SUMMER 2008
THE MAGAZINE OF GORDON COLLEGE
STILLPOINT
COVER STORY Heart of Discovery: An Overture 10 8 The City of God and the City of Man
20 New Life from a Martyr’s Death
22 Uncertain Riches
Photo Patricia Hanlon
BEAUTY IN THE EQUIPMENT
Features
Following completion of Phase One of the new Ken Olsen Science Center, chemistry and biology faculty spent many hours during the summer transporting years’ worth of gear from Emery and MacDonald Halls to new offices and labs in the Olsen Center—including lab equipment like these graduated cylinders and pipettes.
6 A Timely and Important Conversation by Thomas A. Howard The Future of Christian Learning: An Evangelical and Catholic Dialogue seeks to foster dialogue and understanding across the unhappy divisions of Christianity.
8 What Does the City of God Have to Do with the City of Man? Students and alumni of the Jerusalem and Athens Forum (JAF) honors program wrestled with the age-old question of the Church’s relationship to the culture. Lydia Sheldon ’10 is this year’s JAF essay contest winner.
10
Heart of Discovery: An Overture by Mark Sargent The Ken Olsen Science Center will be dedicated September 27, featuring guest speaker Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. In this essay Provost Sargent invites us to consider five ways the community of faith can contribute to “a more robust future for the relationship between science and democracy.”
18
New Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness Opens by Patricia Hanlon Gordon’s new Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness is both a clinical and a research facility, connecting its Kinesiology Department with the surrounding community.
ON THE COVER Gordon science majors graduate not only with expertise in their fields but with the advantages of a liberal arts education: cross-cultural experience; knowledge of languages; reading, writing and listening abilities; moral alertness; and a heart for service. Cover Photo Michael Hevesy
Photo Essay #017 Wind Ensemble in Orvieto: Spring 2008 | Daniel Nystedt ’06 view this and other photo journals online at: www.gordon.edu/photojournals
IN EACH ISSUE 2 Inspiration 3
Up Front with President Carlberg
4 Letters 5 SPORKS informative fauxlosophy 24 In Focus Faculty 26 In Focus Students 28 In Focus Alumni 30 Encounters 34 Top Six
Articles
Alumni
20 New Life from a Martyr’s Death by Stella Price ’89
38 Homecoming Preview
How a privileged 19th-century Welshman caught a vision for the spread of the gospel in Korea.
22 Uncertain Riches by Bruce G. Webb What’s going on in the U.S. economy, and what is the future likely to hold?
32 A Program of Technology Change by Robert Van Cleef ’94
Replacing Gordon’s outdated administrative software was a people project as much as a technology project.
34 Gordon at the (Model) United Nations by Sarah Lambert ’09
Students attending the Harvard National Model United Nations Conference experienced some of the challenges of diplomacy.
36 Commencement Weekend Among other highlights, Rick Warren challenged the Class of 2008 with a message based on the story of Moses.
37 Two Couples, Two Conversations Rick and Kay Warren were interviewed by the President and First Lady of Gordon, Jud and Jan Carlberg.
Come home to Gordon to reconnect with the faculty, staff and fellow students who helped you grow; to rediscover God at work in the worldwide Gordon community; and to reignite your passion for your vocation and avocation.
39 Alumni News 44 Luncheon Honors Clarendon Members Retiring English professor Peter Stine, among others, entertained members of the Clarendon Society at a special luncheon thanking them for their foundational support of the College.
45 A Winning Investment Carolyn Cassidy ’63 loves retirement because she can give back to her community and to an institution that gave so much to her.
Inspiration In my work in the Provost’s Office it’s a blessing to integrate my faith with my profession on a daily basis. I am inspired by the Gordon College ethos in which administration, faculty and staff work collaboratively to serve God and each other. Here are just a few things that have encouraged me over the last six years. Paula Cerulli
VOLUME 23 NUMBER 3
Administrative Assistant, Office of the Provost paula.cerulli@gordon.edu
Introduction to Ballet I love sharing my passion for ballet with Gordon students, who are a continual inspiration to me. I hope I have made a difference in their lives. Pictured: Rebecca de Freitas ’11 and Lyndsey Foley ’10, Dance Ministry Team leaders. Rebecca says, “This class really brings out the true meaning of dance, which is a form of personal expression through the body’s movements.”
“At the still point of the turning world.” T. S. Eliot, referring to God in his poem Four Quartets
EDITORIAL
ALUMNI NEWS
Patricia C. Hanlon Editor
Nancy Mering Director of Alumni and Parent Relations
Kristin Schwabauer ’04 Assistant Editor
CREATIVE Tim Ferguson Sauder Creative Director Kirsten Keister ’04 Rebecca Powell Publication Design
ADMINISTRATION R. Judson Carlberg President Daniel B. Tymann Executive Vice President Advancement, Communications and Technology
Family My children, Stacey (27) and Dana (24) are the greatest blessings in my life. Stacey is a
CONTACT
PRINTING
preschool teacher and education coordinator
ADDRESS CHANGES Development Office jamie.hokanson@gordon.edu
NOVA Partners Gorham, Maine
at the New England Center for Children with Autism in Massachusetts. Dana is an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, in Washington, D.C. Pictured: Stacey and Dana on Stacey’s wedding day, June 2, 2007. Prayer Shawl Ministry As part of Jan Carlberg’s Women’s Prayer Group, I began a prayer shawl ministry for the Gordon community. Beverly Beauregard, our first recipient,
AWARDS OTHER CORRESPONDENCE Editor, STILLPOINT Gordon College 255 Grapevine Road Wenham MA 01984 stillpoint@gordon.edu
ONLINE
Award of Excellence Winner, 13th Annual Communicator Awards 2007 Print Competition Gold Award for External Organizational Publication, 22nd Annual Admissions Advertising Awards (2007)
www.gordon.edu/stillpoint
says, “I was overwhelmed when you presented the prayer shawl to encourage me during my recovery.” Pictured, left to right: Jan Carlberg, Paula, Gaynelle Weiss (first shawl) and Donna Loy (most shawls). Companions for the Journey This ministry pairs students and staff members in a mentoring relationship. Alicia Heelan ’07 (pictured) and I have had a wonderful journey together. Alicia
STILLPOINT, the magazine for alumni and friends of the United College of Gordon and Barrington, is published three times a year and has a circulation of over 22,000. Opinions expressed in STILLPOINT are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Gordon College administration. Gordon College is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, or national or ethnic origin. Reproduction of STILLPOINT in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
says, “Throughout my four years at Gordon I found that under Paula’s quiet and gentle nature hides a woman of great strength and deep faith.”
read more online at: www.gordon.edu/stillpoint/inspiration
This magazine is printed on Mohawk Opaque paper which contains 10% postconsumer waste fiber, is manufactured with windpower and is certified by Green Seal.
UP FRONT
WITH PRESIDENT CARLBERG
Caring for Creation The opening of the Ken Olsen Science Center (KOSC) this fall gives us an excellent opportunity to pause and reflect on our responsibility as stewards of creation. Our science faculty and students have
Statement of the Evangelical Climate
long been engaged with environmental
Initiative (www.christiansandclimate.org/
issues. Chemistry professor Irv Levy along
statement). This evangelical call to action
with his colleagues Dwight Tshudy and
was made in recognition of an opportunity
Emily Jarvis are responsible for Gordon’s
and responsibility to offer a biblically based
reputation for being on the cutting edge of
moral witness; a witness helping to shape
green chemistry, which is concerned with
public policy in this country and thereby
designing materials and processes safe
contributing to the well-being of others
for human health and the environment.
beyond our borders. In particular, poor
Biology professor Dorothy Boorse and her
nations and individuals have few resources
colleagues Ming Zheng and Dan Johnson
to cope with the major environmental
THE OLSEN CENTER
are currently on a student research
challenges posed by climate change and
Green features of the new science
committee studying sustainable agriculture
other threats.
building include: roof slate made
in Honduras. Our location in New England also provides opportunities for research related to the marine environment, including the efforts of Chuck Blend and his students to better understand the deaths of Great Eiders (large seaducks) off the coast. Such projects will be enhanced by resources available in the KOSC such as the new ecology laboratory’s geographic information system (GIS), which will aid the migratory songbird research of Greg Keller. But being environmentally responsible is by no means limited to the classrooms or laboratories here at Gordon. Last year, for example, the student group Advocates for a Sustainable Future (ASF) took responsibility for a number of conservation and recycling initiatives (www.gordon.edu/ asf). Our Physical Plant staff continue to take a leadership role in demonstrating environmental responsibility from a Christian perspective (www.gordon.edu/
Taking environmentally responsible positions is part of every Christian’s mandate from our Creator God, who commands us, like Adam, to tend and keep this garden that is the Earth; who, through Noah, preserved species destined for extinction; and who, through the Sabbath
from recycled plastic products; window glass with a low-E coating and argon filled for energy efficiency; carpets and all interior paints, finishes and stains have low VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) for better indoor air quality.
principles of Exodus and Leviticus, requires that land and livestock not be relentlessly pressed but given rest. As John Calvin once said, “Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits, that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence; but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it. . . . Let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses.” The new Ken Olsen Science Center will help us live out this mandate, which is not only our responsibility but our joy.
CHASE HALL Chase Hall, at 58,000 square feet with housing for 166 students and three classrooms, uses about the same amount of energy as the muchsmaller Sheppard Hall, with 18,000
restorecreation). Such efforts, combined
square feet, housing 90 students.
with the ongoing work of faculty and students in the natural sciences, are
LIGHTING
contributing to a comprehensive, campus-
Lighting projects have been
wide awareness of the importance of caring
completed in many existing campus
for creation. Evangelicals have not always been in the forefront of environmental education or had a meaningful voice in environmental issues. Some of us, in fact, have been part
buildings including the Bennett President
Center. The lights generally pay for
R. Judson Carlberg, Ph.D.
themselves in a year, and their use will substantially reduce the amount of electricity we consume.
of the problem. But this is changing—and for the better. In 2006 I was among the 85 evangelical leaders who signed the
President’s Page www.gordon.edu/presidentspage
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 3
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
“I especially love Norm’s image of the tiny Palestinian lamp . . . held in the palm of the hand, it gives only enough light for the next step.”
it a privilege to be able to join with other parents in prayer for the Lord’s continued blessing upon the Gordon community. —Mark and Hollie Goodale Nancy Mering, director of alumni and parent relations, writes: Thank you for your prayers! The Orientation Staff has included in its Parent Resource Guide a section on “Praying through the Year for Your Student.” nancy.mering@gordon.edu
WHEN I RECEIVED THE FIRST DRAFT
December now shows cancer in an alarming
of Norm Jones’ article “Vision and Revision”
number of locations in her body. She is 38,
(Spring 2008) to edit for STILLPOINT, I
mother of four children ages 3–15, and there
immediately emailed Norm to thank him
aren’t a lot of options for treatment. But
for sharing his story. It was particularly
that tiny “lamp” is still able to light their way
poignant for me since my husband,
one step at a time. Alleluia and amen! Thank
Peter ’65, had just been diagnosed with
you, Norm, for reminding us.
mild memory and cognitive impairment,
—Pat McKay ’65, Editor of Publications,
following the diagnosis of a neurological disorder five years earlier. Norm’s article offers such practical encouragement and advice for those times when we are absolutely “flattened” with realities we can do little about—with the knowledge that the situation is expected to worsen with time barring a miracle. I especially love Norm’s image of the tiny Palestinian lamp spoken of in Psalm 119:105; held in the palm of the hand, it gives only enough light for the next step. I have just sent Norm’s article to my grandnephew and his wife, whose recent
Gordon College OUR DAUGHTER WILL BE ATTENDING
WOW! I MEAN WOW! WHEN I REFLECT on what Gordon College was when I was a student and what Gordon College has become, as seen in this edition of STILLPOINT (Spring 2008), I’m humbled. The periodical is superb; the writing and variety of topics is outstanding. The visual presentation is first-class, and the flow is easy on the brain and the eyes. No doubt the Lord is honored with your collective
Gordon in the fall as a freshman and we
efforts, and Gordon’s alumni are blessed by
are very excited for her to become a part
the results—kudos to everyone who makes
of the Gordon community. We have sensed
it happen.
God’s hand and leading in every part of
—Mark A. Smith ’80
our decision as a family. One thing that touched my wife and me was reading President Carlberg’s column in STILLPOINT (“An Unprecedented Gift,” Fall 2007), in which he told how he and his wife pray together every year for the incoming first-
Editor’s note: Thanks for writing! We love hearing from alumni and friends of the College. What would you like to hear more about? How can STILLPOINT serve you better?
clean scan of a kidney cancer removed in
year students by name. We would consider
GORDON on iTunesU
GORDON SPOTLIGHT
is the home of podcasting at
bb Rick Warren’s 2008 Commencement address
bb Brian McLaren, “Everything Must Change”
Gordon. Here you will find audio and video from all over campus
bb Jud and Jan Carlberg interview Rick and Kay Warren
including visiting speakers. Just a few highlights:
GORDON PULPIT bb Makoto Fujimara, “Children of the Creative Age”
www.gordon.edu/itunes
4 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
bb D. Michael Lindsay, “Faith in the Halls of Power”
Write a letter stillpoint@gordon.edu
bb Dallas Willard, “Faith, Virtue and Knowledge” ACADEMICS/FACULTY FORUMS bb Jennifer Hevelone-Harper, “Christian Community and Spirituality in Late Antiquity” bb Anne Blackwill, “A Christian Concept of Self”
Story bryan parys ’04 Illustration Grant Hanna ’06
INSTALLATION 6: THE FOLD Since moving to New Hampshire for grad school, I have been in the throes of a harrowing church search. At the end of this column you will not hear about how I’ve found one and am now the events planner, or floor-vacuumer, or coffee-brewerfor-Friday-Singles-Night-even-though-I-won’t-actually-attendbecause-I’m-married-and-phew!-at-least-I-don’t-have-toworry-about-figuring-that-one-out! This lack of success is due to all the usual mid-20s reasons and excuses—personal laziness (“But I’ve had such a long week; please let me sleep!”), intellectual awareness (songs with choruses that repeat “Yes, Lord” over and over just don’t have the same umph anymore), and the fear of commitment (“But what if they don’t like me for me?”). The denomination I grew up in was nondenominational—a church that has no national sponsorship or funding, no pastors ordained by any umbrella group. While visiting this church recently, a woman named Delilah got up and announced, “I’ve never read the Bible!” This was shocking to me, but everyone else seated in their padded chairs just smiled as if she were announcing that Sunday School would resume in September. She went on to say that she was in the midst of a yearlong attempt to read the Bible, using a Gideon pocket Bible—New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. I thought she might do well not to cut out the not-as-quotable and often uncomfortable Old Testament. Comfort. I thought of the comfortable blue folding chair beneath me. Much more comfortable than the unpadded folding chairs we sat in when I started attending during high school. At the end of every sermon the pastor said, “Before you leave, could everyone lend a hand folding the chairs and putting them back in the closet?” For me the act was liturgical. This wasn’t just stacking; it was a sonic ballet of grab-clasp-stack that made it well with my soul. I looked forward to it the way others looked forward to Communion. A priest swinging incense would’ve been weird; folding as many chairs as I could carry was a holy offering. But that was back before the church split. Every church I’ve ever been a part of has met with this fate due to one controversy or another, be it heresy or hearsay. It always happened at times of great prominence in the church. It seemed the more comfortable we became, the less God blessed us with a sense of unity. As one of my childhood family’s churches grew, so did plans for a new sanctuary. Soon pink padded chairs that were locked into place took over the sanctuary. I felt helpless. Evidently so did a few others since a few months into the
This column is a modified version of a longer essay of the same name
use of the addition the church split for reasons I still don’t fully understand. My guess is that cozy seats paralyzed us. Before we had them, a certain amount of discomfort kept our community in a constant state of critical analysis of our great communal commissions. The discomfort brought us together, got us talking about our struggles and successes, then sent us back out into the world to keep on keeping on. In my current search I’ve visited churches with wooden pews, churches with fixed rows of chairs, and churches where the only folding chair is in the lobby—behind a table with a cash register and a fanning display of church-merch. During these visits my brain is in constant argument with itself; it goes something like: “Nope. This isn’t artsy or intellectual enough.” “Well, that’s a bit snobbish. You don’t pick a church like you a do a cardigan. If anything, they should be picking you!” “I know, but it wouldn’t hurt to be understood. Plus, I don’t even know these people.” “That only comes with time! Look around, doesn’t it remind you of your childhood church?” “It does. That is comforting.” “On the other hand, it reminds you of your childhood church.” “Ah! That is discomforting!” This loop continues until we leave and go out for breakfast, where I then replay it to my wife, Natalie. We get angry about the church, then we get happy about the church, then we eat omelets. As usual, I’m probably overthinking this metaphor. But is it so bad to want a church that knows when to fold ’em?
