Alumni/ae Day

As I mentioned when I first started writing this blog a month ago, this past week was the 25th anniversary of my graduation from the Harvard Divinity School, and my subsequent ordination to the ministry the following Sunday at the First and Second Church in Boston. In celebration of this auspicious occasion, last week Harvard threw a big party for me and my classmates (along with several thousand other proud graduates and their friends and families), just as they do every year about this same time.

The festivities started Tuesday night with a Reunion Dinner at the Harvard Club on Commonwealth Avenue, where I had a chance to catch up a little with former FRS student intern Dawn Sangrey and former FRS interim minister Diane Miller, both of whom were also celebrating "reunion" years (their 5th and 30th, respectively). I also enjoyed a brief conversation with former HDS Dean (and longtime Nantucket summer resident) Krister Stendahl, who, while asking the blessing on our sumptuous shared meal, quoted the same Latin American table grace I first heard him use at the "Dean's Feed" for incoming students on the back lawn of Jewitt House in 1978, which has been a favorite item in my own repertoire of prayers ever since: "To those who are hungry, give bread; and to us who have bread, give a hunger for justice." Certainly something worthy of learning by heart, and repeating regularly for more than a quarter-century.

The Reunion Dinner was followed on Wednesday by the Alumni/ae Day exercises back at the Divinity School campus. Tori Murden-McClure (MDiv '89), the first American woman both to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and to ski to the South Pole, gave a very inspiring (and humorous) talk about some of the things she learned while attempting to accomplish these difficult physical feats. After quipping that apparently she had been invited back to HDS "for my body and not my mind," Tori took her theme from a quotation by Teddy Roosevelt: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

But the highlight of the day for me personally was hearing keynote speaker, Margaret Miles, my former Church History professor and the first tenured woman faculty member at HDS, who spoke on the topic "Living Lovingly in a Culture of Fear." Taking her inspiration from 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear," Margaret spoke about how our contemporary "culture of fear" exaggerates some dangers (like the threat of terrorism) and diminishes others (like the number of highway traffic deaths each year), while our society's obsession with "romantic love" is essentially a form of "misdirection" -- a bit of cultural sleight-of-hand which diverts attention from our true responsibilities to care for one another. Quoting feminist philosopher Dorothy Dinnerstein, who wrote, "We never feel as grown-up as we expected to feel when we were children," Margaret reminded us that (like it or not) we ARE the grown-ups, and that the appropriate response to our own experience of Privilege is NOT "denial" and "guilt," but rather "gratitude and responsibility."

Of course, there was also plenty of swag, just as one might expect at a party planned by the Office of Development and External Relations. Lanyards, pens and pencils, plastic mag lights, even kazoos...all emblazoned with the HDS imprint. But the best gift of all was a quotation from the Czech playwright and politician Vaclav Havel: "Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run from those who have found it."

The Divinity School's own motto of "Faith Seeking Understanding" echoes these same sentiments. And the fact is, I do feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity of attending Divinity School at Harvard twenty-five years ago, and to have subsequently enjoyed the privilege of seeking (and speaking) my own truth in love for more than half a lifetime now. God willing, I hope to continue to enjoy that privilege for another quarter-century (or longer), thanks in no small part to the gracious support of those who are interested in listening, and who likewise share their journeys with me.