Disciples Divinity House

On April 14, Kylie Winger presented her Senior Ministry Project, Already Enough: Countering achievement culture in the creative writing classroom. She began by inviting her audience into two short exercises, and by allowing her audience to experience her presence as a teacher. She discussed the achievement culture she has encountered in the high school classroom and the spiritual dimensions of her work. She explored and demonstrated approaches to encourage curiosity, experimentation, and creativity. In the fall she will begin as a theology teacher at DePaul College Prep in Chicago. 

As Kylie's presentation indicates, Senior Ministry Projects are an important feature of the Divinity School's MDiv program, as well as an opportunity for vocational exploration and theological expression. They involve a forty-page written thesis and a public presentation. Four additional Disciples Scholars together with another DDH resident will present their work this spring.

Coming up next on April 21, Morganne Talley's project focuses on the unwelcome potential for creating religious trauma in kids' ministry and what can be done to prevent it. For her project, Morganne worked with a Disciples pastor to develop a baptism class for a Disciples congregation, and hence the project's title: From Hell to Holy Water: A trauma-informed paradigm for kids' ministry.

Marissa Ilnitzki's project asks, What hospital chaplaincy can learn from the art, theory, and practice of improvisation? It emerged from her felt recognition of similarities when crossing the threshold into a patient's room as a chaplain and when entering into an improv skit. Her fascinating exploration, scheduled for April 28, takes her into postcolonial models for multi-faith hospital chaplaincy as well as deep into the history of improvisation through Second City and back to Hull House.

On May 5, Nate Travis will combine a dinner experience with a formal presentation to consider Whose table? Which ethics? Food and eating as ethical practice. He will also preach for that evening's service in the Chapel of the Holy Grail.

Justin Carlson has been exploring ecological approaches to biblical interpretation. On May 14. He will present his project,"Reading Among Reeds: Interpreting scripture in post-industrial ecology," at Big Marsh Park, which is in South Chicago, just off the eastern banks of Lake Calumet.

Finally, on May 16, Tyler Ashman will speak on "Judging Faithfully: Law and moral conviction in the federal judiciary." Tyler, a MDiv/JD dual degree student, will begin a clerkship with a federal judge after graduation.