Interfaith Education Fund

When CDSP sought to strengthen its formation, emphasize the importance of relational skills and develop an understanding of public life, it began a relationship with the West / Southwest IAF to incorporate community organizing in its curriculum. 

The organizing class -- taught as weeklong intensive in partnership with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) -- soon became a draw for students eager to establish a theological foundation under their organizing efforts.

The partnership began in 2013 as a collaboration between the Bay Area IAF and CDSP.   The course is taught by senior organizers with the IAF network who induct seminarians in the skills and practices that help communities build relational power and a common agenda for collaborative work.  A CDSP faculty member teaches the theological portion of the course for those seeking a Masters of Divinity, which is designed to embed the training in a theological and ethical framework.  

Says Dr. Jennifer Snow, associate professor of practical theology and director of extended learning, the course requires "thinking differently about power: building relationships with people, inviting people in to share the power with you as a leader.  It's a very specific strategy about trying to reach a more just society in our particular context."

At its May commencement ceremony, CDSP recognized Ernesto Cortes with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Commencement Ceremony Video [skip to 1:16:38 for intro of Cortes]

Commencement Ceremony Bulletin

Church Meets Community and Vice Versa, Crossings [pdf]

Blessed Are the Organizers, Crossings

CDSP Prepares Seminarians for Public Life, Episcopal News Service

Public Ministry in Practice, Episcopal News Service

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]

Looking for a way to create a "tighter fit between the life of faith and public life," the Very Reverend W. Mark Richardson of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley turned to community organizers prepared the Interfaith Education Fund to help train its seminarians.

Says Rev. Susanna Singer, "Bishops were saying increasingly that community organizing is a good thing."  The creation faith, she argues, is about God's vision of flourishing for humanity and the cosmos.  "It means that the body of Christ, which is us now, has got to get out there now and be involved in the communities in which we live because that's where God's dream is going to come true."

"The intention is to train ordinary people both in giving them a conceptual framework for thinking about issues of power and self-interest and leadership as well as some of the  practical skills of engaging people who are different than you out in the broader world," says Anna Eng, lead organizer for the Bay Area IAF.

The Church Divinity School of the Pacific not only offers the 6-day course each year in January, it participates as a member in the Bay Area IAF organization.

[In photo is the Very Rev. W. Mark Richardson sitting in a class.  Photo Credit: Episcopal News Service]

CDSP Prepares Seminarians for Public Life, Episcopal News Service

Public Ministry in Practice, Episcopal News Service