Happy!
"Happy!" The word spoke to me from, of all places, the paper towel I was using to wipe the kitchen counter top. There were pastel flowers printed around it, and small pink hearts. Further down in the corner was printed the word "Feliz!"
In our culture we are raised to expect happiness. It - or at least the pursuit of it - is one of our rights as Americans. It is promised us through a variety of means - love, career, wealth, material goods as banal as that paper towel I used this morning. I stopped to ponder the meaning of the pronouncement before I sacrificed the words to the spilled orange juice. "Am I happy? I mused to myself. I must admit that it's not a state of mind I spend much time contemplating. When I do, in rare times of leisure, it seems I always end up counting the impediments to happiness rather than enjoying the state itself. "Happy!" is more often a feeling that surprises me from behind when I am busy with something - or someone - else.
Happy! I think about my grandmother. She had come over to this country through Ellis Island, very poor, a young mother accompanied only by her four young daughters, her tea pot and her set of Dickens novels. She had an eighth grade education and moved into a cold water flat in new Jersey. Grandma made her living by taking in other peoples' sewing, and she endured occasional unwelcome visits from the drunken father of her children. Hers was not an easy life, nor, by our modern day standards, a happy one. Yet I clearly remember her instructions to me one day as a young girl when I was staying overnight with Grandma and confessed to feeling blue.
Three things to do you when you are blue. A cup of tea. A good book at the end of the day when your work is done. And doing something for somebody else.
She looked up from her sewing machine - the old-fashioned foot-powered Singer model - and said this: "Three things to do you when you are blue. A cup of tea. A good book at the end of the day when your work is done. And doing something for somebody else." And she went back to work on her sewing.
My Grandma was rarely idle. She lived to be over one hundred, and even in her last days, she spent the daylight hours knitting sweaters for her great-grandchildren and socks for the sailors at sea. By then her eyesight was very poor, and she had to use yellow yarn because it was the only color she could still see. When Grandma died, I helped my aunt and my mother go through her things. On the night table by her bed were her knitting needles, stuck through a ball of yellow yarn, and a half-finished sock she had been knitting for the sailors at sea. Do sailors even wear socks any more? Is there some charity that still solicits and dispenses them? I don't know. But I like to think that somewhere in the middle of the ocean, some lonely man is taking a break from his hard work on ship board and looking down at his bright yellow socks. I like to think a smile flashes over his face for a moment, and a word rises in his mind in whatever his native language might be. "Happy!"
Joyce Tompkins
Religious Advisor, Swarthmore College
Partners in Ministry
Partners in Ministry has been at work on the Swarthmore College campus since 1982 providing an ecumenical Protestant ministry to Swarthmore students. Founded by five local churches and the Friends Meeting, it was at first a small, part-time affair, but has grown dramatically, giving further evidence of great need and opportunity. Partners now believes that the significance and scope of the ministry require someone who can make a full-time commitment to this work, and we have asked the Rev. Joyce U. Tompkins to assume this role. With three years of her part-time leadership, the Swarthmore Protestant Community (SPC) has made tremendous strides in providing ecumenical direction responsive to the diverse needs, interests, and backgrounds of Swarthmore students. Going full time is a demanding decision because in order to do so we must raise $12,200 more for the 2006-07 budget than we had to raise last year.
The message of Partners is that of mainline Protestant Christianity. In today’s world, religious issues are becoming ever more salient. Extremism is rampant. In this turmoil the voice of mainline Protestantism, once so prominent in this country, is increasingly drowned out. On campus there are many strong secular and equally insistent but narrow evangelical/fundamentalist voices. Here is an opportunity for Partners to proclaim the heart of the Christian message in a form that is spiritually meaningful, intellectually creditable, and socially responsible.
With the decision to move to a full-time presence, Partners is taking seriously the need to challenge and nurture the faith lives of Swarthmore students. This objective is important if we are to encourage students to prepare themselves to enter adulthood with a robust, questioning, vibrant Christian faith; one that neither hides in platitudes nor retreats into secularism.
