Fall 2012
The Magazine of Gordon College
STILLPOINT
On Location 12 Gordon faculty reflect on where they are—and where they’ve been
Also in This Issue 24 Do Recent Grads Keep the Faith? 26 Joyful Rigor 28 Fitness: Small Changes, Big Results
Contents
12 on location Greg Keller, associate professor of biology, provided some of the aerial imagery for this issue’s location-themed stories by and about Gordon faculty (see pages 12–21). Dr. Keller, a conservation biologist, uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to track, among other data, the effects of habitat fragmentation on birds and mammals. www.gordon.edu/keller
the Great Ledge 14 Walking Bruce Herman and Walter Hansen: Great Ledge, West Gloucester
15 A Sense of Shared (Avian) Presence
Greg Keller: Remnant field, West Newbury
16 An Island Idyll
The DeWeese-Boyd family: Thacher Island, Rockport
17 Putting Her Best Foot Forward
Jessica Ventura: Wenham and Beverly
Bullfrog in Your 18 The Neighborhood
Tim Ferguson Sauder: Lane’s Cove, Gloucester
19 A Virtual Journey into Syriac Christianity
Jennifer Hevelone-Harper: Mount Sinai
20 World Citizens,
World Christians
Dan Darko: Ghana, Croatia, London, Wenham
Direction, Time, 21 On and Moving Forward Janel Curry: MI to MA
On the Cover In this bird’s-eye view of campus, the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel is the dominant landmark; its spire towers above the sanctuary within, which now is known as the R. Judson and Janice Carlberg Worship Center. Behind the chapel on the rocky rise near the main entrance are residence halls: clockwise from left, Fulton, Nyland and Tavilla (named for Bob and Lil Fulton, David and Diane Nyland, and Steve and Claire Tavilla). A corner of Lane Student Center is visible in the lower right; as well as dining rooms, Lane houses Chester’s Place, a popular student gathering place funded by Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler. www.gordon.edu/aerial
I’m starting to get the idea that this “good enough” philosophy of living is not, ultimately, anywhere near good enough.
10
22
29
7
25
Articles
Alumni
IN EACH ISSUE
22 Think Tank 24 Do Recent Grads
30 Class Notes with a Mission 31 Women by Dolores (Buck) Franco ’43
2 Up Front
Church Author on 25 Deep Emerging Adulthood
Parent All-Stars 35 Foster Rich ’85 and Sue (Wright)
Rigor 26 Joyful by John Dixon Mirisola ’11
Beginner’s Guide to 36 ACaspian’s Waking Season
5 SPORKS
38 Homecoming 2012:
6 On the Grapevine
Keep the Faith?
by John Dixon Mirisola ’11
Year 27 Ain Fulbright Germany
by Sophia Buchanan ’11
Small Changes, 28 Fitness: Big Results by Sean Clark
29 Exemplary by Ann Smith
Mulley ’84
by John Dixon Mirisola ’11
Alumni Reunion Photos
with President Lindsay
3 Inspiration
with Rebecca Lindsay
4 Gordon Life: Ways to Stay in Touch notes from a young alum
Student, Faculty and Staff News
Starters
News
Features
Articles
ALumni
Up Front with President Lindsay
“Pull quote goes here. Num veleseq uismodignim zzriuscil doluptat. Cum nos duis nulput digna con volenim ent augait wis nit aut aliqui blan.”
A Sense of Where We Are Photo Dan Nystedt ’06
To take some liberties with a line from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: “The city is within us; the city is all around us.” Gordon relocated to Wenham from Boston’s Fenway in 1955, and at the time that seemed like retreating from a world-class city to the country. But history has a way of coming full circle. Shortly before Gordon moved its operations into Frost Hall, the final segment of Route 128 (from Danvers to Gloucester) was completed. People sometimes called it the “road to nowhere.”
research facilities and biotech businesses are spread along its path. Gordon grad Craig Story ’92 earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology at Brandeis University in Waltham, and did postdoctoral work at MIT and Harvard Medical School. In 2002 he drove back up north to join the Gordon biology faculty, and began involving students in his research, creating diagnostic tools that can be used by the world’s poor.
Because of people like technology pioneer Ken Olsen, though, before long that road to nowhere became “America’s Technology Highway.” Olsen joined the Gordon Board of Trustees in 1961, bringing his blend of faith and business savvy to Wenham just one year after the College introduced its first science courses.
That’s just one example of how close we are to people and institutions of great influence. And there is much that we bring to these relationships as well. Trustee Joe Krivickas, CEO of the software company SmartBear, sees these partnerships and pathways as “beachheads.” Joe became increasingly invested in the College as he witnessed what can happen when students connect with people, places and resources they might not experience elsewhere. Gordon’s new Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, in which
Information technology’s center of gravity now lies westward in California’s Silicon Valley, but the 128 beltway is now the Tigris and Euphrates of biotechnology innovation. Universities,
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Krivickas is deeply involved, will help take these connections to the next level. The aerial view of campus on pages 12 and 13 is revealing. The Coy Pond side of Gordon—the Olsen and Phillips buildings, Lane Student Center and the Chapel—dominates the foreground. The rest of campus blends seamlessly into the wooded suburbs of the North Shore. Clearly discernible, just 26 miles south, is that bright sliver of Boston skyline. To take some liberties with a line from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: “The city is within us; the city is all around us.” We will always love our beautiful wooded campus. But we will increasingly also stress our very real strategic location—and all that it links us to.
President Professor of Sociology
President’s Page www.gordon.edu/presidentspage
Twitter twitter.com/GordonPres
In each issue
Inspiration
Volume 28 Number 1
“At the still point of the turning world.” T. S. Eliot, from “Burnt Norton,” Four Quartets Editorial
ALUMNI NEWS
Patricia C. Hanlon Editor
Adrianne Cook ’92 Director of Alumni and Parent Relations
Cyndi McMahon Staff Writer
ADMINISTRATION
John Mirisola ’11 Staff Writer
D. Michael Lindsay President
Ann Smith Staff Writer
Rick Sweeney ’85 Vice President for Marketing and Strategic Communications
CREATIVE Tim Ferguson Sauder Creative Director Rebecca Powell Amy Harrell ’07 Publication Design
Address changes Development Office gordoncollege@gordon.edu
other correspondence Editor, STILLPOINT | Gordon College 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984 stillpoint@gordon.edu
PRINTING Shawmut Printing | Danvers, Massachusetts
STILLPOINT, the magazine for alumni and friends of the United College of Gordon and Barrington, is published twice a year and has a circulation of over 16,500. Opinions expressed in STILLPOINT are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Gordon College administration.
New Vistas Rebecca Lindsay, Ambassador for the College Many things drew me to Gordon College: the Christian community, a sense of God’s calling, and my love of adventure. I welcomed a new place to explore and new friends to meet. I have discovered the cool but pristine waters of Cape Ann and the picturesque towns that hug the shoreline. I have ambled through antiques barns in Essex and tasted the pure pleasure of Captain Dusty’s ice cream on a warm August day. Traveling allows me to see different vistas. As a child, I often accompanied my parents on their journeys. In my teens, mission work drew me to South America and Mexico. Each trip expanded my worldview and underscored that the world is much bigger than I am. Travel also gave me a taste for variety. Now I feast on enchiladas at Cielito Lindo in Beverly and savor warm cider donuts at Russell Orchards. My daughters and I frequent Lane Student Center for popcorn chicken pizza and our favorite pink-frosted cupcakes. Our two-year-olds, Emily and Caroline, have experienced snow for the first time and felt sand and salt water tickle their toes at Singing Beach. With my daughter Elizabeth’s help, I even scored a strike while candlepin bowling for the first time. It is an exciting time for all of us. Gordon College also has a lot of “new things”—a new president; a newer provost; and MacDonald Hall, the bookstore and Jenks Library are gleaming with improvements. The Gordon Presidential Fellows, Student Ambassadors and the Richard F. Gross Distinguished Lecture Series stand out as recent initiatives even as we boast our largest freshman class ever. I am discovering what alumni have known over our nearly 125-year history: that Gordon College is a special place where the mind is stretched and our faith is deepened. My adventure here has only begun. Photo Nikky LaWell
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.
www.gordon.edu/stillpoint
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 3
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ALumni
Gordon Life: Ways to stay in touch The latest news about the College’s people, progams and outcomes now appears on Gordon-sponsored online sites and publications. Read faculty and student reflections, sit in on Chapel and Convocation, and join the open dialogue that has always been part of Gordon’s identity. (Not all sites reflect the College’s institutional positions and beliefs.)
Gordon website home page www.gordon.edu
The Finest Young Sportswriter in America “It may surprise you to learn the finest young sportswriter— perhaps the finest young writer period—in America is a Christian. It’s true: Thomas Lake, all of 31 years of age and currently a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, graduated from Gordon College in Massachusetts.”
Read more of this story: www.gordon.edu/tomlake
Faculty Central: Faith, Ideas and Scholarship at Gordon College blogs.gordon.edu/facultycentral
From the Wall Street Journal to Watershed Moments: Gordon Faculty Gain Far-Reaching Influence News about Gordon’s faculty just keeps coming, confirming their impact in their respective fields.
Read more: blogs.gordon.edu/facultycentral
Gordon’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/GordonCollege
Sola Scriptura after Nearly 500 Years: A Protestant Blessing or a Protestant Curse? Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, spoke at the Conference on Faith and History 2012 held at Gordon October 3–6.
