- March 15: VSFL materials/portfolios due
- March 22: Fall Registration opens
- March 24: Traditioned Innovation
- March 25: Mind the Gap Meeting, 4pm CST
- March 29-April 9: VSFL (Degree Candidacy and Mid-Program Review) Interviews
- April 10: Last day to withdraw from a course with permission
Fall Registration Opens Next Week
We appreciate your patience! While a few details are still being finalized, you may find the NPTS Fall 2021 schedule here. Watch for a post next week highlighting special offerings and some exciting new changes to our plans for campus community life. In the meantime, take a look at the schedule and begin to make your semester plans in Self Service. Note: Christian Ethics, Greek 1, and Greek Exegesis, while listed as main campus, will be available to online students via synchronous class meetings. If you need assistance with course selections, please refer to the degree pathway in your academic catalog and also don’t hesitate to reach out to your academic advisor. Registration opens next Monday, March 22.
If you need a refresher on how to register for courses through self-service, please refer to this tutorial video provided by NPU’s Center for Online Education.
EVERFI Diversity Training
Thank you to all the students who completed the Diversity and Inclusion training, we appreciate your engagement with this initiative. We have heard from several seminary students that they have been assigned to the student athlete training as well, please note that was an error. If you are not a student athlete, this training does not apply to you and can be disregarded.
Traditioned Innovation: A public theology series by North Park Theological Seminary
“Community Vaccination: Remembering the Past to Heal for the Future”
March 24th, 12:00-1:30pmCST
In less than a year since COVID-19 was declared a
global pandemic, we have witnessed the remarkably
rapid development of not one but multiple effective
vaccinations.
While these vaccines have proven highly
effective in clinical trials, their efficacy for ameliorating
our current crisis depends upon broad public receptivity.
Challenges to this receptivity emerge in part from a history
of abuse within medical research, particularly among
communities of color who have suffered the effects of
the virus disproportionately. Our March public theology
panel will contextualize these particular fears and discuss
constructive ways Christian leaders and communities
can contribute to receptivity of this critical intervention.
We hope this panel will inspire both understanding and
trust. Our panel of community experts and practitioners
includes Dr. Kara Davis, Rev. Tomás Sanabria, Tribal Leader
Darnella Melancon, and Dr. Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom.
Campus Lenten Meditation: Art Displayed in Nyvall Hall
You are invited to come meditate on the Seven Last Words of Christ in Nyvall. The words or “phrases” are the final words breathed by Jesus as he hung on the cross of his death. These “words” are a guide to meditation during Lent and particularly in Holy Week. The images on the posters by artist, Scott Erickson, are displayed as a way to pray with our eyes. For those who appreciate a more “active” way of prayer there are additional embodied ways of prayer at each station. Each word is an invitation to pray, to be still and to commune with God in this Holy Season of Lent. May God bless your time in prayer this Lenten season.
Mind the Gap Meeting
Mind the Gap is meeting on Thursday, March 25 at 4PM (CST) via Teams (link to meeting). Please join us! All are welcome. If you have any questions, email Armida Belmonte-Stephens or Paul DeNeui
Anti-Asian Hate Town Hall Presentation
Dr. Boaz Johnson recently hosted a town hall meeting with Dr. Russell Jeung; Rev. Greg Yee; and Rev. Mary Chung March to discuss the Asian American experience during COVID19. It includes educational sections and calls for lamenting the climate of hate we have created and the context of fear that many Asian Americans are experiencing.
Here is a recording of the Town Hall if you would to listen in on this important conversation.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EmsUXVKr0snMnd1D6u2jAYfwVFg8w0li/view
Feather Bricks, The Newsletter of NPTS’s School of Restorative Arts, is now out and ready for all of you to read! Here’s the link: https://npu-website.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/20210223104608/Feather-Bricks-Feb-and-Mar-2021-Vol-4.pdf
Scholarship opportunity!
CM Cares is a foundation that is offering 25 scholarships for religious leaders/scholars in training totaling $62,500 for the 2021.22 academic year. Application deadline is April 6. Go to the website below for more information.
https://www.churchmutual.com/13484/Religious-Scholars-Program
Black Barn Lenten Quiet Day
If you are interested in getting away without going anywhere, consider this one day online Lenten retreat developed by current student Amy Knorr and colleagues. If you need financial assistance, please contact Dean Deb at dauger@northpark.edu.
Uptown Church!
Uptown Church is a new ECC church in Chicago looking to offer itself as another option for students to be connected with a local church and exercise their giftings.
If you are interested in reaching out to Uptown Church, you can contact Ethan Machida, ethan@uptowncov.org!
Vocation Symposium
The Academy of Church Leadership’s March Workshop Series
The Academy of Church Leadership, along with The Proctor Conference, presents two virtual workshops:
On March 18th we will hear from Rev. Kathryn (Kat) Banakis, Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Il,
On March 25th we will hear from Rev. Dr. James Victor, Jr. who serves at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington, VA and as president of the Baptist General Convention of Virginia.
Join these sessions to learn about how pastors continue to address the impact of COVID. Topics include: Budgetary and Staffing Implications in 2020 and anticipated for 2021, Physical Plant Considerations, Losses and Gains of Virtual Worship, How Theology and Justice Commitments Changed