‘A Soft Place to Land’:
CDSP classmates and community ‘a huge comfort’ for incoming students I n t e rv i e w s by t h e R e v. Ky l e O l i v e r , E d D
In every issue of Crossings, we interview CDSP students to hear about life and learning in the seminary community. In this edition, we feature two students from our remarkable incoming class, Aissa Hillebrand ‘27 and R. Reese Fuller ‘27.
“I would say teaching Godly Play was a huge place of growth for me,” Hillebrand said. “How you focus literally into the story, into the people. It’s very structured, yet very freeing.”| Photo courtesy of Hillebrand
Transcripts have been edited for length and clarity.
Kyle Oliver: Please share a little bit about who you are, where you call home, and what’s drawn you to CDSP. Aissa Hillebrand: I currently live on Long Island. I’m originally from New York, Harlem. I work as the assistant director of operations at Mercer School of Theology at the Diocese of Long Island. I absolutely love it: love my co-workers, love the people that I work with. I enjoy being in a space where it’s friendly, and kind, and compassionate to employees and people who work together as a team. I truly enjoy that. I have two children. I’m married. I really consider myself a servant. I love to be able to serve people where they’re at, so I do some coaching. I am excited about starting this journey. It’s been, I would say, on my heart for at least twenty years. My call started early. I kept on ignoring it. But, yes, here I am in this new phase of my life, and I’m really excited. KO: I wonder if there was a question that you encountered as a part of your first intensive on campus, a question that has sparked some curiosity for you related to your vocation? 16 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
AH: There was a lot of intensity around [wondering], “I’ve learned all this information, we’ve had this great conversation in class, and now how do I move this into ministry? How does this work? How am I going to be able to do it?” Not do it from a capability perspective, but to stand in my truth. And knowing my gifts and my talents and bringing that to the table, and also being able to serve others with such a complex and different perspective on Christianity. Because we took Traditions in Christianity, and that was intense to see all of the not-so-great history that we’ve had to grapple with, I think
that was what I was most curious about. It was a different perspective of, “How do I show up in this space authentically, knowing what I know?” KO: Are there ways you’re finding yourself already standing in a version of the story that works for you, and that you are looking forward to exploring more and claiming more as time goes by? AH: I do. I feel as though my cohort and my community have really been a soft place to land in this process. Asking myself these questions about how I’m moving forward and being formed in community—that’s where I find myself falling back on. The other men and women that I am walking on this journey with, the community within my family, my husband, and my children. And then my own personal connection with my own spirituality, and where and how I choose to show up in the midst of sometimes discouraging information, context, or text. I have to do that every day, actually. I have to make a choice on how I’m going to show up in this world. I have to make a choice
to live in the Gospel, and this new birth or this new life. Every day I have to make a choice to say, “You know what? Today’s going to be a great day. I’m going to go ahead and make choices that elevate myself and those around me.” KO: You mentioned the world around us is not always a compassionate and kind place. I wonder if there is a particular event or issue happening in the world right now that is serving for you as a lens or a frame for how you’re viewing your studies? AH: I have said no to this call for a very long time because it didn’t quite fit into my life: I had young children, and I just can’t pick up and leave. It would be too much, and I have a job. It would be something that just couldn’t fit. Then there came a point where that wasn’t an excuse anymore. I see myself through that lens, particularly as it pertains to being accepted within our world and our country. Right now in the world, everything is so contracted. There’s sometimes no space for people to show up as they are. KO: I’m curious if there’s been a moment in your studies so far when you’ve had the experience of feeling that acceptance?
AH: Oh, yes. It has a few times. It happened first with my cohort. When we met for the first time and really just said, “Wow, this is a great group of people who are really aligned.” That was really the first place of safety and just acknowledgment of like, “Okay, we’re in this together and this is wonderful.” Then the staff at CDSP and the faculty, I felt like there was an openness of “How can we do this together? How can we learn together about what is needed from us to share with you, and what we need from you? Let’s do this in community.” Then there are formation groups that we have been divided into. That has really been another soft landing place for me to experience this sense of community, checking in, prayer, support. I just really got emotional, to know that there’s something more than just reading texts, that the context which we all come from is just as important, and how we show up in this space, and also being able to be fed from our prayers and spirituality. That’s what I received.
over the years that has inspired you and your sense of call? AH: The best connection that I have to that experience would be Godly Play [editor’s note: a Montessoriinspired young children’s formation program]. I love to be able to tell a story and focus on the story, and not have anyone focus on you as a storyteller. It gives us the opportunity to place ourselves in the story. It gives us the opportunity to question the story, or to see what could have changed if the story was told differently, or to wonder. The question with Godly Play is “I wonder …?” Those wonder questions are questions that we too can ask ourselves in a story. Obviously, the stories of our traditions are beautiful, and they are insightful, and they are moving if we allow them to be instead of trying to perhaps complicate them. People can feel, “This is a place for me. This is where I can come and rest. This is where I can just be who I am.”
KO: I’m wondering if there has been some kind of creative or experimental ministry opportunity that you have encountered or been engaged with Fall 2023 C R O S S I N G S | 17