Proximate with Purpose | Kayla Concepcion '23
As Bryan Stevenson’s words “be proximate!” rang through my head, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of how literally I was taking it, washing this patient’s body. I certainly was proximate, and more so than I wanted to be! But was I really allowing myself, not just my physical self, but my emotional, spiritual self to be proximate to this patient – this man?
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of listening to social justice advocate and lawyer Bryan Stevenson speak about how to sustain the work of pursuing justice and loving others well. He shared that in order to maintain an attitude of mercy and love towards others, the key was proximity to people, specifically the poor and disfavored in society. The following week, I found myself face-to-face with such a person in my clinical shift at UVA Medical Center.
Walking onto the unit that day, I had preconceived notions about my assigned patient for the 12-hour shift. He was a middle-aged man with schizoaffective disorder who had a reputation with staff on the unit as being more difficult and having an unpredictable temper. I’d heard him yelling in his room many times, usually about not wanting to leave the hospital. As I walked into his room to introduce myself and put a face to the angry voice I’d only heard from afar, I am embarrassed to admit that I immediately began judging him. I judged the greasy strands of hair that brushed his eyes. I judged his slack-jawed, open mouth that revealed yellowing teeth. I judged his vacant, unintelligent expression. I judged his stained hospital gown with chunks of scrambled eggs that had escaped his notice and gathered in its creases. I judged his hunched posture and protruding stomach. Worst of all, underneath all that judgment was a thought that I felt but didn’t want to admit — How could this patient be worthy of love?
I wish I could say I caught myself right then and there, repenting immediately for such disgusting thoughts, but I didn’t. Instead, more thoughts like that flooded my mind each time I stepped into his room – especially as I went to provide wound care for his feet and legs. As I unwrapped his old bandages, struggling not to gag at the smell, I thought again — How could this patient be worthy of love? Only this time, I caught it. And it wasn’t really me catching it, but the Holy Spirit in me, convicting me for such thoughts! Now a new thought took its place — Why do I think I’m any easier to love? Here I am, judging this patient when I am an equally sinful and broken person, equally insufficient in my striving, and, therefore, equally in need of God’s mercy and saving grace. I had allowed myself to view him as my project for the day. Sure, I’d help him to the bathroom, wipe him, give him his medications, and change the bandages on his wounds. And in doing so, yes, I would be physically proximate. But I hadn’t allowed myself to look at him in the fullness of who he is. He is a person, not just a patient – a person woven together intricately and intimately by the Father who loves him so deeply He sent His only Son to die for him so that he could be reunited with the Father one day. And this same Son, while on earth, humbly washed his disciples’ feet in an act of service and love. Would not Jesus have washed this man’s feet too?
Jesus was consistently proximate to people’s physical needs, and in doing so, met their spiritual needs, affirming God’s love for them and their need for God. I am struck by the fact that my patient – this man who I viewed with such callous judgment – is loved deeply by the same God who loves me.
One thing Bryan Stevenson said near the end of his talk was, “You should not underestimate the power you have to affirm the humanity and dignity of the people around you.” I can’t help but think I blew my shot at doing so for that man. But God, in his grace, gives second chances and has led me to a career in which I will be proximate to the poor and disfavored in society. I pray that as I step into my career as a nurse, and am met with many more opportunities to affirm my patients’ humanity and dignity, I will remember to treat them as more than a patient and as a beloved child of God.
Bryan Stevenson's Scoper Lecture Slide Show
We were thrilled and honored to host 5000 of you in person (1000 online!) for our annual Scoper Lecture with Bryan Stevenson at the John Paul Jones arena. Please enjoy this slideshow of the event. Missed it? We have many resources and community partners for you to dig deeper into Stevenson’s work.
Resting in God | Horizons Fellow Mia Forsyth '23
Sundays are my favorite day of the week by far. And they always have been. I grew up a preacher’s kid, so we’d spend all of Sunday morning at the church. My siblings and I would eat the nursery’s goldfish, run down the halls, attend Sunday school, whisper too loudly down the pew, and fall asleep in the van on the way home. My mom would make a big Sunday lunch, and then the whole family would collapse on the couch for a movie or a sports game. It was a family day, a restful day, a day when I felt close to people and close to the Lord.
When I got to college, one of the things I missed most was Sundays with my family. The rest of the week I was busy with classes, assignments, attempting to make friends, and trepidatiously exploring dining hall food. But when Sunday came around, I’d put down my work for the day like my parents had encouraged me to do for years, and then… I’d just sit there. Everyone else was busy with the Sunday Scaries and trying to get caught up with work before the next week began. What did it mean to Sabbath here? To rest and to be with people and the Lord in an environment so grounded in independence and doing your own thing? Are we even still expected to follow the command to Sabbath now that we aren’t bound to Old Testament law?
With these questions spinning in my head, I did what any stereotypical UVA student would do. I turned Sundays to my catch-all days: grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning… anything and everything but homework. Sabbaths weren’t restful; they were rushed and full of legalism. It wasn’t until the start of this year that the cracks began to show. My body and soul couldn’t keep up with the pace of my schedule. I went into each new week feeling the accumulating weight of my busyness, anxious to get another week closer to the next break. I’d always known my pace wasn’t sustainable, but I kind of figured I could hold it together for the four years of college. I was beginning to realize my limitedness.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said his famous words about rest: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Our God rested on the seventh day when all his work was done, and he commanded his people to do the same as a way of remembering his goodness and power. What if my Sabbaths were days of putting it all down? Of setting aside some time as holy to the Lord, to worship with his people, to spend time in his creation, to seek his face unhurried by the pressures of the week? What if I did things that brought me joy, like spending intentional time with friends and eating good food? What if I delighted in God’s goodness to me and trusted in him as my Shepherd?
