A University Lecturer
July 27, 2024
In my entry for July 8th, above, I said that, for most of the year since my April-May entry of 2023, life had been reasonably normal, but, “…in the past ten weeks, my days have been very intense.” I then went on to post an entry about my participation in the Holocaust remembrance ceremony of May 5th. Although that ceremony only invovled a single day, it certainly qualifies as an “intense” experience. The other matter that made the ten weeks, from May to early July, “intense” for me, involved much more than a single day. And now, at the end of July, I am able to tell you about it.
Booth University College
The Salvation Army owns and operates a university-level educational institution in downtown Winnipeg. It offers Bachelor degrees in Religion, Social Work, Behavioural Sciences, Community and Urban Transformation, Business, and much more. The college’s purposes and principles are explicitly and unabashedly Christian.
In that context, the college has a policy that foreign students – especially those from countries where Christianity is not well-known or understood – are required to take a credit course in the basic facts of Christianity. It is not intended to convert them, but only to inform.
In April, this year, Booth College’s Vice President and Dean, who is a member of our congregation at St. Margaret’s, asked me to be a lecturer for this year’s course in basic Christianity. I would be just one of several lecturers, and not responsible for the entire curriculum. I thought, “This might be an interesting challenge!” And so, I agreed to do it. I have no regrets, but it certainly turned out to be one of the most intense commitments I have undertaken in recent years.
When I was given the timetable of the course, I found that I would be leading the second and third sessions – basically introducing the students to the origin and contents of the Bible. There would be at least two more classes for me to lead, later in the course, but, due to their using a variety of lecturers, the organizers were still figuring out content, and confirming speakers, for the last sessions of the course, and warned me that I might be asked to do even more!
To get a sense of things, I decided to attend the first session, on May 7th. It would be the introduction to the whole course, given by the convenor. Thus, having been assigned sessions two and three, I would be the first of the guest lecturers, and it would be a good idea to get a “feel” of the place, and a sense of who the students were.
The day arrived, and I went to the college, where I was directed to a large room, with about forty students waiting for the session to begin. And what sort of people were these students? All of them were young adults, and virtually all were from the Punjab. Judging by the number of turbans on the heads of the men, I figured that if they had a religion at all, it would probably be Sikhism.
I sat down in the back of the room, beside three of the men. The one beside me had been in Canada for about a week, and it was clear to me that his English was very, very basic.
The organizer is a fiercely intelligent, but quiet-spoken man. I know him, and like him, but, in that session, his voice was difficult to hear, and when he used words such as “syllabus,” and “citations,” and “comprehensive,” I turned to my neighbour to say, “Did you understand what he just said?” “No, sir,” was the instant reply. A few moments later, this fellow caught my attention, and pointed to another table of students, where a student’s turbaned head was on the table, quite clearly sound asleep.
After the session, and in conversation with course staff, it was all agreed that using basic, basic, English will be the only way the course will be able to accomplish its objectives.
I ended up giving a total of five lectures in May and June, and I will be giving one more on August 4th. There was preparation; creating slides to accompany the talks; choosing group discussion questions; selecting Bible passages to be read; and then standing in front of the class and using the clearest and simplest English. Experience taught me that I could not ask the whole group questions such as “Hands up who knows what a ‘rabbi’ is?”1 for the culture of the students seemed to be that one must not stand out in a group. I discovered that, individually, many knew the answers to my questions, they simply declined to indicate as much in front of the class.
Adapting, I developed questions to be discussed in table groups, telling everyone that they could discuss in their own language. But, each table was to appoint a spokesperson to stand up and say, in English, what had been discussed. This proved to work quite well. I would take a microphone to a table; the students would indicate their spokesperson; I would give that one the mic; the report would be given; and frequently, when it ended, the whole room would applaud.
By the time my fifth session was finished, I was on a “high-five,” and even a first-name basis, with several of the students. Some even threatened to come and attend a service at St. Margaret’s. If they ever do, Heather and I will sit with them, and steer them through the liturgy.
You see, Heather, too, is known by them. Why? Because the organizers needed someone to speak on “Christianity and the Law,” and, knowing about Heather’s profession, they asked her to teach a class. She did, and was invited back for a second session. I went along, as personal support, and as her tech-support guy – helping her to get her rather ancient laptop to project her PowerPoint slides onto the school’s screens. So, she and I have become pretty well integrated with that Punjabi community!
Teaching people from the Punjab
This, then, is the primary reason why, for me, May and June were so “intense.”
And the lectures were not my only commitments: I led worship and preached in two Lutheran churches north of Beausejour, Manitoba, and later at a Winnipeg Lutheran church; Heather and I attended the RCMP Veterans’ annual “Fish-fry” in Gimli, Manitoba; I led a Communion service in a personal care home; and I attended a Student Health Research forum in my capacity as a board member of a medical foundation. There was more – including pastoral hospital calls; fun stuff with friends; appointments with doctors for my own health care; and some spiritual counselling sessions with individuals. Pretty intense for an eighty-three year old, I’d say.
But, at least now my blog is up-to-date!
FOOTNOTES:
1 The word, “rabbi,” here, is just a hypothetical example. I never asked this particular question.
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