Spooktacular Edition!
The Wesley Foundation is the United Methodist Campus Ministry at William
and Mary. We meet on Sundays at 5 pm at the Wesley House, which is next to
Williamsburg United Methodist Church. If you are on this email list and would
like to be removed, please email wesley@wm.edu with “unsubscribe” in the
email title.
For more information and to stay up-to-date, make sure you regularly check
our website at www.wmwesley.org.
In this Edition (Click on a category to jump to it!):
THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE
THIS WEEK IN DETAIL!
FEATURED EVENTS
FUTURE WESLEY EVENTS
NON-WESLEY EVENTS AND NOTICES
YAC Position Descriptions
Thought of the Week
This Week at Wesley
This Week at Wesley
Friday, Oct. 28
Saturday, Oct. 29
Sunday, Oct. 30
10:00am: Combined Children’s Sabbath service at Wellspring (note time
change this week – meet at House to carpool at 9:35am)
11:00am: Church Hop Small Group – contact Jacob Evans
(jrevans@email.wm.edu) for meeting place/time
11:00am: Regular worship at Williamsburg UMC
5:00pm: Satan, Demons, & Halloween SNP (see below for description)
YAC nominations continue
Monday, Oct. 31
7:00pm: Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat
9:00pm: Movie Night (with pizza!)
Tuesday, Nov.1
7:00pm: OMG! I’m a Senior! Small Group
9:00pm: Great Stories of the Bible Small Group
10:30pm: Frisbee on the Sunken Garden
Wednesday, Nov. 2
5:45pm: YAC Meeting
Thursday, Nov. 3
10:30pm: Frisbee on the Sunken Garden
Friday, Nov. 4
1:00pm-4:30pm: Great Pumpkin Challenge (see below for details)
Saturday, Nov. 5
12:00pm-8:00pm: Ecumenical Retreat (see below for details)
Sunday, Nov. 6
11:00am: Regular church services at Wellspring and Williamsburg UMCs (meet
at 10:35am at the House to carpool to Wellspring)
5:00pm: Life Skills SNP
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This Week’s Events
Satan, Demons, and Halloween SNP!
Come on over to Wesley this Sunday night at 5pm and join with Max, Allie
(associate pastor at Williamsburg UMC), and Pastor Edward (pastor at
Wellspring UMC) in a lively discussion of Satan, Demons, and Halloween. Do
they exist? If so, what are they like? Should Christians celebrate Halloween?
Do any of the three of them presently have a demon in their colon? Come for
answers to those questions and so much more! As usual, it will be followed by
an awesome dinner!
Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat – Monday, 10/31 at 7pm
Looking for an excuse to dress up for Halloween and do good at the same
time? Then look no further! Join us on Halloween night as we dress up and go
door-to-door to collect canned food for FISH, a local food shelter. We’ll meet at
the House at 7pm and head out from there – hope you’ll join us!
Halloween Movie Night (plus pizza!) – Monday, 10/31 at 9pm
Papa Johns is having a special (oh, and it’s Halloween) so we’re celebrating
with a special Wesley House viewing of the movie The Rite. We’ll bring the
popcorn, candy, and pizza – you bring yourself and friends! Costumes are
welcome! We’ll meet at the House right after Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat
(see above) so probably around 9:00pm.
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Featured Events – Mark your calendars!
The Great Pumpkin Challenge! Have Fun and Feed Folks!
The Society of Saint Andrew has established the first ever Great Pumpkin
Challenge on Friday November 4 from 1-4:30. The Challenge will pit students
from W&M against the students at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The
W&M portion of the event will take place at the College Run Farm
in Surry County. Students will be gleaning pumpkins and squash. The
produce will be picked up by the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank for distribution
to needy folks. There will be transportation leaving from Wesley at noon.
Ecumenical Retreat
The retreat, held by the Christian Unity Movement, will be held on Saturday,
November 5th from 12-8 PM at Greenwood Christian Academy. There will be
times of worship, prayer, & games as well as small and large group sessions.
Pizza and snacks will be provided. The event is free of charge, but please
contact Lindsey Huggins (linzkh@gmail.com) if you are interested in
participating.