We weren’t made to do all the things all the time. We are but dust in the light of eternity, here one day and gone the next. Our limitedness is a blessing. The God we serve invites us to join him in his work in this world! But he also invites us to join him in rest, putting our work down to remember that he is the sovereign Creator Lord who made all things and holds all things together. What a joy it is to work, rest, love, and be loved by this God!
Sustaining the Soul of Equal Justice with Eddie Howard | Watch Now!
SUSTAINING THE SOUL OF EQUAL JUSTICE
WITH REV. EDDIE HOWARD
Nearly 60 folks, including students, TH board and staff and community friends, gathered for an intimate follow up conversation inspired by our Scoper Lecture with Bryan Stevenson. We were so grateful to welcome Abundant Life’s Executive Director, Rev. Eddie Howard to share with us about what scriptures have inspired his faith and work.
BIO: Eddie Howard joined as Executive Director in fall 2021, after serving on staff for eight years in the early 2000’s. Eddie grew up in the Prospect neighborhood, Abundant Life’s focus for ministry and served on staff building deep relationships in the community and helping to launch our 5/8 Program for Middle School boys. After his initial time with Abundant Life, Eddie moved to Virginia Beach where he was a business owner and continued his vocations of mentoring and pastoring, through his local church and organizations focused on literacy and mentoring fathers. He is also the author of Still Convicted: A Story of Redemption, Reconciliation, and Restoration.
Eddie brings experience and energy along with his broad local network to the areas of development, partner building, vision casting, and strategic planning at Abundant Life. His extensive personal experience in peacebuilding and restorative justice practices, as well as his thoughtfulness about community building will inform his approach to this important work.
Faith & Work with Attorney Rich Dean | Watch Now!
The Faith & Work Forum is a conversation series on Grounds that discusses the interplay between faith, work, and life. Each semester we feature guest speakers with leadership experience from across a wide range of vocations, who bring authentic stories about seeking a meaningful, purpose-driven life.
On April 13, Horizons Fellow, Alma Wolfe ‘23, interviewed Rich Dean in a candid conversation about how his faith has connected with his vocation. The conversation was wide ranging from his years in Russia to pushing into racial justice as an older white guy with some powerful discussion with the guests in attendance.
BIO: Richard Dean is a lawyer and teacher. Rich has taught at the University of Virginia School of Law since 1993. Currently, he co-teaches two courses, Emerging Markets, and Global Business and International Corruption, both of which reflect the expertise and experience he developed from his legal work at Coudert Brothers and later at Baker McKenzie. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1977 and earned his M.A. in Foreign Affairs and his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 1980. Now retired from law but active on several boards, Rich and his wife, Sue, live in Northern Virginia and have three children and nine grandchildren.
Easter Sunday | Just After Sunrise
“Satan, sin, and death have been conquered. The world has changed, but almost no one knows it.”
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, …they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here….” Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
- Mark 16
We think of Easter Sunday as a grand crescendo—for on this event rests our entire faith. Yet according to Scripture, the resurrection of our Lord was a surprisingly subdued event, announced in secret to the unlikeliest of witnesses, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome: fearful, grieving women who learned of their beloved Jesus’s resurrection in quiet, under cover of early dawn.
Without spectacle, this Jesus, born into a silent night was resurrected in a sunrise garden. We, too, have received this glad news, “Christ is risen.” God’s cosmic redemption is accomplished. Let us be radiant! Alleluia!
….Then suddenly, a different atmosphere,
A clarity of light, a strange release,
And, all unlooked for, Christ himself was there
Love in his eyes and on his lips, our peace.
So now we breathe again, sent forth, forgiven,
To bring this breathless earth a breath of heaven.
-Malcolm Guite
It is the day of Resurrection; let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, O brothers and sisters, even to those that hate us: Let us forgive all things on this Resurrection Day; and thus let us cry: Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled down death, and on those in the tombs He has bestowed life.
-Orthodox Doxastikon of Great and Holy Pascha
Palm Sunday | Enjoy!
“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!’”
A festival announces something completed, something survived, something brought to fruition. Yet on this Palm Sunday – celebrated each year in sacred time -- you and I already know that the festal crowds who lay down their cloaks, shouting hosannahs for Jesus, will, in just five days, be clamoring for his execution. Even then, that very death will give way to resurrection.
This Holy Week, the recurrent pattern of the Bible draws us in: hope crests, is dashed, and rises again: chastened, tested, taught, more complex, more mature, wider in its vision and its hope.
