From the Rector

Dear Friends,

From our earliest days, the Chapel of the Cross has had a strong connection with the University of North Carolina. In May of 1842, the Rev. William Mercer Green, both an Episcopal priest and a University professor, officially gathered the signatures of twelve men and twelve women on our articles of incorporation. Most of the men had direct connection with the University, and students were some of the earliest communicants. Mr. Green later received approval for students to attend in our chapel in place of mandatory Sunday participation in the University chapel, the first denomination to receive that permission. It was not unusual for the diocese in those early years (which then covered the whole state) to appeal to all its congregations for financial assistance for this important work with students.

In 1920 the vestry fired the rector because he "didn't visit students enough." The next year they hired Alfred Lawrence, who became a visible figure on campus, even serving as the starter for the track team. During his 23-year tenure, an assistant was first hired to focus on campus ministry. The first, Thomas Wright, after serving one year (1933-34), became head of campus ministry for the whole Episcopal Church and was later ordained bishop of East Carolina. The second, Emmett Gribbin, who arrived in 1940, married the rector's daughter, and there has been a campus minister here ever since! Sometimes, the office was on campus, dimming the lines of connection with the Chapel of the Cross. But in 1978, the title became "Associate for Campus Ministry," and the position was envisioned, not only as intimately connected with this parish's staff and ministry, but as helping the rector lead the whole parish in welcoming students and doing campus ministry. Now, in another adjustment of vision, we have recently changed the title to "Associate for University Ministry" to suggest that the scope includes not only direct work with students but also with faculty and staff and with important campus issues. Through the leadership of the Associate and of the University Advisory Committee, our entire parish is to have a significant impact on the life and vision of the campus.

Our history and our location uniquely position us to be able to respond to this opportunity. We offer this thought-provoking issue on university ministry to inform you of its various dimensions and to stimulate other possibilities. Whether or not you as an individual or as a family have any direct connection with the University in a personal or professional way, I hope you will support and help us strengthen this historical and critical dimension of our parish's ministry.

- Stephen

Vestry Actions - September 15, 2005

At its September meeting, the vestry:

• Approved the recommendations of the Social Ministry Committee for disbursement of $1500 from discretionary outreach funds to Episcopal Relief and Development for relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
• Approved the expenditure of up to $5000 from the Stoudemire Chapel Fund for electrical engineering services to develop a plan for upgrading lighting in the chapel
• Approved the Preschool contract
• Met with Fr. Nicolás Menjivar, pastor of Iglesia El Buen Pastor, to hear about his ministry in the Hispanic community inDurham
• Elected Paul Carew and Vivian Varner to three-year terms as delegates to Diocesan Convention; and elected Kim Sullivan as first alternate, Emilie DeLuca as second alternate, Larry Logan as third alternate, Bunnie Collura as fourth alternate, Peter DeSaix as fifth alternate, and John McGee as sixth alternate to the 2006 Convention.

A Christian voice

The Rev. Tammy Lee, Associate for University Ministry

It was an amazing evening. In fact, it was infused with the Divine Presence. People had gathered from all over the country to honor recent Carolina graduates who had excelled beyond the horizon of anyone's sight. Their accomplishment was nothing short of the gift of hope. Through their vision and hard work, forgotten and disenfranchised children in inner city New Haven nowknow that they are worthy and valuable and capable of great things through a charter school program called Achievement First. It is working far beyond what anyone could ask or imagine. Even the Connecticut legislature was dumbfounded to discover these children's test scores surpassed those of some of the wealthiest communities in the country.

I don't know what Dacia Toll and Doug McCurry's religious backgrounds were but I know the fruits of their time at Carolina incubated this dream. I suspect there was a ministry that influenced them, if my dinner companions former recipients themselves were any indication. They consistently used scriptural metaphors as we shared stories and histories of what it means to go forth into the world from this particular place and leave a legacy that changes history. I could not help but think about the relationship of the Chapel of the Cross with this university - how ripe the field is for the harvest. What would happen if we took seriously our task of nurturing souls like Dacia's and Doug's, took seriously our role as a Christian voice that could be heard above the shallow din of those not strong enough to carry the cross to places where there are no answers, only actions that speak louder than words?

I believe we are beginning the process of using that voice in a more profound way. Communal fragmentation, a lack of institutional trust, and a wearing away of the moral compass leaves us all staggering for solid ground. But it is particularly hard on those among us who are just beginning to venture out into that world. It is the time to proclaim the merits of the Anglican way - a path that does not force us to leave our intellect at the door nor require us to have an answer to every question.

There was an Episcopal ad campaign when I was in college that featured a traditional picture of Jesus gazing heavenward. You all no doubt have seen it since it was in every Sunday school room in the '60s. Underneath the picture were these words, "He died to take away your sins not your mind." I took that very seriously and my life was changed in a classroom in a public university. It changed the way I teach in a classroom. We are in a peculiar position via our location and our resources to proclaim that alternative vision. We can extend that hope from 304 East Franklin Street to the Battle Building and to the chemistry lab and to Murphy Hall and everywhere else on this campus, allowing those who are seeking to come to a place where he died to take away their sins not their minds. We can be open to traveling that same path, which might take us to places that are equally as challenging to our fixed visions of the universe.

