THE MAGAZINE OF GORDON COLLEGE
STILLPOINT FALL 2022
Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow Inaugurating Gordon’s ninth president Page 10
Curious Minds, Compassionate Hearts The questions that drive the lives of Gordon students, faculty and alumni Page 14
CONTENTS FEATURES
IN EACH ISSUE
3 Inspiration
Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow
Bil Mooney-McCoy Director of Worship
Front with 4 Up President Hammond
Celebrating the inauguration of
“Curiosity and Courage”
Dr. Michael D. Hammond
6 Student Spotlight
Page 10
Teddymax Talanoa ’23
8 On the Grapevine
Scholarship snapshots and new faces on campus
30 Class Notes
Alumni news and stories
Curious Minds, Compassionate Hearts Journey through the questions that are driving the lives and work of a dozen students, faculty and alumni.
IN THIS ISSUE and Human 28 Virtue Flourishing Jerusalem and Athens Forum essay contest
Page 14
Can music amplify the voice of a Black composer lost in time? Dr. Sarita Kwok
How is media affecting the people we will become? Kristelle Lavallee ’06
How can I represent truth in a film without preaching? Josh Rous ’01
How can we support victims of major conflicts? William Peña ’18
What can a country at war teach the rest of the world? Katya Tymchenko ’09 and Ilya Timtchenko ’14
How can trauma inform the healing process? Keanna Smigliani ’21
Should where you live determine whether you survive cancer? Dr. Alicia Heelan ’07
Can we bridge the gap between capability and circumstance? Sarah-Catherine Hartiens ’22
How do we help the helpers? Janine Halloran ’00
What can Christians learn from the “dark side” of leadership? Dr. Kent Seibert
What might a new iteration of the Church look like? Eugene Kim ’97
DEAR STILLPOINT READERS, Thank you to those who offered feedback on our spring 2022 issue, “Century of Scots.” In attempting to cover the College’s 100-year history of Athletics, including dozens of teams, hundreds of coaches and thousands of athletes (and all the championships and recognitions that came with them), we overlooked a few important ones. In 1979, the Hockey team had a winning record and went to the NAIA District 5 championship finals, finishing just one game shy of the national tournament in Minnesota. The team ranked 10th nationally in the NAIA and included three All-New England players. In the early ’80s, the Field Hockey team had an undefeated streak and several All American athletes under coach Elizabeth Ruhl ’78, who herself was the first ever woman to be declared Gordon College Athlete of the Year in 1978 and also coached the Softball team to several titles. In 2002, highly decorated Hall of Honor inductee Lindsey (Benson) Allenby ’04 was the NCAA Division III statistical leader with 42 goals in a game for the Women’s Soccer team.
INSPIRATION Hospitality for the Holy Spirit Bil Mooney-McCoy, Director of Worship Beyond the grand staircase and balcony of the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel, you’ll find the couch rumored to be the most comfortable on campus. The couch belongs to Director of Worship Bil Mooney-McCoy, and its comforting cushions have hosted many defining moments— pastoral guidance, life-changing mentorship, heartfelt prayers and a fair share of tears. Just like meaningful conversations can thrive with simple hospitality, Mooney-McCoy says sacred moments arise in worship when the Holy Spirit is welcomed in. “In any given Chapel, if something’s going to strike you, the worship is just as likely to hit you as the preaching,” says Mooney-McCoy, who is responsible for the musical and artistic elements of Chapel. “A lot of times, God meets me in that first song or the closing song. My job is to provide the Holy Spirit space, to make sure that our music is providing that.” Over his nine years at Gordon, Mooney-McCoy has seen culture ebb and flow, preferences vary and trends change. But as he sets the values of worship for the campus community, his imperative remains the same: “The theological basis of worship—the scriptural mandate is the highest priority.” Unlike the familiar couch, though, Mooney-McCoy says worship is not always comfortable. Within a multidenominational student body, Mooney-McCoy introduces campus to a wide range of worship styles that all reflect the body of Christ. “There are 50 ways to praise my Jesus,” he says. “Number 37 is not necessarily better than 30 than 12.” As he guides campus in a posture of worship, Mooney-McCoy says his benchmark is a deceptively simple question: Was God glorified? Whether students erupt in song with a classic hymn set to bluegrass or sit in solemn prayer accompanied by meditative piano, MooneyMcCoy says a Chapel service that ushers in the Holy Spirit and glorifies God is, “in terms of eternity, successful.”
STILLPOINT
The Magazine of Gordon College VOLUME 38 NUMBER 1
Heather Korpi, Editorial Director Mary (Hierholzer) Jacobs ’15, Staff Writer Bri (Young) Obied ’14, Staff Writer Stephen Dagley, Creative Director Rebecca Powell, Art Director Selina Taylor ’18, Graphic Designer Marilyn Helgesen, Alumni News Rick Sweeney ’85, Vice President for Marketing and External Relations UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFO AND DELIVERY PREFERENCES
www.gordon.edu/stillpoint/updatecontact OTHER CORRESPONDENCE Editor, STILLPOINT | Gordon College 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, MA 01984 stillpoint@gordon.edu PRINTING Flagship Press | North Andover, MA Opinions expressed in STILLPOINT are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Gordon College administration. Reproduction of STILLPOINT material is permitted; please attribute to STILLPOINT: The Magazine of Gordon College.
MISSION STILLPOINT magazine is one of two keynote communications (along with Gordon’s website) that exist to connect the extended Gordon community to the life of the College. STILLPOINT offers meaningful, relevant news and stories to educate, inspire and engage Gordon and Barrington alumni, parents, donors and friends. Send feedback and story suggestions to stillpoint@gordon.edu
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UP FRONT with President Hammond
Curiosity and Courage Standing in front of so many of you this past April to be inaugurated as Gordon College’s ninth president was an honor and a privilege. One hundred days later, the words of our theme hymn, drawn from Lamentations 3, still ring in my head: “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.” Great has been God’s faithfulness to my family in leading us to this place, and great has been his faithfulness to Gordon. As I shared during my inaugural speech, from the institution’s fledgling years training aspiring missionaries in Boston to now one of the top-ranked Christian liberal arts colleges, the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission have been central: Gordon students serve with a spiritual fervor and desire to live out the Christian gospel with care and concern for the hurting and broken. Our strength for today is the result of God’s faithfulness to Gordon over 133 years. And our bright hope for tomorrow comes with a clearer recognition and confident assertion of the strength of our mission and the God who sustains it. Hope requires courage.