Watch the video: www.youtube.com/user/GordonCollege
Notes Along the Way, the Gordon College blog gordoncollegegrapevine.blogspot.com
27th Annual International Coastal Clean-up With bags in hand and marine-stat worksheets for documentation, six students and faculty members Dorothy Boorse and Craig Story collected debris and trash at Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Read more: gordoncollegegrapevine.blogspot.com 4 STILLPOINT | Fall 2012
In each issue
Story bryan parys ’04
N OT E S F R O M A YO U N G A L U M
Installation 15: In the Waiting Room
Listen. I get distracted easily.
1. One of the great blessing-curses about moving back to the North Shore is reintegrating into the bargain grocery blitzkrieg known as Market Basket. And while I sing its praises regarding otherwise hard-to-find items such as orange blossom water and sambal oelek, there are whole aisles dedicated just to artificially-flavored water, and wire baskets full of individuallywrapped pancakes that miraculously have no need for refrigeration. Honestly? It can be overwhelming. The beeping. The clack of crooked wheels jockeying for a more advantageous spot to order black forest ham. And as you wait in that metal caravan of a line, those beige floor tiles seem to rise like a wave in your periphery—a vertiginous linoleum tide cresting up to your neck until all you can see is this one box of mashed potato flakes with the words ROASTED GARLIC beaming off the front, and you know with absolute certainty that nothing in that box has been, or will ever be, roasted, and you think: This is how we usher in the apocalypse.
2. I am trying to write something concrete about distraction, and instead I’m staring intently at the trees lining the far edge of Coy Pond. Distractions have pushed me to a constant state of deep focus, but it shifts with each twitch of an eye. We seem to think that when we do focus, we’re focusing on the wrong thing—that there is something better out there and we’ll find it if we keep up the frenetic switches. The problem then becomes that nothing ever gets finished, not even unimportant things.
4. At this point, reader, do you feel you may have missed something? 5. I’m in the waiting room. The people around me are in different stages of waiting—some, like me, are about to be called into the endoscopy unit, others read newspapers while their loved ones lie on the other side of the door, slowly swimming away from the floodwaters of anesthesia. Natalie and I are feeding our son Cheerios in an effort to comply I am trying to write something concrete about distraction, and instead I’m staring intently at the trees lining the far edge of Coy Pond. with the vow of silence the rest of the room clearly agreed to before we arrived. He drops one, and like the vacuum I’ve become, I reflexively scoop it up, and finding no trash can, pop the cereal into my mouth. This is the efficient balletmachination of parenthood we’ve learned over the last year. I’m not eating so much as recycling. The anesthesiologist doesn’t see things quite this way, and I’m sent home for “breaking my fast.” I am told to return to the same waiting area the following morning, and it is here that I realize that waiting is the anesthesia, and distraction is the inconsequential mess on the floor, without which moments of discovery become impossible.
The trees look like quilts at a state fair, and I can’t shake the thought that perhaps for once the leaves aren’t dying, they are just getting too distracted by the ground.
3. I keep staring at the bookshelf. I need to find a book I’m supposed to teach on later in the week. I’ve read it dozens of times, and I’m astonished how much I discover every time I re-read it. I scan the shelves that Natalie has arranged by spine color, thereby making it exceptionally difficult to find anything that isn’t that brilliant shade of antique turquoise. I look back and forth as if the bookcase were a dense paragraph I can’t bend to my will. Maybe I didn’t pay close enough attention the first ten times. Maybe it’s hidden, maybe it’s in plain sight and I’m trying too hard, but maybe it’s that I keep moving on at just the moment prior to The Discovery.
bryan parys ’04 works and teaches writing at Gordon College. His son actually doesn’t eat Cheerios, but rather an organic brand slightly sweetened with pomegranate juice, because it seems to mildly transcend the fact that cereal is just a way to fill our kids with packing material. But that really is another article entirely. bryan.parys@gordon.edu
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 5
Starters
News
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ALumni
News: On the Grapevine
Student, Faculty and staff news
Doing Well by Doing Good
Several students put their “President Dollars” (story below) on Thirst Footwear, a shoe company started by Sam Winslow ’12 (third from left), which plans to supply one person in Africa with water for a year per each pair sold. From left: Julia Marra ’13, Bennett Shake ’13, Winslow, Naama Mendes ’13, Erica Bowers ’14 and Jhoselyn Galmadez ’15.
President’s Challenge: “I Want to See ‘Savvy Grace’ Happen” During a September Chapel service President Michael Lindsay challenged the Gordon student body to put into practice the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25: 14–30). “Talents can mean skills and attributes and abilities,” he said, “and that’s all part of the blessing that you are asked to give to others. But a talent is also a unit of money; it also means our finances.” Referring to his inaugural address, Lindsay stressed the need to “elevate the contribution that we make to one another and to the world.” As Lindsay spoke, ushers passed out envelopes. Each one contained a copy of the morning’s Scripture reading—and cash ranging from $1 to $100, gifts to the
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student body from his and Mrs. Lindsay’s own funds. He challenged students to put the parable of the talents into action, saying, “I want you to pray about this, to think strategically about it. I want to see ‘savvy grace’ happen.” A week later, students were surveyed about what they did with the money. Many performed acts of simple kindness: “I placed my dollar on the dishes conveyer belt in Lane.” “I bought sunflowers and gave them away to people I didn’t know.” Some pooled their resources: “Our organic chemistry lab pooled all of our money together and donated to World Vision.” (Read about other students’ responses on the facing page.)
“Our giving habits matter,” Lindsay wrote in a Huffington Post guest column, referring to the Gordon experiment. “Giving has a way of freeing us up. It breaks the gravitational pull of possessions and self-involvement. The ways we do or don’t spend these resources for the common good have a profound impact on our personal character, and on the character of our culture. “What if today we realized what great potential is held in that dollar, that bright idea or that spare half-hour—that talent we carry around—and what if today we harnessed that potential to do something good?”
On the Grapevine
A Thrifty Dollar
Christmas Angel A student’s response to the President’s challenge (page 8) One student who received $1 decided to save it and add at least 25 cents per day (or whatever extra pocket change was on hand) until December 1, at which point, the student forecast, it should add up to just over $20. The student planned to use it to buy Christmas gifts for a child through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program.
Fair Exchange
Another student’s response A Chinese student who received $1 matched it with another $1 and sent it to a Bible study teacher in China. The Gordon student asked the teacher to exchange the $2 for 12 yuan and distribute the money according to the number of teenagers who attended the Bible study that day, giving them the same challenge to put the parable of the talents into action. The next week, each teenager was to share how they spent the money. (One yuan is enough money to buy breakfast for two people in Yanji, the city in China that is the Gordon student’s home.)
Another student’s response With a parent’s help, another envelope with a modest $1 inside proved to have growth potential. The student who received it forwarded the money to his mother, who he knew could parlay it into much more. His mother spent it on one item from Christopher & Banks (a retailer from which she routinely buys $80 garments for $3.99 on clearance). She took her purchase to a local consignment shop, which paid her more for the garment than the $1 she had spent. (Gift 1: a brand new garment for a thrift store shopper who normally cannot afford new clothes.) Then—Gift 2—she donated the sum she received from the consignment shop to her church’s fund to support an orphanage.
Ivy George and Rini Cobbey Receive Distinguished Faculty Awards Ivy George, professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Work, was honored with the 2012 Senior Distinguished Faculty award for her scholarship, leadership and teaching. “Ivy’s passion to explore new questions and dimensions of life has been evident in her work at Gordon in many ways,” said Mark Sargent, former provost, who presented the awards at last May’s Commencement exercises. “As a sociologist and scholar on issues of women and world development, she has continually challenged us to rethink some of our assumptions, reconsidering questions from the perspectives of the marginalized or the unknown.”
Rini Cobbey, associate professor of communication arts, was given the 2012 Junior Distinguished Faculty award. “As a teacher of film and media for a decade at Gordon, Rini has helped students and colleagues analyze American popular culture and discover international filmmakers,” Sargent said. “Her intellectual diversity is matched by a willingness to shoulder a diversity of responsibilities.” In addition to teaching, Cobbey writes film reviews, serves on the Core Curriculum Committee, and is the faculty advisor to Gordon’s Third Culture Kid group, Mu Kappa.
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 7
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Seven Outstanding Leaders Celebrated The Alumni Awards dinner, held October 6 at the Boston Marriott Peabody, was hosted jointly by Gordon’s three living presidential couples: Michael and Rebecca Lindsay, Jud and Jan Carlberg, and Dick and Jody Gross.
Outstanding Alumnus of the Year
Young Alumnus of the Year
Lifetime Achievement Award
K. David Goss ’74
Prashan DeVisser ’08
Dr. Marvin Wilson
Photo Michael Hevesy
Photo Rebecca Powell
Photo Michael Hevesy
David Goss’s groundbreaking work at Gordon in museum studies and public history has opened up leadership opportunities for Gordon students at Pioneer Village, and at the Salem Museum at Salem Old Town Hall—as well as experience with historic preservation. He is a strong ambassador for the College, reinforcing its tradition of excellence in historical studies.
Prashan founded and leads Sri Lanka Unites, a youth movement that pursues reconciliation, conflict transformation and youth engagement in his home country of Sri Lanka, and across the world. He has spoken at international youth conferences on four continents and trains youth in conflict transformation and proactive leadership.
Between Barrington and Gordon Colleges, Dr. Wilson’s teaching career has spanned 50 years so far—and, he estimates, about 10,000 students. His influence extends far beyond the Gordon campus (see sidebar). A scholar, author, and master teacher of Old Testament and JewishChristian studies, he also builds bridges of understanding between the evangelical Christian and Jewish communities.