The Benedictines have a saying "abore et orare" or to work is to pray. We are in the early stages of living our work as our prayer. The newly constituted University Ministry Advisory Committee has begun its deliberations about how to build those bridges to and from the university. They continue to be grateful for the foundation that the former University Ministry Committee so solidly maintained and now are open to the guidance of the spirit as their work begins. They are exploring areas of future development, which include graduate and faculty ministries, to complement our strong undergraduate program. Compline continues to thrive, attracting the un-churched and seekers as well as random people off the street who just want to hear the Gregorian chant. I have begun to form relationships within the university administration, strengthening our presence on the campus through shared projects and concerns. It is gratifying when someone calls to ask for assistance with a student or a project. It suggests a trust not always given in a public school setting. Equally gratifying is sitting in the pit and watching what happened on Sunday in church translated into the world around us through peer counseling, advocating for the disenfranchised, or simply basking in the joy and wonder of creation. Possibilities abound, some of which you will find articulated in the initial phases of development on the adjacent page. I hope it will create enthusiasm for our work together as a community even as I pray that God will guide us so that our work is not in vain.

Just as the entrée was being served at the awards dinner an a cappella singing group emerged on stage for the evening entertainment. I caught the eye of the soloist who happened to be one of Chapel of the Cross' own. He smiled broadly and I smiled back prompting the man sitting next to me to ask, "Is he one of yours?" I said "Yes, he is one of mine...no, he is one of ours - University and church." It was a proud moment for the university and the church.

Possibilities for Campus Ministry

Phase I

• Know each student who comes through our doors; meet with them either in cluster groups or individually
• Be available for whatever need arises, appropriate to the chaplain, by providing office hours or on campus location hours or appointments
• Be hospitable through special events in my home
• Discover and document the resources on campus for crisis intervention and care
• Begin establishing relationships with other campus chaplains, including those serving the Jewish and Muslim communities
• Provide leadership development opportunities for student ministers and their posterity
• Be aware of ministry opportunities within the parish for students and seek to connect them
• Meet with the chancellor to determine his hope for campus ministry
• Continue working with student leadership on their programmatic goals.

Phase II

• Make site visits to campus ministries around the country to see what folks are doing well and innovatively
• Make contact in some form with every student who registers as an Episcopalian at UNC
• Make contact with priests all over the state who are sending students here
• Make contact with every faculty member at UNC who is an Episcopalian and evaluate resources
• Determine diocesan initiatives in this area and what is being done at other campus ministries in the state.

Phase III

• Begin establishing a graduate student base
• Re-evaluate our current post-graduate programs of ministry and consider possibilities
• Set up structure for graduate student programming
• Explore mission trip possibilities with medical professionals in parish and students in training, also with public health and dental schools as well as education, urban planning, and social work
• Evaluate how we are doing in all areas from outreach to pastoral care.

Priorities as Associate for University Ministry

• Pastoral Care of University Community and Chapel of the Cross
• Liturgical Presence on Sunday and as Chaplain at Episcopal Campus Ministry
• Preaching and Teaching

Reflections on university ministry

James Moeser, Chancellor, UNC

A couple of years ago, in the wake of the great controversy over the Freshman Reading Assignment, Approaching the Qur'an, when the university was accused by some of the religious right of attempting to indoctrinate our students in the Muslim faith, we invited a group of conservative legislators who had been highly critical of the choice to meet with us on campus to discuss the issue. I met a group of them as they arrived at South Building and walked with them over to Carroll Hall, where the meeting was to take place. One of the most conservative of them started out the conversation as follows:

"Chancellor, I have been told that you are an atheist. Is that true?" I responded, "I am a lay reader in the Episcopal Church." With hardly a pause, he asked the question again. "But are you an atheist?" he insisted in asking.

Two contrary thoughts were flashing through my mind as I contemplated this question. One was to treat this like the questions to the Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Common Prayer and to answer with the first line of the Apostles' Creed, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth . . . ." The opposing thought was that my faith was none of his business and certainly any answer I gave could contain none of the subtlety and nuance - and yes, doubt - contained in my own personal faith. In this answer, I considered quoting St. Paul and saying, "Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief."

The combination of anger and the desire to maintain self-control was at such a high level that I don't remember the exact words of my response, which was to say as politely as I could that my faith was not the issue we were here to discuss.

I have often wondered in reflection on this conversation if I missed a golden opportunity to make my answer to him an expression of faith and belief that might have surprised him. This is what our evangelical friends would argue that I should have done.

I was sorely tempted to tell this sanctimonious zealot that I probably memorized more scripture growing up as a Southern Baptist than he ever imagined. But honesty would also require me to tell him that I had read Tillich, Bultmann, and Bonhoeffer, as well as the Bible, and that my own faith journey had taken me miles away from my fundamentalist roots; that I was probably closer theologically to Jack Spong than to Billy Graham. In that instantaneous moment, I decided that none of that really mattered to him. He didn't care to know what I thought or believed. Asking the pointed question was all that mattered.

My installation as chancellor was marked by a beautiful service of Morning Prayer in the Chapel of the Cross on University Day, 2000. In that service, I recommitted myself publicly to Christian service using the Baptismal Covenant - renouncing evil and affirming Jesus Christ as Lord. In response to five specific questions in that liturgy, I pledged to live out that commitment, serving Christ in all persons, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being.

That is what I strive to do everyday as Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have a colleague who is president of another great university who says that he knows a lot of people who want to be president, but not many who want to do president.

To me, doing the work of my faith means respecting the commitment of that Baptismal Covenant or, in the words of the scripture chosen that day, Micah 6:8:

"What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

Wearing two shirts

Richard W. Pfaff, Professor, Department of History, UNC, and Priest Associate of the Chapel of the Cross

I've been asked to say something about the ministry of this parish at and through the University from the standpoint of one who wears two shirts: a professorial button-down and, as occasion demands, one of clerical black topped with a white collar. Sartorial conventions aside, I've conceived my functioning in these two roles for the last 38 years not in the mode of "worker priest" - the so-called tentmaker ministry whereby one labors at a "secular" job to keep body and soul together while one's main concern is with "sacred" ministerial duties - but rather as two facets of one position.

