Students Shape Curriculum at Regional Summer School
Diocesan Press Service. February 14, 1974 [74046]
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- For certain assorted Christians from New York to Mississippi, back-to-school time comes the first day of July 1974 when the converge on a West Virginia mountain campus.
They scatter again two weeks later, taking home strengthened Christian convictions, sharpened ministry skills, and memories of a camaraderie that may at times approximate the koinonia of New Testament days.
Unlike the earliest Christians, these people do not have "all things in common" -- but the Gospel itself suffices to draw together ordained man and lay person, seminary student and retiree, clergy wife and Sunday School teacher, Episcopalian and Methodist and Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist.
The 181 persons who attended the 1973 Appalachian Regional School for Church Leaders (ARSCL) came from 16 states and represented nine denominations and communions.
Site of the School is the new campus of the University of West Virginia in Morgantown, not far south of Pittsburgh. In a single well-appointed and air-conditioned building the students live, eat, study, worship, and relax.
Classes occupy mornings, Monday through Friday, with the midpoint weekend free. The 25-course curriculum derives from expressed needs of participants, via an advisory committee composed of student denominational representatives. Each student selects two courses for the first week, another two for the second. Among the 8:00 - 10:45 offerings this year are Oral Communication, Social-Economic-Political Issues in Appalachia, Group Process, and Family Financial Planning. An equally wide range is available in the 11:00 to 12:30 time slot: Medicine and Ethical Decisions, Who Am I As a Woman Today?, Problems of Suffering, Appalachian Culture, Human Sexuality.
Faculty members of high competence come from distant places as well as from the host University, one of four landgrant colleges across the country which offer regional schools like this.
Afternoons are free except when certain courses require lab or field trip sessions. Optional evening programs acquaint the student with Appalachian people, problems, crafts, and music. There are tennis courts and an indoor swimming pool on campus, a lake and several straw hat theaters within easy reach, and a country club which welcomes afternoon golfers and weekend diners-out. The University drama group presents a play on the middle weekend. Meals in a University cafeteria combine eye and taste appeal with well-rounded menus.
The ARSCL -- equivalent to a six-week session taken in two-week segments during three years -- is sponsored by the interchurch Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA) of which the Episcopal Church is a member. Tuition, room, and board cost $175 for the two weeks; of this a $30 deposit is made with the registration form which is now available (with full details) from CORA at 864 Weisgarber Road, Knoxville, Tenn. 37919. Attendance is limited to 200, and size of some classes is restricted.
So much for Facts. The commitment of the sponsoring churches expresses itself in financial backing for the School. Opinions of 1973 participants testify to its quality, as does the intention of many of them to return to the mountain this July.