A. J. Gordon Missionary Service Award
Jack Good Community Service Award Dr. Paul Lorentsen ’85
Winifred Currie Award in Education Robert ’50B and Marion ’50 Hughey
Rachel Simons ’02
Photo Mark Spooner ’14 Photo Mark Spooner ’14
After graduating from Gordon Rachel ministered in Romania for seven years. Today she is involved in a Word Made Flesh missional community in the capital of adjacent Moldova, reaching out to children at a large orphanage there. She loves helping children of all ages discover their value through artistic expression.
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Dr. Lorentzen was serving as chief of internal medicine at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona, when the great needs in that city inspired him to co-found the Neighborhood Christian Clinic, to provide low-cost medical and dental services. Part of the clinic’s mission is to share the gospel; Paul’s work changes lives for the better both physically and spiritually.
The Hugheys both had long careers in special education. Bob worked at New England schools, and served for 25 years with the Special Olympics. Marion developed a diagnostic program for preschoolers; the reverse mainstream program she spearheaded integrates special needs children with their peers.
On the Grapevine
IN THEIR WORDS
“As more of life’s miracles become well
A View from the Top By Amber Fiedler ’13
understood at the molecular level, we’d do well not to lose our sense of wonder.” —Craig Story, Associate Professor of Biology “Shrinking Gaps and a Shrinking God: A Connection to Avoid” (FAITH + IDEAS)
Marvin Wilson By The Numbers
50: Years as a full-time college professor
10,000: Estimated number of students he’s taught
450: Field trips he’s led with students to Jewish houses of worship on the North Shore
1,000: People he’s led on trips to the Holy Land with Gordon College
26: Printings of his 1989 book, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
3,000: Questions he wrote for interviews with 96 scholars for a PBS documentary based on Our Father Abraham
511: People who came to a 1995 seminar and panel discussion with Jewish and Christian leaders Wilson helped organize at Salem High School
4: Books he’s co-edited with rabbis
6: Steps up a spiral staircase to his office, eccentrically perched halfway between the second and third floors of Frost Hall
Too big The number of students to count: and other visitors this has mystified By Bethany Bray ’02; reprinted courtesy of The Salem (MA) News
Photo Dan Nystedt ’06
More than 200 Greater-Boston business executives joined 40 members of the Gordon community—senior staff, and students interested in business—on October 19 for breakfast in Boston and a stimulating conversation between President Lindsay and veteran BlackRock equity specialist Bob Doll. The event at the State Room was the most recent in the Conversations with the President series. The conversation touched on the contrast between Doll’s high-profile work as BlackRock’s chief equity strategist, and his identity outside of the office. Those who intensely invest time and energy in a company find it hard when they step back from those pressing needs, he noted. But Christians, he stressed, have the advantage of a lighter grasp upon temporal things. This resonated with Benjamin Hale ’13, a business administration major from South Hadley, Massachusetts. “Bob Doll explained that being emotionally invested in the stock market is easier to avoid because, as a Christian, he knows everything will come to an end,” Hale said. “I hadn’t ever thought of the market that way before and appreciated his openness regarding his personal faith.” Rachel Ashley ’13, a political science and biblical studies double major from Lowville, New York, also appreciated Doll’s honesty “in talking about his work-life balance and the different seasons of life he has been through in his career.” “I had the privilege of sitting next to David Shultz, one of Gordon’s trustees,” said Alexandra Nawoichik ’13, a Spanish and business administration major from South Hamilton, Massachusetts, “and had a wonderful conversation. The speaker had interesting insights not only on how he got to where he is in his life, but also on our current economy and the upcoming elections.” “I left motivated and challenged,” said Joy Jeon ’13, a business administration and accounting major from Taichung, Taiwan. “Being surrounded by professionals and experts in their fields provided an excellent opportunity to network and helped me feel connected to the real world.”
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 9
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Great Conversations: New Center Launches
A Winning View
By Jo Kadlecek
Photo Linnet Walker, Brazil
Linnet Walker ’14, a communication arts major from Bradford, Vermont, has been chosen as the 2012 Global Education photo contest winner for her image entitled “Boys of the Guarani Tribe,” taken in Brazil. This year’s theme was “Faces in Place.”
With the ongoing mission of fostering top-level scholarship in a uniquely Christian context, Gordon College has launched a new Center for Faith and Inquiry. The CFI builds on the strengths and mission of three longstanding initiatives at the College: the Center for Christian Studies, the Faith Seeking Understanding (FSU) lecture series, and the Jerusalem and Athens Forum (JAF) honors program.
The judges wrote: “Despite the difference of environment and culture, there is something incredibly familiar in these boys’ expressions and interactions. This shared human spirit transcends all cultural and racial ties.”
Like the Center for Christian Studies (1994 through 2012), the Center for Faith and Inquiry will organize and host a wide variety of conferences, Oxford-style debates, guest lectures and symposia, reflecting Gordon’s commitment to respectful conversation among those with different points of view. The Center also will deepen support of faculty by administering discussion groups, grant-writing initiatives and other academically oriented projects. “I am especially eager for the new Center for Faith and Inquiry to foster conversations across disciplines, to help raise the level and quality of scholarship at Gordon, and to promote more interaction between the Christian academy and the ‘mainstream ’ academy,” said Professor Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard, who will direct the CFI. He is the Stephen Phillips Chair of History and the founding director of the Jerusalem and Athens Forum.
Photo Liz Maurer, Uganda
Second Place: “Mama Hellen” (Uganda) Liz Maurer ’14, an elementary education and English major from Newton, Iowa
The broad spectrum of topics that CFI-sponsored speakers will address on the Gordon campus during this academic year will include women and Islam, end-of-life issues, religious freedom in the wake of the Arab Spring, and the poignant life of 19th century Boston Brahmin photographer Clover Adams. “The insights and ideas derived from this new Center,” Howard said, “aim to serve Gordon College, the Body of Christ, and the common good. It provides our students and our broader community an opportunity to nurture a shared life of the mind.” The Center for Faith and Inquiry’s new website can be accessed at www.gordon.edu/cfi. Its logo comprised of three interlocking triangles is an ancient symbol of the Trinity, one of orthodox Christianity’s central doctrines.
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Photo Maria Bauder, Denmark
Third Place: “The Spirit of København” (Denmark) Maria Bauder ’13, sociology major from West Chester, Pennsylvania
On the Grapevine
Faith + History = “200 smart and smiling historians . . . 49 concurrent sessions . . . 10 history alumni . . . 5 eloquent Gordon students presenting . . . 5 plenary sessions . . . 1 tired me.” — Jennifer Hevelone-Harper, professor of history (from 10/6 Facebook posting) In early October, scholars from a variety of Christian traditions explored the relationship between Christian faith and history, as Gordon College hosted the three-day 28th Biennial Conference on Faith and History. Speakers included
David Wick Receives Wilson Award
Carlos Eire and Mark Noll. Ten Gordon history and biblical studies faculty members took part, and five students presented papers. Thanks to overlap with Homecoming, alumni could attend sessions, too. Photo Rebecca Powell
Historian David Wick, described by one student as a “human encyclopedia on all things ancient,” was honored at Commencement 2012 with the Marvin Wilson Award for Teaching Excellence. Wick’s lectures draw on everything from his own research to Hollywood movies as he relates ancient history to modern events. Every other year, students accompany him to Greece for Gordon’s Aegean Seminar. He regularly mentors students who undertake research projects as undergraduates.
Michael Gerson Addresses Responsibility, Opportunity, and Suffering
Photo Mark Spooner ’14
Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist and former aide and speechwriter to President George W. Bush, visited Gordon September 13 and 14 as the second speaker in the Richard F. Gross Distinguished Lecture Series. His first speech focused on the “durable, deepening divide rooted in class.” In a Convocation address the following morning, he exhorted students to be socially active, yet not to make activism itself the primary focus. The world does not lack for important causes, he noted, but it does need people to pursue those causes with a perspective shaped by faith.
“He brings to his teaching a vast knowledge of the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds, from religious to scientific to military history,” says Stephen Alter, chair of the History Department. “Excellent teaching involves content, communication skills, and personal relationship. Those who know David and his work are awed by the way that he embodies and balances these.”
Gerson is a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign (a non-profit focused on international aid programs) and a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice (which does public policy research, leadership development, and civic education). He previously served as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Marvin Wilson Award was established in 2006 through the generosity of Betsy Gage Pea ’79 and her husband, Barry. As a history major at Gordon, Pea took many biblical studies courses with Wilson. She endowed the award to recognize him for his many years of passionate teaching, and to encourage other history and humanities faculty to strive for similar success in the classroom, for years to come.
Gerson met with Gordon’s six Presidential Fellows (in photo, from left): Henry Hagen ’14 (English); Amber Fiedler ’13 (business administration and communication arts); Skylar Bareford ’14 (recreation and leisure studies and biblical studies); Michael Gerson; D. Michael Lindsay; K. Trey Walsh ’14 (sociology); Eric Hilker ’14 (political science and biblical studies). Not pictured, Rachel Ashley ’13 (political science and biblical studies).
Wick received $1,000 to enrich his teaching and scholarship. The names of the faculty members honored with the Marvin Wilson Award appear on a plaque in Frost Hall. Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 11
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Boston Skyline: Distance, 26 miles
Location: Gordon College
Ken Olsen Science Center: 80,000 sq. ft. science and technology center
Location: Great Ledge, West Gloucester
Location: Remnant wet field, West Newbury
Location: Thacher Island, Rockport
Location: Lane’s Cove, Gloucester
Location: Mt. Sinai, Egypt to Gordon College
Location: Ghana to Croatia to the U.K. to the U.S.
