Annual Report to the Committee on Higher Education and Campus
Ministry
Academic Year 2003-2004 (modified February 2006)
I. Goals for the 2003-2004 Academic year
This was our follow-up year being a full-time United Methodist campus ministry on the American University campus. Our primary goal during this first year was to raise the profile of the United Methodist presence on the campus and to create a dynamic and stable community of faith available to AU students. In our second year (2003-2004), we hoped to define that raised profile as a community committed to a radical inclusiveness and with a solid identity. To a large extent, these goals were met.
II. Worship
A. Sunday Night Worship
Regular weekly worship services are held in the Kay Spiritual Life Center chapel every Sunday evening during the semester at 7:00 p.m. It is the only regular mainline Protestant worship service offered on campus.
1. Attendance and Stability
We made great strides in 2002-2003 in terms of attendance. Unfortunately, we were not able to follow up on that in 2003-2004. A number of efforts were made to change this trend, but it remained largely the same throughout the year. Our average attendance in 2002-2003 was 26. In 2003-2004 our average attendance was 23.
While our attendance during Holy Week was still high, and higher than it had been in years before the full-time ministry, the other Sundays of the year were lower overall in attendance. We did learn that we were not alone in this plight. A number of other groups on campus reported lower than usual numbers and a dearth of freshmen. We noted very few freshmen at our regular events.
B. Thursday Night Healing Service
We have continued with our mid-week worship opportunity: a communion, prayer, and healing service held every Thursday night at 11:00 p.m. in the Kay Chapel. This represents a time change from the previous year's time of 10:45 p.m. Our average weekly attendance for the 2003-2004 academic year was 8 people.
In 2003-2004, in response to a request from my board to make faculty and staff a part of our outreach, we offered a Tuesday mid-day communion service. It averaged 6 in attendance, including the chaplain, the accompanist and the pastoral intern. After 8 weeks, we shut it down.
C. Other Services
The UM chaplain participated in a number of special services on campus this year, including a September 11th Commemoration services on the main campus.
Ash Wednesday services are usually coordinated by the Catholic chaplain's office and consist of a noon and evening mass and ecumenical services at the law school and the Kay Chapel. This year, for the first time in recent memory, we provided a late night (11 pm) Ash Wednesday service for the benefit of United Methodist/Protestant students unable to make the earlier services. Attendance: 27.
D. Summer Services
Summer services are not usually offered during the summer months. However, in response to some student interest and the fact that we now have a full-time UM chaplain, we offered some summer services in the summer of 2003. Like the Tuesday mid-day services, they were a failure and we scrapped the idea not long after it began.
III. SOCIAL JUSTICE
A. Alternative Spring Break
In the 2003-2004 academic year, our ministry added an Alternative Spring Break program. Based upon a similar program at Howard University, we planned a week of service and learning in Cherokee, North Carolina. We had 16 students participate in the program, staying at Cherokee UMC and working during the day at Cherokee Challenge, a leadership program for Cherokee youth. We were able to meet members of the community, participate in a sweat lodge ritual, and to explore the town. It was a very successful program and we expect to reprise it in 2005.
B. Social Justice Intern
In the spring 2004 semester, we welcomed Ms. Laura Peck as our social justice intern. A senior at Hanover College in Indiana, she worked with us via the Washington Center. She set up a social justice discussion group, was instrumental in helping to plan our The Other Six Days ministry, and assisted in finalizing details for our Alternative Spring Break. In August, she began studies at Wesley Seminary (this development itself being a consequence of her work with us).
C. Other events
The United Methodist community organized and co-sponsored an interfaith vigil against hate crimes on October 16, 2003 on the fifth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shephard.
IV. Educational & Discipleship opportunities
A. Baptism and Christian Initiation
We were happy to welcome Jessica Dillon into membership in The United Methodist Church. Jessica joined in March 2004.
B. Covenant Discipleship
We had a regular covenant discipleship meeting every week. The CD group in 2003-2004 was organized by our pastoral intern from Wesley Seminary, Scott Manning .
C. Wednesday Afternoon Bible Studies
Every Wednesday afternoon in the Davenport Coffee Lounge, students and the chaplain meet to discuss the lectionary text for the week in a devotional setting.
D. Friday Chaplain's Study
Friday afternoons at 1 pm, the Chaplain continues his in-depth text study.
E. Interfaith Dialogue
On September 11, 2003, the United Methodist Chaplaincy co-sponsored an event with the Muslim Student Association hosting the screening of a Vital Visions film, "Islam in America" and a discussion following it.
In February 2004, the United Methodist Community sponsored an interfaith screening of "The Passion of the Christ" at a local theater. A group of 17 Christians and 14 Jews saw the film and then gathered at the chaplain's apartment for a discussion that went until about 2 a.m. The UM Chaplain also participated in a panel discussion in the dormitory alongside the Catholic, Jewish, and Assemblies of God Chaplain about the film.
The UMSA and The UM Chaplaincy are founding presences in the Kay Interfaith Council, an interfaith body designed to promote communication and discussion among the various tenants of the Kay Spiritual Life Center.