In thinking this way, I'm not at all an innovator. The tradition of academic clergy is as old as the university itself in the western world. Indeed, for centuries after various groups of masters and doctors first came together around 1150 to form what we know as a university, the vast majority of those who taught in universities were ordained. Possibly this matters more to me because I'm an historian, but I don't think it's irrelevant that Thomas Aquinas was a professor at the University of Paris; I like to imagine that he even served on faculty committees there.

So my (slightly heterodox?) conviction is that the university is the natural habitat of Christians, not some alien soil on which we struggle for recognition or even survival. It follows that I regard "university ministry" as being at the furthest possible remove from any separation of "Christian" aspects, be they issues or students, from the secular rough-and-tumble of a modern university. That the one in the midst of which the Chapel of the Cross sits is a public rather than a private institution makes little difference here. As the old aphorism puts it, Magna est veritas et praevalebit, truth is great and will triumph; and the Lord whose people we are proclaim him to be the truth as well as the way and the life.

Consequently, I view this parish as being not so much a center of Christian witness in the middle of a secular university as a command headquarters, so to speak, for what the university is truly about. This means that the church, here incarnated in the Chapel of the Cross, is (at the risk of introducing another perhaps odd-sounding expression) the sacramental powerhouse for this university, no less than the great basilica in the middle of the campus at Notre Dame is for that institution. Our task, in taking seriously the challenge of "university ministry" here, is then to try to live out what it means to be that headquarters, that powerhouse.

University ministry advisory Council

Melody Savage, University Ministry Advisory Council Chair

Campus ministry has always been an essential component of the Chapel of the Cross. Over the decades, numerous parishioners have devoted enormous amounts of time, energy, and affection to the university ministry, serving as chaplains, faculty advisors, "friends," and members of the University Ministry Committee.

In October 2004, the UNC Campus Ministry Vision Committee met to study and synthesize recommendations by the clergy, the vestry and others in the parish who had been involved in Campus ministry to assist the newly appointed associate for university ministry in achieving a ministry that reached beyond the walls of the church into the campus community. Led by Janet Turchi, the Campus Ministry Vision Committee made several recommendations including the restructuring of the Campus Ministry Vision Committee into an advisory council. In September 2005, the newly formed University Ministry Advisory Council (UMAC) held its first meeting.

The UMAC is a regular committee of the vestry and has been charged with a three-fold mission: First, the UMAC is to serve to support and advise the associate for university ministry, the rector, and the vestry. Second, recognizing university ministry as a calling to serve God in the world, the UMAC seeks to identify areas of spiritual need in the campus community and to assist the associate for university ministry in implementing efforts to address those needs. And finally, the UMAC is to serve as an advocate of the present and future mission of the university ministry to the diocesan leadership, the diocesan family, and this parish.

The council consists of up to 12 voting members appointed by the rector with the consent of the vestry. Members are asked to serve for a period of one year, with the possibility of reappointment for up to two additional consecutive years. Each member of the council was recruited and appointed for specific positions and liaison duties. Four of the positions represent specific university constituencies. These are:

• An undergraduate student

• A graduate/professional student

• A faculty representative who will also serve as faculty advisor

• A campus events coordinator.

Three positions will be held by members who support the program initiatives of university ministry and will be designated as members-at-large. Three other positions will be held by representatives of major parish programs. These are:

• A Christian education representative

• An outreach (social ministry) representative

• A worship representative.

In addition, a member of the vestry will be appointed to the council.

The first meeting of the UMAC was held on September 8, at which time the members had the opportunity to learn about one another's roles in campus and parish activities and to begin to think about how we can work together to support an expanded vision of university ministry. With a goal of building bridges between the parish and the campus, including students and faculty, and ensuring that communication, activities, and relationships are fostered by our university ministry, the council can look forward to an energizing and rewarding opportunity toserve.

A Christian on the Faculty

Ray Dooley, Professor, Department of Dramatic Art

My work as professor of dramatic art at UNC is divided into three areas: teacher, administrator, and performing artist. Each is leavened by my efforts to live into a Christian life.

As a teacher, I take seriously these words from Each Day We Begin Again, The Benedictine Way of Living, by John McQuiston, III, a book that Tammy Lee introduced me to some years ago: "One who seeks to teach should strive to remember what a perilous and serious task it is to attempt to instruct others."

It is perilous because the position of authority granted to a professor is a constant temptation to take pride in one's knowledge and make oneself the "star" of the classroom. And it is a serious task in that one is teaching not only subject matter, but by example also teaching compassion or arrogance, rigor or slothfulness, commitment or cynicism. Recalling one's attempt at living into a Christian life restores balance and promotes useful behavior. If one is paying attention it is hard to sing the following and then feel self-important:

Lord, for thy tender mercy's sake

Lay not our sins to our charge;

Forgive what is past, and give us grace

To amend our sinful lives,

To decline to sin, and incline to virtue...

As an administrator, I served for five and one half years, until this past July, as chair of the Department of Dramatic Art. Based on that experience I can state with conviction, "with God all things are possible." A counseling session with the rector helped me overcome my initial doubt and lack of faith that God would strengthen me, and an active prayer life saw me through many a rough day.

And the Christian tradition provided practical advice as well as spiritual resilience. Early in my tenure as chair I subscribed to an email service that provided daily excerpts from the Rule of Benedict. I was at first surprised that the challenges of serving as administrator of an academic department bore a striking resemblance to serving as leader of a 7th-century monastery. But any department chair might easily recognize herself or himself in passages such as this:

... the prioress or abbot should always observe the apostle's recommendation in which it is said: "Use argument, appeal, reproof (2 Tm 4:2)." This means that they must vary with circumstances, threatening and coaxing by turns, at times stern, at times devoted and tender. With the undisciplined and restless, they will use firm argument: with the obedient and docile and patient, they will appeal for greater virtue; but as for the negligent and disdainful, we charge the abbot or prioress to use reproof and rebuke.