Dr. Michael Hammond is the ninth president of Gordon College. Between pondering questions of budgets and curricula, perhaps his most burning question right now is: Cherry Hill Farm or Captain Dusty’s?
president@gordon.edu www.gordon.edu/president @mike_hammond_gc
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Courage to pursue vibrant Christianity without dogmatic judgmentalism. Gordon carries a legacy of faith that is unwavering and enduring in its commitment to Jesus Christ while avoiding the temptation of dogmatic judgementalism that repels people from the gospel. In an era when nuanced, respectful dialogue is waning, it requires great courage to resist the immediate self-gratification of cultural combat. Courage to pursue service to the world without selfishness. Proclamation of the gospel takes many different forms as we each fulfill the calling to surrender our gifts and motives to God. This act
of obedience is countercultural: By serving and giving our gifts for God’s purposes, we gain a deeper reward of participating in his work of grace in the world. Courage to pursue academic excellence and deep learning without arrogance. Perhaps the deadliest sin for academic scholars is pride. A better way is lived out in academic inquiry that respects the text or research and calls students to receive all truth as God’s truth, marked by a passion for learning, a skepticism toward easy answers and a curiosity for greater understanding. As I have gotten to know Gordon students, faculty and staff, and have met with alumni and friends around the country this past year, your stories carry a few common themes. First, God has worked in so many of you to guide you to this place; his faithfulness is the foundation my Gordon story in the making, too. Second, the spirit of adventurous learning and hearts joined with minds for service to the world so clearly runs through this community. In this issue of STILLPOINT, we are spotlighting that spirit of boundless inquiry. On page 14, you’ll meet a dozen students, faculty and alumni and learn about the questions that are driving their lives and work—questions like, “What can Christians learn from the ‘dark side’ of leadership?” and “How do we bridge the gap between capability and circumstance?” Together, they give just a small picture of the curiosity, courage and compassion that define this place. With bright hope for tomorrow,
Mike Hammond
IN EACH ISSUE
gs
Hammond Happenin
bal accompany the Glo What a joy it was to Greece to s trip ir the on s ort Honors Scholars coh ce, they embodied patien and England, where ire des derie and a fierce good humor, camara . I was from the experience rn lea to engage and ose wh ts den se bright stu so encouraged by the tes tra ons dem rn ire to lea Christian faith and des rld. wo our and h urc of the Ch hope for the future
Had a terrific time meetin g dozens of Gordon alumni on the Alumni Tour this spring, includi ng Rev. Dr. Michael ’06 and Sonya ’07 Bailey. From New England to Col orado to California and back aga in, it was such an honor to hear the stories of God’s faithfulness ove r the years. Read more on page 30.
So proud of our Wo men’s Track team for making Gordon hi story as th e 2022 CCC Cham pions! Wha t better way to celebra te these Fighting S cots legen ds than with late ni ght cookies .
Our two oldest children flew back for a quick visit this spring and we had a blast exploring a few new (to us) North Shore spots like the Fisherman’s Statue and Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester.
Thanks to the generosity of the extended Gordon commu nity, we had our most successful Day of Giving in early April, raising $315,194 for the Gordon Fund, which directly impacts student s through scholarships and progra ms.
All sunburns and smiles at the th College’s 130 —and my first— ent ceremony on encem Comm
May 14. Congrats to the 460 newly minted Gordon alumni, including Yicaury Melo ’09 M’22. See you again at Homecoming and on the next Alumni Tour!
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SPOTLIGHT
Teddymax Talanoa ’23 MAKING SENSE OF THE PEOPLE WHO RAISED US Before they wore wedding bands, Teddymax Talanoa’s parents wore blue bandanas. In the ’90s (and still today), the street gangs of South Central Los Angeles inducted a lot of high schoolers from immigrant families, especially those looking for belonging and a way to alleviate the financial strain of starting one’s life over in a new country.
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IN EACH ISSUE
Even Talanoa’s mother, who came from a royal bloodline being both the descendant of the first modern king of Tonga and the missionary who persuaded this king to make Tonga a Christian nation, had it hard. She and Talanoa’s father left the gang after high school. And when they eloped, her parents cast her out of the family, believing their new son-in-law wasn’t a match for their noble-born daughter. The newlyweds were now ostracized from both of their families. Fortunately, street gangs weren’t the only communities in South Central ready to welcome hapless, young strangers, which is how the Talanoas found Jesus. Talanoa himself enters the story in 2000 and is joined by two younger siblings. The first eight years of his life are full of church events and happy memories of when his parents seemed invincible. That’s the great myth of childhood, of course. In the end, parents are just as vulnerable as anyone else. When the Great Recession hit in 2008, Talanoa’s dad lost his job as a plumber. “He got into the wrong crowd and started dealing drugs,” says Talanoa. “He was a man of God who cared well for his family and neighbors, but he lost his identity as a breadwinner. It made me realize that my parents had a lot going on before I arrived on the scene.” His dad got caught and spent the next decade in prison, forcing the rest of the Talanoas to move in with the extended family from whom they’d previously been ostracized. There, Talanoa endured abuse and started to doubt the God he had known as a child. “I was really struggling,” he says. “I refused to believe in God, but I needed something to believe in, so I believed in myself because I could get the job done. That’s where my performance-driven personality started to take shape.” On the outside, Talanoa resembled a thriving young boy. He became an A student, varsity football athlete and exemplary Christian. On the inside, anger was swallowing him whole. “I already hated God and my dad. Then, I hated my mom because, as a single parent, she failed to protect me.” When Talanoa earned himself a free ride to a private Christian school in Temecula Valley (about 90 miles southeast) in middle school, it got harder to keep pretending. “I wasn’t Christian, but I acted like one. I wasn’t rich or white either.
I was grappling with these two different worlds—of being in the city and in the suburbs. That’s where I really started to see my character deteriorate.” For a season, Talanoa’s double-life became very pronounced. The three- to four-hour roundtrip journey from his grandmother’s house in San Bernardino to Temecula became too expensive. So during the week, the Talanoas slept in their car and on the weekends, they returned to his grandmother’s house to shower, do laundry and swap out clothes. His double life with its many contradictions—of being parttime homeless, part-time Christian, part-time suburbanite— were not unlike the contradiction that led him to lose his faith in the first place. It seemed irreconcilable that an all-powerful, all-loving God would have stood by and watched while Talanoa’s life fell apart, so surely God didn’t exist. That was the easier explanation—until Talanoa went to a Christian summer camp before his first year of high school. “At camp, I was met with authentic Christianity,” he says. “I understood that you can go through hard things and still experience the Lord’s peace. The Lord said to me, ‘I’ve always been here for you. I’ve been in the mess with you.’” Now Talanoa has 3,000 miles of distance and two years of psychology studies to help him process his childhood and adolescence. “Generational trauma has been a huge theme I’ve been unpacking during my Gordon chapter,” he says. “It’s what my family is wrestling with.” He realizes that generational trauma didn’t start with his parents. It goes back much further than he’ll ever know—hiding in the aftermath of domestic abuse, crossing oceans, surviving tsunamis and fighting against colonization—but he knows he wants it to stop with him. “I want to do trauma counseling, but to do that I have to commit to working through my own trauma,” he says. “In conversations with my siblings, we talk about how we can make sure we don’t perpetuate trauma in the families we want to start one day. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, but the Lord just says to me, ‘This is good work.’ My relatives don’t want to go to counseling, but I tell them, ‘It’s not Jesus or therapy. It’s Jesus and therapy.’”
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NEWS: ON THE GRAPEVINE
CAMPUS NEWS AND HAPPENINGS
Scholarship Snapshots From printmaking in Mexico to researching economic measures of happiness, discover some of the furthest corners of academia Gordon faculty are reaching:
School of Education In the spring, Ellen Ballock (education) published “Reasoning Processes Involved in Reading and Responding to Students’ Writing” in Literacy Research and Instruction.
Promotions and Tenure In the spring, the Board of Trustees approved promotions for eligible faculty who have displayed exemplary work in teaching, research and service. Promotions with tenure were awarded to Susan Bobb (associate professor of psychology), Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger (assistant professor of English) and Amy Hughes (assistant professor of theology). Tenure was granted to Russ Tuck (professor of computer science). Angie Cornwell was promoted to associate professor of biology and Graeme Bird to professor of linguistics and classics.
Department of Music At the spring Massachusetts Music Educators Association all-state conference, Provost Sandra Doneski (music) received a special award from Sigma Alpha Iota. The award from this national music service organization and fraternity acknowledges Doneski as a “Friend of the Arts and Arts Advocate” at the national level.
