2015-16 Scott Center Events

Reunion Events

Islamic Jumma Prayer Services

Friday, June 10

2:00-2:45 pm

Forest Hall, Islamic Prayer Space, Room 24



Jewish Shabbat Service

Friday, June 10

5:30 pm, Jewish Center at Freeman International Center

Panel: Snapshot of Spiritual and Religious Life on Campus

Saturday, June 11

2:00-3:00 pm

McCullough Student Center, 3rd floor, Mitchell Green Lounge

(elevator is available)

Join staff from the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life in a panel discussion about the diversity of religious attitudes and practices on campus in the 21st century.  Hear about the Scott Center’s alternative spring break trip to Chicago.

Chapel Service

Sunday, June 12, 2016

10:00 a.m.

Mead Memorial Chapel

Ecumenical Christian service led by Chaplain Laurie Jordan ‘79. Music by the Alumni Reunion Choir.



Hillel Coffee and Danish

Sunday, June 12, 2016

10:30 am, Jewish Center at Freeman International Center

In recognition that Sunday, June 12, is the first day of the Jewish Festival of Shavuot, anyone wishing to participate in a brief holiday service before the brunch should contact Rabbi Ira Schiffer at ischiffe@middlebury.edu.

 

A Campaign of Seed-Bombing

Coming soon to spaces near you!

Do you want to spread beauty, joy, and color?

Do you need to set your work aside for a few minutes and play in the mud like a child?

Do you want to help the Monarch Butterfly find a place to safely lay her eggs? 

Do you want to help create habitat for pollinators?

Here is an exam-period stress-buster that has a positive impact on the natural world around us.  We are making seed-bombs to create beauty and preserve our small flying friends.

Milkweed (Asclepias) of many varieties used to grow naturally all across the Monarch Butterfly’s migration path.  The baby caterpillars grow by eating the milkweed leaves which contain compounds poisonous to the Monarch’s predators.  Now this plant has itself been poisoned and is fighting for territory from encroaching pesticide use.  The diminished supply of milkweed has impacted the butterfly population.

Similarly, bees and other pollinators have struggled as their natural habitat has been destroyed.  But you can help by planting colorful nectar-rich flowers that pollinators, hummingbirds, and butterflies love.  

Join us for some pop-up fun.  If you want to have a heads up about where the seed-bomb making will pop up next contact ljordan@middlebury.edu

 

Silent Reflection Time in Mead Chapel

Mondays

6:30-7:00 p.m.

All students, staff, and faculty are welcome in Mead Chapel for this time set aside to meditate, pray, and reflect.  A member of the senior administration will be on hand to welcome all visitors.

 

Yom Ha Shoah Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony

Sunday, May 8, 2016

4:30 pm

Mead Chapel



Join us for a service of commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.



Co-sponsored by Middlebury College Hillel, The Addison County Jewish Congregation: Havurah, The Middlebury Area Clergy Association, and the Middlebury College Chaplain’s Office.

 

Bible Talks!

Mondays, 3:00 pm

Center for the Arts, room 126



Join Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown for a weekly study/discussion of the Bible.  Topics include exploring and deepening faith, questions about the Bible, prayer, encouragement, and living a godly life.  Professor Brown is an avid disciple of Christ who loves studying the Bible and sharing her faith.  As an artist she has traveled the world and shares candidly about the struggles and triumphs of living a life pleasing to God.  For inquiries she can be reached by email at Christal@middlebury.edu. All are welcome.  Feel free to drop in!



Bible Talks are hosted by the Middlebury College Chaplains office and the Alpha Omega Campus Ministry of the Burlington Church of Christ. (http://www.burlingtonchurchofchrist.com)

 

Jubilation! Papal Jubilees Past and Present

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Axinn 103

4:30 pm

With a joyful Papal Bull, Pope Francis declared this year a Jubilee Year of Mercy, a year of indulgence, where pilgrimage can lead to the forgiveness of sins and freedom from “every residue left by the consequences of sin.” Is this just a papal “Get Out of Purgatory Free” card?  Federico Canaccini will take us back to Pope Boniface VIII’s first Papal Jubilee in 1300 and explore the context, history and meanings of such extraordinary papal promises. 



Tuscan by birth but Roman by residence, Federico Canaccini is the author of several books on medieval history, including his recent book on the Papal Jubilee of 1300, Al cuore del primo Giubileo. Bonifacio VIII e l’Antiquorum habet (Lateran University Press, Rome), commissioned especially for this Year of Mercy. He was the recipient of a Fulbright award in 2013, and has taught at Università Telematica Internazionale UNINETTUNO in Rome, and Catholic University of America and will be a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton in the fall. 

