An Unprecedented Year
Students are beginning to make their way to campus.
For some, it is a return to campus life upended by the sudden onset of COVID-19 last spring. Others will be stepping onto campus for the first time, left only to imagine what things were like before masks and social distancing. All will be well versed in the university’s thorough return-to-campus guide.
So much is new, so much is uncertain.
The Foundation is in a period of transition, bidding farewell to Liza Stoltz Hanson (who accepted a new call as the associate minister at St Luke’s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch). A newly reconstituted ecumenical board is forming, with three pastors from constituent churches (University Park UMC, Bethany Lutheran, and Christ Church Denver) serving as interim chaplains for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Campus faith communities at DU are in a period of transition, welcoming Chenthuran Jayachandiran as the new Director of the DU Cultural Center and Spiritual Life (having recently completed his doctoral studies at the University of Iowa, where he focused on emerging adult identity formation).
All of the COVID-related disruptions and changes seem unprecedented, even if DU historians remind us that we’ve been here before––that “from the Black Death in the 14th century to today’s COVID-19 outbreak, pandemics have disrupted everyday existence… [and] one of the most lethal pandemics occurred just over a century ago… the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918.” That perspective of history, while illuminating, may be of only cold comfort.
In the Episcopal Church, there’s a prayer that we pray during Compline (or “Night Prayer”) in the Book of Common Prayer (1979):
Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 133)
The “changes and chances of this life” can be wearisome indeed. But we believe that, even in these times, we can find rest in the eternal changelessness of God.
That is what we hope to offer you this year at The Foundation: rest in God’s presence.
Know that we are here for you. We are praying for you. And we will do everything we can to help make this an unprecedented year for experiencing the goodness of God, even in these challenging times.
Joseph Wolyniak is an interim chaplain for The Foundation, based at Christ Church Denver. Connect with him on Facebook or at jwolyniak [at] christchurchdenver.org