Wednesday, July 1 - Friday, July 3:
As we begin this new fiscal year, we give thanks for God’s grace and strength last year, and in particular, these past four months during the pandemic, as we worked together to accomplish our academic and fiscal goals. We have been blessed by the support of our ICS community and are encouraged in this new year to believe that God will continue to sustain us in our work.
Please pray especially for Dr. Edith van der Boom this month as she joins the ICS faculty as Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of Education and the Practice of Pedagogy. There will be many things to learn and see to in these first weeks and we ask God to bless her with the joy of discovery during this time .
Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 10:
This week, the Summer Online Learning Initiative continues with PhD candidate Dean Dettloff’s course: Set the Prisoners Free: Christianity and Prison Abolition. This completely online course invites you to imagine together what a world without prisons and policing might look like, paying close attention to issues made evident by the recent global protests against racially targeted police violence and incarceration. Please pray for Dean and all the participants as they explore throughout how Christianity funds both the ideology of mass incarceration and a spirit of prison and police abolition, asking what it might mean to proclaim release to the prisoners today.
Our second online summer course: World-viewing: An Introduction to Worldview Studies with Gideon Strauss which began on June 2nd finishes on July 9th. We continue to thank God for his grace during this time of adapting to all online courses, especially as the faculty, staff and students who are experiencing this learning opportunity for the first time.
Monday, July 13 - Friday, July 17:
Please continue to pray for the planning and execution of our Summer Online Learning Initiative taking place in July and August. Please pray for Gideon Strauss as he leads the academic program, for the staff involved in its administration and promotion, and for the faculty and students who will be teaching and taking the courses.
July being a month in which some of our staff and faculty take holidays, we ask that you pray that their time away will be refreshing and renewing. Some are travelling long distances so we ask God to grant them safe and hassle-free travels. For faculty especially, the summer months are also a valuable time for further work on research and writing projects, so we pray that this time proves fruitful for their efforts as well as their relaxation.
Monday, July 20 - Friday, July 24:
We would appreciate prayers this month as we ramp up our promotional and recruitment efforts for the Master of Educational Leadership program. This involves a series of online ‘Open Houses’ with principals and teachers in Ontario hosted by Gideon Strauss and Ron Kuipers. We are encouraged by the opportunities that have continued to present themselves this year, and are praying for a good intake of new students for the fall program.
Please pray this month for our Registrar, Elizabet, as she looks after the academic details in preparation for the beginning of the school year in September, such as new courses being approved, registration of students, course schedules, and working with the faculty to get all the course syllabi up on the website. Pray too as she works with the new students in their application process and decisions around course selection.
Monday, July 27 - Friday, July 31:
July 31st is the application deadline for ICS/CPRSE’s Undergraduate Workshop, “Evil, Resistance, and Judgment: Creating a World Fit for Human Habitation.” We have made this event available in a multi-modal format and continue to receive applications from interested students. Please pray for the success of this initiative, as well as for all the students preparing the papers for presentation this Fall.
Over the next few weeks, the Critical Faith team will interview Senior Members in anticipation of their Fall courses. This will be an opportunity for the wider community to get a sneak peak into the exciting Fall course offerings at ICS, as well as to learn about the ongoing research and scholarship currently being undertaken by our faculty. Please pray for the Critical Faith team and for our Senior Members as they talk about these exciting and important topics.
