Hospitality: The Heart of Campus Ministry
Interview with the Rev. John Merz, Episcopal Chaplain at NYU, by Anne Ditzler who helped establish Canterbury NYU.
What is unique about ministry at NYU?
In last 20 years New York University (NYU) has gone from a small regional school, situated off the edge of Washington Square Park, to a major national private university. 40,000 students are enrolled at NYU, primarily young people: engaged, bright, open, and inquisitive. It is crucial that parishes engage these students at this important time in their lives. It is a period of intellectual growth and change for students. Our Anglican ethos with its high valuation of intellectual growth, maturity, and the imagination and our respect for each individual’s freedom to make choices proper to one’s own life makes Canterbury NYU a good place for students to nurture their faith or encounter the Gospel for the first time.
NYU is also a diverse university. It has so many divisions, so many outstanding schools; in a relatively small area you have all manner of worldviews in conversation. Add to that the fact that the Village is still one of the more progressive, eclectic and strange bodies of human beings gathered in 3 square miles, this mix creates an electric atmosphere. Even in its gentrified state, the Village is a great spiritual, intellectual, creative place. There is an opportunity here for a vibrant and engaged Christian witness to grow among students for the benefit of the whole community.
So you see lots of opportunity for Canterbury's growth at NYU?NYU is incredibly fertile ground. I have to say from my perspective as a Chaplain, I could care less whether the students become dedicated Episcopalians. Or wait, let me rephrase that: I care too much for them, for the integrity of their finding depth and meaning, for helping them in it and trusting the choices they make to be concerned that they become Episcopalians. I want to provide Priestly counsel and presence no doubt, but I also recognize and respect that our time together is a free conversation and we are partners in it.
Why do you think that Churches have a hard time doing ministry to Colleges and Universities?
This fact: the life of students is fluid and quickly changing. We do not know where they will be in a few years, whether they will exhibit what we might call vibrant faith or whether they will be close to the church that took part in their care.
Often in church we do things because we want to get something back. Students do not pledge much money, at least not yet, and therefore are not of financial value to us so we tend to ignore them. There are a lot of very real demands already being placed on Church budgets. However, campus ministry offers a unique and different opportunity for us as a Church: the chance to practice letting go. We have a chance to walk with students, take risks with them, be with them on their way and let them go. A richer way of thinking about being with them is not about future pledging units or people who can “save the church” but instead it can be about practicing hospitality. This is a dreadfully overused and misunderstood concept in the Church.
This last piece seems very close to the heart of Christ's life work as I see it. We see this in the people he hangs with that nobody else would, and in the people he ate with. In these moments Jesus is letting go of all the conventions of the time that tend to flatten human beings-- complex and divine images of God that we are, into static valuations of relative worth and merit. Jesus lets go of all that and allows himself to be with people; he simply spends time with others and together, with a lot of patience, they together reach a more profound understanding of the depths of what it means to be human. It is not his teachings in the Gospel that really changes people the quality of his being with them. He is present and he is letting go at once. People felt his presence so deeply moving that they were moved to exclaim that this must be the Son of God.
It is one of the great gifts I believe that NYU and other local students offer the parishes that surround NYU, the opportunity to practice hospitality; to practice being present to students and also letting go: we do not know where they will be down the road and you know what? There is something wonderful about that. Do you think the Samaritan that left that money for the guy in the roads for his care left an address so he could get a report on how thing went? No, he cared and let go, and Jesus said it looked like real mercy and love of neighbor, it stands as a paradigm of right action: love and let go; that is a mantra from the heart of the Gospel.
A lot of folks are frustrated by the degree to which younger folks say that they are spiritual and not religious, that it something you might hear from a student, how do you feel about that? Also many students are distrustful of organized religion, do you have any feelings about that as well?Episcopal chaplains need to foster Anglican identity, but we also need to respect that this generation is comfortable seeing the Dali Lama as an utterly authoritative spiritual figure. Authority is now ecumenically experienced in authenticity and integrity. So one of the things we need to be cognizant of with young folks is their incredible facility to choose and borrow and move between traditions, even in ways that on the surface seem wildly incompatible. We ought to accept and know that we are in cultural age in which they people are seeking and listening to different spiritual authorities. We do want to be critical at times, be a note of caution, we also want to learn and access what is positive as well. That is the church in the future as far as I can see: not a watering down, but a broadening of perspective.
The question is does the church have the guts to meet these challenge? It is always a primary objective stated at our church Conventions: engage these younger ones. They are very vigorous! What will the church do with them in their midst? Run from them or embrace them…time will tell. It will be interesting to see what happens.
