Pastoral Work Research Articles

Central European Missionaries in Sudan: Geopolitics and Alternative Colonialism in Mid-Nineteenth Century Africa

The article gives an example of how actors and processes should be differentiated from each other in an imperial context that concerns both a European and a non-European region. Some of the ‘Austrian’ missionaries who worked in the Catholic mission in southern Sudan were of Slavic or Italian origin. Their double identity shaped the way they conceived their pastoral work. Nevertheless, these missionaries were not the only group of people who were engaged in this Austrian colonial endeavour in mid-nineteenth century Sudan.

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.” (1Cor 12:4): images of the self and concepts of office of LGBTQ* pastors in Germany

ABSTRACTAfter providing background information on the legal status and admission of LGBTIAQ* pastors in Germany, the paper focusses on experiences of LGBTQ* Protestant pastors in the major German Protestant church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) to explore how they include their sexual orientation and/or gender in their pastoral work. LGBTIAQ* pastors face the challenge of managing visibility and discretion, in relation to a heteronormative setting, as well as the specific expectations of LGBTIAQ* Christians. The presumption of shared experiences and knowledge by similarly marginalized people plays a part in their ministry. The paper argues that embracing those experiences and community knowledge as part of pastoral theology can strengthen their reflection on pastoral work.

Sanktuarium w Świętej Lipce w świetle protokołu powizytacyjnego z 1798 roku

In the archives of the Archdiocese of Warmia there are numerous sources for the history of the sanctuary in Święta Lipka. Many of them have already been used in published articles and monographs. It turns out, however, that some of them have been omitted, although they contain valuable information about the temple’s equipment, pastoral work and social life. An example of this is the manuscript of the post-visitation protocol from October 10, 1798, used in this paper. It contains a brief history of the place and the first chapel, a description of the current church construction and its equipment, information about liturgy, salaries, other buildings, priests and church employees, a hospital and a music school. Also, written foundation documents of the sanctuary the originals of which have been lost are an extremely valuable addition.

El Espíritu Santo en la «Exposición de Fe» de S. Gregorio Taumaturgo

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus was a man who bridged two extremely important doctrinal events: the activity of Origen, his master in Caesarea, and the Cappadocians, his most direct beneficiaries. Although there are valuable studies concerning him -principally on his Discourse of Gratitude to Origen - the truth is that he seems to be passed over in other aspects, both his pastoral works as well as his doctrinal ones, which merit an attention which they have not been given. This article is an attempt to make manifest his importance in the matter of his thinking on the Trinity through an investigation of his Exposition of the Faith, a jewel in the Christian tradition, and, it might be added, quite ahead of its times. This work is centered on the study of the pneumatological cycle, analysing its contents from a theological perspective, without losing sight of any possible later influence. It also considers the origin and structure of the Gregorian formula arriving at the conclusion that its notable peculiarities make it a unique and most valuable example of the pre-Nicaean faith in the Trinity. Through a parallelism with the articles which refer to the Word, St. Gregory confesses his belief in and sets forth the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the image of the Son, his divine perfection, his role as the giver of supernatural life to men, his essential holiness which is passed on to his creatures, his mission of revealing the Father and the Son, among others. All of these matters are oriented towards the future of Catholic doctrine. The article concludes by arguing the need for not abandoning the study of the riches of Christian doctrine, as a means not only of positive advance but also of overcoming the obstacles of Rationalism which today are disheartening some Christian trinkers.

Social work and pastoral counseling: Empowering each other

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the divergent outcomes which can result from counseling services offered pastorally versus clinically. As faith leaders often have greater direct access than social workers to supporting religious populations, it is important to explore the intersection between religious pastoral support and clinical social work. Presenting six scenarios from the author’s own experiences as both a rabbi and social worker, this article processes each scenario first through the pastoral lens of an Orthodox rabbi, followed by the clinical lens of a social worker or other mental health professional. The client outcomes which are produced from each modality are radically different. This contrast demonstrates the distinction between the goals, values, and training of each profession, and highlights importance for future work to be done in linking religious and pastoral training to mental health services, as well as broadening the scope of cultural competence for social workers and therapists who may engage with tight-knit religious populations.