bryan parys doesn’t like to capitalize his name and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in creative nonfiction at the University of New Hampshire. Whenever he hears the word “potluck” he is forever doomed to picture goopy finger sandwiches and the culinary enigma known as Jello salad. bryan.parys@gordon.edu
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 5
A Timely and Important Conversation For Tal Howard, noted scholars Mark Noll and James Turner were “American reincarnations of the (irenic, erudite) Protestant reformer Philip Melanchthon and the (irenic, erudite) Catholic humanist Desiderius Erasmus.” So he invited them both to campus in the fall of 2006 to see what would happen. This book grew out of a dialogue held on the campus of Gordon College in 2006, hosted by the Jerusalem and Athens Forum. That such a dialogue on such a topic between a leading American evangelical scholar and a leading American Catholic scholar would take place at an evangelical college in the heart of New England reflects changes that have been and remain afoot. The Future of Christian Learning: An Evangelical and Catholic Dialogue is one of several projects at Gordon that have sought to foster dialogue and understanding across the unhappy divisions of Christianity. In recent years, for example, Gordon College has
6 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
begun a relationship with neighboring St. Anselm’s College—a Benedictine institution—for the purpose of shared fellowship and intellectual exchange. Faculty members at St. Anselm’s and Gordon have cooperated on several conferences: one on evangelical and Catholic approaches to the “liberal arts idea”; another on “Christians in Unity, Not Uniformity,” which brought scholars, clergy and laypeople together to reflect on ecumenical possibilities, not just in the theological heights but in the pew and on the street. The College recently hosted a conference entitled “Highly Favored: A Symposium on Mary across Christian Traditions,” a discussion among Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox representatives on the place of the Virgin Mary in theology and worship. Some of these endeavors, including the current volume, were supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment on the Christian idea of vocation, which
Jerusalem and Athens Forum www.gordon.edu/jaf
we titled “Critical Loyalty: Christian Vocation at Gordon College” and for which I serve as the overall project director. The title of the project says it all. “Critical Loyalty” reflects a conviction-driven, tension-filled dual sensibility felt by many at the College: a desire to remain fiercely loyal to the special gifts (proclamation of the gospel, concern for the needy, soulful hymnody, devotion to Scripture, among other things), found abundantly in the evangelical tradition; at the same time, a recognition that some contemporary manifestations of evangelicalism, especially in relation to the life of the mind and engagement with Christian tradition, have left much to be desired. In responding to the current shape of evangelicalism, the College recognized that “evangelical higher education now finds itself at a crossroads” as it seeks to address three constructive criticisms in particular:
Story Thomas A. Howard Photo Daniel Nystedt ’06
bb That evangelical Christians all too often have been inadequate stewards of the mind. bb That while evangelicals have placed great emphasis on individual study and application of Scripture (worthy goals in themselves), they have sometimes done so at the expense of knowledge of and participation in the broader tradition of Christian thought and reflection. bb That evangelicals have stood aloof from ecumenical engagement.
some of their deepest theological commitments—Wheaton College and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. As one will see, punches were not withheld but neither were any thrown below the belt. And while much ground was covered, it should be clear at the outset that neither interlocutor presumed the impossible task of speaking for the whole “evangelical tradition” or “Catholic tradition.” Rather, both self-avowedly represent
Their words here ought to be interpreted as a snapshot, interpretative summary of a fast-moving story of Tolstoyian complexity . . . In many respects the current volume, and the conference from which it derived, touch upon all three of these issues: intellectual engagement, tradition and ecumenism. The basic idea behind the project was to bring to Gordon’s campus a leading American evangelical scholar and a leading American Catholic scholar, both familiar with their own tradition, with one another’s tradition, and with the general landscape of “Christian learning”—understood to mean that which goes on at actual institutions of higher education, as well as the broader world of academic scholarship. Once this goal was formulated, two names quickly leapt to mind: Mark Noll and James Turner—scholars whom I have long suspected might be American reincarnations of the (irenic, erudite) Protestant reformer Philipp Melanchthon and the (irenic, erudite) Catholic humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Indeed, the pairing seemed perfect, for not only were both highly respected scholars able to meet the aforementioned criteria, but they taught at institutions that (at least to a considerable degree) reflected
a particular voice within these traditions at a particular moment of their development. Their words here ought to be interpreted as a snapshot, interpretative summary of a fastmoving story of Tolstoyian complexity, the contours of which suggest broad implications for the shape of Christian higher education, for the future of ecumenical relations, and for American intellectual and religious life generally.
A Mended and Broken Heart: The Life and Love of Francis of Assisi I am asked regularly why I—a Protestant—wrote a book about Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint. The answer is complicated, but in short it is because Francis captured my imagination by dint of his complete humanness. Did Francis love Clare? In the course of writing my book, I was asked this question more than any other. It is impossible to understand Francis without understanding his relationship to Clare. The answer is yes, he loved her, and she him. I assert that they were “in love” prior to their respective religious
From the “Introduction” of The Future of
conversions. Some then asked if
Christian Learning: An Evangelical and
this compromises their standing as
Catholic Dialogue (Brazos Press, 2008)
saints. Rather than compromise it, the power of this love—which they renounced in deference to a higher allegiance—only magnifies the heroic nature of their commitment to the penitential movement of the age. People ask, “Why didn’t they simply get married? Why did they have to go through all those renunciations?” The answers are in the book. Theirs is a poignant, wrenching love story.
Thomas A. (Tal) Howard, Ph.D., is
Athens Forum.
Wendy Murray is a journalist, author and visiting faculty member of the Gordon in Orvieto program.
tal.howard@gordon.edu
wendymurraywritersblog.blogspot.com
associate professor of history and director of the Jerusalem and
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 7
WHAT DOES THE CITY OF GOD HAVE TO DO WITH THE CITY OF MAN? Students in the Jerusalem and Athens (JAF) honors program were invited to submit essays considering the age-old question of the relationship of the City of Man (civitas terrena) to the City of God (civitas Dei). Are we to be hypersojourners, aloof from the “powers and principalities” of this world, even if often prophetically critical of them? Or are we to be more deeply, “residentially” engaged, eager to endow human civilization itself with the sap of the gospel?
Two Cities, Two Mindsets I grew up in a Reformed Presbyterian church. Dogmatic and thoughtful, my church took its spiritual vocation seriously. Any seventh-grader who had been through Confirmation Class could recite the catechism answers to questions about our relation to God, our spiritual responsibility and our salvation. We were wary of the influence of pop culture on church worship. We studied the apostles, the Church fathers and C. S. Lewis. We didn’t just wrap ourselves up in books, either, but built a strong community within our church, loving and serving each other—so much so that even all the cynicism of two years in college hasn’t changed my perception of this church as a real family. We were, however, too often separated from the world. Having the right theology was more important than ministering to the needy. Was my church fulfilling its mission? St. Augustine used an illustration of two cities in trying to explain the distinction between the Church and the world. Two loves have formed two cities, he claimed. The love of self has formed the earthly city; the love of God has formed the heavenly one. The earthly city is characterized by pride and self-aggrandizement while those in the heavenly city honor God in all things, trusting only Him for all wisdom and giving glory to only Him. It’s easy to see which city the Church should belong to, isn’t it? A surface reading of Augustine seems to indicate that the Church should adopt a separatist mindset, dwelling in the world reluctantly, abstaining from the inevitable corruptions of worldly institutions and systems. But the Cities aren’t defined by association; rather by priority. Value God over yourself and you will be in the City of God. Love yourself before you love
8 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
God and you are in the City of Man. It is man’s City because it is man’s sinful nature that pulls Him away from God, and God’s City because it is God’s grace that pulls man to heaven. Thus Augustine is not advising separation from the world in body or effort. The difference between the Cities comes from a mindset, a motivation, a mission. What is the unifying factor that brings together those in the City of God and distinguishes them from the City of Man? What is the Church’s mission? We can trace God’s plan for his chosen people back to Abraham. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2, 3; italics added). The purpose of God selecting a group of people is so they can bless others. And in the New Testament, what exactly the blessing is becomes clear. Jesus brought the Word, the Way to salvation. This Way is the blessing, continued by his disciples and by the Church. He commissions the disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). It is a failure of exegesis, however, to limit this commission to only teaching; this is a commission to love. The Way, as Jesus says, can be simplified to this one word: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37–39). Our entire morality, then, is wrapped up in the command to love God. Love God and you will love your neighbor. Loving
Excerpt Lydia Sheldon
God means loving your neighbor. Loving the world is part and parcel of loving God. It is God’s love of the world that propels our salvation, and our duty as Christians to further his Word not only in preaching and studying but through action—in social involvement, in politics, in education and in the arts. Loving the world in this way is not to love what the City of Man has to offer but to offer it a rigorous and exclusive blessing out of great love. Augustine refers to this blessing as “that security where peace is complete and unassailable. . . . This is the final blessedness, this the ultimate consummation, the unending end.” To present that blessing to the world is the temporal mission of the Church. But how can the Church minister to and love the world and not be affected by it? Exposure to the world, after all, often means contamination by its evils. In an effort to realize its temporal mission, the Church can forget its spiritual mission. In the Middle Ages the Church erred in becoming violent, power-hungry and absolutist. In 19th-century America the Church became too identified with the road to success. Alexis de Tocqueville observes: In the Middle Ages the clergy spoke of nothing but a future state; they hardly cared to prove that a sincere Christian may be a happy man here below. But the American preachers are constantly referring to the earth, and it is only with great difficulty that they can divert their attention from it (Tocqueville 127).
to the furthering of God’s blessing and love if it forgets or neglects its primary commitment. It is impossible to love the world without authentic commitment to the spiritual truths of the Word. Jesus is the Word and the Way; they are one and the same. So it is critical to have a structured, dogmatic understanding of God’s character and plan and our relation to Him. This is part of loving God, our first duty, and is also a necessary component of loving the world. To bring others to blessing is to share the revealed Way to salvation; the Church’s theology and biblical truths are what the blessing is. We can’t truly love others without loving and understanding God. Our spiritual vocation is tied to our temporal one. In my home church we avoided the pitfalls of worldly, watered-down spirituality but simultaneously passed by our duty to bring blessing to the world. The contemporary American Church needs to unite its spiritual and temporal missions. Many churches have one or the other, but both are incomplete if isolated. Because of God’s promise of unfailing love, we can be assured the Church can fulfill both missions. Augustine writes, “Neither have we in ourselves power to live rightly, but can do so only if He who has given us faith to believe in His help to help us when we believe and pray.”
This description sounds uncomfortably familiar. The contemporary American Church has become relativistic, pandering to what it believes the leaders of the world (in education, politics, media and art) will be least offended by. It is heavily influenced by pop-culture trends, substituting biblical wisdom for secular emotional therapy—at the expense of its absolutes and historical truths, even sometimes at the expense of a coherent theology.
Lydia Sheldon ’10 is an English major from Ocean City, New Jersey.
The Church’s spiritual vocation is essential to its temporal mission—must, in fact, be its first love. It can be of little use
JERUSALEM AND THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH: REFLECTIONS ON CHURCH IN A. J. GORDON’S HOMELAND
ON CITIES AND CHURCHES
Excerpt Joshua Hasler
Paradoxes are troublesome beasts. According to St. Augustine, we have the trouble of returning from exile—all the while not knowing how long we should be in residence here. We are at once a buzz of possibility in the midst of our ever-present failures. If all the world’s a stage, Shakespeare’s unpredictable pen has yet to finish. Both laughter and tears are in the wings until that uncertain end; each making their maddening appearances. What are actors without a script? What do we do?
One tool the consumer has is the power to boycott. Who doesn’t appreciate the chance to say “no” to a company? Many Christians find the idea of individual empowerment to leave an agreeable taste in the mouth. With the biblical emphasis on purity and moral decency, it is easy to see the gospel message as one of boycott. Many Christian groups, in fact, have established communities to secure a spiritual aloofness. If you don’t like what the culture advertises, boycott it. But what, then, is the Church’s temporal mission? To boycott or to engage?
Joshua Hasler ’09 is a philosophy major from Conifer, Colorado.
Patrick Welsh ’10 is a communications major from Geneva, Illinois.
Excerpt Patrick Welsh
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 9
HEART OF DISCOVERY: AN OVERTURE ON THE EVE OF THE KEN OLSEN SCIENCE CENTER’S GRAND OPENING SEPTEMBER 27, PROVOST MARK SARGENT CHALLENGES THE GORDON COMMUNITY—“WHETHER WE MAP GENOMES OR MERELY STRUGGLE TO DECIPHER SPREADSHEETS”—TO THINK ABOUT THE ALLIANCE OF FAITH, SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY IN OUR CULTURE.
The rift valley at Þingvellir is a dark gash in the moors of Iceland. Some 40 feet deep, the chasm stretches as wide as two miles in some places, but its most famous corridor is the narrow ravine through which the Oxará, or Axe River, flows out of a massive lake, an ancient spring trapped by hardened magma. A few years ago our family spent a summer morning walking through the narrow passage. We leapt between fallen rocks and hunted up the small waterfalls tumbling over the steep, charcoal-colored basalt of the canyon walls. The surrounding terrain is vast and unpopulated, unbroken grassy slopes and black soil climbing toward volcanic ridges. It is an open and unnerving landscape, frightful and strangely beautiful. I have never been anyplace where I was so conscious of living on a molten rock hurling through space. Given the stark contours of Þingvellir, it is no surprise that when Iceland’s go∂ar, or ancient tribal chiefs, needed to forge peace they assembled on this site. In
10 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
930 a.d. Þingvellir became home to the Alþingi, often considered the world’s first parliament. For eight centuries this small gorge housed Iceland’s legislature and judiciary. Here criminals were sentenced, Christianity adopted and independence movements launched. Few churches or democracies in the world can trace their beginnings to such fierce scenes of geologic power. Strange as it may seem, I often recalled that visit to Iceland as I watched the Ken Olsen Science Center emerge out of the frozen ground on the edge of the quad. This fall, as the corridors fill with faculty, students and guests, we will have new opportunities to think about the alliance of faith, science and democracy in our own culture. It’s an uneasy bond. The United States can reasonably claim to be the most scientifically advanced and one of the most pervasively Christian nations, but fault lines between the lab and the sanctuary continue to widen. Today the academy often dismisses faith as an
obstacle to knowledge, even as many Christians still succumb to reactionary rants about science. But increasingly believers cannot speak of shalom—the Hebraic idea of human flourishing or right order—without considering the extraordinary possibilities and hazards of modern scientific inquiry. If science and faith are still often at odds, there are also concerns about the rapport between science and democracy. At risk is the health of the American “social contract with science”—the will of the republic to invest in research and grant the investigator broad freedom, confident that the scholarly community will insist on professional rigor, ethical protocols and intellectual generosity. The social contract presumes that the nation’s investment in discovery belongs to the public and the worldwide scholarly community. Yet with the rise of proprietary science, as well as some fearful prospects for reengineering the species, that presumption is increasingly fragile.
