MARK YOUR 2012 CALENDARS!
IBCS SUMMER SESSION
JUNE 22- JULY 14, 2012

WE ARE AN EASTER PEOPLE

We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our Song! Our Lenten journey of the past forty days was a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving which culminated in the Triduum liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In many communities it was a time to reflect and
pray for the transformation of the ills in our society. The public outpouring of rage and sorrow over the recent tragedy of Trayvon Martin and the Crosswalk journey in Chicago (a 4 mile ecumenical pilgrimage on Holy Monday which remembered the 600+ children who have been murdered in the Chicago area in the past 4 years) are just two examples of how communities responded to the need for conversion and reconciliation today. Our African American oral tradition in stories such as – "The People Who Fly" – proclaims that when a people reclaim and remember their story and sense of self – they will be able to soar and fly beyond the tragedy, beyond the sinfulness and return home to what God called them to be. During the Easter season we are reminded that we are a people who can fly. Just as the early apostles began to remember and reclaim their sense of self through their encounter with the Risen Christ, we have been given what we need to transform our society, our communities and ourselves. Through our sharing of our stories of faith, our spirituality that is rooted in the justice tradition of our Church and our people, and our participation in the sacramental life of the Church, transformation can happen and reconciliation can take plan. As we continue during these 50 days of Easter which culminates in Pentecost, let us through faith and action proclaim that Jesus is in our midst, that the Resurrected Lord has the power to transform and that we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!

Dr. C. Vanessa White
Coordinator of Spiritual Formation
Degree/CE Faculty - IBCS