Lent 2003

Churches Work Campuses

Incarnation at Cambridge

College students are looking for something solid. Left empty by materialism and secular liberalism, they search. Many are turning to Christianity. Evangelism on campuses is on the rise; prayer and Bible study groups are popular. Christian orthodoxy interests them.

It is a different story with faculties and administrations. At Harvard, for example, Christianity is tolerated as just one of many religions, but woe to the student who proclaims Christianity's superiority or greater truth. The mandated ideal is multiculturalism-religion is nice, but one's just as good (and bad) as the other, and they're all inferior to humanism.

Into this breach has stepped the Church of the Incarnation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For two years the Church of the Incarnation has striven to give the students at Harvard and at the many schools in the Boston area something solid: the faith once delivered to the saints. They meet in the beautiful Swedenborg Chapel on the Harvard campus. The choir is composed of students from Harvard and the Longy School of Music. Students serve as acolytes.

Fr. H. Bowen Woodruff, Vicar of the Church of the Incarnation, has spoken to Christian student groups on the undergraduate level and is active at the Harvard Law School through the Federalist Society. Ads and columns are run in the student newspapers. The television show, "Vicar from Dixie" attracts students to the Church. Fr. Woodruff was even named chaplain to the jockeys at Suffolk Downs Racetrack!
The light of wonder that goes on in these students' faces when presented with Christ and the rich teachings and traditions of the Church is unmistakable.

Augie's Intrigues Campus Community

St. Augustine of Canterbury, Chico, California, bought the historic downtown Episcopal Church in this northern California city 8 years ago. From this key location, they have devised an ingenius way to reach the college community. The church now has sufficient funds to launch a commercial coffee house called "Augie's". This 2,000 sq. ft. enterprise will feature specialty coffee drinks and teas, food, music and a congenial atmosphere to the more than 14,000 college students who attend the California State University, Chico, only 1 block away. Augie's is sure to be a success. But more than financially, Augie's will be able to attract the young into the mystery of Anglican history and worship.

The Rev. Peter F. Hansen, Rector of St. Augustine's, says: "This coffee house has been our plans since we bought the run-down church in 1994. The entire city rejoiced to see one of its favorite churches restored: a beautiful gothic revival structure, now almost 100 years old."

Augie's Coffee House will feature classical and baroque music as well as Celtic folk and Christian music. Graced with a sound stage, Augie's will feature local artists who will share their music, poetry readings and talents. The plans is to open Augie's with the return of the students this fall. A contribution by the ACW is helping to launch this campus outreach.

"We'll bring them in with latte, and win them over with love," says Fr. Hansen.