Cross Cultural Seminarians

Yesterday, January 8th, was the begining  of  a cross cultural experience trips for a group of seminarians from Drew Theological School. Our Journey began at Newark Airport,  and then took us to the Aldersgate Retreat House in Pacific Palisades, California.  Some may be surprised to hear that a Cross Cutural Trip isto ssunny southern CA – but we are headed to meet and learn about a variety of Native American cultures that reside in the area.

Our base for the trip will  be the Aldersgate Retreat Center, and our first task upon arriving and getting settled in was a brief introduction to the center and its history.  We leared that Pacific Palisades itself was origianlly developed as a Methodist Community after the Chautauqua model and there were plans for it to become the Ocean Grove of the West Coast.  Although that plan did not last long, the house at Aldersgate continues to be associated with the California Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

After a great dinner, we moved over to the Buerge Chapel for our first spiritual effort, an introduction to Julia Bogany of the Tongva-Gabrieleno Tribe, a spiritual leader and minister that will be our guide for the next few days.  Here, before a fire kindled at the front of the Chapel, we had our first introduction to Native American (more specifically Tongva) culture.  We each shared what we wanted to pray about, “leaving” it behind on a blanket spread out on the ground before we began to hear a bit about the Tongva and Julia’s efforts among them and with the surrounding community.  The evening ended with everyone tired and ready for good nights sleep after a very long day.

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