At today’s festive moment in God’s larger story, may we celebrate one another as fellow travelers, people found and beloved, people who celebrate. “Here,” the Spirit seems to say, “enjoy one another. Enjoy the moment, even when you know darker days are coming. May you never forget what you are created for: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
“Leaves Underfoot” by Phuc Luu
He rides into the holy city
entering its gates, as king
Proclaiming victory
Branches of palms laid at the feet
Not over conquered people
Not over claimed lands
Nor vanquished enemies
But ending the enmity between God and others…
Bringing them back into the holy house
The temple made not by stones
But by the flesh and bones
Of the one who in his body absorbed the hatred
the sickness and sin
the diseases and despair
And gave back love and tenderness
wholeness and healing
compassion and commitmentThe Prince of Peace who enters our hearts
Into the depths of our souls, the holiest of holies
Seeing who we are
Knowing every part of our being…
So what is beneath could come to the surface
To face the light and love
To see ourselves as we truly are
Allied with the one who saw himself
Rejected and despised
Disposable
But remade and rebuilt
Into a holy house, a sacred temple
Body rebuilt, renewed, restored
As the cornerstone
The foundation of God’s hesed,*
God’s tenacious and everlasting love
Extreme love that endures forever
* a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person
*reflection inspired by Where the Eye Alights: Phrases for the Forty Days of Lent by Marilyn McEntyre
Lent 5 | Bright Sadness
““When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled…and Jesus wept… Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise.’” ”
Lent is the season of “bright sadness” – of profound mingling of joy and grief. Jesus accompanies us in our sorrows, just as he did at the death of his dear friend, Lazarus. Standing with grieving Mary and Martha, Jesus weeps, even as he promises, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
With each day we draw closer to the grievous remembrance of Jesus’s suffering and crucifixion, even as we are assured of a luminous Easter morning yet to come. Let us sit with the very human experience of “sad brightness: the sadness of my exile, of the waste I have made of my life, and the brightness of God’s presence and forgiveness, the joy of the recovered desire for God, the peace of the recovered home.” (Alexander Schmemann) Jesus is with us -- in it all.
Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
-Ezekiel 37:12-14
Scoper Lecture with Bryan Stevenson featured in UVa Today
Our Scoper Lecture with Bryan Stevenson was featured on the front page of UVA Today on Tues, March 21!
““Bryan Stevenson’s pioneering civil rights leadership has changed the way we think about justice in America,” Ryan said. “His activism has illuminated the history and significance of race and class in our justice system and society, and his book, ‘Just Mercy,’ has moved and inspired those in the field of law and beyond. I’ve long admired his work and anticipate an unforgettable evening.””
Lent 4 | Beloved from Afar
“The LORD appeared to me from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.’”
When Lent feels long, take heart! Look up: the Lord appears on the horizon and draws you near, dissolving the desert distances with divine lovingkindness. Hear God’s words to you this day, “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you.” (Isaiah 43:4)
The lengthening Lenten days announce the earthly assurance of new life as buds and blossoms unfurl. “Cold’s empire has not yet been undone, but the cardinals have begun loudly to declare its undoing.”
Believe this: You are beloved. Salvation is at hand. Resurrection is near.
“God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall…and in this love our life is everlasting…In our creation we had beginning; but the love in which he made us was in him since before time began; and in this love we have our beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end.” Julian of Norwich
“Spring Forward” by Abigail Carroll
The crocuses have nudged themselves up
through the snow, have opened, never
are opening,
always daring, Ephemeral prophets,first of the sun’s spring projects, purple-
throated chorus of will-have-beens—
year after
year, their oracles outlast them. Cold’sempire has not yet been undone, but
the cardinals have begun to loudly declare
its undoing,
which is as good as the thing itself, as goodas the gutters’ wild running, the spilling
of rain down the tar-slick roof, the filling
and pooling,
the annual re-schooling of earthin the vernal properties of water. A bud
both is and is not a flower: furled flag,
curled-up
tongue of summer, envelope of fire—What is this world but a seed of desire
some dream-bent farmer sowed in a field
waiting for
the end of winter, waiting to be getting onwith the business of timothy and clover?
Light sends itself, a missive from the future:
it’s shining,
a definite shined, a bold, unquestionablehaving shone—this because of the paths
it travels, the distances it flies. The crocuses
shiver; still
they will not be deterred from their singing,from the sure and heady prospect of their
having sung. The notion of green has not
yet occurred
to the ground—twig tips, bulbs, cattails,bark: all stuck in a past perfect of gray—
but green has occurred to the sun. A kingdom
is in
the making—and in the making has come.
Finding Christian Community | Uchenna Victor Onwudinjo ‘23
Hello everyone, my name is Uchenna Victor Onwudinjo. I’m from Enugu, Nigeria. I grew up in a family of eight children and we were all raised Catholic. I grew up attending church with my sisters and mom, which made me fall in love with God and the church. I also had close family friends who were priests, and who inspired me to want to become a priest and serve the Lord as they did. I went to a catholic secondary school to learn more about God and how to become a priest. I did learn a lot about God and the Bible during the school’s Bible studies, through which one of the priests in the school mentored me. My mom and my sisters were big influences in my choice to attend Catholic school.
After graduating from secondary school, my family went through a lot of challenges, which led to my doubt for God’s love and to me taking a step back from church and being a priest, but my mom held my head up through it all.
Coming to America, I didn’t have my mom, my sisters, or Christian community around me to keep my head up and I completely fell out of faith. What brought me out of that was coming to Charlottesville, and meeting Theological Horizons and other Christian communities. They helped me a lot with my personal growth and drew me back to God.
