Posts by: aclauhs

Abigail Clauhs is a student at Boston University, where she is majoring in religion and minoring in English, anthropology, and Twitter addiction. With a dedication to diversity and interfaith cooperation, Abigail leads the Boston University Interfaith Council, where she coordinates discussions and interfaith service events among many Boston-area colleges.

She cares deeply about fostering dialogue and understanding between people of various walks of life and worldviews. In addition, she has a love for community service that has led her to teach classes to immigrants and refugees, rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina, and volunteer with international seafarers in the port of her hometown in Charleston, South Carolina.

A longtime fondness for the written word inspires her to work with the Boston University Literary Society, where she is an editor for the literary journal Clarion, as well as to tutor at the Boston University Writing Center. In her spare time, she can often be found on a park bench with her notebook, scribbling poetry and generally looking like a pretentious hipster.

In 2012, she was selected to be a Millennial Values Fellow at the Millennial Values Symposium held by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; she has also received a fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education.

After graduation, Abigail hopes to pursue a career in the nonprofit/NGO world doing interfaith humanitarian work.

Documentary Date Night

Last night, Evan and I decided to watch the documentary Jesus Camp,  which is about an evangelical Christian children’s camp in North Dakota. This was probably not the best decision for a date night movie, as both of us ended up quite upset at the end (and not in the weepy “Oh, that was so good but […]

Aunt Frances, Presente

My great-aunt recently passed away at 96 years old. Aunt Frances, I always called her, even though she was technically my grandmother’s sister—the eldest of the family. She was feisty and smart and lovely and talented, a matriarchal figure at every family reunion. While us kids spent most of those reunions splashing around the mountain […]

Vespers Sermon: “The Common Field”

Guess what? I preached the Vespers sermon this past Sunday. And….here it is: This past summer, I attended the Wild Goose Festival, a progressive Christian festival that happens in the mountains of rural North Carolina. There were many interesting things that happened, including cornbread communion, moonshine mass, and an event called “Beer ‘n’ Hymns.” But […]

Ignite

Today we had one of my favorite Marsh Associates’ meetings ever. Not to dismiss the stuff that we normally do in those meetings. But for this one, we sat on the floor on meditation cushions in the chapel. It was dark, and we lit a circle of candles, representing our own lights as well as […]

Well Hello Again

It’s 2014, and I’m back–back to Boston, back to classes, back to the bustle of BU. It’s funny, because when I looked back on my journal that I keep at my apartment here, I had some pretty grim entries from right before I left for Christmas break. I was feeling pretty down, for a variety […]

Biological Anthropology Theology

This semester, I’ve been taking biological anthropology, learning all about australopithecines, Homo habilis, Neanderthals, and our other hairy hominid ancestors. Now, you have to understand—this is a big deal for me. I come from a Bible Belt public school upbringing, where my science teachers always prefaced the unit on evolution with, “Now, remember, this is […]

Empty Boat

In this period of upcoming finals and long nights and cold weather, I’ve been having a bit of trouble with taking things personally. A couple weeks ago, those were the twin themes of Rev. Kim’s sermon (the minister at the UU church I attend)–“quit taking it personally” and “empty boat.” “Empty boat” refers to Buddhist […]

Thanksgiving Wonder

I’ve been thinking a lot about wonder. Maybe it’s because it’s drawing near to Thanksgiving–or because the leaves are vibrant colors or because I’m young and healthy and in love (cliché as that sounds). But I’ve found myself being often struck with awe at how wonderful–wonder full–life is. Walking down the sidewalk under a blue […]

Out of the Mouths of Children

One of the reasons I love Unitarian Universalist Children’s Religious Education is the openness–they’re not afraid to share the stories and tenets of other religions with their children. They give them their own free path to explore, with teachers to support them along the way. I don’t necessarily want children, but if I did–that would […]

In the Belly of the Buddha

There was a time when I thought I was Buddhist. I suppose that fits me neatly into the New-Agey spiritual-seeker college student category (or should I say cliché?). But yes. I discovered Buddhism my freshman year of college, when I decided last-minute to take “Buddhism in America” instead of a computer programming class (yes, I […]