Seminary students of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific saw the power of story in action when they witnessed an assembly organized by the Marin Organizing Committee as part of the curriculum of a 5-day training. Said Portia Hopkins, a first year student in the MDiv program, “There was an enormous amount of power in the way they gathered people into circles and encouraged them to share their stories,” she said. The elected leaders who attended were visibly moved by the stories, says Hopkins, as was she.
Rev. Rafael Pereira of the Diocese of Nevada, a student in that diocese’s local formation program, said the event had biblical meaning. “The action at San Rafael was exactly living out the Gospel when Jesus fed the 5,000. It was a rainy day...and I could compare my feelings with the disciples, when they questioned Jesus. I thought that just a few people were going to show up due to the weather. When we got there and saw the large crowd, we became one community working together for justice and the needs of our brothers and sisters, for the common good."
The Power of a Story, Church Divinity School of the Pacific [pdf]