Saturday, August 26, 2006

How long....

On Wednesday, those students who will be taking courses on campus arrived for the first day of orientation. Before I go on, let me say that they seem like a really good bunch of students. I am looking forward to the year with them and seeing all God has planned for their lives.

Orientation started at 11:00 am. At a few minutes to 11:00, I looked out over the room and say one woman and about 10 young white men, all sitting in the back row, waiting for the presentation to begin. An older black woman was sitting on the couch in the back corner of the room. She had arrived early. The room would eventually fill up and become slightly more diverse. But I couldn’t help feel for the young white woman and the older black woman sitting quietly by themselves. Maybe they didn’t notice it. Perhaps the others filtered in quickly enough to overcome the awkwardness. But I noticed.

I was grateful that as the day wore on there was more mixing among the students, older and younger, black, white, Korean, and Scottish. I am grateful that a back row of 20 something men doesn’t intimidate me. I would sit there myself given the opportunity. I am grateful that they are being welcomed into a community that is fairly diverse, but I also know that they will shape that community and I pray that it will remain welcoming. And I feel good about my decision to show the Sankofa video, highlighting our course about racial righteousness, to all incoming students. For some it is shocking to be faced with so much honest dialogue about race so soon after arriving, yet I think it prepares them a bit, plants some seeds for further discussions throughout their time in seminary.

Tomorrow is Convocation. The final event of orientation. A worship service to bless and invoke God’s presence for the new year. I will be having lunch with the platform party before the service. Five male administrators and their wives, the speaker and his wife, and me. Six couples all 10 to 20 years older than me. Eleven white faces from North Park and two African Americans, the guest speaker and his wife. I have been going to these lunches for six years now and they never get any easier. Perhaps I should have worked harder to find a date for these events. But who do you bring with you to such an occasion? (And let’s just say it… I am challenged in this area) I have to go. Politically and professionally it is stupid not to. And as a woman, I need all the politics I can get in my favor. As a woman, I need to represent. Yet the composition of the group has hardly changed over the years. And I am tired of waiting.

I know I must be patient. I know things are changing. But the process is more like erosion. Decades wear away inches of soil. Centuries widen one bend in the river. Thousands of years eventually bring about changes in course of waterways. And I am tired of being that force that is constantly pushing, moving, eroding by my mere presence. How long, O Lord? How long?

2 comments:

Jo Ann Deasy said...

A short update... in the end there was one other woman administrator there with her husband. Two of the male administrators came without their spouses. We spent much of the time talking about children's weddings and new grandchildren.

Cathy said...

Of course.