Fine Arts Alongside faculty from Wheaton College, Greg Deddo (art) (pictured above, far right) traveled to Mexico for a print portfolio exchange between artists in the Chicago area and Oaxaca. In May, the collection of prints was displayed in Oaxaca, and next will be displayed at Wheaton in the fall. While in Mexico, Deddo explored future Gordon College opportunities within the community and culture in Oaxaca, a vibrant center for influential printmaking. Over the course of the spring semester, Christine Gardner (communication arts) completed a chapter, “The Researcher as Translator: Locating the God Problem in Researcher Identity” for God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication, set for release this fall. During the spring, Jeff Miller (theatre arts) directed Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir for Bucket Brigade Theater of St. Paul, MN.
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Benjamin Klemme (music) rang in the New Year with his third appearance conducting the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in its annual, collaborative New Year’s Eve production, “Burlington Does Broadway.” Along with her fellow musicians in the Arabella String Quartet, Sarita Kwok (music) (pictured above, second from left) celebrated the May 2022 release of a Naxos Records album featuring music composed by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges—the first recording to capture Bologne’s Six Concertante Quartets together as a set. Read more about Kwok’s journey to amplify the voice of this 18th-century Black composer on page 16.
ON THE GRAPEVINE
Physical Sciences Supported by a John Templeton Foundation grant from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, Angie Cornwell (biology) spent the 2021–22 year researching increased risks for dementia and stroke. While on sabbatical, Karl-Dieter Crisman (mathematics) continued investigating the mathematics of voting methods. He finished a paper—which included undergraduate student research—discussing methods to choose seating at a round table. He also investigated ways of voting among a set of possible committees. Another highlight was teaching for the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences via Zoom. This fall, Yi Sun (biology) is publishing a paper in Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences. Her article examines the combined effects of physical exercise and pharmaceutics on cognitive and physical functions in late life.
Social Sciences Last December, Kristen Cooper (economics and business) and co-authors published “Measuring the Essence of the Good Life” in the International Monetary Fund’s Finance & Development publication. On sabbatical in the spring, Mark Gedney (philosophy) advanced a book-length project on the role of recognition in theories of justice, human flourishing and debates surrounding identity politics. In his research, Gedney aimed to reform the concept of recognition in a way that affirms the centrality of the desire to be recognized by, and to participate in, communities. All these elements, his work suggests, lead to an understanding of the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the communities in which we live. The primary goal for Ruth Melkonian-Hoover (international affairs) during her spring sabbatical was to expand upon her research surrounding the Church and immigration. This step of her ongoing research explored perspectives of evangelicals in congregations in terms of their engagement with and opinions of immigrants and immigration, as well as—when applicable— their own experiences as immigrants.
New Faces Around Campus Vice President for Student Life Dr. Jennifer Skaggs brings two decades of experience in higher education, including her eight years as a professor and dean of students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Her Ph.D. is in educational policy and evaluation, but she originally got her start in higher education working as a hall director at Anderson University. Assistant Professor of Physics Dr. Mina Lim worked as a semiconductor engineer in her home country of South Korea for Samsung Electronics before earning her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering. Her research is focused on understanding the characteristics and properties of high entropy materials through computational modeling. With expertise in corporate network administration and implementing cloud-based technology solutions across industries including healthcare, legal services and manufacturing, Traig Friedrich joins the Center for Technology Services as the chief information officer. He earned his master’s degree in information technology from Colorado Technical University, where he also taught as an adjunct faculty member for 11 years. After nearly a decade of leading children, student and family ministries at Grace Fellowship in Latham, NY, Kori North ’03 joins the Christian Life and Worship Office as the director of spiritual formation. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. Jodie Oyamada ’21 joins the Office of Student Life as the intercultural student services coordinator. A pentalingual Gordon alumna born in Japan and raised in Brazil, she is uniquely prepared to serve our international and multicultural students and third-culture kids (aka TCKs).
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Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow The words of the timeless hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” rang through the Bennett Athletic and Recreation Center as hundreds of guests gathered for the inauguration of the College’s ninth president, Dr. Michael Hammond, on April 29, 2022. Drawn from that hymn, the inaugural theme—“Strength for Today, Bright Hope for Tomorrow”— echoed through the morning’s Service of Worship and Installation, community gatherings, afternoon Symposium and even the evening’s Gordon Goose annual tradition (which included a guest spot by President Hammond himself).
CELEBRATING THE INAUGURATION
Stunning performances by the Chamber Music Ensemble, Gordon Symphony Orchestra, College Choir (above), God’s Chosen Gospel Choir and Adams Endowed Chair in Music Dr. Sarita Kwok marked important moments in the ceremony. Gordon’s Board of Trustees chair, The Honorable Herman Smith Jr., conferred Hammond as president and board vice chair Dr. Carrie Tibbles bestowed him with the presidential medal (below).
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CELEBRATING THE INAUGURATION
FOR TODAY
FOR TOMORROW
Following Scripture readings by the six Hammond children (top row, left), welcoming remarks were presented by Consortium of Christian Colleges and Universities board immediate past chair Dr. Shirley Mullen, Christian College Consortium President Dr. Jay Barnes and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary President Dr. Scott Sunquist (pictured top row, middle). President Hammond received charges from Kairos Partnerships President Rev. Dr. J.R. Briggs (pictured top row, right) and President Emeritus of Wake Forest University Dr. Nathan Hatch who urged him to “Remember the trust that this institution has placed in you” and affirmed that “your calling as an institution has never been more important and never been more necessary.” Faculty, staff, students and alumni—including Director of Facilities Dima Borisyuk and Professor of Education Dr. Ellen Ballock (center photo)—delivered charges to the president. Later in the day, a special inaugural Symposium focused on “What Hath Athens to do With Jerusalem?: The Pursuit of Learning and the Christian Faith.” Alongside President Hammond, panelists included the Loring-Phillips Endowed Professor of History Dr. Jennifer HeveloneHarper ’92, Dr. Nathan Hatch and Dr. Beth Schweiger (pictured left to right below).
Watch the ceremony or read President Hammond’s inaugural address www.gordon.edu/inauguration
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CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
“Gordon College was established as a place defined by the commands of Jesus.
As a Christian liberal arts college, our mission is to love Jesus Christ with our heart and soul and mind—our emotion and faith and intellect—in ways that transform the world around us as we love our neighbors. And we do so in a global context, seeking to make disciples around the globe as we testify to the power of Jesus Christ, guiding our passion for research and discovery. But what does it really look like for us to use the power of a liberal arts education to fulfill the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandment? I believe that the liberal arts, when realized well, propel students to learning marked by insatiable curiosity. In its best form, in addition to preparing for a job and career, college learning guides whole-person development that becomes transformational for the community and the world. As we continue toward purposeful transformation in our learning community, we integrate faith, learning and living; we cultivate imagination with a disposition of hope and service; and we inspire creative contribution to God’s purposes. And we do so in a spirit of shalom that grants dignity to all people and looks past the prejudice and discrimination of our age.
