Made with FlowPaper - Flipbook Maker
STM The Magazine of The Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University Fall 2021 p 19 Welcoming a Family p 7 Richard Gard's Legacy p 11 The Church as SanctuarySTM MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS Design: Cadwell Art Direction Primary Photography: Robert A. Lisak Mission Statement Saint Thomas More Chapel & Center serves the Catholic community at Yale by: · Creating a vibrant and welcoming community through worship and service · Cultivating informed faith and spirituality · Engaging in reflective discourse on faith and culture · Advancing the Church’s mission of promoting social justice · Participating in the global Church’s life and witness About the Cover Students gather in the Residence Garden for a firepit and s’mores. Yale’s COVID-19 guidelines for the Fall 2021 semester allowed our students to return to in-person classes on campus and in-person gathering at STM. STAY IN TOUCH WITH STM Download the STM Yale App. Editors: Robin McShane is the Director of Communications at STM. Sarah Woodford '10 M.Div. is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and STM’s Library Director. Writers: Allan Esteron is one of STM’s Assistant Chaplains. He leads the multicultural ministry and social justice programming for STM. Mar Gutierrez '16 M.E.M. is a graduate of Yale’s School of the Environment. She lives in Mexico City and watches Mass at STM via livestream. Julian Sieber GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School where he is working toward his M.Div. He is STM’s Campus Ministry Intern. Jacqui Oesterblad GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Law School. She is an active volunteer in STM’s Wednesday Soup Kitchen and the leader of STM’s LGBTQ+ Ministry. Maria Mendoza '23 is a Junior at Ezra Stiles College and the leader of STM’s Latino Ministry. Daphne Anderson Deeds is a Fine Arts and Museum Consultant who has worked with private and civic museums for over twenty-five years. She was STM’s art consultant for the casting and placement of Frederick Shrady’s bronze sculpture of St. Thomas More. Photograph by Grace CarrollSTM MAGAZINE FALL 2021 In This Issue 268 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511-4714 Phone: 203-777-5537 Fax: 203-777-0144 stmchapel@yale.edu Follow us online: stm.yale.edu STM Magazine is published twice a year for our alumni, parents and friends. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the entire STM community. 1 FROM THE CHAPLAIN’S DESK 3 MEET DAVID AND GRACE 5 SCORCHED EARTH: CLIMATE CHANGE & ENDURANCE 7 RICHARD GARD'S LEGACY 11 THE CHURCH AS SANCTUARY 13 IN GRATITUDE 17 AN ART HISTORY PERSPECTIVE 18 STM MAGAZINE WINS AWARD 19 WELCOMING A FAMILY Features 10 FAITH IN THE REAL WORLD 21 OPEN BOOK 23 POP! CULTURE Just like the anemones that bloom in STM’s new garden between the Golden Center and Lynwood Annex, it was a perennial sight this fall—students gathering. Sometimes they gathered to study in the mid-afternoon sunlight, or, to have a quiet chat with one of our Chaplains. Sometimes they gathered in the dusky fall evenings to laugh and socialize under both the stars and festive lights. Regardless, they gathered, full of hope and longing for connection after months of being away from campus and each other. We have been waiting a long time for our students to return to us, and it feels so good to have them back with the energy they bring to STM and campus. While so many things at STM that were beloved by students remained the same, they were met with some changes as well — it’s not just our beautiful new garden, where a new bronze statue of St. Thomas More by world-renowned sculptor Frederick Shrady stands gazing at our Chapel’s steeple. We’re excited to introduce you to our two new Assistant Chaplains, David and Grace, who you’ll learn a little more about in this issue. You’ll also get to meet Karolina Wojteczko, our new Interim Music Director who is ready to carry on the legacy of our Emeritus Music Director Richard Gard. Our fall issue is historically the one where we recognize our donors. This past year has been unimaginable, and we were challenged in ways that we could not have planned for. Through it all, our alums and friends were so generous with their prayers and financial support. Thank you for enabling STM to be ready to welcome our students back this fall. You have helped us to be a place where our students come to gather, to heal and to deepen their faith in person and on campus. Robin & Sarah from the editors Letter Photograph by Robin J. McShane1. Dear Friends, In his letter to “the holy ones and faithful brothers [and sisters] in Christ in Colossae,” St. Paul greets them, saying “grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always give thanks to God when we pray for you.” Paul would write while traveling throughout Europe and Asia Minor, establishing Christian communities and appointing co-leaders who would share in his pastoral ministry, which he exercised—for the most part—remotely. These letters, which were read in context of the Eucharistic celebration, were a way for him to be spiritually present while being physically away. They encouraged his listeners to feel connection and gratitude, drawing them deeper into the mysteries of their faith, and