What does one do to be present? Hugh Shilson-Thomas recommends the principle of ‘walking slowly’. In explanation he avers: “…I am convinced that good chaplaincy is about leaving space between things that provides opportunities for conversations that might not otherwise happen” (, 2011, p.32). There are some key locations in which one should be prepared to linger:
- Stairwells are an unusually common location for conversation
- Common Rooms are places to be (though one has to watch that one does not get a reputation for doing little else!)
- Student Union coffee bars (and other sorts of bars)
- Open public spaces: if the weather is clement, just sitting on a bench and waiting to see who might join you
Other ways to be present include:
- University committees: participating in joint pieces of work, especially those that attract a wide cross-section of membership, can be immensely valuable
- Teaching whole modules, participating in field-trips, or offering contributions to one-off sessions, each of these can open up relationships that would never otherwise have been established.
- Taking one’s minibus driving test so as to act as diver for various groups.
To return to Shilson-Thomas’ principle with which we began, walking has great merit. In this era of instant and easy communication, it can be tempting just to pick up the ‘phone or send an email. But also consider walking to someone’s office to have the same conversation. Not only is face-to-face meeting inherently so much richer than other forms of communication, but on the way to one particular office one is also bound to encounter others. It is also a good practice to ‘go walkabout’ from time to time, focussing upon corridors and spaces that one seldom has cause to frequent otherwise. We all instinctively have our set routes for travelling around a campus; vary these and you will encounter new people!
Being present can sometimes take quite a bit of holding one’s nerve. In a more trivial sense this is so because sitting alone and waiting for something to happen can feel awkward and unnatural. Yet persistent, regular presence is the way to make progress. But, in a deeper sense, courage and tenacity can be required when standing with other during times of challenge, pain, difficulty and unpopularity. Authentic relationship is costly, yet only so can one offer the gift of genuine humanity in what, on occasions, can be experienced by those in the university as a thoroughly dehumanising environment.
It is good to aware that some people can be very suspicious of what they believe to be the ulterior motive of the conspicuously religious person. Even offering genuinely ‘no-strings-attached’ prizes, perhaps as part of publicity campaign advertising one’s presence, will evoke some extraordinarily defensive reactions. A few will conspicuously avoid eye-contact altogether. Perhaps this is a by-product of some frankly rather sinister forms of ‘friendship evangelism’. It goes without saying that our presence needs to be motivated by a genuine desire for the flourishing of the other, wherever this appears to lead. This being so, it is vital to find ways to break down unwarranted suspicion. Looking for ways to relate to people via the inherent matrix of possibilities belonging to the University can be one way of enabling people to relate to us, initially at least, via a different ‘grid’ of meaning. In this way, for example, the chance to participate at some level in the teaching and learning process of the institution can be a real boon.
In summary, ours is an expectant ministry: “…waiting for opportunities to present themselves and expecting these opportunities to come” (Threlfall-Holmes, 2011, p.xvi).
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