Treća životna dob kao subjekt pastoralnoga djelovanja – mogućnosti i perspektive

Given that the population in Europe and Croatia is increasingly getting older, and the pastoral work of people in the third age is a relatively new term, the article firstly analyzes the question why people of this age group are partially put (left) aside by pastoralists and pastoral workers in pastoral discourse in Croatia. The nature and characteristics of the third age in life presented in the first part show that the third age pastoral care includes the pastoral work with the most mature middle-aged people struggling with many life difficulties and stresses: separation from their children, the need for making personal and lifestyle adjustments, especially after retirement, after children moving out or after the loss of a life partner, as well as experiencing fast and progressive weakening of biological, psychological and mental health dimensions, a drop in life energy, strength, and general decline in vital and all other functions. Old age as a gift and possibility is depicted through several biblical characters as an evangelizing and pastoral possibility, opportunity and call to a God filled and more meaningful life. The second part presents the third age in the world and in the mentality of the society and the Church. By looking at the contemporary life context, we can state that words like old age, dying and death have become foreign in everyday discourse and that is just one of the many reasons why the third age people are often left to the side, and forsaken by their own families, society, friends and relatives, and partially forgotten also by the Church. In the world of the dictatorship of relativism, materialism, secularization, anarchism, atheism, subjectivism, individualism, and the selfie-culture, it is extremely difficult and demanding to accomplish the pastoral of the third age people. The Church, especially in Croatia, doesn't have a sufficiently designed, thought out, planned out and programmed systematic pastoral care which would include third age people. The new concept of pastoral discourse regarding the pastoral of the third age should develop in two basic directions: the first direction should consider to what extent can the third age be a subject of pastoral activity, and the second direction, based on pastoral sociology and demographic trends, should strive to recognize the third age as an object of pastoral activity. Besides the object, the third age can also be the subject of pastoral activity at different levels, areas and dimensions, especially at the parish level, the deanery level in some ways, at the regional level and (arch)diocesan level, in areas of apostolate, parish pastoral councils, charitable activities, liturgy, families, religious associations and movements, and work with Christians that have distanced themselves.

Algunos frutos de la conferencia de Medellín:

The General Latin American Episcopal Conference at Medellin (1968) involved the emergence of a new pastoral practice based on a renewed way to understand Latin American ecclesiastical self-understanding, which became a “foundational” landmark. Its main fruits were the consequence of assuming the task to conciliate a renewing impulse to consecrate the approach to reality (see), read from God’s Word (Judge) and that will lead to a particular way of doing pastoral work (acting). This is not only restricted to a novelty in pastoral praxis, but is also a new way of doing theology, from the place of the poor, with novel expressions in ecclesiology and evangelization, that reach their most visible face in grass-roots ecclesiastical communities. Similarly, a testimonial view appears to understand education in the liberating dimension of people who suffer poverty and demand authentic human promotion. Thus, the Church becomes sympathetic with the just causes of the poor, even with martyrial testimonies.

Did the Black Death Cause Economic Development by 'Inventing' Fertility Restriction?

Voigtlander and Voth argue that the Black Death shifted England towards pastoral agriculture, increasing wages for unmarried women, thereby delaying female marriage, lowering fertility, and unleashing economic growth. We show that this argument does not hold. Its crucial assumption is inconsistent with the evidence: women wanting to do pastoral work after the Black Death did not have to remain unmarried, so improved pastoral opportunities did not necessitate later marriage. There is no consensus that late female marriage emerged after the Black Death. Furthermore, the relationship between pastoralism and female marriage age in England provides no support for this argument.

Dorobek historyczny kieleckich historyków kościelnych (XX/XXI w.)