When I was younger I dreamt of becoming a Catholic priest and also hopefully a soccer player, but coming to America I decided I wanted to focus more on soccer. I started playing college soccer in West Virginia and was hoping to go pro. Unfortunately, I started dealing with a lot of injuries which made me quit. I left devastated and with no idea what to do for my career. I did still have a lot of passion for soccer, and after a lot of thought, I decided to try coaching, though I didn’t know where to start. Coming to UVA, I met Christy and Karen, who connected me with Theological Horizons and Horizon Fellows. Horizon Fellows connected me with a lot of coaching mentors and hooked me up with a lot of job opportunities in coaching and in my other fields of interest. I am currently coaching with SOCA and I love teaching the kids and helping them work hard to achieve their dreams. All in all, I appreciate and thank God, my mom and sisters, UVA, Christy, Karen, Theological Horizons, and my mentors who have been there through it all.
Lent 3 | Lost in Lent
“I will seek out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the wounded, and strengthen the weak…I will tend my sheep with justice.”
By the third week into this wilderness season, we who wander may feel that we have lost our way. Those intentions we made as Lent began have lost their force; Easter is a distant hope. The poet meets us in the desert, with these words of prayer:
Dear God,
why do I keep fighting you off?
One part of me wants you desperately,
another part of me unknowingly
pushes you back and runs away.What is there in me that
so contradicts my desire for you?
These transition days, these passage ways,
are calling me to let go of old securities,
to give myself over into your hands.Like Jesus who struggled with the pain
I, too, fight the “let it all be done.”
Loneliness, lostness, non-belonging,
all these hurts strike out at me,
leaving me pained with this present goodbye.I want to be more but I fight the growing.
I want to be new but I hang on to the old.
I want to live but I won’t face the dying.
I want to be whole but cannot bear
to gather up the pieces into one.Is it that I refuse to be out of control,
to let the tears take their humbling journey,
to allow my spirit to feel its [sorrow],
to stay with the insecurity of “no home”?Now is the time. You call to me,
begging me to let you have my life,
inviting me to taste the darkness
so I can be filled with the light,
allowing me to lose my direction
so that I will find my way home to you.— “Prayer for One Who Feels Lost” by Joyce Rupp
Jonathan Wood Flash Finance Workshop
In this 3 hour flash workshop, students learned about the basics of handling money, including:
the basics of assets vs. liabilities
how to determine your true hourly wage
the difficulties of purchasing a home and common mortgage mistakes
the pervasive and destructive mechanics of credit card debt
different types of investments
retirement plans
marriage and finances
the importance of starting to save monthly as early as possible
“Money is Time. How many hours of your life are you willing to trade for your next purchase?”
The secret to mastering our current financial landscape and getting out of the “rat race”? Wood says that instead of using your monthly income for only liabilities, invest in different assets that will make and generate income for you in the future. Eventually, your assets are able to generate income to pay for your monthly expenses without using your "paycheck" or hours of your life. When your investments and passive income streams are able to pay all of your monthly expenses then you have reached financial independence. Now, you are able to work because you want to, not because you have to.
“My most successful clients are those with multiple streams of income from various assets.”
The key to budgeting? Create an Anti-Budget: determine the amount of money you need to save to reach the goal of financial independence at your target age and consider everything else spendable. This eases the shame and guilt of spending while also ensuring financial stability since you have already "paid yourself first".
New to investing? Jonathan advises you to be honest with yourself about whether you can handle the ups and downs of a market as a long-term investor, or whether you’re looking for a short-term payoff. Research a few companies that you know well and evaluate whether the dividends will help you pay your bills.
Thinking about getting a credit card? DON’T BOTHER, says Jonathan. Credit card companies want you to max out your card or only pay the minimum mandatory payment every month and incur credit card debt, which Jonathan calls financial cancer, as you can spend decades paying astronomically more than what your original loan was in interest payments alone. If you have to use a credit card to boost your credit score, spend it only on gas once a month, or another regular payment that you pay off in full. The alternative? Always use cash. It has been scientifically proven that people spend 36-47% less when they use cash consistently instead of a credit or debit card.
Worried about student loans? While this is a very personal and often emotional topic, it may be better, says Jonathan, to save monthly for your future instead of rushing to pay off your student loans as fast as possible, as student loan interest rates are typically competitive (although some private lenders have higher rates then government loans) and you do not want to lose the time value of money by delaying your long-term investment plan to pay off a loan that has (typically) a ten year pay-off schedule.
Jonathan also stressed that everyone's situation is different and that while these ideas and strategies have worked well and led to positive results for many people over the years, they are not specific recommendations for any one individual.
Bryan Stevenson Scoper Lecture Press Release
“‘America’s Nelson Mandela’ Bryan Stevenson set to unite a diverse crowd of 2500+ students, activists, churches for March 28 John Paul Jones Arena address.”
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - Theological Horizons, in partnership with Central Virginia Community Justice, The Project on Lived Theology at UVA, and UVAArts, is mobilizing local churches, justice organizations, student groups and community activists to welcome Equal Justice Institute Founder and New York Times bestselling author Bryan Stevenson for the 2nd annual Scoper Lecture in Christian Thought at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in the John Paul Jones Arena, followed by a conversation with UVA President Jim Ryan.
The address, titled “Act Justly, Love Mercy: Exploring the Heart of Equal Justice,” will explore the spiritual foundations of Mr. Stevenson’s work as a pioneer in the criminal justice field addressing systemic racial injustice and working on behalf of those who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. To date, nearly 3400 of the arena’s 5500 available seats have been sold for this unprecedented event, which has also mobilized almost 50 Community Partners and Event Sponsors representing a diverse range of local schools, faith groups, justice and community organizations.
