Squirrel spotting

I promise that I am doing a lot more than just spotting wildlife on this campus. It's just that a class room of post graduates getting passionate and excited about a whole range of issues doesn't make a very good picture.

We spent some time in groups designing a Pentecost liturgy and had a good laugh at grown ups mucking around with liturgical dance and other creative ideas.

I think it calmed a lot of the tensions building these past few days. Ironically, a couple of people on the first morning were quite strident about being gay/ lesbian, but their status as a minority was completely disregarded in the overwhelming conversations about black/white relations in society and church.
The course is about being a courageous leader in your own context, and for some, their context is fraught with racial slurs and under currents. And they have sought to speak out about it in class, in what is a permissive/ safe environment that I suspect is a little rare.
After the first few days of enormous culture shock for me, I brought my knitting out and diffused my anxiety through my fingers while listening and learning hard.

Mind you, in the final 5 mins of the day, we had an explosive discussion resulting from different attitudes regarding the way to act in an interfaith gathering.
As I sauntered back in the afternoon sunshine to my dorm - squirrel spotting - one of my classmates stormed ahead of me - from his gesticulating body language , he was still fired up and even arguing with the trees!

I stuck to the squirrels.