2021 October Season of Justice, Peace, Creation Schedule

Stations of Mychal 

Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021 at 7 p.m., Diane Bennack Concert Hall 

A new song cycle by Rick Davis (librettist) and Dr. Kevin Salfen (composer) commemorating the life, ministry, and death of Fr. Mychal Judge (OFM), the “Saint of 9/11” will be performed in this the 20th anniversary year.

Fr. Mychal was a gentle Franciscan priest known for this ministry among the marginalized including homeless people and the LGBTQ community.  Learn more about his ministry.  

“St. Francis of Assisi: Blessing of the Animals, Prayer for Creation”

Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 5:15 - 6:15 p.m.

Join via the Blessing of the Animals via Zoom

Get your photos of your pets or have your cats, your iguana, or your bird by your side as we thank the Creator for them and all of creation. Learn of earth justice, solidarity with all life, and compassionate care of the earth presented by the UIW Social Justice Leadership students and Raindrop Youth "Climate Enthusiasts San Antonio" (CESA).   

• Learn more about the Compassion Tree Project 
• Learn more about the Followers of St. Francis 

This Changes Everything?  

The film is featured in the UIW series “Farhad’s Films” for the month of October. UIW community members may watch at any time be visiting, This Changes Everything?

Filmed in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re - imagine the vast challenge of climate change. The film, directed by Avi Lewis and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines.  ;

If you would like to participate in a discussion during the last week of the month, e-mail a preferred time to  cestou@uiwtx.edu and an hour can be arranged.  What story of earth do you live by? Is creation your family as St. Francis suggests it might be?

“The Space in Between,” A Growing Community Art Project to Hear Immigrants and Refugees Stories shared by Margarita Cabrera with comments by Dr. Lopita Nath and Sr. Adriana Calzada 

Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Join "The Space in Between" Via Zoom

People in other cities have gathered to listen to and reflect on stories of immigrants and refugees there. Margarita Cabrera is inviting us to further this art project in San Antonio. What are the stories related to San Antonio?  As we listen to stories, we create the art out of fabric (recycling the uniforms of Border Patrol Agents)  and we create relationships.

• Find out more about internationally acclaimed creator of community art projects Margarita Cabrera.
• Learn more about her growing work the Space in Between.
• Watch a conversation with Margarita Cabrera, Kathy Vargas, and Margaret Mitchell “Stories through Arts Inviting Community, Compassion, and Justice”.

Dr. Lopita Nath, UIW History Professor, is known for her research on refugees and Sr. Adriana Calzada, a Ph.D. student is a leader in the IW Sisters efforts to respond to immigrant needs.

Margarita Cabrera created Arbol de la Vida: Memorias y Voces de la Tierra, a true collaborative art project that has brought the diverse community of San Antonio together to give sculptural form to individuals’ local stories that transcend time. The Arbol is located near Mission Espada. In the photo above, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia Siller invites prayer for creation under the Arbol.

Discover the hidden treasure of Mission Espada with the art installation, Arbol de la Vida, by San Antonio artist Margarita Cabrera. The Arbol was installed as a collaborative effort from local artists to inspire and bring the community together by telling individual stories through sculpture. For this virtual experience as part of the World Heritage Festival, seven artists out of the 700 original stories found in the Arbol have been selected to discuss what their individual pieces means to them. Hear Margarita Cabrera and some of these stories online in the World Heritage Festival

Indigenous People’s Day, Monday, October 11

Indigenous Peoples around the Latin World | Join Sheena Connell, UIW International Affairs for an Instagram takeover. Virtually explore the different representation of Indigenous People throughout Central and South America as UIW International students and alumni share stories and languages from Indigenous cultures from their home countries. View the UIW International Student and Scholar Services Instagram stories.

What makes for a Compassionate City? You do. We do!

