Six Protestant ministries disaffiliated from the university last August will be allowed to rejoin the Georgetown flock next semester, ending a yearlong dialogue with administrators to reintegrate them into the campus community.
Vice President for Mission and Ministry Fr. Philip Boroughs, S.J., announced in a letter addressed to the university community last week the creation of several new bodies to oversee the Protestant ministries after they rejoin the campus community, following the recommendations of an advisory committee assembled in October to review the August decision. Student members of the ministries had protested disaffiliation in the fall, circulating petitions and drawing nation-wide media coverage.
“With the new framework in place, I am confident that Georgetown’s Protestant Chaplaincy is entering into a new season of effective communication, collaboration and service to our community,” Boroughs wrote in the letter.
The committee’s April 30 recommendations, all of which were agreed to by Boroughs, include the formation of a Council of Affiliated Ministries composed of both campus ministry officials and members of affiliated ministries. The council would review new applications for affiliation from Protestant groups and could recommend the disaffiliation of groups that violate university policy.
The committee also recommended the formation of a Protestant Student Forum that would coordinate joint events and programming for Protestant ministries.
Although university officials had justified the expulsion of outside Protestant ministries last August, saying that the university intended to build the Protestant ministry from within rather than relying on affiliates, Director of Campus Ministry Fr. Timothy Godfrey, S.J., said he welcomed the most recent decision to bring the ministries back on board.
“I wouldn’t say it was a change in policy, but rather moving ahead with our Protestant chaplaincy as part of the restructuring of campus ministry as a whole,” he said.
Godfrey added that the disaffiliation last fall was “a problem of communication and participation, but now we’ve set up a structure where these two issues are addressed.”
Student members of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship – two of the groups that were disaffiliated in August – said that they are generally pleased with the recent decision, and added that their groups plan to rejoin the university as affiliated ministries in the fall.
Hannah Coyne (COL ’07), who sat on the advisory committee and is a member of the leadership team of Chi Alpha, said that the committee was unanimous in its support of the new structures. She added that the creation of the council will benefit Chi Alpha and other affiliate ministries on campus, because each ministry will have a representative on the affiliated ministries council.
“It’s probably the best position we’ve been in for a while,” she said. “The university actually acknowledges that we’re here and we’re valuable now. Especially in the last couple years, the university took a subversive stance.”
Terrence Reynolds, an associate professor of theology and the chair of the advisory committee, echoed Coyne’s praise for the council.
“The basis for affiliation will be established by the council,” Reynolds said. “The council will determine the criteria for affiliation and, in a worst case scenario, the disaffiliation of a group on campus. That represents a major change from what was done in the past.”
Reynolds added that council’s structure was designed to increase dialogue between affiliated ministries and the university so that “you wouldn’t have the two groups coming into conflict with one another, and it would give rise to more open and candid conversations about how to best conduct Protestant ministry.”
Still, some of the recommendations caused concern during negotiations, particularly a clause regarding proselytizing in the covenant agreement which Protestant ministries are required to sign to become affiliates. The covenant in its final form prohibits affiliate groups from using “psychological pressure and inducements for conversions which exploit other people’s needs, weaknesses and lack of education.”
Kevin Offner, a District-area coordinator for InterVarsity who sat on the advisory committee, said that he expressed concern at first with the clause, but these concerns were allayed when the committee clearly defined the meaning of “proselytizing.”
“I didn’t feel comfortable with the word itself being in the document, because one of the definitions of `proselytizing’ could be that we would never try to convert someone else,” Offner said. “But we defined it in a way that talks about the means of sharing the faith, like we won’t be underhanded or manipulative. We all agreed if we’re trying to respectfully share our faith and someone’s not interested, you leave them alone.”
Boroughs said in an interview that from the university’s perspective, the language in reference to proselytizing was a necessary component in the covenant agreement in order to distinguish “coercive methods which many national ecumenical groups have described as proselytism” from less aggressive evangelical efforts.
Jason Steidl (COL ’07), a Bible study leader for InterVarsity, said that the most recent changes were positive developments for campus affiliates, but he questioned the wording of a part of the covenant agreement requiring affiliated ministries to be associated with a particular Protestant theology. InterVarsity is a non-denominational group and approximately one-third of its membership is Catholic.
“InterVarsity is an organization that has a lot of Catholics as well as Protestants, and this covenant has strict definition of Protestant-Catholic. A broadening out of the definition would be a little more helpful, but I’m really pleased with how [the covenant] turned out.”
Both administrators and members of affected Protestant groups praised the creation of the student forum as an avenue for increased cooperation and dialogue between campus affiliates. The forum will be composed of members of all affiliated groups and will meet three times per semester to plan joint services and coordinate individual groups’ events. The forum will receive an annual budget of $10,000 for programming.
“Protestant programs in general are really under-funded at Georgetown,” Coyne said. “It’s great that the forum has some funds now to do things like invite speakers.”
