Consultation Describes Campus Ministries as 'Out on a Limb'
Episcopal News Service. December 12, 1995 [95-1341]
The Rev. Timothy Hallett, Episcopal Chaplain at University of Illinois
(ENS) Many Episcopalians remember when ministry with college and university students was a vibrant feature of church life and a vital component of mission. That priority -- and the staffing and budgets that came with it -- faded long ago and has completely vanished in many places, together with the youthful constituency it addressed. A dwindling number of continuing chaplaincies are increasingly vulnerable to budgetary cutbacks or elimination.
The current state of campus ministry was assessed in a recent ecumenical consultation under the theme, "Out on a Limb," when some 200 campus ministers, denominational and judicatory executives, agency board members, faculty, and administrators gathered at Union College in Schenectady, New York, November 30-December 2, to think about faith and ministry in the college and university setting.
At the invitation of Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, a group of Episcopalians who attended the conference, together with other leaders, continued a consultation of their own.
The ecumenical consultation at Union College brought together speakers and panelists who addressed both grim conditions and hopeful signs in higher education and in campus ministry.
The Rev. Sam A. Portaro, Jr., Episcopal chaplain at the University of Chicago, was keynote speaker, tracing the history of how campus ministry came to be, came to decline, and comes to life. He stressed the importance of catechesis among a generation of students that has been taught very little of the Christian tradition, and of the need to raise fundamental questions of vocation and meaning in the midst of an educational context which begs those questions and seems to fear the answers.
Douglas Sloan of Columbia University's Teachers' College reviewed the churches' historic but failed attempt to engage higher learning in this century. What began as an attempt to relate faith and knowledge collapsed in the 1960's, he said, as the gap between quantitative knowledge and qualitative values widened into a chasm. Academic norms of knowing became increasingly objective and mechanical, setting aside questions of purpose and value, he maintained. Academic subjects dealing with qualities are put on the defensive as sciences and technologies rise in prominence. Faith is left entirely out of the equation.
Sharon Daloz Parks, senior research fellow in leadership and ethics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, considered "How We Become the People We Need." Her studies, she said, show that constructive engagement with otherness -- an experience "outside the tribe," so to speak -- is a consistent component in the formation of people who serve the common good. Proximity to otherness is not sufficient; there must be real engagement, she said. Then, once one barrier has been transcended it creates a life hypothesis that other barriers can be transcended too, recomposing characterizations of "we" and "they" so that "they" are found to be more like "us" than we thought.
Such transformation of thought and experience occurs most frequently in the context of a mentoring community -- often a campus ministry -- which provides opportunity and support for constructive engagement, Parks said. In that environment, young people can learn that it really does matter how you think. The people we need have thought deeply, committed deeply, and are deeply realistic, understanding that radical interdependence is not the way it could be, but the way it is, she said.
Douglas John Hall, recently retired as professor of Christian theology at McGill University in Montreal, explored the context in which we must do theology and ministry today. With the church in "diaspora," or no longer at the center of society's power structures, he said he sees an opportunity for reflection and enlightenment, a purposeful judgment beginning, appropriately, in the household of faith.
In the particular context of the university, we must no longer assume we have a "right" to be there, Hall said, for that right has often been exercised in predatory fashion in the past. The church may be able to help the university recover the distinction between know-how and wisdom, but only by relinquishing the church's own sense of intellectual and spiritual superiority. And among students, who have been given little grounding in substantive faith, we must deepen the understanding of what Christianity really is, he said.
Respondent Donna Schaper, area minister for the United Church of Christ in Western Massachusetts, reminded the conference that being out on a limb is not necessarily an unenviable position: Zaccheus went out on one so he could see better! Barbara Wheeler, President of Auburn Theological Seminary, noted that being the church in the diaspora puts us in contact with people we thought we were isolated from.
For the mainline churches, one of those distant groups is the Evangelical wing of Christianity, which must not be ignored, she suggested. The future of Christianity may well be forged between the Evangelicals and the mainline churches and not by either grouping alone. She also reminded the consultation that Christians are, after all, the people whose specialty is figuring out what to do when everything has changed.
The presiding bishop's consultation brought together representatives of the Association of Episcopal Colleges and the Episcopal Society for Ministry in Higher Education with Thomas Chu, national coordinator for young adult and higher education ministries, Bill Anderson of the Episcopal Church Foundation, and Fred Burnham of Trinity Institute. Their meeting will be followed by an additional, larger one in the spring.
The reflective but somewhat somber mood of the ecumenical consultation gave way to real excitement as this new grouping of Episcopal agencies began to exchange ideas and resources for strengthening the church's ministry in higher education. Conversation quickly turned to a number of specific, practical initiatives, including strengthening the fundraising capabilities of Episcopal chaplaincies to make them less dependent on fluctuating, often dwindling diocesan support.
Equally important, the group decided, is the development of strong boards with a sense of their own leadership that are able to articulate the need for campus ministry and generate support for it. Much more attention needs to be paid to training and qualifications for campus ministries, lay and ordained, to ensure that those placed in such positions have the chance to succeed, they said.
Trinity Institute and the Education Committee of the Episcopal Church Foundation have begun work in common on initiatives in education and spiritual formation to reach out to young adults. With ESMHE and AEC as partners, a program of leadership development and spiritual formation could be developed to reach out to this critical generation.
Through the Episcopal Cathedral Teleconferencing Network, Trinity Institute has expanded its educational offerings to a much wider audience than was possible only a few years ago. With its most recent offering, "Jesus 2000," a national symposium commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus, the network expands to a number of university campuses, with campus ministries facilitating the relationship.
A university network could well emerge, the group noted, with programs developed for that constituency, re-integrating campus ministries into the life of the university. Similarly, the long-nascent network of Episcopal faculty, once an active forum for the integration of religion and academic life, could take advantage of teleconferencing as a means of communication for those on the forefront of thinking the faith.
The time may be ripe to convert the church back to a sense of mission for youth and young adults, the group concluded. Campus ministry may still be out on a limb, but its Episcopal branch is looking to sprout new growth.