FISH, SQUID AND FLAPPING-FIN ROBOTS Erik Anderson, Ph.D. ’89
I am assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania. I teach fluid mechanics and biomechanics, and a core course focusing on the intersection of faith and science, specifically focusing on origins, bioethics and environmental issues. I also do research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and at Harvard in the field of biofluid dynamics and biomimetic robotics. The goal is to design better oceanographic and marine vehicles by first looking at how marine animals swim, specifically fish and squid. The flapping-fin robot I built at Harvard made the cover of the Journal of Experimental Biology in August 2007. I was in Irvin Levy’s Organic Chemistry class at Gordon. He had a unique nomenclature for tests and homework, if I remember correctly. I think he called tests “recitals”—or maybe it was “opportunities.” His approach to teaching had a major impact on my teaching style, first while I was a high school teacher and now Ming Zheng, professor of biology, with sample of red pine, Pinus resinosa and bread (common) wheat, Triticum aestivum
as a college professor.
BUT INCREASINGLY BELIEVERS CANNOT SPEAK OF SHALOM—THE HEBRAIC IDEA OF HUMAN FLOURISHING OR RIGHT ORDER— WITHOUT CONSIDERING THE EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES AND HAZARDS OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.
Story Mark Sargent
As the day for the Olsen Center’s opening nears, I have tried to reflect on how Gordon College might help do its part to invigorate this social contract. With our new building, all of us—whether we map genomes or (like me) merely struggle to decipher spreadsheets—should consider how a community of faith could contribute to a more robust future for the relationship between science and democracy. Here, as a starting place, are five themes for that task. 1. SCIENCE GRADUATES First, a simple claim: Gordon can enrich democratic life by graduating scientists. More of them. Two years ago the National Science Board (NSB) once again raised alarms about the failure of the United States to prepare enough scientists for the future. Actually, the percentage of students at American colleges and universities pursuing undergraduate science degrees has remained relatively
stable over the past 20 years. In 2006 roughly 12 percent of collegians in the U.S. enrolled in nonengineering science majors—the physical, life, environmental, mathematics and computer sciences—virtually the same as in 1980. On this score, Gordon mirrored the national trend: 12.4 percent of our students in 2006 belonged to the Natural Science Division, only a slight drop from 13.4 percent in 1999. Yet this steady state has not kept pace with the recent 4-to-5 percent annual increases in new science and engineering jobs. And the shrillest warning from the NSB is that the science labor force is rapidly aging as the baby boomers educated during the Sputnik and the Apollo era close in on retirement. More than half of American scientists with doctorates are now older than 50. Over the next decade we can certainly envision science majors rising to at least a fifth of our student body. That is, of course, a response to the market: few sectors of the labor market have as little unemployment as science.
The revival of our 3-2 physics and engineering program, for instance, should help students blend a Christian liberal arts degree with entry to the engineering fields, now vastly underfed by American colleges. But, above all, it can be a moral and a global response. For a new generation of our alums to thrive as advocates for democratic reforms and international justice—and to partner with indigenous churches and agencies—it will increasingly need to address critical questions on energy, public health, environmental care, and bioethics. 2. SCIENCE EDUCATORS The most painful shortages in the sciences may not be in the labs but in elementary and secondary classrooms. Each year between 17 percent and 28 percent of science teachers in American public schools do not have sufficient science credentials to teach their subjects, especially in the least and the most densely populated areas. When Greg Groover, Gordon trustee
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 11
THE PEACE CORPS, LIKE OTHER
PEACE-CORPS PHYSICS Rebekah Fisher ’05
RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS,
I recently returned from working as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in southern Tanzania. I taught physics and physical science at a public secondary school where I was the only non-Tanzanian. Now I am teaching sixth-grade science and math at Wamsutta Middle School in Attleboro, Massachusetts. I love working with young people and breaking information down into something that is enjoyable and applicable to their lives. In both jobs I have had
RECENTLY NOTED THAT THEIR MOST CRITICAL NEED IS NOT FOR VOLUNTEERS, BUT RATHER FOR SCIENTISTS WITH CROSS-
the challenge of improving the test scores of my students, and engaging and exciting them
CULTURAL EXPERIENCE AND
with the material. My more important challenge, however, has been breaking down barriers
KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES, AS
that separate us from one another. It amazes me how similar we humans are from culture to culture. I want my students to embrace the diversity God created.
WELL AS REASONING, WRITING AND LISTENING ABILITIES.
NEW TECHNOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SUBTLETIES Anan Copty ’94
For the last four years I have worked at Intel Corporation in positions ranging from research and development of novel technologies to device physicist for the 45nm transistors. I am currently involved in the startup of a $4 billion facility in Qiryat Qat, Israel, which will manufacture the latest 45nm technology of Intel processors. I enjoy working on new technologies and delving into the physical subtleties involved. From previous experiences, one of my most significant contributions was a paper on the interaction of microwave and biological proteins that I published while in graduate school. As the public use of cellular phones (radiating microwaves) is continuously increasing, there needs to be more scientific work on their subtle effects on biology—and therefore our health.
and pastor of the Historic Charles Street A.M.E. Church, recently joined the Boston School Board, he noted that disparities between our urban, rural and suburban schools may be the “civil rights” issue of our time. How can Gordon make a difference? Certainly more science majors could produce more science educators, some with an interest in urban and rural communities. And, with an innovative spirit in the graduate program in education, Gordon can tailor the curriculum of our master’s degree cohorts for the needs of specific school districts. Collaborating with districts, in Lynn and elsewhere, on education degrees that enrich science programs will equip local educators as they address gaps in science literacy. We can also make the Ken Olsen Science Center a beacon for precollege students, especially those coming from less prosperous communities. Bringing urban young people into the Olsen Center for stimulating programs may help instill confidence about pursuing
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higher education in the sciences. We can design more prebaccalaureate service programs, like Bryan Auday’s neuroscience adventure “Igniting the Mind.” The Olsen Center, with its labs and display spaces, can host school science fairs. At present there is excitement among some younger Gordon faculty about a natural history museum in the Center, and I can envision Gordon granting awards to regional science students or allowing some local science classes to help curate displays. 3. PHILANTHROPY AND PRIVATIZATION The Christian community can also nourish the social contact through its heritage of philanthropy and service. Although the U.S. government invests less of its gross national product in humanitarian science than most other industrialized nations do, the American people continue to be generous with time and resources. Christian principles, as well as philanthropic and missionary networks, can be
resources to scholars concerned about threats to social justice kindled by the privatization of knowledge. With shrinking state funding and higher costs, research depends more on private investors, and the results are increasingly seen more as marketable products for the entrepreneur rather than as the common possessions of citizens. Admittedly, there are benefits to privatization: some accelerated rates of innovation, reduced taxes, and lower overhead costs to support entrenched bureaucracies. But there are also liabilities. Privatization can obstruct the dissemination of key discoveries to those in need; research can be disproportionately focused on the global marketing of biotechnology products to the world’s wealthiest consumers. Some measure of scholarly independence—and, on too many occasions, truth-telling—can be lost when the scholar works primarily in service of a sponsor’s advantage. At present, many of the widest gaps between supply and demand appear in the humanitarian science fields:
CAN WE CHAMPION EVERYDAY HABITS AND BEHAVIORS THAT MODEL STEWARDSHIP? CAN
WARBLERS, TANAGERS, THRUSHES AND ORIOLES Abigail Geer ’08
RESEARCH BY STUDENTS
Dr. Gregory Keller, son of two “quiet naturalists,” recently joined the Gordon biology faculty
AND FACULTY HELP ASSESS
and relishes the opportunity to share his love for God as he shares his love for science. Keller
LOCAL WATER, AIR AND LAND
was drawn to Gordon because he was fascinated by the question of whether science and
CONDITIONS AND RECOMMEND
faith could be successfully integrated, but he feared that the experiment would be either “the
STRATEGIES FOR USE AND CONSERVATION?
greatest or most nightmarish combination.” He has found the best of both worlds here. His work focuses on the landscape factors that affect the populations of migratory birds, and what can be done to prevent population decline. He enlists his students’ help, giving them both valuable experience and tools through which to appreciate the beauty of the world around them. Keller’s interest in birds began at his family’s birdfeeders. “It’s hard not to be passionate about birds,” he says, “after being surrounded by hundreds of rainbow-colored warblers, tanagers, thrushes and orioles foraging on caterpillars at 5 a.m on a cold, drizzly morning. Appreciation turns quickly to admiration, then to awe when one realizes that a bird that weighs the same as four pennies migrates 3,000 miles and loses half of its body weight just to breed in our woods. The songs they sing are unrivaled by humans and other animals, and are essentially a song of praise and declaration of success. Deep down the better question is, ‘Are there any better representatives of God’s creation in both beauty and perfection?’”
Greg Keller, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, with Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus.
infectious diseases and hunger relief, water control and contamination, nursing and gerontology. The Peace Corps, like other relief organizations, recently noted that their most critical need is not for volunteers but rather for scientists with cross-cultural experience and knowledge of languages, as well as reasoning, writing and listening abilities. That sounds like an opportunity for Gordon: to partner with organizations especially eager for graduates with liberal arts skills, moral alertness, and a heart for service. 4. GREEN NEIGHBORS Recently several Gordon initiatives, quite admirably, have urged us to “go green”—among them, Irv Levy’s and Dwight Tshudy’s push for green chemistry; Leo Cleary’s biodiesel project; Dorothy Boorse’s environmental science courses; and Mark Stowell’s “Restore Creation” program. In an era of globalization, we are becoming more alert to how poor stewardship harms the welfare of people worldwide. Now questions about justice often focus
on environmental concerns. Links between global democratization and environmental health are actually mixed: while autocratic regimes are usually major polluters, democratization itself has led at times to more soil erosion, carbon emissions and deforestation. A vigorous social contract asks us to understand the threats to the global environment, including threats in our own democratic neighborhoods. When I came to Gordon in 1996, I was drawn to the beauty of the locale— the woodlands, orchards, marshlands and coastal estuaries. What I did not know was that Essex County was one of the most polluted regions of the nation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency scorecard, Essex was the third most polluted county in Massachusetts in 2002 and among the worst 10 percent of the nation. Several problems stemmed from industrial discharge—the Salem smoke towers were major culprits—as well as diesel soot from trucks and power plants. Fortunately there has been considerable progress in the last several years:
industrial toxic releases in the county are now one-fourth of what they were in 1988. But traffic has risen, wetlands are threatened, and carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from highway traffic still exceed National Ambient Air Quality Standards nearly half the days of the year. The Olsen Center will be one of the premier science facilities on the North Shore, and can be a stimulus for environmental discipline and discovery. Can we champion everyday habits and behaviors that model stewardship? Can research by students and faculty help assess local water, air and land conditions and recommend strategies for use and conservation? What if the Olsen Center became seen as the one of the region’s vital think tanks for environmental care? 5. DIGNITY AND DIALOGUE Questions about democracy are vital to all disciplines, but the politics of biotechnology have a fierce relevance in our region. Greater Boston now boasts more than 300 biotech firms. Today
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 13
FAITH AND SCIENCE IN VENICE Karl Giberson, director of Gordon’s new Forum on Faith and Science, led a one-week science and religion seminar in May at Venice’s prestigious Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. This year’s theme was “God and the Laws of Nature.” Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the competitive program brings together promising graduate students and young scholars while also guiding established scholars interested in contributing to some of the most important interdisciplinary conversations of our time. Among the participating scholars were Associate Professor of Biology Craig Story, who presented “The God of Christianity and the GOD of Immunology”; and Brian Glenney, assistant professor of philosophy, who presented “God, Laws of Nature, and Natural Miracles.” Featured speakers were Sir John Polkinghorne, Anglican priest and former professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University; Owen Gingerich, professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University; and Paul Davies, Karl Giberson, Brian Glenney and Craig Story
physicist, science writer, and broadcaster. www.vssr.info
WHAT SEEMS LIKE A SMALL, EVEN REMOTE PLACE MAY BE ON THE TRAIL OF THINGS WONDROUS AND FEARFUL—IMMENSELY SIGNIFICANT, BUT OFTEN SHELTERED FROM PUBLIC VIEW.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “American Scholar” would examine cells under a microscope. The biotechnology debates are acid tests for democracy. At stake is human dignity—how we sustain and elongate life, and who sets the limits for reengineering the species. Yet, as The Boston Globe’s Charles Pierce observes, discussions about bioethics can be “so removed from the science of biotechnology that it becomes clear that a great deal of the future debate on the issues of biotechnology might well be composed of scientists and moral philosophers talking past each other, with politicians in the middle trying to mediate the discussion.” Gordon College—especially with great new public spaces in the Olsen Center—can be a vital catalyst of this conversation. That is one hope for the new Forum on Faith and Science that physicist and science writer Karl Giberson will be overseeing at Gordon in coming years. Recently Alan Leshner, the executive publisher of
14 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
Science, underscored the importance of discussions between scientists and “church and synagogue groups” for democratic policy. He emphasized that the rift between science and faith comes as much from “evangelical atheists among our science colleagues” who underestimate the education of religious people. For instance, the debate concerning “somatic-cell nuclear transfer,” he claimed, is a clash over values, about “when life begins, and its sanctity,” rather than a case of scientific naiveté. What Gordon offers is a network of relationships and good will among people of faith, and a commitment to respectful dialogue, a central theme of the College’s Center for Christian Studies. Our challenge is to forge greater understanding among those who disagree, but at the same time to understand more fully how the rich heritage of Christian bioethical philosophy and thought can contribute to the public discourse. Most theories of democracy warn of the dangers of unbridled freedom and the loss of a
common sense of humanity. Francis Fukayama, for instance, appeals to secular governments to realize that free and unregulated experimentation can mean that “human essence will be altered over time”—that we will see “transgenetic species” and move into a “posthuman future.” How does a pluralistic culture navigate concerns about biotechnological invention? It cannot simply purge the conversation of moral or metaphysical notions of human meaning. As former Cambridge physicist John Polkinghorne contends, “Science has achieved its very great success in its own domain at the cost of the modesty of its ambitions. We have every reason to believe that there are many questions to ask both meaningful and necessary that cannot be framed according to the narrow protocols of science.” There are indeed principles in Christian bioethical thought—prudence and subsidiarity, for instance—that have long been used to weigh medical decisions; today, more Christian bioethicists, such as Lisa Cahill, are also challenging medical
CONNECTING WORLDS Abigail Geer ’08
Emily Jarvis’ quiet demeanor parallels the quantum chemistry she studies. As with the compounds that form our world but are unseen even to the strongest microscope, there is more to Jarvis than is immediately apparent. Jarvis earned her doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles, was a Congressional science fellow, and has worked as a National Research Council postdoctoral research scientist. At UCLA she studied quantum chemistry and the interactions that take place between a few hundred molecules of a substance, using mathematical models to extrapolate how large quantities of the same substances would interact with each other. Jarvis has also studied the jet engines’ coatings that allow the engines to function at super high temperatures, attempting to determine how to prevent unwanted interactions between the coatings and the air sucked into the engines. During her time in Washington, Jarvis Emily Jarvis, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, with spectrometer OUR CHALLENGE IS TO FORGE
served as a liaison between the scientific community and legislators, explaining scientific matters to members of Congress. “A couple things make me passionate about science,” she says. “First, physical science is so
GREATER UNDERSTANDING AMONG
fundamental to our world. It explains things as diverse as how my computer works and what
THOSE WHO DISAGREE, BUT AT THE
makes a sunset beautiful. Secondly, the extreme complexity and yet the orderliness and
SAME TIME TO COMPREHEND MORE FULLY HOW THE RICH HERITAGE OF CHRISTIAN BIOETHICAL PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE.
organizations to view global access to health care in moral terms. As Harvard astrophysicist Owen Gingerich notes, in many scientific controversies—such as species extension and biotechnological risk—“Even persons who do not identify with Christianity are being morally bankrolled by the conscience of the Christian tradition.” Our task is to know and enrich that tradition more fully. THINGS WONDROUS AND FEARFUL Our visit to Þingvellir came just an hour or so after we arrived in the Arctic dawn at Keflavik Airport, on the bleak fringe of lava that comprises the Rekyannes Peninsula. A quick stop for a rental car and we were off toward the hills east of Reykjavik. Drenched by the midnight rains, the streets of the capital were nearly empty, and the valleys beyond seemed occupied only by the wind. It was still too early for the tour buses when we pulled up to the panoramic view of the Þingvellir crevasse and began the short trek into the ravine. At that moment we seemed to have come to a lonely place—a
mathematical basis of the world around us points to God and our relationship with Him and how He communicates Himself through the elegance of the world.” She adds, “It’s exciting to be surrounded by other people who are taking their faith seriously and the added meaning that brings to their work.”
curiosity on an island that was still more mythic than renowned. But today, more than ever, the smallest places of the world open windows on the great global issues. No one visits Reykjavik anymore without being reminded that Reagan and Gorbachev once tried to end the Cold War there. Just within the last decade, the massive Vatnajükull glacier in the south—which covers one-tenth of the island—has retreated nearly two miles, making Iceland a focal point in the debates about climate change. And none of those early tribal assemblies in Iceland understood that the razor-like slice in the Þingvellir terrain is actually part of an extraordinary subterranean fracture: the valley is the most visible site above sea level in the long rift that separates the continental plates of Europe and Africa from those of the Western Hemisphere. It is yet another reminder that even in our quiet places we can be, quite unknowingly, right in the midst of great global contours. What seems like a small, even remote place may be on the trail of things wondrous and
fearful—immensely significant, but often sheltered from public view. European parliamentary democracy took root in an Icelandic valley; who knows the reverberations that will emanate from the discovery and discourse within the new Center on our own quad? For a few minutes on that brisk Iceland morning, we noted the beauty of the small things: the colors of lichen, the blue mosses in the crags, the glacial streams, and the steam rising out of the dark rocks. Only later did we realize that our simple morning walk had taken us into a chasm that, quite literally, divides the world.