into a deeper experience of Christ’s presence. As Christians, we are reminded that we are a people called together by Christ to encourage each other in a spirit of thanksgiving. It is with that spirit of gratitude that I write to you, the Body of Christ at Yale, both living here in New Haven and spread throughout the world. Having supported and sustained each other in prayer and spiritual communion throughout the pandemic, we now welcome the return to in-person ministry. At the beginning of the Fall semester, we opened our Chapel and Center for Mass, study, social gatherings and events for the first time since March 2020. We welcomed new students to Yale and STM, along with two classes of students who were experiencing academic life, campus life and Catholic life at Yale in person for the first time. We had a great turnout of students (within COVID-19 guidelines) for our Fall Welcoming events, and many of them are now attending daily Mass, prayer gatherings, reading groups and socials. Although our lives and ministry continue to be impacted by pandemic precautions, we are extremely grateful to be in a much better place than we were a year (even six months) ago. Chinenye GRD '22, one of our newest graduate student leaders, recently shared with me her experience of coming to STM for the first time at the end of the Spring Semester. When she arrived in New Haven from Africa in January of 2021, it was dark, cold and snowy. Classes were held online. Mass was livestreamed. As an international student, in a totally new climate and culture, she was isolated, studying what may be the most important subject of the pandemic: public health. In August, Chinenye came to Mass at STM, followed by a BBQ for students, which was one of the first in-person events we held. She immediately connected with some of the members of Graduate Council and our Assistant Chaplains. Now she serves on the Graduate Council and leads outreach to her Catholic peers in the School of Public Health. Chinenye hopes that others who feel a sense of isolation in combining their studies and their Catholic faith also will find a home at STM. We have so much to be thankful for. Know that all of us here at STM “always give thanks to God when we pray for you.” On behalf of all of us here at STM, we wish you and your loved ones a happy and blessed holiday season. May you experience the grace, peace and assurance of the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. Gratefully Yours in Christ, Fr. Ryan M. Lerner Chaplain FROM THE Chaplain’s Desk We have so much to be thankful for. Know that all of us here at STM “always give thanks to God when we pray for you.” Photograph by Robin J. McShane2. #MyCatholicYale April Pruitt Ph.D. candidate and Sr. Jenn Schaaf preparing for the Grad Thanksgiving Dinner.3. Meet David and Grace: Two New Assistant Chaplains for STM This past August, two new Assistant Chaplains began their ministry at STM. We’d like to introduce you to David and Grace—among their other duties, they are heading STM’s Undergraduate Ministry. David Rivera '21 M.Div. What are your hopes for Undergraduate Ministry? STM’s organizing goals of Study, Pray, Act sum up my goals for Undergraduate Ministry pretty well. We should strive to create a place and a community where students can live out their faiths. This means critically-thinking about the Church; directly experiencing God through prayer; and serving those around them. STM should be a safe place where students feel comfortable meeting others and asking questions about their faith and the world they live in. It should also be a place of passion and energy where students feel the Spirit at work. What’s your favorite Bible verse and why? Matthew 25: 31-46. This was actually the Gospel Reading at my wedding. It’s the only time in the Gospels that explicitly spells-out Jesus’s criteria for salvation and they are simple and radical. Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill and visit the imprisoned. These are the basic blueprints for Christian action in the world. But if actually lived out, our world would be a profoundly more just and merciful place. It’s important to remember when talking about faith in action—this is the action we are called to take. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Probably teleportation—it’s enough of a superpower to essentially be a superhero while also just making ordinary life amazing. Visit family across the country? Check. See some of the most beautiful places in the world? Check. Save people in hard to reach places from approaching disasters? Check. You can pretty much do anything with teleportation, though I imagine I would still end up being late to things. 4. 