Author: eddieb761

A few weeks ago I visited a couple classes at Duke Divinity School. This was a really cool opportunity for me to get a better understanding of what some of the more intellectual parts of studying religion are. It was also really cool to hear from some very smart people teaching the classes like one professor who is a leader in the field of theological medical ethics. I also listened to a speaker who works to build and renovate affordable housing so and what makes his program special is that it is integrating the predominately black and poor homes into richer predominately white neighborhoods so that the families can have more equal opportunities. Overall seeing Duke’s divinity school was really impressive and listening to the classes was really exciting.

Today I had the Opportunity to meet with Pastor Tim Poston and discuss his work and the journey that got him to where he is today. I learned a lot about the communities in different churches and also beyond individual places of worship. But what I found to be most interesting was Tim’s study of readings and creation of sermons. He told me about how when he started giving sermons to mostly black churches he had to do things differently because there is a different culture than the culture of white churches. He told me about how it sometimes would take him 12 hours to make a sermon but when he wrote it was like the holy ghost. All of my meeting was really great and I’m so glad I got to meet with Tim Poston.

 

Last Sunday I was an acolyte at my church which isn’t that big of a deal but I always get nervous that I’m going to screw something up. Afterwards I had a discussion with the deacon at my church. I discussed with her many interesting topics of her work. I learned a lot about the different roles a deacon has that a priest doesn’t have. I also learned that a Deacon isn’t a paid job so most of the time they have another job and they often do a lot of work going outside the church like delivering communion for people who can’t make it to church or pastoral care.

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss work in the world in nonprofit with Andrew Hudgins who is the program director of the Johnson Service Corps. I learned a lot about the work he does to help get Corps members working at Programs like Durham Children’s Initiative, Center for responsible lending, and Code the Dream. All of these are amazing programs that the Corps members get the opportunity to help with through the Johnson Service Corps. I Also met and had a picnic with 5 of the Corps members as learned a lot more details about their work in the specific organizations they were working with. Something that stood out to me was just how passionate everyone was about what they were doing, not because they loved the substance of it but because they loved having the opportunity to help those in need.

Yesterday (5/26) I met with Rabbi Eric in the morning and got a tour of most of the synagogue. I saw many cool parts of there space of worship and learned much about life as a Rabbi and also Jewish belief and culture. Rabbi Eric was a really energetic, exciting, and smart person to be around and learning from him was a great experience. Later I met with Rabbi Jenny and she showed me the mikvah. Seeing the mikvah and hearing about it was a super cool experience. It is essentially a pool of water that one goes into during certain times in their lives. It must be maintained and built in a specific way and have certain water in it as well. There are a ton of details and interesting facts that I’m leaving out to keep things simple but seeing the mikvah was really cool.

Yesterday I attended my third of three IAF University meetings where I learn about the responsibility and work of a community organizer. In this particular meeting I learned about how to have “relational meetings” which is essentially a conversation with someone where I can learn more about what motivates someone to participate in the service or work that they do and to learn why they believe they need to see change here. The purpose of this is to build a relationship where both people can hopefully count on the other in order to help bring more change through building power in people (this was the subject of the 2nd meeting back in April).

Today at 10:30 I sat in on my church’s pastoral care meeting where the care and share committee and the clergy at my Church discuss what major events are going on in parishioners’ lives including family issues, health issues, deaths and births so that the church can be a welcoming and safe place for those people. Later, I sat in on the Church’s staff meeting where all the paid staff members gather to discuss how different organizations are working and who needs to do what etc. Then I went with Father Javier to Dorcas Ministries to take a tour of the client services part of Dorcas and learned about how people in crisis can be served. To cap things off I sat down with Javier to discuss his life and work as a priest and learned much more interesting information about community work, Sunday services and time with families who call on him during death and birth.

Today I attended my regular church service at 9am but also read the prayers of the people to the congregation. Afterwards, at 10:15, I visited the mini ministry fair and learned about many different ministries at my church that I didn’t too much about. Finally, from 11:15 to 12:45 I sat down to have a conversation with The rector and my church, Father George. During this conversation I learned about what a priest does throughout the week, how things are organized, how homilies are written and so much more amazing information.