This approach flourishes here because of Gordon’s ongoing worship of God the Creator, our honest and irenic engagement with the people created in his image, and a commitment to love the world that is his creation. We learn to approach the great questions of learning with humility when we seek to echo the Psalmist’s proclamation in Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” With this in mind, Gordon College has historically been defined as a place where earnest inquiry and academic pursuit have been unhindered by anxiety over the potential outcomes of those efforts. We fear no idea, no theory, no question, no scientific discovery because our confidence in God is sure. We are courageous in our learning and sincere in our Christian faith; our minds and hearts are joined together as we pursue academic excellence marked by a humble curiosity and drive for discovery. My prayer is that every student who enters Gordon College will leave here deeper in their relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the foundation of purposeful transformation, and it enables greater intellectual, emotional and professional excellence. Our confidence in the truth of Scripture propels our learning and enables us to discern true wisdom.” Excerpted from President Hammond’s inaugural speech on April 29, 2022. Watch the video or read the transcript at www.gordon.edu/inauguration
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CAN MUSIC AMPLIFY THE VOICE OF A
BLACK COMPOSER LOST IN TIME?
DR. SARITA KWOK
O
nce upon a time in 18th-century France, the son of a nobleman and a Senegalese slave became the premiere, high-society fencer and a violin virtuoso. Born in Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, performed for Marie Antoinette, served as a colonel for Europe’s first allBlack regiment, and was nearly condemned to the guillotine during the French Revolution for his connection to the aristocracy. In his time, Bologne—controversially dubbed “the Black Mozart”—supposedly rivaled Wolfgang Amadeus himself in reputation. Even though Bologne’s life sounds as though lifted from a romantic tale, his legacy and music have been largely unknown until recently. And Adams Endowed Chair in Music Sarita Kwok wants to help bring him back into the spotlight. “It’s important because the music is worth hearing. It’s great music that we don’t play as much as we should,” says Kwok, a violinist in the Arabella String Quartet. After Artaria Editions published a performance edition of Bologne’s Six Concertante Quartets based on a 1779 first edition (the earliest known version of the pieces in existence), Naxos Records called on the Arabella String Quartet. Having recorded with the label in 2017, the New England-based group was to make history by recording Bologne’s Six Concertante Quartets for the first time together as a set. The album was released on May 27, and the months in between commission and premiere were filled with careful, intentional creativity to tell Bologne’s story through music. During the summer of 2021 the four musicians spent two very long days in WGBH’s acclaimed Fraser Studio in Boston,
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capturing Bologne’s elusive compositions with GRAMMY Award-winning sound engineer Antonio Oliart. The honor of memorializing previously unrecorded work with no original manuscript, though, comes with heightened responsibility. “When you record music it’s memorialized in time,” says Kwok. But because the earliest available edition of Bologne’s Six Concertante Quartets contains errors—clashing notes, mismatched rhythms and inconsistent articulations—she says, “We didn’t always know exactly what Saint-George’s intentions were based on the score alone, and we didn’t have a framework of performance history on which to base our interpretation.”
While listeners may not think about the planning, researching, recording and editing, Kwok says the patient process is crucial for accomplishing two goals: “First, so that the album sounds as authentic and alive as live performance. Second, that it contains everything that we want to say on that disc.” Pressing “play” on the 52-minute album, Kwok hopes listeners clearly hear the voice of a fascinating individual whose work brings a unique perspective to the musical canon. She says, “We are giving composers whose works have been obscured by history the voice they deserve.”
The violinists, violist and cellist dove into the world of Bologne, reading about him and listening to his existing recorded works. But even a lexicon of knowledge may not sufficiently inform a musician who wants to capture a composer’s unique musical fingerprint. To capture just the right sound of Bologne on their album, they collaborated with Dr. Allan Badley, chief editor of the Artaria Editions score, to experiment with details like articulation, tempo and musical coloring. “We made educated and artistic choices based on our understanding and reading of the score, and we used our instinct,” says Kwok. “We had to use our imaginations and to try capture a sense of who he was as a person.” In fact, she says, Bologne’s fencing expertise is evident in the music. In one of the many approaches the Quartet took to bring him to life, they built on the idea of “sparring” violins—Kwok and Danish violinist Julie Eskar alternated playing first and second violin for different quartets in the set, and sat facing each other to produce an “antiphonal” sound. As seasoned musicians, Kwok and her fellow Quartet members are intimately familiar with 18th-century music. But most composers from that era who remain in the classical canon hailed from the Austro-Hungarian empire and Germany. What kind of music would an 18th-century Black Frenchman write? “It’s just not the same musical language, even though it’s from the same period of time,” says Kwok. “It’s like traveling in a time machine to play something that’s hundreds of years old, right now, for the first time.” But without a spark of inspiration, even excellent technique lacks artistic power, and the sound of notes on a page may fail to connect with the listener. So, before the Arabella String Quartet entered the recording studio, Kwok says they gave livestreamed and recorded performances to experience the music in real time with an audience. Kwok says these moments ensure the recording “has life—that it doesn’t sound like you’ve just edited together notes. That you are playing it like a real piece of music for real people who are present with you in that moment.”
HOW IS
MEDIA AFFECTING THE PEOPLE WE WILL BECOME? KRISTELLE LAVALLEE ’06
O
ver the course of the pandemic, media usage doubled among young adolescents. On average, they spent a staggering eight hours per day online outside of school hours, according to a report from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, where Kristelle Lavallee ’06 (psychology) spent the past decade developing research-based resources and recommendations for healthy media usage. And that
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average may be here to stay, even after lockdowns and remote learning go away. With the increase in usage comes an understandable increase in parent concern or confusion. Binge-watching, doom-scrolling and cyberbullying become real threats. Some parents may be tempted to secretly monitor their kids’ media usage. Others may ignore it completely. But the best approach? “Show up,” says Lavallee, now the senior content policy analyst for the United States and Canada for minor safety at TikTok. “The reality is that there is no such thing as online and offline anymore, especially to youth. It is just their life,” she says. “And we need to be involved in all facets of it.” Just as parents may supervise their kids at the park or cheer from the sidelines of sports games, Lavallee urges parents to be present online as well. Help kids set up their
HOW CAN I
REPRESENT TRUTH IN A FILM WITHOUT PREACHING?
JOSHUA ROUS ’01
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accounts and be transparent about sharing passwords. Ask kids what they saw on TikTok and who they like to follow on YouTube. “When you do that with your kids— when you’re actively involved in that realm of their life—it affects how they behave there,” she explains. “They want to behave in a way that they know is acceptable within their family. It also helps so much if they see something that bothers them or scares them because that dialogue channel is already open.” Being present is a way for parents to help their kids navigate healthy digital usage, but more broadly, it’s a way for all adults to empower, protect and give voice to youth. They are, after all, the people who will become the next leaders, parents, educators—they are who we, as a society, become. “This is an amazing space to give voice to those who might be marginalized, who might be silenced in other
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here’s a moment in Of Mice and Men when the reader discovers that Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket that he’s accidentally killed from petting too hard. It’s alarming, sure, but it illustrates what can happen when a person tries to possess something precious—like a mouse in a jacket pocket or, in Joshua Rous’ case, a Christian message within a film.
In 2008, South African filmmaker Rous ’01 (economics) made his first feature length film, Discreet. It’s about a Christian man who hires a prostitute, but not for sex. “He goes to her under the auspices of maybe wanting to have sex with her, but really to talk about sex as a sheltered, conservative Christian who’s never been able to talk to anyone about it,” says Rous. Unlike his sitcom City Ses’la, which was nominated for 14 SAFTAs (the South African equivalent of Oscars) after its first season in 2005, Discreet was a commercial disaster. “Nobody went to see it in theaters,” remembers Rous. “Watching it now, I cringe a bit because it’s very preachy in parts,” he says. “I was like Lennie from Of Mice and Men killing my little pet with affection.” In trying so hard to convey the film’s Christian message to its audience, Rous accidentally squashed the truth in the process. He explains, “The male character,
CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
realms of their life, who might not know how to express their creativity or what they’re feeling,” says Lavallee, who helps shape the guidelines that shape behaviors and content on TikTok. On a large scale, this may look like hashtag advocacy for a particular social movement, political party or disaster relief fundraiser. On a smaller scale, it may mean finding community with others who share a similar interest, experience or challenge, like creating art or having a disability. Showing up in this digital space, says Lavallee, is a vote of confidence in our future. “The implications are profound. The shape of our youth eventually becomes the shape of our society. As they grow up, their values, challenges and priorities grow with them and gain power. So, supporting youth as they understand and express themselves online fosters an experience that benefits them—and in the end, that benefits us all.”