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On Location
Brigham Athletic Complex: lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, track and field, tennis
A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel: The visual and spiritual focal point of the campus
ON LOCATION Gordon’s location north of Boston touches both rural and urban, and is also a home base for worldwide engagement. Eight faculty reflect on where they are—and where they’ve been. Location matters, as any real estate agent will tell you. When Location: Wenham and Beverly
Gordon College moved from Boston’s Fenway to Wenham in 1955, it lost some of its ties to that city, but gained access to a landscape rich in history and natural beauty. And as President Lindsay points out (see page 2), Route 128, built just a few years before the move to Wenham, cuts a well-traveled path from our wooded campus to the institutions and influences of Greater Boston. Faculty bring to the College not just their intellectual achievements but their “place histories”—where they’ve lived, explored, and made a difference. On the following pages are “on location” accounts by and about
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan to Gordon College
just a few of our outstanding faculty. Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 13
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Bruce portrays the seasons and geological ages on Cape Ann by his process of painting, scraping, painting, sanding, and painting again. The complex layers created by the advance of the painter and the retreat of the sander reflect the topography shaped by the advance and retreat of glaciers and tides. The texture of the paintings points to the presence of creative and destructive forces at work shaping landscapes to bear the light of the springtime and the weight of the Silurian age.
Great Ledge
90 foot drop
Location: Great Ledge, West Gloucester (8.8 miles from Gordon)
Walking the Great Ledge By Walter Hansen
I follow Bruce on a black muddy trail under a thick canopy of early-spring oak leaves still dripping from last night’s thunderstorm. He points to blankets of grey-green lichen on granite boulders and sunlight illuminating pools of silver rainwater in shallow basins. After I stop for a moment to catch my breath and lean against an oak tree, my hand bears the imprint of corrugated bark. I breathe in the pungent fragrance of the wet forest bed of previous years’ leaves, decaying logs, and rich soil. We hear a melodious birdsong, and Bruce guides me to see a Rosebreasted Grosbeak. “That’s a rare sighting in our woods,” he says. As I employ all my senses to take in the forms, colors, sounds, songs and textures of the woods by the Great Ledge of Cape Ann, I begin to love Bruce’s garden home. Walking the Ledge with Bruce, I observe layers of life and death. Newborn tree rise out of rotten logs decomposing into the ground covered by a carpet of Canada mayflowers with tender green shoots and delicate white flowers: a fresh, exuberant beginning, a slow, inexorable ending and everything in between. And below this annual cycle of life, I see the exposed bedrock of Cape Ann granite. This granite dates back to the Silurian age, about four hundred million years ago.
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“Bruce portrays the seasons and geological ages of Cape Ann by his process of painting, scraping, painting, sanding and painting again.” During his years of creative work and teaching in Orvieto, Italy, Bruce often found peace, renewal and communion with God in its cathedral, the Duomo. While walking the Great Ledge on Cape Ann, he points with awe and delight to show me the wonders of his garden sanctuary: immense walls of dark brown oak intermixed with silver white birch, stone floors of lichen-covered granite, and a high, cathedral ceiling of sky blue behind celadon leaves. This is a place to be quiet and to listen for another voice. This article is an excerpt from a book-in-progress by Hansen and Herman, Making and Breaking.
G. Walter Hansen (left) is a professor of global theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and the author of numerous books and articles. He coauthored “Sacra Conversazione” (2009) with Bruce Herman in the journal Image. A professor of art and professional artist, Bruce Herman was awarded the first fullyendowed Distinguished Chair at Gordon in 2006, made possible by a grant from Walter and Darlene Hansen. The Great Ledge: Heaven and Earth is one of a cycle of paintings titled Presence/ Absence. (Oil on wood with silver and gold leaf; diptych, 23" x 30") www.bruceherman.com
On Location
mean April on the high plains of New Mexico to me. A singing Kirtland’s Warbler connects me to a well-timed visit in June to Oscoda County, Michigan, the only breeding area in the world for this songbird. Summertime in forests of northern Massachusetts? My wandering thoughts immediately crystalize into the ethereal song of a Wood Thrush, plaintive “pee-a-wee!” of an Eastern Wood-pewee, and velvety harmonics of a Veery.
“To both birds and birders, location and timing are everything.” American Woodcock West Newbury, Massachusetts 1 March 2012
Location: West Newbury (29 miles from Gordon)
A Sense of Shared (Avian) Presence By Greg Keller
I glance once more at my watch, the numbers glowing in the frozen evening air. It really is far too cold to stand here and have any hope of feeling warm feet ever again. “Where are they?” I mutter under my breath. The new housing development near where I stand has been slowly advancing into fertile farm fields here in West Newbury, and it seems to have finally made this prime birding location just another remnant field surrounded by the same cookie-cutter houses and immaculate lawns. A linguist might hear the soft “r” and gentle “ma’am” linking a southerner to the Tidewater region of Virginia. A foodie with a distinguished palate might remember the distinctive jambalaya flavors that can only be made with the savory ingredients and cultural history in a particular parish along the Gulf Coast. But for me, connections to locations are strictly feathered. The bird-sighting lists I maintain serve as detailed maps of our shared existence. To both birds and birders, location and timing are everything. Sooty Grouse and Varied Thrush? Welcome to the Olympic Peninsula in late winter. A displaying male Lesser Prairie-chicken, proudly strutting and bounding about the grassland, can only
My first frigid Massachusetts winter on Plum Island in 2001 was unexpectedly highlighted by a massive barrel-chested predator from the Arctic, the Gyrfalcon. Gaudy does not even begin to describe the male Painted Bunting at Corkscrew Swamp outside of Naples, Florida, whose splotches of vibrant reds, greens and blues brightened an otherwise dreary day in 1998. These are my locations, defined creatively by a sense of shared avian presence, a brief encounter between me and an otherwise indifferent bird before it flits away to feast on juicy caterpillars or carry nesting material to a hidden substrate. I turn, mutter again—did I end up in the wrong place amongst the meandering country roads? My binoculars are icy lumps between my numbing fingers. My condensed breath surrounds me as the last remnants of the sun finally disappear and commuters return to their glowing wood stoves and pot-roast dinners. I reluctantly slide the car key out of my pocket to return home. But with an exhalation of relief, I detect the unmistakable yet subtle “peeent” call of the American Woodcock, taking flight to perform its lonely breeding display above the snow-blotched fields. Another linkage, a landmark in my mind of location, time and bird. The birds have returned for yet one more year to this location that serves as their home and mine. American Woodcock, remnant wet field, West Newbury, Massachusetts, 1 March 2012—check. Greg Keller, associate professor of conservation biology, is sometimes known as “Professor Roadkill” for his interest in the impact of roadways on small animals. He and his family live in West Newbury, Massachusetts. greg.keller@gordon.edu www.gordon.edu/keller
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 15
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But the sky began to clear during the short trip that took us past Straightsmouth Island, with the Dry Salvages, commemorated in T. S. Eliot’s poem of the same name, to the northeast. When we finally disembarked and walked up the landing ramp onto Thacher Island, the sky was blue and clear. Amid the din of gulls, we hiked the lush grass path to the north tower, climbed the 156 steps to the top, then ducked our heads through an iron door in order to emerge onto the two-foot ledge encircling the lighthouse. We stood there marveling at the sight: the expanse of sea, the brilliant blue sky, the craggy coast of Cape Ann.
“We stood there marveling at the sight— the expanse of sea, the brilliant blue sky, the craggy coast of Cape Ann.” Location: Thacher Island, Rockport (14.7 miles from Gordon)
An Island Idyll By Ian DeWeese-Boyd
Thacher’s Woe. That’s what the tiny island of rock and scrub a mile off the coast of Rockport came to be called after Anthony and Elizabeth Thacher finally found their footing there one harrowing day in 1635. The Watch and Wait—the ship they’d been traveling on from Ipswich to Marblehead—had been reduced to splinters on the Londoner reef, and their four children, along with the dozen other souls on the ship, had been swallowed by the stormy sea. Two lighthouses were built on the island more than a century later, so that sailors could readily distinguish the location from the single lights at Boston Harbor to the south, and Portsmouth to the north. The original wood structures were replaced with the current granite towers in 1861. About two years ago my wife, Margie, noticed a blurb in the Boston Sunday Globe about free ferry rides out to the island, provided by the Thacher Island Association (www.thacherisland.org). Always game for freebies, we reserved a spot for the next month. Standing on T-Wharf in Rockport with brooding gray skies and drizzling rain, though, we had our doubts about this outing—free or not.
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This past June, we spent a week volunteering as intern lighthouse keepers. Most mornings we were roused by the cacophony of gull cries just shy of 5 a.m. Before we’d even gotten our first cup of coffee, our 11-year-old son, Jesse, was ready to start mowing the three miles of trails that guide visitors around the island and through its interior. In addition to trail maintenance, we scraped, scrubbed, painted, swept, and welcomed visitors; our 9-year-old daughter, Aida, handed out sticks and warnings to the newcomers about aggressive black-backed gulls. Now, when we look out and see those lights, it’s impossible not to wonder how things are going over there. Is the composting toilet operational? Is the solar up and running after the lightning strike? Has someone finished painting the upstairs hall? Are the gull chicks flying yet? While the island marked Thacher’s woe, for us and the many who visit and volunteer there now, it is a shelter from the frenzy of life ashore. It is also a reminder of the lives— and ways of life—that have come and gone since the Thachers first found refuge among its rocks. Ian DeWeese-Boyd is associate professor of philosophy at Gordon. He and his wife, Margie DeWeese-Boyd, associate professor of social work, have two children. ian.deweese-boyd@gordon.edu
On Location
or while training for a running event. “When you go out for a jog, your foot will be hitting the ground approximately one time per second.” Minimalist shoes, Ventura explains, are more flexible than regular running shoes. This greater flexibility allows the foot to serve as a natural cushion—as is the case with barefoot running. The resulting lower cushioning and lower heel-toe drop promote runners landing on the ball of their foot rather than on the heel. According to Ventura, a recent study by Leiberman’s group showed that college-age students who land on the ball of their foot have half the injury rate of those who land on their heel. Ventura’s research, however, goes beyond determining whether or not minimalist shoes are “better” for running in general. “The study is focused on how the running shoe affects your individual running pattern,” says kinesiology major Kelsey Spotts ’13, who is assisting Ventura in her research. Location: Wenham and Beverly (10-mile run)
“When you go out for a jog, your foot will be hitting the ground approximately one time per second.”
