[ecm] Easter season ops @ St Paul's

Thu Apr 20 13:36:00 EDT 2006

Greetings!

            Things are rushing to an end around campus these days, aren't
they?  Some have tons to do - but I know a senior who's actually getting
bored, having completed EVERYTHING necessary.  Awww!

            Anyway.

This Saturday at 5 PM St Paul's will hold the monthly Saturday Thing worship
service at 5 PM.  This month:  drumming!  Have you ever drummed your
prayers?  Come check it out.  If you have or can borrow a percussion
instrument, please bring it - there will be a limited number of loaner drums
on Saturday.  We'll meet in Bacon Hall, and the service includes Eucharist.
This will  be something "completely different" for most of us.

Later on Saturday we're going BOWLING!  Meet at St Paul's @ 8 PM for a
couple hours of off-campus recreation.  We've got a couple of pros in our
midst - so please, no wagering.  Should be fun.

And later on.

Thursday, May 4:           God & Coffee in the library lobby, 9:45 AM

Saturday, May 6:           "Getaway" to the mountains - an afternoon at John
Roberts' cabin, including a cookout.  Meet @ St Paul's at Noon, back 6ish.

Sunday, May 7 - Wednesday, May 11:   Exam Week Open House @ St Paul's from 7
- 11 PM.  A QUIET place to study & snack.

            Hey, have you heard of the U2charist?  It's a service build
around the music of U2, developed by an Episcopal priest in Maine.  I've got
the format - think this would be cool?  Please let me know - St Paul's may
be able to offer it on campus in the fall.

            Enjoy the blessings of Easter & the beauty of God's Spring!

In Christ,

Rob+

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Rev. Robert Lundquist, Priest-in-Charge

St Paul's Episcopal Church

1208 W Elizabeth St, Fort Collins, CO  80521

   970-482-2668                  FAX 970-482-8318

www.stpauls-fc.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Greetings from Episcopal Relief and Development! I wanted to let you know
the deadline has been extended (to May 3rd) for our young adult offering
this summer-Episcopal Youth Connection. Youth ages 16-20 are invited to
apply to join us on a 10 day trip to El Salvador. We will get to know
Salvadorian youth, live and work at the Diocesan retreat center and learn
about the culture of El Salvador. 

All the information an applicant would need can be found on our website at:
http://www.er-d.org/waystogive_36773_ENG_HTM.htm 

It's going to be a fun week full of worship, fellowship and growth.  We
still have a few places left and would love to have one of your members come
with us. I apologize that we did not send this to college chaplaincies
earlier. Please call with any questions. 

Blessings for a happy Eastertide! --Kedron

________________________

The Rev. Kedron D. Jarvis

Director of Church Relations

Episcopal Relief and Development

815 Second Ave. 

New York, NY 10017

1800.334.7626 ext. 6355

New ministry of presence fosters higher education-church dialogue with
Gospel

By: Heidi Shott 
Posted: 4/1/2006                           episcopal-life.org

As the Rev. Shirley Bowen looked out at her audience in the Student Center
of the University of Southern Maine one day in late February, it occurred to
her that sometimes reality and vision come together in ways that are hard to
foresee.  What had started several years before as a grassroots desire by
Maine Episcopalians to establish a chaplaincy presence on the state's
campuses and to engage colleges and universities in dialogue about the
Gospel, was going to happen in about five minutes.  And she was at the
center of it all.

Bowen has served since September, both as the campus missioner for the
Diocese of Maine and as Episcopal chaplain at USM, a position created from
the funding of the diocese's recently concluded $3 million One in Christ
Campaign and a two-year grant from the Episcopal Church's New Initiatives
Fund from the Office of Young Adults and Higher Education.

