ministry

Across the Divides: How the Dialogue of Life Can Enrich All

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Mission and Ministry’s Abdul-Malik Ryan published an op-ed in Visible Magazine talking about his work as a Muslim Chaplin here at DePaul. Below is an excerpt from the article:

The world needs spaces where people who are different can live together and form deep relationships. They need to be with not just with people who are superficially different but meaningfully different, over things that matter to all.

As the Director of the Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel puts it, “Diversity is not just the differences we like.”

At my university, students call their community, “umma” meaning “whole community” in Arabic. The intention is to live up to the ideal that all are welcome here — across political, ethnic, sectarian and all other differences not to debate and struggle for control, but to live together and know each other as human persons, beyond labels and disagreements.

There are benefits to groups and associations of people passionately dedicated to a certain perspective, to advancing a certain cause. Such groups and such spaces are necessary and powerful. This is evident in progressive movements such as #MeToo for the empowerment of women or in defense of the rights of Palestinians and in conservative religious revivals.

Read the article in it’s entirety here.

Plan to Review the University Mission Statement

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The Division of Mission and Ministry is pleased to announce that the Mission Committee of the Board of Trustees has approved a plan to review and possibly revise DePaul’s mission statement.  The 2020-21 Mission Statement Review is beginning now, and you are invited to participate in the process.

Building on the Vincentian practice of valuing experience and creating guidelines or statements that generally affirm what is already taking place as well as communicating aspirational goals, the review of the DePaul mission statement will take place through a 4-part process:

  1. Rolling out a “Seeds of the Mission” campaign to share stories and gain insights about where the mission is already operative at DePaul through highlighting mission in action. This campaign will start this month and its details will soon be shared.
  2. Creating a document over the summer and fall based on academic research about the history of DePaul’s purpose/mission statements that also brings in external perspectives through accreditation documents to outline how DePaul’s mission statements and understanding of mission have evolved to meet DePaul’s changing reality over time.
  3. Conducting a Mission Survey with the members of the Board of Trustees in the fall.
  4. Holding institutional mission dialogues in the fall to foster an understanding of DePaul’s mission with diverse community stakeholders as we seek to ensure DePaul’s mission statement reflects mission in a 21st century context.

In the winter, the information gained through executing the phased plan above will quite likely feed into a revised university mission statement, which we imagine will be concise, memorable, and actionable, and which would be accompanied by a lengthier supporting academic document.  A revised mission statement, if warranted, would be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval in May 2021.

Division of Mission and Ministry staff expect that the Seeds of the Mission campaign and mission dialogues will involve people at all levels of the university in the mission statement review process and expect it to generate new ideas for DePaul moving into the future, provide an opportunity to educate people on the mission, and increase DePaul community members’ knowledge about and ownership of our shared mission statement and mission.

 

We look forward to involving you in this process!

Guillermo Campuzano, C.M., Vice President for the Division of Mission and Ministry

St. Vincent’s Mirror Imagery of Christ’s Ministry

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The Rev. Jack Melito, C.M., presents a reflection on some of the direct parallels between Jesus’ ministry and that of Saint Vincent de Paul’s.  He points out such themes as their efforts for develop a sense of mission among their followers, the great global scope of their missions, and the emphasis on their mission to the poor.

“Saint Vincent’s Mirror Imagery of Christ’s Ministry” is a chapter in the book, Saint Vincent de Paul: His Mind and His Manner, by Fr. Jack Melito, C.M., published in 2010 by the Vincentian Studies Institute at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.  Unfortunately, this book is currently out of print.