The article focuses on the historiographic achievements of 20 priests from the Diocese of Kielce who have written their works in the last half century. The studied material covered about 800 historical works. The research areas which have been widely studied are related to the following subjects: the Polish religious culture, synods in the interwar period, the liturgy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the Teutonic Order, press study. Local subjects under study refer to the history of the Diocese of Kielce: the clergy, religious life, the theological seminary, the history of parishes and monasteries, literature and pastoral work during World War II. The developing trends include research on historical book collections and archival fonds. In the diocesan historiography, a leading figure is Rev. Daniel Olszewski, the creator of the original trend of the Polish religious culture.

Witchcraft, Superstition, and Observant Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual Debate in Renaissance Milan by Fabrizio Conti

Reviewed by: Witchcraft, Superstition, and Observant Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual Debate in Renaissance Milan by Fabrizio Conti Robert Curry Conti, Fabrizio, Witchcraft, Superstition, and Observant Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual Debate in Renaissance Milan (Europa Sacra, 18), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. xviii, 380; 5 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €100.00; ISBN 9782503549194. Dispassionately reasoned, theologically sophisticated pedagogical writings produced at the height of the European witch craze? It sounds almost counterintuitive, and the more so during the period examined in the present book, the decades following the publication of Innocent VIII’s bull, Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484)—papal licensing of inquisitorial excess—and Heinrich Institoris’s treatise, Malleus Maleficarum (1486), to which, in many editions, Innocent’s bull served as a preamble. Fabrizio Conti’s monograph, developed from his 2011 doctoral dissertation, provides an important corrective to received opinion, and to the harsh, inquisitorial image evoked by those infamous texts and associated trial records. A central focus of his study is the education of minorite friars in the key areas of their pastoral work, preaching and confessions. What sort of intellectual and spiritual training should friars receive to be able to instruct, monitor, and invigilate their congregations’ beliefs, and discern what was unorthodox and what was licit in matters of faith? Conti explores these issues as they are dealt with in the writings of half a dozen Franciscan Observants at the Friary of St Angelo, Milan, during the last two decades of the fifteenth century and first decade of the sixteenth. His study ‘places itself at the intersection of three different but complementary areas of exploration: sermon studies, confession, and superstition with the emergence of a specific set of beliefs in witchcraft’ (p. xv). To be sure, Conti’s close readings of the writings of these friars are provided with ample context, rich in detail, drawn from an impressive array of primary and secondary sources. What emerges, the so-called Milanese pastoral approach, has been characterized by Heiko Oberman as the Observants’ ‘non-violent revolutionary eschatology’ (p. 122, n. 104). It certainly stands in stark contrast to the stance taken by the Dominicans. Indeed, when the influence of their Malleus started to penetrate into Northern Italy, Samuel de Cassini from St Angelo’s was one of the first to denounce as untrue and patently impossible its harrowing accounts of witches’ Sabbaths. Robert Curry The University of Sydney Copyright © 2018 Robert Curry

To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683–1830 by David Rex Galindo

