Ventajas y desventajas del sistema Koha

The Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel serves as Chaplain of the College at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Cornell is historically linked to the United Methodist Church (UMC), but Rev. Quehl-Engel is ordained as an Episcopal priest. She is a graduate of Cornell College and has been in her present role there since 1996. She also teaches courses in the Religion Department. She has held several positions within the Diocese of Iowa, including serving as a member of the Diocese Board of Directors. In addition to her Cornell College bacca- laureate, she holds two master’s-level degrees from the Pacific School of Religion. She is the author of several articles on a range of topics in religious studies. I asked her to reflect on her career, the role of a college chaplain today, and the connections between spirituality and academic development.

I am a Cornell College ’89 graduate. I was groomed from childhood for a life in higher education. My father, Gary Quehl, was Dean of Men, then Academic Dean, then head of the Finger Lakes consortium, President of the Council of Independent Col- leges and of CASE throughout my childhood and college years. He

was Special Assistant to University of Iowa President Sandy Boyd during the student unrest of the 1960s and then stayed on as profes- sor of Higher Education. He did his dissertation on United Meth- odist Church (UMC) related higher education in Iowa.

I went to seminary in Berkeley, CA, at Pacific School of Reli- gion because there I could acquire my Master of Divinity while also pursuing an MA that would allow for my intellectual and inter-faith interests in Jewish-Christian history, Holocaust theology, and how artists act as theologians. I then entered a PhD program in Theol- ogy, Ethics, and Culture at the University of Iowa School of Religion to continue that research. My professional training was ecumenical and inter-faith.

My entering this profession was the culmination of a variety of realities from my youth: 1. A keen sense of awe/wonder min- gled with the experience of transformative suffering as a child that piqued spiritual hunger and questioning. 2. Cross cultural and spir- itual curiosities/adventures as well as witnessing/experiencing how religion can be used as both a sword and healing balm at individual and societal levels. 3. Love of learning, deep awareness of the need for social justice and inter-religious understanding/bridge building. 4. Glimpsing the sacred in the secular (sacramental awareness). 5. Interest in East-West inter-spiritual wisdom and practices, includ- ing meditation, that remained long after my parents’ passing inter- est in them in the 1970s abated. (My current research interest and professional associations are in contemplative theory and practice including for higher education contexts.)

I asked Dr. Quehl-Engel to say a little about how Cornell, a school with, as she has written, “Methodism in its DNA,” decided to select an Episcopal priest for its Chaplain?

Methodist DNA refers to the Wesleyan heritage of (a) valuing the life of the mind, (b) caring community, (c) uplifting the poor through access to education, and (d) like the Yale band of clergy who scattered colleges like good seed across this country in the nineteenth century, helping to usher in the kingdom or era of peace and justice on earth. Cornell sees education as a means of creating

servant leaders for a more humane world. Honestly, there is not anything uniquely Methodist about that.

I am told that I was one of 200 or so candidates (and my father- in-law told me I did not have a chance because I was not UMC). I think I was selected for a variety of factors: (a) I knew the Cornell ethos; (b) I have an ecumenical and inter-faith background that is essential for any non-sectarian chaplaincy where there is one of you for religious, secular, and spiritual but not religious folk of various stripes; (c) I have the skills to easily flow across divisions in work with academics, student affairs, administration, alumni, and in town/gown relations; (d) I have an intensity that fits the one- course-at-a-time [at Cornell] context as well as a commitment to social justice—both of which are tempered by humor and humble lightness of being; (e) I look like I am about twelve years old but also like a professional who can easily connect with young people; (f) when I was a student here, I was mentored and nourished by United Methodists: my chaplain, Richard Thomas; Academic Dean Dennis Moore; the local UMC pastor; and the local UMC congre- gation the four of us engaged in; (g) I was willing to work for low wages. The Cedar Rapids Superintendent for the United Method- ist Church was on the search team and Board of Trustees. He did not seem to mind my not being UMC. I was the only non-UMC finalist

I do not fit the box people put clergy in. Non-religious folks and folks from other faith traditions feel comfortable around me, perhaps because of my gender and small, unintimidating size. Folks call me “Fr. Cathy,” which probably would not work in a parish con- text, but it is quirky enough to make me safe with college-age stu- dents. Gender has been a limitation on rare occasions with Chris- tian fundamentalists, including a few female students. But keep in mind that I work closely with evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and others for whom women religious leaders can be an issue.

The UCLA Spirituality in Higher Ed research does a great job articulating much of what I do and why it is important. Cornell Col- lege President Garner and I revised my job description last year in order to reflect what it is that I actually do ranging from ceremonial

to pastoral care and guidance to inter-faith exploration, social jus- tice, mentoring, pre-seminary advising, and teaching. I have been rather spoiled at Cornell. Here I am able to flow into various secular and sacred contexts and across divisions of the college to the point where I am not sure whether I could work as a chaplain at a secu- lar or sectarian school. Spirituality often gets put in a box in those contexts, either completely ignored all together as irrelevant or gets limited to just one specific religious expression. Here and elsewhere at historically affiliated, mainline Protestant schools, the chaplain must be able to extend care and wisely navigate amid a complex community including during ceremonial invocations and what is now an inter-spiritual baccalaureate service.

