Thia Reggio, Poverty Initiative Fellow and graduating M.Div., was recently published in the May/June 2012 issue of Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice, in its “Inside Agitators: Seminarians for Justice” edition. Each article reflects on the social justice ministry and advocacy taking place on a seminary campus. Thia’s article, “Justice at Union Theological [...]
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Poverty Scholar Ordained in the United Church of Christ
Last week Jeff Mansfield, Union alum and Poverty Initiative Poverty Scholar, was ordained in the United Church of Christ at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Jeff has worked for years with the Poverty Initiative and the Poverty Scholars program as a chaplain and organizer for the Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York (ROCNYC). [...]
Union Honors Liz Theoharis and the Movement to End Poverty
Liz Theoharis, coordinator and co-founder of the Poverty Initiative was honored at Union’s 175th Anniversary Gala on Thursday, April 19th. Below is a transcript of her remarks. On this occasion of Union’s 175th Anniversary, we remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was at Union when he decided to give his life in the fight against Hitler and [...]
Poverty Initiative Participates in Hunger Fast with Coalition of Immokolee Workers
The Poverty Initiative‘s Crystal Hall is in Lakeland, FL all this week where she, along with over 50 allies: farmworkers, students, activists, and religious leaders, are participating in the Fast for Fair Food. The six-day hunger strike (March 5-10) is led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and is part of their ongoing campaign to [...]
Seeking a Higher Law: Reflections from the Poverty Initiative Immersion
Last week the Poverty Initiative had a chance to reflect with the Union community about its January immersion course in a noon chapel service. Below are the thoughts that Willa Johnson shared. Willa was one of 35 Union students, Poverty Initiative staff, and Poverty Scholars who made the trip. See a collection of images from [...]
Rejected Faith
Christianity needs to have more words for “faith.” I want to write about the fact that this Borderlands trip was only the second time in my life where I felt a sense of the depth, and even more so the necessity, of a faith that God is somehow, in some way, present amidst the most [...]
The Eloquence of Maps
By Elizabeth Bukey: Dr. Machado, who organized our pilgrimage to the border, is fond of telling students how important maps are. They can help us understand why wars were fought, the value of certain locations, and, often, tell us something about the mapmaker’s worldview. Certainly the map I found on a postcard in San Antonio [...]
The Desired Change
In the early morning we gathered together, watched and listened to our stories. A morning mist rose as the sun broke through the rising dew. As we walked our bodies split the clouds. Placed next to a Texas highway, we proceeded through the stations of the cross. The Basilica de San Juan falls in a [...]
Poverty Initiative Immersion Course
“I realized that immersions are about something much bigger than, although certainly inclusive of, the experience of the students who participate from Union. Immersions are about being introduced to an entire network of Poverty Scholars Program organizations, committed to the work of developing and uniting leaders to build a movement to end poverty, led by [...]
Youth….”A New and Unsettling Force”
I feel called to work on the role of faith communities in social movements to end poverty, led by the poor. Martin Luther King, Jr said, as he initiated the Poor People’s Campaign: “The dispossessed of this nation…live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize…against the injustice, not against the lives of the persons [...]