Mark L. Sargent, Ph.D., has been the provost of Gordon College since 1996. mark.sargent@gordon.edu
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 15
INSPIRATION, HUMOR AND FRIENDSHIP: A TRIBUTE TO DR. TOM DENT Carol Gordon ’89
Dr. Thomas Dent taught biology from 1969 until 1991. The new greenhouse is named in his memory.
Such fond memories I have of Dr. Dent, who called me “wee tiny little Carol” and yet challenged me to stand tall. He opened a wonderful world to us—botany— throwing us into every opportunity possible to let us experience God’s creation out of the textbook and inside flowers, walking among forest trees, tasting the fruits and nuts they bore. In 1988 during spring break Dr. Dent took seven of us to Florida to volunteer at ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization), to see firsthand practical ways to serve Christ by helping farmers around the world feed their communities. That trip changed my life. After Gordon I returned to ECHO to work on their demonstration farm. Although I subsequently worked several years at the U.S. National Arboretum, my heart longed to work with farmers again. I didn’t return to that dream until after Dr. Dent’s death. I studied agronomy at the University of Maryland and dedicated my master’s thesis to Dr. Dent. How I wish I could tell him that I am now happily working with farmers as a soil conservationist in Maryland. I thank God for Dr. Dent, for his believing in me, his inspiration, humor and sincere friendship.
A TIME TO REUNITE Anna Martin
Jane Andrus, Russ Camp, Tom Dent, Jack and Ann Haas, Jerry McNatt. These men and women played vital roles in developing the Natural Sciences Division at Gordon College. Alumni now have the opportunity to honor these retired faculty members in lasting and heartfelt ways. Many alumni have taken the opportunity to visit the testimonial pages for science and psychology faculty. Testimonies and memories are compiled and given to the faculty member, or his family, as a memory book. Read a sampling of these stories at www.gordon.edu/ facultytestimonials.
Alumni have also gathered at a series of reunion events honoring specific science faculty members and recognizing them for their years of dedicated service and commitment. More major-specific events will occur in the coming year. For a recap of past events, visit www.gordon.edu/ campaignevents. In gratitude for their foundational work in building Gordon’s science program, we are delighted to announce that the several laboratories and other areas in the Ken Olsen Science Center will be named in honor of these devoted retired faculty members. These include the Dr. Russell R. Camp Molecular Cell
Science Faculty Testimonials www.gordon.edu/honorsciencefaculty 16 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
Psychology Faculty Testimonials www.gordon.edu/honorpsychologyfaculty
Biology Laboratory; the Dr. Jerrold L. McNatt Physics Laboratory; and the Dr. Michael W. Givens Kinesiology Seminar Room. For decades committed faculty members nurtured the science programs in spite of inadequate facilities, tired equipment and little budget. What these professors lacked in physical resources they made up for in dedication and hard work, ensuring their students’ readiness for graduate study or the workplace. Their legacy is now honored by the new Science Center—a wonderful reason for alumni to reunite and celebrate.
WHAT BETTER WAY TO PREPARE FUTURE LEADERS IN THESE FIELDS THAN BY COMBINING THE VERY BEST ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION WITH THE VERY BEST TRAINING AT AN ENGINEERING INSTITUTION?
You are cordially invited to the dedication of the
KEN OLSEN SCIENCE CENTER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2008—11 a.m. MacDonald Auditorium, Ken Olsen Science Center WITH SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER
Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project “Genomics and the Human Condition” LUNCHEON RECEPTION immediately following RSVP to Anna Martin by September 10
anna.martin@gordon.edu, 978.867.4766 or www.gordon.edu/koscdedication
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: 3–2 ENGINEERING Abigail Geer ’08
In the basement of the Ken Olsen Science Center, construction will soon begin on an engineering lab. When complete, it will be among the few such labs found at liberal arts colleges in the United States. The new lab will strengthen the 3-2 engineering program already in place at Gordon, in which students spend three years at Gordon building a foundation, then enroll in an engineering school for their final two years, receiving degrees from both Gordon and the engineering institution they attend. Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California has recently formalized its partnership with Gordon’s 3-2 program. The program provides engineering tracks in aerospace, mechanical, astronautical, biomedical, chemical,
civil, environmental, computer, computer science, electrical, industrial and systems. David Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of physics and 3-2 program coordinator, says, “Our 3-2 students must be prepared to become uncompromisingly good engineers, but they must also have more than just a framework of faith; they must understand engineering from the proper perspective of God’s total ownership of creation. They must understand that our knowledge, actions and works are outpourings and manifestations of His redemptive love toward creation. With this grounding, and coupled with the breadth of exposure and the solid thinking and communication skills that characterize our Gordon education, these students will begin their mission work the
minute they set foot at an engineering institution, surrounded as they will be by nonbelieving peers, teaching assistants and professors. They must be ready for the academic challenges, of course, but they must also be ready to defend their faith in a way that will impact their fellow engineering students. What better way to prepare future leaders in these fields than by combining the very best aspects of the Christian liberal arts education with the very best training at an engineering institution?” For information about the 3-2 program, contact david.lee@gordon.edu.
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 17
New Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness Opens The CBMW will be both a resource to the community and a venue for education and research. I am now middle-aged. There have been many small warnings—the invitation in the mail to join the AARP; my new, avid interest in the details of friends’ knee-replacement surgeries; the slower metabolism that rules out bacon-double cheeseburgers. I am, in short, part of that demographic group known as the Baby Boomers. In the next decade we will be reaching retirement age in enormous numbers. Enter Gordon’s new, expanded Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness (CBMW) for those 55 and over. The recently completed 6,500-square-foot facility, located at the Brigham Athletic Complex on Gordon’s campus, had its grand opening June 14. It features clinical, academic and research expertise for the treatment of neurological, vestibular, and balance and gait disorders. Headed by Clinical Director Marie Lucey, P.T., and CBMW Center and Research Director Sean Clark, Ph.D., the original center opened in 2002. Since that time over 1,000 clients have been treated in a small space within Gordon’s Bennett Athletic and Recreation Center. The new Center will continue to provide specialized physical therapy on an individualized basis, but the expanded facility, which partners with Gordon’s Department of Kinesiology, will allow many more clients to receive treatment and will provide expanded services to those who struggle with balance and mobility problems. It will also offer wellness programming for healthy adults 55 and over. “This new center will be unrivaled in its ability to address the acute and long-term physical needs of aging adults,” says Peter Iltis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Kinesiology. A COMMUNITY RESOURCE Marie Lucey notes that many people she sees for short-term physical therapy (PT) have chronic problems as well. The new facility gives them a place to return to after a specific program of PT is over. “We’re trying to change the paradigm for how care is delivered,” Marie says, “addressing needs that don’t always fit neatly into a PT category.” 18 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
In interviewing Marie, I mentioned my mother, whose advanced osteoporosis made her cripplingly sedentary in the last years of her life. Her fear of breaking bones was wellfounded, but inactivity made the problem far worse. “No matter what age you are or what physical challenges you face, you can improve physical function through training,” Marie responded. “If you can only do one thing to improve your health, exercise is that one thing. Whether you’re 55 or 95 we can build a program of exercise that addresses your needs.” A distinctive of the new Center is its wellness training area, where both graduates of the outpatient physical therapy and healthy adults aged 55 years and older can proactively pursue healthy aging with greater independence. The emphasis is on improving strength, balance, aerobic fitness, and flexibility. “Since many age-related declines in physical function are the result of inactivity and disuse,” Iltis says, “this part of the facility plays a vital preventative role— enabling aging adults to retain and even improve their physical status through carefully prescribed exercise training.” It’s also a friendly environment for people who may find conventional gyms uncomfortable. “It’s spandex-free,” Iltis quips. “It creates a quiet, nonintimidating atmosphere for people 55 and over. There are no mirrors, no free weights, no weight machines . . . all the strength-training equipment is pneumatic and virtually silent.” BALANCE BUILDING—TAKING IT A STEP FURTHER The new balance-training room is circuit style with exercise stations that challenge various balance-related systems. “Maintaining balance is a surprisingly complex task,” Clark says. “The ability to use information from multiple sensory systems and effectively coordinate muscle responses during movement performance is often overlooked until these abilities are lost.” Recognizing the effects of disuse and ageassociated changes on balance-related systems, the balancetraining room has been designed to expose individuals to a
Story Patricia Hanlon Photos Gabe Davis
“If you can only do one thing to improve your health, exercise is that one thing.” —Marie Lucey, Physical Therapist and Clinical Director, CBMW variety of balance-challenging activities. The room is equipped with a full-body overhead harness system designed to allow people to perform these balance exercises safely. One exercise involves an adapted version of “Dance Dance Revolution,” a guided exercise routine set to music and popular with young people. Kinesiology majors Alicia Heelan ’07 and Tiffany Kelly ’09 have been involved in developing stepping patterns to an age-appropriate mix of songs—
everything from show tunes to Big Band to Neil Diamond. Clients compete against themselves, measuring how accurately they hit the steps on the dance pad. The facility is also the first on the North Shore to provide individuals with access to the ActiveStep™ treadmill developed by Simbex Corporation of Lebanon, New Hampshire—a fall-risk assessment and fall-prevention training system. ActiveStep™ offers its users a method to relearn their natural “recovery response” when balance is lost due to slips or trips. The treadmill simulates different slips and trips and measures one’s ability to step and recover. Early research conducted with this device has been encouraging in terms of reducing fall risk in some elderly people—an important consideration in Massachusetts, where the incidence of deaths related to falls increased by two-thirds from 2005 to 2006.
Students in the Kinesiology Department at Gordon work with the therapists and clients through internships at the Center. “Students will receive training and have onsite accessibility to balance disorder resources not available at many other liberal arts college programs in the country,” says Iltis. Interns will also work alongside therapists by assisting with fitness screenings, learning assessment techniques for specific vestibular disorders, giving presentations on wellness, or
assisting with exercise or therapy sessions. “Students will be actively engaged in the process of linking theory into practice. This engagement provides a tremendous research facility for the College’s faculty and students to investigate key questions pertaining to our field,” says Clark. Clark and Iltis are passionate about this new venture. “It’s fascinating to study the human body in the context of elite performance,” says Iltis. “The Center is dedicated to applying the same kind of study to the other end of human performance. What’s our vision for redeeming disordered human movement? That’s what this facility is all about.”
A CLINICAL/RESEARCH CONNECTION With its close ties to Gordon’s Department of Kinesiology, the CBMW is both a clinical and a research facility; research both informs and is informed by what happens at the CBMW day to day. Iltis notes, “Studies show that balance improves not just with strength training but with exercise—but there’s no consensus on which exercises. We’re hoping to contribute to this. We want to stay on the cutting edge with evidence-based solutions for balance and mobility problems.”
Patricia Hanlon, M.A., director of publications at Gordon, has not yet joined the AARP. She is an expatriate southern Californian who came east to marry Gordon grad Robert Hanlon ’77. patricia.hanlon@gordon.edu
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 19
was this independent and rebellious spirit, combined with his ability to excel in languages, that would later on prove useful on both the Chinese and Korean mission fields. PASSAGE TO CHINA
New Life from a Martyr’s Death What began as a brief visit to a small church in Wales led Stella Price to a living, dynamic relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ in both China and Korea. In researching and entering into the life of Robert Jermain Thomas, she also came to understand the adage “In the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” I first “met” Robert Jermain Thomas at Hanover Chapel in Llanover, South Wales. On the inside walls of this tiny church, an old, water-stained photograph hung to the left of the pulpit. Underneath were the words “Robert Jermain Thomas, First Protestant Martyr to Korea, Died in 1866.” Blue and red silk tassels decorated the pulpit; a guest book filled with Korean signatures lay on top of a small rectangular table. Many had come specifically to honor this man who had died almost 150 years before. Even if his wasn’t a household name in Wales, Thomas was certainly esteemed by Koreans. Within yards of the church was a small cottage, the parsonage where Robert grew up with his brothers and sisters. I imagined him catching a toad or playing cricket in the fields. As a boy he studied at Llandovery College, Wales; at 16 he attended Principal Academy in London; at 17 he preached his first
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sermon at Hanover Church, entitled “Jesus Christ, the Same, Yesterday, Today, Forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and at 18 he gained provisional acceptance at New College, London, England. There he distinguished himself as a linguist in his studies of Greek, Latin and French. I began to think of him not as my stereotype of a missionary but as the rich young ruler whom Jesus loved: content with his status but longing for more. In researching his story I learned he had fallen out with several of his professors at New College. In a letter to the governing board he wrote, “Ill health prevents my return to ollege this session. But though it will not allow continuous study, I am glad to say I can preach with little inconvenience.” These few lines puzzled the New College Council as much as they did me. Thomas was apparently well enough to preach at Wrexham, a church that his father had pastored, but not well enough to resume his studies. But it
In 1863, at age 24, he left London for China. With his new wife, Caroline Godfrey, Thomas traveled on the Polmaise, a 753-ton ship. He’d been ordained and commissioned for missionary work in Shanghai, China, and the four-month voyage on the steamer meant the couple had to be not only hopeful but hearty. To travel in 1863 meant risking much, such as diseases like smallpox. In his first letter home to his parents after arriving in Shanghai, Thomas described a fellow traveler who was “recovering nicely from having caught the smallpox” as if he had a common cold. In this same letter he included a note for his sister, promising to “send . . . a fan or something pretty that would arrive in the next five months,” and hopefully not infected with smallpox. Within five months of their arrival in Shanghai, though, Thomas’ wife died from a miscarriage. He was not present at her death; he had gone to Hankow to find housing during the hot and sticky summer. He resigned soon after from the London Missionary Society and accepted a position as customs officer in Chefoo (Yentai). Was he walking away from missionary work, unable to meet the challenge—just as the rich young ruler did? Or did his move to Chefoo reflect something greater? At the very least he needed time to grieve and rethink his calling to the mission field. Two significant friends, Joseph Edkins of the London Missionary Society and Alexander Williamson of the National Bible Society, lived close to Thomas’ future residence, and their support would prove crucial. It was
Story Stella Price ’89
an incident in Williamson’s home, in fact, that motivated Thomas to travel again. Williamson introduced Thomas to two Catholic Koreans who were eager to read Bibles but did not yet possess any. Thomas was gripped by their plight, and through Williamson began negotiating with the Scottish Bible Society to take Chinese-print
his life for a people who were dying without the knowledge of Christ. Why? It was his “duty,” a word synonymous with “love” in the Wales I once knew. In 1866 Thomas’ duty and love took him on his second missionary journey to Pyongyang, Korea, where 10,000 Korean Catholics had been murdered. He was well aware of the threats of
I began to think of him not as my stereotype of a missionary but as the rich young ruler whom Jesus loved: content with his status but longing for more. Bibles to Korea. Eventually Thomas took two missionary journeys along the coast of what we now know as North Korea. Called the Hermit Kingdom by foreigners, the region was notoriously hostile to visitors and wanted nothing to do with Westerners. In fact, if locals purchased Bibles or literature prohibited by the Taewong’un or Prince Regent, they were punished by death or imprisonment. Foreigners who spoke to or traded with Koreans were subject to the same peril. A PASSION FOR THE WORD What spurred this 27-year-old to risk his life to take the Scriptures to a people he hardly knew? I found the answer in one of his letters; it was simple but passionate: “I feel a strong desire for mission work to China . . . it is my duty to go [to] China.” I remembered the tales Welsh grandfathers had told—of generations of coal miners who had risked their lives as they were lowered down in the iron cages into the mines day after day; or the firemen who risked their lives at the World Trade Center. All were doing their “duty”—doing what was expected because they loved their families and extended this love to their communities. And so a privileged Welshman risked
the French and Russian advancement that caused Koreans to shout the slogans “Death to the Western Barbarians! Death to all Christians!” The sounds must have been loud and clear on the streets of Korea during a highly dangerous time, but the young Thomas, dressed in Korean clothes, was daring and unconventional in his approach. He was determined to advance the gospel, undeterred by the obstacles, and once again took hundreds of Bibles to thousands of people along the coast. Many would reciprocate as they risked their lives to regain their liberty of conscience.
boats or scows) loaded with brush sprinkled with sulfur to the schooner. There were no survivors. Despite his brief contact, Thomas became legendary in both North and South Korea; in the North he was considered an enemy of the empire, and in the South the first martyred Protestant missionary to Korea. This Welsh man, this son of a minister, had been a “spiritual miner” who gleaned from his predecessors that missionary work was the duty of every man. In only three years the work of this young man, who left London for China with his bride, had been reduced to nothing. What was God doing? Some of his colleagues at the London Missionary Society considered his final missionary journey a failure and an embarrassment, but the Korean Church—to this day— believes otherwise. I do too.
