Report from Student Leadership

JaQuan Beachem, 2020-21 ANS@YDS Student Steering Committee Convener

 “Oh, it is so nice to see you in the flesh.”

This sort of phrase may have been written as a silly seminarian joke before*. In the here and now, this is a greeting that is uttered more than one could have guessed, as many classmates and colleagues are meeting in Zoom rooms and communicating across various social media platforms. That said, if one is afforded the opportunity to say the aforementioned phrase, this is what we seminarians may refer to as a blessing. Why? Because it means that one is, in fact, engaging with another human being. Of course, masks are donned, and distance is kept; however, dare I say, space is being shared which is no longer as common an occurrence as before. If this is not a transformation, then I am not sure what is. I will try another. Once upon a time, I was a hugger. Entering the campus Chapel, Refectory, or Common Room was an opportunity to engage in deep theological discussions as well as to share serotonin. This deliberate pod-style living, which provides a new definition of radical hospitality, necessitates change. The pandemic times are compelling us to “leave more room for Jesus” as we endeavor to embrace one another while maintaining an appropriate physical distance.

To embrace someone, one must initially see this human, acknowledge their existence. An exchange of consent occurs, whether verbal or non-verbal. After this line of communication is complete, a squeezing or holding takes place. Much can be shared and, now, one can embrace another from across the nation.​The act of embracing requires intentionality and innovation. The act requires perspicacity, a keenness to the needs of one’s community. In many ways, this season inspires a blast from the past as we meet via Brady Bunch-esque boxes and revive vintage vehicles of communication such as long walks, phone calls, and postcards. Our idea of how to embrace each other is expanding. We are crafting new strategies to connect, inside and out of our institutions, digitally and in-person, in body and in Spirit. Our reach grows as we stretch to hold one another as we transform, as we reimagine our world(s).

Acknowledging the emotions – grappling with the grief and identifying the isolation of this season – allows for new avenues of acceptance, pathways of connection, and practice of embrace: the new, the difficult, and the bizarre. This daily embrace of what is unfamiliar, before we realize, becomes “the norm.” This season has compelled us to question what was once normalized and seek to normalize what was once disenfranchised, on the fringe. At Andover Newton, when breaking bread is not available, we fellowship over spiritual food and allow the embrace of our community to hold and sustain us. We bear the weight of this moment by bearing witness. We extend our reaches across wifi channels prayerfully, and we worship with one another across social media platforms knowing that God is still speaking. Despite the distances and distractions of a moment that often feels devastating, we confess the clunkiness of virtual gathering while welcoming vulnerability. Spaces such as Upper Zoom and Emmaus provide brave spaces to take risks, craft trauma-informed liturgies, and sacred space(s) -- to unmute and scream into the void.

May we attune our hearts and minds​ as we participate in transformation -- developing new routines and discerning new technologies to decipher what is essential versus what ought to be muted​. ​We have a theology for this season. Day by day, as we acknowledge the here and now, reach out to our neighbors, and squeeze the joy and the injury, the heartfelt and the unjust alike, we are moving towards transformation — together.

*This is the reference to time (a moment, a period, an era) prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.