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Althea Smith

I grew up in inner-city Boston at a time when educators encouraged young black kids to be the best they could be: entry-level workers. This may be because families in my neighborhood had very few financial resources. The idea that economic stability predicts educational success still permeates all levels of education. This bias is wrong-minded. It perpetuates an elitist perspective which is oppressive.
It is also wrong to think that the only people qualified to do spiritual companioning have college-level, postgraduate education. Exploring the relationship between oneself and the creator requires knowledge and compassion, not a college degree. I know this because a woman who ran a prayer group in a storefront church taught me about universal love and spiritual presence.
I am a church minister on an island off the MA coast. This is a small congregation that, like many, is in crisis because of a declining census, declining donations, and an aging population.
I am also a community minister and president of a nonprofit nontraditional spiritual direction certificate program with a long history of working with people on “the margins.” My work as a spiritual companion is with previously incarcerated women who ask “Why me, God.”

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