Thomas, is often trying to say the thing a pastor would say as opposed to what someone would really say in that situation.” Now nearly 14 years after Discreet’s release, four SAFTA wins and 25 directorial credits and counting, Rous is still figuring out how to represent truth, grace and forgiveness in a film without preaching. “It’s very hard to do,” he concedes. “It’s still the thing I struggle with the most.”
“There’s a degree to which we all want to conceal ourselves,” says Rous. “There’s this great sense of not wanting to appear too weak, and yet weirdly that’s the thing we gravitate to as humans. The most beautiful stuff comes from trying to be super vulnerable . . . There’s something about the truth of somebody’s human experience that is beautiful to us and compelling, which is why I think stories are so much part of the fabric of life.”
The films and shows that succeed in representing the truth, Rous explains, are the ones that don’t shy away from darkness or vulnerability. “I think, as Christians, we’re very afraid of representing too much ‘bad,’ too much darkness,” he says, “so we kind of veer away from what might otherwise be a compelling, beautiful story. We tell the story through a filter.” But the authors and characters of the Bible don’t filter their stories, Rous points out. “Even Jesus used violence in some of his parables, like the Good Samaritan,” he explains. And Scripture records people in their most vulnerable moments—hiding their nakedness from God in the Garden of Eden, being sold into slavery by their own brothers, lusting after married women on rooftops, or being nailed to a Roman cross.
FALL 2022 | STILLPOINT 19
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HOW CAN WE
SUPPORT PEOPLE WHO ARE THE VICTIMS OF MAJOR WORLD CONFLICTS? WILLIAM PEÑA ’18
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o become a refugee or asylee in the United States, a person must pass what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services calls a credible fear interview. They must convince asylum officers that if they were to be deported back to their home country, they would face persecution, torture or certain death. “The bar for these interviews is morbidly high,” explains William Peña ’18 (political science), the program manager for citizenship and immigration services at the New American Association of Massachusetts (NAAM). While he does his best to respect his clients’ privacy and experiences of trauma, these stories are often central to the immigration paperwork Peña reviews on behalf of his clients who come to NAAM to receive free legal services. In this role, news headlines about gang violence in El Salvador or the war in Ukraine bring to mind his clients’ faces and stories, leading Peña to ask: Why do these major world conflicts happen? And how can we help people who are the victims of these conflicts? “I try to wrap my head around it, but it’s often too complex, too grey and too big to understand,” he says. Some questions are like a desert mirage a person moves toward, but never reaches. Still, along the way, Peña finds consolation in his work—in watching his clients’ children grow up and in receiving photos of his clients posing with the tiny American flags they receive in their official citizenship and naturalization ceremonies. “I’m aware that I’m just a small cog in the massive system that is world governments and politics,” says Peña. “What I do doesn’t change the whole system, but it changes my little corner of the world. I’m able to deal with these questions by reminding myself why I’m here.” For Peña, the questions that haunts him most are also the ones he tries to make obsolete through his actions. He cannot stop these conflicts at ground zero or solve the issues that cause migration, but he can try to give his clients the option to build a new home here, at least for a year and maybe even a lifetime.
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CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
WHAT CAN A
COUNTRY AT WAR TEACH THE REST OF THE WORLD? KATYA TYMCHENKO ’09 AND ILYA TIMTCHENKO ’14
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or centuries, the ethereal chants of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have filled domed cathedrals, rural wooden churches and homes in secret. Throughout a tumultuous history—Mongol invasion, Church schism, revolutions, the Holodomor genocide, Soviet oppression, the Chornobyl disaster and Russia’s current full-fledged war against Ukraine—these songs of the “unfailing light” have voiced the persistent hope of a culture acquainted with hardship.
Thousands of miles away in Rochester, NY, and Boston, MA, respectively, Ukrainian-American siblings Katya Tymchenko ’09 (psychology) and Ilya Timtchenko ’14 (economics) hear the echoes of their family, friends and compatriots. Departing from their Kyiv family home after Christmas in 2021, Katya and Ilya packed extra suitcases, suspecting Ukraine was on the brink of a new phase of war with Russia. Within two months, in late February of 2022, their parents had to be displaced. Watching the invasion unfold filled the siblings with fear and grief, yet they were also inspired to help Ukraine withstand the invader. They immediately began raising awareness and catalyzing action. The founder of a Ukrainian nonprofit that empowers women, Second Wind, Katya organized fundraisers, refugee housing and ESL opportunities. Ilya, a former reporter for Kyiv Post, authored op-eds for The Washington Post, the Harvard Kennedy School and the Atlantic Council. But their postures embody a broader approach. “This is not just a Ukrainian thing, and it’s not even just a European thing,” says Katya. Explaining that Ukraine is the number one exporter of grain to Africa and Asia, and a
prominent location for international companies to develop technology, she says, “It is a global problem.” “People need to understand that when you have a war and on such a big scale, we see so many injustices on so many different levels,” says Ilya. “This is going to be going on for years.” Even beyond the post-traumatic stress, billions in funding to rebuild and complex foreign policy, he believes Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II will lead to a human justice crisis. “In Eastern Europe, there has been a massive abuse of human trafficking by Russian organized crime. This includes children who are coming from orphanages, going straight into the arms of traffickers,” says Ilya, citing past reports of attempts to traffic orphaned Ukrainian infants. “If you look at how much more vulnerability there is now, you can just imagine how repercussions are going to be going on for years.” As the siblings survey the multilayered effects of war, Ilya especially advocates for policymakers to learn more about the history and culture of Eastern European countries. Earning his Master of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, he considers how policymakers view the world: “Either we give too much attention to those who seem to be the most powerful or we understand that each country has its own identity and right to sovereignty to make its own decisions through a democratic process,” he says. “We must be curious ahead of time, instead of being reactive only when a crisis comes.” Months after receiving her STEM MBA from the University of Rochester, Katya examines how the world consumes information. “People have become accustomed to treating tragic events—even wars—as media stories: if it’s not in front of them, they forget about it,” she says. “Although it’s difficult to keep track of every story and even turn our eyes away from them because ‘it’s too hard to handle,’ it is our human and Christian duty to stay engaged and help wherever and however we can.” Halfway across the world, Katya and Ilya think of their mother cooking and cleaning for refugees and of their continuing to help Ukrainians—the image evoking the enduring Ukrainian “unfailing light.” “It’s hard having to pick up your life and be resilient,” says Katya. “I’m happy—if I can use the word happy in this situation—to see that the world is at least getting a little bit closer through a war. Ukrainians can go through anything, but this will change us.”
