Memorial Church Senior Minister Lucy A. Forster-Smith talks about international conference of university chaplains

August 15, 2016
Memorial Church Senior Minister Lucy A. Forster-Smith talks about international conference of university chaplains

By Jeffrey Blackwell/Memorial Church Communications

The task of addressing global societal, economical and environmental issues from the perspective of one university campus in any part of the world seems a daunting exercise in futility. But when multi-faith voices from around the world gather to talk about the common challenges facing students and institutions of higher education, the planet becomes a smaller, more manageable place.

The Rev. Dr. Lucy A. Forster-Smith, Harvard University’s Sedgwick Chaplain and Senior Minister in the Memorial Church, recently attended an international conference of college and university chaplains in Bendigo, Australia. The five-day event focused on the life and challenges of campus chaplaincy.

Forster-Smith recently spoke with Memorial Church communications about the conference.

Memorial Church: The theme of the conference was “Digging, Dialogue and Diversity.” What was the focus of discussions this year?

Forster-Smith: The conference took place at La Trobe University in Bendigo, Australia. It was an old gold mining town, established in the 1880s as a place where people came to dig for gold. But in reality, it was a conference looking at multi-faith engagement on campuses across the globe. So the notion of this conference (held every four years) was to try to understand how we can best serve universities in their diversity.

Memorial Church: You were scheduled to lead a seminar on preparing the next generation of chaplains for service, but you decided to change the focus of the session. Why?

Forster-Smith: I decided what I really wanted to do is hold a conversation about sexual assault on campus because it seemed like it was much more of a live issue (at the conference.) And it ended up being a pretty significant conversation.

What I didn’t realize, is that a movie that we previewed at Harvard last spring on sexual assault called The Hunting Ground is now being shown on campuses around the world. It is an exposé of sexual assault on campuses and the way universities are dealing with the issue. They are trying to show the film in Australia and there is some resistance from university officials who acknowledged the issue, but feared the film would just stir things up — and they do not want to stir things up.

But people afterward said they were glad they were able to have the conversation because it gave them courage to speak, raise the question, and get more information as well as talk about responses to the problem.

Memorial Church: What did you take away from the sexual assault conversation with chaplains from other countries?

Forster-Smith: What is really interesting is that at a lot of universities ­– particularly in Europe, and some in Australia and New Zealand – there is not a residential campus. Students live in the community in private residences or in apartments. On a residential campus, such as Harvard, we have responsibility for students on campus. But if something happens off campus – if a student is raped in an apartment living off campus as a grad student – they would still have access to University resources.

In other parts of the world, there is less of a sense of responsibility for students who are kind of living on their own off campus. I think that the protocols – the kind of response in other parts of the world – are just varied, and just not in place in the same way that have here.

Here we have strong student affairs and are very concerned about student development, student engagement, and we want to make our students feel safe and keep a campus that feels safe. And that was one of the differences that came up. In other parts of the world campuses are not residential and there is a different sense of responsibility. I think the students (in other parts of the world) also feel they are on their own, and feel they make decisions and sometimes horrible things happen and it is their responsibility.

Memorial Church: What key message are you carrying back to Harvard from the conference?

Forster-Smith: What happens at international conferences is that you have to translate into a very robust discussion. When you are talking to a chaplain from Bendigo or a chaplain from Denmark, all of us are supporting students by administering pastoral care in crisis situations, helping communities in trauma and being present to students in terms of helping them understand multi-faith engagement and being respectful of diversity.

Harvard is very diverse, multi-culturally diverse. But how as a chaplain do I tend to the needs of a student who comes from another context, and may be carrying certain images of religious life? For example, a Muslim student from the Middle East may be called to prayer every day at home with their entire community. But when they arrive at Harvard they have to decide whether and where they are going to go pray. Something I bring back from these conferences is the need to be hyper-aware and ask good questions of students as I work with them, especially students who are from other countries around the globe.

Memorial Church: What was a highlight of your travels in Australia and New Zealand?

Forster-Smith: I think what was the highlight for me was traveling with six other chaplains in a very intensive way for a week after the conference. We not only had an opportunity to see the sights in New Zealand, but also meet up with some other chaplains who were involved in campus ministry. They were our drivers and so we would be in the car together sharing experiences.

I had a great conversation with a chaplain in New Zealand. He was a young and very energetic guy and in a way it was the highlight because I got to learn about his preparation, his call to ministry, and how he was living out his vocation and what challenges he faced on campus. To me it was a kind of bonus I did not expect, because I like seeing the work from a different context and set of assumptions. And I was able to talk with him about what he did day-to-day-day, and the focus of his work including Bible study or pastoral care or engaged about environmental issues with students.

To me, that conversation came back to the important pipeline issue, that is, insuring that we have excellence in those who are assuming leadership in the field of chaplaincy. It is gratifying to engage young professionals in sustained conversations, rather than quick sound-bites at a lunch table.  It is not only very gratifying, but it is also exactly the conversations chaplains can have with younger colleagues to as they take up this work in the present and future.  

  

See also: News