By Dr.\u00a0Sharon Jacob and Dr. Yohana Junker<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At a time when institutions across the country are grappling with fragmentation, polarization, and loneliness\u2013\u2013particularly in hybrid and global contexts\u2014CST is witnessing something quietly transformative among our students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While many schools struggle to sustain meaningful community beyond physical proximity, CST has leaned more deeply into its commitments to Compassion, Justice, and Belonging<\/strong>. What is emerging is a practice of formation shaped for this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our students live across time zones, cultures, and continents. Community, therefore, has to be intentional, relational, and it must be rooted in shared responsibility for one another\u2019s flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Willie James Jennings <\/strong>writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theological education in the Western world has entered a new stage where it must develop authentically decolonial habits of mind that transform theological schools into places that educate people toward one another and not simply beside one another.<\/strong> (Willie James Jennings. \u201cThe Change We Need: Race and Ethnicity in Theological Education.” Theological Education<\/em> 49, no. 1 (2014): 35\u201342.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n At CST, this is not simply a compelling idea\u2013\u2013it is becoming an embodied practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decolonial habits of mind mean that learning does not privilege a single cultural voice. It means that wisdom from the margins is treated as central rather than supplemental. It means mentoring across differences, listening across geography, and recognizing that leadership is formed in relationship. It means refusing competition as the primary driver of excellence and embracing a learning \u201ctoward one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The clearest expression of this commitment, in our view, has been the CST PhD Colloquium. It began modestly, as a weekly gathering centered on relationships, dialogue, and mutual growth. Through conversation, storytelling, reflection, and peer mentorship, students began to build trust over time as faculty served as companions and advisors. The wisdom of lived student experience was the register of most of the discussions. What began three years ago as a small pilot with eight students has grown into a vibrant weekly community of more than twenty students connecting across programs and locations. PhD programs are known for their competitive nature. However, CST students\u2013many of whom carry historically marginalized identities\u2013are intentionally cultivating an alternative ecosystem grounded in collaboration, mutual care, and collective flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what community by practice looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Congo-Bantu notion of kindezi, the community\u2019s fundamental work is to light each member\u2019s sun\u2013I help kindle your divine spark while you help kindle mine. Formation is reciprocal and flourishing is communal. Sunflowers offer a living metaphor for this, too. There is a popular teaching in Brazil that when the sun is not shining, they turn toward one another to receive light. In Portuguese, girassol<\/em> literally means \u201cturning with the sun.\u201d And maybe this is what the colloquium rehearses week after week\u2013students learning toward each other, orienting themselves toward one another\u2019s gifts, wisdom, and light so learning and belonging are both cultivated and protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students mentor across cohorts. They share strategies for navigating graduate study. They hold one another accountable to their goals. They show up because belonging has become part of their formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some would say that the colloquium has the potential of becoming the beating heart of CST. We know that its impact has extended beyond its original structure, inspiring additional spaces modeled on its ethos of mutual support and collaborative learning. What began as a weekly gathering has become a framework for how we imagine theological education itself. This is theological education shaped for the world as it is\u2013not an ivory tower disconnected from lived realities, but a learning community attuned to its needs and animated by imagination, togetherness, and radical hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Arundhati Roy<\/strong> reminds us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnother world is not only possible, she is on her way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If we listen closely on a quiet day, we can hear it here\u2013in the steady rhythms of dialogue, mentorship, and shared responsibility. This formation prepares leaders for congregations, classrooms, counseling spaces, nonprofit organizations, and movements for justice. It equips graduates not only with theological insight but with the relational resilience necessary for leadership in such a time as this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we look ahead, we know this work requires continued investment: of time, imagination, and shared commitment. Alumni, donors, partners, and friends who believe in theological education as a force for transformation are essential to sustaining and expanding these spaces of formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because at CST, we are not only building programs. And we are just getting started.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Dr.\u00a0Sharon Jacob and Dr. Yohana Junker At a time when institutions across the country are grappling with fragmentation, polarization, and loneliness\u2013\u2013particularly in hybrid and global contexts\u2014CST is witnessing something quietly transformative among our students. While many schools struggle to sustain meaningful community beyond physical proximity, CST has leaned more deeply into its commitments to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":46304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[417,57,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-cst-professors","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
We are cultivating practices.
We are shaping leaders.
And we are participating in the slow, steady emergence of a more just, compassionate, and creatively animated world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n