"ECM has been a great way for me to connect with my spirituality and recharge once a week. Everyone is friendly and open to each other's views, and we are really building a community. Our discussions have helped me to grow as a Christian and understand more about my own faith life." -- Andrew White, Haverford College '06

Campus Ministry
By Mary Wessel Walker, BMC ‘06

Everyone is wondering what it is exactly that we do in Campus Ministry every week. We have quite a diverse group of students; I’d say a core of about ten people who come regularly, though each week we have a different combination of about five of these. Everyone comes from fairly different faith backgrounds. Sarah is Lutheran, Christy was involved in Young Life in high school, Adrienne is Catholic, I’m a cradle Episcopalian, etc. Every week we have a discussion followed by a worship service, usually Compline. One week we had an especially good discussion, which I think will be the best way to show what we do.
Before our meetings, Greg sends out an email explaining what we’re going to discuss that week. This gives everyone a chance to reflect on the topic, and sometimes we have short Bible readings to look at as well. Since we’re all busy college students, all this is fairly low key, but it’s nice to have an idea of what we’re going to do before hand so that we can come in with a few thoughts or questions in mind. So, on the Sunday I want to tell you about, the topic was prayer.
Each week the discussion begins with Greg asking us how we’re all doing and we have a brief check-in. We all try not to let this devolve into the “Bryn Mawr Game”, where everyone tries to outdo one another: “Well, I have three tests and a 7 page paper…” “Well I have three papers and two tests and a lab….”. No, we don’t do that. This is an opportunity for us to unload and share what’s going on in our lives. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who likes to hold my friends’ stresses in my prayers. After we’ve shared a bit from our lives and eaten a little pizza, the real discussion begins. On this particular week, Greg asked us to share what we each personally do for our daily devotions, how we each bring prayer into our lives. I was amazed at the diversity of ideas that we shared. Diana is trying to read through the whole Bible, a few chapters a night. She told us that she didn’t set any goals, she just would read until she realized she wasn’t concentrating any more, and if that was after two verses or after three chapters, that was where she’d shut the book. I thought that was a really wonderful way to go at it, though it may take years to get through the whole book, you could go at your own pace and be sure that you were really paying attention to what you’re reading. Sarah told us that when she prays she likes to work from the big picture on down to the little picture, praying first for her concerns in the world at large, then for all her friends and family, then for her own personal problems and needs. I really like that idea, and I have been trying to apply it to my own prayers. Someone else mentioned music, which gave me an idea. I take piano lessons, so I have a key to a practice room in the Goodhart Music Building at Bryn Mawr. Since we had this discussion, I have taken to going down to my practice room and singing a few hymns at the end of the day. I have found this to really help calm me and center me. It’s a really good meditation for me. After we all shared our ideas, Greg introduced us to some new ideas. He explained the Daily Office to us, and showed us where to find it in the BCP. He also shared some handouts from his Prayer class in seminary about different techniques for meditation and prayer. Last week, Andrew mentioned that he has started reading a little of the Daily Office every day since we had this discussion. That’s what I love about ECM, and what makes me excited about the future of this group. Not only do we come together to worship and discuss, but we all take away something from our discussions and try to grow in our spiritual life and our faith.

