Storytelling and Narrative Change - Auburn Theological Seminary

Center for Storytelling and Narrative Change

Fred Rogers, creator of Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Presbyterian minister, recalled being a child and worried about scary news of the world. His mother wisely counseled, "Look for the helpers" to move his sights from fear to hope. We, too, help ourselves and our children as healing-centered leaders who engage the sacred and the scary through our story-telling, acknowledging not only very real traumas but also the very real hope-filled future characterized by the laughter of all children that we are working for. Each story that we share with each other and our children, each time we listen deeply to each other and to children, is a seed that we plant for a thriving future.

We are “sending a better letter to the future.” That letter is in the form of the stories our leaders carry into the future. Storytelling and narrative change efforts equip leaders with tools to identify, engage, and transform the religious and spiritually rooted narratives and stories that cause fear, scarcity, division, distrust, isolation, and alienation.

Drawing on Auburn’s history going back to the groundbreaking work of the late Dr. Walter Wink, leaders will be equipped to name the narratives that feed ruptures and conflict. They will be provided storytelling tools to proclaim, reclaim, propagate, and employ prophetic and hopeful narratives across faith traditions that lead to healing and the common good.

Seen to the right - workshop participants explore the transforming sacred text methods through dramatization of sacred stories and contemporary issues.

The mandate for the Center for Storytelling and Narrative Change is:

1. Develop and share narratives to address the complex theological roots of injustice and build religious narratives that lift the common good. We Do this through the Letters to the Future campaign. Sign up below.

2. Provide resources for religious and faith leaders to engage in intergenerational narrative change that centers hope and proclaims a future story of wholeness. This will take shape through workshops and convenings for religious storytelling and narrative change practitioners. We do this through the WINK workshops. Head to programs to sign up for a workshop today!

3. Encourage religious and faith leaders to model healthy curiosity for the diversity of religious narratives operating within their communities of accountability, all toward understanding the potential for religion to contribute to the common good. We do this through the Dean's Lectures.

Click here to register for a workshop or dean's lecture

Past Dean's Lectures:

AEGIS. works to prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide and is working within Rwanda’s school system to reach young people. In addition to being part of the Dean’s lecture series in New York, Auburn will take a group of multifaith religious leaders to Rwanda in July to participate in the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi.

Friends of Roots. Based in the West Bank, this organization works intergenerationally to foster a grassroots understanding of nonviolence and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians.

Orange Shirt Society. Orange Shirt Society founder Phyllis (Jack) Webstad, Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band), helps communities reflect on how Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities reconcile and heal from the history of boarding schools. The Orange Shirt Society was formed to create awareness of the individual, family, and community intergenerational impacts of Indian Residential Schools to support Indian Residential School Reconciliation and promote the truth that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

See the program page for more information about the next Wink Workshop or dean's lecture.

Center for Storytelling and Narrative Change

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