Sacred Collective

Tuesday table: tuesday table is held weekly on tuesday evenings during the academic year. This "place and time for nourishment, in body and soul" gathers around a dozen students each week for a meal provided by Sacred Collective and conversation about spirituality, social justice, and living an engaged life that matters. Not your typical bible study is a weekly bible study where we take the bible far too seriously to take it literally, and wrestle together with the texts and our contexts. Every week, students gather in our coffee house space, together with non-students such as faculty, pastors, and Sacred Collective board members, to read and reflect on readings from the bible. This study draws on the revised common lectionary for scripture readings, and often incorporates poetry to expand and frame the conversation. Weekly attendance ranges from 3-7 people. Our chaplain provides one-to-one counseling sessions with students. We receive referrals from the university of Iowa counseling service as well as offering counseling to students active in other Sacred Collective programs and walk-ins. They meet in the chaplain's office, coffee shops, or other spaces as appropriate to the topic conversation. Counseling is generally short term (one to three sessions) and can cover a broad range of issues in the student's life, such as: spiritual formation, and confronting and healing from religious trauma; vocational discernment; mental health assessment and referral; relationship struggles (dating, family, roomates, etc. ); navigating identity, especially gender dysphoria and sexual orientation exploration; sexual assault; eating disorders; discernment about academic majors, internships, graduate programs, etc. ; substance use and abuse.