Note #9188 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06152 March 9, 2006
2nd college-ministry 'summit' is in the works
Pre-Assembly event will focus on making the campus a 'Space for Grace'
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE - Planning is under way for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s second Higher Education Ministry Summit, to be held just before this summer's 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL.
The event, whose theme is "Space for Grace," is scheduled for June 12-14 at the Birmingham Radisson Hotel and nearby South Highland Presbyterian Church. The Assembly opens on June 15.
The event brings together collegiate ministry staff, college students, presbytery, synod personnel and others with duties related to higher education ministry, as well as church relations officers of PC(USA) colleges and universities.
The summit will have tracks for students, chaplains and campus-ministerial staff, congregations and governing bodies.
"The group will focus on how to help make academic communities a 'Space For Grace' that appreciates the connections between faith and knowledge, service and learning, vocational discernment and building a resume," said the Rev. Bob Turner, the PC(USA)'s associate for collegiate ministries.
Summit 2 workshops will provide to students and practitioners theoretical and practical models for college-ministry programs. Throughout the event, there will be formal and informal opportunities for networking with others in similar ministry settings.
"What we're hoping to do is to learn to help current students and the people who work with students understand how they can incorporate their faith into their vocational choice and how not to take a vacation from church but to know it's there," Turner said.
Among the keynote speakers will be participants in the 1961 Freedom Rides, a group of men and women of all ages, black and white, who boarded buses, trains and airplanes in Philadelphia and elsewhere along the East Coast, then headed to the Deep South to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities.
This year's summit is the second of its kind. More than 130 people turned out for the first one, held before the PC(USA)'s 216th Assembly in 2004.
That event in Richmond, VA, gave rise to the Presbyterian Association for Collegiate and Higher Education Ministries (PACHEM), which represents people involved in PC(USA) higher education ministries.
The event was conceived in response to reports approved by General Assemblies in 2001 and 2003 calling for stronger relationships between the church and related schools, colleges and universities, and for a new mission strategy for campus ministry.
PACHEM's board members are among the planning team members for Summit 2, along with the Presbyterian Student Strategy Team, the staff of the PC(USA) collegiate ministries office, and the Association for Presbyterian Colleges and Universities.
Turner said nearly 700 PC(USA) congregations are involved in ministries to college students, and there are more than 600 collegiate ministries on or near the campuses they serve.
For more information about Summit 2 - "Space for Grace" - log on to www.PACHEM.org. Registration details are available online or by emailing the PC(USA)'s Collegiate Ministries Office at pcc@pcusa.org.
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