Out on a Limb meets at Union

"Out on a Limb" was the title of a three-day gathering to discuss faith and ministry in the college and university setting.

In late November, about 120 campus ministers and chaplains, campus ministry board members, college faculty and administrators, and interested church members gathered at Union. Through plenary sessions, small group discussions, and worship services, the visitors focused on "thinking the faith."

The conference, organized by Hugh Nevin, former Protestant chaplain at Union and now the Protestant chaplain at the State University of New York at Albany, was one part of a three-stage process-study of the work written by the six conference leaders, the conference itself, and the development of collaborative efforts. All stages work toward providing better resources for students through campus ministries.

Nevin was pleased with both the number of participants and the results. "The event exceeded my own expectations, and from talking with others, it fulfilled or went beyond what they had hoped for as well," Nevin said. The degree of collaboration was greater than he had expected, and an annual conference is one possible outcome.

Discussion leaders included:

• Douglas Sloan, professor of history and education at Columbia Teachers College; 
• Sam A. Portaro, Jr., Episcopal chaplain to the University of Chicago and director of Brent House, the Episcopal campus ministry center at the university; 
• Sharon Daloz Parks, senior research fellow in leadership and ethics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; 
• Douglas John Hall, recently retired professor of Christian theology in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal; 
• Donna Schaper, area minister for 120 congregations of the United Church of Christ in western Massachusetts; 
• Barbara G. Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.

The leaders began discussions based on their various written work. Nevin said that all of the leaders went beyond their original work to provide the audience "with a lot more to think about."

Support and funding came from local interdenominational and ecumenical agencies providing campus ministries at Union, the State University of New York at Albany, RPI, and the Sage Colleges.