the sad state of College ministry.

[Bartimaeus]

I know I shouldn't post a link like this, but the articles found at the link below have given me a burden on my heart I simply cannot shake. Whiy is college ministry in the ECUSA in such sad, sorry shape? Any thoughts?

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/21855_48507_ENG_HTM.htm?menu=menu48495

[pmcleanj]

I know I shouldn't post a link like this, but the articles found at the link below have given me a burden on my heart I simply cannot shake. Whiy is college ministry in the ECUSA in such sad, sorry shape? Any thoughts?

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/21855_48507_ENG_HTM.htm?menu=menu48495
I'm not convinced that college ministry was in such a great shape before the national programmes mentioned in the article closed -- although I could be wrong. I did go to university in the 1980's, but it wasn't in the U.S. Still, I suspect the situation was not so much different from the situation in Canada.

I think the problem is and was, that college ministry is often understood as a top-down ministry: a central committee, whether at the diocesan, provincial/regional, or national level, that establishes and funds programmes that are then rolled out to the various campuses. I think that works for the more evangelical ministries, because their programme focus is monolithically a relatively simplistic form of peer evangelism. We're usually aiming to do something more, but I'm afraid we're not sure what that "something more" should be.

I'm afraid that among Christians who aren't IVCF material, their university years tend to establish the idea that the Church may be rather irrelevant. We sit up Saturday night studying for midterms until the early morning hours, and still have to get up at 9:00 to make it to church, because our parish doesn't accomodate the skewed hours many students work. Our entire future is riding on the outcome of one exam, and the day before that exam we pray for "Mrs Jones in the retirement home, and in the Anglican cycle of prayer we pray for the church in Trinidad and Tobago" -- but never any mention of finals, or the mononucleosis outbreak in residence, or the kid who used to sit behind me in Calc but had to drop out over financial difficulties.

There are lots of mainstream/liturgical/sacramental Christians on campus, but what special services do they really need that aren't met by their home parishes off-campus? And what responsibility do off-campus congregations bear to support college ministry to their own members who are in college? I think those are the questions we need to ask; and in the (possibly beneficial) absence of a bureaucratic national programme, those are the responsibilities that local parishes need to take up.

[PaladinValer]

Where I went to college, SUNY Geneseo, the Episcopal Church parish had a Canterbury Fellowship every Sunday at 5pm. It was a "Half Mass" followed by dinner with the priest and his family (which often lasted over an hour). It was a wonderful experience for me...

...probably why I still go there even though I'm graduated! :D

[Bartimaeus]

Okay, I admit, I didn't think of the potential for a beauracracy in terms of a national entity.

It sounds like our canterbury house here, by the way, the service followed by dinner. :)