Border Crossing
Border Crossing | Who may take a Border Crossing? | Handbook | Israel/Palestine | Ghana | Contact
The Border Crossing Immersion requirement
The Border Crossing Immersion requirement in the Andover Newton Master of Divinity curriculum is one way Andover Newton seeks to deeply engage students with communities and persons of different social, cultural, ethnic, racial, economic, national, and faith identities other than their own in order:
- to work toward the elimination of the category of “the other,” while developing hospitable ways to relate to difference;
- to develop greater understanding and sensitivity to the dynamics of privilege, power and disadvantage as they are seen in patterns and structures in one’s own and others’ contexts;
- to provide an opportunity to develop tools for social analysis, theological reflection, and deeper self knowledge;
- to create visible change, evidenced in possessing a larger lens, to see themselves and the world in which they live;
- to contribute to the development of multicultural sensitivity and skills which help one become more agile, knowledgeable and respectful in border crossings and;
- to deepen the student’s commitment to live one’s faith through engaging vital issues for the church and the world with communities and persons who challenge one’s own assumptive world and meaning making.
Border Crossing Immersions are offered throughout the academic year, with most being offered in the winter and summer sessions. There will be some “intense immersions” lasting from ten days to twenty-one days, and some “slow simmers” happening over the course of a semester or full year.
Who may take a Border Crossing Immersion?
Any degree candidate, BTI or non-BTI student, Minister in the Vicinity, or ANTS alumni/ae may take a Border Crossing Immersion if places are available. No first year student should apply to take a Border Crossing for credit, except with permission from the Director of Border-Crossing Immersion.
Andover Newton students needing the course for credit will receive priority. The same application process and deadlines apply for all. ANTS alumni/ae and non-BTI students will need to pay a $300 application fee and whatever the cost is for a particular Border-Crossing Immersion. BTI students will pay the regular $150 application fee plus costs.
Applications and more detailed information on Border-Crossing Immersions may be found in the Border Crossing Immersion Handbook.
Application due dates
Deadline for applying to the Winter 2012 Border Crossing programs is October 1, 2011.
Deadline for applying to the Summer 2012 Border Crossing programs is March 1, 2012.
Informational Meetings - Fall
Those who are planning to take a winter or spring Border Crossing are required to attend one Informational Meeting on campus. Fall meetings will take place on the following dates:
Tuesday, September 20th at noon, Upper Noyes Hall
Wednesday, September 21st at 5:00 p.m., Worcester 303
Thursday, September 22nd at noon, Noyes Dining Room
International Border-Crossing offerings for Winter 2012
Understanding the Dual Narratives of Israel and Palestine: A Step Toward Transformation (January 3-12, 2012)
A Faith that Sustains: Exploring Church and Community in Rural Ghana (January 6-16, 2012)
Understanding the Dual Narratives of Israel and Palestine: A Step Toward Transformation (January 3-12, 2012)
Professor Brita Gill-Austern will be leading a border crossing immersion to Israel/Palestine January 3-12, 2012.
This Border-Crossing Immersion will take place in Israel and Palestine and will be led by both a Palestinian and an Israeli Guide. It will be a joint trip with Boston University School of Theology and in conjunction with MEJDI, an organization that works toward peace building and conflict resolution by working to understand the historical wounds of two peoples and their dual narratives.
Deadline for applying to the Winter 2012 Border Crossing programs is October 1, 2011.
Among the planned stops are:
A Faith that Sustains: Exploring Church and Community in Rural Ghana (January 6-16, 2012)
Professor Beth Nordbeck and Rev. James Christensen will lead an Andover Newton Border Crossing trip to Ghana January 6-16, 2012.
The Reverend James Christensen is an Andover Newton graduate with more than a decade’s intimate work with, and experience of, the people and culture of Kpenoe..
In Ghana, community relationship, not productivity and accomplishment, is a dominant cultural value. This Border-Crossing Immersion will introduce participants to community life in rural Kpenoe (“Penway”), offering first-hand experience of the way in which Christian faith sustains, informs and offers hope to many impoverished and pre-literate residents. The group will converse with traditional chiefs and elders; participate in worship; interact with seminarians, professors, and residents of a “cured lepers’ village;” and experience the rich but unhurried pace of rural village life. A day trip to a coastal “slave castle”--the last African stop before shipping slaves to the west in the 19th century--will also allow participants to consider slavery and its effects on community from the perspective of the place of origin. Our primary conversation partners will be members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana – a partner denomination of the United Church of Christ.
A Faith that Sustains is open to Andover Newton students as an intensive class, but also to trustees and alumni who are interested in this unusual opportunity to explore faith life in Ghana.
Deadline for applying to the Winter 2012 Border Crossing programs is October 1, 2011.
Points of interest in the trip:
