Paul and Amy Armstrong are the chaplains for the Catholic Tertiary students in Dunedin. Paul looks after the Polytech and the Teachers’ College, Amy the university students. Both are part-time chaplains.
finding god on campus
Paul Armstrong is an Aucklander and his wife, Amy, comes from St Paul, Minnesota, in the midwest of the United States. They first met at a summer camp in the midwest, back in 1995, when Paul was doing his OE. Paul said: "You’ve GOT to come to New Zealand”. Amy said: "We’ll see.” Unlike Kiwis, midwesterners are not great travellers.
Eventually she came, and they toured around New Zealand together. They arrived in Dunedin, and liked the place. They thought to themselves: "we don’t have to live in Auckland.”
so
how did it all start for you?
Paul: "I was attracted to
Dunedin. Amy would probably have
preferred Wellington. But to do
a Bachelor of Theology, this is
where we had to come. So that was
our excuse. Since we arrived here,
we’ve really never looked
back.”
Amy: "I got a job in the Zoology Department, where I still work. We started going to the Sunday evening Mass at Holy Name, which is the students’ Mass, and we got to know Fr Mark Chamberlain, the priest-chaplain. At that time Sr Leona Garchow was due to finish after many years as chaplain to the Polytech, and Fr Mark asked us if we’d be interested in becoming chaplains.”
Paul: "Both Amy and I were going through personal discernments. Mark had seen that happening. The invitation was like putting tinder to a flame. So Amy started as University chaplain in 2005; I started at Polytech in 2006.”
Amy: "I share an office with Fr Mark in the Students’ Union and we have the ecumenical chaplains next door. Paul has an office in the Teachers’ College.”
Paul: "Actually my ‘centre’ is a bit like my namesake the Apostle. I’m by nature an itinerant. For me, things happens ‘out there’ and that’s where I am.”
Amy: "A lot of the job is simply getting to know people and building relationships, so at first I too was out and about a lot. Now, however, I spend more time seeing people in the office.”
what do you see as the essence
of being a lay chaplain? what are
you there for?
Amy: "I had had experience
of campus ministry in St Paul,
Minnesota. There, it was a model
based on community building and
prayer – and also creating
opportunities for the students
to serve in some way.
"At present, we have students helping in the hospital; and some are involved in the ‘Best Buddy’ programme, which means spending time with young adults who have disabilities.
"People also come to me with problems, so I just have to be available for that. Sometimes people drop in whom I have never seen before. I think they see chaplains as ‘safe’ – a non-threatening place to go if they are a bit stressed. You have to be there just to listen.”
Paul: "A Pastoral Theology paper was sent to us recently about chaplaincy. Two words from it sprang out at me: presence and listening. The presence can happen anywhere and you have to be available to the moment.
"If you are there for people when they need you, then you are being authentic. The people round the campus will spot a mile off if you’re not authentic. They will run away and you are wasting your time. At the start you are establishing yourself. And then things begin to happen.”
Amy: "Each year seems to be different and bring its own challenge. This year, I’m spending a bit of time with a group of postgraduate women. They suffer loneliness, because their undergraduate friends have all moved on. Most of the students are much younger. They are a lot on their own wrapped up in their books. They’ve lost their normal support system.
"So we have invented a Mature Women Prayer and Dessert night. We come together and share the gospel; we might do a bit of lectio divina style prayer, then we share some chocolate cake – and they get to know each other. We meet in the Upper Room in the chaplaincy. They’re all Catholics, and sharing prayer together is a great way of getting to know other people at a deeper level.”
Paul: "My approach is a bit different. I write poetry and sometimes I share this: and it ‘cuts to the marrow’ with a person – the right word at the right time. It’s like ‘letting the light in’, as Leonard Cohen says. My spirituality is spontaneous. It just happens.
"I easily develop relationships with people, and this helps me to be able to find the right word which someone needs to hear. I think Paul the Apostle was like that. A woman in the Design Department recently was telling me about an exhibition she was holding. I listened to her carefully – and then reflected back to her what she was saying. It was what she needed to hear. She stopped me later on and told me just that.
"The Polytech staff are very approachable, practical people. They are out and about more – and that’s where I bump into them. I spend a lot of time with the staff. The Polytech students come and go. They often work short courses. They do their studies and then go home.
Amy: "University is quite different. The students come here to live. There is a lot of pastoral care – but it might be the man who sells vegetables or the women at the campus shop. The students are a very homogeneous group, all the same age. It’s an artificial society, so significant adults become very important. That is why we encourage them to do some sort of service, to take them out of themselves.
"The students get a lot out of the Best Buddy programme. They have to give up their Friday nights to do it. Sometime they too are the lonely ones. They reach out to someone whose disability has made them lonely. Then, they communicate – and something sacred happens. I get a lot out of just watching it happen.
"It’s a group process. I remember watching Abel, a student who was very nervous at first. He had never had contact with someone with this sort of disability before. He has just blossomed. The students and the ‘buddies’ do all sorts of things together. They might go bowling or have a dance.”
tell
us now about the prayer life of the
students
Amy: "I
think everyone is naturally prayerful,
but not many of us are taught how to pray.
For me, I had mentors after I finished
Uni who really helped me. I was so grateful
for the resources I was given. It’s
a part of Catholicism, but sometimes it’s
thought to be for special people only,
the high-flyers! I’m passionate
about offering prayer opportunities to
the students,
so that they themselves learn ways that
fit them.
"Kids have the gift naturally, but often it gets buried as they grow up. We become too self-conscious. A friend of mine was teaching some five-year-olds. She got them to be silent and listen to God. After a bit she became nervous herself and she stopped it with an AMEN.
"They said to her: why did you stop when God was still talking? She asked them: what was God saying? One said: God was telling me to share my toys with my brothers. Another said: God said we must love everybody. A third said: God just said - GLORY BE!”
Paul: "Fr Mark often talks about how to pray in his homilies, and conducts retreats in daily life; or he encourages the students individually.
"We also have a part to play in the graduation services. The ecumenical team are all involved. And we help with the students’ retreats, which are open to anyone of student age in the city. We might get 20 or 25 at a time, and we use the centre at Warrington.
" Of course we have to be on hand if there is a death – or if a staff member is made redundant, which is a bit like a death. I find myself giving pastoral care even to the Human Resources people, who have just handed out the redundancy.
"All this involves quite a bit of visiting. And of course attending funerals. Those are the formal times. We prepare the services, and we often work together with the ecumenical chaplains. Mike Wright is the Polytech chaplain, and Greg Hughson is at Varsity.
"The chaplains get on really well together. We all bring our own gifts. I think the team here in Dunedin is a model for New Zealand chaplaincy. There has been a long history of ecumenical co-operation – over 40 years, in fact.
Amy: "Sunday evening Mass at Holy Name is the heart of our ministry. It’s where we really get to know the students – the high point of the week. It is the most specifically Catholic activity.
Paul: "Lots of the overseas students come on Sunday nights, but that is not a problem to the Kiwis. They all mix in well. The Kiwis are often inspired by the faith of the Asians – especially the Korean and Indian students. The national characters complement each other. Sometimes the different nationalities their own groups, which act as a support when they come from so far.
"Amy does the music on a Sunday night. We meet together regularly with Mark and the student president and leaders.”
any
special difficulties?
Amy: "Historically
we have had to deal with a few students
who are very conservative theologically.
They tend to be a bit exclusive, and
in the past it became quite divisive.
Catholic chaplains in other places
talk about this problem too.
"The ones who feel excluded would come along to me and talk. They can be made to feel inferior to these others. ‘We are told we aren’t following the rules properly’. I tell them that Jesus was anything but exclusive and loves everybody. Jesus is our model.”
Paul: "They learn best by example. I think they have to be encouraged to think outside that square. Often that exclusiveness breaks down when they mix together. And the others learn some good things, like adoration, which the conservative students emphasise.”
Amy: "I had never encountered it until I came here. I thought at first it was Dunedin! But then I discovered it was happening all over the world. It makes me very sad. Fortunately World Youth Day was very INclusive. In Sydney the young people all just celebrated their faith together.”
Paul: "Chaplaincy is like firing an arrow into the air. You never know what the result will be. That is why you need to be well resourced. I think that’s why Mark emphasises reflective prayer. Self-care is highly important and some form of supervision.
"At conferences chaplains will share with us what is happening to them. They say they often wonder what on earth they are doing!”
Amy: "Our lives as chaplains have to be centred on Christ. Our daily prayer is very important. We often pray with Mark and Greg – and the two of us pray together every day. If we didn’t pray, we couldn’t accomplish what we do”.