Episcopal Lutheran Campus Ministry Begins Year Two at Mizzou
by the Rev. Josh Huber & Pastor David Frerichs,
Episcopal Lutheran Campus Ministry in Columbia
August 29, 2023
When Episcopal Lutheran Campus Ministry (ELCM) started about a year ago, we were a dozen or so volunteers, lay chaplains, and clergy folks spread across two Columbia congregations (Calvary Episcopal and St. Andrew's ELCA). We had a basic plan, candy, food, a tent for shade, lots of liturgical ideas, various resources, and a whole lot of energy and excitement. We just didn't have any students.
So we went forth, set up a taable in Mizzou's Speakers Circle, and set out to invite folks to join us with flyers, giveaways, friendly greetings, handmade signs, chance conversations, and many long hours smiling like fools. Over the course of the Fall 2022 semester, through grind and grit and the good graces of the Spirit, and thanks to a few wonderfully kind students, we managed to start and continue a regular weekly evening prayer and dinner gathering.
In Spring 2023, our small group continued to grow as we:
- Partnered with Mizzou's Coalition for Bodily Autonomy
- Began a bible study rooted in curiosity, honest questions, doubt and developing faith
- Attended and were challenged by Kathryn Lofton's Phi Beta Kappa lecture about transphobia, the bigotry of secular rational materialism, and Queer Christianity as a source of ongoing hope
- Formed TIDES, a coalition of open and affirming campus ministries in Columbia, MO
- Offered Ashes to Go as well as blessings to students at MU on Ash Wednesday (with TIDES)
- Hosted an extravagantly welcoming and affirming sunset ecumenical Easter Service in Peace Park (with TIDES)
- Planted an Earth Day tree named Harold Liberation Treeology (from Bishop Johnson).
- Provided finals blessings and stress relief - bubbles, free popcorn, and the parachute game - to students on the last day of class (with TIDES)
- Celebrated our first baptism on Pentecost Sunday!
- And, of course, continued to pray, sing, eat, and practice hope together.
As we begin our second year (this time with students!), we are excited for a wealth of offerings, new and old, in Fall 2023 (see below). And we are eager to see how the Spirit will move in our midst: who will come, what we might be called to, and how we will be formed and transformed as we continue learning, eating, praying, worshiping, hoping, and living alongside one another.
May we all ever be held and led by God's abounding grace and love!
Fall 2023 Schedule:
- Regular Monday Meetings beginning at 6 p.m. - Evening Prayer followed by dinner
- Weekly Bible Study (all faiths and doubts welcome) - Mondays at 4:45 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 21 - First Monday Meeting and Welcome Event
- Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 9-10 - St. Andrew's ELCA God's Work Our Hands: Weekend of Service
- September 15-17 - TIDES Fall Retreat: Queerfully and Wonderfully Made!
- Saturday, Sept. 23, 12 p.m. - Sunday, Sept. 24, 6 p.m. - MidMO PrideFest at Rose Music Hall
- PrideFest Parade on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 11 a.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 1 - Bobby Jo Valentine Free Concert of Heart-opening Folk
- Saturday, Oct. 28, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Calvary Episcopal Bazaar
- Friday, Dec. 1, 6 - 8 p.m. - Living Windows
- Monday, Dec. 11 - Final Monday Meeting and Holiday Party
*Our regular meetings are at Calvary, though we have also met before on campus, and had one event at St. Andrew's. Generally we're at Calvary because it's closer to campus and walkable for many students.
Tags: News / Campus Ministries