A compelling association also has developed between my striving to lead a Christian life and my work as an actor. I have taken to the habit of uttering the brief Celtic prayer, "I on my path, thou in my steps" in preparation for my work on stage or camera, seeking to consecrate "the work of my hand" to God, as any craftsman might. And I have come to approach many of the characters I portray as studies of people suffering the consequences of, and attempting to compensate for, the lack of God in their lives. There is Serge, in ART, for example, attempting to lend his life meaning with the purchase of a $40,000 painting; or Tom, in Dinner With Friends, his marriage falling apart, convincing himself that his life will be redeemed by an affair with a younger woman; or Dr. Astrov in Chekhov's masterful Uncle Vanya, fighting his restless discontent with alcohol and a fixation on another man's wife. Conversely, in playing Hamlet, who inhabits a manifestly Christian cosmos and who can say with confidence, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends/ Rough-hew them how we will," I found extraordinary power in a performance that was the product of the intersection of the character's Christianity and my own.

In closing, let me offer one final thought from Each Day We Begin Again, which sums up my feeling of gratitude for the proximity of UNC and the Chapel of the Cross:

"It is best to live one's life with the support of a community which shares right values... A human being is especially vulnerable when not supported by others."

The Episcopal church and the university

Boone A. Turchi, Professor, Department of Economics

Ever since I was a college student, I have believed that the Episcopal Church and the University share a particularly strong affinity. I have seen my fellow Episcopalians demonstrate daily that the life of faith and the life of the mind need not be mutually exclusive and that secular scholarship can be enriched if it is undertaken within the framework of Christian faith. While Christians have much to learn from the University - I've always thought that Jesus' third commandment should have been "Use thy brain" - the Church also has much to offer the University.

In an environment where the pursuit of knowledge can easily take place in a moral vacuum, the Church can ask the difficult questions that place scholarship into a moral context. I say "the Church" but what I really mean is that Christians, with the support of their Church, can ask these questions. At the Chapel of theCross we are a collection of Christians located at the edge of UNC's campus, and this proximity gives us a special obligation to confront the University. We can do this by:

• Offering Episcopal students a place and opportunity to integrate their lives as students with their lives as Christians
• Giving faculty a way to assert their Christian perspective on campus without abusing their obligations as faculty members at a secular public university
• Providing access to a Christian community for those members of the University who are seeking a moral dimension to their lives that is not inconsistent with their lives as students and scholars. I used to believe that the Chapel of the Cross had a mission primarily to the un-churched at UNC; now I believe that the mission extends also to the "badly churched" (students, faculty and staff who find their religious backgrounds increasingly at odds with their own learning and teaching)
• Serving as an alternative to those Christian denominations that claim to speak on campus for all Christians but do so in a way incompatible with the Gospel.

Finally, because of our historical role in campus ministry, the Chapel of the Cross has an obligation to advocate for a strong and effective campus ministry both at the diocesan level and beyond. Although, by the standards of other dioceses, the Diocese of North Carolina has a history of relatively generous support for campus ministry, that support has been fitful and in many cases ineffective. Colleges and universities are simply too important to the life and future of the church not to be a principal focus of any missionary endeavor.

In all these things, I believe that we are extremely fortunate to have the Rev. Tambria Lee among us and I hope that she will receive our full support as she expands her own ministry to the University.

Evolution? Divine Design? I believe both

K.T. Vaughan, Health Affairs Librarian

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Such diverse authors as George Orwell, Madeleine L'Engle, and Douglas Adams have used this quotation since Fitzgerald wrote it in the mid-thirties.It is an excellent descriptor, I think, of my life as a scholar and a Christian. I do not presume that I have a "first-rate intelligence" - at least, not today - but I do feel that as an active member of both the Church and the University bodies I am sometimes called to believe two apparently opposing ideas at once.

Take, for instance, the question of how people and other living things became what they are. In my work I use various principles of genetic evolution every day - using theories like natural selection and genetic drift to explain the genetic basis of disease. However, every Sunday I profess my faith using the Apostles' Creed - which includes the line, "I believe in one God, maker of heaven and earth." I believe both.

Scientific theories are not the only area where I feel pulled in two directions between my god and my employer.It seems that everywhere I turn I have two roles - as faculty but also sort of staff; as daughter but also mother; as rational being but also child of God. In the end, when I am in one sphere the other takes a supporting position - not visible to outsiders, perhaps, but very important to the way I perceive my purpose. While many people at the Health Sciences Library know that I sing in a church choir, not that many know which church. And how many of you reading this article recognize me from the Sr. Choir but had no idea that I am a faculty member at the University?

This sometimes brings me into opposition with colleagues who feel that one's religion must always be prominent. I had an odd conversation recently with a friend who explained that she told a supervisor that "It doesn't matter what our problems with each other professionally are - what matters is that we are both Christians and God wants us to treat each other with love." To be so bold in one's professional life as to profess one's faith - and to use it as a management tool - is totally foreign to my way of balancing God and job. While I agree with her statement, I would never have said it. I don't know if this is out of shyness, unwillingness to invade others' personal space, or a desire to keep my god to myself. While I am proud that I have inspired at least four adults to be either baptized or confirmed as Episcopalians, I am not looking to convert my coworkers - and neither am I trying to get the congregation to consider a career in library science. Perhaps, in the end, the reconciliation between the "opposing ideas" in my life is in how I live with them as a person. Both "ideas of K.T." - chorister and librarian - are essential to the complete me.

