From @austinseminary ... "The Reed" for April 2020

What are we doing now?

Austin Seminary Photos

The City of Austin is under a Stay in Place order, and all Austin Seminary offices are closed, with staff and faculty working from their homes. Students returned from spring break to their Austin homes and on-campus apartments, duplexes, or dorm rooms. All classes, meetings, and worship services—including the Triduum (or Three Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil)—have moved online until the end of the semester. Though the campus appears empty, construction on the Wright Learning and Information Center has begun with a construction fence erected around the site so that asbestos abatement can begin.

In this new environment, students are creating new ways to connect and care for one another—from a "social distance." In addition to the weekly Bible studies, they hels an Open Mic Night on April 21, and they have approved a "stimulus package" to both provide for the community and to help out local businesses. Professor Emeritus Whit Bodman has already procured more than fifty gift certificates for students!

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What are we learning?

These are unprecedented times for people accustomed to in-person, community-centered learning. Students and professors alike are learning to navigate Zoom classes and stay-home orders. After four weeks in this new environment, we reached out to both teachers and learners to see what stands out. Here are a few of their thoughts:

• Emergency remote teaching is different than a designed, intentional on-line offering. One article noted “the speed with which this move to online instruction is expected to happen is unprecedented and staggering.”
• I am proud of our students in new ways – they are doing the hard work of attending to each other in these difficult times (check-ins; grocery help; prayer; positive comments; attention to grief and loss).
• For many of us we are learning (or re-learning) what it means to not have access or instant access to what we want, when we want it.
• Video conferencing requires light! I need light to shine on me (and not behind me).
• Fresh air helps to keep the (cabin) fever down.
• Prayer continues to be foundational to each day, as does being bathed in scripture.
• We are teaching for ministerial and faith leadership ... let us all be in touch with our mortality and work on being prepared for goodbyes if we cannot reach family and loved ones or be with them at their dying bedside.
• Having [my professor] giving her lectures on the portal has been fantastic! It enriches the readings and discussions a lot more now and I feel less anxious when I study. Sorry to say it but I prefer this new normal in that particular class!
• For reflection: What can we learn from our ancestors in faith? What can we learn from peoples around the world who live under great duress?
• I now see why people bought a bunch of toilet paper ...

How Can We Help?

Education Beyond the Walls (EBW) is truly operating beyond the walls these days! From our respective homes, we are working on transforming in-person events to virtual experiences that can nourish mind and spirit. We are all learning new skills, like video editing and how to use the breakout room function on Zoom. And we are watching in awe how all of you are pouring your heart and energy into being church in new ways. Most of all we want to encourage and support you during this time. Follow us on Facebook for community highlights, Lectio Live on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. CST, and poetry Fridays. Read the 787 Collective blog for do-able practices, wise insights, and helpful links. Visit Desert Times (see "What's new at AustinSeminary.edu" below) to find resources we are partnering with faculty to create. And stay tuned. In May we will be launching an online experience of Creativity and Hope in the Face of Trauma especially for caregivers.

Austin Seminary Photos

Clockwise from top-left: Student Kimberlee Runnion is encouraging the Seminary's crafty crowd (via the How Great Thou Art student group) to make masks for the Seminary community and to donate to local healthcare organizations. Student Emily Grace Clark is serving on the frontlines of the pandemic by providing food and care to people experiencing homelessness in Austin. Student Matt Ratliff is calling on others in the community to mail cards to people living in long-term care facilities who may be particularly vulnerable to the isolation caused by the pandemic. The Student Senate, led by President Usama Malik, is organizing the making of sandwiches to be distributed through Central Presbyterian Church

What's new at AustinSeminary.edu?

With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, we wanted to share resources with the broader church. Taking the title from a video from Pastoral Care Professor Phil Helsel, we added a page on our website in the Congregational Resources section called "Resources for Desert Times." You'll find professors' videos as well as some of the video messages President Ted Wardlaw has delivered during these uncertain times. It is continually being updated so take something, share something.

• You'll find it here!,

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