FALL 2022 | STILLPOINT 21
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HOW CAN
TRAUMA INFORM THE HEALING PROCESS? KEANNA SMIGLIANI ’21
As Smigliani ran, she wasn’t thinking about getting a record time or a place on a podium. Instead, she thought of the incapacitated patients for whom she cares as a practice assistant in the Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency General Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—a providential job after her own medical mystery was solved there. Nearly overnight in 2019, a rare condition confined the lifelong athlete to bed and filled the proceeding years with excruciating pain, frightening symptoms and seemingly endless tests at hospitals. But before she was finally diagnosed with autonomic neuropathy/dysautonomia with preload failure and small fiber neuropathy, Smigliani encountered unexpected lessons on healing while studying abroad on the Balkans Semester for the Study of War and Peace. The war victims who Smigliani met in Croatia often viewed their post-traumatic stress disorder as an affliction of the mind and body. “Any time people would talk about their trauma, they would describe it in a physical sense,” she says. “People’s bodies really absorb a lot.” Addressing conditions like PTSD, some found healing in physical, meditative practices like yoga. The approach resonated with Smigliani, whose dysautonomia and neuropothy—a dysfunction of the nervous system that can be caused by physical trauma— may stem from the physical toll of the thousands of miles she has logged running. When she tried yoga for herself, Smigliani was amazed to find even more relief from physical symptoms like shaking and the inability to control her limbs. Now equipped with a deeper understanding of how pain affects the whole body, Smigliani is discovering how her own experience of confronting and overcoming trauma has built empathy. “I think I’ve been given this gift of being able to carry really heavy burdens with a lot of grace,” she says.
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rom the full 26.2 miles to fun runs, marathon week in Boston means thousands of people are achieving meaningful, personal goals. For Cross Country alumna Keanna Smigliani ’21 (international affairs), a 5K charity run in April was not only a return from near-complete physical disability, but a symbol of overcoming trauma.
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“What intrigues me about trauma is how people heal from it—they take horrible things that have happened to them and turn them into something inspiring,” says Smigliani. “I want to bring together my experience as a patient and my experience understanding people with trauma. I have been the patient with trauma, and I still am the patient with trauma. I’m trying to be the person I wish I had on the other end of the phone.”
CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
SHOULD WHERE YOU LIVE DETERMINE WHETHER YOU
SURVIVE CANCER?
“In some locations, breast cancer surgery is done by general surgeons who don’t necessarily have access to the latest clinical trials and guidelines,” Heelan explains. Rural areas, for example, have a lower volume of patients and are less saturated with specialists. In underserved areas, patients may not have the resources to see specialists. Private practices may lack the breadth of specialists that large academic hospitals offer. For a range of reasons, geography can determine the quality of care. So, when important discoveries are made in breast surgical oncology specifically, they may not actually be reaching the people performing the procedures. For example, if a woman had breast cancer in her lymph nodes, she would historically undergo an invasive surgery that can lead to long-term complications in her arm. Newer research has shown there’s a simpler option that addresses the cancer without compromising the arm. But Heelan wants to know: Have all surgeons— specialists and generalists—adopted this change?
DR. ALICIA HEELAN ’ 07
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hen Dr. Alicia Heelan ’07 (kinesiology) broke the news to Jane* that her breast cancer surgery was successful and she was on the path to being curable, they cried together. Just a few months earlier, Jane’s cancer had progressed so far, surgery wasn’t even a viable option.
“She had inflammatory breast cancer, which is a very aggressive cancer,” explains Heelan, a breast surgical oncologist at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. “It had invaded her sternum and moved into the anterior part of her heart. Because it was so advanced, we thought this would spread and she would pass before surgery was even on the table.”
She and a team of University of Cincinnati researchers are conducting a multiyear investigation across all kinds of patient populations, types of practices and locations to find out how widespread the adoption of new research guidelines and how those impact patient survival rates. Heelan is well-aware that while Jane was treated at a top hospital (ranked among the best by U.S. News and World Report, and specifically high performing for cancer care), not all women are. So, the team’s goal is simple: “Let’s make sure that every woman facing breast cancer—whether she lives near a top academic hospital in a large city or a small, rural private practice—is receiving the most up-to-date, evidence-based care,” says Heelan, “and as a result, the best possible chance at long-term, disease-free survival.” *Name changed for privacy
A surprisingly successful round of neoadjuvant chemotherapy meant that Jane’s surgery, though complicated and extensive, was possible—and, eventually, also successful. Jane is among the one in eight women in the U.S. battling breast cancer, and her experience is what Heelan wants for the hundreds of thousands of others like her. Miraculous recovery, yes, but first that they would have direct and equal access to the top-quality care that leads them there.
FALL 2022 | STILLPOINT 23
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are given the opportunities to expand our minds through meeting, watching, listening and interacting with others.” As our physical access grows, so do our minds. But who is responsible for providing that access? Is transportation a right or a privilege? If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that “everyone has the right to freedom of movement,” why are the means of movement only available to the wealthy few? These are questions Hartiens, a Global Honors Scholar, explored about 4,000 miles south of her first train ticket—in a place that has no trains. As an intern for the Whitaker Group in Accra, Ghana, following her junior year at Gordon, it was not uncommon for Hartiens and her coworkers to spend four to eight hours sitting in traffic each day. “The population is just increasing at such a rapid pace, and people need to access the market,” she explains, “but without public infrastructure, a certain level of wealth is required to move.” To put this into context, pack the population of Chicago into the square mileage of Boston, and remove organized transportation systems.
CAN WE
BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN CAPABILITY AND CIRCUMSTANCE? SARAH-CATHERINE HARTIENS ’22
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t’s a memorable scene: Charlie Bucket eagerly unwraps his chocolate bar and discovers the prized golden ticket that will not only gain him entrance to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory but eventual ownership of it.
In that moment his world opens; opportunity changes trajectory. But, Sarah-Catherine Hartiens ’22 (international affairs) notes, access is the precursor. So, when she left her 300-person hometown in rural Hedgesville, West Virginia, at age 16 to live in Savièse, Switzerland, for a year, receiving her first train ticket was a Charlie Bucket moment. “My whole mind was opened, and my dreams were unleashed,” she says. “When we are granted access to physically move, we
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During her internship, Hartiens assisted in market research and client cases, but she also conducted personal assessments of the standards of transportation systems in varying countries. Cultural values and expectations, geographic landscapes and even weather patterns all play a role. “It’s never that people are lacking skills or work ethic,” she observed. “What it comes down to is a gap between those capabilities and people’s circumstances.” Predictions suggest that by 2050, Africa will account for a quarter of the world’s population, and by 2100, the world’s biggest cities will be in Africa. Hartiens wants to see economic growth accompany this population boom. The granddaughter of a former bishop of the Nigerian Anglican Church, Hartiens says, “As an American committed to the African continent, I want to contribute to its advancement.” She grew up with African influence and, in addition to Ghana, has spent time in Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and lived with a Malian family for five months. “Africa is a continent with thriving businesses and the world’s most-needed resources,” Hartiens says. “It has such a wide array of languages, topography, products, cultures and, not to mention, an ever-increasing population. In order to host this continuous growth, we must plan solutions now. It is in the world’s best interest that we invest in more defined pathways for goods and people to move around the continent. Without organized access, we will continue to only taste the tip of the iceberg of all that Africa has to offer.”
CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
HOW DO WE
HELP THE HELPERS?
processing and sensory. “For some people, mindfulness is amazing for managing daily anxiety. For other people, moving their bodies is what’s going to shake feelings of anger or angst. For other people, reading a book is really going to be magical because it gives them a break from being overstimulated. Others enjoy working with their hands as an outlet for stress,” she explains. Everyone’s way of coping is different, but Halloran suggests that everyone— kids and adults alike—find what works for them and use it. “We can’t fill from an empty cup; we need to recharge ourselves, especially now,” she says. “There’s an intensity to life, but it’s at a whole new level after living in a pandemic.” So, Halloran is channeling lessons learned from her 20 years of working with families to develop a new coping skills workbook—this time, for adults. Post-pandemic, Halloran says, the “helpers”—parents, teachers, counselors, therapists, nurses—are the ones who need the help.