Beyond the nametag

The following two articles are written by undergraduate students active as leaders in Episcopal Campus Ministry at the Chapel of the Cross. They are reprinted with permission from the Spring 2005 issue of Carolina Passports to let parishioners know the high caliber of people/Christians involved in ECM.

Lauren Westafer

"Anj...Anja?" I struggled with the foreign pronunciation as I read my housing assignment.

"How am I going to live with her if I cannot even pronounce her name," I asked my friend in frustration. I took every opportunity presented over the summer to find out how to say her name to no avail. Weeks later, dripping with August sweat from lifting a futon up two flights of stairs, I met my roommate, Anjni. Throughout the first few hot weeks of September, I attempted to use her given name as little as possible. I did not intend to offend her that early in the semester. I listened to the phone conversations she held with her parents in quick, Gujarati with both intimidation and awe. I could speak Italian, sort of, and therein existed the extent of my spoken foreign language education.

At some impalpable yet pivotal point during the fall semester, I decided to tackle her name. Perhaps her mother's delicious cooking persuaded me to make this move. (Even though we are no longer roommates, I still manage to sneak her mother's samosas, which I maintain are the best in the world). Curious and completely intrigued, I began my quest to augment my learning outside the classroom with questions about Indian culture. Hailing from a suburban, homogeneous beach town in Florida, I knew a lot about surf culture but absolutely nothing about global traditions. Anjni, in conjunction with my other hall mates on the Health Science Floor, soon resolved this issue through various diverse experiences that they opened up for me. Late night studying in the hall lounge turned into a forum for political, ethical, and religious conversation and debate. These individuals were just typical college students, but for me they provided a different lens through which I could view the world. Unwearyingly, they spoke to me about Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, showed me photographs from their childhood or visits to their respective countries, and facilitated my transformation into a connoisseur of South Asian food. Seriousness, however, was not by any means the predominant atmosphere. These late night conversations turned into bhangra dance lessons and all kinds of silliness.

In January, driving back to Chapel Hill after viewing a ridiculously long and particularly awful Hindi film, I decided to ask my suitemate to teach me a few Hindi phrases. I wanted to surprise my friend who resided down the hall. Suddenly shy about my pronunciation, it took me minutes to produce a meek "aap kaise hain" (how are you) for my Pakistani hall mate, Fauzia. I am sure that everyone, including myself, perceived this interest in Hindi/Urdu as a fleeting phenomenon. By late February, however, a few phrases written on Post-it notes soon transformed into a huge pile of flashcards. I pestered Fauzia at all hours of the day for "just a few more words," a request that she very patiently and motherly fulfilled.

Late one night last spring, I tagged along with two friends to the Hindu center in Morrisville. A live satellite broadcast of the historic cricket match between India and Pakistan drew hundreds of individuals to the center that night and offered me an interesting and new form of procrastination. Those early morning hours were too exciting and fun-filled for me to realize how odd I must have appeared. I surely looked ridiculously out of place in the room, which was almost entirely filled with fans of India's tram, standing on a chair cheering for Pakistan by yelling "Pakistan Zindabad!" Looking back, I was one of a handful of females at the broadcast and the only Caucasian. By the time I went on this outing however, the cultural expanse that seemed to separate me from these South Asian individuals disappeared. With the exception of my Hindi pronunciation, I felt entirely comfortable sipping hot chai and talking about the cricket test match.

Another benefit of rooming with Anjni lies in her great artistic abilities. On the eve of a snowstorm, Anjni drew an intricate design on my hand and forearm in "mehndi" (henna). For the next week, people around campus constantly inquired about my "dirty hands." This experience was exceptional because for once I was able to share an amazing and unique culture, one that now comprised part of my identity, with others.

The skills that I learned last year from Anjni, Fauzia, and the others remain a very active part of my life. During a hall social gathering at the beginning of the fall semester, I overheard the conversation next to me in which a guy stated he was Pakistani. Overwhelmed with excitement, I maneuvered by way into the conversation and then began talking to him in Urdu. He literally dropped the cookie that was headed for his mouth and stared at me with a frightened and confused look. "But, but you're...white," he stuttered. In an effort to prove that it was not a joke planned by his Pakistani roommate, I proceeded to show him my collection of Bollywood films and sang a few Hindi songs. Although he finally believed me, he still upholds that I scare him when we speak Urdu. Presently, his roommate involves the two of us into Urdu speaking competitions, constantly placing his bet on me.

I would like to think that I could repay Anjni, Fauzia, and the rest for the ways in which they have shaped my life. Our friendship and these shared cultural experiences defined my academic concentration and served as the impetus behind my plan to study abroad in India this summer. Anjni's mother suggested that Anjni learn Hindi from me, but even this gesture would fall short of compensation. If it were possible, I would give everyone at Carolina the gift of a culturally different living experience. It is in learning about the traditions of the world's people, as they actually exist outside of the textbook, that we can bridge any differences and incorporate ourselves into an identity without national boundaries - a global identity.

Bandido's salsa Isn't so Spicy anymore

Meredith Gilliam

At night, from the 70th floor of the Swiss Hotel, all of downtown Singapore is visible, lit by cars, streetlamps, buildings, and ships at port, flickering and iridescent. Among life's experiences there are few "mountaintop" moments - periods of intense excitement, revelation, or growth. But I think the great elevation from which I looked out over Singapore this particular night helped me realize how significant study abroad has been in my life. Last summer, I joined 24 other freshmen in the Singapore Summer Immersion Program (SSIP), a seven-week odyssey in Southeast Asia that exposed students to unique cultures and politics in an English-based setting. Although we lived in apartments and studied Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, we took group excursions into Malaysia and Thailand. Generously funded by a private donor, the Singapore Summer Immersion Program gives UNC freshmen the opportunity to spend a summer on the opposite side of the world, cost free.

