Chaplains have time
This is possible because the university chaplain has a commodity that few in the high-pace, high-pressure environment have, be they student, faculty, or support staff. The chaplain has time. The chaplain has the opportunity to listen, to ponder, to support, and to pray. This is a huge change for me personally; it was what I always wanted to be as a parish priest. Tied in with this is a reality that has been good for my soul's health. It is easy in parish ministry to get caught up in numbers. In the first parish where I served, I followed a rector whose ministry, while short, had seen considerable physical and numerical growth; it was my quest to keep that momentum going, and complement it with spiritual growth. In the parish where I served for the past three years, things had not gone well in the preceding years, so I "hit the ground running" to reverse that trend as quickly as I could. Without realizing it, I had gotten "caught up in numbers."
That is not the case here. The only number that matters is a 100 per cent rate on my part, as best as I can do by God's grace, to really be there for the people God brings into my midst. The issue is not to have oodles of people at the mid-week eucharist. It is great when they come, and they come for a reason; I am simply to serve in my role at that celebration around the Lord's table, and pray that each soul is strengthened by word and sacrament as they take time to worship and pray.
My day begins in the beautiful old Edwin Jacob Chapel in the Old Arts Building. I say Morning Prayer as part of my own devotional life to begin my day on campus. While it is by no means a drawing card for the masses, it is important for me to begin my day in this way, and it is important that the university is being uplifted to the throne of grace in this way. It is important that people see me in this role, both to know that they are being prayed for and to feel that I am someone that they can approach to talk about their joys and sorrows, their gifts and their needs.
I then do a bit of a walkabout, meandering any way but the way that the crow flies to Loring Bailey Hall, where I have an office in the department of biology. This meandering lets me do some of that intentional loitering. The contacts are themselves my purpose for being there.
The balance of my day is heavy on the walkabouts (a bonus is that this sedentary soul will be in better shape in a few months!), and includes time spent in the shared campus ministry office in the Alumni Memorial Building. (Besides Fr. Peters, there is also a protestant ecumenical chaplain; Dr. John Valk is a layman whose successful approach is to run a variety of programs and studies for students from the free church tradition.) In that I wear a pager, I am always reachable, apart from the three hours a week when I teach a third-year biology course.
