Upcoming Poverty Initiative Courses at Union

Fall:
SU 190: Ending Poverty: Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1968 Poor People's Campaign
Sponsored and facilitated by the Poverty Initiative, in cooperation with Field Education staff.
Friday, September 24, 9am-5pm

This seminar will be a general introduction to the work of the Poverty Initiative and will explore how religious leaders, local congregations, and poor people's organizations can get involved in effective anti-poverty programs and partnerships. Special attention will be given to the history of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People's Campaign and the effort of the Poverty Initiative to re-ignite the Poor People’s Campaign for today. Participants will examine the lessons gained from the history of this campaign, learn some basic information on poverty and community organizing, and participate in biblical study and theological reflection on building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor.

SU 190: Food Justice: Uprooting Systemic Inequity One Meal at a Time
Offered by the Edible Churchyard and the Poverty Initiative
 
Food is fundamental.  We all need to eat.  However, food is more than mere survival. Our bodies, our communities, and our culture are formed as we eat.  Food and eating also highlight systemic inequities and injustices.  What is food justice and what could it mean in your life and community? What are the theological implications of food justice?  Let’s get to know a bit more about how we’re fed.  We’ll start by examining how our food system operates and the consequences of those structures.  We will also explore alternatives at work in our communities, and examine how we can envision, support, and create other possibilities for ourselves, our parishes, and our communities.


Fall and Spring:
SU 190: An Immersion Experience: Putting Our Faith into Action
Sponsored and facilitated by the Poverty Initiative, in cooperation with Field Education staff.
(One full day during the fall semester and one during the spring semester – exact dates TBA)

The Poverty Initiative will offer a day long immersion course to provide students, community leaders, and local pastors with an experiential learning environment in which they can explore the reality of poverty being confronted in poor communities across the U.S. today.  Working directly with leaders from poor communities who are involved in a growing movement to end poverty, the day long immersion will engage participants in what it means to bring theory and praxis together to confront the reality of poverty today.  The theoretical and theological framework of Martin Luther King Jr and his call for a revolution of values will also be explored as we work to put into practice what it means to work together to build a movement to end poverty, led by the poor.  Some of the organizations that we might engage in these immersions include the United Workers of Baltimore (The United Workers is a human rights organization led by low-wage workers who are interested in fair development, work with dignity, and living wages) and Domestic Workers United in NYC (Domestic Workers United [DWU] is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York, organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards and to help build a movement to end exploitation and oppression for all.)

Spring:
SU 190: Good News from the Poor: Preaching and Bible Study towards ending poverty
Sponsored and facilitated by the Poverty Initiative, in cooperation with Field Education staff.
Date TBA

Poverty is a moral outrage in our affluent society but some religious congregations have resigned themselves to tolerating it or, at best, managing it. Why? Some churches are simply not aware of the realities of poverty; others may be stunned into silence by their apparent powerlessness to affect change; still others may be exhausted from addressing the endless and immediate needs of poor people in their communities. This seminar will look at equipping participants with practical skills for preaching and teaching about poverty in local congregations and community organizations. We will explore some of the obstacles to making poverty a priority in our congregations as well as effective models and examples of sermons, biblical resources and Adult Ed programs. The seminar will: explore how to preach about the reality of poverty in our congregation, how to talk about issues of poverty in a diversity of congregations – both affluent and economically struggling congregations, and how to do bible studies using the methodology of “Reading the Bible with the Poor.”   Participants in this day long seminar will be joined by seminarians, local pastors, and community leaders who have taken on the challenge of this topic and who are willing to share their experiences – both successes and struggles – in engaging the religious community in a movement to end poverty, led by the poor.