What's so great about SSIP? How many other opportunities are there to go parasailing on a Malaysian beach one week and ride elephants in Thailand the next? As incredible as these experiences were, however, any tourist with the means could repeat them. What makes this program an unparalleled experience is the ability to not just visit places, but to live and to scrutinize unique Southeast Asian lifestyles, providing the opportunity for enormous personal and intellectual growth.

Some of my greatest revelations involve connections made with ordinary people. One of the first Singaporeans I got to know was Anna, an ethnically Chinese woman who spent an entire weekend showing a friend and me around Singapore. She shared her views on everything from race to politics, in some ways fitting and in other ways breaking the Singaporean stereotypes I had come to expect. She surprised us in her staunch support of President Bush and America's influence in the rest of the world and in her racially motivated views about ethnic mixing in her own country. In sharp ideological contrast were the ladies at Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian-based Islamic women's rights group, who passionately shared their views on civil rights, echoing much of the political debate going on in America today. I also learned to differentiate between the practice of Islam in Southeast Asia (Indonesia being the world's largest Islamic nation) and its practice in other parts of the world.

I remember sitting up one night in a hotel room in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, and being drilled with questions from Thai college students we had gotten to know about movies, socializing, and college life in America. We discovered that not all questions are easy to answer or justify - (why is it that so many teens in America want to move so far away from their families for college?).

Other individuals I came in contact with come back to me merely as snapshots - the Chinese high school student in Malaysia who was applying to colleges for biochemistry like me, or the Middle Eastern woman tourists whom we saw riding jet skis at the beach in full-body covering. Having the opportunity to interact with so many different people taught me that Southeast Asian societies are just as diverse and complicated as we claim that American society is.

As many new perspectives as I gained from my experience, I was perhaps most struck by the similarities and feelings of connection I found between my own culture and those I encountered. I learned to think of America, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand as countries at various stages of modernization rather than limiting myself to the differentiation of "Western" and "Eastern." I recognize now that the ties we share extend deeper than Hollywood movies or the production of American sneakers in Malaysian factories. I was fascinated to discover that the macroinvertebrates we collected on a river tour of Bangkok are the same species I studied in freshwater streams in North Carolina as a member of a high school environmental science team. Through discussion in class, I realized that many of the social and political issues that Singapore faces - how to integrate races without discrimination, how to promote personal freedom while protecting family values, how to build a positive national image regionally and globally - are similar to those faced by America today. One of the greatest senses of connection I felt was standing among the Mandarin-language congregation at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore and discovering that I could sing along in English the same hymn everyone else sang in Mandarin.

The world feels a little bit smaller after going "there and back again," and perhaps this feeling reflects a real smallness that mass communications and international dependencies are creating in the world today. In the weeks following the tsunami disaster last December, I was amazed at how quickly place-names like Phuket and Sumatra became household terms and at how my travel in places affected by the disaster intensified its impact on me. Many former SSIP participants came together at the University to fundraise for tsunami relief, with events ranging from bottled water sales to a benefit concert.

Thomas Wolfe, North Carolina author of UNC freshman application fame, is often quoted for his line "You can never go home again." He's right, I think, because every time individuals change, so do relationships and the basic understandings that govern our behavior, sometimes to the extent that we do not feel the same even in the places where we are most comfortable. College is by itself a growing period when people and relationships change, but sometimes it takes getting away from home entirely - even going to the other side of the world - to really grow. While in Southeast Asia I was exposed to new traditions, assumptions about life, and ways of living. I realized just how ethnocentric my view of the world has been, not through any fault of my own, but mostly because I lacked the means to visualize the world through the eyes of someone like a Singaporean, a Malay, or a Thai. Maybe it's just that August in Chapel Hill doesn't seem quite so sweltering anymore or that the hot salsa at Bandido's on Franklin Street isn't quite so spicy (I'm convinced some of my taste buds died in Thailand), but I have changed. I hope that I have become a better student, citizen, and thinker as a result.

Expressing Gratitude and Thanksgiving for . . . Ecosystems Services?

Linda B. Rimer, Environmental Stewardship Committee Chair

If you are like many people, the word "ecosystem" is not one that appears frequently in your everyday vocabulary. So the expanded term, "ecosystem services," is even more removed from that day-to-day usage.

If your curiosity were to be piqued sufficiently, you might actually look up the word in a dictionary where you would find an ecosystem defined as: "a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment interacting as a functional unit." Ecosystem services would thus be defined as "the benefits obtained from ecosystems."

However erudite the first definition may be, or how obvious the second one is, neither is particularly useful in helping us to understand these benefits or services and why we should be grateful for them.

Perhaps a better way to begin appreciating ecosystems is to reflect on what life could be like without those services. Consider the experience of Biosphere II. You may recall hearing about a small group of scientists who were sealed inside a great 3.2 acre glass and metal dome in Oracle, AZ, back in 1991. In this experiment, over $200 million dollars was spent to mimic the earth's main ecosystems in miniature.

But after two years, this human-engineered environment was dying, and the scientists survived only because fresh air had been pumped in. Despite the technology and cost, Biosphere II had failed to generate breathable air, drinkable water, or adequate food for just eight researchers. Yet we know that Biosphere I, our planet earth, provides these services effortlessly for over 6.5 billion of us every day! What an amazing creation this planet is! How does this happen? And how have we 6.5 billion humans impacted the ability of the earth to continue to provide these services?

