| |
 |
|
[ Back to index of
December articles ]
By Diane Ney
Washington Window
Vol. 73, No. 12, December 2004
The Rev. Preston Hannibal is the Diocese of Washington's canon for academic ministries. Here, he speaks about his work, goals and future plans with writer Diane Ney.
You work with school and college chaplains?
Yes, I'm the liaison between the bishop's office and the 17 Episcopal schools in the diocese - nursery schools to high schools. I also coordinate the college chaplaincies for the diocese.
What kind of challenges and concerns do you hear about from college chaplains?
I'm not sure it's challenges and concerns at this point as much as it's an excitement about the growth of their ministries. These chaplains are doing amazing jobs. There are places like Howard University and University of Maryland at College Park where there has been an historic relationship between the diocese and those campus ministries so there's a framework already set up for relationships with local parishes and for lay support for the students that enhances the chaplaincies' ministry.
In what way?
One of the things College Park and Howard have that other programs are just initiating is college councils or advisory groups. I'm encouraging each campus to set up an advisory group made up of members from the parish closest to the chaplaincy. The model at Howard and Maryland is a council made up of professors and staff who might also be members of the nearby parish church. In addition there are members of the congregation and alumni of the college who are all supportive of the program. Speaking of Howard, one of the exciting things in academic ministries is we're about to go into a partnership with the Lutheran campus ministry at Howard, where the campus ministry will be an Episcopalian-Lutheran campus ministry, with our chaplain, the Rev. Robyn Franklin-Vaughn, being the lead chaplain. The ministries will be combined, with spiritual, communal and financial support coming from both the Lutheran and Episcopal churches.
What are some of the other college ministries doing?
I think every campus is unique in its own way and doing unique ministries. One example: David Bouchard at Grace Church, Georgetown, works with the Rev. Hugh Brown, Georgetown University's Protestant chaplain. David coordinates community service programs and invites our campus ministries at American University, Howard, George Washington University, Gallaudet University to join in. He brings out a listing of major activities he's going to do every semester. He'll also sculpt a program for an individual campus if they can't make it to one of the major activities. David has gone out of his way to include college students in Grace Church's community outreach so there's a real sense of not just a college program versus a parish program but a program where the parish supports the college students and the students support the parish.
What else are you involved in right now?
We're launching a new ministry at Bowie State in the spring. The Rev. Velma Brock, who is the new rector at St. Philip's, Baden, and has experience in college ministry, will be helping to found that ministry. We're hoping that the advisory committee will be made up of members of St. Philip's and St. James, Bowie. She's excited about it and we're very excited to have her doing such important work.
Now, the differences between college chaplaincies and those in elementary or middle schools?
There are myriad differences, but besides the obvious age difference, one important thing to consider, at least for me, is that the students we work with in our parochial schools are a captive audience. In college, kids go to the chapel and interact with their Episcopal community because they want to. I was a school chaplain for a total of 20 years at two prep schools, so I know what it's like. It's a very hard job, and you're dealing with a much broader constituency. You have kids from a lot of different backgrounds and they're at the schools because these are good schools. And a lot of those kids don't have even a basic background in communities of faith. They're not hostile, but they just have no experience of it.
So, it's a matter of trying to involve them in a new experience.
Right. And quite often, because that experience is mandatory, there can be a real resistance. What I have found here is that the kids, once they've found out what's going on in chapel, really like it, and really like the religious classes. The teachers make it very interesting. Just telling them the story is telling them something they didn't know, whether it's about the early Christians or about how Christianity has interacted with other religious traditions. That's on the high school level. For younger students there are Bible stories, which are wonderful. I'm in awe of our nursery and primary school chaplains, because that's a real gift to be able to hold the attention of little kids for any length of time and they do a wonderful job with that.
One of the things that I know from when I was a school chaplain is that there's a real sense of isolation. You're in school all day. There is little time to interact in colleague groups with other clergy, so you can't share ideas. When I came here, I found that a lot of chaplains didn't know each other, so we've initiated a fall lunch with chaplains of schools, heads of schools, rectors of parishes that are associated with schools, and the bishop. We bring them together to talk and share experiences, and this coming year we're going to expand this idea to include a couple of workshops as well as chaplains gatherings throughout the year.
[ Back to index of
December articles ]
|
|