Regarding the range of concerns students bring to me—aside from exorcism requests for their computers: suicidal friend/room- mate/family member or one’s own thoughts of self-harm, parents’ divorce, death, cutters, sexual abuse history or recent assault or accusation of assault, religious questing/identity, how to be more skillful with anxiety (I am a mindfulness meditation instructor), wanting to muse/ask the big questions about life and God, room- mate conflicts, getting dumped by girlfriend, needing to dump girl- friend, forgiveness, low self-esteem, healing from religious-based hate or painful theology; healing from thin theology from high school church programming that turned them off to religion; pre- marital counseling, vocational discernment, interior life—learning to be on being mode and not only doing mode; learning to accept one’s liabilities and limits. Also in the age of helicopter parents and most of our students being from several states away, I receive more phone calls from home. Much gets addressed outside of pastoral care contexts. That happens amid weekly ecumenical Christian chapel; programming and retreats; weekly meditation, mindful- ness, and stress reduction sessions that include training the brain through non-attachment to ever-shifting thoughts that come and go, and awareness of how our sad/anxious thoughts are not who we are but rather like clouds covering a vast blue sky. Since my academic courses are about the big questions related to suffering, meaning, and purpose, the classroom is also a context for address-

We have used the HERI/UCLA instrument here at Cornell and confirmed that its descriptions and conclusions are valid for us. My on-the-ground experience in both the classroom and out- side the classroom with extra-curricular work and pastoral care also backs up the claim. When our institutional research person and I presented our finding to faculty, they liked that we continue to shy away from discussing these matters in the classroom. Some faculty said they do not feel trained/comfortable doing this in the classroom. Some said that addressing these issues in the classroom is not appropriate. And a small number said they already do this, especially those teaching in the arena of religion and sociology.

In terms of human development and faith development theory, the vast majority of young people are in the critical thinking/ deconstruction stage during the college years. At least that is so for the kind of student Cornell College attracts. They are supposed to be questioning and are often surprised to hear religious people say that they are to also do that with matters of faith and religion. As you know, some people, including faculty, never leave the decon- struction stage and thus fail to understand trans-spiritual, integral, and poetic ways of approaching religion. They are not able to see the difference between pre- and post-critical approaches. I agree with Ken Wilber’s claim that most people in our society operate at a stage and state of consciousness that is not able to do integral spiri- tual/religious perception and awareness.69 _{But those people who}

can do this make great chaplains because they are able to under- stand, navigate, and see the contributions of people with differing states and stages of consciousness.

I think most students and faculty consider themselves spiritual but not religious. Perhaps 50% claim to be religious or nominally religious. This was documented in our campus spirituality study.

An inter-spiritual course I taught in India was entirely about the uses of contemplative and meditative practices in academe— the theology and theory in both Hindu and Christian contempla- tive wisdom traditions, as well as experiential learning. I am also asked to give talks/learning sessions in psychology, kinesiology, and nature-writing courses. I am a member of the professional

is a great organization reaching across the disciplines.70 _Research

on these practices in and outside the classroom attests to increased concentration, mental health, anxiety reduction, and memory retention. There is extensive research in neuroscience and neuro- plasticity with science catching up to what Buddhist and Christian contemplative practitioners have known for eons. In the fall, I am starting a Doctor of Ministry program that will feature this sub- ject. I have also begun using assessment instruments. My office has completed a survey of students, faculty, and staff engaged in medi- tation, mindfulness, and stress-reduction offerings.

The religious studies course “Namaste: Meditation, Mysticism, and Servant Leadership” I taught in India last fall spends much time on the Hindu and Christian notions of the body as a temple for the indwelling of Spirit, Ruach, Atman, Chi/Eternal Life Force.

I asked about ministering to the needs of faculty and staff as well as students.

Last week I visited the dying mother of a longtime staff member and did pre-marital counseling for the daughter and fiancé of another longtime staff person. Tomorrow I am paying a pastoral call per his request to a first-year professor who is having a second major surgery. And Friday I am officiating the marriage of two fac- ulty colleagues. Meanwhile, this precious town [Mt. Vernon, Iowa,] is coming unglued by grief from the three suicides of high school boys. Factions are forming on top of, or as a result of grief, and I have been in the thick of it, extending care to colleagues and towns- people. That should give you a taste of how, yes, my life is full of caring for non-students.

It is interesting that the increase of spiritual but not religious folks means more work for me. Increasingly people are wanting someone like myself who is not sectarian to walk with them through life-stage transitions/losses/marriages without organized religion.