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Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People People on the MoveN° 108, December 2008
THIRD GLOBAL CONFERENCE OF UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE CHAPLAINS, CAMPUS MINISTERS AND RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONALS*
This 3rd Global Conference for a variety of personnel involved in university and higher education ministry was organised by the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education. This group came into being in 2000 when an International Chaplaincy Committee was established as the planning committee for the first Global University Chaplains’ Conference held in Vancouver. A second Global University Chaplains’ Conference was held in Brisbane in 2004. The theme chosen for the gathering was “Reflecting light”, which was particularly apt for the season of summer in Finland. The opening speech reminded everyone that it was a “common vocation of human beings to reflect light in a global perspective”. Unity and diversity, a theme of the conference was expressed as “the sun shining the same way around the world, but the light not being the same everywhere”. This general understanding of ‘reflecting on light’ broadly fell into three categories thus:
The conference had generous and wide aims which were expressed as (1) Enriching the profession by:
(2) Offering support through:
(3) Extending our understanding of a contested and changing world by:
The conference gathered nearly 350 participants from 40 different religious groups, churches and affiliations. Whilst the larger part of the conference attracted those from the Protestant traditions, there was a sizable group from the Catholic Church. The venue chosen was the University of Tampere, a public sector university in the “service of society”, which itself could boast nearly two thousand international students, four hundred of which were studying for a first degree. There were two keynote addresses. The first was given by Professor Amy-Jill Levine entitled, “Faith, Justice, and Common Ground: Inter-religious Relations in a New Light". She is currently Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, and is the author of numerous books and articles addressing such topics as Second-Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, Jewish-Christian relations and Biblical Women. She spoke on how we might reflect the faith of and in Jesus without casting his Jewish tradition, or any non-Christian tradition, in a negative light. She tackled how we could share our stories of justice without having one version overshadow another and how we could find common ground with those from other religious traditions, without putting into the shadows the teachings and practices that make us distinct. The second key note address was entitled 'The Metaphor of Light: What Can It Teach Us?' and given by Professor Taneli Kukkonen who is a Research Professor in Antiquity at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He was a specialist in Arabic philosophy and the Aristotelian tradition in Greek, Jewish, Arabic and Christian civilizations. He is also the director of a major upcoming research initiative funded by the European Research Council on 'Subjectivity and Selfhood in the Arabic and Latin Traditions'. He questioned about the everyday properties of light that makes it such an attractive analogue for divine revelation and what is it that is supposed to be disclosed in such a revelation. He then moved on to speak about the reasons as to why people experience it differently, and to what extent similarly. He argued that the very logic of the metaphor of light dictates an attitude of utmost respect for those who see things in a different light, those who perceive matters differently (e.g., not in terms of light at all), and above all those who feel as though no especial illumination is afforded to us, either individually or collectively. The other major input was a number of workshops which ranged widely in both subject matter and theological understanding. Among some of the topics included were: Loss and Grief, daily experiences in transformation; Multi-religious chaplaincy – work in progress; Ecumenism – a prism or a lens for light?; Deithrich Bonhoeffers Christology as a framework for university chaplaincy; to name a few. Important for the work at the Pontifical Council were two workshops aimed specifically at International Students. The first was given by Seija Frears, a Lutheran deacon, working in the United Kingdom at the University of Leeds. She carefully outlined her work and experience, particularly drawing on the specific needs encountered in the pastoral care of international students. A special concern was the management of the trauma of ‘Culture shock’, a well-recognised and documented experience undergone by many international students. A second workshop was given by Canon Charles de Hemptinne, which revolved around his specific and Catholic experience of pastoral care with international students at the university of Ghent. There were daily opportunities for both individual ecclesial worship as well as that which was corporate. Opportunities were plentiful for the exchange of experiences, ideas and outlooks. These were interspersed with numerous social activities helping to bring a sense of understanding and ‘togetherness’. The conference was also divided into reflection groups which met twice, after each other key note address and was a forum for discussing issues raised by these interventions. The 3rd Global Conference ‘cast its net wide’ both ecclesially and in the subject matter covered. Wisely there was no major attempt to draw a clear conclusion, other than to celebrate different experiences and understandings in the quest for better pastoral care and practice for those who work in higher education.
Rev. Jeremy Fairhead Official of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
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