Spiritual pilgrimages are important. Over the past 4 years, I’ve intentionally undertaken annual summer pilgrimages to European, medieval-era cathedrals - something that has allowed me to visit and pray in some of the largest and oldest European cathedrals from Switzerland to Germany to Luxembourg to France to Belgium to the Netherlands to my most recent trip to the United Kingdom just a couple of weeks ago ...

by. Jason Burkett (US Army veteran and M.A. in Peace & Justice student) I joined the Army twice. The first time (1989-1996), I was a junior in high school, the summer before my senior year. My dad was a truck driver, my mom was a teacher, and we didn’t have much money. I knew my parents couldn’t afford to send both my sister and me to college, and back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was all anyone talked about: college, college, college. My dad had served in Vietnam. My

My guiding motto is simple yet life-giving: “There is no peace that can be brought to earth through the barrel of a gun, but only by sitting around the table, deepening our understanding of the ‘other,’ pulling down the walls that divide us, and building bridges that connect us.” True peace can never be won through fighting, but only through dialogue, compassion, understanding, and reconciliation.

These words, penned by Kat Armas in her opening “Liturgy for Resisting Empire,” echo the beauty of what I have found to be true, first as an SSU student and, in an ongoing way, as a member of the alumni community.

I want to congratulate you all, every single one of you, students and friends, spouses, alumni, teachers, administrators, children, parents, all of you. Everyone. Congratulations to all of you who are graduating on the hard work and the met deadlines and the missed deadlines, and the anguish and the joy and the, “What am I doing this for?” And the, “I’m not good enough,” and, “What do I do with it now?” And, “What comes next?”

GOD of Creation, help us to understand our role in the violence we see around us, be it war, be it domestic abuse, be it how we treat our neighbor, or the stranger among us. Open our eyes, our ears and hearts to the way of shalom.

When I began my Master’s journey at SSU, I did not come as a blank slate. I came as a South African...

My deconstruction was a slow boil. I first felt the water warm on a 3-month trip to Africa as an SSU student back in 2001 ...

I love this question. Firstly, because it playfully suggests the crucial role of unlearning in any serious endeavour of learning; and also, because in my imagination this question will forever be spoken by a curious young boy to his wise little, cake-loving mole friend…

No longer being plagued by violent God-images, as expressed in doctrines like penal substitution, infernalist notions of judgement and the accompanying fear of hopeless abandonment, I find my heart slowly coming back to a place of genuine worship again, including through music and writing ...