United Despite Differences: The Case for Open Dialogue Across Denominations

Growing up, “Catholic” and “Christian” were always interchangeable terms. I knew that my family and I were Catholics, and I knew that we were Christians, so I assumed that they must surely mean the same thing. It wasn’t until I entered elementary school and heard my peers talking about going to “Sunday school” on the

In Celebration of Black History Month

It has, indeed, been a long and cold January for us all, literally so for far too many of us, struggling to heat homes, caught in a system full of bureaucracy and lacking in compassion. As we enter the month of February, the cold harshness of this system appropriately positions us to enter Black History

Forgiveness in Our World

This year at the Center, we have been reimagining reconciliation as we prepare for our symposium in the spring. As we conversed about what reconciliation looks like in our lives, we found that forgiveness is a common theme that is commonly paired with this idea of restoration.   “I thought I had forgiven her a long

Unlearning, Relearning, and Redefining Reconciliation

Messiah’s theme this year is “reconciliation” and as such, it’s a topic that has come up several times over the course of the semester, whether it be during class discussions, lectures, or even just normal conversation amongst friends. However, the definition of the term tends to be a little murky, especially when it is being

Missions from a Humanities’ Perspective

We were dancing under the late afternoon sun. Sweaty and giggling, multiple little Haitian girls grabbed hold of me as we spun around, again and again. Afterward, we all dropped to the ground, exhausted but smiling up at the sun. Two of the girls crawled in my lap and promptly fell asleep. I held them

Notes on the Ancient Egyptian Art Wing (i.e. the Stolen Art Wing)

The other week, I was walking around the Brooklyn Museum with an artist friend of mine, she armed with her sketchbook and a pen, and I with a pencil and my notebook. We were both creating sketches and taking notes of the things we saw and admired.The entire first floor of the museum is currently

Memory, Monuments, and Lost Cause Ideology.

How do we use monuments to shape our memory of the past? As a history major, I have studied how different people use the past and shape its memory. One of the areas that I have focused on researching is the Lost Cause of the South ideology. Lost Cause ideology is the idea that became

Holy Places and Justice: My Summer Spent at an African Burial Ground

I have often been in touch with the importance of place. Recognizing places of pain and places of freedom. Place is important to me. But I am not always in tune, nor do I always know the significance of the places I inhabit or encounter. This summer, I reintroduced myself to a place on a

Virtue

Virtue.  What is virtue?   I can tell you that virtue is the word I misspelled in my fifth-grade spelling bee, landing me a second-place finish. I’ll never forget how to spell it now.  Outside of elementary school spelling bees, the word gets tossed around in many circles. Recently, the idea of “virtue” often appears in

Rising to the Occasion: Our Role in Encouraging Social Change

“What would you say to people who aren’t interested in the immigration policies of the United States because it doesn’t affect them?”    Shamaine Daniels – longtime immigrant advocate and member of the Harrisburg city council – laughs at the question. “Well, this is why I like interacting with young people because you’re all still optimistic