“Bryan Stevenson is an inspiration for so many of our students, and his message of hope is so timely for our wider university community which is still grieving from the tragic shooting last fall,” said Karen Wright Marsh, Executive Director for Theological Horizons. “Seeing the way groups and individuals from across the ideological spectrum are rallying to support this event is such an encouragement that despite our painful history, differences, and divisions we can still connect around a shared desire for justice and mercy to prevail.”
Mr. Stevenson’s bestselling book, Just Mercy, recounts the story of one of his first cases in which he secured an acquittal for Walter McMillan, an African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. In 2019 the story was adapted into the box-office hit Just Mercy and the HBO documentary True Justice.
Community Partners participating in the event will host book discussions and film screenings using resources tailored for the Charlottesville community in the weeks leading up to and following the lecture. The event will also include songs of justice and faith featuring several local musicians.
“To see this community coming together around the message of racial justice is really hopeful,” said Eddie Howard, Executive Director of Abundant Life Ministries and a member of the event’s Host Committee. “We’ve tolerated a lopsided justice system for too long, harming our most vulnerable communities. It’s time we follow Mr. Stevenson’s example and listen to what our faith has to say about caring for ‘the least of these’.”
The March 28 event is the second annual Scoper Lecture Series in Christian Thought, which brings eminent scholars to the University of Virginia to explore the breadth of Christian expression in science, medicine, culture, and the arts. The series is generously funded by UVA parent and past UVA assistant professor of ophthalmology Stephen Scoper, M.D. and his wife Nancy. Last year’s speaker was New York Times bestselling author and Duke associate professor, Kate Bowler, PhD.
“Too often, faith perspectives can be unhelpfully narrow,” Dr. Scoper said. “It’s so important we hear from people like Bryan whose inspiring work can challenge and stretch our understanding of what really matters.”
This event is open to the public. Tickets may be purchased for $8 (plus fees) via Ticketmaster at www.theologicalhorizons.org/Stevenson. For groups of 20 or more tickets are discounted to $6/person (plus fees) or guests may purchase a livestream ticket for $4. This event will not be recorded.
Contact: Sarah Ross, Event Lead, Theological Horizons, Smr7cf@virginia.edu or 540-735-6179
BRYAN STEVENSON BIO
Bryan Stevenson is the Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 135 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of two highly acclaimed cultural sites which opened in 2018: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.
Mr. Stevenson’s work has won him numerous awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize; the ABA Medal, the American Bar Association’s highest honor; the National Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union after he was nominated by United States Supreme Court Justice John Stevens; the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers; and the Olaf Palme Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, for international human rights. In 2002, he received the Alabama State Bar Commissioners Award.
In 2003, the SALT Human Rights Award was presented to Mr. Stevenson by the Society of American Law Teachers. In 2004, he received the Award for Courageous Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers and also the Lawyer for the People Award from the National Lawyers Guild. In 2006, New York University presented Mr. Stevenson with its Distinguished Teaching Award. Mr. Stevenson won the Gruber Foundation International Justice Prize and was awarded the NAACP William Robert Ming Advocacy Award, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award, and the Roosevelt Institute Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Award. In 2012, Mr. Stevenson received the American Psychiatric Association Human Rights Award, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award, and the Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress. Mr. Stevenson was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2014 and won the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. In 2015, he was named to the Time 100 list recognizing the world’s most influential people. In 2016, he received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award. He was named in Fortune’s 2016 and 2017 World’s Greatest Leaders list. He received the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize from the King Center in Atlanta in 2018.
Mr. Stevenson has received over 40 honorary doctoral degrees, including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oxford University. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books of Nonfiction for 2014 and has been awarded several honors, including the American Library Association’s Carnegie Medal for best nonfiction book of 2015 and a 2015 NAACP Image Award. Just Mercy was recently adapted as a major motion picture. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government.
ABOUT THE EVENT HOST AND CO-HOSTS
Theological Horizons supports believers and seekers by providing a welcoming community for engaging faith, thought and life. An independent non-profit organization centered at The Bonhoeffer House, Theological Horizons is adjacent to Grounds at the University of Virginia. Learn more at www.theologicalhorizons.org.
Central Virginia Community Justice provides a brave space for those involved in harm to lead their own accountability and healing. CVCJ facilitates restorative conferences to divert cases away from the criminal system, as well as to repair harms outside of the system. Through dialogue, those impacted by harm have voice and power to address their needs, and those responsible for harm have the opportunity to take accountability through their actions and acknowledgement. Learn more here.
The Project on Lived Theology at UVA is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.
UVAArts catalyzes and facilitates research, creative production, and service in the arts departments and schools and with numerous affiliates, partners, and community and student-driven arts organizations at the University of Virginia.