With Rev. Ann Helmke, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Dr. Sandra Guzman Foster, Dr. Andy Hill and Sr. Martha Ann Kirk

Sunday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m., CDT

Paid registration required

Be a part of the largest religious gathering in the world which is virtual this year. Find out more at 2021 Parliament of World Religions.

Come and hear what steps San Antonio has taken across the 12+ years in becoming a Compassionate City and then work your own plan of taking a systems approach to compassion. View the City of San Antonio resolution.

The case study from the 2020 San Antonio Compassionate Institute will be utilized as a touchstone. Explore the steps. Glean from them. Add to them. Invite Compassion to dwell, live, breathe, and take action in the heart of your community, village, town or city. Imagine with us the rippling impact of compassion in action in our world!

Dr. Guzman Foster, UIW Graduate Education, is the co-author of the city case study. View the case study here (pdf).

Compassionate Connections: Sister Dorothy Ettling’s Worldview and Action Research to Heal San Antonio Communities

Oct. 25, Monday, noon to 1:15 p.m., Mabee Library Special Collections Room or Join Compassionate Connections Via Zoom

Prepare to reflect on Sister Dot Ettling’s prophetic worldview by seeing some of her writings.

Join a conversation with Rev. Ann Helmke who furthers San Antonio’s growth as a “City of Compassion” as she leads the Faith Based Office of the City of San Antonio and with UIW Education professor Dr. Alfredo Ortiz and others involved in the major Johnson and Johnson Grant Program, Action Research for Community Health and Wellbeing (AR4CHW).

• Find out more about the Faith-Based Office.
• Learn more of Dr. Alfredo Ortiz by listening to a workshop.
• Learn more about the Action Research section co-edited by Dr. Alfredo Ortiz in the SAGE Handbook.

All Deserve to be Sheltered!

Oct. 26, Tuesday, 5 to 5:45 p.m.

Join All Deserve to be Sheltered via Zoom

Homelessness and lack of affordable housing have been major issues in San Antonio. Hear about roots and realities from Dr. Monica Cruz, Special Research Associate at the “Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research” (IDSER) at UTSA.

Hear from Rev. Wyndee E. Holbrook, director, Interfaith San Antonio Alliance (ISAA) about how they have united people around this issue. Learn more at Interfaith San Antonio Alliance.

Professor Judy Ruvuna and her Interior Design students will share details about their work with Habitat for Humanity. Social Justice Leadership students who have become advocates for housing build the conversation. More about each of those presenters can be found on the Speakers page of our “Truth and Transformation” ongoing movement.

Waging Peace Through Voting: A Moral Resurrection

Oct. 27, 9 - 10:15 a.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom of via join Waging Peace Through Voting via Zoom.

Things critical for democracy are laid out by Dr. Frederick Haynes III, with Dr. Laura Cannon’s historical analysis of voter suppression in Texas and Dr. Maria Felix-Ortiz impassioned cry to protect democracy. This discussion will be led by Bishop Trevor Alexander.

Consider the ideas and be ready to discuss.

“Social Justice and Peace, the New UIW Concentration - try it! The world needs you.”

Oct. 27, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom of via join the discussion of the new concentration via Zoom.

Dr. Laura Cannon, UIW History Department and chair of the new concentration will explain what this involves and why it is so important today.

"Young Women’s Global Leadership Program- Facing and changing gender inequality one girl at a time" shared by Dr. Joan Labay Marquez, Erika Haskins, Linda Gjergji, Bro. Patrick Tumwine, CSC

Oct. 27, 11:50 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom of via join the Young Woman's Global Leadership Program via Zoom.

The Young Women’s Global Leadership Program and Summit is an international citizenship leadership training program that provides girls and young women the opportunity to discover how they can influence and create positive change at home and abroad. This leadership program supports UIW’s Mission and ministry by teaching young women about the University’s commitment to service, the responsibilities of global citizenship and how entrepreneurship can create social change. Encourage young women here to join on the ground or on zoom and to be with students in Uganda, Kosovo, and Tanzania on the last Saturday of the month. See many women now leading countries, “While the world has been distracted....change has been happening anyway” 

Daily Opportunities to Revolutionize for a Sustainable World: our food choices

Oct. 27, noon - 1:15 p.m.

