Volunteer Abroad Organizations from One World 365 – Meaningful Travel

Alliance of Museums Blog Post: Serving the Needs of the Community During a Pandemic

Engaging Community and Family - May 2022

Religious traditions, Spiritual pathways, and Indigenous wisdom are active in communities around the world. Each month we share new ways to engage with our monthly theme. Below we offer a collection of resources to engage with Listening for Community and Family.

On the topic of Family Engagement from the US Office of Early Childhood Development

Suggestions on - Community connections for children: friends, neighbors and local organizations, from the Australian Parenting website

From Communities Count, a resource that supports King County communities understand Community Needs During The COVID-19 Outbreak

From the National Council of Churches: The Confluence of Holy Seasons: An Opportunity to Grow Together; reflection by Dr. Tony Kireopoulos

The Intercept: The Leap: Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair (2020)

Nat’l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: School-Based Strategies for Addressing the Mental Health and Well-Being of Youth in the Wake of Covid-19

UMass Chan Medical School: Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research: Supporting College Students Affected by Covid-19 School Disruptions

Office of the Surgeon General: Youth Mental Health Reports and Publications