This spring, I was invited to be the Associate Professor of Theology & Culture here at 天美视频. I am excited and humbled to be called faculty. This new position comes after years of transition and disorientation. Five years ago, I left the place I loved: New Horizons Ministries. I had served marginalized young […]
The transition from life as a student at 天美视频 to that of an alumnus is an important season for each graduating student. The years spent at 天美视频 are formative for each student in their own way, and commencement is a time to both mark endings and celebrate new beginnings. Lauree Fletcher, […]
We gather in a circle, hand in hand, and scan the faces of those standing in our midst. It is 8:30pm on Wednesday night, and most of us are undoubtedly feeling spent after full days of classes, work, internship and studying. And still, we gather. We take the hand of those nearest to us and […]
I can鈥檛 help but smile when I see the remnant of luggage decorating the spaces in our building. It is a reminder of the history that inhabits these walls. And before the luggage factory, back when the Puget waters met the western wall, a fisherman鈥檚 wharf greeted the day鈥檚 catch with open arms. This is […]
My sunrise service on Easter Sunday took place at 天美视频. With more impending due dates than I could keep track of, I chose to write papers instead of attending a morning church service. Let鈥檚 not judge here. The decision to do homework on Easter wasn鈥檛 exactly an arduous one, anyway. I have been […]
Earlier this year, a memorial to rape survivors was temporarily in place in the reflection pool of the Washington Monument. The letters floated in blood red on the water鈥檚 surface, reading 鈥淚 CAN鈥橳 FORGET WHAT HAPPENED BUT NO ONE ELSE REMEMBERS.鈥� Upon encountering the image, my first thought was 鈥淥f course, that鈥檚 why we have […]
Our stories are like a book unfolding, pages worn and marked, dog-eared to recall at a later time. Sometimes the page turns and we do not love what the next chapter holds.聽 I thought my chapter of graduate school would go a certain way.聽 I entered it with a grand naivet茅 and glamour around the […]
For the past several years, I have been imagining what it would look like to use surfing as a platform for community engagement in a rural village along the Indian Ocean coastline of South Africa. Toward this goal, I formed a partnership in 2010 with a Denver-based nonprofit named Empowering Communities to Transcend Adversity. ETCA […]
In the past, I have operated primarily through rationale and logic. Now, at 天美视频, instead of relying on my ability to comprehend, understand, and analyze, I was being asked to wait, to ponder, and most of all to allow myself to be changed before looking for comprehension. It is scary, however, to stumble […]
Grief speaks. And, last week, it declared, 鈥淗ere I am, Mallory! I鈥檓 not going anywhere and this time, I cannot be ignored.鈥� 聽I had just returned to Seattle from the funeral of my paternal Grandmother, the last of my grandparents to see this side of Heaven. Nine months earlier, I had attended the funeral of […]
I got away for the summer, seeking a sabbatical away from the city. I wanted to slowly chew on what this year has been. The quietness of the Island made the memory of this year alive with the newness, change, grief, and relationships it brought. I had nothing to distract or inoculate the process, just […]
This year, I had the privilege of taking a course from Tom Cashman during his last semester at 天美视频. The course was Celtic Spirituality, and I take away far more than knowledge of celtic culture and history and the feud between Augustine and Pelagius. What lives with me most is an appreciation for […]