Three years ago, when Bishop Chilton Knudsen and the One in Christ leaders
worked to  determine which mission priorities would bubble to the top of the
"wish list,"  it immediately became clear that Episcopalians in Maine placed
a high value on the startup of campus ministry efforts.  "We were not
spending any money or dedicating any clergy time or lay leader time to an
official ministry presence on our campuses," Knudsen said.  "I envisioned a
chaplain gifted with ministry with this age group gathering a group of
students, talking about the important issues of their lives; wrestling with
them about the moral dilemmas of life in a complicated, post-modern world;
struggling with them about issues of world peace, of global reconciliation,
of economic justice . and doing that in the context of their faith."

Others in the diocese agreed.  The Rev. Roy Partridge, assistant professor
of sociology and Africana studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine,
and a priest in the diocese, knows firsthand about the value of college
chaplaincy.  "I support campus ministry because I've seen what the absence
of it does.  It leaves students, particularly those students who already
have some sense of their spiritual life, at a loss to figure out how to live
those lives on a campus like this," he explained. "Students just need a
place to go to share their thoughts, their struggles, their concerns.
Counseling does it for some students, but to have another avenue open to
students is really, really important."  Meanwhile, Bowen was on her own
journey.  A long-time member of Christ Church in the small southern Maine
city of Biddeford, she completed her seminary training while working
full-time as the associate dean of students at the University of New
England.  

A comprehensive campus ministry

As the money was being raised to fund a Maine chaplaincy, the vision for
campus ministry was being crafted.  In December, when Bowen was ordained to
the priesthood and celebrated her new ministry among college students, the
Rev. Douglas Fenton, staff officer for the national church's Young Adult and
Higher Education Ministries, was present.  Commenting on the vision that
Maine brought to the granting process, Fenton said, "The Diocese of Maine,
bar none, had the most comprehensive and well-articulated rationale for
campus ministry: To engage both the institution of higher education with the
institution of the church in a dialogue with the gospel and to include all
constituent groups.

"It is a formidable task, but the service on Dec. 10 to celebrate this new
ministry reminded each of us that the next generation is the responsibility
of all of God's people. Many voices were lifted up in support of the
ministry. Maine's institutions of higher education and their students will
be well served."  

In late February, after a mere six months of a "ministry of presence" among
the students and staff at USM, Bowen sat beside a physicist-Zen Buddhist on
a two-person panel modeled after National Public Radio's This I Believe
program.  Before a group of honor students and members of the public, they
would attempt to answer the questions "How do we find truth?" and "How do we
recognize truth?"  

For Bowen, the invitation to sit on this panel, to assist in supporting
students in the wake of another student's death, to bring a new spirit of
collaboration to her work among other campus chaplains - from Intervarsity
Christian Fellowship to the Pagan Fellowship - is the convergence of the
vision and the reality set in motion years ago.  

Students desperately seeking meaning

The looks on the faces of students as they listen to Bowen talk about truth
and faith, the staff member who seeks her out in the cafeteria to talk about
a personal problem, the nontraditional student who needs to talk with a wise
chaplain about his enlarging worldview - these are the embodiment of a
growing ministry that, as Fenton described, engages higher education with
the church in the dialogue with the gospel.  But that's not always an easy
job, said Bowen.  "In my years in student affairs, I saw a decline in most
students coming from a grounded faith tradition.  I think people of this age
are desperately seeking meaning, but many don't have the vocabulary of
faith. "Soon some students and I will begin gathering for regular prayer,
reflection, meditation, music," she said. "Sometimes it takes five years of
a ministry of presence to establish a solid ministry."

With the grassroots support of the people of Maine who value campus
ministry, the renewed interest in higher education ministry at the national
level and her wide experience with students, approachability and
groundedness, Bowen is anxious to make an Episcopal presence felt on the USM
campus. Soon she will also begin a ministry of presence at her former
campus, the University of New England.  And, over the next few years, as the
multiyear pledges and gifts continue to stream in from the One in Christ
Campaign, future chaplaincy possibilities will be explored.  "With Shirley's
years of experience working with college students coupled with her
giftedness as a pastor, she is well-poised to be an important presence and
voice on the USM campus," Knudsen said.  "Her ministry has the potential to
reach students, faculty and staff in ways we are just beginning to glimpse."

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