In March 2005, the work of over 1300 researchers from 95 nations was released in the first ever Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a project conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. (The Environmental Stewardship article in Cross Roads of July 2005 reported on this assessment).

The researchers divided ecosystem services into the following categories:

• Provisioning - providing food, fresh water, wood and fiber, fuel
• Regulating - climate, flood, disease, waste, and water purification
• Cultural - aesthetic, spiritual, educational, and recreational
• Supporting - nutrient cycling, soil formation, photosynthesis.

In essence, these "services" not only impact all aspects of our lives every day, they actually make life on earth possible, for humans, other animals, and plants, by providing air that meets our need for oxygen intake and carbon dioxide removal; water that supports the needs of our metabolism; soil, rain, sun, and nutrients that make food production possible; and climate and flood protection - among others.

And what impact have we humans had on these ecosystems? This report concludes that approximately 60% of the ecosystem services that support life on earth are being degraded or used unsustainably, and that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

Two recent and stark examples of what happens when ecosystems are damaged and the services they provide diminished, are the tsunami in Asia last December (the ecosystem being mangroves) and Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans (the ecosystem being wetlands).

For decades, ecologists have extensively documented the flood protection role that mangroves and wetlands play in protecting upland areas. Unfortunately, more than half of the world's mangroves have been lost due to aquaculture and industrial development. Indonesia has lost about 1.6 million acres of mangroves over the past several decades (about 30% of its total). This loss made inland areas far more susceptible to the giant wave than it would have been otherwise.

Likewise, New Orleans has been losing its surrounding wetlands for over one hundred years. Several factors, most human-made, have contributed to this steady decline of the delta at the bottom of the Mississippi River. But most of this erosion is attributed to the levees, which, while accomplishing the purpose of steering water into the Gulf of Mexico and away from New Orleans, also prevent the occasional flooding which served nature's purpose by feeding the delta, bringing fresh water and sediment that served to sustain life and replenish these essential wetlands.

And so during this Thanksgiving season, when we are counting our blessings, we should make an expression of gratitude for God's creation a big part of those thanks, especially for those intricate, elaborate and often mysterious ecosystems whose services make life on earth possible.

Liturgical Readings and Preachers for November

Sunday, November 6 The Sunday after All Saints

Psalm 70; Amos 5:18-24; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Mr. Elkins-Williams

9:00 a.m. Baptism and

Holy Eucharist Rite II Ms. Lee

10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Mr. Smith (Carolina Meadows)

11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Ms. Lee

5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Ms. Lee

9:30 p.m. Sung Compline

Sunday, November 13 The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Psalm 90; Zephaniah 1:7,12-18; I Thessalonians 5:1-10; Matthew 25:14-15,19-29

7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Ms. Lee

9:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Ms. Jamieson-Drake

11:15 a.m. Morning Prayer and

Holy Eucharist Rite I Ms. Jamieson-Drake

4:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Mr. Smith (Carol Woods)

5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Ms. Jamieson-Drake

9:30 p.m. Sung Compline

Sunday, November 20 The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Psalm 95:1-7; Ezekiel 34:11-17; I Corinthians 15:20-28; Matthew 25:31-46

7.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Ms. Jamieson-Drake

9:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I The Rev. Stephen Sizer

11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II The Rev. Stephen Sizer

5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Mr. Elkins-Williams

9:30 p.m. Sung Compline

Sunday, November 27 The First Sunday of Advent

Psalm 80; Isaiah 64:1-9a; I Corinthians 1:1-9; Mark 13:(24-32)33-37

7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Mr. Elkins-Williams

9:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Mr. Frazelle

11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Mr. Frazelle

4:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I Ms. Lee (Carol Woods)

5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II Mr. Frazelle

9:30 p.m. Sung Compline

November Parish Events

Tuesday, November 1
All Saints Day
8:30 a.m. Mary Harris Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Staff Meeting
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Campus Ministry
6:00 p.m. Environmental Stewardship
Committee
6:00 p.m. Personnel Committee
8:00 pm Solemn Eucharist for All Saints
Day

Wednesday, November 2
8:30 a.m. Education for Ministry
5:00 p.m. Stewardship Formation Committee
5:30 p.m. Buildings and Grounds Committee
5:30 p.m. Centering Prayer Group

Thursday, November 3
December Cross Roads Deadline
2:00 p.m. Parish Visitors

Friday, November 4

Saturday, November 5
9:00 a.m. Baptismal Instruction
UNC Home Football Game

Sunday, November 6
The Sunday after All Saints
10:00 a.m. Carolina Meadows Service
1:00 p.m. Social Ministry Committee
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Youth Community

Monday, November 7
8"30 a.m. Children and Family Ministry
Committee
4:30 p.m. Liturgical Advisory Committee
6:00 p.m. Next Step Committee
7:00 p.m. Habitat Partnership
7:00 p.m. Finance Committee

Tuesday, November 8
8:30 a.m. Mary Harris Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Staff Meeting
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Campus Ministry
7:30 p.m. Biblical Interpretation Class

Wednesday, November 9
8:30 a.m. Education for Ministry
5:30 p.m. Centering Prayer Group

Thursday, November 10
5:30 p.m. University Ministry Advisory
Committee

Friday, November 11

Saturday, November 12
UNC Home Football Game
9:00 a.m. Awakening Heart
12:30 p.m. Reading with a View to Spirituality

Sunday, November 13
The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost
One World Market
4:00 p.m. Carol Woods Service
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Youth Community

Monday, November 14
7:00 p.m. People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
7:00 p.m. Durham Convocation Meeting
at St. Matthew's, Hillsborough
7:30 p.m. Preschool Board

