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Students to Celebrate Cultural Diversity, Unity in Christ

By Elissa K. Harvill

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Click Photo to Enlarge Dr. Paul Vickery will appear as 15th-century Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas.

In many ways, Oral Roberts University is its own cultural epicenter, with students coming from locales as diverse as Australia and Zambia, bringing along with them their native accents, cultures, and styles. At any given chapel service, one can observe a rippling sea of varying skin tones, accents, languages, fashions, and of course, worship styles.

Acknowledging these differences, ORU will host its sixth annual cultural event on Feb. 23, during Multicultural Awareness Week, the theme being "A Celebration of Our Ethnic Identity and Our Identity in Christ." The university-wide event will feature celebration activities led by the ORU Student Association, musical selections from Souls A'fire, and readings and performances from the English, History/Humanities, and Modern Languages departments.

ORU history professor (and ORU alumnus) Dr. Paul Vickery will appear--in costume--as 15th-century Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas. The priest was one of the first of the early clergy to speak out against the destruction of the Natives Americans by Spanish colonists.

Students from the Modern Languages department will be reciting scripture in French, Spanish, German, and English, and the ORU creative writing community will share on the subject of diversity through presentations of original poems and prose.

"We sing 'Jesus loves the little children...all the children of the world.' We sing it as children, but as adults, we're still His children," commented associate professor of English and event co-sponsor, Dr. Mary Alice Trent-Williams. "If we want to use the word 'race,' why don't we get rid of the 'ism'? We need to see that we are all a reflection of Him. The enemy has used race and religion against us to try to divide us, but in Christ, we are united again."

Additionally, Dr. Trent-Williams and Modern Languages instructor Margaret Sehorn will lead a special devotion on the subject of embracing diversity.

All activities on the 23rd will take place in Zoppelt Auditorium on the ORU campus. Admission is free, and the Student Association will provide refreshments.