Student Engagement Center Patio

What I choose a few times a day and how I get it, produce it, or share it can reshape global economics and opportunities. How I deliberately compost, Bokashi, recycle is an act of resistance and care. All have a chance to pick up something delicious, good for the planet and good for you because the Student Dietetics Association and Dr. Heather Frazier’s Food Systems Management class are preparing food for us and educating us.

Learn from other students producing and sharing food for our world, our city, our neighborhoods, and our campus in the Cardinal Community Cupboard and the UIW Community Garden. Jorge Quintero, Miranda Van Doren, and others share.

This is your chance to get your Bokashi Bucket and make that and other forms of composting a way of life. Also be sure and bring things you want to share and get things in the Exchange Market mentioned above.

Is the death penalty the right path to a less violent world?

Oct. 27, 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom of via join the death penalty discussion via Zoom.

People who have had family members murdered and Kristin Houle Cuellar, the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty invite you to be in conversation about paths to a less violent world.

Is the death penalty the right way?

• UIW Sociology student Victoria Velazquez shares her perspective. Read the story that Mitesh Patel shares about his father.
• Sister Martha Ann Kirk shares the story of Incarnate Word Sister Patricia Ann Kelley.

Growing as a “City of Compassion,” Flourishing as the UIW Sustainability Concentration Grows

Oct. 27, 3 - 4:15 p.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom of via join the City of Compassion discussion via Zoom.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are ways that we the global family are compassionately taking care of each other and recognizing how creation takes care of us the humans. Dr. Ben Miele, coordinator of the new Sustainability Concentration joins in the conversation. San Antonio has been growing as a “City of Compassion,” taking a systems approach in light of our City Council resolution.

Local efforts began on the UIW campus in a class service learning project in 2009. Students have power and now compassion is especially growing in the "Compassion Student Peer Organization." an organization founded by UIW graduate students and mentored by Dr. Joan Labay Marquez. Learn from Jeff Neal and Mary J. Guerrero-Muñoz and learn from students in the class on research and compassion which was taught by Dr. Sandy Guzman Foster who is the is the co-author of the city case study.

• A growing number of educators at UIW have participated in the ten week intensive Compassionate Integrity Training.
• Participate in a conversation with these people and Sister Martha Ann Kirk who describes the city movement in “Tears are washing our eyes that we may see” 

India and the Dominican Republic: Come on virtual service learning trips.

Oct. 27, 4:30 - 5:45 p.m.

In person at the SEC Ballroom or join the virtual service learning trips via Zoom.

Lorena Cestou, MA, and Patricia Salazar will lead “Local to International Service Learning.” See the lively young people of Pumpkin House in Maharashtra, India, a children’s home and low income serving school. Hear about how these visits transformed Lorena’s and Priscilla’s hearts and how you could join in solidarity with the children. The director says, “ COVID-19 has led to unprecedented challenges in securing food and supplies to keep our children healthy” so let’s organize to assist.

Also travel to the Dominican Republic, uniting in their struggles against human trafficking and to educate children. UIW students can earn community service hours by participating in an activity.

Directions available on GivePulse .

International Citizenship and US Citizenship, Our Rights and Responsibilities

Oct. 27, 6 - 6:50 p.m.

Friendship Garden or join the discussion on citizenship via Zoom. (In case of rain, SEC Ballroom).

Join in conversation with Brooke Paynter, MA, Study Abroad and Exchange Coordinator, UIW International Affairs; Jeff Neal, Vice President of the UIW Compassionate Student Peer Organization, retired from the US Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency as the Executive Assistant to the Command Chief; and Brother Patrick Tumwine, CSC, a leader in the Congregation of the Holy Cross Schools in East Africa.