While in her native Wales, Stella Price, M.S., instructor of English at Gordon, pieced together the story of this martyr through handwritten letters, a Ph.D. thesis, and many conversations. Her book, Chosen for
Aboard a merchant ship called The General Sherman, Thomas traveled into Pyongyang. On several occasions he was asked by Korean officials to leave. Some believed The Sherman was a spy ship; others called it a raider of tombs. Merchant ship or not, it was clear that Thomas’ purpose was to take Bibles to anyone willing to read them.
Choson, was published in 2007 by
But on September 3, 1866, the Taewong’un commanded the destruction of The Sherman along with all passengers and crew. Despite the inequality between the strength of The Sherman and local boats, the Koreans used their ingenuity and floated several burning boats (turtle
workshops and drama productions
Emmaus Road Ministries (ERM) www. roadmin.org, a humanitarian and missionary organization begun by Stella and her husband, Dr. Stephen Price, in 1997 following a short-term medical mission in war-torn Congo, Africa. Since then ERM has been actively involved through medical service, missions, conference, in numerous countries of the world. Their current focus of medical missions to North Korea and China is a direct result of learning of Thomas’ work in Asia. stellamprice@comcast.net
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 21
these loans were too often written with terms that should have raised warning signs—such as no income verification, zero down payments and adjustable interest rates. Sometimes initial interest rates were artificially low (“teaser rates”), followed by substantially higher payments when the rates adjusted after two or three years. The combination of falling home sales prices and zero down payments meant that many borrowers owed more than the value of the property and were thus unable to refinance when payments adjusted upward.
Uncertain Riches Economic systems undergo periodic—and necessary—corrections. A Gordon economics professor touches upon both the proximate and root causes of the present economic downturn. Recent economic news has been grim: rising unemployment; loss of consumer confidence; families losing their homes to foreclosure; falling home prices; higher energy and food prices; a credit crunch. If there ever was a time to take seriously Paul’s words to Timothy about “uncertain riches” it is now. What’s going on in the U.S. economy, and what is the future likely to hold? Our current economic woes have their roots in the housing market and in the financial system that sustains it. Following quickly on the heels of the bursting dot-com bubble in 2000 and subsequent recession in 2001, home sales prices in many parts of the country began to increase at a rapid pace, resulting in a “housing bubble.” “Bubble” is the term used to describe an increase in asset prices (stocks, housing) far above their fundamental values. Bubbles are driven by market psychology—what former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan famously termed “irrational exuberance.” Rising asset prices entice new investors to
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“jump on the bandwagon,” which drives prices up still further. The lure of seemingly endless gain temporarily creates a cycle: higher returns draw in more investment, which creates still higher returns. The problem is that bubbles don’t last forever. As any small child can tell you, bubbles always burst. When asset-price bubbles burst, prices fall sharply. Falling home sales prices are an inevitable correction to the overinflated prices that existed at the bubble’s peak. Had this been the only needed correction in the economy, the results would have been manageable. Unfortunately this was not the case. The fall in home sales prices coincided with the collapse of the market for subprime mortgages—mortgages written for borrowers who would not have qualified for mortgage loans based on typical underwriting standards for prime loans. Subprime loans brought homeownership within reach of many who would not have otherwise qualified, and this is surely a good thing. However,
Why did mortgage lenders offer loans on these generous terms? The simple answer is bad incentives. Mortgage lenders—those who originate the loans—often sell their loans (prime and subprime) to investors and thus are unaffected by subsequent defaults by borrowers. They make their money through fees charged to originate the loan, and possibly through continuing to service the loan. The more loans they originate, regardless of the likelihood of default, the more money they make. While this brings new money into the mortgage market, allowing lenders to expand the scope of mortgage lending, it appears that investors in these packaged mortgages failed to recognize fully the risk and focused only on the (expected) high rates of return. In addition, firms that rate new securities seem to have systematically downplayed the risk, possibly, as some believe, because they did not want to alienate the firms that were paying them to make the ratings. The result has been huge losses by major financial institutions such as commercial banks, investment banks and hedge funds, and a reluctance to lend to any but the most creditworthy borrowers. Who is responsible for the current mess? Many economists now blame the housing bubble on the Federal Reserve
Story Bruce G. Webb
The problem is that bubbles don’t last forever. As any small child can tell you, bubbles always burst. When asset-price bubbles burst, prices fall sharply. and its former chair, Alan Greenspan. Following the 2001 recession the Fed pursued a low-interest, rate-easy money policy that provided the fuel for the increase in housing prices. Without the easy credit and low-interest rates, the bubble could not have been sustained. The originators of subprime mortgages also bear considerable responsibility. They should have known (and in many cases probably did know) that defaults were likely and in large numbers. Regulators should have been alert to what was happening and acted preemptively. Borrowers themselves should have exercised greater caution in agreeing to loans that were clearly not within their reach. Where are we headed? At this writing the picture is not clear. Some analysts think we have begun to turn the corner and the recession (if indeed there is a recession) will be mild and short-lived. Others call this the greatest crisis our economy has faced since the Great Depression. Time will tell. One thing for sure is that higher inflation looms on the horizon. In hindsight we may see that the Fed’s efforts to stabilize the financial system and the economy through low-interest rates and moneysupply growth were achieved at the cost of higher inflation—or another asset bubble. Over the short term, borrowers, including students and their families, will likely face higher rates and stricter credit terms. College enrollments may suffer as families become less willing to commit to large financial outlays in the face of an uncertain economic future. Equity loans will be harder to obtain
as will first mortgages. Graduating seniors will face a tighter job market. And unrelated to the turmoil in financial markets, we will all face rising prices at the pump and supermarket. We can also expect new government regulations. Policymakers should adopt regulations in financial markets that correct abuses without stifling innovation. Capital requirements need to be extended to banks’ “off-balance sheet activities” and to mortgage lenders outside the banking system to provide a larger cushion to deal with future crises. Lenders might be required to retain some of the loans they initiate so that greater care is taken to screen out borrowers who are likely to default. What should be the Christian response? First, we should bring to mind the folly of greed, one of the seven deadly sins. Greed, or avarice, is a vice that drives us to an inordinate pursuit of wealth, often without regard to the effect on others. Greed beckons us to lay aside our ethical standards in the pursuit of everhigher returns. While “bad incentives” are the proximate cause of turmoil in financial markets, greed is surely one of the principal root causes. On the other side of the ledger, we should weigh carefully the virtue of prudence, or practical wisdom, as we make financial decisions. A prudent investor carefully weighs the possibility of future losses against the prospect of near-term gains. A prudent borrower will consider the consequences of unforeseen circumstances such as unemployment or falling asset prices. Prudence was a virtue in short supply among participants in the subprime debacle— lenders, borrowers or investors.
Second, we should give thanks for the incredible bounty most of us continue to enjoy—even in “hard times.” The vast majority of readers of this article have neither lost their jobs nor their homes, nor have they experienced a big decline in their standard of living. Thanks be to God! We should also give thanks for the millions of poor persons in the world whose rising incomes allow them to purchase more food and energy—thus driving up our food and energy prices. Rather than grumbling, we should rejoice and give thanks. Finally, we should remember the words of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19, RSV)
Bruce Webb, Ph.D., professor of economics and business since 1977, coedited the scholarly journal Faith & Economics for 19 years. He is Core Curriculum coordinator. His research and teaching interests include macroeconomics, biblical teaching on economics, and environmental issues. bruce.webb@gordon.edu
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 23
IN FOCUS
FACULTY
Tshudy Patent Recently Dwight Tshudy, professor of chemistry, received his third patent—a patent for a new toner design that goes under the name “particle external surface additive compositions.” The patent will help improve toner charging. The original idea came from group discussions with material scientists and engineers when he worked with Xerox. “It is exciting to work with a group of scientists to find ways to solve problems, and it’s rewarding to come up with an idea that actually makes it into a patent,” says Tshudy. The patent was issued in December 2007.
Distinguished Faculty Awarded During Commencement Exercises Provost Mark Sargent presented the Junior and Senior Distinguished Faculty Awards to Tanja Butler, associate professor of art, and Jeff Miller, professor of theatre arts. The awards are based on nominations received from faculty and graduating seniors and are based on performance, scholarly and professional excellence, and service to the College and community.
Notations: A Composer’s Response to Crisis She is described as “uncommonly insightful, individualistic, lively” and “technically dazzling” by The New York Times. She has won impressive awards, studied under remarkable musicians and is an active and accomplished recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Recently this music professor and artist-in-residence, Mia Chung, released a new DVD entitled Notations: A Composer’s Response to Crisis. On this DVD she gives an introduction to Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, Op. 53 and Op. 110, setting the compositions in the context of Beethoven’s creative response to his deafness. After this introduction Mia analyzes and demonstrates passages from the works and finally performs the sonatas in their entirety. The DVD also includes alternate tracks where Mia’s own voiceover interprets the compositions as she plays them. This is a wonderful teaching tool to help viewers learn more about the compositions and the interpretive choices that artists must make when they play Beethoven.
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Sargent said Tanja Butler was described by a colleague as “our resident color wheel” and is often seen walking through Barrington Center with her funky, red, round glasses, green clogs and a pink Plexiglas clipboard. She has taught courses in liturgical art and helped the Chapel Office incorporate art in worship services. She has involved her students in the Gordon in Lynn program—an urban community project. As teacher and mentor Tanja devotes hours to looking at students’ latest revisions to their works. As colleague she is respected for her gracious presence, her integrity, her ability to raise and respond to difficult questions without self-importance. Jeff Miller, recipient of the Senior Distinguished Faculty Award, is known for collaborating with other artists—often joining with faculty in music and visual art to enrich Christmas and Tenebrae programs. He shows delight in things new and experimental; he is joyful in his work. Jeff is a mentor to students, allowing individuals to take risks while setting high goals. His spirit of innovation—as well as respect for students’ potential and courage—led to production of Growing Up Christian, a play in which students used their church experiences to write their script: a vibrant, edgy, joyful and moving portrait of a generation’s journey to embrace faith in a postmodern era. Selected for the Kennedy Center’s regional festival, it won audience and scriptwriting awards. But more important than the awards was the impact the play had on its audience. After seeing Growing Up Christian, the festival director marveled that instead of rushing off to their usual parties, audience members, including students from many colleges in New England, stayed up much of the night talking about their own spiritual journeys.
Mia Chung www.miachung.com
IN FOCUS
FACULTY
IN THEIR WORDS
“The enterprise of learning—especially in art—involves the work of the imagination—not just techniques. In the realm of the imagination so much is unknown. I feel like a student alongside my students, discovering truth and beauty. It’s exhilarating.” —Bruce Herman Lothlórien Distinguished Chair of Fine Arts
Steve Alter Named Stephen Phillips Chair of History Jessica Prudhomme ’08
45 Years of Service Abigail Geer ’08 In 1957 Marv Wilson, Ph.D., taught his first class in Frost Hall, which was then Gordon Divinity School. A first-year seminarian, he taught introductory Greek in exchange for tuition. After seminary and completion of his Ph.D., Wilson taught at Barrington College before returning to Gordon in 1971. He is being honored by President Carlberg this year for his 45 consecutive years of teaching. Wilson has translated sections of the Bible (NIV), written or edited nine books, and authored dozens of scholarly articles. His book Our Father Abraham continues to be used around the world as a foundational text on the Hebraic origins of Christianity. Interfaith dialogue, one of Wilson’s longtime passions, has garnered him national recognition. He has worked tirelessly to build relationships with members of the Jewish community on the North Shore, involving his students on field trips to synagogues and bringing rabbis to campus. “We can’t explain Christianity without understanding Judaism,” affirms Wilson. “The Gordon experience provides opportunities for students to be conversant with Jewish people, and with Judaism, the religion of Jesus. This knowledge is essential,” adds Wilson,” for building lasting bridges between today’s Church and the Jewish world.”
Stephen Alter, Ph.D., associate professor of history, was named the new Stephen Phillips Chair of History in January 2008. The endowed chair, formerly held by Richard Pierard, Ph.D., is a two-year position that provides a member of Gordon’s History Department with resources needed to do in-depth research in an area of academic interest. The professorship is made possible by the Phillips family of Beverly, Massachusetts, who have long had a passion for historical preservation. Alter, who has been teaching history at Gordon for the last eight years, plans to use the stipend that accompanies the professorship to travel to historical archives, purchase books and attend scholarly conferences. In particular, he is carrying out research for a book about American biblical scholars and biblical archeologists, circa 1840–1940. “I want to explore the views of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish researchers regarding the interconnections of biblical criticism and Near Eastern archeology,” he said. To gain material for the project Alter plans to visit university and seminary archives and to study old letters exchanged between scholars working at those institutions. His current project will not be his first publication. He already has two books and a myriad of articles to his name, including Darwinism and the Linguistic Image: Language, Race, and Natural Theology in the Nineteenth Century (Johns Hopkins, 1999) and William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language (Johns Hopkins, 2005). Brigitte Nerlich from The American Historical Review describes the latter work as “a deeply engaging book that should be of interest to historians, linguists, and anyone interested in the relation between science and society in the 19th century and beyond.” Alter has also published a number of articles in scholarly journals. Alter looks forward to pursuing his research this summer and while teaching next year. Though his new book will not be completed during his time as the Stephen Phillips Chair, he is grateful for the honor and for the opportunity to play the dual role of teacher and scholar.
IN FOCUS
STUDENTS
Frost Recycled
Photo Meg Lynch ’10
After recent renovations in Frost Hall, students in Jim Zingarelli’s Advanced Sculpture Class—Abby Marstaller ’08, Danielle Hurley ’09, Annika Knibbe ’09, Mary Johnson ’08 and Susie Sawyer ’08— used marble from the building to recreate what was once marble floor into various masterpieces.
