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Documentary Screening
and Discussion
On the evening of November 7th, forty students, faculty, and community
members attended a screening of the Australian "Dateline"
documentary about Bhopal. Afterwards Ryan Bodanyi, ICJB's campus
organizer, answered questions about Bhopal and attended a pizza
dinner with a dozen interested Sewanee students.
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Meditative Walk and
Vigil
(click here for the photos!)
Something strangely beautiful happened here...
In the days since some of us learned more about the Bhopal incident,
we scrambled to provide an appropriate outlet of recognition, education,
and support to our school on the anniversary of the disaster. We
decided to offer a candlelight service leading into a meditative
walk. We put up signs, we sent out emails and phone messages, we
told our professors, we announced it to our classes, and we prepared.
December 3 came with snow, hail, blistering winds, bitter rain,
and a misty fog to the point that few things could beckon anyone
outside. The four of us that showed up at
8:30 for the service (three students and our dedicated professor,
friend, and supporter) hid in the archway of our quad peering out
into the gusts of wind to see if anyone
else had ventured past their dorms. As we waited, sachristans (sp?)
arrived for practice at the Episcopal church next to the arch we
were hiding in. One of our classmates who knew of our vigil volunteered
to ask the sachristans if they would be willing to take a moment
to, at the very least, add bodies to the pictures. The chaplain
agreed and so we all stood in a circle, candles in hand, in St.
Augustine's chapel, a small, meditative chapel that barely fit the
15-20 of us. We lit our candles, explained some about the date,
about DOW, and about Bhopal and the thousands of others united in
the same fight on the same day. They were captivated.
The chaplain offered a beautiful prayer and after some reflection
and questions, the sachristans went on their way. After they left,
the four us realized an amazing thing had
happened. First, Sewanee had had its first participation in the
day of action against corporate crime. Second, two sections of campus,
the church and the activists/ environmentalists, had been united
under one cause, a rare and beautiful event.
The four of us remained for a meditative walk through the tiny
space in the chapel as we learned to reflect on our breathing and
our impact through and with the motion of our steps. We were invited
to attach messages to each of our steps, perhaps what we would want
to say to those still suffering in Bhopal. It was an amazing experience.
Sorry for such a lengthy story. It was just so interesting to me
that the weather we were blaming originally, pulled us inside the
church and united us with another group in this world wide call
for justice.
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IN
BHOPAL