Dr. Sobolewski and SMU's graduate theology program in the New York Times

Once again, I'm touting the accomplishments of my more humble colleagues.

A New Emphasis for Schools of Ministry: Management Skills

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — For the last four years, Wendy Samuels has worked in a remote village in Jamaica for Mustard Seed Communities, a Roman Catholic nonprofit group that helps disabled children.

The work is both rewarding and heartbreaking. But some of the most difficult moments came as she managed well-meaning staff members who did not always do their jobs properly.

“If someone is not performing their job, how do you deal with it when there is still so much to be done?” Ms. Samuels said. “I kept wondering, How do you manage persons in a third-world country who work for a charitable organization?”...

The full article is worth reading in whole and can be found here. (Dr. Sobolewski is on the second page.)

Art and Theology in the Winona Daily News

...via the work of our own Dr. Eileen Daily, who would never post this herself. Therefore, I will. She's behind getting art into the new Cathedral (it isn't in the Cathedral itself, but in the opening gathering space).

If you need to brush up on Bible stories, the walls of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will help.

The Cathedral is exhibiting a show of 41 hand-sewn Panamanian molas depicting biblical scenes.

A mola is a panel of reversed appliqué that is worn on the front and back of the blouses of the women of the Kuna Indians of the San Blas Islands, off the eastern shore of Panama. The word means shirt or clothing in the Kuna’s native language. They don’t have to be religious in nature, although this collection is.

The exhibit, “Molas: From Eden to Eternity,” is the work of Christians in Visual Arts, an organization of artists, pastors and supporters of the arts who try to use the arts to teach about Christianity. The exhibit has traveled the country, including a stop at Yale.

Eileen Daily, a professor of theology at Saint Mary’s University, helped curate the show. Daily did her doctoral dissertation on using Christian art in religious education.

As someone who grew up in Panama, I was a little blown away when I saw this exhibit there a few days ago. I didn't know the Cathedral was showing this Panamanian art form, which is all over the place in Panama (or at least, they were where the Americans were, because we had the money to buy the pieces). I remember buying much smaller, simpler versions of these from the women who made these, sitting in a street market and draped in this appliqued fabric, which seemed very exotic to my 10 year old self. Anyway, the molas can be incredibly elaborate; they are done by a small indigenous group that lives on the islands in the Atlantic off the coast. Go see some lovely examples of the art form before this closes in January!

Rest of the story here.