Senior Spearheads On-Campus Video Production Group Jessica Prudhomme ’08 “As Christians we are called to be leaders in our fields. For me this field is video production. I don’t believe in sub-par Christian media, but in achieving a higher standard of excellence.” —Chris Peters Many Gordon students have been known for their juggling skills— multitasking class work, community service, campus clubs and jobs, and internship positions, to name just a few. Chris Peters, a senior communication arts major from Bangor, Maine, is one such juggler. What makes him stand out is a unique commitment he’s added to his responsibilities: GO FILM. His student-run, on-campus video production team was started last fall to network communication students and use the powerful medium of film to create a higher standard of excellence for Christians in this field. “Gordon doesn’t have a fixed curriculum for advanced video production,” said Peters. “GO FILM is a great way for people to get involved. The experience is intensive, but students involved in GO FILM gain practical, hands-on experience and training in video production. It’s like having the LA Film Studies semester right here on campus.” GO FILM’s projects have included a Martin Luther King tribute video for the Community Minority Cultural Center in Lynn, viewed by city officials and hundreds from the community. Other projects included promotional videos for the Academic Support Center as well as trailers, promotional videos, and animation for GCSA’s We Are Gordon event. The videos for this event consisted of three mini-documentaries about the past, present and future of Gordon College. Seventeen minutes in total, these documentaries were boiled down from over 15 hours of interviews, available on the Gordon iTunes U sites this summer. With a three-year startup plan, Peters has recently proposed a GO FILM practicum program to the College. His hope is that this for-credit course, which will be available in the fall semester, will be the catalyst that will help the Communications Department establish full-time video faculty, more advanced courses, and higher-quality production equipment.
View GOFILM projects www.gordon.edu/GOFILM
Homeless at Gordon
Photo Daniel Ebersole ’11
Anne Taylor ’10 In the warm light of community—a theme that the recent We Are Gordon event celebrated—I am reminded of Yegue Badigue, a senior international relations major from Chad. In the early weeks of February his family in Chad was forced to flee from rebel gunfire in the capital of N’Djamena to the neighboring country of Cameroon. Communication between Yegue and his loved ones was stifled for weeks. Once they returned and he finally spoke with them, he learned the government had ordered their family home be leveled to the ground, with no explanation or compensation given. The home was destroyed on March 5, Yegue’s 28th birthday. Yegue has kept high spirits, requesting prayer and encouragement from his fellow students and sharing his story with newspapers. His faith in his community to encourage him through this difficult time is something that all of us who proudly proclaim “We are Gordon” should remember, for though we may never step foot on Chadian soil, our mission to love as Christ loved and to care for those in need will be carried to every corner of the planet, and all the way to Yegue’s family in the country that he loves.
IN FOCUS
STUDENTS
Student Made Playwright In early February Sasha Irish ’11, a theatre arts major, was one of two winners of the playwriting competition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region One Conference in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Her 10-minute play, Black Fly Season, qualified her to become one of the four national finalists. Sasha received the Excellence in Theatre award this spring for her many contributions to the Theatre Department—as a main part in major productions but also serving in the booth, backstage, in costumes and in the tech area, consistently modeling servant leadership.
A Lithuanian Exchange
Photo Daniel Ebersole ’11
This spring Gordon began an exchange program with Lithuania Christian College (LCC), Klaipeda, Lithuania. Two students from LCC share their perspectives.
Yuliya Prysyazhnyuk ’09 I am from Rivne, Ukraine. Because of our Communist background, we still know what’s going on in the lives of our neighbors; and we love borshch (beet soup) and kalach (baked rolls with poppy seeds and jam). I’ve experienced great things here including a trip to New York City; volunteer work in Lynn with Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian immigrants; working with the Global Education and Physical Plant Offices; reading Russian literature in English; and enjoying relationships with professors on campus, many friends and International Student Advisor Arlyne Sargent.
Altynai Kudaibergenova ’09
Cadets on Campus As an ROTC cadet, Joshua Bailey ’11 goes on multiple-mile runs while classmates play frisbee on the quad. “Being a Gordon student and an Army cadet is a great combination,” he says, “because students see that I can be a Christian and a soldier; in ROTC the other cadets see that it is possible to live a life in service to my country and dedicated to God.” He hopes to either go into the Infantry or the Chaplain Corps.
I was born in the U.S.S.R. and attended kindergarten in Frunze, the capital of Soviet Kirghizia. Now Frunze is Bishkek; Kirghizia is now Kyrgyz Republic; and the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Joshua is one of eight cadets on campus. Cadets
Though I come from a nominal Muslim background and knew little about Christianity, God led me to study in the U.S. Both of our cultures wear Nikes, watch The Lord of the Rings, and have had to face terrorism. We don’t have McDonald’s yet, and we drink kymys—fermented mare’s milk.
John Bradley ’11 would like to join the Civil Affairs
Two favorite classes here are Paul Borthwick’s World Religions and Ivy George’s Women and World Development. Borthwick’s class makes me aware of challenges I’ll face when I go back home. George’s class makes me look at gender issues closer than I did, examining things I took for granted as a young woman from a developing country.
local people.” Joshua Broughton ’11 comments,
Before I came to Christ I knew what I wanted in life and had everything planned. Now I have little idea of what awaits me, but I’ve found comfort in trusting God and His surprises.
can choose which branch of the Army they would like to join after graduation from college. Branch because it “works with development and reconstruction, and generally serves as a liaison between U.S. military forces and village leaders. It would involve a lot of work with the “While a lot of cadets are taught by the book, our instructors teach us what is going on in the world today and how the military adjusts.” The Gordon ROTC program is part of the North Shore Company, which belongs to the larger Paul Revere Battalion, which includes MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, Tufts, Endicott and Salem State.
Yuliya (pictured left) is studying business administration and minoring in English. Altynai (pictured right) is studying English/Russian translation/interpretation and sociology.
LCC International University—Lithuania www.gordon.edu/lcc
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 27
IN FOCUS
ALUMNI
Alumni Books Arnold L. Frank ’55 wrote The Fear of God (Nordskog Publishing, July 2007), a book that uses Scripture to teach what the fear of God is and how it is to be expressed, reminding readers to regard God as holy and sovereign.
Dorothy Loyte Blackman x’56 wrote New York Patriots (North Country Books, January 2008), a collection of historical fiction adventure stories that tell the story of 15 men who fought in battles in New York State during the Revolutionary War. John Currid ’74B published Deuteronomy: An Evangelical Press Study Commentary (Evangelical Press, 2006). This is his sixth volume of commentaries on the Pentateuch. The final volume—on Numbers—will be published sometime this year. Becky (Vail) Leblanc ’93 wrote Thoughts on Blindness: One Spouse’s Perspective on Losing Vision and Living Life (Carroll Center for the Blind, October 2004), a book that combines poetry, basic information about blindness, and humor to describe her husband’s journey into blindness and their faith that God will carry them through any difficulty they may face. Contact the Authors Arnold | ajlfrank1@juno.com Dorothy | Peethook1@yahoo.com John | jcurrid@rts.edu Becky | joe.becky@verizon.net Order Your Copy All books are available online or through local bookstores.
Healing Hands and a Healing Heart “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” —James 2:15, 16 (NASB) She was barely out of high school when she traveled through a nearly deserted village in Papua New Guinea to build a hospital. She learned that the villagers had almost been wiped out by a preventable disease—“That’s when I decided to become a missionary doctor,” says Josette (LeMoyne) Hunter, M.D. ’92. Josette and her husband, Doug ’92, after medical school and residency, felt the Lord’s call to missions and moved their two sons to Sierra Leone, West Africa, to serve with Mercy Ships, a Christian organization that has been operating floating hospitals internationally since 1978. A new landbased hospital—the Aberdeen Clinic and Fistula Center in Freetown—was being built. Doug operated as hospital administrator; Josette was an obstetrician, specializing in gynecology. Josette helped women handicapped by complications during childbirth. In the case of extended labor—lasting four to eight days—the baby pushes against pelvic organs, causing reduced circulation. Tissue dies off as a result, leaving a hole called vesico vaginal fistula (VVF). Incontinence makes these women social outcasts; their husbands leave them and they often live alone. On one of Josette’s first encounters in the African bush, she found a woman who had partially delivered a child who had died and was lodged in the birth canal. Josette intervened, saving the woman from death or permanent damage. Because healing from VVF surgery takes two weeks or longer, Josette used that time to disciple her patients, worship and share her testimony. By the end of their recovery these women were dancing and praising the God who healed them. Josette and a team of physicians performed more than 500 fistula surgeries during her time there. The Hunters served with Mercy Ships for almost two years and returned home spring of 2006 to Presque Isle, Maine. Now Doug works with funeral homes and Josette works at The Aroostook Medical Center. She still performs VVF surgeries on short-term trips. She’s been back to Sierra Leone once and to Guatemala twice.
28 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
IN FOCUS
ALUMNI
A Jacket that Gives Back It was Darrell’s Music Store in Nashua, New Hampshire—one of Mike Petrocelli’s ’91 customers—that highly recommended his work to Extreme Makeover Home Edition, an awardwinning television show devoted to remodeling homes for people in need. The show took the recommendation seriously and asked Mike, president of sales and marketing, Petrocelli Marketing Group, if he would be a donor. Donate they did—giving over 20 jackets to the show’s PR team, 100 VIP fleece jackets, and an additional 30 jackets for the builders working on the January 27 show. The PR team said the embroidery on Mike’s jackets was “the nicest they ever saw.” The show remodeled a home for a family from Manchester, New Hampshire, who lost everything in a flood. Mike and his team were honored to give back.
Boston Red Sox Ball Girl Few will ever get to walk on the Fenway. Fewer will walk through Fenway Park with Boston champion legends Tedy Bruschi and Kevin Faulk of the Patriots, Bobby Orr and Ken Hodge of the Bruins, Bill Russell, Danny Ainge and Jo Jo White from the Celtics, and Brian Dauback and Dave McCarty of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox team. As a Red Sox ambassador, Megan Benevides ’06 happened to work on Opening Day, April 8, 2008, as the ball attendant, and she escorted these legends around for pregame ceremonies and the World Series ring presentation. “It was a unique opportunity that I will remember forever, being in the presence of such greatness as these Boston legends.” Megan graduated from Gordon with a double major in recreation and leisure studies and business administration, and is also associate director for Special Olympics Massachusetts.
A Work in Restoration Abigail Geer ’08 “Power isn’t about your title or position; it’s about your ability to fulfill your calling,” said Sarah Petrin ’98 during a recent visit to campus. The meaning of power in the lives of the disenfranchised has been central to Petrin’s work since her graduation as a French and international studies Pike Scholar. After working in a senator’s Washington office, Petrin worked for World Vision in Africa. The move was not unprecedented; she was born in western Kenya and spent a year studying in Senegal during her time at Gordon. Shortly after September 11, 2001, Petrin managed a United Nations project designed to protect displaced Afghanis. After working with a number of human rights groups, she served as director of government relations for the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, briefing members of Congress and Executive Branch officials on human rights emergencies. She advised FEMA on long-term options for dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. , She also served as outreach director for the Better World campaign. When asked how her work advocating for refugees and displaced people fits into the bigger picture of God’s work, she responds that she sees God “acting as a restorer, repairer and redeemer, taking things that have been abandoned, situations that are wrong, and making them right. Seeing people get out of places of oppression and seeing them rebuild their lives mirrors God’s restoration.” She also sees the movement in the gospel towards repair and restoration as important to restoring and repairing the brokenness she perceives in our nation’s international relationships. Her favorite memory of Gordon is of graduation day when she traveled down a “tunnel” formed by the professors who had pushed her to excel, as they cheered her and her fellow graduates on into the world. She says, “It felt like the saints rejoicing in heaven.” She says that sense of benediction and praise was empowering—a significant impression in light of the fact that Petrin expends herself trying to empower people around the world.
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 29
ENCOUNTERS
Three Weeks, Three Credits Gordon held its first May Term this spring for college students and recent high school graduates, offering eight experimental courses taught in three weeks. Classes took place on campus, in Boston and around the North Shore. Some of the classes were From Page to Stage: Regional Theatre in Boston; An Introduction to Conflict and Reconciliation Studies in Communities of Faith; and Understanding the Person and Work of Christ in Cultural Context. “May Term gives us an opportunity to craft courses that don’t fit the usual curriculum,” says Cliff Hersey, dean of global education. “Faculty teaching these courses were encouraged to
Provost’s Awards This year Anita Coco and Leo Cleary were awarded for making distinguished contributions to students’ education—in the classroom but also through mentoring, missions trips, residence life and coaching—and in their personal development.
think of ways the pedagogy of instruction could be taken outside the classroom into walking tours, hands-on workshops, trips and multiple locations.”
Anita Coco, Media and Technology Specialist Anita, often referred to as the “Mac doctor,” has enjoyed supporting faculty, staff and students with technology needs, video support and general computer problems and questions for more than 15 years. “There is no clear boundary line between her job description and her generosity, says Provost Mark Sargent. “She gives so much, so creatively.” She has held many technical roles, including manager of the Barrington Center for the Arts, where she assisted students late into the evenings in the video editing labs. Anita always tries to go the extra mile—which is one of the reasons she was nominated for the award. She sees her work as a ministry, using promptness and persistence to reach out to those around her. One student told her she wanted to work with computers after seeing Anita in action because it seemed like a fulfilling job—and it certainly is for Anita Coco.
Adoniram Judson Gordon, Founding Father Recently Scott Gibson, professor of preaching and ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, spoke on campus about the life of Gordon’s founder, Adoniram Judson Gordon. As a scholar, Gibson’s dissertation at Oxford focused on A. J. Gordon’s life and work.
Leo Cleary, Carpenter, Locksmith and Art Tech
Gibson noted that Gordon, named after the first
In his 11 years at Gordon, Leo Cleary has never let titles define what he dabbles in. “He is an artist and technician, a craftsman and inventor, or, as one of his colleagues observes, a ‘renaissance man,’” says Sargent. He is the campus locksmith, managing the card access system, key distribution and the key database. He also manages the chemical inventory for the Art Department, helps students with the technical design of their senior thesis projects, and makes biodiesel out of used cooking oil—which has led to laboratory experiments and research projects in analytical chemistry. He’s also taken the lead in exploring alternative fuels on campus.
Judson, was perhaps born to be a missionary. His
One colleague says, “To my mind he is the living embodiment of Jesus’ advice on how to help others—not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing; in other words, unselfconsciously and without any expectation of congratulations or thanks.”
May Term www.gordon.edu/mayterm08
Baptist missionary to travel to Burma, Adoniram heart for the gospel can be seen in his 25 years as pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston; his traveling, preaching and serving; his hymn writing, book authorship, magazine editing; and work in social reform. His desire to equip others for Christian service led him, in 1889, to found the Boston Missionary Training School, dedicated to preparing students to serve God overseas in the Congo. That school is now, of course, Gordon College—still preparing students to go into the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
ENCOUNTERS
Fighting Scots Update bb Athletic director Joe Hakes was elected chair of the Division III Soccer Committee for the NCAA, which oversees championship pairings. bb Coaches Mike Schauer and Jeannine Cavallaro achieved their 100th career wins during basketball season—they attribute this to the success of their programs and athletes who train so hard. bb Phil Whitley and Keith Krass ’07 will serve as assistant coaches for men’s basketball. Krass was a four-year player for the Fighting Scots and a cocaptain. bb Elissa Schauer, new women’s volleyball coach, will lead a squad that had a 24-11 record under
A CCC President
Joy Gabrielli, coach since 2005.