Putting Her Best Foot Forward By Ember Rushford-Emery ’13
Jessica Ventura, assistant professor of kinesiology, has a thing for shoes—so much so that she has undertaken a study of the effect they have on runners. Ventura’s study focuses on two types of new minimalist running shoes, Vibram Bikilas—the very popular “Fivefinger” shoes—and Skechers GOruns. When barefoot running became a fad after Daniel Lieberman, a biologist at Harvard University, conducted a study that was highlighted in the January 2010 issue of Nature magazine, shoe companies made it their goal to mimic the science of barefoot running. Ventura’s test subjects run in three types of shoes: their regular cushioned shoes, the minimalist shoes, and barefoot. The data is collected by looking at the changes in the subjects’ stride mechanics while running. “Basically, our feet were designed for walking and running,” says Ventura. “If we land on our feet correctly, our foot, ankle, hip, and knee work in unison to soften the landing impact, which can be as high as three times our weight.” She highlighted how harsh this can be on the body, especially evident through the aging process
Dr. Ventura’s interest in running shoes is a part of her overall research focus on experimental analyses of gait. It is also a specific, local angle on her global interest in the study of human movement. As a graduate student at The University of Texas (Austin), she spearheaded a biomedical engineering senior design project for a nonprofit organization in Honduras that created a prosthetic ankle joint for amputees in developing countries. That project led her to co-found a student organization at the University of Texas that has since brought a video-sharing program to schools for the deaf in Mali, developed coloring books about health for children in Central America and India, and aided in the reconstruction of Louisiana gulf cities devastated by hurricanes. Ember Rushford-Emery ’13 (left) took the course Scientific Enterprise with Assistant Professor Jessica Ventura (right), and became very interested in Ventura’s biomechanics work with prosthetic ankles in Honduras. Ember hopes to pursue a career in journalism. ember.rushford-emery@gordon.edu
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 17
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American Lobster Marine Blue Shark Marine
Atlantic Dog Whelk Snail Marine
American Bullfrog Wetlands
White-footed Mouse Forest
Location: Lane’s Cove, Gloucester (13.5 miles from Gordon)
The Bullfrog in Your Neighborhood Just 15 minutes from campus is the seaside neighborhood of Lanesville in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Tim Ferguson Sauder (Gordon's creative director) has lived for 10 years with his wife, Meg, and their three young children. Having become very much at home on this rocky peninsula, the young family know not just their human neighbors but the creatures living all around them. “We snorkel a lot just outside of the cove where we live,” he says. “We have lobster traps that we pull together. The kids are almost more excited when we get the wrong animals in the traps because they get to see interesting fish, skates, urchins, sea stars, and so on. We always go home and research the creatures we see on our trips on the little skiff we take out.”
and design for larger community benefit. So after establishing the main design of the cards and the style of illustration, he enlisted the help of Return Design (Gordon’s design program) alums and interns to help produce the cards and journal that comprise what he named LOOKLOOK. Greg Keller, associate professor of conservation biology and curator of birds and mammals, researched the animals and provided statistics and facts. Education Department faculty, particularly Associate Professor Janet Arndt, are working on educational applications for the system in a number of North Shore elementary schools where Gordon student-teachers and teaching alumni are well represented and well regarded. Enter the Sappi: Ideas That Matter grant, the design industry’s highly respected grant program aimed at applying design to innovative thinking to solve social problems. Among the recipients this year is the LOOKLOOK campaign, in partnership with Kestrel Educational Adventures, a nonprofit based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Kestrel supports science education programs in local schools by teaching students about the animals that live in their area.
“I know that kids are much more easily engaged in science when it’s about the bullfrog that lives in their neighborhood.” Though LOOKLOOK is a personal project, Ferguson Sauder emphasizes that its deployment has been a team effort. “This grant was earned by a whole community of invested people who bring different skills to the table but have used them all to achieve a common goal.”
In addition to serving as Gordon’s creative director, Tim Ferguson Sauder teaches upper-level Art Department design courses, and heads up Return Design, an on-campus firm of student designers who create work for nonprofits. He also consults and designs for clients ranging from local nonprofits to international
His children’s intense curiosity about both sea and land creatures sparked the idea for a set of animal trading cards based on local wildlife. “I know that kids are much more easily engaged in science when it’s about the bullfrog that lives in their neighborhood,” Ferguson Sauder says. As an artist with a social conscience, he’s always looking for projects that promote art
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corporations. For more information about the LOOKLOOK cards, and to be notified when they are available, visit www.takealooklook.com
On Location
In this past year, 16 years after that first trip, I have returned to Mt. Sinai with Gordon students—not via planes and buses, but in courses taught in the History Department. Last fall in the advanced seminar “Mt. Sinai in Early Christian Tradition,” students read primary sources composed on Mt. Sinai through the seventh century. We followed the experiences of early Christian monks who sought out a life of fasting and prayer in the remote region where God appeared to Moses. In a course I co-taught with my colleague Dr. Ute Possekel, students studied eastern Christianity and Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke. Syriac was widely used by Middle Eastern Christians from the fourth century onward and remains the liturgical language of several Middle Eastern churches. Students worshipped with a diaspora community in West Roxbury and were thrilled to be able to follow along in a Syriac prayer book.
Location: Mt. Sinai, Egypt to Gordon College (5,688 miles)
A Virtual Journey into Syriac Christianity By Jennifer Hevelone-Harper
As a grad student at Princeton, I taught “The History of Early Christianity” to American undergraduates in a study-abroad program in Wadi Natrun, Egypt. One day a rickety mini-bus took us east from Cairo through government checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula. Our destination that day was a Byzantine fortress, St. Catherine’s Monastery, where sixth-century Christians believed that the Lord spoke to Moses out of a burning bush. We entered through meters-thick monastery walls. Ushered into the dim chapel, we glimpsed the glittering golden mosaic of Christ’s transfiguration in the apse of the chapel. We joined the prostrate disciples depicted below the divinely radiant Christ and the prophets Moses and Elijah, in their attitude of awe and reverence. We saw sixth-century icons of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All), the Virgin Mary, and the gray-haired Apostle Peter clutching the keys to the kingdom of heaven. These icons are the earliest surviving panel paintings in the Christian tradition, preserved in the remote reaches of Sinai from both marauding Bedouin and imperial iconoclasts.
“We followed the experiences of early Christian monks who sought out a life of fasting and prayer in the remote region where God appeared to Moses.” This journey into Syriac Christianity at Mt. Sinai will continue next semester. During my sabbatical I will work with Dr. Possekel and students to translate an ancient manuscript from Mt. Sinai, the Codex Climaci Rescriptus. The seventh-century text was written by John Climacus, an abbot of St. Catherine’s. His treatise, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, urges Christians to pursue unity with Christ through prayer and other spiritual disciplines. Composed in Greek, it was translated into Syriac on Mt. Sinai in the seventh century, raising intriguing historical questions about the audience of that time and place. Our students will experience Mt. Sinai through a manuscript that preserves the faith and experiences of our ancient spiritual fathers.
Jennifer Hevelone-Harper is a professor of history at Gordon and the author of Disciples of the Desert: Monks, Laity, and Spiritual Authority in Sixth-Century Gaza (Oxford University Press, 2005). The manuscript project is sponsored by the Green Scholars’ Initiative, an institution that supports teacher-mentors’ research with undergraduates. jennifer.hevelone-harper@gordon.edu
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 19
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so on) of multi-ethnic composition, or they are led by pastors with missionary experience. For example, Europe’s two largest churches in Ukraine and England were founded and are led by natives of Nigeria.”
“My hometown? Everywhere I’ve lived more than six months.”
