Date: May 19, 2025
When I arrived at Virginia Theological Seminary last summer, it took only a few days before I was the target of organizing efforts. Casey Jones, president of the student organization the Justice and Reconciliation Society, emailed me with a request to meet. Jessica Sarriot, co-lead organizer of Virginians Organized for Interfaith and Community Engagement (VOICE), shortly followed. David Beckmann, Dean’s Advisor and President Emeritus of Bread for the World, emailed even before I had moved from Atlanta! They all wanted to meet the new ethics professor and hear what my vision was for the Saint Nicholas Center for Faith and Justice. They wanted to see if we could build something together.
I can’t report that I arrived with a fully formed vision. But, with gratitude, I can report that in a short time we have been able to build something together! We’ve moved slower than any of us would like. Some of this is simply the limitations of human finitude and institutional bureaucracy. But some of this is by design: listening takes time.
As the inaugural director of the center, and as someone trained in both community organizing and spiritual direction, my first task has been to listen. Dietrich Bonhoeffer affirmed in his beautiful little book on Christian community Life Together that “the first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them.” So I’ve been privileged to listen to the stories of many who have done the work of justice here at Virginia Theological Seminary long before I arrived. I’ve been grateful to learn about the work of faculty colleagues creating formative spaces for justice in their classes. I’ve been heartened to witness the long work of racial justice and healing being led by the reparations program.
The Saint Nicholas Center for Faith and Justice aims to form students in the capacity to engage their communities in healing and transformative ways in the Spirit of Jesus. The Dean’s commentaries this week will feature students who have been involved in the Center. I encourage you to listen to them, and with them to listen to how God might be calling us to engage the work of Jesus in these times. In the final commentary, I’ll offer some things to look forward to in the coming year.
Listening is not a one-time task. It’s foundational to building together. So, if you’d like to have lunch or coffee and talk about the work of justice, send me an email. I’d love to listen together!
Kyle Lambelet, PhD
Director of the Saint Nicholas Center for Faith and Justice
Associate Professor of Ethics