 Co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Department of Italian, and the Newman Club Catholic Student Organization.

 

Passover Seder

Friday, April 22, 2016

6:00-9:00 p.m.

Atwater Dining Hall



RSVP’s are required; please call Ellen McKay at 802-443-5626, or email emckay@middlebury.edu.



Presented by Middlebury College Hillel, The Chaplain’s Office, and

Havurah—The Jewish Community of Middlebury.

 

Responsibility, Reconciliation, and the Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

Monday, May 2, 2017

7:30 pm

Mead Chapel



Panel discussion with Clifton Daniel, grandson of President Harry Truman and the author of a forthcoming book on the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan

Shigeko Sasamori, Hiroshima survivor and Hiroshima Maiden

Norman Cousins Sasamori

Wesley Daniel

Moderated by Steve Snyder, Kawashima Professor of Japanese Studies and Dean of the Language Schools



Sponsored by the History Department, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Department of Japanese Studies, Brainerd Commons, the Academic Enrichmewnt Fund, and the Rohatyn Cener for Global Affairs.

 

Survivors into Minorities: Armenians in Post-Genocide Turkey, with Prof. Lerna Ekmekcioglu

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

4:30 pm, Robert A Jones conference room, Rohatyn Center

This talk follows the trajectories of the survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide who remained inside Turkish borders after the signing of the 1918 Mudros Armistice (and during the Allied occupation years of Istanbul) and after the 1923 establishment of the new country as the Turkish Republic. How did the Kemalist state treat the remaining Armenians? What were Armenians’ responses to the new (but also old) Turkish regime? Professor Ekmekcioglu will discuss multiple strategies Armenians —including feminist Armenians— improvised in order to cohabit with unapologetic perpetrators and survive the new Turkey.



Lerna Ekmekcioglu is McMillan-Stewart Associate Professor of History at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is also affiliated with Women and Gender Studies Program. Her most recent book, Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in Post-Genocide Turkey, came out from Stanford University Press in early 2016.



Co-sponsored by the History Department and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

 

Building a New Chicago:Engaging the Arts for Social Change

Wilson Hall (McCullough)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

4:30 PM

Seating is limited. Refreshments will be served. Please come early!

The 2016 Pasteur Pierre and Helene Gagnier “Acting Righteously in Times of Danger” Event

How can film, art, and spoken word challenge us about the pressing

social justice issues of our time?  Learn from students who have just spent a week in Chicago engaging the issues.



This trip and program were made possible by generous gifts from:

Cookie Tager ‘66  (LS), Les Blau ‘69, The C. Frank and Janet Kireker Fund for Tolerance, The Scott Center for Spiritual & Religious Life and Middlebury College.

 

Scott Center Alternative Spring Break Trip

Building A New Chicago: Using Art for Social Change

March 26-April 3, 2016

Please click here for more information and an application.

 

Easter Sunrise Service

Sunday, March 27, 2016

6:00-6:30 a.m.

Alumni Stadium (Kirk Alumni Center in case of rain)

Ecumenical Christian service sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the United Methodist Churches of Middlebury and East Middlebury, and the Congregational Churches of Middlebury, Cornwall, Bridport, and Weybridge.  All are welcome at the service, and at the post-service breakfast at the Weybridge Congregational Church (at which donations will be gratefully accepted).  Dress warmly and enjoy the sunrise!

 

Film Screening: “A Small, Good Thing”

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

7:00 pm, Dana Auditorium

Join alumna and former trustee Pamela Tanner-Boll ’78 at a screening of her latest film. Many know her award-winning documentary “Born into Brothels.”



Please join us for this impactful film and panel discussion kindly led by Professor of Psychology Michelle McCauley.  The panel features Director Pamela Tanner-Boll ’78, Shirley Edgarton (Community Organizer & Founder of  Youth Alive), and Bill McKibben — both of whom appear in the film.  It promises to be a lovely community event!

Co-sponsored by the The Global Food and Farm Program, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, Health and Wellness Education, the Wellness Committee, and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship.



Trailer: http://www.asmallgoodthingfilm.com/

 

 

Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie

Thursday, March 10 (snow date Monday, March 14)

Axinn 232 (screening room)

4:30 p.m.

Janet McKenzie’s work celebrates our inherent similarities rather than our differences because what lies beyond skin and gender is more alike than we’ll ever know.  Her painting “Jesus of the People” was selected First Place Winner of the National Catholic Reporter’s global competition at the Millennium by Juror, Sister Wendy Beckett of BBC fame.   The worldwide response to this dark interpretation of Christ, which was modeled by a woman, has been hateful, unaccepting and vicious, but at the same time celebrated for its inclusivity. “Jesus of the People” has been carried forward into the world through museum exhibitions, documentaries and film, written about in books, magazines and online from South Africa to Iceland, Vietnam, Australia and Russia, and beyond.