2023 SCOPER LECTURE SERIES HOST COMMITTEE
● Nancy and Steve Scoper, Virginia Beach, VA | Physician
● Griff and Julie Aldrich, Farmville, VA | Head Basketball Coach, Longwood University
● Barbara Armacost, Charlottesville, VA | UVA Law Professor
● Richard and Susan Dean, Vienna, VA | Attorney, Adjunct law Professor and UVAAlum
● Todd and Judi Deatherage, Burke, VA | The Telos Group
● Carolyn Mitchell Dillard, Charlottesville, VA | Pastor at Zion Hill Baptist Church, UVA Descendants of
Enslaved Communities, University-Community Liaison in UVA’s Division for Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion
● Greg and Tierney Fairchild, Charlottesville, VA | Isidore Horween Research Professor of Business
Administration UVA’s Darden School of Business and Co-Founders of Resilience Education
● Andrew Hayashi, Charlottesville, VA | UVA Law Professor
● Eddie and Tonya Howard, Charlottesville, VA | Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life
Ministries
● Betsy Hutson and Anand Ramana, Vienna, VA | Attorneys at Law
● Irene Flannery Little, New York, NY | Social Entrepreneur
● Steve and Georgeanne Long, Richmond, VA | Physician, UVA Board of Visitors
● Charles Marsh, Charlottesville, VA | UVA professor of Religious Studies
● Elizabeth and Evans Rice, Falls Church, VA | Attorney at Law
● Tim and Maria Tassopoulos, Atlanta, GA | COO, Chick-Fil-A
● Juandiego Wade, Charlottesville, VA | Vice-Mayor, City of Charlottesville
● Sheri Winston, Charlottesville, VA | Associate Director of the UVA Rotunda and Special Events
EVENT SPONSORS (as of 3/7/2023)
Event Sponsors are supporting the event at a level of $1500 or more.
Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, Charlottesville, VA*
Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Charlottesville, VA
Christ Episcopal Church, Charlottesville, VA
Corhaven Spiritual Retreat Center, Quicksburg, VA
Dominion Energy, Richmond, VA
Equal Justice USA, Charlottesville, VA*
First Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, VA*
GreenPoint, Washington, DC
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, VA
Resilience Education, Charlottesville, VA*
St. Paul’s Memorial Church, Charlottesville, VA*
UVA Division for Equity, and Inclusion, Charlottesville, VA
UVA Office of the Provost, Academic Outreach, Public Service Pathways*
Julie and Griff Aldrich, Farmville, VA
Carlos M. Brown, Richmond, VA
Martha and David Flory, Fawn Lake, VA
Susan and Richard Dean, Vienna, VA
Renee and John Grisham, North Garden, VA
Georgeanne and Steve Long, Richmond, VA
Lauren and Brad Noyes, Arlington, VA
Maureen and Kevin O’Shea, Charlottesville, VA
Elizabeth and Evans Rice, Falls Church, VA
Nancy and Diego Ruiz, Vienna, VA
Maria and Tim Tassopoulos, Atlanta, GA
* Indicates Event Sponsors who are also Community Partners.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS (as of 3/7/2023)
Community Partners are signed up to bring at least 20 participants to the event and promote it.
University of Virginia
Black Law Student Association, Charlottesville, VA
Descendants at the Enslaved Communities at UVA, Charlottesville, VA
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at UVA, Charlottesville, VA
Meriwether Lewis Institute For Citizen Leadership, Charlottesville, VA
Public Interest Law Association, Charlottesville, VA
UVA Office of the Provost, Academic Outreach, Public Service Pathways*
UVA Law Christian Fellowship, Charlottesville, VA
UVA Lifetime Learning, Office of Engagement, Charlottesville, VA
Faith Communities
All Souls Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA
Center for Christian Study, Charlottesville, VA
Charlottesville Clergy Collective, Charlottesville, VA
Church of the Good Shepherd, Charlottesville, VA
Church of the Resurrection, Charlottesville, VA
Congregation Beth Israel, Charlottesville, VA
First Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, VA*
Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Mt Zion First African Baptist Church, Charlottesville, VA
Restoration Anglican, Arlington, VA
Rumi Forum, Washington, DC
Sojourners United Church of Christ, Charlottesville, VA
St. Paul’s Memorial Church, Charlottesville, VA*
Trinity Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, VA
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA
Community Organizations
100 Black Men of Central Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Abundant Life Ministries, Charlottesville, VA*
ArkWise Wealth, Charlottesville, VA
Arrabon, Richmond, VA
Bonner Leader Program at University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg, VA
BTE Productions, Keswick, VA
City of Promise, Charlottesville, VA
Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, Charlottesville, VA
Delegate Sally Hudson, VA State House District 57, Albemarle County, VA
Equal Justice USA, Charlottesville, VA*
Interfaith Action for Human Rights, Washington, DC
International Rescue Committee, Charlottesville, VA
The Fountain Fund, Charlottesville, VA
Lending Hands, Charlottesville, VA
Resilience Education, Charlottesville, VA*
Selena Cozart Consulting, Charlottesville, VA
The Uhuru Foundation, Charlottesville, VA
Virginia Organizing Project, Charlottesville, VA
Virginia Prison Birth Project, Charlottesville, VA
The Women’s Initiative, Charlottesville, VA
Schools and Student Groups
Church Hill Academy, Richmond, VA
Falls Church City Public Schools, Falls Church, VA
ReadyKids, Charlottesville, VA
University of Richmond Christian Law Fellowship, Richmond, VA
Western Albemarle High School, Crozet, VA
* Indicates Community Partners who are also Event Sponsors
Additional Community Partners can sign up at www.theologicalhorizons.org/stevenson
Essential PhotoVoice Project | LaNija Brown '22
LaNija Brown graduated from UVa in 2022. She was a Perkins Fellow and frequent attender of Vintage Lunch as well as a leader in OneWay during her time at UVa.
The picture above is a screenshot of a jamboard from our final PhotoVoice session. We each had time to consider all the photos we’d taken from previous meetings and create a larger narrative from them. You can see questions that came up for us as a group as we brainstormed.