Location: Ghana to Croatia to the U.K. to the U.S. (8,727+ miles)
World Citizens, World Christians When asked to name his hometown, Dan Darko, associate professor of biblical and theological studies, replies, “Everywhere I’ve lived for more than six months.” That would include Accra, Ghana, his hometown (where he had his first teaching job, at Central University College); Croatia, where he studied at the Evangelical Theological Seminary and met his wife, Maryl; London, where he did further theological study at three different universities; and, in the U.S., Pennsylvania, and Hamilton, Massachusetts. This past summer he returned to Ghana for three weeks to teach at Regent University College of Science and Technology. His many homes have given Dan not just a breadth of cultural understanding, but also a seasoned perspective on the global church. “Global Christianity is more than a cliché,” he says. “The two billion Christians worldwide are spread across every continent, with approximately sixty to seventy percent residing in the southern hemisphere. Thus, the majority of Christians are no longer based in the West and do not identify as ‘white.’ The Body of Christ is multi-ethnic, ecumenical, and socially engaged —trends that coincide with more general trends of globalization. Even in Western countries, most of the vibrant churches we find are either immigrant churches (Korean, African, Spanish, and
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The global church is also ecumenical, he says, “knocking down pillars of entrenched doctrinal positions. Presbyterian, Methodist and independent charismatic pastors swap pulpits with no hesitation. Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Orthodox churches are reaching agreement on shared faith and fellowship in Christ. Some Roman Catholics now sing hymns written by the Wesley brothers, such as ‘Love Divine, All Love Excelling.’ “The charismatic renewal also crosses denominational lines in the ‘majority’ or ‘two-thirds’ world. It is not unusual to find drumming, clapping and ‘lifting up’ of hands in the worship services of Catholics, Presbyterians and Baptists in Africa and Latin America. In Ghana, Baptist churches run like nondenominational or pentecostal/charismatic churches.” Darko sees Gordon as well-situated to be a player in the emerging global church. “Gordon’s many opportunities for overseas study enable fruitful service to Global Christianity in many forms,” he notes. “Perhaps this is why our Global Christianity concentration is one of the fastest growing concentrations at this time.” “Gordon has been a significant part of global Christianity since its inception,” he says. “After all, it was born in the region where the first missionary of the United States ventured (from Salem) to take the gospel to the rest of the world.”
Dan Darko, associate professor of biblical studies, is the author of No Longer Living as the Gentiles: Differentiation and Shared Ethical Values in Ephesians 4.17-6.9 (London: T&T Clark, 2008), and has recently contributed a chapter to Global Voices: Reading the Bible in the Majority World (Hendrickson, 2013). Dan specializes in Pauline studies and biblical hermeneutics. dan.darko@gordon.edu
On Location
were crossing each other as I journeyed into my future. With this move—bringing family books and items back to their origins—I was, in some sense, going backward. Yet as I traveled east toward New England, I discovered new metaphors. My mother joined me on my road trip, and we took the highway that follows the Erie Canal. This canal, this overgrown line in the landscape, moved my ancestors from east to west, their migration to the Midwest corresponding to the peak of the canal’s use as a major transportation system.
“With this move—bringing family books and items back to their origins—I was, in some sense, going backward.” Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan to Gordon College (971 miles)
On Direction, Time, and Moving Forward By Janel Curry
In his book Across This Land, John Hudson states that if North America had been settled from west to east, New England would be a wilderness area today. As Gordon’s new provost, I now live in the midst of that “wilderness,” among the forests and rocks of New England, in the epicenter of medical research and worldclass higher education—and I can’t help but reflect on Hudson’s observation. My ancestors settled on the North Shore in the 1630s. I grew up with a family history book on our shelf that told our story and traced it back to this area of New England. Before my move east, as I cleaned and packed, my daughter began to read another book from my shelf, one that was given long ago to one of my great, great (etc.) grandfathers in Francistown, New Hampshire.
We stopped along the way to see some remnants of the canal. One of those stops was at Seneca Falls, New York, from which a canal connected to the Erie Canal. I had always wanted to go there because it was the birthplace of the movement to give women voting rights. Never did those who began that movement in the mid-1800s believe it would take so long to get to where we are now in 2012. I was moving to Massachusetts to become the first woman provost at a college founded in 1889 as a missionary training school. It has been an arduous journey forward for women, both in the nation and at Gordon College. I’ve been moving eastward through the space of my own family and personal history—backward, yet very much forward.
Through three published books and more than 45 academic articles and book chapters, Gordon’s new provost Janel Curry has built an international reputation for her research on human-land relations, institutional health and resilience, and theological perspectives on nature. She is the past recipient of a fellowship from the Pew Evangelical Scholars Program and two fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Program. She comes to Gordon from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. janel.curry@gordon.edu
Over time, however, my forebears had trickled westward. As I made my road trip from Michigan to my new home in Massachusetts this past summer, moving against the direction they had travelled, I contemplated their timeline, the direction of their migration, and my own sense of self. Direction and time
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 21
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think tank: jerusalem and athens forum sixth annual Essay contest
Each year STILLPOINT and the Jerusalem and Athens Forum (JAF) sponsor an essay contest that challenges students in that program to reflect on an important current issue in light of JAF readings and discussions, and other works of theology, philosophy and literature. This year students explored how the Scriptures and Christian theological traditions can help us think well and wisely about the political arena. Jeanette Christianson wrote this year’s winning entry. Excerpts from the two essays awarded honorable mention follow on the facing page.
Semper Reformanda In a world where time is always “of the essence,” I’ll admit to cutting corners. There is barely time, it seems, to get all my schoolwork done, call home, and do basic cleaning—forget cooking real meals when the dinner hour rolls around. I have to be satisfied with a little less than perfect on just about everything, and it’s rare that I revisit conversations, arguments, or ideas to reevaluate them—or, in the words of Martin Luther and his contemporaries, to be semper reformanda, “always faithfully reforming.” But I’m starting to get the idea that this “good enough” philosophy of living is not, ultimately, anywhere near good enough. Not if I’m going to
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be particularly good and thoughtful at anything: daughter, student, or (in light of this November) citizen. Looking outside of my own little sphere, I see that Christianity has never been satisfied with the status quo. Whatever you think about the nature of politics or the relation of Christ to culture, this much is certainly true. Satisfaction and completeness do not form parts of this world’s vocabulary. Clement of Alexandria recognized the implications of this for the life of the Christian citizen; as Richard Niebuhr explains Clement’s thought, a Christian “must then first of all be a good man in accordance with the standard of good culture . . . but this is by no means the whole of the Christian life. There is
a stage of existence beyond the morally respectable life of the church-goer.” If politics can be considered a part of our societal situation, we would do well to follow the warning implicit in his view: satisfaction and perfection do not belong to our realm of the political. There is always something more to strive for, always work to be done. Not everyone seems to be getting that memo. Political solutions to problems are routinely described as all-encompassing by our media, who seem to promise that we can realize perfection here. But there are two sides to this argument. One is Augustine’s well-worn dichotomy between the two cities: whether it is possible to divide everything into the temporal and
Story Jeanette Christianson ’12, Matt Clemmer ’13 and Dawn Cianci ’14
the eternal, Augustine’s two cities at least remind us not to confuse which city our eternity should be spent in. But then there is Max Weber, who wrote persuasively that “It is entirely true, and our entire historical experience confirms it, that what is possible could never have been achieved unless people had tried again and again to achieve the impossible in this world.” Even knowing that we will miss the shot, then, we still must aim high. Luther also acknowledged the limitations of politics. He argued that “the world and the masses are and always will be un-Christian, even if they are all baptized and Christian in name. Christians are few and far-between.” This pluralism essentially dictates that a purely Christian government is out of the question, but that does not grant us an excuse to give up on meaningful political participation. From Clement’s view, we must push the boundaries—albeit in a way sensitive of our neighbors and suited to the modern, pluralistic context. Instead, we must continue striving. Regardless of what we think about the clash between philosophies on a number of policy questions, we all agree that progress is needed. Some things should—indeed, must—change. Despite the arguments that will ensue, and the “public square, private faith” dichotomy that will be thrown back at us time and again, semper reformanda remains our charge.
Jeanette Christianson majored in history and is now an M. Div. student at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Fair and Balanced vs. Divine Sovereignty (excerpt)
Political Proof Texting (excerpt)
In spite of the massive cloud of theological controversy that swirls around Calvin and his thought, it is a fact that Calvinists have made immense contributions to the development of a Christian conception of governance. Whether in their support of the controversial ethics of theonomy, or in their continuation of Abraham Kuyper’s work within the concept of sphere sovereignty, Calvinists have offered a wide variety of thoughtful, articulate voices that would benefit the political discourse of the moment. However, it is the voice of the Reformer himself that Evangelicals must hear first.
As presidential candidates emerge, so too do the political pundits, who can butcher and abuse some of the basic foundations of political theory. For example, key concepts like justice and mercy commonly fall victim to this hype, and are often carelesly used as if they were interchangeable.
The whole of Calvin’s theology rests upon a radical confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God. However, one does not have to agree with conclusions that Calvin arrives at in his theology in order to agree with this assertion. In stressing God’s control over everything, Calvin was not breaking any new ground, as the sovereignty of God has been a foundational truth of Christianity ever since its origins in Judaism. Where Calvin displayed his genius was in his decision to ground his conception of Christian governance in this truth, just as Paul did in Romans 13. Read the full essay at www.gordon.edu/jafesssay
Justice is the perceptible truth. Justice is rational, logical, and reasonable. Justice is beautiful, definitive, and clear—but justice is cold. Justice is structured; justice is knowing that you earned and deserved what you worked for; you reaped what you sowed. Justice is tradition, justice is the law. Justice is relief—when you know, in the light of all evil, that you may make an appeal—that all may be accounted for and paid in due. Justice is the way of man—the means to order a finite world with finite capabilities. Most importantly, justice is practical. Mercy is hope for something that extends beyond truth. Mercy is creative, excusing—an embodied reprieve. Mercy is the longing for an idea beyond a system; the “but” in “I know it should be that way, but...” Mercy is wishing for an exception. Mercy is like faith—it is forgiveness when you deserve your sentence yet grope for the possibility of something more. Mercy is tragically theoretical. Read the full essay at www.gordon.edu/jafesssay
Matt Clemmer is an English and philosophy major from Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Dawn Cianci is a philosophy and political science major from Clovis, California.
