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“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
-- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
The above quote from Lewis’ remarkable sermon, given in Oxford in 1941, is part of the argument to raise our understanding and practice of what it means to live out the job description God gave us in Genesis 1 and 2: to honor God, steward creation, and bless others. It's not always obvious to us that we’re made in the very image of God, and we certainly struggle with seeing others in that way.
A CU New York Lunch & Learn featuring Olga Statz
On Friday, February 21, 2020, CU New York was honored to host Olga Statz*, Acting General Counsel at the City’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, as the guest speaker for a Lunch & Learn. Olga began her talk on Man’s Laws but God’s Justice: Learning to Stay in Our Lane with a personal recollection of a moment early in her law career. For the first time she felt the true responsibility expected of her as an advocate, recognizing what it meant to stand between a defendant and the full weight of the State. At this moment Olga was confronted with this underlying truth: the secret of a lawyer’s ability and power lies in process. To this point, Olga emphasized the importance of understanding our roles as professionals and as humans, of understanding our authority in Christ and God’s authority over our lives, in understanding how to submit to Christ and to submit to the procedural standards of our justice system.
Christian Union Is Helping Moore ’20 to Thrive
by catherine elvy, staff writer
One year ago, T. Preston Moore ’20 returned to the faith of his youth after rededicating his life to Christ. The Atlanta-area native was a devout believer until his early teen years but “fell and fell and fell.” After experiencing intense spiritual hunger as a young man, “I went around looking everywhere,” he said. “Everything was vacant compared to Christ.” While a student at Harvard Law School, Moore had a radical encounter with Jesus Christ and came away awestruck by His grace and unmerited mercy. “I came back to faith in a huge way,” he said. “It was such a powerful experience.”
Carreon Is New Christian Union Ministry Fellow
by tom campisi, managing editor
Abigail Carreon has a passion to help some of the nation’s brightest young minds explore questions of faith and grow deeper in their walk with Jesus Christ.
A new ministry fellow at Stanford University with Caritas, Christian Union’s ministry on that campus, Carreon also serves as leader with the Veritas Forum at Stanford and the University of California-Berkeley. With Caritas, she leads Bible courses and mentors students with one-on-one discipleship and life coaching. In her role as Veritas Host, she focuses on organizing teams and supporting forums, discussions, and long-term projects.
Pascut Has a Passion for Mentoring
by catherine elvy, staff writer
Christian Union’s newest ministry fellow at Brown University likes to reflect upon how his name resonates with his divine calling.
Romanian-born Ben Pascut is quick to explain how the translation of his first name, Beniamin, involves the concept of advisory service to a king. “I really think it’s my destiny to form leaders and be an advisor to people in high places,” said Pascut, who joined Christian Union’s faculty at Brown in the summer.
Strong Roots Help Sharla Moody ’22 Find Her Place at Yale
by kayla bartsch, yale ’20
While the rural hills of southern Ohio may seem a world away from the ivory towers of Yale University, Sharla Moody ’22 bridges the two with thoughtfulness and grace.
When she came to campus as a first-year in 2018, Moody’s transition to college life was starker than that of most Yale undergraduates. Her hometown, Gallipolis, Ohio, is nestled on the northern banks of the Ohio River, facing the shores of West Virginia to the south. Gallipolis is something of a quintessential Appalachian town, home to picturesque river valley views, a charming Main Street, and about 3,500 residents.
However, having experienced a slow and steady decline in its population since the 1960s, Gallipolis faces the same trials as other Appalachian towns in contemporary American life. From this quiet, tight-knit community, Moody was thrown into a loud, heterogenous, and opulent campus.
Yet, even if unconventional, Moody’s path to Yale from small-town Ohio seems providential. In her junior year of high school, she read Hillbilly Elegy – a memoir written by J. D. Vance, a Yale Law school graduate from a small town in Ohio similar to Moody’s. The book, lauded for its raw depiction of the cultural and economic decay faced by the rural, white working class, became a near-instant best-seller.
Nova’s Upperclassmen Enjoy Mentoring Roles
by tom campisi, managing editor
Andrew Lin is committed to the biblical mandate of making disciples.
Lin is a member of Nova, Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton. The computer science major from Dallas, Texas, serves as a co-leader of Nova’s discipleship team, a group of upperclassmen who regularly meet with younger students to study the Bible, pray, and serve as mentors.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
— Matthew 5:43-45