Q: Tell me about your compiled slide. What do the photos mean to you and how do they all connect to each other?
LaNija: The photos in my compiled slide tell a story of transition. As I was participating in this project, I was traveling solo in the American Southwest the summer after graduating from UVA, breaking out of what was expected of me before settling down in a city. These photos mean redirection, freedom, and rediscovering who I am outside of who I was conditioned to be.
LaNija: I took the first photo in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was the first city I went to on my trip. Reaching out to the sky showed how my relationship with God was integral to the entire process of being by myself and traveling.
LaNija: I took the second photo in San Diego, and it’s of public transportation. This was the moment when I truly felt like a fish out of water. I grew up in a really rural area where there was no public transport. This was my first time on the west coast, in a big city by myself, and in this moment I felt truly alone and independent.
LaNija: The next picture is of me and my boyfriend, who was the main person I was talking to throughout the whole travel experience. My relationship with him got much stronger. In many ways I felt like I was doing it with him and for him. He’s never been to the west coast either and I knew I needed to try being on my own in order to really appreciate being with him. He was also my motivation to not stop early when things got tough.
LaNija: The plate photo came from the last week of college before I graduated. I was in the Black campus ministry called OneWay and they made superlatives for the students about to graduate. My superlative, “most likely to get mad at you for not valuing yourself,” meant a lot to me because I gained a reputation for calling people out when they weren’t valuing themselves, but I wasn’t able to do the same for myself–I was the first person to put myself through the mud whenever I made a mistake, or to sacrifice sleep for an assignment. The superlative was a wake up call for me–I needed to treat myself with the same value I encouraged in others. The biggest thing I learned from the experience was to value my dreams and strive for experiences that would build me up as who I want to be and not who everyone expects me to be.
LaNija: The final picture represents the end of my transition stage. My compiled slide is almost like a timeline, now that I look at it: the one on the left is the beginning and the one on the right is the end. I’m currently apartment hunting in Charlotte, North Carolina–this photo is a screenshot of one apartment I was looking at. This really signifies a new beginning and a bookend to my journey this past summer. I'm trying to take everything that I learned from the experience of traveling and use what I’ve learned about myself to figure out what I’ll be doing next. I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life, and also recognize that the story is on-going.
Q: What questions/grey areas did your photos/compiled slide bring up for you?
The compiled slide brings up a lot of thoughts about discerning my future. Where’s my community outside of my boyfriend? Where do I see myself going? What is my vision for my life? It also brought up some questions about my writing: how do I express myself? I’ve always said that my writing is integral to who I am, but I haven’t leaned into it very much before. How can I make my writing an on-going practice?
Q: What did you discover about yourself, your community, or your life through PhotoVoice?
I discovered that I have a story that is worth sharing. Before photovoice, most of the things I had gone through, if they weren’t super shocking or impressive, didn’t seem profound enough for anyone to want to hear it. I learned that I do have a story that is worth sharing and there’s value to it even if I don’t always see it myself.
“[Through Essential PhotoVoice] I discovered that I have a story that is worth sharing.”
Q: What question would you like to propose to TH blog readers?
What is something that you never thought was worth sharing and why? What are the mundane experiences you don’t see value in and why? What criteria are you using to measure your own story, and where does it come from?
How do we find and build community during transition?
How can you push yourself out of your comfort zone in a way that is identity-forming? How can you commit to being uncomfortable (for example, like I was when attending events alone during my travels) while still being safe?
Q: What is your biggest takeaway from the PhotoVoice experience? How was it overall?
My biggest takeaway from Essential Photovoice is that as different as everyone’s stories can be and no matter how lonely someone might feel, there is always a point of alignment and connection. Just like how puzzle pieces are all different shapes but come together to make a big beautiful coherent picture, so did our 6 stories as we participated in this cohort. I just wished it could have been in-person instead of over Zoom; I can just imagine people gathering at Common Grounds to talk about their photos and share a meal!
Lent 2 | Desert Lessons
“I cared for you in the wilderness, in the dry desert where no water was. ”
The prophet Hosea points us to the lessons of the desert: In the empty dry places, it is we who have abandoned God through our habits of life, our neglect, our indifference. We are thirsty, in need of water.
If we acknowledge our weakness, we may lean upon the strength of God.
If we admit our fear, we may receive the courage of God.
If we declare ourselves lost, we may take the leading hand of God.
This Lent, may we begin to release whatever is not of God -- this God who cares for us in our wilderness.
God promises to come close, out there wherever you are, leading you into green pastures: rejoicing, home at last.
Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God—
Love you.-Denise Levertov
Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash.
March Prayers with Bryan Stevenson
“Inspire us Lord to remember that Your redemptive love can restore those who have fallen and those who have suffered. Remind us that You came for the poor, the excluded and the condemned. You sought out the infirm, vulnerable and the disfavored among us and You caused us to believe in restoration.”
Dear Friends,
This month we welcome Bryan Stevenson to the Charlottesville community. So many people have worked tirelessly to make this event happen. Our community partners are also offering many companion events to inspire further conversation and reflection.
Would you join us in prayer? Pray that his visit would galvanize and inspire, that it would help bring Jesus’ way of justice, mercy and peace to our community in deep and surprising ways.
- Christy Yates
You have called us to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly. We now need Your guidance.
