wfn.org | Berkley Wesley Foundation Reopens

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3170 notes).

Note 3164 by UMNS on Sept. 12, 1996 at 16:31 Eastern (4754 characters).

SEARCH: Wesley Foundation, campus ministry, students, United
Methodist, Berkeley

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                          450(10-22-71B){3164}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            Sept. 12, 1996

Historic campus ministry
reopens building, program

by Kathy Gilbert*

     NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- The Wesley Foundation at the
University of California-Berkeley will reclaim its roots Oct. 20
as it takes back its building and builds a new United Methodist
campus ministry program.
     The UC-Berkeley Wesley Foundation had a rich history reaching
back to 1923. It was not only involved in campus ministry but also
in community and social justice issues. The current building was
dedicated in 1955.
     Until 1967, the Wesley Foundation played an important role in
the campus ministry program. The foundation board functioned more
as a board of trustees and the program was carried out in
partnership with several other denominations through the Unitas
campus ministry. The Presbyterian Church became the primary
partner.
     In 1970, the Wesley Foundation building was rented out as a
nursery school and the United Methodist relationship diminished.
     The decision to return to a denominational ministry was made
in 1992, and in 1993, the Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart became the
first full-time director of the Wesley Foundation in 20 years. 
     "In the first two years of student ministry we have had about
200 students in our foundation," Lockwood-Stewart said. Students
are involved in a Wesley Student Movement; "Voices for Change," a
spiritual and social justice choral group; a local church-based
Korean student group; and several other smaller groups. The
foundation also sponsored many large campus events. 
     "We are small at the denominational heart but growing," she
said.
     "The reopening of the Wesley Foundation symbolizes a rebirth
and refocusing of campus ministry -- active, student-oriented,
Christ-centered, alive," said Hal Hartley, director in the Campus
Ministry Section, Division of Higher Education, General Board of
Higher Education and Ministry.
     "Berkeley -- the archetype of the '60s and early '70s campus
radicalism -- may be the last place people would expect a Wesley
Foundation to reopen," Hartley said.
     Reopening the UC-Berkeley Wesley Foundation comes at a time
students have started a national United Methodist Student
Movement. The movement was approved during the 1996 Student Forum
Plus! held last May at Oklahoma City University and sponsored by
the churchwide Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
     Lockwood-Stewart said in studying the needs of the campus
community, the words space and safe place surfaced again and again
as the primary need for ministry with students, faculty and staff.
     "Now that the space for campus ministry will open this fall,
the test of our faithfulness to the whole gospel of Jesus Christ
will be how we use that space," she said.
     The programs in the first semester will address vocation and
values, intergroup tensions, arts and faith, world religions,
elections and citizenship, Bible studies, violence on campus and
in the community, substance abuse, healing and spirituality,
reconciliation, and many student-led projects. Two groups will
take international service trips to Haiti and the Middle East,
Lockwood-Stewart said.
     "The Wesley student movement is an open, diverse, and Christ-
centered community that seeks to provide a safe place to challenge
and be challenged, to act on a living commitment to social
justice, and to be a reconciling presence on campus," said the
mission statement adopted by the students last year.
     A grant from the California-Nevada annual conference is
helping the foundation get supplies to improve the building's
accessibility. The United Methodist Volunteer in Mission program
has sent two teams to do construction and students and church
volunteers are painting the building. 
     "All the labor and materials have been donated and we are
still without some equipment and kitchen appliances, but we are
trusting they will be here before the official opening," Lockwood-
Stewart said.
     The October rededication ceremonies will be led by Bishop
Melvin G. Talbert. Student and community musicians, poets,
university representatives, and local congregations will
participate in the festivities.
                              #  #  #

     * Gilbert is on the staff of the Office of Interpretation,
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry,
Nashville, Tenn.

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