Reviewed by: To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683–1830 by David Rex Galindo Thomas M. Cohen To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683–1830. By David Rex Galindo. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; Oceanside, CA: The Academy of American Franciscan History. 2018. Pp. xvii, 330. $65.00. ISBN 978-1-5036-0-3264.) During the last thirty years, historians, anthropologists, theologians, and scholars in other disciplines have greatly expanded our knowledge of Franciscan missions in the Iberian world. Their studies analyze not only the well-known frontier missions in the Americas and Asia but also the so-called "popular missions" that Franciscans conducted in cities and rural areas of Europe, often in preparation for their work in the overseas empire. In To Sin No More, David Rex Galindo draws on this new scholarship (his introduction provides an excellent survey of the literature), on classic studies of the Franciscan order, and, most importantly, on deep archival work on three continents in order to analyze the theory and practice of the Franciscan missionary enterprise. He argues that this enterprise "contributed to [the] globalization of the Catholic Church and shaped early modern Catholicism" (p. 289). Rex Galindo focuses on the twenty-nine Franciscan Colleges for the Propagation of the Faith in Spain and America. The most famous of these institutions was the Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Querétaro, Mexico, from which generations of missionaries, including the recently canonized Junípero Serra, set off for missions throughout the Americas. Rex Galindo argues that the colleges "invigorated the Franciscan evangelical ministry through missionary instruction and a renovated commitment to pastoral work among both Catholic and non-Christian flocks in Spain and in its American territories and peripheries" (p. 9). The continuity between missionary work in Europe and the Americas is a major theme of the book. The Franciscan missionary enterprise predated that of the Society of Jesus, and the two orders were sometimes at odds. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish empire in 1767, the Franciscans and other orders took over the Jesuit missions, reviving and expanding the scope of the Franciscans' work, especially in the Americas. Building on Francisco Morales's pioneering prosopographical studies of Franciscans in colonial Mexico, Rex Galindo provides an overview of the qualities of the ideal missionary. In addition to the requisite moral and physical qualities, the Franciscans, like other religious orders of the day, sought candidates who could demonstrate their purity of blood (limpieza de sangre). Whenever possible, the Franciscans excluded men who had Muslim, Jewish, native American, or African ancestors. Like Maria Elena Martinez, whose Genealogical Fictions (2008) studies the importation of limpieza statutes to colonial Mexico, Rex Galindo argues that peninsular-born Spaniards were associated with purity of blood and thus received preferential treatment in admission to the Franciscan order (p. 83). Although no collection of documents comparable to the Jesuit Indipitae (petitions to be sent to overseas missions) exists in the Franciscan archives, Rex Galindo succeeds in reconstructing the motives that led young men to petition to be [End Page 563] assigned to the missions. In general, candidates were more concerned with attaining their own salvation than with converting non-Catholics or with achieving martyrdom (p. 104). Missionaries in America faced language barriers that were difficult to overcome, in part because of the diversity of native languages. Franciscans became adept at recruiting native converts to preach to indigenous peoples. Yet this strategy provoked controversy within the Franciscan community, and native collaborators encountered strict limits on the scope of their pastoral work: "most Franciscans were hesitant to recruit native people to the colegios or seminaries . . . and only in special cases did visionary religious foresee the formation of a Franciscan native clergy" (p. 162). Rex Galindo provides a vivid account of life in the propaganda fide colleges, which "took their study programs to new levels of proficiency and commitment. . . . A stringent daily timetable included time for mental prayer, hours of study, classes, dedication to community material needs, and practical preparation for the evangelical ministry" (p. 119). Members of the colleges participated in daily meetings (conferencias) on moral theology. Rex Galindo analyzes in...

San Agustín, su perfil político.

This paper intends to describe in the texts and gestures of Bishop Hippo, his deep political-social concern. At the same time, it tries to show how this request really exists within the framework of his pastoral work. Faithful to the gospel. Agustin is concerned with interceding among officials for the right of asylum, death penalty in certain cases, torture abolition, by working together with African bishops for collegiality and from there for genuine human rights. Everything leads to conclude that the great theologian was a pastor at heart and put his tools to work in the just causes of the political-social action of Roman Africa times.

Emerging Feminist Theologies: Overview of the <em>JFSR</em> Live Roundtable in Cuernavaca, Mexico