Tuesday, November 15
RSVVP Day at local restaurants
8:30 a.m. Mary Harris Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Staff Meeting
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Campus Ministry
7:30 p.m. Biblical Interpretation Class

Wednesday, November 16
8:30 a.m. Education for Ministry
11:30 a.m. Prayer Chain
5:30 p.m. Centering Prayer Group

Thursday, November 17
6:00 Vestry
7:30 p.m. Short Story Reading Group

Friday, November 18

Saturday, November 19
UNC Home Football Game

Sunday, November 20
The Last Sunday after Pentecost
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Youth Community

Monday, November 21
6:00 p.m. Next Step Committee
7:00 p.m. Special Worship with People with
Developmental Disabilities

Tuesday, November 22
8:30 a.m. Mary Harris Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Staff Meeting
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Campus Ministry
7:30 p.m. Spiritual Life Committee

Wednesday, November 23
7:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Education for Ministry
5:30 p.m. Centering Prayer Group

Thursday, November 24
Thanksgiving Day
8:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
10:00 a.m. Ecumenical Service at
St. Paul AME
Parish Office Closed

Friday, November 25
Parish Office Closed

Saturday, November 26

Sunday, November 27
The First Sunday of Advent
10:15 am Advent Wreath and Jesse Tree Workshop
4:00 p.m. Carol Woods Service
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Youth Community

Monday, November 28

Tuesday, November 29
8:30 a.m. Mary Harris Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Staff Meeting
5:30 p.m. Episcopal Campus Ministry

Wednesday, November 30
8:30 a.m. Education for Ministry
5:30 p.m. Centering Prayer Group

Bach's Lunch

A Noontime Series of Organ Recitals
Tuesdays, 12:15 to 12:45 p.m.

Tuesday, November 1
Dr. Monica Umstedt Rossman
Westminister Presbyterian Church, Durham

Tuesday, November 8
Dr. Michael Grant
Christ Episcopal Church, Charlotte

Tuesday, November 15
Dr. Stephen Schaeffer
The Cathedral Church of the Advent
Birmingham, AL

Adult Education in November

Sunday Mornings 10:20-11:05 a.m.

November 6, 13 My Glorious Exit: The Rev. Victoria Jamieson-Drake and a Parish Panel
Preparing to die, end-of-life issues, living wills ... not our favorite subjects. Yet we all do know that "nobody gets out of this world alive." Preparing ourselves and our families, emotionally and very specifically, with wills, funeral preferences, powers of attorney, and care requests can be one of the most loving gifts we can give. These sessions will offer information, resources, and inspiration to take care of this important task.

November 6, 13, 20 and 27 Adult Inquirers' Class
Although designed for adults seeking December confirmation, anyone wishing to learn more about the Episcopal approach to Christianity is welcome to attend these sessions which this fall will be held on Sunday mornings. For more details about the class, read the rector's letter in the September issue of Cross Roads (www.thechapelofthecross.org).

November 6, 13, and 20 When God Wrote on Stone - Israel's Covenant: David Jamieson-Drake
David Jamieson-Drake, our resident Hebrew Scripture scholar, will help us explore Israel's understanding of God, itself, and the nature of its covenant relationship with God through study of readings in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Please bring a Bible.

November 20 Preparing for Advent: The Rev. Tammy Lee
It may be hard to remember amid the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle, but Advent is a penitential season, a time to prepare one's heart and mind for the annual celebration of Christ's birth, not just an opportunity to max out your credit card and lose you equanimity "getting ready" for Christmas. Tammy always has very practical, possible suggestions for keeping our focus where it belongs in this season.

November 20 Is It Time to Think About Divestment in Israel?: The Rev. Stephen Sizer
The Rev. Stephen Sizer, Vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey, author and international speaker is a recognized authority on the origins and influence of Christian Zionism in the Middle East. In this talk, he will explore reasons for the call for economic disinvestment in Israel as the difficulties between Israel and Palestine persist.

Weekdays

Every Tuesday Mary Harris Bible Study
Meeting from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the parish library, this group welcomes newcomers. The concentration for this fall is Paul's letters.

Tuesdays November 8, 15, 22 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.
"The Bible says...." Biblical Interpretation through the Ages
How do we "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" scripture? This continuing course, developed by the School of Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, is designed for parishes to help us hear God speaking through the Bible, and to live out our lives as "one in Christ" with others to whom God is speaking. Nancy Tunnessen will serve as facilitator.

Saturday, November 12, 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
Reading with a View to Spirituality
This group meets twice yearly to discuss a book selected to help us attempt to glean insights in the "how of spiritual existence" and to be challenged to adopt a rule of life. This fall's book is Philip Newell's Listening for the Heartbeat of God. Bring your lunch. New members are always welcome.

Thursday November 17, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Third Thursday Short Story Reading Group
We read short stories because they are manageable and meaty! Our source is God:Stories, compiled by C. Michael Curtin, senior editor of the Atlantic Monthly. The stories, by notable authors, deal with issues of faith - both its presence and absence. New members are welcome.

Advent - What Are We Waiting For?

An Invitation to a Day of Learning and Meditation

The Spiritual Life Committee invites you to an Advent day of learning and meditation on Saturday, December 3, 2005, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the church. The Rev. David McBriar, a Franciscan friar, theologian, gifted spiritual leader, and former pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Durham will lead us through a program of reading, instruction, and silent meditation to help us heed Advent's call to "prepare the way of the Lord." Father David will help us journey "inward" and "outward" as we explore the meaning of the Incarnation for ourselves and for the world in which we live. A light breakfast and a simple lunch will be served; donations will be appreciated. To sign up for this Quiet Day please stop by or call the parish office at 929-2193. If you have any questions, please contact David Dodson at ddodson@mdcinc.org or 286-4152 (evenings).