F. Conference Participants
One of our students attended Student Forum in Arkansas in May 2004, as well as a student from George Washington University who is part of our extended family. In addition, we had a number of students who attended the NEJ conference in both Fall 2003 and 2004.
V. Counseling
The United Methodist chaplain has offered counseling services to the university and has counseled a number of students from within and without the community. In contrast with a number of other ministries on campus, the UM community has developed a reputation as an open and affirming community, and that has translated into students coming for counseling who are from outside the community, but who believe they are likely to be better received there than in their own.
VI. Social events & Fellowship
A. Student Night at Camden Yards
On September 19, 2003, we took 25 students to Camden Yards on $5 student night to watch the Blue Jays-Orioles game, and followed up the following year on September 10, 2004 for the Yankees-Orioles game.
B. Monthly Methodist Movie Night
The first Tuesday of the month is movie night. The UMSA and the Chaplaincy sponsor a free showing with free pizza and snacks. In the past year and a half we showed Bowling for Columbine, American History X, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Christmas Story, Cider House Rules, Bruce Almighty, and Rat Race. Viewing of the film is always followed by a discussion in which we talk about the theological or philosophical issues addressed by each movie. The movie nights are very popular and we often have attendees who would not otherwise participate in campus ministry related events.
C. Fall and Spring Retreats
Our fall retreat was held on the weekend of September 12-13, 2003 at the cabin of University Chaplain Joe Eldridge in the Shenandoah. As indicated above, freshman participation in 2003-2004 was low and not a single freshman participated in that year's retreat.
D. Fall Outings
We had a fall outing to Cox Farms in Centerville, Virginia. The outing involves hay rides, petting zoos, and large slides and other fun things to do.
E. Pancake Study Break
On the first night of the two-day pre-exam study period for both fall and spring semesters, the United Methodist Community, along with other ministries on campus, participated in a pancake study break coordinated by the University Chaplain. We helped to cook pancakes for nearly 300 hungry students from 11 pm to 2 am.
VI. Outreach & Marketing
A. Website
The Chaplaincy has a website that it maintains at http://www.aumethodists.org. The site contains information about the ministry, upcoming worship times, the weekly lectionary readings, and copies of past sermons. Sermons are posted on our website at http://www.aumethodists.org/sermons.html. Students can also use the website to update their directory information and participate in community polls.
For the past year and a half, we have had arrangements through Network for Good to receive online donations, which visitors to our website can make online through the services of that non-profit organization at no cost to us.
B. Feed the Quad
We sponsored our annual free picnic and cookout for the AU Campus in the fall on September 24, 2003. An average of 350 people are served at these events, receiving AU UMC cups with worship times and our web address.
C. Orientation
We had a regular presence at summer orientation 2003 and added an average of 45 names and e-mail addresses to our mailing list. We have had a larger number of materials available for students and their parents.
D. Club Fair and Tabling
The United Methodist Student Association had a table at the Campus Club Fair at which we distributed materials about the ministry, along with cross-shaped keychains and 'Flaming Cupcakes' (hostess cakes with a candle stuck in them). "Flaming Cupcake" is the nickname of the Kay Spiritual Life Center, a round building with a flame on the roof. The UMSA also tabled in the campus center and offered hot chocolate on the quad during February.
E. Dorm Deacons
A number of students have volunteered to be Dorm Deacons, responsible for distributing flyers and other information in the dorms and for being contact persons for the community.
VII. Ecumenical ANd Interfaith Relations
As part of the United Methodist campus ministry's stewardship of the main Protestant worship service on campus, we help to promote and facilitate events and programs for the other Protestant ministries on campus. We have helped to promote the Baptist Student Fellowship's Non-Violence Workshop, Episcopal communion services, Episcopal discussions, and a Baptist presentation of a Non-violence documentary.
The United Methodist Chaplain was also instrumental in drafting a Joint Statement of the Chaplains of the Kay Spiritual Life Center in Response to the War on Iraq, which was released after that war started and published in the University newspaper The Eagle .
VIII. GOALS and Plans for The Coming Year
A. Provide and Alternate Christian Voice to the Political Conversation
The United Methodist community has been successful in providing a community for worship and reflection for the campus and has built a strong social justice ministry. In the coming year, I hope to help the community articulate and witness to a Christian faith that is not only pious and active, but that is committed to its issues as moral issues and values issues. Many on the left are suspicious of religion, and many on the right are convinced they have occupied the field on matters of morality. It is my hope that our campus community can give a powerful Christian voice to issues of social holiness and morality in the Wesleyan tradition.
B. Partnerships with other Campus Groups
Our "The Other Six Days" program developed for the 2004-2005 academic year will provide us not only with the opportunity to explore diverse issues, but also to find natural allies on those issues among existing groups on campus. (For example, partnering with the Women's Initiative when focusing on domestic violence next spring). We hope to partner with these groups as we seek to relate these issues to Christian faith.
We hope to follow the strong showing we have made this year and expect to continue to grow our presence, outreach and the number of opportunities available to explore faith on the AU campus.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark A. Schaefer