Five Duke Master of Divinity students were welcomed into five leading communities of practice during summer 2006. Read reflections from their journeys:

Reflection: A Little City of God

Circle Urban Ministries & Rock of Our Salvation Church
Chicago

David Hollis M.Div. '07 and children at Circle Urban Ministry's Camp Gideon

Circle/Rock has been serving as a witness to Christ in the Austin community (population 100,000) on Chicago's west side for nearly three decades. Their joint, intensely interracial ministry in one of the city's lowest-income communities sprawls across a city block and serves thousands each year. Rock Church, an Evangelical Free Church of America congregation, is strongly focused on interracial life and mission.

Recommended Readings:

Breaking Down Walls Glen Kehrein & Raleigh Washington

Reflection: To Know and Be Known

L’Arche Daybreak Community
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

Courtney Michel Randall and Carol Greig at the L'Arche Daybreak Community in Ontario, Canada

Founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier, L’Arche is an international federation of 130 communities in 30 countries for people with disabilities and assistants who share life, worship, meals, and daytime activities together in family-like settings that are integrated into local neighborhoods. The Duke partnership is with Daybreak, the oldest and largest L’Arche community in North America and home to a vibrant community of 100.

Recommended Readings:

The Scandal of Service: Jesus Washes Our Feet Jean Vanier
The Miracle, the Message, the Story: Jean Vanier and L’Arche
The Road to Daybreak Henri Nouwen
The Politics of Gentleness Stanley Hauerwas

Reflection: The Real “To Do” List

The Church of the Saviour
Washington D.C.

Christian Peele, center, serving in the kitchen at Potter's House Bookstore as part of her summer internship.

For over 50 years in the diverse neighborhood of Adams-Morgan, this ecumenical Christian community has birthed a network of organizations addressing issues of poverty and injustice. Each of their 12 small churches emphasize a commitment to an outward journey of mission and service, and an inward journey of deepening one’s relationship with God through a disciplined life of prayer, scripture study, and deeply committed Christian fellowship.

Recommended Readings:

Not All of Us Are Saints David Hilfiker
Call to Commitment Elizabeth O’Connor

Reflection: “Unless a Kernel of Wheat Falls to the Ground and Dies”

Voice of Calvary Ministries & Fellowship
John M. Perkins Foundation
Jackson, Mississippi

Terence Hagans reads with Jacory Tate during his internship with the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Miss.

Founded by African-American pastor-activist John Perkins (who serves on the Advisory Board of the Center and is a Teaching Communities supervisor), the 30-year old Voice of Calvary is the origin of a biblically-shaped “3 Rs” movement of “relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution” central to the vision of the highly influential Christian Community Development Association. In their neighborhood of west Jackson, a number of ministries and a church partner around a vision of a multi-racial, multi-level income, family friendly community.

Recommended Readings:

Beyond Charity John M. Perkins
Restoring At-Risk Communities
Grace Matters Chris Rice

Reflection: “Life in the Midst of a Storm”

New Song Ministries & Church
Baltimore, Maryland

Pastor Thurman Williams prepares to pray at the dedication of a new Habitat for Humanity house in Sandtown just before the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Grounded in an interracial worshipping congregation, New Song concentrates on 15 blocks in the Sandtown-Winchester community of West Baltimore, which struggles with concentrated, enduring poverty. More than 80 staff, mostly from the surrounding neighborhood, live in the community and work together on efforts from New Song Academy (K-8 public school, 130 students) to over 200 houses completed via Sandtown Habitat for Humanity. Many different individuals—black and white, affluent and poor, urban and suburban—work closely together to break down barriers, including 10,000 annual volunteers.

Recommended Readings:

To Live in Peace: Biblical Faith and the Changing Inner City Mark Gornik