Emerging Feminist Theologies:Overview of the JFSR Live Roundtable in Cuernavaca, Mexico Sylvia Marcos (bio) Keywords contemporary gender politics, feminist faith practices, inculturation, Mesoamerican cosmogonies, Teología India On Saturday, November 11, 2017, a group of about fifty women met in a colonial building facing the Cuernavaca Cathedral in Morelos, Mexico.1 They came from different Mexican states: Morelos, Chiapas, Queretaro, and Mexico. Most are active participants in the pastoral work of their dioceses. In addition to myself, they were joined by three feminist theologians: ecofeminist Marilú Rojas Salazar, ethicist Gabriela Juárez Palacios, and ecumenical theologian Ann Lutterman-Aguilar. The goal was to gather a wide spectrum of women, both scholars and activists, struggling for gender justice within the constraints of their faith practices and within these turbulent political times. During a full day of workshops, we shared our responses to the following precirculated questions: What does it mean for you to be a mujer de fe (woman of faith) feminist activist in the context of the contemporary political situation in Mexico, shaken by the struggles of indigenous peoples against capitalist exploitation and for their very survival? Can you work toward nonpatriarchal and nonhierarchical positions within the church? And how do you practice your faith as women [End Page 89] in this context? We discovered that all of us, as Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza explained it, "saw religion as a place of struggle and inspiration for women."2 Three collectives organized this gathering: Amigas Auxiliadoras de Cuernavaca, Diplomado de Teologias Feministas, and CODIMUJ (Coordinadora Diocesana de Mujeres, Chiapas). This last organization consists of around ten thousand women from the remote indigenous communities in the Chiapas highlands. The women from Chiapas spoke of the extreme poverty and exploitation they suffer as employees of the local finqueros (landowners). They also reported innumerable evictions from their lands and the destruction of their woods, fields, rivers, and air. The women from Chiapas also spoke of being enlivened in their church practices and liturgies by the process of "inculturation," which allows for certain aspects of indigenous traditions and rituals, including dance and music, to be incorporated into their devotions.3 In addition, these women drew from what has come to be known as Teologia India—a complex set of philosophical formulations based on indigenous ancestral cosmogonies. They made connections between this Teologia India and the panentheism ecofeminist theologian Rojas has expressed, which fuses human, natural, and spiritual domains in a vital holism that resonates with Mayan cosmogonies. Pascuala, a Tzotzil Indian, who remembers being twelve years old when her struggles for justice began, is representative of many of the women within CODIMUJ. I heard her say in response to Rojas's presentation: "Es asi, como dijo Marilú, Dios está en todo." "It is exactly as Marilú says. God is in everything." Pascuala connected the panentheistic affirmation of the presence of the whole in every part of the cosmos to indigenous beliefs in the sacrality of caves, mountains, and rivers.4 For the theologians and indigenous women alike at the workshop, this theological vision makes imperative their efforts to take care of the whole of creation and to focus their efforts on building justice-seeking and life-giving communities.5 Woven throughout this roundtable are the words of participants in the meeting. María Luisa Córdova and Pascuala Gómez López from CODIMUJ, and Mari Carmen Bustos, Maria de Lourdes Hernández Salinas, Águeda Romero Martínez, Martha Bahena Roa, and Maria Isabel Martínez Rocha from Amigas Auxiliadoras de Cuernavaca, all speak from their experiences working [End Page 90] with the pastoral work of the Catholic Church and its patriarchal bureaucracy with projects like Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (CEB). They are working for social justice in impoverished areas of the country. These communities, linking urban poor and rural peasant Catholics, date from the emergence of the "Church of the Poor" following Vatican II (1962–65) and the Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. Approximately 70 percent of its constituents are women.6 In the words of an early CEB participant, Lourdes Carbajal, the base communities opened a new world of possibilities for women at a time when...

Duszpasterstwo akademickie KUL 1944-1989 jako ośrodek formacyjny lubelskiego środowiska akademickiego

The paper in the synthetic way presents history of the university chaplaincy of Catholic University of Lublin during the years 1944-1989. It was the oldest and the most influential center of pastoral work in Lublin. It discusses the most important forms of activity (religious and intellectual formation, charity work). The author also draws attention to the political context of pastoral activity. The article emphasizes ways and methods the chaplaincy accomplished its essential goal: to create a mature Christians who consciously and responsibly effect on their social environment.

Ksiądz Pułkownik Józef Panaś (1887–1940) Kapelan Legionów Polskich, działacz polityczny i publicysta

The purpose of this dissertation is to present the significant achievements and activities of this chaplain in many areas of his life. He is not a person well known and has not gained a rightful place in the Polish historiography. The author of this dissertation attempted to analyze the role of chaplain in the functioning of the Polish Legions, the battle for Przemyśl and pastoral work in the Polish Army. Also considered the impact of the priest chaplain on the activities of the peasant movement, attempted to determine the degree of the impact of journalism Socio-political face of ideological and programmatic opposition government. The author did not omit the question of the position of chaplain in the structures of conspiracy Lvov under Soviet occupation.

"Life Within the Person Comes to The Fore": Pastoral Workers' Practice Wisdom on Using Arts in Palliative Care.

