A Week of Marvel and Ecumenical Communion at LSTC

Above: Interim President Michael Cooper-White (far right) with Dean Linda Thomas, Pastor Munther Isaac, and Dr. Esther Menn

First aired in Britain in 1962, an Americanized version of That Was the Week that Was or TW3 appeared on NBC for two decades. Like Saturday Night Live, it re-presented events of recent days in ironic and satirical recaps.

Reflecting on the past week in our LSTC community, I thought of TW3 in marveling at all that has occurred within the span of just a few days. In addition to the regular routines of classes, study, administrative meetings and all the rest, there were some amazing events here at 5416 S. Cornell Avenue and nearby.

Monday evening, CTU’s Shapiro lecture featured Notre Dame Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture Tzvi Novick speaking on “A Jewish Theology of the Church.” In his lecture he wondered whether an emerging relationship of Christians and Jews would be to welcome one another as “resident aliens” in our respective communities. 

Wednesday was an amazing day as Women’s history month was observed in chapel, with a powerful sermon from an “upstairs colleague,” Dr. Lis Valle-Ruiz of McCormick. That was followed by lunch conversations with an international panel of distinguished women scholar-leaders, including our own DEI Director Vima Couvertier-Cruz. In the evening, Palestinian Lutheran Pastor Munther Isaac, author of Christ in the Rubble, laid before us the brutal realities experienced in Gaza and Israeli-occupied territories where, he said, a wave of genocide has been unleashed.    

A few of us from LSTC were present in person Friday as another historic event unfolded before our eyes with the inauguration of Dr. Maisha Handy as the 12th president of our upstairs partner, McCormick. First African American womanist president of the historic school, Dr. Handy’s inauguration was a celebratory ecumenical event held in Chicago’s First Baptist Congregational Church in which she was raised. Seeing old friends from other institutions was coupled with meeting new colleagues as Dean Linda Thomas and I joined in the academic procession and inaugural ceremony.  

While all these significant events were taking place in our neighborhood, on the larger scene there were tragic occurrences—an earthquake in Myanmar, from which come eight of our own students, the ongoing onslaught of our own government against institutions of higher education, and other oppressive and death-dealing moments and movements. Here in mid-Lent, that was the week that was last week. Now we begin the next . . .