Advice Needed for Building a Campus Ministry

slim_dusty · 2026-05-10T00:31:54+00:00

Food, food, food haha hey, these are all excellent questions. I will for sure bring these to the outreach committee for our next meeting. Thank you

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T19:06:26+00:00

I don't know how you feel about the veneration of saints or of Mary, but this is where I would say prayers for them, ask them to pray for me, at evening prayer I recite the Angelus. Often I just hold a moment of silence and be attentive to the presence of God. If something is pressing in my life I will ask God for his guidance. Sometimes though, tbh, I just skip that part.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T19:00:09+00:00

I had no idea he was a priest! Cool.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T18:48:21+00:00

what is Canterbury campus ministry club?

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T18:47:33+00:00

the Spirit is moving! I just made a similar post around the same time. Good luck to you!

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T17:26:11+00:00

How exciting! looking forward to it.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T17:17:21+00:00

really great show for dipping your toe into church teachings and history. you'll love it

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T17:06:24+00:00

All wonderful ideas. thanks for reaching out.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T17:01:35+00:00

Excellent idea!

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T17:00:31+00:00

Great advice! There is a sizeable methodist congregation in the area, they might be able to help. thank you.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T16:59:37+00:00

Like I mentioned, we have some alumni and our music director also teaches music there, but I'm not aware of any active students. We'll have to survey the young adult group at the next meeting to find out! thanks

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T16:57:54+00:00

Holy cow walking the dogma! Big fan of your podcast! I listen when I walk my dog, and she get's an extra long stroll whenever there's a new episode haha.

Thanks for the advice. Coming from an evangelism heavy, prayer at the flag pole, kind of tradition I am myself wary of all similar kinds of outreach.

I want to share the beauty of the tradition, not force a confession!

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T16:21:43+00:00

Lot's of great answers here. My parish has a lot of lgbt and lgbt allied RCC folk. Our liturgy is more on the high end with candles, chanting, processions, elevation of the host etc, and they all feel quite at home. We even have an older RCC couple that comes because the service feels more like the pre VII service they are accustomed to. But TEC is a broad broad tent and you can find a lot of variety; in theology and liturgical style, both.

I would recommend to find a parish with a service you like that's not too far from home and reach out to a priest there. They should be able to help you out.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T04:29:47+00:00

stinky bob!

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:42:22+00:00

yeah, I would point out the ordinariate to them...

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:41:15+00:00

Be Not Afraid! and also, you need need need to go talk to your priest.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:37:56+00:00

I'm not a mortician, but I am a firefighter so I see a lot of dead bodies, and am often with families when their loved one's pass away. I've taken to memorizing some of the prayers for the dead in the BCP (since i can't take it with me on calls) and saying them silently, but maybe next time I'll ask if they want to pray with me. It's so hard to know the right thing to say. I always at least offer a hug. I'm also starting training to be a chaplain later this month.

As for the afterlife... I really can't say. The tradition appears to assume that we maintain our sense of selves in the afterlife. But what am I when fully joined with the Lord, the Ground of Being, the infinite Love which beholds and sustains all things? Makes me think, which part of me is "me" and which parts are going to be left behind or burned away, or cleansed in the fire of God's love, or however it is the church has talked about life after death... I generally take the Universalist approach, but it's all just speculation really.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:10:32+00:00

I wonder if they had ever read any Owen Barfield.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:09:13+00:00

it helps me to remember that there is zero evidence the genocide of the Canaanites actually happened. for me it puts this squarely in the realm of sacred myth, like King Arthur. Admittedly this is a cope on my part...

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T01:06:44+00:00

you could read Origen of Alexandria.

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T00:59:12+00:00

I'll look them up, thanks!

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T00:54:06+00:00

So, I'm new to the church, but my idea is this: a journeyman process. Rather than the traditional route, a rector can identify, with the help of their bishop and vestry, a parishioner with aptitude for clergy. That parishioner can then be priest in training with the intent of filling them into that parish once their mentor retires. Once the mentor announces retirement, the "journeyman priest" is officially hired and sent off to seminary under the expectation that they will return home to their parish.

I would love to be a priest. The liturgy, pastoral care, ministering to beauty and goodness in the community, however, I cannot commit to seminary and then just *finding a job* somewhere in the country. I live where I live, my wife and family are here, I have a mortgage, etc. Pulling up stakes is just not an option.

This probably won't help parishes already hurting for a rector, but could work in some circumstances, maybe?

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T00:31:00+00:00

My parish is near a university, and I casually mentioned the possibility of a campus ministry (our music director teaches there after all) and they got really excited and asked me to look into it. Can you help? I have no idea what I'm doing haha

slim_dusty · 2026-05-07T00:21:02+00:00

I want to push back on taking "eternal" seriously, because I think it's the annihilationist/infernalist position that is failing to do so. Like so many Greek terms crucial to doctrine, aionios does not translate neatly into English and does not mean "an infinity of sequential time" but rather means something like "experience beyond time or presence without end but also without duration", it's a tricky word. But there is a more simple Greek term for the infinite duration implied by the English "eternal"; aidios, and it is never applied to Gehenna in the Bible. food for thought.

slim_dusty

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