Pastoral care (also chaplaincy, spiritual care) assists people to find meaning, personal resources, and connection with self, others, and/or a higher power. Although essential in palliative care, there remains limited examination of what pastoral workers do. This study examined how pastoral workers use and consider the usefulness of art-based modalities. Qualitative research was used to examine the practice wisdom (tacit practice knowledge) of pastoral workers experienced in using visual arts and music in palliative care. Two focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis was informed by grounded theory. Six pastoral workers shared information. Three themes emerged. First, pastoral workers use arts as "another tool" to extend scope of practice by assisting patients and families to symbolically and more deeply contemplate what they find "sacred." Second, pastoral workers' art affinities inform their aims, assessments, and interactions. Third, pastoral workers perceive that art-based modalities can validate, enlighten, and transform patients and families through enabling them to "multisensorially" (through many senses) feel recognized, accepted, empowered, and/or close to God. Key elements involved in the work's transformative effects include enabling beauty, ritual, and the sense of "home" being heard, and legacy creation. Pastoral workers interpret that offering art-based modalities in palliative care can help patients and families to symbolically deal with painful memories and experiences, creatively engage with that deemed significant, and/or encounter a sense of transcendence. Training in generalist art-based care needs to be offered in pastoral education.

Pastoralne perspektywy adhortacji „Amoris laetitia”

Celem artykułu jest pokazanie duszpasterskich zadań wobec rodziny i małżeństwa wynikających z nauczania Kościoła w adhortacji apostolskiej Amoris laetitia. Główne wyzwania duszpasterstwa rodzin papież Franciszek koncentruje na czterech kwestiach: przygotowanie do małżeństwa, towarzyszenie małżonkom, zwłaszcza w pierwszych latach po ślubie, towarzyszenie małżeństwom przeżywającym problemy i trudności oraz osobom żyjącym w powtórnym związku, a także formacja duszpasterzy i świeckich pracowników duszpasterstwa rodzin. Autor artykułu stara się ukazać te duszpasterskie zadania w kontekście całego nauczania Kościoła o małżeństwie i rodzinie w świecie współczesnym.

Spiritual Dryness in Catholic Laypersons Working as Volunteers is Related to Reduced Life Satisfaction Rather than to Indicators of Spirituality

Phases of spiritual dryness may affect a person’s life orientation and sense of meaning, particularly of persons who work professionally for the sake of others and who rely on God as their main life orientation. This study investigated spiritual dryness in religiously motivated laypersons who are prosocially active volunteers. In particular, the study investigated which indicators of spirituality are related to spiritual dryness and also whether compassion and altruism are related to spiritual dryness. Data from 102 persons working for UNITALSI, an Italian volunteer organization, were collected using standardized questionnaires. Among these strongly religious laypersons, 12% reported that they experienced times of spiritual dryness (as measured with the Spiritual Dryness Scale) fairly often. Spiritual dryness was best predicted by low satisfaction with family life and by future prospects (which together explain 31% of the variance), followed by a low perception of the transcendent (an additional 8%) and high altruism (an additional 4% of explained variance). Most of those who found ways to deal with these feelings were inspired to help others more and perceived greater spiritual serenity and depth afterwards. It was found recently that for Catholic priests and non-ordained pastoral workers, the perception of the transcendent was the best (negative) predictor of spiritual dryness, but among Catholic laypersons investigated in this study, reduced life satisfaction was the best (negative) predictor. The data underline that laypersons who work voluntarily for others require spiritual guidance and support because spiritual dryness as a phase of spiritual crisis may impair their life satisfaction and may conflict with their voluntary engagement.