JANINE HALLORAN ’00
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hen chaos and calamity feel too close for comfort, Janine Halloran ’00 (psychology) takes a deep breath and begins sorting the swirling anxieties and fears. “What can I control, and what can’t I control?” she asks herself. “I cannot control wars overseas or a global pandemic or climate change, but I can control my response. I can control my behavior, my actions and my thoughts, and that is what I focus on.”
She remembers being coached through this approach by her therapist in high school, and decades later, Halloran is coaching children and teenagers to do the same. It’s a coping skill, she explains, and one of dozens that she outlines in her #1 Amazon bestseller, The Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, and The Coping Skills for Teens Workbook. “They are safe, healthy strategies for self-regulation. People can use them when they feel overwhelmed, stressed, anxious and angry, whether it’s over something small or something huge,” explains Halloran, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Coping Skills for Kids. Learning and implementing these types of strategies pays dividends. “Research shows that if you focus on kids’ social and emotional learning, their academic performance increases by 11 percentile points,” she says.
Helpers have immense power in shaping students’ lives, for good or for ill. So, caring for the helpers is Halloran’s newest way of caring for the kids to whom she has dedicated her career, including her own kids. “You think, especially when kids get to be teenagers, they’re not watching you,” she says. “But they absolutely are paying attention not only to your words but to your actions.” To practice what she preaches, Halloran keeps a checklist of the coping skills that work for her and references it daily, often after prompting from her two teenagers who notice when she needs a break. Take a walk. Play a video game. Color. And she holds 2 p.m. free on her calendar every day for family decompression time. It’s the sweet spot between school and work and evening activities when her middle schoolers can dish up the drama from the day and have what she calls “a feelings check-in.” Holding sacred time together and normalizing conversations about emotions keeps the Halloran home feeling safe, connected and calm. She wants this for other families, too. “I have it on my heart to write this book because I’m seeing that families are feeling overwhelmed. I’m hearing it all the time,” she says. “They’re overwhelmed. They’re stressed. They don’t know what to do.” Take a deep breath, remember what you can control, and then visit www.janinehalloran.com
Halloran has grouped common coping styles into five major categories: relaxation, distraction, movement,
FALL 2022 | STILLPOINT 25
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WHAT CAN CHRISTIANS
LEARN FROM THE “DARK SIDE”
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rom Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab to Vladimir Putin, literature and human history tell the stories of leadership corrupted. Yet when motivational speakers and how-to book authors discuss “how to be a good leader,” Professor of Economics and Business Kent Seibert notices an avoidance of the negative examples. Those realities are uncomfortable and cause recoil. Shouldn’t Christians distance themselves from corruption?
Within the Church, says Seibert, aspiring leaders often jump straight to the Christ-like concept of servantleadership. The Bible itself speaks about the importance of leadership, but Seibert says, “it spends even more time warning against corrupt, self-serving leaders.” Seibert wants to salvage lessons from bleak examples.
OF LEADERSHIP? DR. KENT SEIBERT
To help current and future leaders of faith avoid pitfalls and the disastrous aftermath, he wrote an article
WHAT MIGHT A
NEW ITERATION OF THE CHURCH LOOK LIKE?
EUGENE KIM ’97
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or the very early Christians, church wasn’t always a place you went to. It was sometimes just a group of people who wanted to follow the way of Christ together. There weren’t always formal creeds, church buildings or paid clergy. “Christianity was a new, grassroots movement that started in the margins and emerged to challenge the status quo,” says Eugene Kim ’97 (biblical studies). “These kinds of movements usually start out small, nimble and highly relational.”
Jesus wasn’t the first or last spiritual leader to start a paradigm shift in the bigger story of Christianity. Abraham introduced the ancient world to monotheism. Martin Luther advocated for a salvation based on grace alone. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and John Wesley encouraged Christians to make their faith personal. Like its people, the Church gets reborn. Grassroots movements challenge the status quo, sometimes grow into powerful institutions, and then they too become challenged by the next grassroots movement, explains Kim. Throughout his 25 years in church ministry, Kim took notice of trends in church attendance. Each year, fewer people walked through the doors of American churches. Many weren’t renouncing their faith; they were walking away from the current church model. “The current way of doing church is good for a lot of people, but I was always aware of all the people for whom it didn’t work,” says Kim. “All
WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING?
CURIOUS MINDS, COMPASSIONATE HEARTS
that is currently under review for publication in the Journal of Biblical Integration in Business, entitled “SelfServing Shepherds: How to Respond When Leadership Goes Wrong.” As an expert in business management with experience in three Fortune 200 companies, Seibert has witnessed what he calls the dark side of leadership, which he says often stems from a thirst for power. And, unfortunately, he says, Christians are not immune from that temptation. Just two prominent, recent cases include apologist Ravi Zacharias and infamous Enron CEO Kenneth Lay. Confronting the painful modern examples of Christian leaders falling into corruption, Seibert notes that in Scripture, “just because someone was a Jew, part of Israel or Christian, that did not mean they were exempt from corruption.” In the Old Testament, Saul failed to trust
the people in our neighborhood who would never walk through the doors of an institutional church—they still want spirituality and community. They’re just less and less likely to look for them in a church building on Sunday.” In 2020, Gallup confirmed what Kim had been observing. That year only 47 percent of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. In Gallup’s 80 years of tracking membership in houses of worship, this was the first time it dropped below 50 percent. Kim explains, “What you see is a steady line from 1940 to the late ’90s. Then right around the turn of the century, that line takes a downturn. When you look at the numbers for young people, that decline starts to look like a nosedive. It’s not a theological statement. It’s just math.” Like the spiritual innovators before him who saw a church model in need of rebirth, Kim asked, “What’s next? What’s the next iteration of Christianity going to look like?” To answer this question, Kim left his role as pastor, underwent a two-year investigation into ecclesiology and founded New Wine Collective (NWC), the nonprofit seeking to build an online platform that will empower people to create their own spiritual communities wherever they are. Like the current American church model, NWC hopes to provide structure for spiritual gatherings but in a way that retains the nimble and highly relational nature of grassroots movements. Kim doesn’t see NWC’s app as a replacement
God and resented that David would replace him as king; 1 Samuel 15:23 describes him as self-serving and wicked. Later, Seibert says, the letter of 3 John primarily serves to “reprove and discredit” the prideful and selfish Diotrephes, who was improperly leading a church. Ultimately, the strength of a leader is dependent on the strength of its followers. Seibert points toward the Old Testament prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah who stood up to kings—an equally important piece of the puzzle, he says, is “to remind followers of their responsibility to hold leaders accountable and to be willing to stand up and push back.”
