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WSCF Conference: “Raising New Prophets: Arising of a Movement”

 

In response to the expressed needs of many students and campus pastors and chaplains, the North American Region of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) decided to reactivate the Student Christian Movement  (SCM) in the United States after 40 years of being dormant.  With the organizing skills of our New York-based Regional Secretary, Luciano Kovacs, students in the Canadian SCM, and US students with a history of involvement in a variety of ecumenical movements, a planning committee was formed during the 2008 WSCF Global General Assembly in Montreal, Canada.  The planning committee decided to mark the 40 year anniversary of the heavy student involvement in the U.S. civil rights movement. Major themes of the conference included student activism with an emphasis on the history of student engagement in social issues through the WSCF and radical inclusivity, to maintain a welcoming spirit for all participants.     

Over eighty participants from many parts of the U.S. and Canada convened in three San Francisco venues.  There were also WSCF representatives coming from the Philippines, Columbia, and Denmark, and international student SCM’ers studying in the U.S. from India, Cameroon, and Hong Kong.  One day was hosted by the Episcopal Grace Cathedral, the second by the Presbyterian Westminster House Campus Ministry at University of California - Berkeley, and the third by the Women’s Building in the Mission District.  Moving around to these places allowed people a chance to see different aspects of the Bay Area, and actually physically move around as the spirit of a movement was growing.       

Lively worship, music, and Biblical reflection were interspersed through the weekend and was a highlight for many who attended.  Organically formed working interest groups met throughout the weekend and included: eco-justice, migration, gender issues and sexual minorities, affordable housing, and peace-making.  Students heard an introductory welcome speech by Luciano Kovacs, an historical retrospective on the WSCF by Alice Hageman, Chair of the Trustees of the WSCF in the U.S., and a keynote speech on resurrection-centered Christology by Professor Rita Nakashima Brock.  Representatives from several Bay Area activist groups came to Grace Cathedral to meet and network with students.  Participants also spent a day in Berkeley, toured the University of California, Berkeley, the Graduate Theological Union campus, and historical sites of student activism and protest in the 1960’s.  On the evening of that day, the local Senior Friends of the SCM held a banquet to which 30 additional participants came.  Most of these people had had a long involvement in various forms of campus ministry and were very interested in finding out ways to get more students involved in ecumenical and global programs and projects.       

By the end of the conference, virtually all of the participants became committed to a vision of revitalizing the SCM in the United States.  A steering committee was formed to begin to plan for future conferences, projects, and movement building.  Fund raising will be an important part of these future activities, and the U.S. Trustees, the North American Region, and the Inter-Regional Office of the WSCF in Geneva are all committed to increasing our staff and office support and making sure that a new U.S. SCM gets off to a solid start.  ~Report by Bill Muhler, WSCF Senior Friend & U.S. Trustee

Reflection from Shantha Ready, Student Vice Chair of the World Student Christian Federation

Picture this: An old University of Berkley campus ministry building with a long, red WSCF General Assembly banner hanging in the foyer, colorfully set tables full of flowers and delicious food, a full room packed with 80 students and 30 senior friends, a team of amazing volunteer ecumenists from a local church helping serve, a silent auction on the patio full of generous donations of interesting books and art, lots of wine, and a flying pig.  This was the scene at the senior friends banquet, where many who had long wished for the rebirth of the WSCF North American Region of the global  WSCF fellowship met new students who plan to return from San Francisco and bring SCMs to their campuses.  Some said this scene would be possible only when pigs could fly.  In fact, North American Regional Committee treasurer Catherine Johannson brought a relic of the past to San Francisco: a one-winged wooden pig figurine, along with its severed wing and a hot glue gun.  This figurine had survived years of being jostled around in boxes, a little symbol of the North American region's potential for rebirth as.. biologically impossible. But, in that room full of WSCFers old and new, made possible by the "hot glue" of the phenomenal organizing skills of our Regional Secretary, the dedication of our San Francisco planning team, the support of SCM Canada, the faithful stewardship of the US Trustees, the service of our ecumenist volunteers, and the witness of the Global Federation, we achieved the impossible on Saturday night. In a moving liturgical celebration, the severed wing of the pig was re-attached, and so the North American Region flies.  We closed with a moving rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a song that has resounded throughout the struggle for African American equality, and felt appropriate to our official weekend in San Francisco marking our re-birth: 

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring, 

Ring with the harmonies of liberty; 

Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, 

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. 

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, 

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; 

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, 

Let us march on till victory is won.

May our efforts to engage and activate Christian students on campuses across the U.S. and Canada fan the flames of the New Fire Movement to spread the ecumenical vision among young people!