Summary
Northeastern student and Open Table student president Munin Mundt helped lead the World Student Christian Federation's October 2024 conference in Washington DC.
by Munin Mundt
Hi all, I’m Munin. I’m a 4th year electrical engineering major here at Northeastern, and I’ve been a part of Open Table since my first year.
This past year, I’ve been a part of the student leadership team (SLT) for the US branch of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). The WSCF is a network of over 100 student movements globally. The WSCF is grounded in prophetic Biblical and theological traditions, committed to radical inclusivity and global engagement, and is organizing students who seek to live out their faith.
As a part of the WSCF-US SLT, I’ve helped organize our annual conference. This year, the theme of our conference was Embodied Faith: Christian Students Organizing for a New World, and our speakers centered around giving participants tools to use when organizing for justice, and around what it means to embody our faith. Deepa Iyer helped us work through her tool, the Social Change Ecosystem, helping us think through the various roles we currently play in different organizations, and roles that we aspire to grow into. Joe Davis helped us re flect on the relationship between the body and emotion, and connect to creative outlets such as poetry. Cole Arthur Riley shared some of her story, talking us through how embodiment has shown up in her life, and why she believes that embodiment is central to liberation. We also had opportunities to learn about past student organizing movements, such as students organizing against apartheid in South Africa, and organizing against the Vietnam War. Participants also got to connect with one another in small group settings to reflect on what they were learning, explore DC (where the conference was held) and worship with one another.
For my own involvement with this conference, I helped organize and write questions for small groups, I helped create a prayer and quiet space so participants could step away from the conference activities for a moment of rest and centering, and I helped plan worship. I wasn’t originally planning on helping with worship, but this ended up being the most impactful part of being on the SLT for me. We had three worship services, each drawing from different traditions. I led a contemplative evening worship, primarily based on Holden Evening Prayer, incorporating Taizé chants and elements from the New Zealand Book of Prayer. This service also had stations of the cross, inspired by the prayer stations we do at Open Table. For the stations, we had texts from World Day of Prayer 2024, biblical texts, icons, handheld crosses and prayer beads, coloring, journal prompts, and candle lighting.
I really enjoyed putting this worship service together. However, I was very nervous to lead this service, as I was cantoring, and the only time I’ve cantored before was for children at a camp. I was also nervous because this is a worship service that is dear to my heart. Holden Evening Prayer is a service that I’ve been using since I was quite young. It’s a service that held me as I shook apart, that taught me how to be held and how to hold. It taught me that prayer is a place that can contain me – my anger, my joy, my sorrow, my longing, my being, and that God is present and ever-loving amidst this all. It’s a service that I sing to myself when I don’t know what words to pray and can’t come up with my own, trusting as I sing this service that God hears the prayers in my heart that I haven’t yet put to words. This service is dear to me, and intentionally sharing it with near strangers felt a bit like exposing my heart. I was also nervous because I didn’t know if this service would resonate with other attendees of the conference. This service is very familiar and comforting for me, and I know it from my specific context growing up in the Lutheran church, and I know prayer stations from Open Table. I didn’t know how this service would feel for other attendees. I really wanted this to be a service where attendees could find rest and respite and spaciousness like I do in Holden Evening Prayer and prayer stations, and I was worried that instead it would be unfamiliar or alienating or uncomfortable.
I was holding a lot of nerves and anxieties going into evening worship. It was wonderful as we gathered for the service to know that Joyce [DeGreeff, Lutheran chaplain at Northeastern] was in the audience, that she was familiar with the music and could sing out and help lead the congregation from the pews, and that she was excited for me to lead this service. It was also a comfort to know that Elizabeth, another Open Table member, was there, that she would support me and tell me her thoughts and be present with me.
After the service, I got the feedback from so many people that having a contemplative service was just what they needed, that they came from a Catholic tradition and appreciated the opportunity to light candles, that they came from an Anglican tradition and found elements familiar, that this reminded them of what they did in their own campus ministries. That the service was unfamiliar, but brought warmth and curiosity. It made me so happy to know that this service did bring familiarity and rest and comfort to attendees. It was a blessing to get to lead this service, a blessing to be on the SLT, and a blessing to have the support of Open Table along the way.
With kindness,
Munin