Five Year Plan of Initiatives

The Five Year Plan Committee consisted of the memberships of the Chaplains Council and the Hendricks Chapel Advisory Board. Robert and Jane Pickett were employed by the Office of the Dean to facilitate the process. We are grateful to both of them for their on-going commitment to the Chapel and for their extraordinary ability to facilitate the diversity of ideas that emerge from the many individuals when encouraged to imagine the future of this special place.

The Chaplains Council consists of the dean’s staff and the various chaplains who are appointed by their faith traditions to serve the University. The Hendricks Chapel Advisory Board consists of students, administrators, faculty, staff, and alumni who represent a cross section of Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

In order to accomplish this document, the Chaplains Council committed its annual Minnowbrook retreat as well as two follow-up day and half-day off-campus retreats. This document was also the centerpiece of discussion at each of the monthly meetings of the Chaplains council and the Hendricks Chapel Advisory Board.

MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS

Mission Statement

Hendricks Chapel is a diverse religious, spiritual, and cultural learning environment seeking to generate a welcoming and caring community within Syracuse University. The Chapel values differences as a resource for enrichment.

The Chapel supports the University's core values by creatively promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation through program and example. The Chapel honors religious traditions and encourages spiritual introspection while at the same time promoting active voluntarism. The Chapel is a source of constructive efforts to deal responsibly with personal and cultural pain as well as issues of social justice and reconciliation.

Vision Statement

Hendricks Chapel will lead Syracuse University to create a more just community through dialogue, spiritual development and civic engagement, and will provide a national model for achieving that goal.

INITIATIVES

Global Initiatives

What larger issues does Hendricks Chapel seek to identify with?
What are we most concerned about?

• Promoting respect and understanding through dialogue on religion, race, class, status, power, and education
• Addressing issues of social justice and empowering the disenfranchised
• Caring for the whole person
• Honoring the distinctive voices of various traditions
• Embodying a collective spirituality that integrates academic, cultural, and civic life

How does Hendricks Chapel seek to be known in the world?

• Initiate greater understanding through dialogue among individuals and communities
• Promote active campus engagement with issues of poverty, social justice, and peace
• Serve as a bridge between the campus and the communities of Syracuse
• Advance the academic mission of the University by modeling the thoughtful and vigorous integration of spirituality, civic engagement, and committed inquiry, and by providing a safe space for questioning and critical reflection
• Provide spiritual resources that support the wellness of all students, faculty and staff
• Support the spiritual formation of the members of the University community according to their particular traditions
• Provide the resources of the Chapel to the non-traditionally religious and the self-identified non-religious

How supportive actions will take place to fulfill the goals of Hendricks Chapel?

• Engage a long-term development strategy to assure financial resources for the future growth of the Hendricks Chapel program and the Chaplaincies
• Provide infrastructure support for the chaplains: space, database, technology, development resources
• Maintain technology upgrades for all employees of Hendricks Chapel
• Use technology as one means of providing a place of hospitality: communications, providing wireless and other technology to visitors
• Broaden the religious diversity of Hendricks Chapel by cultivating additional chaplaincies and religious groups
• Seek collaborations with all schools, colleges, and divisions within the University
• Enhance existing staff positions and cultivate additional staff positions to foster a comprehensive growth of Hendricks Chapel
• Provide program space and/or serve as an advocate for the space needs of all groups registered within Hendricks Chapel
• Offer the space of the Chapel for University and Community events
• Develop strategies for communicating the role and work of Hendricks Chapel
• Develop arts programming at Hendricks Chapel
• Develop strategies of community engagement at Hendricks Chapel
• Provide international experiences for students
• Host conferences and lectures on topics that are at the heart of the being of Hendricks Chapel
• Encourage chaplains and staff to represent the work and spirit of Hendricks Chapel by presenting and/or networking at conferences

Hendricks Chapel as a body of chaplains and staff is a context and agent for:

Welcoming and caring within the University

Examples include:

• Orientation for new students
• Flight 103 remembrance
• Dr. Koshy’s friendship meals
• People’s Place
• Dean’s Benevolence Fund
• International Thanksgiving Meal
• Memorial services
• Conflict and issue fora
• Substance abuse meetings
• Spiritual and general guidance
• Emergency response to individual tragedies
• Spaces for others:
• Sanctuary, e.g., University convocations, Noble Room and Alibrandi Center, e.g. International Children’s Project

Examples include:

• Observances of various holy days
• Ecumenical services
• Good Friday Walk
• Meditation and/or prayer spaces
• Worship services
• Ritual spaces
• Interfaith group activities
• Services relating to Rites of Passage, e.g. weddings, commitment ceremonies, memorial services

Examples include:

• Issues fora
• Speakers and presentations
• Special day observances, e.g. AIDS Day
• Front steps of Chapel fora
• Commemorative celebrations, e.g. Rosa Parks ceremony
• Personal counseling and discernment

Examples include:

• Thematic artistic expressions
• Presentations by chaplains in academic classroom settings
• Conferences: participation and sponsorship, e.g. International Conference on Science and Faith, Storytelling Conference, joint conferences with the Department of Religion
• Concerts, e.g. Black Celestial Choral Ensemble, Hendricks Chapel Choir, Handbell Ringers, Malmgren concerts
• Milestones Series
• Financial support for various campus events

Examples include:

• Office of Engagement Programs brokers volunteers for community needs, e.g., Habitat for Humanity
• Connections with Refugee program of Central New York
• Opportunities for philanthropic fund raising, participation with community agency programs, e.g., Salvation Army gift program for children
• CROP Walk
• Martin Luther King celebration
• Conversations and dialogues about historical movements,e.g., the Million Man march