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Future Wesley Events
Frisbee on the Sunken Garden!!
Okay, let’s be serious, this event is ongoing, but this section was looking lonely
so…don’t forget that we play frisbee together every Tuesday and Thursday in
the Sunken Garden at 10:30pm! All skill levels are welcome and it’s always a
lot of fun! Contact Bonnie (beroane@email.wm.edu) with any questions.
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Non-Wesley Events and Notices
Calling 21: Spend Next Summer Working in a Local Church and Get Paid
Well Too!
Calling 21 is a summer local church internship program for undergraduates.
We provide housing, board, and a $2500 stipend for
students who are interested in experiencing church vocation by serving in
carefully selected congregations alongside equally carefully
selected clergy or clergy staff. There is no obligation to attend or plan on
attending seminary placed upon those who participate in this
program. The best way to learn about the internship program is to visit our
website www.calling21.org. The Calling 21 application can be found on our
website as well. We are hoping to receive all applications by February 1.
Students do not need to be United Methodists or members of churches in the
Virginia Conference to apply. We will be scheduling interviews with
applicants, and if necessary, this can be done via Skype.
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YAC Position Descriptions
Nominations for Wesley’s Young Adult Council (YAC) opened last Sunday at
SNP and will remain open until the elections at the November 13 SNP. Listed
below are descriptions of each of the six positions – if you would like to
nominate anyone (or yourself) for one of these positions, please e-mail Bonnie
(beroane@email.wm.edu) or sign the name on the chalkboard in the fellowship
hall at Wesley during House hours (9am-9pm daily).
Communications Coordinator
The position of Communications Coordinator is in many ways more of a
behind-the-scenes type job. He or she will be in charge of Wesley
communications (shocking, right?) such as the listserv, Wesley’s Gmail
account, and the website. Weekly jobs include taking minutes at each meeting
of the Young Adult Council and sending out weekly editions of the Wesley
Wire. Contact Bonnie Roane (beroane@email.wm.edu) with any questions.
Discipleship Coordinator
The Discipleship Coordinator is responsible for overseeing service activities,
especially local service and for coordinating small groups, retreats, and all
other discipleship opportunities that come up. If you have any questions about
this position, please contact Jane Baldwin-Tolliver
(jabaldwintolli@email.wm.edu).
Fellowship Coordinator (2 people)
The two Fellowship Coordinators plan all the social events for Wesley. The
biggest tasks for Fellowship are the Super Bowl Party and the Senior Banquet.
This position allows you to utilize your creative gifts and planning abilities in
order to create fun and unique events for Wesley. Contact Heather Morris
(hbmorris@email.wm.edu) or Tara Miller (tlmiller01@email.wm.edu) with any
questions.
President
The position of President is a very supportive and involved position on the
Young Adult Council - not that the others aren’t :) While there are not
necessarily many specific duties required of the President, he or she is
expected to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible which can
be fairly demanding at times. In particular, the President will be responsible
for creating agendas for and running YAC planning retreats at the beginning of
each semester as well as weekly YAC meetings. He or she will also give YAC
reports at each meeting of the Board of Directors, meet with Max to discuss
Wesley business as needed, and make announcements at the Sunday Night
Programs. On occasion, the President may be called upon to represent Wesley
at meetings around campus. Contact Bonnie Roane (beroane@email.wm.edu)
with any questions.
Worship Coordinator
The Worship Coordinator has several responsibilities to the Young Adult
Council and to the Wesley Foundation. A weekly responsibility is to seek out a
person who will give the meal prayer during our Sunday Night Programs.
Another fairly reoccurring responsibility is to schedule several mini-devotionals
before SNPs. The person leading a mini-devotional can either be the Worship
Coordinator, or a volunteer. A worship-oriented SNP is typically scheduled once
a month, and the Worship Coordinator is generally one of the main organizers
of this type of SNP. The title of the position basically explains the position's
responsibilities, meaning that most worship-based aspects in Wesley activities
will be assisted by the Worship Coordinator. Starting next semester, the
Worship Coordinator may be responsible for scheduling and assisting with a
monthly worship service that is not designated as an SNP. If you have any
questions about the position, please contact Owen Yancey at
otyancey@email.wm.edu.
