Hello, my name is Roger Wharton and I am the chaplain for the old fashioned Canterbury Community at San Jose State University and the coordinator for the new young adult ministry in Silicon Valley called svspirit.org. I have joined with the Canterbury Foundation Board of Directors and other interested folks in this new adventure. This new venture is only possible because of:

The People of the Diocese of El Camino Real who have made yearly grants for College Work.

The members of the Commission for Minisry in Higher Education who are dedicated to college students and young adults.

For all the saints who have gone before us who built and funded the Campus Ministry Center as SJSU.

Various congregations who have reached out to young adults through a line item in their budgets, special offerings, and gifts from parish organizations like the ECW. Special gratitude to St. Edward's for paying our rent for the past three years.

The concerned people who have gifted us with contributions of money, food, supplies, time and energy.

The people who contribute painlessly through our e-script program.

Much gratitude, thanksgivings, and blessings for all these folks who have contributed to campus ministry– some of whom are probably you!

I am eager to tell you something about what we began doing just this month and what we are planning for the future. But first I would like to explore with you a bit of theological talk about campus and young adult ministry throwing in a dash of history at the same time.

Does anyone here know who Thomas Cranmer was? I just want to remind you that Thomas Cranmer was a campus minister. So much of what we cherish as Espicopalians was developed on a campus and given to us by a campus minister.

For decades the Campus Canterbury Club was an exciting place to be seen on campuses. High school students shaped by years of Sunday worship, church school, summer camps, and youth groups found it very easy to transition into the social and spiritual life of the numerous Canterbury Clubs in colleges and universities across the country.

It was also a place where other young searching adults found Christian Community with the opportunity to grow and be challenged in their faith. College professors and staff members found Canterbury a place where they could share their faith with students. They reached out providing food, rides, hospitality in their homes, listening ears and caring hearts. Young men and then later young women where encouraged, nourished, and given practical experience as they tested their vocation for ordination.

The Church was challenged to change and expand its scope of ministry as the culture raced through the seventies and eighties. There just wasn't enough money to do everything so campus ministry was slowly given less and less money until many programs could no longer survive.

The Church said that was OK, because these young adults will come back to the church when they have kids. - NO WAY. It just didn't happen that way.

Even in the nineties during prosperous times campus ministry suffered still. The Church ended up devouring it own seed corn.

The campus mission field was effectively shut down. It remained in many places in name only with budgets so small that no effective ministry could be accomplished.

And so there are also fewer and fewer campus environments which produce priestly vocations. Hence the fact that there are only a few hundred priests in the Episcopal Church under thirty and not that many more under forty. The Church leadership has lost the energy and creativity of our young people.

Campuses have changed. Fewer and fewer students live in college housing or even near campus. Community Colleges are a growing phenomena. Many residential colleges are suit case institutions with the student fleeing every weekend. Many, many students commute to colleges while working full time jobs trying to pay tuition and have a consumer life style at the same time. People older than 22 make up a larger percentage of under graduate students often taking only a few classes each term.

Many students, even Episcopalian students, are coming to college without much spiritual formation or even much interest in religion. Many students, college faculty and staff are hostile towards Christianity because the Christians they see around them are of the judgmental fundamentalist variety.

Campus life takes place in a multi-versity, not a uni-versity. Seeking wholeness and unity with God through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit or any spiritual tradition runs against a strong current of fragmentation and apartness and desire for material wealth.

This means that campus ministry and young adult ministry is on the edge – the cutting edge of ministry today. Campus ministry is the research and development arm of the Church today. This is where new models of ministry are tried and tested. Young adult ministry is the frontier for the church. If we don't find methods of evangelizing, nurturing and challenging these young adults the church with just get more and more gray and bald and fade away.

So what is svspirit.org all about? Like the old saying about wedding luck we are something old and something new, something borrowed and something blue.

Something old -- the Canterbury Club at SJSU -- Wednesday nights we are there to encourage Christian fellowship, study, worship, and outreach.

Something borrowed -- ideas from where ever we can find them. After talking with many college chaplains I discovered that much of today's campus ministry is done via e-mail and web sites. Students and young adults are just too busy to get to meetings. Cybertime lets them participate when they are able. Therefore this is a direction that we are moving in right now with a skeletal web site.

Something new -- svspirit.org - An attempt to gradually reach out to all young adults in Silicon Valley to provide spiritual education and guidance. We are inclusive (or expansive, which ever term you like) open and affirming of everyone. Inviting people of all faiths and encouraging people who are not religious. Our names says that we are spiritual and not necessarily "religious."

Something blue -- something blue? Well how about a blue background on one of our web pages.

Our developing program includes:

A forming ministry team of young adults.

A time of mediation, prayer, and instruction in the Tipi Chapel four times a week. (300 South 10th Street @ San Carlos in San Jose)

A ministry of presence on campus and an availability to students, staff and faculty for education, counseling, and pastoral care.

An infant web site.
The University of the Spirit which offers lectures and special presentations on a wide variety of topics.

We have begun a Canterbury Community at St. Jude's Church with the help with Mary Blessing that is gathering in DeAnza College Students.

A retreat this October and April.

Hopefully a Spiritual Rave this spring. (Anybody know how we can raise $3000 soon.)

A one man show of a dramatical presentation of the Gospel of Mark on May 5,, 2001. This will be our major spring fund raiser at St. Timonthy's, MountainView. Tickets are available at convention for $10.00.

This new ministry will speak the common language of environmental awareness and care of creation. It is my belief that this should be the new Pentecostal language of the Church.

So that our story.

I was delighted to see the "Metro" this week features a cover picture and feature article my Michael Learner telling of his new book - Spirit Matters which puts into words some of what we are attempting to do at svspirit.org

Information and ideas from "Ministry on the Frontier: The Contribution of Episcopal Campus Ministry to the Present and Future Church" available from the Episcopal Church Foundation. www.episcopalfoundation.org or 800-697-2858.