Vanderbilt offers olive branch

The Rev. John-Sims Baker hasn’t always agreed with Vanderbilt University officials in the past year.

But he’s thrilled with the news that the school named the Rev. Mark Forrester as its new chaplain and director of religious life.

“It is a godsend,” said Sims-Baker, adviser to the Vanderbilt Catholic student group. “When I heard the news, I was surprised and delighted.”

Vanderbilt officials hope that Forrester, whose hiring was announced Wednesday, will end a sometimes heated controversy about religion on campus. More than a dozen student groups, including Vanderbilt Catholic, lost their official status earlier this year for refusing to sign on to the school’s nondiscrimination policy.

The groups require their leaders to hold specific religious beliefs. Vanderbilt officials said that practice violated school policy. The conflict led to accusations that the school was hostile to religion.

Forrester, who’s been a Methodist minister at Vanderbilt for 18 years, disagrees with that claim. He said Vanderbilt supports the spiritual lives of its students.

“I think we have a very open place for all kinds of religious expression and I want to maintain that,” he said.

One of the first tasks for Forrester, who will start his new role Sept. 1, will be to meet with leaders of the groups who lost their status. Many of them have been friends and colleagues for years.

He hopes to get campus religious groups focused on meeting the spiritual needs of students rather than the controversy.

“I believe that we can move beyond this immediate crisis and we can get back to work,” he said.

The Rev. Becca Stevens agrees.

Stevens, Episcopal chaplain at St. Augustine’s Chapel,This heavy duty square drive impactsocket set is designed for daily use with air driven, helps Forrester lead the Wesley/Canterbury Fellowship, a partnership between Methodists and Episcopalians.

She said that he’s the right person for the job.

“It has been a hard year for religious life at Vanderbilt, and they need a strong and committed voice,” she said. “Mark will be that voice.”

Forrester also will have a bit of added clout as university chaplain. Vanderbilt did away with that title in 2008, when it reorganized the office of religious life.

Reinstating the title is a positive sign that Vanderbilt recognizes that religion on campus matters, Sims-Baker said.Broken chinamosaic Birdhouses and Design Inspiration.

“That word ‘chaplain’ is really important,” he said.

In announcing Forrester’s new role, Provost Richard McCarty emphasized that ethical and spiritual formation are an important part of educating students. He also pointed out Forrester’s history with Vanderbilt — he’s a graduate of the university’s divinity school and a longtime staff member.

Tish Harrison Warren, another of Forrester’s colleagues,Latex moldmaking compound costs around $10 for a pint, said she’s cautiously hopeful about today’s news.Increase sales by accepting credit cards with merchantaccount.

Harrison Warren is campus minister with Intervarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship, one of the groups that lost official status. She said Forrester was very helpful during last year’s controversy.Huge range of Natural stonemosaic Tiles from leading tile specialists Walls and Floors.

“He’s been a very good friend to me and really encouraged me to find a way to work with the office of religious life,” she said.

Harrison Warren said the new chaplain understands why it was hard for some Christian groups to comply with the policy.

That’s in part because of his own religious journey.

Forrester grew up attending Inglewood United Methodist Church in Nashville, where his mother was the organist. He joined the Evangel Temple, a conservative Pentecostal congregation, as a teenager.

He started preaching in Pentecostal services while still in his teens but left that church in a disagreement over where to go to college.

Forrester ended up going to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville and then to Vanderbilt Divinity School. Along the way, he rejoined the United Methodist Church and was ordained as a pastor in 1983.

He worked at several churches before becoming a campus pastor at Austin Peay State University in the early 1990s and then coming to Vanderbilt in 1994.

Forrester said his early work in churches taught him how to set aside his own opinions in order to help meet the spiritual needs of his parishioners.

In an interview Wednesday, he recalled an incident that happened in 1991, when the United States invaded Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

Forrester, who opposed the war, drove to church one day only to find some church members putting up ribbons and banners in support of the troops.

He felt that show of patriotism didn’t belong at church. Then he realized that one of the women handling the decorations had a son who’d been deployed overseas.

“By the time I walked over to her, I saw her hands shaking and I was able to be her pastor,” he said. “I had to put my ego out of the picture.”

That incident helped teach him the importance of having close relationships even with people with whom he disagreed. He said religious beliefs are very important, but relationships come first.