Rocking Around the Christmas Feast

December 20, 2024

A Reflection on the International Students Christmas Potluck

“The magic at a potluck happens when people of different ethnicities come together, sharing sacred stories of family rituals behind their favorite dish.” Interfaith America President Eboo Patel offered this wisdom in his commencement address to Garrett’s 2024 graduating class, convinced that the values and practices which create a good potluck are also what nurture flourishing communities. This truth was vibrantly alive last week, as Garrett celebrated our second annual Christmas potluck dinner. Organized by the Office of Student Life, and co-sponsored by the Stead Center for Ethics and Values and the Center for Asian/Asian American Ministries (CAAM), the event brings the seminary together around tables laden with food from a dazzling array of countries. “We have people from over 20 countries, across 5 continents,” says Dean of Students Thehil Russelliah Singh, beaming with delight. “It creates a learning community that’s hard to replicate anywhere else, not just in the classroom but through every meal and conversation. It’s shaping and forming true ministers for a global church.”

This year, the gathering added a fashion show, joyfully featuring countries’ traditional dress. Tatenda Thom, a Zimbabwean student, served as one of the masters of ceremonies to guide the night’s festivities. “It was such a good time to unwind and refresh after a busy semester,” she reflects. “The fashion runway had showcases from China, the DRC, Ghana, Korea, India, the UK, and Zimbabwe. We also played a game where we handed people random words, asking them to preach an impromptu sermon. And oh, did we dance!” For Thom, however, the highlight of the evening was clear. “Food is food,” she laughs. “It brings community, and a depth of conversation you won’t hear anywhere else.”

Throughout the institution, Garret emphasizes how social exchange can act as a driver for collective transformation. The Stead Center, whose mission statement proclaims the intention to foster ethics and values “one conversation at a time” co-sponsored the event, offering international students a $50 stipend to help prepare a meal from their home country. “Access and affordability can be a barrier to participating in a potluck,” observes Dr. Kate Ott, the center’s director. “We didn’t want any student to struggle to purchase the ingredients they needed.” She was delighted to witness the fruits that even this modest gift can yield—the way food guides ethical reflection, one dish at a time. “It opened up all kinds of conversation,” she says. “Discussion about what type of food we use; environmental concerns; stories and family histories; all grounded in why we eat what we eat, opening up space to share other traditions and birth new ones.”

The old joke about churches—that if you do anything twice, it constitutes a tradition—feels true for this event. Dr. Dong Hyeon Jeong, director of the Center for Asian/Asian American Ministries, cherishes how nights like this help international students find themselves at the center of communal life, and not on the periphery. “Dean Russelliah Singh and her team are doing an amazing job making sure that our international students are welcomed, guided, and supported,” he says. “It can’t be just one week of orientation and then, ‘You’re on your own.’ Instead, there’s a continuing sense of connection and support.” This is the second year that CAAM has contributed to the Christmas event, but the center also hosts ongoing opportunities to build community over food. Dean Russelliah Singh agrees that the format of a potluck communicates a deeper message to Garrett’s international community. “We asked international students to host because there is joy in cooking for others, offering them part of yourself,” she says. “By inviting them to bring things to a potluck, we are naming that your food is beautiful and we want to share in that, we want to value that.” Domestic students, staff and faculty, who attend the potluck, and are invited to bring dishes of their own, find themselves as honored guests—an inversion of the traditional power dynamics in U.S. institutions.

For Dr. Ott, this change reflects how a wider ethical practice must change. “The Western tradition decided that theology and ethics are done with your brain in the abstract, which is why we often don’t involve acts of communal sharing in our understanding,” she notes. “Activities like hospitality or playing games together force us to think about ethics in new ways—not as ideas but as embodied practices.” When it comes to international students, Garrett doesn’t want folks to think about themselves as valued members of the community—we want them to feel it. “As you go to any new place, you are often asked to leave a part of who you are to become part of that community,” Dr. Ott says. “One major way that happens is with food, and we want students to bring all of themselves.”

It’s a sentiment that many international students share when asked why they chose to study at Garrett. “It’s not everywhere you go that you can be authentically yourself and be welcomed for who you are,” Thom says. “Garrett honors how everybody can contribute, building community around how we accept our own uniqueness while also celebrating each other.” Mashungam Shatshang, an Indian student who began his studies this fall, says that food has been an essential part of this overarching ethos. “As soon as I got into the airport, the welcome team was there to greet me,” he remembers. “That night, I had dinner on the beach—the first time I ever had that experience because we don’t have a beach where I live at home.

In many ways, this isn’t a new model for education—it’s an ancient one. “The early church worshipped around food,” Dean Russelliah Singh says. “Food is a symbol of the way that Jesus gathered people, and in communion we affirm that Christ is present in our fellowship.” While their offerings might have been more regal, the magi’s gifts are also part of this story: When we give deeply from our own cultures, we honor God and build new community that transcends the sum of our parts. There’s one memory from last year’s Christmas potluck that Dean Russelliah Singh remembers particularly embodying this truth. “We were singing ‘Silent Night’ at the end of the evening, and organically began to sing it in so many different languages,” she recalls with reverence. “To sing our own verses for this worldly known carol, it revels in how different we are, but how similar as well.”