Wrapping Things Up and Moving On...

Last Wednesday evening I finished leading my bioethics series of discussions for a Westchester congregation. Tuesday night I met for the last time with the Lay Advisory Committee for my doctoral project that’s tried to get South Church to use online connectivity to reach out to the community and the world in new ways. Last night I concluded my Second Life work for Mercy by doing a “Second Life in the Classroom” workshop, trying to show faculty how they might expand their classroom walls to give students experiencing they can never have sitting in one place. And tonight I’ll be down at the Yale Club in New York City, doing a welcome invocation to kick off the 10^th anniversary program for a fundraiser for Hudson Link for Higher Education (an organization that brings college education back into New York state prisons).

And tomorrow? While I have still got the actual dissertation to write up for the doctorate, all these long-term commitments will have come to an end. I’m not sure, given the slow pace of both institutions, whether my South Church or Mercy proddings to move into the future will amount to anything long term. It’ll take at least another year before I’ll be able to get any sense of whether anything has shifted in their approaches. Tonight’s gathering, though, reminds me of how work that was so slow in the birthing and so frustrating at the beginning can blossom into a strong transformative piece of social justice work. In the meanwhile, during the new waiting period, I’m looking forward to beginning to figure out what next steps make sense as far as new projects and social justice work. I love the exploring, dreaming, and re imagining stage that’s about to start—can’t wait!