Rooted in Partnership: A Summer of Learning in Pakistan
For more than three decades, Week of Compassion has partnered with Community World Service Asia (CWSA) to accompany vulnerable communities in Pakistan. This summer, that long-standing partnership took on a new dimension through the International Disaster Response Immersion Program, as seminarian Leigh Larson joined CWSA for ten weeks of ministry and learning. Leigh Larson, a student at Phillips Theological Seminary and a candidate for ordination in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), brought her gifts as a chaplain, author, and scholar into a context of profound challenge and resilience.
One of Leigh's first projects was supporting mental health and hygiene workshops for refugee women and youth who had fled violence and instability. These programs – supported by Week of Compassion – create safe space for refugees to grieve, heal, and rebuild their lives while navigating the daily fear of deportation.
“I met women separated from their fathers and husbands, teenagers who had left behind sports teams and school,” Leigh reflected. "Their loss was immense, yet their resilience was undeniable.” These sessions also offered critical education around women’s health, a subject rarely discussed publicly in this region. For Leigh, whose mother is a women’s health doctor in Texas, the connection felt deeply personal: “It was holy work – lifting up dignity in the face of silence.”
Click here to read more.
Beginning Wednesday, September 3, 2025, and for the following 24 weeks we will begin a new lecture study, “Great Figures of the New Testament”, taught by Professor Amy-Jill Levine.
Professor Levine teaches New Testament Studies at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. These lectures are about the great figures in the earliest years of the church. The focus is on the Biblical historical context, with a detailed examination of key characters, their actions, and how historians, artists, and theologians have interpreted them over time.
If you missed last week’s session, don’t worry! It served mainly as an introduction to the course and isn’t essential for following along. Most of the lectures are designed as stand-alone videos, so you won’t fall behind.
This week's lecture is about the Great Figures of the New Testament. Click here for the reading materials and join us on Zoom here for this week’s session on John the Baptist. For more information, please contact Vaughn Ouellette.
The Sunday Morning Forum is moving forward in a hybrid format—meeting in person in the Library and on Zoom—from 9:30 to 10:15 am. This schedule lets choir members participate and still make it to rehearsal before worship. To kick off the season, the Forum will begin a video study on the Gospel of John: A Beginner’s Guide to the Way, the Truth, and the Life, presented by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine.
In preparation for the Forum on Sunday, please read John 9:1-41. It is a long story, and we'll need 6 readers to read through it Sunday - Jesus, Jesus' Disciples, the man born blind, his neighbors, his parents, and Pharisees. In reading this story what stands out to you. For example, notice who is doing the "knowing" in the story. Additionally, it is suggested that we also read Exodus 4:11, Leviticus 19:14 and Deuteronomy 27:18 describing God's relationship to those who are blind, the place those who are blind have, or ought to have, among God's people.
Questions to consider:
- What does this story tell us about those people who we do not see in our community?
- What is keeping us from seeing each other?
- John keeps referring to "the Jews." What does he want us to understand about "the Jews." Remember in earlier stories, he also refers to "the Jews."
- Is there a connection between sin and blindness or other birth defects? What do we learn about this association?
Just a reminder, the Forum is an in-person/Zoom study that begins at 9:30 am in the Library every Sunday morning. Click Here to join via Zoom.
The weekly market is every Wednesday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm in lower parking lot.
