Retracing the Steps of Freedom

God often grows us through new experiences and faith encounters outside our comfort zones. This is why United requires all Master of Divinity students to participate in a cross-cultural immersion trip, and many of United’s Doctor of Ministry groups also offer an immersion experience. Typically, this involves a trip to another country, but post-pandemic a need emerged for a cross-cultural experience in the United States.

Now, United doctoral and master’s students get the opportunity to retrace the steps of freedom on pilgrimages to the seedbed of the Civil Rights Movement in the South through the “Enacting the Beloved Community” immersion experience led by Dr. C. Anthony Hunt, doctoral mentor, and Dr. Lisa M. Hess, Professor of Practical Theology and Contextual Ministries.

Since 2016, Dr. Hunt has led the “Enacting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Beloved Community” doctoral focus group, which offers a historical, theological and socio-cultural analysis of the life and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with particular focus on the implications of King’s work on the contemporary church and society. These trips are a cornerstone of the curriculum for students in Hunt’s focus group.

“I am a strong believer, based on my experience of this kind of work in building community, that we model it in our focus group, but we also experience it on the ground,” says Hunt, who has been leading similar immersion trips for over 20 years.

Dr. Hess has partnered with Hunt for eight years as faculty consultant for his focus group and has seen how capacity for connection and understanding are strengthened in this kind of community awakening. In October 2022, master’s students began joining this diverse group on their immersion trip.

During the “Enacting the Beloved Community” immersion trip, Hunt and Hess lead the group through the “fertile crescent of human rights”, as Hunt describes it: three cities in Alabama central to the Civil Rights Movement. Following the path from Birmingham to Selma and on to Montgomery, the group finds connection to Dr. King and other activists who first made that journey in 1965.

“It was an opportunity to experience really deep emotions,” says master’s student Ryan Whisel, Etters, Pa. “I want to address that in a way that is continuing the movement toward healing from what was such a dark chapter in [U.S.] history.”

Coming from vastly different backgrounds, students participate in worship and discussion groups together, expanding their capacity for connection with deep listening and self-awareness. Students return from the trip changed, with perspectives widened on what it means to work for greater freedom for all people in Christ.