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Thought of the Week
Possibly, one of the most important social events of our times is playing out all
across the nation. What do you think?
Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: ‘I feel like I’ve been here before’
By Lisa Miller, Published: October 20
“What would Jesus think of Occupy Wall Street?” I asked myself this week as I
wandered the makeshift, blue-tarp village in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.
It was about 9 in the morning, and some of the park’s inhabitants were just
waking up. Scruffy, tattooed, abundantly bearded, these protesters looked not
at all like the bright, shiny vanguard of a new, idealistic American left. What
would Jesus think of the occupiers, who have been derided by their opponents
as a ragtag group of tax evaders, interested only in sex, drugs and rock and
roll? In the flesh, their unsavory appearance can make the heart of even the
most convicted lefty hesitate before embracing their cause.
Born with little means into a first-century world, the historical Jesus might feel
right at home with the very aspects of the occupation that so many 21stcentury observers consider gross: the tents, the damp sleeping bags, the
communal kitchen. Jesus would have sympathy, I think, with the campers’
efforts to keep a small space sanitary in the absence of modern plumbing.
The Jesus of history would love them all. What Jesus really said, and what he
meant, are the subjects of culture’s greatest controversies, but one thing is
sure. Jesus gave preferential treatment to society’s outcasts. Lepers, tax
collectors, prostitutes — all would attain heaven before the ordained elites.
Jesus believed that God was about to right the world’s wrongs with a great
upheaval — soon — and at that time, a radical reversal of the social order
would occur. As he says in the gospels, the meek will inherit the earth.
Jesus would have sympathy, too, with the occupiers’ first complaint: that in
America, the poorest have too little and the richest too much. In first-century
Judea, a powerful ruling class held nearly all the wealth and most people lived
at subsistence levels.
“Jesus believed the whole system was corrupt,” says Bart Ehrman, a professor
of religious studies at the University of North Carolina. “The people who ran
things were empowered by the evil forces of the world, and his followers had to
work against these powers by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and
caring for the sick.” Jesus had a fit when he saw themoney changers in the
Temple and turned over their tables — a dramatization, Ehrman says, of the
reversal that was imminent.
If he settled for a while in Zuccotti Park, Jesus might find himself disappointed
in the fractious, secular nature of it all. For Jesus, the first thing — the only
thing, really — was God. His ministry was an effort to help guide people toward
a kind of moral perfection before the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Thus, he might have sympathy for the various causes espoused by the
campers (end hydrofracking, tax the rich, support the unions, cap executive
pay). But he would be frustrated by the protesters’ inability to name America’s
much bigger dysfunction: our inability to get our moral priorities straight and
care for our neighbors who need our help.
The protesters don’t talk much about Jesus or God. Nor do they offer explicit
guidance on transcendent, higher principles. It’s easy, therefore, to complain,
as Iranian American writer Sohrab Ahmari did in the Huffington Post this
month, that they’re morally unserious. The protesters can come across as
childish whiners screaming, “It’s not fair,” without offering a collective moral
vision.
A lesson from Jesus might show them that they have moral authority within
their grasp, only it won’t be conveyed through banners or sound bites. Their
most radical act is the company they keep. Jesus instructed his followers to be
like little children. Only by emulating and caring for the “least of these” would
they inherit heaven.
At Zuccotti Park and other Occupy sites, the temporarily unemployed stand
shoulder to shoulder with the truly homeless; the media-savvy organizers lie
down with the whacked-out babblers. The unsavory aspect of this group is its
greatest asset. Every time a powerful person denigrates the occupiers; every
time a member of the established elite takes a swipe at them from on high (as
George Will did in this newspaper), the occupiers’ moral authority is reaffirmed
when they stand together.
If the Jesus of history could wander the precincts held by the occupiers, “he’d
see his people,” says Marisa Egerstrom, a graduate student at Harvard
University who organized a posse of chaplains to volunteer at Occupy sites. “I
think he would be pretty pleased.”
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