|
|
|
|
||
 |
On an overcast July morning in New England, I ventured out to visit the property that once housed our minor seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts. Driving up Route 128, my mind could not help but think of the colorful tales I had heard from Father David Blanchard’s experience there in the minor seminary or the great affection with which Father Lambert Yore, O.Carm., would speak of the place he had spent so much of his Carmelite life. I could hardly wait to arrive. Entering the property, I was struck by its beauty. The green lawns of the hillside campus are still impeccably kept, and the pond near the entrance was just as pristine, even on a dreary day. As I had arrived a bit early for my visit, I took time to explore the grounds. I had wondered how much had changed in the 35 years since the Carmelites sold the property and it became the campus of a Protestant evangelical seminary named Gordon Theological Seminary. And with no prior knowledge of Hamilton, it was as if I were sleuthing for clues which would tell me that we Carmelites had once been there. The first pieces of evidence I discovered were two stone grottos, a smaller one between the old Retreat House and the main building and a larger one with an altar down the main hill and near the Gate House. “These must have been Marian shrines,” I thought, “for their empty spaces were just screaming for a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” Concluding my self-guided tour, I was then guided around the campus by Anne Doll, the Director of Public Relations and Campaign Communications for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS). The GCTS, a merger of two existing schools: Boston’s Gordon Divinity School and Philadelphia’s Conwell School of Theology, has been operating in Hamilton (technically South Hamilton) since 1969. The GCTS has since expanded to include a campus in Charlotte, NC, and an urban ministry center (Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME)) in downtown Boston. Combined, the three campuses have over 2,000 students and boast of 6,000 alumni. Their students represent 38 different countries and 107 different Christian denominations; courses are taught in six different languages. Anne first guided me through the main building, now named Kerr Memorial, used mostly for student residence and administration and some classroom space. What was obviously once the chapel is now the Great Room, a large space for study. To accent the view, the windows on one side were extended down the whole length of the wall. To one side, an old side altar is kept as a prayer room, where the students, faculty and staff are invited to pray for the world, praying for each country on a daily rotating basis. The old convent adjoining the chapel is used as a women’s dormitory; it is next up for renovation. That section, and many of the old rooms in Kerr, still look as they did decades ago. Other sections of the building have been renovated into bigger dorm rooms. The most obvious Carmelite vestige still quite visible is our shield, which prominently marks the main entrance into Kerr Memorial and appears on the floor tile of the hallway of main administrative offices and above the old chapel. In fact, our provincial shield is still on a cabinet door in the library/lounge outside of the small chapel in the Retreat House. The chapel looks much as it probably did when we owned it. The Retreat House now serves as the president’s house. Pilgrim Hall is now a nursery school, and the Gate House is now used for the J. Christy Wilson, Jr., Center for Missions. New buildings on the campus include the Graham and Bell buildings (named after Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth Bell Graham) near the Gate House and four other residences for married students. Rounding out the new buildings would be the chapel, academic center, and library, all across from the old main building. The students have weekly chapel and all study the original biblical languages, Greek and Hebrew. Most students pursue Masters of Divinity, although other degree programs include the Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Master of Arts in a variety of majors. The school also has a distance education program, known as Semlink, for students to begin their studies. They also have recently begun the Compass Program, a summer program for high school students who have been “tapped” by their pastor as a potential minister and the Timothy Project, a means to update graduates currently doing ministry in their first ten years out.
With a word of thanks to Anne, I left GCTS. I could not help but be struck by the similarities in the academic offerings between the GCTS and the WTU (the Washington Theological Union, where Carmelites in initial formation study in Washington, DC), although done in the Evangelical and Roman Catholic traditions respectively. Yet other parallels to our Carmelite life seemed apparent, too. Our desire for “on-going formation” is akin to their Timothy Project; and plans for our new student house for college-aged students is not unlike their Compass Program. And probably, from the outside, the original four buildings have not changed much if at all—the largest difference would be several new buildings dotting the expansive property. I would conjecture that the externals have not changed much at all, except for those missing statues of Mary!
| |
|
|