ECM – My Experience
By Andrew White Haverford College Class of 2006

When I made my first trek from West Hartford, Connecticut to Haverford College last fall, a lot of questions were running through my head: would I like my roommates? What would classes be like? How would college food be? And somewhere in the back of my head, a quiet but insistent voice was asking “What about church?” I had seen the sign advertising “Free dinner and fellowship” outside Redeemer on my way in, and I filed it away for safekeeping. Out of the blue in September, I got an email from Greg Wilson inviting me to a meeting of the Episcopal Campus Ministry.
The first few meetings I attended were small in number but rich in conversation. I met other college students from different backgrounds, but all with the same desire to explore their spirituality. Some were raised in the Episcopal Church; others, like me, came to the church later in life from other Christian traditions. As such, we all come to ECM with different spiritual backgrounds and different questions about our common faith.
Each meeting, we examined a different question about our faith, sharing each other’s experiences and coming up with individual answers through discussion and worship. One week, we discussed the difficulty of maintaining an active spiritual life alongside academic and social pressures. For me, this issue has always been a prickly one; I often wonder how to reconcile the person sitting in the pew on Sunday morning with the one in class on Monday afternoon. The group discussion helped me realize that there’s no need to balance the different aspects of my life; instead, I must learn to let faith pervade every aspect of my life, affecting each part differently.
When I was in the midst of a confirmation process, I complained to my parents that, simply put, I just didn’t want to do that. My father convinced me to see it through for the sole reason that if I left religion entirely, I would have nowhere to go just to think about something bigger than myself once a week. The most important aspect of ECM (besides a free dinner) is that it provides just that. It gives us all an opportunity to get out of our collective ruts and remember the simple joy of faith. We always start meetings by checking in, and seeing who’s ready for the coming week and who’s still recovering from the previous one. It helps to get out of the grind of classes, papers, tests and the sickening whoosh! of passing deadlines. For a few hours every Sunday, we can forget about the work to do or the arguments just had, and focus on reconnecting with God.
A year later, I’ve returned home to Connecticut to reflect on my freshman year: my roommates were more than I could have asked for, classes were mostly difficult, and college food was terrible. Best of all, I managed to shut up that insistent little voice by finding a place to talk with other students about spirituality in a relaxed atmosphere. Finding a community of faith like ECM here, five hours from home, has been so fulfilling. It’s comforting to know that, for the next three years, no matter what my major ends up being or how many papers I turn in, I know where I’ll be on Sunday night.

One Student’s Life and Plans after Campus Ministry….. Christy Laborda BMC '03
August 1, 2003

During my senior year at Bryn Mawr College, I joined the Redeemer community through its campus ministry on Sunday evenings. For the past two months, following my graduation from Bryn Mawr, my time and energy have been pulled in a number of directions: working as a waitress at Wyndham (on Bryn Mawr’s campus), trying to spend as much time with my friends and family as possible, preparing for my departure for Los Angeles in mid August, and making progress in the ordination process.

Once a week for two hours for the past six weeks, I’ve meet with my Parish Advisory Committee on Ministry (PACM). PACM is a group of eight parishioners from my home church, St. Alban’s, in Newtown Square. It’s designed to aid me in the discernment process. When our Rector, Rev. Hentzi Elek, selected members, he looked for a diverse group in as many ways as possible (age, race, sex, beliefs, lifestyle, etc.). Throughout our sessions, we discussed many issues and topics. First, we all got to know each other by sharing our life stories. This served as an important foundation of trust necessary for the rest of the process. We followed the PACM handbook, distributed by our diocese, which guided us in our discussions. We discussed such things as my faith journey since early childhood, my sense of my call to ministry, why I feel that I am called to ordained ministry in contrast to lay ministry, my relationships with my friends and family, how I handle stress, my plans for the future, and many more topics. As intended, PACM and the individuals involved challenged me and gave me new things to think and pray about as I continue in the ordination process.

My time has also been consumed by making plans for my coming year in Los Angeles, California. In Mid-August I leave to take part in the Episcopal Urban Intern Program (I learned about this program through The Rev. Wilson who participated before his first year in seminary). During my time in the program, I’ll be living in a Christian community with four other interns around my age, in the rectory of Holy Faith Church in Inglewood. Each of us has a non-profit job for the entire year. I will be working for a non-profit organization called Chrysalis, which was started by the Jesuits. The agency works to find jobs for the homeless. The office I will be working in is in the Pacoima Valley and half of its clients are monolingual Spanish speakers. I hope to get lots of practice and become fluent in Spanish during my time there, making me capable of ministering to the growing Spanish-speaking population both within the United States and the Episcopal Church. I anticipate my time in LA to be a huge growth experience both because of the challenges that I will face and because of the time it will afford me to continue discerning my call to ministry.

I would like to thank the Redeemer community for providing and supporting its new campus ministry at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. Although most parishioners may not be aware of our presence because we use the church by night, your ministry has been felt and appreciated in my life and in the lives of other students. An open-minded and supportive ministry like this one is a much needed service in many colleges and in the lives of their students. If it were not for this ministry, I highly doubt that I would be on the path I now follow. Thank you.