McKenzie will share imagery of her work and a bit of her journey as a contemporary artist working to confront stereotypical thinking and prejudice through art.  Learn more about her work here.



Co-sponsored by The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Ross Commons, Anderson Freeman Resource Center and Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, and Chellis House Women’s Resource Center, and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

 

Living Faith: Christian Leadership on Campus and Beyond

Friday-Saturday

March 4-5, 2016

Chaplain Laurie Jordan is coordinating a multi-day opportunity for informal conversation as well as presentations on themes related to living a Christian life in the 21st century.  Middlebury College alumni who were campus religious life leaders during their student years will be visiting to join the conversation.

Topics will include:

•    leading a life of discipleship in college

•    finding your way after graduation

•    discernment and journey as you discover your vocation

•    building community within your campus group

•    getting creative about programming on campus

•    best practices for leadership and event planning

We will have a chance to hear about the post-Middlebury lives of our returning alumni friends.



For more information, contact chaplain@middlebury.edu.

 

Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue: Lecture by Professor Jafar Morvarid, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran

Thursday, January 21, 2016

4:00 p.m., Abernethy Room, Axinn Center

Professor Morvarid will discuss the necessity of interfaith dialoge in the contemporary world and some of its philosophical and theological challenges.   He is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the theological department of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.  He received his PhD from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in 2011.  Prior to that, in addition to an M.A. from Tehran University in philosophy, he received extensive training in traditional Islamic Studies from the Islamic Seminary of Qom.

Sponsored by the Department of Religion, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

 

Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Mead Memorial Chapel

Lessons & Carols for Advent and Christmas, an annual traditional program combining choral music, congregational singing and the biblical texts of the season, takes place on Sunday, Dec. 13, in Middlebury College’s Mead Memorial Chapel.  Chaplain Laurel Macaulay Jordan ‘79 will officiate at this celebratory community service.  George Matthew Jr. will ring in the service with selections on the chapel carillon; and the Middlebury College Choir, directed by Jeff Buettner, will perform.



There will be two services, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.  Donations collected for local charities.

 

First Fire Party

Monday, December 14, 2015 (reading day)

4:30-6:00 p.m.

You are invited to a “First Fire” party to inaugurate our new living room!

Take a study break, warm up by our fireplace, and enjoy hot cocoa, chai and s’mores (with both vegan and regular marshmallows).

Come when you can, stay as long as you like. 

 

Staff Council Learning Lunches — Religion

Professor Shalom Goldman, Pardon Tillinghast Professor of Religion, along with colleagues from the Religion department and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, will be offering three lectures this fall for College employees. Spend an hour with us and learn more about different belief systems across the globe while increasing your religious literacy.



Join us in the Abernethy Room in the Axinn Center on the following dates from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.:



October 21

Survey of  World Religions – Focus on the Monotheistic Traditions

Presented by Professor Shalom Goldman



November 18

Judaism Throughout the World and in the United States

Presented by Professor Shalom Goldman and Associate Chaplain and Rabbi Ira Schiffer



December 9

Islam Throughout the World and in the United States

Presented by Professor Shalom Goldman and Muslim Advisors/Chaplaincy Fellows Naila Baloch and Beau Scurich



A light lunch will be served. More details will be coming soon, including instructions on how to RSVP.



Sponsored by Staff Council, Human Resources, the Department of Religion, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

 

Interfaith Feast

Monday, October 26, 2015

5:00 p.m.

Atwater Dining Hall



Join members of MOSAIC Interfaith Student Programming Board and President Laurie Patton for an interfaith feast in Atwater. We will enjoy a meal together and engage in small- and large-group dialogue with members of different religious and non-religious traditions around thought-provoking questions based on broad themes present in nearly all worldviews.



First 100 people at the door will get a seat.

(image lucabarberini.com)

 

Aftershock: Post-Earthquake Nepal

Thursday, October 8, 2015

4:30-6:00 p.m.

Robert A. Jones Conference Room    



Slide show and talk by documentary and fine art photographer, Kevin Bubriski. Kevin’s fine art photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. He was recipient of Guggenheim, Fulbright and NEA fellowships.



Sweta Gurung, Founder/Director–Himalayan Crossroads, and Adrian Smith (’97.5), will discuss their work in rural Nepal as well as Kathmandu Valley providing relief for village people displaced by the recent earthquakes. They will present slides and discuss the challenges, and rewards, of their work.

Sponsored by the Departments of Religion and Political Science, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

 

Fall Family Weekend Events Sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office

Islamic Jummah Prayer Service

Friday, October 2, 2015

1:00 p.m.