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 23
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questing: do recent grads keep the faith? students and faculty team up to find out
Photo Mark Spooner ’14
“Formation is a lifelong process. I have seen students grow and change. I have plumbed the limits of their contributions and found them eager to do even more. In the process, I too have learned a lot—about hope, persistence, student abilities, and wonderful individuals.” —Kaye Cook, Ph. D., professor of psychology In his wide-ranging survey of “emerging adults” in their late teens and 20s, Dr. Christian Smith ’83 argues that they sometimes develop weaker, shallower faith than that of their parents. Is Gordon College accomplishing its stated mission of graduating “men and women distinguished by intellectual maturity and Christian character”? To find out, Gordon and Wheaton College psychologists teamed up with researchers from several other institutions to interview almost 1000 alumni and 60 undergraduates over several years about their faith commitment, stress levels, relationships, and sense of identity and wellbeing. They inquired also about “questing”—that is, viewing religious exploration from within a strong faith tradition as a positive experience.
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In addition to confirming that peer friendships help young adults cope with college and the years just after graduation, the study revealed that although Gordon students grapple with the hard issues of faith, Gordon seniors describe themselves as just as religious as Gordon first-year students. More seniors than first-years view religious questing as positive. The survey results showed Gordon students and recent graduates experiencing several types of “questing.” Some regarded it as being ready to face complex existential questions. Others spoke of self-examination and honest introspection about their own spiritual doubts. Still others regard openness to change as a positive way to deepen faith. Few of them change denominations or come to view God as distant and impersonal during their years at Gordon.
Another interesting finding: recent Gordon and Wheaton alumni spoke more of their trust in God and “ownership” of their faith than did Gordon firstyears or seniors. “Undergraduates ask questions about their faith while at Gordon, questions that are also explored in the classroom and dorm rooms—and, within the right context, lead to stronger development of faith,” Landon Ranck ’12 and Claire Lawes ’11 wrote in their report on this project, in which they were among the research assistants to Gordon psychology professor Kaye Cook. “All students struggle with the hard issues of faith, and they need to come to better understand what it means to serve God in the unpredictable world they will soon face. We are gratified to find that students explore, but that core beliefs remain unchanged.” Dr. Cook has taught in Gordon’s Psychology Department for 34 years. “I came to Gordon fresh from graduate school in North Carolina,” she says. “Three decades of living in New England have taught me to sound more like a native and to get through New England winters, but they have not dimmed my interests in moral and faith development and formation.” In addition to Cook and her student research assistants at Gordon (including, pictured with Dr. Cook, Tor Ekstrom ’12 and Faith Clasby ’13), the research team included Dr. Kathleen Leonard ’01 of the University of Massachusetts–Lowell; Drs. Cynthia Kimball and Kelly Flanagan of Wheaton College; and Dr. Chris Boyatzis of Bucknell University. Study participants were 60 Gordon undergraduates, and nearly 1000 recent graduates of Gordon College and Wheaton College.
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spokesman: Deep Church author JiM BELCHER addresses emerging adulthood
Story John Dixon Mirisola ’11 Photo Mark Spooner ’14
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional was published in 2009. In 2010 it was a Christianity Today Book Award winner, and also a Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner. According to Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City), “Jim Belcher shows that we don’t have to choose between orthodox evangelical doctrine on the one hand, and cultural engagement, creativity and commitment to social justice on the other.” In October, Jim Belcher ’87 (center, above), author of Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional, visited campus and spoke about moments of transition in faith, particularly among “emerging adults.”
theology or creed, accompanying a general moral, spiritual and social aimlessness.
Often, Belcher explained, such a moment comes during the college years, when young adults are away from home, parents and youth group. Drawing from the research of fellow alumnus Christian Smith ’83, Belcher noted that upwards of 90 percent of emerging adults take on the social and spiritual identity of their immediate surroundings, even if it goes against the identity of their youth.
The firm, sustaining root of the Church, he’s convinced, is the enduring story of Christ. Drawing a comparison to Lucy’s discovery of the magic of the “Spell for the Refreshment of the Spirit” in C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Belcher reiterated that “once you have been gripped by that Story, you will want to hear it over and over again.”
Many young adults raised in the Christian faith “put that identity in a lockbox” once they enter the largely faith-skeptical realm of secular higher education, Belcher said, emerging on the other side of their college years with a vague spirituality Smith has termed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD)—God without grounding in
“Can MTD be escaped?” Belcher asked. It’s a question he’s been grappling with for years, as a church planter, pastor and author.
It is the timeless power of the Christian narrative that ultimately resists the casual draw of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and which creates a culture of bold Christian leaders ready to live out that narrative in the world. “I’m thankful that I was able to get exposure to that kind of story here at Gordon, 25 years ago,” said Belcher.
Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood is Christian Smith’s third book resulting from his research on the moral and spiritual lives of young adults. Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad crosssection of emerging adults to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society.
John Dixon Mirisola is a communications specialist at Gordon and a staff writer for STILLPOINT. john.mirisola@gordon.edu
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 25
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Joyful Rigor: a Dream realized for an alumna on a mission
Story John Dixon Mirisola ’11
Tarnoviski works hard to infuse a sense of joy into every element of her students’ education, even as she holds them to high expectations. The students embrace learning as an outgrowth of this joy. They cheer—that’s right, cheer—for homework and for tests. And even in the third grade, Aleah’s students understand that they are expected to be accountable for their own education’s success. “We talk to kids like they’re smart. If they don’t understand a word or a concept, we expect them to raise their hands and ask us; our job is to make them feel safe and confident doing that.”
Somewhere in the South Bronx, there is a classroom full of third graders who understand what Golden Goose is. When these kids close their eyes, they see themselves studying by the fireplace in Jenks; they imagine wandering through the woods surrounding Coy Pond. They have written a chant about our fine New England institution. “They’re obsessed with Gordon College,” says their teacher, Aleah Tarnoviski ’12. That’s because Tarnoviski’s New York City charter school, Success Academy, stresses the importance of getting kids to think about college early and often. Each classroom at this school—part of a network of 14 Success Academy charter schools in New York City—learns about the college its teacher attended. As a result, students come to personally identify with the institution and begin to project a college education into their own future. Aleah, who made the unusual jump straight to a job as lead teacher after graduating in May, takes special delight
26 STILLPOINT | Fall 2012
in knowing that her students consider themselves Gordon College Class of 2026. The 14 Success Academy schools serve low-income, typically low-achieving districts in the New York City school system. “Your zip code shouldn’t have any weight on what you can achieve,” Tarnoviski says. The results back up her claim. Success Academy’s standardized test scores consistently outrank New York’s state averages, and even beat scores from affluent areas such as Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West Sides. College-mindedness is just one aspect of the innovative educational framework at Success, one of the most well-known charter school systems in the country thanks in part to the national buzz created by recent education reform documentaries like Waiting for Superman and The Lottery. The network’s website unpacks six core values that guide the educational process: Agency, Curiosity, Try & Try, Integrity, Others, and No Shortcuts (A.C.T.I.O.N.). Additionally, Aleah points to another of the school’s maxims: “joyful rigor.”
As an education major at Gordon Aleah discovered her zeal for the empowerment that quality education can bring to urban communities. Dialog with professors in her department sharpened her enthusiasm; she learned how and where she could make use of it. “I can go back to my freshman year and trace the education department’s influence in where I am today,” Tarnoviski says. “They sought my development, and they allowed me the freedom to remain completely focused on education reform.” Now there is a classroom full of thirdgraders who share Aleah’s feelings about Gordon, and who no doubt also share her appreciation for the teachers working to help their students succeed.
John Dixon Mirisola is a communications specialist at Gordon and a staff writer for STILLPOINT. john.mirisola@gordon.edu
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fulbright: A cross-cultural year in ingeLheim am rhein, germany
Story Sophia Buchanan ’11 Photo Hagen Graebner
environmental issues and more. Having lived in Germany before, I was armed with an arsenal of witty responses with which to tackle such questions. What I was not expecting was that my calling to represent Christ and the culture of Christianity would far overtake my task of representing American culture. Throughout the year, as I grew closer to my colleagues and students, the topic of “American” evangelicalism as juxtaposed with the transcendent culture of my Christian belief came up in conversation time and time again.
Wanderlust has afflicted me lifelong, and it always strikes with a predilection for Germany. I came down with one acute bout of the condition in 2011, my first year as a Gordon graduate, during which I worked as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in the German public school system. This teaching grant placed me in a secondary school in the small town of Ingelheim am Rhein. Ingelheim once housed Charlemagne’s imperial court, a historical peak which was proudly commemorated in the name of my school. Called the Kaiserpfalz Realschule, it is a fifth- to tenth-grade school with a diverse student body. Many of my students were immigrants to Germany, mainly from the Middle East and former Soviet bloc Europe. Most of the classes I taught were composed of two main socioeconomic groups: European students from socially liberal families (often dubbed “postChristian Europeans”), and Turkish students from moderate Muslim families. In this sense, my classes were a microcosm of the demographics of modern Germany.
Fulbright Teaching Assistantships are granted based in part on the cross-cultural enthusiasm of the applicant; prior teaching experience (or lack thereof) is of minor consideration. This means that when a Fulbright ETA is sent forth to command the tenth grade through the rigors of conditional clauses under the topic of “The drinking age in Germany,” she must quickly learn to adjust her lesson plan to conditional clauses, the drinking age, and the religious fervor of her 16-year-old Muslim students. It also means that when a Fulbright ETA chaperones the seventh grade on a trip through the United Kingdom, she must learn that clarity of communication with this particular age group has vastly more to do with an obey-me-or-suffer-my-wrath stare than it does with the proper declension of German adjectives. Coming from the USA and endorsed by Fulbright, I was prepared to openly discuss my culture with the inquisitive German psyche which seems to be ingrained in many residents of that nation. Daily I was questioned on politics, social issues,
Those conversations were respectful and meaningful, thanks to my undergraduate education at Gordon. At Gordon I learned to speak on a culturally-informed level and to cherish faith questions as a means of understanding the greatness of Christ. My Fulbright assignment gave me the opportunity to enter into an experience of cross-cultural development. Gordon equipped me to engage in discussions about faith, and to grow in my understanding of Christ’s compassion as an entity that is wholly separate from any nation or culture.