This ministry is vital to the future of these students and the church. Please join our partnership: Contact Partners in Ministry, PO Box 41 Swarthmore PA 19081. Partners in Ministry is a 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions are tax deductible.
Taizé Services
Sept. 9, Oct. 7, Nov. 4, and Dec. 2. at 5:00 in Bond Hall. Trinity attendees are asked to bring a casserole, salad or dessert to share with students.
The Protestant Campus ministry at Swarthmore College
The Campus Ministry at Swarthmore College is an ecumenical Christian ministry sponsored by Partners in Ministry, a consortium of local churches, individuals, and foundations. The campus ministry receives no direct financial support from the College, and is entirely dependent upon the generosity of individuals, foundations, and the five local churches and the Friends Meeting, all of whom understand the crucial importance of supporting a life of faith in college students.
The current Chaplain is The Rev. Joyce Tompkins, an Episcopal priest who until recently served also as Associate Rector here at Trinity.
SPC
- A journey in faith...
- A resting-place on the journey...
- A safe community...
- A doorway to the deeper life of the spirit...
Who We are:
- Swarthmore’s progressive Christian community
:
rooted in the mainline Protestant traditions, welcoming all seekers of God into hospitable fellowship - Finding divine revelation in scripture, tradition, community, creation, and the gift of human reason
- Students who are Epsicopalian, Presbyterian, Quaker, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, UU, Catholic, agnostic, none or all of the of the above
- Seeking, learning, wondering, questioning, affirming, welcoming, praying, singing, laughing, thinking, celebrating
What we do:
- Thursdays at 6:30 – Pizza and Parables: an exploration of scripture stories and faith questions with a spirit of reverent inquiry
- Thursday evenings at 8:00 pm – Student-led Communion service with singing
- Monthly Sundays at 5:00 -Taizé chant with candlelight and potluck supper
- A new program this fall: Chester Mutual Ministry. Students, faculty and staff are invited for weekly faith-based service in Chester.
- Retreats - (Fall beach retreat, Spring monastic retreat)
- Service projects in Chester and Philadelphia
- Worship and fellowship with members of local congregations
- Credo – dinner and discussion of faith life with faculty members
- Panels and speakers on topics relevant to modern life and faith
- Fun events such as apple-picking, cookie-baking, carol-singing, egg-dying
Opportunities for Trinity parishioners to get involved:
- Taizé service once/month on Sunday afternoons with potluck suppers Work with students on service projects
- Plan a study break with cookies or ice cream for students during exams!
- Invite a student to lunch or dinner
To get involved, contact The Rev. Joyce Tompkins at 610-328-8328 or email at : jtompki1@swarthmore.edu
To support the campus ministry financially, send your check
to:
Partners in Ministry, PO Box 41 Swarthmore PA 19081
About the Rev Joyce Tompkins
Send e-mail to: jtompki1@swarthmore.edu
Joyce
Tompkins grew up in northern New Jersey where she spent most of
her time in the woods. She received a B.A. in Classics from
Cornell
and the M.Div. from The
General Theological Seminary in New York. She has served
parishes in New Jersey, Chicago, Wisconsin and Massachusetts,
before coming to Swarthmore in 2001. She has also worked in
higher education as a counselor at Marquette University.
Joyce now serves as the Protestant Chaplain at Swarthmore College, where she works with students of many faith backgrounds. She is passionate about walking with young people on the spiritual path, and about bringing people of different faiths together to find common ground. In her work at both the College and the parish, she finds ways to include community outreach as a focus of her ministries.
When not on campus, Joyce can often be found in the Crum Woods, where she runs daily with her dog, Pepper. She enjoys reading and writing poetry and fiction.
Joyce is married to Doug, who is also an Episcopal priest. They have three teenaged sons and live in Swarthmore with their dog and two cats.