for the traditional church model, but as a potential alternative for the 53 percent of U.S. adults who want something different. Still in its prototype phase, NWC’s app is designed to help groups gather around a clear purpose, make community agreements, and have access to a crowdsourced library of content that they can contribute to—not just consume. “It’s about moving from an emphasis on content to an emphasis on connection, putting love and relationships at the center and designing church around that,” explains Kim. “I like a good sermon as much as anybody else,” he says, “but I rarely experience transformation through them. We’re hardwired to be formed primarily through relationships. Our app will simply help create a container for social and spiritual belonging, where people can become more like Jesus.” Kim emphasizes, “I’m not interested in tearing anything down. I think the traditional programmatic church still works for a lot of people.” As part of his work with NWC, he’s also invested in helping existing churches shift from an emphasis on content to connection—“less sitting in rows facing forward and more gathering around dinner tables, conversing face-to-face,” he says. “I believe what spiritual community is supposed to look like is all there in the life and model of Jesus.” Learn more at newwinecollective.org
Share your story ideas with the STILLPOINT team: stillpoint@gordon.edu
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Virtue and Human Flourishing JERUSALEM AND ATHENS FORUM ESSAY CONTEST
Charity: Standing Against the Battle Mentality Our culture is saturated in the idea of fighting. We frame so many aspects of our day-to-day lives in terms of a battle. We “dodge a bullet” or “get up in arms” or “battle with an illness.” So much of our lives is determined by whether or not we are fighting for our spot or giving in to the pressure. Thomas Aquinas wrote that virtues come through habit. However we train our minds to react to certain situations through repetitive action will become our reality. In this culture of everyone fighting and only looking out for themselves, we are conditioning ourselves to act in this way. We find ourselves thinking, “If I don’t fight for it, how will I get it?” We join in with everyone else in this battle mentality of life that can only hurt others and hold us back from true contentment. Charity first and foremost is a friendship with God, Aquinas goes on to say, which gives us the ability to direct our love toward others. It is out of this friendship that we love everyone God loves. Therefore, charity is a virtue that calls us to love each and every person, standing opposed to the prevailing battle mentality that surrounds us. 1 John 4:7 speaks to this as well, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” This emphasis on pouring out God’s love for others through
our relationship with him must inform the way we approach the significance of fighting in our culture. We are not to subscribe to the “every man for himself” attitude, but humbly put others above ourselves. It is so easy for the pendulum to swing too far the other way. God tells us that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” While called to humility, we are not to consider ourselves or our needs as having less value than others. Attempting to find the balance between only looking out for ourselves and only looking out for others is incredibly difficult in a world that is constantly pushing us to fight for our spot, even if it comes at a cost to others. Striving not to fall into this temptation while also not overreacting too far in the other direction is the challenge we all face. The only way to navigate this tightrope is to lean into a friendship with God. Fostering charity in our lives will allow us to form the habit of loving everyone around us in the way God intends while still retaining our worth that comes from him. Libby Trudeau ’23 (English language and literature; linguistics)
Honorable Mention | excerpt The Ethos of our Forefathers
We are learning that virtue lies in holding our core principles: the principles of purpose, courageous love and unity that nurtures a flourishing community—a community that was neglected and abandoned during the 100 days of ethnic cleansing . . . Like a proverbial phoenix, we have chosen to rise from the ashes of our tragic past. We are revitalizing courageous love . . . Joan Ndekezi ’23 (economics)
Honorable Mention | excerpt The Quietness of Virtue
These virtues are practiced not as an end to themselves but with the goal of promoting the goodwill of the individuals in a community. In this way, human flourishing does not consist of achieving moral perfection privately, but with the integration of virtue in a society for the good of its members. Grace Sullivan ’23 (history)
Full versions of these abridged and excerpted essays are available at www.gordon.edu/jafessay
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Support purposeful transformation President Hammond’s prayer is that each student who comes to Gordon leaves with a deeper faith in Christ. A gift to the President’s Vision Fund supports key initiatives that enable that purposeful transformation, including taking care of employees, catalyzing academic innovation, engaging alumni more effectively, and deepening spiritual formation and discipleship on campus. Give using the enclosed envelope or online at:
www.gordon.edu/visionfund
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A special thanks to the dozens of alumni who both hosted and attended the Alumni Tour this past spring. These small gatherings in homes, restaurants, churches and breweries offered the chance for President Hammond to hear from you and your peers, share about his experience in this inaugural year, and
Want to host a future Alumni Tour stop or similar gathering? Email alumni.office@gordon.edu
celebrate the togetherness of the wider Gordon community. As he has said on multiple occasions, “These are the reminders of why Gordon’s mission matters and why we continue to build on Gordon’s strong foundation.”
Michael and Laura ’75B Sullivan connect with Professor Emeritus Dr. Roger Green at a Gordon and Barrington gathering in North Kingstown, RI.
March 15: Kristin ’02 and Paul ’03 Mulroy with President Hammond at the Holden, MA, gathering at Seven Saws Brewing Co.
March 16: A Hollis, NH, gathering at the home of Nathan ’02 and Danica ’04 Rines.
March 20: President Hammond and the Presidential Fellows cohort connected with alumni and friends in Wheaton, IL.
March 21: Capitol Hill connections gathered at The Army and Navy Club, hosted by Lt. Col. Theodora Hancock ’68.
March 22: Santiago ’94 and Nicole Sedaca hosted a gathering at their McLean, VA, home.
March 23: Peter ’88 and Elizabeth ’89 Stahl with President Hammond during a gathering in their Wayne, PA, home.
March 24: Rev. Dr. Michael ’06 and Sonya ’07 Bailey (far right) hosted a gathering at The First Cathedral in Bloomfield, CT.
Stay Connected As we continue to plan exciting events for alumni and opportunities to remain involved in the life of the College, be sure to update your contact information so you don’t miss any details. gordon.edu/alumni/update March 31: Corinna ’96 and Michael ’95 Coffey with President Hammond during a gathering in Santa Ana, CA.
30 STILLPOINT | FALL 2022
April 1: Candice Whitley ’06 and Audrey Johnsen ’02 at a Denver, CO, gathering.
April 8. Erika Hall ’21, Noelle Goodwin ’21, Katelyn Dyer ’21, Carter and Grace Bish ’20 and Clare Mulvihill ’20 reconnected at the Boston, MA, gathering.
ALUMNI NEWS
Commencement Congratulations, Class of 2022, and welcome to the Gordon alumni community! Congratulations, as well, to honorary doctorate recipients Rev. Dr. Adrian De Visser (Baccalaureate speaker), Prashan De Visser ’08, Lori Henderson ’84 and Dr. Gregory Glenn; and to Dr. Sybil Coleman ’64 for the Senior Distinguished Faculty Award
Class Notes A note to readers: As you may have noticed over the last couple of issues, STILLPOINT’s total page count has decreased slightly. In an effort to be good stewards of our resources, we are working hard to do more with fewer pages, but that has proved difficult with the steadily high volume of Class Notes submissions. To free up space for unlimited submissions and remove the need to trim for space, you can now find Class Notes online at www.gordon.edu/stillpointalumninews. You will need your Gordon ID number to view this password-protected page; please contact alumni.office@gordon.edu if you need assistance.
and Dr. Kristen Cooper ’06 for the Junior Distinguished Faculty Award.
Pictured top (left to right): Nick Warner ’22, Jenny Deckert ’22, Christa Vordenberg ’22, David Massillon ’22, Emily Rodriguez ’22, Brianna Smith ’22, Helena Wares ’22 and Rhema Leach ’22; Dr. Kristen Cooper ’06 and Dr. Jennifer Hevelone-Harper ’92. Pictured below (left to right): Reid Swetland ’89 and daughter Natalie Swetland ’22; Laura Caron ’22, Sofia Camejo ’22 and Victoria Barcelo ’22 (Baccalaureate student speaker)
View Baccalaureate and Commencement photos and videos at gordon.edu/photos
FALL 2022 | STILLPOINT 31
255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984-1899 www.gordon.edu
September 30– October 1, 2022
See you there! gordon.edu/homecoming
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