We are living at a time when unjust inequality is causing suffering, disease and death. Your people have become unforgiving, harsh and punitive. We incarcerate the impoverished, the sick and disabled, the lost and addicted, the undocumented seeking refuge. We condemn children to die in prison. We see injustice prevail and hopelessness persist daily. Some believe that people are no more than the worst thing they’ve ever done. There is fear, anger, bigotry and hatred all around us.
Inspire us Lord to remember that Your redemptive love can restore those who have fallen and those who have suffered. Remind us that You came for the poor, the excluded and the condemned. You sought out the infirm, vulnerable and the disfavored among us and You caused us to believe in restoration.
Help us to understand that Your grace is sufficient when we are weak and weary; when we are overwhelmed by the pain of loss and the frustration of injustice.
Cause us to reckon with the sins of our past by believing in the hope of our future. Make us reflect on Your power to redeem.
Mend us Oh God with Your love until our mourning becomes dancing. Bless us so that we may never forget that we are all Your children.
Bryan Stevenson, Esq.
“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Essential PhotoVoice Project | Haley Stocks '22
The picture above is a screenshot of a jamboard from our final Photovoice session. We each had time to consider all the photos we’d taken from previous meetings and create a larger narrative from them. You can see questions that came up for us as a group as we brainstormed.
Q: Tell me about your compiled slide. What do the photos mean to you and how do they all connect to each other?
Haley: I picked photos that I thought represented common themes that we stumbled across throughout the program. It seemed like the majority of us were walking through some major life shifts whether it was graduating college, starting a new job, getting married, getting a new puppy, moving, etc. and I wanted my pictures to represent that transient nature. The pictures themselves are of the Rotunda because I just graduated and that was one of my last nights in Charlottesville and I felt it represented the end of an era and a shift in my community post-graduation. My next photo was a picture of me kayaking with my dog at a nature preserve near my parent’s house, also representing a shift in my community as I become a fully independent adult, but at the same time maintain community with my family and where I grew up. My next photo was from an AirBNB that I visited with a friend of mine as a representation of maintaining community while it changes and we no longer live and work in the same space. My next photo was of bread at my family’s dinner table, because I feel like meals are a central point where members of a community come together to share their lives and enjoy one another's company in a way that only breaking bread can enable. The last photo was taken at a park in my new neighborhood. During the program I moved and it highlighted the parts of the community I was excited to explore such as the different outdoor activities that this new location allows me to explore.
Q: What questions/grey areas did your photos/compiled slide bring up for you?
Haley: I think I have questions about how people maintain healthy community after major life shifts. Most of us were currently walking through these changes and so we’re still in the process of learning about what these changes mean for our communities. How do you maintain healthy contact with people after you move? Should you maintain contact? How do you intentionally seek new community? What is the right balance between “new” community and “old” community? How do we create a balance between the different communities in our lives?
Q: What did you discover about yourself, your community, or your life through PhotoVoice?
Haley: I think I discovered that all of our communities involved families, and friends, and hometowns, and school, and work, along with so much more that all come together to form the complete view of our community. Each of these parts of our community come with unique challenges and joys but they are all formative into how we process situations, what we deem as important, and what drives our focus. It is only through examining how these different parts of lives intersect and interact with one another that we get a clear picture of our community.
Q: What question would you like to propose to TH blog readers?
Haley: How has your community adjusted as you’ve walked through life shifts?
Q: What is the biggest takeaway from the Photovoice Experience? How was it overall?
Haley: I think that the biggest takeaway I have is that while we all have different communities most of us could relate in some way or another to the stories shared behind each photo. There are common challenges we all face, and talking about them together was very enlightening as it highlighted the different ways that we react to said situations as well as the emotions that may come up as a result of them.
Lent 1 | The Far Side of the Wilderness
“Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help and God will say, ‘I’M HERE.’”
“Moses led the flock he was tending to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush...Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight -- why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Exodus 3:1-4
On the far side of the wilderness -- that out of the way, untamed place, Moses slows down; tends his flock in quiet. The ideal place, really, for God to capture his attention. Alone with his sheep, Moses can’t help but notice the steadily burning bush. As the curious man draws closer, God calls him by name: “Moses! Moses!” In this intimate meeting, God touches Moses at his heart.
During this time of Lent, you are invited to travel to the far side of the wilderness, a place where nothing much is happening. In those moments away from the everyday chatter, manifestations of God’s strange blazing beauty wait for you. God just may call you by name in hopes of your simple response: “Here I am.”
Ash Wednesday | The Slow Way
ASH WEDnesday | The Slow Way
Lent arrives in winter -- yet “lent” is from the Old English word “springtime.” Amidst cold, dark days, Lent promises the arrival of spring, all in good time. In Latin, “lente” means “slowly.” Indeed, this is a season for slowing down.
Lent re-orients, re-grounds, and re-centers us, turning us back toward the God who is here with us – along the Slow Way. Over the forty gradually lengthening days that lead to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection day, Lent calls us to face ourselves, to acknowledge the wounds in our own souls. To take time to taste the earthly experience of our humanity.
On this Ash Wednesday, the Slow Way begins with a cry for God’s mercy, broken as we are. God will redeem us out of the dust.
This is the litany to earth and ashes,
To the dust of roads and vacant rooms,
To the fine silt circling in the shaft of sun,
Settling indifferently on books and beds.
This is a prayer to praise what we become:
‘Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return.’
Savor its taste—the bitterness of earth and ashes.
— from “The Litany” by Dana Gioia