4. Grace Carroll What are your hopes for Undergraduate Ministry? First and foremost, my hope for Undergraduate Ministry is that students more deeply encounter the Living God in real and personal ways that permeate the whole of their lives. It may seem like a lofty goal, but that is the reason we are here: to witness to the Gospel and to accompany students as they seek to integrate their faith and the rest of their lives. On a day-to-day basis, my hopes are to grow in relationship with students; ensure that STM is a place of hospitality and peace whenever they come through our doors; and bring to fruition programs that are purposeful and that stem from their ideas and curiosities. What’s your favorite Bible verse and why? Ephesians 4:1. My faith moved from largely surface-level to deeply personal during the latter part of high school when I first came across this verse from Paul, a prisoner in Rome at the time, imploring the Christians of Ephesus to remember who they were and how they had been called to live. Paul writes, “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.” Every time I sit with this verse, I feel as if Paul is speaking to me, urging me to remember the call I have received and to live accordingly. This is a call we all share on account of our baptisms: the call to holiness. And, this call to be saints is no small thing! Remembering that this is the life to which God has called me anchors me in my ministry and compels me to help students discover their own unique paths of holiness. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? As I look at the growing pile of books on my bedside table, I wish I had the ability to speed read! One of my favorite things to do is wander through local bookstores, and I inevitably walk out with a new book in hand. It’s been fun to discover some of the independent bookstores in New Haven close to STM – Atticus, Book Trader, Grey Matter Books, to name a few. Students are eager to recommend books and we have the whole STM library, as well. Suffice to say, speed reading would help me make a dent in my pile of books. As my mom always says, “So many books, so little time.”5. Scorched Earth: Climate Change & Endurance The 2021 Hunt Prize Lecture On Thursday, September 23, 2021, The Hunt Prize Ceremony returned to Yale’s campus when Dorothy Fortenberry '08 M.F.A. received her prize and delivered her lecture. Fortenberry, an alum of Yale University School of Drama, is a playwright and screenwriter who most recently worked as a writer/producer on Hulu’s award-winning adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. She is also an executive producer on Extrapolations, an anthology series about climate change, forthcoming on Apple+. 6. “The climate is changing. It is a fact, and it has been a fact for years and years, and there are a small but very important handful of people who have spent a large amount of money and time trying to make this a controversy or a dispute. And the reward for their tireless efforts is that we have spent the past thirty years not fixing a problem known to be a problem since I was a child. Lots of people have said lots of things about climate change. People have discussed the science and the charts and the oceans and their acidification and the polar bears and the coral reefs and the residents of the small islands that are now being submerged. People, especially our Holy Father, have discussed the unfairness of the fact that those who have done the least to cause the problems are currently and will continue to suffer the most. All of this is true, but what I would like to discuss tonight is the sense of dislocation. Being in something and feeling somehow off because the thing, the very thing, the weather itself that used to tell you when and therefore how you were no longer functions as it has for millennia. Seasons, sun, wind, rain. These patterns are what we have. They draw us out of ourselves and connect us to others. They make us feel smaller and bigger than we feel, but maybe as small and big as we really are. What else does that? Well, the only other things I really care about. Art and church and children. Nature also happens to be, along with art and religion and children, the only possible hedge we have against our own mortality. We will not last forever, but we, at least I, harbor hope that people who know me may remember me, especially when they participate in cyclical traditions: Ash Wednesday, spring rain, Las Posadas, mountain snowfall. Mess with nature and you don’t just mess with the people who are living now and will live in the future. You also mess with the past and our connection to it. …So, if you are a person who, like me, values at all what is traditional, what is invested with some sense of reverence for the unchanging, if you look at certain aspects of modern life with horror, then I will submit to you that climate change is the most important thing that you could possibly care about. If you are concerned by what you see as a disposable culture of mindless consumption and dehumanized sexuality, you should be concerned about climate change. If the pace of modern life feels frenetic and unmoored, if the tone of discussion feels unforgiving and opportunistic, if you worry about what we have become and what we are doing to each other, you should be concerned about climate change. If you are worried about income inequality and social stratification and the retreat of a hyper elite class into literal rocket ships facing away from our collective problems, you should be concerned about climate change…” Watch the 2021 George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize lecture by screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry ‘08 M.F.A. https://venue.streamspot.com/video/f3ebda3a5b “Nature also happens to be, along with art and religion and children, the only possible hedge we have against our own mortality.”Next >