Stan Gaede, Gordon’s scholar-in-residence, has been elected president of the Christian College Consortium (CCC), an organization comprising 13 colleges and universities with a shared vision of integrating faith into living and learning. The Consortium seeks to discuss urgent issues facing the Church and higher education. Gaede started his career at Gordon as a sociology professor, later becoming dean of students and provost. He served as provost and president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California—also a member of the Consortium—for a decade. In 2006 Gaede returned to Gordon as scholar-in-residence and special advisor to the president. “I am certain that no one is better qualified than Dr. Gaede to help Consortium members focus our discussions and communicate our concerns, not only within Christian higher education but also to a wider public including the news media and our elected officials in Washington, D.C.,” says President Carlberg. “Dr. Gaede’s very broad experience in Christian higher education, his thoughtfulness as scholar and writer, and his ability to communicate clearly and graciously to diverse audiences are all qualities that bode well for his success in his new role as president of the Christian College Consortium.” Gaede’s election is a half-time appointment, allowing him to continue as Gordon’s scholar-in-residence. This arrangement is made feasible by the relocation of the Consortium Office from New Hampshire to Gordon’s campus this summer. Gaede says, “The Consortium comprises some of the leading Christian colleges and universities in North America—institutions that have helped reinvigorate the meaning and significance of the liberal arts in their historical and Christian context. Together they have enabled their students to engage one another on the central issues of our time, expanding the scope of their educational offerings in the process and sending their graduates into leadership positions around the world. Facilitating that mission, both individually and collectively, is the task at hand. I cannot think of a more important endeavor, either as a scholar or as CCC colleague.”
Listen to some of Dr. Gaede’s recent talks on “Evangelicalism at the Crossroads” www.gordon.edu/podcast | www.ccconsortium.org
We Are Gordon
Photo Daniel Kiyoi ’08
This spring the Gordon College Student Association (GCSA) hosted a celebratory event, We Are Gordon, which honored the College and the individuals who have contributed to the institution throughout the years—including students, staff, faculty, trustees and alumni. The event was encouraging and spiritually uplifting for all those in attendance: musical performances—a faculty quartet singing “Mary Had a Baby”; video documentaries of alumni accomplishments; a performance by Peter Stine as Adoniram Judson; and speeches by administrators and students. “Several people who have been at Gordon for decades told me this was one of the most enjoyable, inspirational and encouraging evenings they have ever spent at the College,” said President Carlberg after the event. “Jan and I left feeling thankful that we could say ‘We are Gordon’ with pride and hope, knowing we are building on a magnificent past for a much more glorious future.” GCSA’s desire was to honor the vision of A. J. Gordon’s original mission and commemorate the men and women of Gordon College since its inception in 1889.
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 31
of the best and brightest”). Jenzabar had owned POISE and during the implementation process proved to be an outstanding partner.
A Program of Technology Change The recent campus-wide implementation of new administrative software brought many different departments together in pursuit of a common goal. Over the past two years an exciting, though largely invisible transformation has been taking place in most of the major offices at Gordon including Admissions, Student Financial Services, the Registrar’s Office, Development, the Controller’s Office and Human Resources. Until just a few months ago, most of these offices were running their operations on the VAX/POISE systems, which Gordon purchased back in 1980— about a year before Microsoft created MS-DOS, four years before Apple’s original Macintosh, and almost a full decade before the World Wide Web was created. While the VAX/POISE system had served Gordon College quite well, it was simply no longer suited to deal with the data management needs of the Internet age. Over the years Gordon’s programmers had made numerous and highly complex modifications to help keep the system running, but new hires who were accustomed to using highly visual computer screens with a mouse found the text-only monochrome
32 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
screens difficult to learn. Information in the system could not easily be displayed on the campus websites, let alone receive online updates. In a bold and innovative step, the College decided to replace this one obsolete technology with three major systems that could be interconnected to provide the College with more online tools and access to up-to-date information; create more efficient business processes; and allow more sharing of data between departments. But replacing the old system without causing major disruption was like performing open-heart surgery on a marathon runner who is in the middle of a race: it had to be done without disrupting the functioning of these departments. The largest part of this project was implementing the Jenzabar EX software, which provided solutions for campus offices with the exceptions of Finance and Human Resources (the name Jenzabar is derived from Mandarin Chinese and means “the class
Though the project involved many technical processes—setting up servers, data conversion, and software integrations—the larger issues and problems involved convincing people to agree what processes should be changed and how we should share information in the new systems. In other words, this was a people project even more than it was a technology project. Along with software replacement, every aspect of how the College does business had to be reconsidered and designed into the new systems. More than 60 people from over 20 departments were involved during the two years of this project, performing not only their normal work duties but also developing codes for the new systems, learning how the new systems work, and testing how to perform their jobs in the new systems. As the project manager for this process, it was my task to ensure that the implementation remained on schedule and on budget, and delivered the expected functionality. A few of the many key players in this story: At the executive level the president and trustees recognized the need for this transition and supported this project, even in light of the anxiety that such a large-scale change would inevitably cause. Their support was vital during the times when difficult decisions had to be made. Vice presidents Dan Tymann and James MacDonald provided leadership and acted as the project sponsors. During key transitions and milestones, the full President’s Cabinet received reports and took advantage of the opportunity to provide important feedback and direction. The Cabinet also enacted many policy changes and decisions in
Story Robert Van Cleef ’94 Photos Patricia Hanlon
support of improving Gordon College’s business processes. At the director level, the Implementation Core Team was composed of many campus office and department representatives who directed not only their own departments but also guided other departments that would be using the systems. The Core Team members were Kim Mather ’78B, Nancy Anderson ’73, Barbara Layne, Carol Herrick, Chris Dawson, Dan O’Connell, Chris Carlson, Terry Charek, Phil Williams ’89 and June Bodoni ’82. Without the dedication and creativity of Gordon College’s IT departments, this project would not have been successful. Coming right off of development of the new www.gordon. edu website, the Information Systems Group (ISG) team—Dave Andrade ’89, Dan Savlon, Paul Bruce x’03, Heather Gaillard and Jon Williams ’90—directed the data conversion, secured the new systems, developed integrations between the systems, and provided technical assistance to the users as they became familiar with the “new world.” The Network Systems Group (NSG)—Russ Leathe, Brian Vienneau ’04, Mike Binns ’04 and Blake Whitney ’04—also provided servers, network and infrastructure support. Some offices not immediately associated with this type of project were asked to step up and participate including Athletics, the Global Education Office, Public Safety, the Health Center and Career Development Services. Within the last year almost every faculty or staff member has had to participate in at least some training to use one or more of these new systems, whether in purchasing and researching budget reports or receiving a paycheck through our new payroll system.
Although significant elements of this project will be continuing for another year or so, the technology transformation process hit a critical milestone on March 14 when we declared Jenzabar EX, the major component of this project, “live.” This milestone especially signified the end of a seven-year quest for Jon Williams, director of Information Services, who had been seeking the replacement of the VAX/POISE well before I arrived as a staff member at Gordon. In addition to Jenzabar EX being declared “live,” the VAX/POISE system which had faithfully served the College for many years was officially replaced as the “system of record.” On March 14 whole new worlds of opportunities and capabilities were opened up to the College.
IN THEIR WORDS
“We are excited about the benefits our new administrative software will bring to data management at Gordon College. In development for several years, the Jenzabar EX program will provide easy
Dan O’Connell, associate director of Student Financial Services; Paul Bruce, systems developer; Chris Dawson, student billing counselor; and Karen Coley, Student Financial Services counselor.
Gordon College celebrated the Jenzabar EX launch on April 23. Pictured: Dan Tymann, executive vice president for advancement, communications and technology; Bob Maginn, Jenzabar CEO; Jim MacDonald, senior vice president for finance and administration; and President Jud Carlberg.
flow of information and data from one office to another and will add many new communication capacities to our outreach beyond the campus.” —R. Judson Carlberg President
Implementation Core Team members Phil Williams, director of development operations, and Carol Herrick, assistant dean and registrar.
Rob Van Cleef, M.A.T.H., is the technology program manager for Gordon College and lives in Beverly, Massachusetts, with his wife, son and mother-in-law. robert.vancleef@gordon.edu
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 33
Story Sarah Lambert ’09
but no easy feat because the African bloc is notoriously—and in some ways fundamentally—divisive.
Gordon at the (Model) United Nations “It confirmed my interest in politics and macro-level work. I learned the importance of charisma and a strong argument.” Christy Hemstreet ’09 “The more I learn the less I seem to know.” I’m sure many have said that at one time or another. After attending the Harvard National Model United Nations Conference (HNMUN) in 2007 and 2008, I can be counted as one of them. Preparing for a conference as prestigious as this one was by far the most intimidating task I have ever taken on. It is an annual grand simulation of the United Nations system in which students participate as delegates representing member states. Our delegation joined 3,000 other college students from 40 different countries, representing schools including Yale, the University of Chicago, West Point, Eastern University, Hong Kong Baptist, the University of Baghdad and Venezuela’s Simon de Bolivar University. While Harvard’s is the only conference of this type Gordon chooses to attend, many of the schools are notorious for their continuous and rigorous training—10 months to our three—for this conference and several others. Gordon’s delegations for the past three years have been committed to
34 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
representing an African country, partly because there are currently no other courses offered on African politics at Gordon, but mostly because we want to emphasize the importance of experiencing firsthand the frustrations felt by developing countries in interacting with the Unites States and other superpowers in a “diplomatic” environment. As a result, our preparation involves a mostly defensive strategy, and expectations for an uphill battle against “the system” is added to our list of disadvantages before we even arrive at the Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston. Despite the many odds against us, Gordon College has consistently fared well and, in many cases, excelled at the conference. Members of our delegation were among the most memorable and frequent speakers (some in committees of 400 people); others were important contributors to successful resolutions. Often they played key roles in bringing together a united African bloc: a force to be reckoned with as it demonstrates the power of strength in numbers;
I count my experiences at HNMUN among the most rewarding and academically stimulating of my life. An understanding of diplomacy, sovereignty and international politics is now stamped on my worldview, expanding it in innumerable ways. The Gordon College mission is “to graduate men and women distinguished by intellectual maturity and Christian character, committed to a lifestyle of service and prepared for leadership roles worldwide.” For four days I brushed shoulders with the future leaders of the world and realized I could be one of them. The conference forced me to face my potential for the very first time, and as a result I realized how much I have yet to achieve. Clearly the students at Gordon College are capable of this kind of engagement, but without this opportunity I may never have known it. It is my sincere hope that Gordon College will not only continue to support the involvement of its students in this annual conference, but that Gordon will invest and encourage other experiences like it.
Sarah Lambert, pictured front left, is a psychology major with a concentration in community development. She enjoys the writing process, and tutors students in the CCC (Christianity, Character and Culture) sections for which she serves as a mentor. She is a journalist with a particular interest in social change and justice. Her experiences with Gordon College’s Model United Nations Conferences have opened her eyes to the importance of interactive learning and the practice of diplomacy in daily living. sarah.lambert@gordon
TOP SIX
Intro Jo Kadlecek
A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS
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Rocks, Papers, Karate: What Faculty Do for Fun Recently I asked colleagues a question that had been gnawing at me since I arrived: What do the faculty here do for fun? I sent out a very unofficial survey. And in case “fun” was a foreign concept to these hardworking scholars, I gave them hints: What hobbies or creative outlets did they participate in semi-regularly to keep from becoming too serious or to help keep them jazzed? I learned a lot—mostly that we have quite a musical bunch, and that our definitions of fun are as varied as our disciplines. Some of the answers follow.
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5
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1 | Rocks are for Moving
each spring and fall in Mississippi, where I
5 | Staying ON the Treadmill
Rocks. I love rocks. I move them and build
originally began studying karate 10 years
I teach group exercise classes, cardio
stone walls around my garden and on my
ago. At this past camp (spring ’08), I tested
kickboxing and step aerobics twice a week,
shaded rocky ridge where I also have a
for my second-degree black belt (called
do strength training, recumbent bike and
moss garden. When I’m not playing with
“Nidan” in Japanese). I survived . . . barely.
the treadmill 8–10 hours a week. I get free
rocks, I like baking bread—for the fragrance,
I also teach karate every Thursday night in
films through Interlibrary loan for date
for giving away, and for eating even. I like to
Newburyport to kids and adults along with
night weekly with my husband, and I cook
tinker with the recipes and try new things.
a few other black belt instructors. Music:
regularly from Cooking Light. I “veg” out
I don’t like surveys or shopping (shudder!).
local coffeehouses.
on Discovery Channel TV shows: Cash Cabs
Music: church organist.
CHUCK BLEND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
and Dirty Jobs. Music: listening to classical
OF BIOLOGY
music and attending on-campus recitals
ANN FERGUSON PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
2 | Reading the Days
4 | Dancing by Numbers
I like reading the paper, reading really as
Having been discouraged from using my
much as I can. I’ll read Narnia to my kids,
creativity within my profession (creative
and concerts. JENNIFER BEATSON ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SPANISH
accounting = Enron), I sew, quilt, make
5 | Endless Discovery
cards, invent recipes and enjoy storytelling.
I take ballroom dancing classes and love
I’m addicted to several TV shows: How I
spontaneous outings with friends to
Met Your Mother; Lost; House. I find the
ethnic restaurants in the area. I read the
effortless entertaining relaxing. I love to
newspaper all year long and love The
dance, falling somewhere between so bad
Boston Globe’s Thursday calendar for its
I choose to be a wallflower and so good
listing of free/low-budget events. I explore
people will ask me to show them my moves
Boston every few weeks, go speed walking
in a gray area. Music: singing in the praise
five times a week, and do long-distance
band in church, in the car, in the shower and
bike trips. I love traveling, boating, hiking
3 | Black Belt Camper
in my head.
or downhill skiing. My theory is that I don’t
I love studying and practicing martial arts.
CASEY COOPER ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF
have to pursue fun; I just receive it as a gift.
ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS
Music: folk concerts.
but I also like collecting stamps, running 5Ks, hiking, birding, camping, and going on dates with my wife every now and then. West Wing reruns, Numbers on Friday, and Saturday Night Live—when we can stay up that late—are favorites as well. Music: concerts with friends. PAUL BRINK ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL STUDIES
As a matter of fact, I go to a karate camp
PEGGY HOTHEM PROFESSOR OF RECREATION AND LEISURE STUDIES
www.gordon.edu/sustainability | info@gordon.edu
Commencement Weekend The Class of 2008 hoped for—and got—fair weather and good words.
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What Is in Your Hand? Saturday, May 17, more than 320 bachelor’s degrees were presented at Gordon’s 116th Commencement, which took place on the quad in front of roughly 2,000 family members and friends. The Commencement address, “What Is in Your Hand?”, was given by Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Rick and his wife, Kay, have been deeply involved with Saddleback Church in forging a Christian response to what he terms the “five global giants” that affect billions of people: spiritual emptiness, lack of servant leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases, and illiteracy. Warren challenged the Class of 2008 to put themselves in the place of Moses, who was asked this very important question by God: “What is in your hand?” In Moses’ case, what was in his hand was a shepherd’s staff—a symbol of his identity, income and influence. “God asks us to yield what is in our hands to him,” Warren said. “If you lay it down, He will make it come alive. Every time you take it back, it dies.” Moses’ staff, which he yielded to God, is never again referred to as a staff, but as the
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“rod of God.” Warren then turned the question toward the graduates: “What is in your hand? And what are you going to do with it?”
years ago and first hearing God speak to him about serving at Gordon. “Don’t spend your treasure on something that doesn’t fit,” he told the graduates.
Other highlights of the ceremony included the presentation of the two annual Distinguished Faculty Awards. Tanya Butler, associate professor of visual arts, received the Junior Distinguished Faculty Award. Jeff Miller, professor of theatre arts, received the Senior Distinguished Faculty Award (story, page 24).
Daniel Kiyoi, senior class vice president, referencing the “New Seven Wonders of the World,” offered his own list of “Seven Gordon Wonders”:
Later in the day the first separate Graduate Commencement Ceremony took place in A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel. Forty-six master’s degrees in education and music education were presented. Speakers were graduate music faculty Malcolm Patterson and Ken Phillips along with degree recipients Paula Schram (education) and James Donovan (music).
