Small Group Reflection: Community through A. Philip Randolph
Wednesday, December, 3rd, 2014 Events Small Group Reflections
At the Humanist Chaplaincy at Tufts, we want to foster a comfortable environment for people to engage in honest discussions around the challenges in their lives, and explore how people outside traditional religion approach questions that many faith traditions engage regularly.
At Small Group Reflections, the Humanist in Residence facilitates an open, respectful, and confidential conversation around one theme that concerns and informs many of our choices and experiences in our life journey. The conversation is rooted in a text (or other piece of culture) written from a Humanist perspective that engages the theme, and from there will be open to the perspectives and experiences of everyone present in the group. Those present are encouraged to bring pieces of culture that inspire their own values on the theme, including and especially those from other faith traditions. Small Group Reflections occur each month (October’s postponed for Indigenous Peoples Day), and are free and open to all members of the Tufts community, irrespective of their belief background.
This semester’s final reflection will engage the theme of community, led through quotes from Humanist and civil rights organizer A. Philip Randolph. It will be on Monday, December 8th, at 9pm in the Interfaith Center meeting room.
After the Small Group Reflection, around 10pm also in the IFC, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Tufts will host a relaxing study break with the Tufts Freethought Society. We’ll join in refreshments and music, and take a deep breath in the midst of our overwhelming lives at this time of year. All are welcome to join us for both events.
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In trying times, we might look to our connections with one another for support, both surviving and organizing–but what does “community” mean to you? What makes a space or movement safe for you, and how do your values and experiences inspire you to want to change those that you identify with now? Mindful of the ongoing struggle for racial justice right now in Ferguson, New York City, and across America–and indeed here at Tufts–the final small group reflection for the semester with the Humanist Chaplaincy at Tufts will center around community and support, and the ways we can all work to improve those in our world today. We will draw on two quotes from Civil Rights leader and avowed Humanist A. Philip Randolph to inspire our discussion.
“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”
“At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything, and if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keep anything. And you can’t take anything without organization.”