Welcome, Engage, Connect, Send: The Revolving Door of Campus Ministry

Canterbury Downtown is a campus ministry that has been evolving in New York City for going on fourteen years. Now housed at Grace Church, Manhattan, which sits right on the dividing line between the East and West Village, it is literally surrounded by college campuses. New York University, Cooper Union, and The New School have undergraduate and graduate programs in buildings dotted across the city, with their main campuses all within a few blocks. Grace Church, a neo-Gothic nineteenth-century building, rises against a patch of blue sky, a contrast to the busy cityscape of Broadway, just below Union Square. The church is eye-catching, and with the doors open daily, tens of thousands of tourists and new-to-New Yorkers cross its threshold to catch a glimpse of this house of prayer. Hundreds of those are students starting new programs every semester, and many of them find a place to rest and pray with our campus ministry community.Though we are housed at Grace Church (my office is located here, and we hold our fellowship meal following a Sunday evening worship service in the church), we are a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The full-time staff position of chaplain to students in lower Manhattan was created in 2003. The five parishes located in the East and West Village neighborhoods (St. Luke in the Fields, St. Johns in the Village, Church of the Ascension, Grace Church, and St. Marks in-the-Bowery) discerned a commitment to build a shared outreach to college students, which was later adopted as a ministry of the diocese and funded along with other part-time staffed chaplain positions in strategic locations. The gift of staff and program funds supporting this work is immeasurable in terms of time and energy. The Committee for Campus Ministry reviews and relates to the diocesan-supported chaplains and does the work of raising awareness and requesting funds from the diocesan convention budget. The chaplains are thus able to devote our time and energy to pastoral and programmatic work with students and the campus communities we are called to serve.I have served as the priest and curator of the Canterbury Downtown community for the past five years. My call to serve as a college chaplain was planted twenty years ago when I went off to college myself, far from home. As a cradle Episcopalian, I found myself struggling to find palatable Christian community on the very small college campus where I lived, much less within the local Episcopal Church. On campus I was met with a student-led Bible study whose materials provided by a para-church organization offered only a very narrow interpretation of scripture, canned answers, and no room to ask questions. In the local Episcopal Church the tiny congregation was simply inward-focused and unable to recognize a short-term college student as a potential new community member knocking on the door.I had taken my love of God to college with me, but I did not find fertile ground in which to plant and grow more deeply into my faith as I was growing into and claiming my adulthood. In fact, I often felt ostracized, unrecognized, unneeded, and unwanted in the church communities I tried to connect with. As a transient student, my season was too short. My regularity was unpredictable. My needs were too disparate from those of the parish life cycle. One Sunday was a deep touchstone for me, but it was made obvious to me that my investment was not seen as enough for a returned investment in my spiritual life and formation. Over the course of four years I studied religion but my most consistent faith practices were in solitude or a few hundred miles drive north in an Episcopal campus ministry community near my family home. As I discerned my call to priesthood while working as a youth minister after college, I remained committed to the important work of discipleship in the context of young adulthood and found my calling included building better bridges between youth to college students and campus ministry to parish life. …

”Man kan känna utmattningen i luften”

Science and higher education have, in many countries, undergone profound changes in recent decades, often leading to the institutionalisation of academic cultures of performativity. These cultures reconceptualise academic work as labour which must aim to achieve the highest possible productivity and profitability, and whose quality can be assessed on the basis of amount of outputs and income generated. In several contexts, these changes transformed longstanding discourses about which kinds of scholars are “excellent” and which disciplines produce valuable knowledge. In this article, I examine how the institutionalisation of performative academic cultures affects the work and lives of scholars in women’s, gender, feminist studies (WGFS), often in paradoxical ways. Drawing on an ethnography of Portuguese academia (conducted between 2008 and 2016), I show that the emphasis on productivity can create possibilities for WGFS, but also make much WGFS work impossible. Many WGFS scholars have been able to use performative academic cultures to expand the space for WGFS. At the same time, however, they are finding several epistemic activities increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to sustain – that is, reading, thinking, peer reviewing, attending academic events – due to intensifying workloads and escalating productivity expectations. This produces a mood of exhaustion, depression and alienation, particularly among women, often disproportionately saddled with the demanding pastoral work that neoliberal universities require but do not reward. I examine this mood and its impacts, arguing that the performative university is both toxic and stimulating, both destructive and seductive, for WGFS. I draw on this paradox to call for debate in WGFS about our ambivalent personal investments in work, our collective working cultures, and our collegial working relationships with each other.