New ONA Campus Ministry

God is Still Speaking and People Are Talking in Florida!  A new campus ministry, God-Talk @ USF: A Progressive Christian Student Organization (at the University of South Florida in Tampa), has begun with seed money from the UCC’s Florida Conference.  The ideas and energy come from Chaplain Don Erickson and Co-Chaplain Paul Werner (a seminary intern), both of the First Church United of Tampa, and some very dedicated students! At one of the early meetings of the group, in January 2008, the members adopted a Covenant of Openness and Affirmation, making God-Talk @ USF only the seventh ONA campus ministry in the UCC in this country.

The group’s ONA Statement says, in part, “God-Talk @ USF: A Progressive Christian Student Organization was founded in 2008 to be a radically inclusive, extravagantly welcoming, and evangelically courageous campus ministry of the United Church of Christ at the University of South Florida.  We are a UCC ministry, but we are nondenominational in our approach.  Our mission is to encourage honest dialogue from an open-minded and intellectual perspective, seeking to foster genuine community and individual spiritual growth.  Because we believe that the Spirit of the Christ is present in all persons, we welcome all members of the USF community, regardless of faith, belief, or theological/philosophical persuasion. In order to foster genuine community, we must reaffirm that we are a student organization that is open to all people.  Because of a climate in many Christian churches and campus ministries that is hostile or exclusionary—either openly or passively—towards people of differing sexual orientations or gender identities, we find it necessary to make a clear statement of welcome to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, as well as their straight allies.  Therefore, we proudly declare ourselves an Open and Affirming campus ministry by proclaiming that our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers and their straight allies are welcome to participate in the full life and leadership of our organization.”

God-Talk @ USF members are working hard to get the word out that they are a liberal alternative and a safe space as compared to most other Christian campus ministries and student organizations on campus.  They are building their membership base and getting the word out that there is a progressive and open-minded Christian voice on campus. They plan a movie weekend, a coffeehouse and other events.  Of course, there is always great “convers@ion... NOT conversion.”  For more information about God-Talk @ USF, visit www.godtalkatusf.org.