Sophia Buchanan graduated with a German major and an English minor. She was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Germany, where she taught for the 2011–2012 academic year. sophia.buchanan@gordon.edu
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 27
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fitness: small changes=big results
at gordon’s center for balance, mobility and wellness
Story Sean Clark ’88 Photo Scotland Huber
Motivation is critical, too. Many of us are familiar with research that has linked lack of regular exercise to increased risk for coronary heart disease, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and various cancers, plus an increased risk of falls. These health concerns may motivate some of us to make a change in our sedentary lifestyles and patterns of inactivity. Others may find other benefits more persuasive: improvements in overall health and well-being, weight loss, improved mood, better balance, increased opportunities for recreation, and prolonged independence.
Robert Leo Booth, who turned 100 on November 27, is not just the oldest but one of the most enthusiastic clients at Gordon’s Center for Balance, Wellness and Mobility. From Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Booth (pictured above) had a productive career in civil engineering, which included working on the Manhattan Project during World War II and, postwar, working with various engineering firms. Around the house, Bob has also been, as his son-in-law, Peter O’Keefe, puts it, “the ultimate tinkerer/handyman.” Earlier this year, Bob tripped on a rug, sustaining injuries that required surgery and weeks of rehab. Peter was familiar with Gordon’s Center, and encouraged Bob to continue there with a program of biweekly workouts. “Thanks to the encouragement and attention of the Gordon Wellness Center staff, these workouts provide him with a source of pride and purpose,” Peter says. Bob is one of 150 regularly participating members benefitting from the CBMW’s state-of-the-art equipment, individualized fitness assessments, and programs. 28 STILLPOINT | Fall 2012
Another member who began a fitness program at the Center this summer describes the environment as being “free from competitiveness and comparison, where I can proceed at my own pace, ask for suggestions or advice if I need it, and chart my improvement.” Knowing the type and amount of exercise to do is critical. It may take professional coaching to design an activity plan that builds muscular strength, balance, flexibility and aerobic fitness. Few hit all those notes just right. Fitness experts say individuals aged 45 to 54 should spend two-and-a-half hours each week doing moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, and also work out at least twice a week doing muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups. However, research by the Centers for Disease Control indicates that fewer than 20 percent of Americans in that age range meet those goals. Older adults are even less active; fewer than 7 percent of Americans over 74 do the amount of aerobic activity and muscle strengthening recommended for their age bracket.
Even individuals who would have difficulty exercising on their own (for physical or cognitive reasons) can take important steps toward better health by taking advantage of the Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness’s unique assisted exercise membership option. In the words of the ancient philosopher, Plato, “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.”
Sean Clark joined the kinesiology faculty at Gordon in 2000, and also serves as the director for the Gordon College Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness. Dr. Clark’s current research interests are in developing effective treatment strategies to improve functional balance performance in older adults. sean.clark@gordon.edu www.gordon.edu/balance
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exemplary: Disciple, Scholar, Friend 1950 alumna wore many hats
Story Ann Smith
higher education and in business, and earned a second master's degree. Later she co-owned a business. She loved Christmas, her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and summer visits to a Cape Breton farm in Nova Scotia. She enjoyed travel of all kinds, and once set off on short notice on a cross-country trip with family, looping west across the U.S. and back through Canada, camping en route. She participated in the National Institute of Health’s Women’s Health Initiative, a 15-year national study of aging processes in women.
S. Eunice Wenstrom graduated from Gordon College in 1950, but never felt very far from it. She attended as many reunions as she could, well into retirement. Her younger brother David ’70 recalls that she “always said that Gordon College was ‘number one’ with her.” When Eunice passed away at her Newton, Massachusetts home in December 2011 at the age of 85, the papers she left included her Gordon transcript, her Princeton Theological Seminary transcript, and her Gordon Alumni Association membership card issued in May, 1950. As a Christian Education director in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the 1950s, she was a trailblazer. In 1953 she was the first woman the Boston Presbytery commissioned as a Church Worker. While she had hoped to become a minister after earning her M.Div. from Princeton, that door was not yet open to women in her denomination; the Boston Presbytery would not ordain its first female minister until 1969. So she embraced the role that was within reach. A tireless student of Scripture who studied the entire Bible
three times every year for decades, she crafted study series for churches she served in Manhattan, Pennsylvania and upstate New York, and later for her home church in Newton. But “she was never high-fallutin’ about it, and was just as happy teaching a small child the children’s song, ‘Only a Boy Named David,’” her brother says. “She represents all those women, many unsung, of the mid-century Protestant churches,” he observes, “and the Gordon scene and the influence Gordon College had on them.” Even as a girl, Eunice was the go-to expert for her brother and four sisters about the “big questions” about God and existence. She commuted from her family’s Newtonville home to Gordon’s Fenway campus, where she was a cheerleader and worked on the Hypernikon. During her college years she also taught Sunday School in her home church, in Roxbury. And after Gordon, seminary.
Through it all, Eunice was Christcentered. She welcomed strangers as visitors, and circulated lovingly typed collections of quotations to fellow Christians who needed encouragement. “With new friends, she was always welcoming, and never ceased to inquire if they had a church home, and whether they’d like to attend services at her church,” her family wrote in her obituary. “She was able to convey her love of Jesus Christ to whomever she met on her life’s journey.”
Ann Smith joined the Gordon College staff this year as copy editor in the Office of College Communications. ann.smith@gordon.edu
After 10 years in Christian education, she returned to Newton and took jobs in
Fall 2012 | STILLPOINT 29
Mark your calendar! You are warmly invited to join us for
2013 Major Events
these upcoming events in the life of the College, representing a mix of new initiatives and perennial favorites. Conversations with the President is an interview series with notable
February 8 Convocation • Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware 11–14 DEEP FAITH • Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary
leaders in a variety of fields. (For full information about this series, including
off-campus locations, contact
Bryson, director, Islam and Civil Society Project, The Witherspoon Institute, Princeton University: “Religious Freedom after the Arab Spring”
guestofthepresident@gordon.edu). DEEP FAITH returns this spring, reprising a worship-focused and reflection-oriented week that promises
14 Faith Seeking Understanding (FSU )• Jennifer
21 FSU • Patrick Smith, assistant professor of theology and philosophy, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: “Valuing Life at the End of Life”
to become a College tradition for years to come. The Faith Seeking
23 Bennett Center Family Day
Understanding Lecture series continues under the new Center for Faith and Inquiry. For full listings of all
March
academic, arts, alumni and athletics
8 Conversations with the President • John Kanas, president, chairman and CEO of BankUnited
events open to the public, visit www.gordon.edu/calendar.
21 Conversations with the President • Deborah Dunsire, president and CEO of Millennium: “Scientific Excellence and the Common Good”
The monthly GRAPEVINE e-newsletter will also keep you informed about events on and off campus. To sign up, contact grapevine@gordon.edu.
April
4 FSU • Miroslav Volf of Yale University: “Religious Violence: A Theological Perspective”
19 Founder’s Day 17–20 Celebration of the Arts, with Cam Anderson, Soo Bae, Jeremy Begbie, Mia Chung, Karen Covel, Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Herman, Elizabeth Ann Larson, Bruce Hangen, Ralph Winter and others
26 Grandparents’ Day May
2 FSU • Leila Ahmed, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University: “Women and Islam Today”
6 Gordon Celebration of Faithful Leadership 17–18 Commencement Weekend
“What excites me about Gordon students? The many servant leaders among them, and seeing them become entrepreneurs committed to the common good.”
Entrepreneurial. Christ-Follower. Connected. Joseph K. Krivickas, CEO of SmartBear Software, Inc. The CEO of an international software company headquartered minutes from Gordon, Joe Krivickas was first drawn to the College by its students’ ethos of servant leadership. He is now both a Trustee and the driving force behind the College’s new Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. He sees Gordon as a “beachhead” where savvy entrepreneurship will grow for the greater glory of God.
Ways to give www.gordon.edu/giving
255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984-1899 www.gordon.edu
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detail, QU4rtets NO. 1 (SPRING) oil and alkyd resin with 23 kt. gold and moon-gold leaf on wood panel 97" x 60"
Bruce W. Herman Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts
In T. S. Eliot’s cycle of poems Four Quartets, a repeated theme is “In my end is my beginning, and to make an end is to make a beginning.” The cycle of human maturation from childhood to youth to adulthood to old age is evoked. One’s childhood often presages the character of the mature person. “...for the leaves were full of children,/Hidden excitedly, containing laughter” (“Burnt Norton”). This painting is the first of four large works inspired by the Four Quartets, based on the seasons of the year, the stages of life and the medieval Four Elements: earth, air, fire and water. The paintings are part of a touring exhibition/ collaboration between artists Bruce Herman and Makoto Fujimura, with Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis and theologian Jeremy Begbie. The exhibit and concert tour will include venues in the United States and overseas. QU4RTETS EXHIBITION SCHEDULE November 29, 2012–January 17, 2013 | Baylor University January 29–February 10, 2013 | Duke University February 21–March 8 | Yale University Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) April 13–May 1, 2013 | Gordon College (part of Celebration of the Arts, April 17–20, 2013) For complete schedule, visit www.fujimurainstitute.org/qu4rtets.