It isn't possible to live into the alternative value system for which we long by ourselves, absent the ties of love
and affection. We need around us those people who will love us, but also act as mirrors so that we can see those parts of
ourselves that don't yet look like "life." There is nothing like engaging in the life of a community for showing
us our own entrenched self-serving habits, fears, and stuck places!
For this reason, Seminary
of the Street is not just a school but a learning community. Those involved in teaching in, learning through, and administering
the school are committed to supporting each other both in our inner work, as we struggle to become more fully and consciously
human, present, and alive, and in our outer work finding and honoring our own callings to heal and transform the world.
The
kind of community we are building is not just about cozy, warm feelings, but about fierce commitment to each other and to
struggling in solidarity with each other against the things that are sapping the vitality from our lives, individually and
collectively. This is not always pretty or easy. Parker Palmer has said of community that it is "that place where
the person you least want to live with always lives. And when that person moves away, someone else always arises to take his
or her place."
We are a community of resistance--resistance to the forces inside and outside
us that would destroy life, resistance to false ideologies that urge us not to rock the boat, resistance to the violence of
the status quo. Our relationships are crucial, but they don't exist for their own sake alone but for our mutual flourishing
and the flourishing of all life.
In addition to coming to classes and workshops,
there are currently two ways to get involved in our ongoing spiritual community. Which one is right for you probably depends
on your degree of comfort with Christian practice. (We don't assume anyone is Christian at our Sunday worship service,
but we do use a liberation reading of the gospel as our central focus. The Recovery from the Dominant Culture program does
not reference Christianity.)
1. Worship with us on Sunday evenings, 7pm, at
WORSHP House, 1724 Filbert Street. All are welcome to worship with us; we do not care what you believe, although our worship has
a Christian liberation focus and involves reading and excavating the Christian gospel to find what is life-giving for us in
this time and place. We typically begin with check-ins about where we see God moving in our lives, and then we sing, study
scripture, pray, and listen deeply to each other.The side door off 18th Street will be unlocked by 6:45.
If you would like to help us organize a weekly or monthly dinner for Seminary of the Street
students, faculty, staff, and supporters, please
contact us.