Islamic Prayer Space, Forest Hall, Lower Level

Hillel Shabbat Services

Friday, October 2, 2015

5:30 p.m.

Jewish Center at Freeman International Center



Fall Family Weekend Chapel Service

Sunday, October 4, 2015

10:00 a.m.

Mead Memorial Chapel

Ecumenical Christian worship service led by Chaplain Laurel Macaulay Jordan ‘79.

Fall Family Weekend Hillel Bagel Brunch

Sunday, October 4, 2015

11:00 a.m.

Jewish Center at Freeman International Center

Muslim Fall Family Weekend Light Brunch

11:00 a.m.

Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life Living Room, 135 So. Main St.

Please RSVP to Muslim Advisor Naila Baloch, nbaloch@middlebury.edu, if you plan on attending.





 

38th Annual Addison County CROP Hunger Walk

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Registrations begins at noon; walk begins at 1:00 p.m.

Middlebury Town Green

CROP stands for Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.

Join hundreds of Addison County residents in a fun 2-mile walk to raise money for seven local food shelves and for hunger and sustainability projects around the world.

Call Patty Hallam at 388-1561 for a walker packet, or click here to go straight to our page online to start raising money by emailing your friends and family.

Last year, our little Addison County walk raised almost $27,000 and was the highest-grossing CROP Hunger Walk in all of Vermont.  And #8 out of the 84 walks in all of New England! 

The money we raise goes to Church World Service disaster relief, education, and agricultural sustainability projects around the world, and also benefits seven Addison County food shelves:  The John Graham Shelter in Vergennes, H.O.P.E. (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects),

Middlebury Summer Lunch Program, The Have-A-Heart Food Shelf in Bristol, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, The Vergennes Community Food Shelf, and the The Charter House Coalition (Middlebury Community Suppers).

 

Interfaith Service Project for United Way Days of Caring

Saturday, Sept. 26

9:30 am-1:30 pm

 

Join us for an interfaith service project at the John Graham Shelter in Vergennes.  We’ll do some landscaping at the Shelter, and join residents for a pizza lunch.

 

We’ll leave from Adirondack Circle promptly at 9:30 am so we can get to Vergennes by 10:00.  We’ll be back on campus by 1:30 pm.

 

Please contact Ellen McKay emckay@middlebury.edu to sign up.

We need to know how many people we’ll have in order to coordinate cars.

Sponsored by the Scott Center and MOSAIC, Middlebury’s new student organization promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation between student groups with varying worldviews and ways of life.

 

High Holidays 5776 Schedule

September 2015

ROSH HASHANAH

Sunday, Sept. 13

7:00 p.m.  Evening Service at Mead Chapel.  Apples and Honey Reception in Forest East Lounge following services

*** Students are invited to join current Hillel board members in Redfield Proctor dining room for dinner at 6:00 p.m., prior to Erev Rosh Hashanah services.



Monday, Sept. 14

9:30 a.m.    Shacharit – Morning services at Mead Chapel

      

5:00 p.m.   Tashlich Service at Otter Creek Footbridge, Marble Works side



Tuesday, September 15

9:30 a.m.    Shacharit – Morning Services at Havurah House, 56 N. Pleasant St., across from the Swift House Inn



YOM KIPPUR

Tuesday, September 22

6:30 p.m.    Kol Nidre at Mead Chapel

   

Wednesday, September 23

9:30 a.m.    Shacharit – Morning Service at Mead Chapel                  



11:15 a.m.  Yizkor – Memorial Service at Mead Chapel



5:00 p.m.    Minchah – Afternoon Service and Ne’ilah – Concluding Service,  Mead Chapel



7:00 p.m.    Shofar Blowing and Havdalah at Mead Chapel.

Break-the-Fast to follow in the Atwater Dining Hall. Reservations required. Please e-mail emckay@middlebury.edu with your name and student ID number.

 

Ill Fares the Land: Inequality in the 21st Century

Friday, Sept. 18, 2015

12:15-1:45 p.m.

Robert A. Jones Conference Room

The Scott Center co-sponsors this event with the Program for International Politics and Economics and others.



“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay”

—Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village” (1770)



Inequality is on the rise in the contemporary global economy, both within prosperous economies and between developed and developing countries. Can democracy sustain itself while acquiescing in a growing gap between the world’s haves and have-nots? Does the American dream depend on a foundation of shared prosperity that is increasingly a historical artifact? In this symposium, we examine the sources of growing inequality, delve into its causes and consequences, and discuss optimal policies for dealing with its negative effects.

Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life
46 South Street
Middlebury, VT 05753