BIRMINGHAM — College-bound Presbyterians and those serving in the military often fall through the cracks, never finding a church home, because no one lets university ministers and military chaplains know they are coming, according to speakers to the Committee on Church Polity Friday.
It should happen — but it doesn’t often, said several campus and military pastors.
‘If a student doesn’t come seeking me out, I will never find them,” said Elizabeth Hakken, Presbyterian campus minister at Ohio State University. ‘In the last year the collegiate ministries office has received three letters of referral. I know on my campus there are between 500 and 700 Presbyterians, but I will never know who they are under the current system.’
The committee declined to approve an overture requiring campus and military pastors to let notify them of students and military personnel they might contact, because an existing Book of Order provision already provides for such notification.
But they did approve the following comment: ‘Pastors and clerks are reminded of the provisions of G10.0302c and are strongly encouraged to communicate with campus ministers and military chaplains when college students and military personnel from their congregations relocate for an extended period of time.’