4. Golden Goose
Commencement Weekend also included the Senior Breakfast and an evening Baccalaureate Service on Friday, May 16. During the breakfast a senior class slide show was followed by a heartfelt reflection by retiring English professor Peter Stine, who reminisced about driving down the “avenue of trees” 40
7. Intramural dodge ball 6. Pink package slips in your student mailbox 5. Marv Wilson
3. Brian the “God bless you” man 2. Ginger, Jean and Pat (the “holy trinity of the sandwich line”) 1. Friendship Dr. Roberto Miranda, senior pastor of Congregación León de Judá in Roxbury, Massachusetts, spoke during Friday evening’s Baccalaureate Service. His address, “A Pious Mind,” outlined three main reasons for the current structural weakness of evangelical thinking. Miranda believes that in order to have an impact on the culture, evangelical leaders must not be complacent, but be unified and ready to act assertively within the culture.
2008 1.
More than 320 seniors received their diplomas at Gordon’s 116th Commencement, held outdoors on the quad under clearing skies.
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Dr. Rick Warren’s address, “What Is in Your Hand?” challenged the graduates to put themselves in the place of Moses, who was questioned by God.
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Two new graduates celebrate.
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At the beginning of Commencement Day, Rick and Kay Warren were interviewed by Jud and Jan Carlberg, president and first lady.
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Photos Nick Lavecchia
From “Baccalaureate Prayer for Seniors”
Two Couples, Two Conversations
Excerpt Greg Carmer, Dean of Chapel
when conservative evangelical Protestantism made questions of social
God our Maker, Redeemer and Friend, we are grateful for this the class of 2008. We thank you for the relationships, experiences, insights and challenges that have shaped them. We thank you for the sacrifices and support of friends and family that have seen them through trying times.
justice central to its concern.” —Alan Wolfe, “A Purpose-Driven Nation? Rick
Now we pause to pray for them as they leave this place and head into to futures unknown and uncertain, but full of promise and possibility. We send them out from this place to be servants in Your world. To exercise ingenuity in the face of global challenges and local opportunities. To confront distorted values, unjust practices and destructive forces with the subversive power of the gospel. To pursue the good, true and beautiful, and continue the development of your good creation. We ask for them that they might walk in the power of the Spirit, equipped with what they need to be faithful witnesses to another way—the way of Jesus—of sacrifice, love, joy and new life. We ask that the seeds sown in their lives these past few years will grow and flourish for the sake of Your glory, for their joy and for the advancement of your Kingdom.
“Historians are likely to pinpoint Mr. Warren’s trip to Rwanda as the moment
Warren Goes to Rwanda,” The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2005 Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, began Commencement Day at Gordon being interviewed for Gordon on iTunes by Jud and Jan Carlberg, president and first lady. The two conversations are distinctively different and provide some fascinating behind-the-scenes time with these couples. The two men discussed Rick’s ambitious global P.E.A.C.E. plan, which aims to “mobilize a billion Christians to do the things that Jesus did”—promote reconciliation, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the coming generation. “Reformations take 50 years,” Rick states. “Most of us set our goals too low and try to accomplish them too quickly.” He warns against the dangers of sacrificing “sustainability, scalability or reproducibility for speed.” With disarming honesty he talks about how implementing the P.E.A.C.E. plan has been akin to “building the plane while you’re flying it.” Warren, who has said elsewhere that “there are not enough superstars to win the world—it has to be done by average people,” discusses here the key role of volunteers and the local church in the P.E.A.C.E plan. The women, who share common ground as preachers’ daughters, discuss the path that led Kay to her work with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and to the writing of her book Dangerous Surrender: What Happens When You Say Yes to God. Kay speaks of being “seriously disturbed by God” in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, and for a time reisiting God’s call to be involved. She muses over the “crucible of trying to understand what the ‘good news’ means to those who lost everything in the genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia . . . to a baby abandoned in an orphanage by the side of the road.” Kay also addresses facing—and overcoming—a life-threatening illness, a diagnosis that came just as she was becoming heavily involved with her HIV/AIDS work.
SUMMER 2008 | STILLPOINT 37
OCTOBER 9–11
REIGNITE
RECONNECT
HOMECOMING AND FAMILY WEEKEND 2008
SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9 7 p.m.
3 p.m.
Phi Alpha Chi
Dinner in Honor of Retired Biology Professor Dr. Richard Wright Registration
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 7:30 a.m.
Alumni Golf Tournament The Meadows, Peabody
Ken Olsen Science Center Tours
11 a.m.–12 p.m.
4:30–5:30 p.m.
SMART SCOT SESSIONS
Jazz Concert
Chronicles of Narnia Reading
Alumni Lacrosse
Dr. Peter Stine, retired English professor
Creation Care: Amazing Plants and Birds in the Gordon Woods Dr. Russ Camp, retired biology professor
Presidential Campaigns as a Prism of Culture
10:25 a.m.
Homecoming Convocation
Sociology and Social Work Alumni Student Lunch: Sharing Stories 5:15–6 p.m.
Welcome Concert Preregistration requested
11 a.m.
Women’s Field Hockey vs. Western New England College Women’s Tennis vs. Roger Williams University 11:15 a.m.–1 p.m.
6 p.m.
Great Scots Awards Dinner
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 Scot Trot 5K Trail Race 10–11 a.m.
Parents’ Reception *for parents* Preregistration requested
Current and Retired Faculty Connection For alumni to greet retired and current faculty
38 STILLPOINT | SUMMER 2008
Gordon Reunions 5th–20th Classes of 2003, 1998, 1993, 1988
25th Class of 1983 5:15 p.m. Class Photo 5–7 p.m. Reunion Reception
Women’s Soccer vs. Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) 1 p.m.
30th–45th Classes of 1978, 1973, 1968, 1963 11:30 a.m. Class photos 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Reunion Lunch
Alumni Field Hockey
Barrington Reunions 25th Class of 1983
Faculty Department Receptions
5:45 p.m. Class photo
Meet with faculty and former peers from
5–7 p.m. Reunion Reception
your major
30th–45th Classes of 1978, 1973, 1968, 1963
Men’s Soccer vs. ENC Children’s activities
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11
Preregistration required
2:30 p.m.
Flying Squirrel
CLASS REUNIONS
12–1:30 p.m. Reunion Lunch
Science Carnival
Moon Bounce
NODROG: Faculty/Staff Talent Show
For retired faculty
2:30–4 p.m.
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
7 p.m.
12:15 p.m. Class photos
1:30–2:30 p.m.
10–11:15 a.m.
Alumni Men’s and Women’s Soccer
Retired Faculty Lunch
12 p.m.
9 a.m.
5 p.m.
Dr. Steve Alter, history professor, and Nate Baxter, communications professor
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
Athletics
10:30–11:30 a.m.
Faculty
Music
Complete schedule and locations www.gordon.edu/homecoming/familyweekend
12:45 p.m. Class photos 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Reunion Lunch
CURRENT MEMBERS
Luncheon Honors Clarendon Members On Commencement Day dozens of Clarendon Society members came to campus for a special luncheon held to thank them
Margaret Alsen ’54
Edward and Ellen Huff
William Shepard
David and Carolyn Ames
Joseph and Margaret Hunt
Thomas and Madelyn Shields
Ellen Anderson ’77
Elizabeth Hunter ’75B
Ernest Sillers ’35
Harold and Joyce ’58 Anderson
L. J. Skip Hussey Jr. ’63
George ’36 and Jean Smart
John ’82 and Jan Anderson
T. David ’53 and Margaret Jansen
Frederick ’53 and
Kenneth ’70 and Janet ’68 Arndt
Philip and Judith ’60 Johnson
Manuel Jr. ’47 and Madelyn Avila
Ruth Jones
Mark ’80 and Jill Smith
Charlotte Baker ’64
William ’78 and Jane Keep
Edith Smith ’33B
John Barbour
Robert Jr. and Miriam Kenyon
H. Sue Snyder ’78
Kenneth Bath ’37
Andrew Jr. ’50 and
T. Grady and Tine Spires
John ’53 and Beverly Beauregard
Mary ’70 Kilpatrick
Margaret ’58 Smith
Peter ’88 and Elizabeth ’89 Stahl
Gordon ’85 and Barbara ’83 Becker
Richard Jr. ’93 and Sherrie Klein
Barbara Steeves ’40
David Belman
Daniel ’57 and Ronnie Jean Klim
Edward and Marjorie Steltzer
to Gordon College. Also present
Ruth Bennett ’65B
Paul ’43 and Madelyn ’47 Klose
Peter Stine
were members of Gordon and
Margaret Bentley ’78
Judith Krom ’63
Jeannette Spinney Stuart ’52
Kenneth and Dorothy Bernard
Daniel ’74 and Darlene ’74 Kuzmak
Charlotte Stuart ’54
Diane Blake ’58
Sarah Lake
Robert and Jean Svoboda
Phillip ’64 and Linda ’65 Bonard
Veronica Lanier ’54
Ann Tappan
Cecil ’52 and Florence ’51 Breton
Mary Lark ’54B
Elizabeth Thompson
Elin Bridgham ’51
Priscilla Leavitt ’62B
Lester ’53 and Ruby ’53 Tufts
Tori Britton ’84
Raymond and Priscilla Lee
Russell and Jean Tupper
Ralph ’50 and Pauline ’50 Brown
David ’71 and Lynda ’72 Linker
Daniel and Andrea Tymann
Hampshire—A. J. Gordon.” Stine’s
Arnold Bruce
Marsha Littler ’63
William ’52 and Nancy ’55B Udall
performance was followed by
Carl ’50 and Caroline Burke
Douglas MacDougal ’85
David Vander Mey
Helen Burrill
Charles MacKenzie ’46
James and Barbara Vander Mey
Frank and Ruth Butler
Ronald ’81 and Jerilyn ’82 Mahurin
Pamela vanTwuyver
Russell and Norma Camp
Raymond Mann ’61
Violet Vogel ’47B
James ’54B and
Don ’51 and Cora Marcum
Nance Ware
Graham Mason
Joan Welsh
R. Judson and Janice Carlberg
Margaret Mattison ’79
Ruth Wessel ’49
Carl and Randi Carlson
Peter ’65 and Pat ’65 McKay
Daniel and Beth ’87 White
Paul ’54B and Myrtle Carlson
Billie McKinney
Eleanor Wilson ’61B
Roy Jr. and Barbara Carlson
John and Jacquelyn Meers
Mary Wilson ’49B
G. Lloyd ’64 and Gwendolyn Carr
James Meffen ’49
Florence Winsor ’56
Carolyn Cassidy ’63
C. William Jr. and Pat Meyer
Joyce Witherell ’52
Donald and Barbara Chase
Evelyn Nelson
Walter Wood ’47B
the audience with her piano-
Wendell and Mary ’49 Chestnut
Ruth Newhouse
Alda Young ’45
playing prowess, ending with the
Margaret Clark ’70B
Dorothy Nichol
Elmer Young ’49
Francis and Betty ’49 Crisci
Bernice Niles ’43
Thomas ’68 and Linda ’69 Zieger
Barbara Cushing-Geary
Opal Norton
John III and Sara Zimmermann
John ’71 and Karen Den Bleyker
David ’78 and Joyce ’80 Nystedt
Joyce Duerr ’58
Wayne ’56B and Kathleen Owens
Kenneth Durgin
Ida Parker ’50
Harry Durning
H. LeRoy Patterson ’41
Ethel Fern ’53
Ronald Perry ’65
Eric ’76 and Robin ’80 Feustel
Leonard and Judy Peterson
Dale and Sarah Fowler
Lucile Peterson
David Furman ’57B
Charles and Sarah Pickell
the Clarendon Society: to leave
Olive Garde
Marc ’95 and Emily ’96 Pitman
a legacy to future generations
Mary Gibbs ’64
Lois Pollard
Robert Goodwin ’59
Elinor Pouliot
Robert ’81 and Barbara ’81 Grinnell
James ’70 and Patricia ’70 Rahn
Judson II ’69 and Joan ’74 Guest
Caryl Reid
Brian ’87 and Johanna Habib
Barry ’66 and Yetta ’66 Relyea
CONTACT
Eldon and Grace Hall
Frank Jr. and Ruth ’49 Replogle
Jon Tymann
Leona Harmon ’41
Walter ’49B and Audrey ’53B Rice
Glenn ’64 and Marcia Harrington
Eloise Rideout
Grace Hawkins ’38
Harold Roberts ’46
Laura Headley
Thomas and Carolyn Rodger
George Hein
Richard ’53 and Dorothy ’50 Rung
Christine Hodgman ’53
James ’60 and Merlyn Rutherford
Pearl Homme ’47
Edwin and Sharon Schempp
Roy and Beverly Honeywell
Charles Jr. ’48 and Ida Schenck
Nathan Hubley Jr.
Diane Shaw
for their foundational support
Barrington’s 50-year reunion classes. The program began with English professor Peter Stine playing Adoniram Judson blessing “a little boy from New
clips from We are Gordon, a film about Gordon’s history that will be released later this year. Prashan De Visser ’08, outgoing student body president, spoke about his time at Gordon and about heading out to serve Christ through politics/government in Sri Lanka. Megan Muthersbaugh ’08 wowed
A. J. Gordon hymn “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” Over 200 people have joined the Clarendon Society since it was founded in 1995. People from all walks of life and economic means have one common purpose in
of Gordon students who will be educated to serve Christ.
Senior Director of Development 978 867 4039 jon.tymann@gordon.edu
Gertraud ’52B Campbell
Photo Kristin Schwabauer ’04
Gordon was a great fit for me. Now I feel it is my responsibility to give back something to help keep the institution strong so others can receive a quality Christian education. It’s a win-win! I give to relieve my tax burden, and now I am at the age where my investments are paying me. You can’t lose. CAROLYN CASSIDY ’63
A Winning Investment She goes country line dancing every Wednesday night and loves to travel. She volunteers at an elementary school library. She plays Mahjong with members of the Council on Aging. She loves spending time with her church family. She faithfully attends men’s basketball games on campus, often traveling distances to watch her favorite players. Once she told a fan that one of the players was her grandson even though she doesn’t have any of her own—she loves all of them like family.
CLARENDON SOCIETY
This is Carolyn Cassidy ’63. She has a degree in elementary education and taught for 41 years—mostly in Essex, Massachusetts—and still helps out on a substitute basis. She taught nearly 1,000 children, ranging first through fourth grade, passing on her wisdom, her Christian commitment and lots of spunk. Carolyn, daughter of Irish immigrants, was the first college graduate in her entire family and says Gordon gave her a great education and a lot of confidence in herself. (She hopes to see old friends at her 45th Reunion during Homecoming Weekend this fall.)
GIVING
Carolyn’s been giving to the College for over 20 years and will continue to support the College and her church through planned giving. She gives because Gordon has been incredibly instrumental in her life. She gives because she wants to invest in the lives of students.
www.gordon.edu/clarendon
The Clarendon Society recognizes all who designate gifts to Gordon College through planned gifts or provisions in their estates. If you have already named Gordon as your beneficiary in your will or estate, please contact us so we can welcome you into The Clarendon Society.
If you’d like to make a gift to Gordon College, please contact Jon Tymann. CONTACT Jon Tymann 978 867 4039 jon.tymann@gordon.edu
GOLDEN PINES—GORDON gold, mineral pigments, platinum on Kumohada, 48 x 60 inches © 2008
Makoto Fujimura painter
“Golden Pines—Gordon is dedicated to the new Ken Olsen Science Center. Inspired by the trees seen outside the window overlooking Coy Pond, it has two perspectives. The first is the pine trees’ natural perspective, referencing Tohaku Hasegawa’s Shorinzu-Byobu master painting of 16th century Japan, depicting the mystery of creation. The other, created by the smaller tree with the moon in the background, connotes the scientific realm, bound to the closed system of nature. Art points to the supranatural, generative reality of the New Creation.” Makoto Fujimura, M.F.A., was born in 1960 in Boston and was educated in the U.S. and Japan. During his years studying in Tokyo at the National University of Fine Arts and Music, Fujimura began to assimilate abstract expressionism with the traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. In 1990 Fujimura founded The International Arts Movement. His most recent paintings in the series The Splendor of the Medium are formed of stone-ground minerals including azurite, malachite and cinnabar. His work is represented in many public and private collections in the U.S and internationally. He was appointed to the National Council on the Arts, a six-year Presidential appointment, in 2003. www.makotofujimura.com | www.iamny.org
255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984-1899 www.gordon.edu
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