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GTS STUDENTS MINISTER TO FIRST RESPONDERS
To foster good relationships with Chelsea neighbors and to
provide students with opportunities in creative ministries,
General Theological Seminary (GTS) has been pursuing a new
ministerial partnership with the New York City Fire
Department’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The
relationship includes providing first responders in FDNY Station
7, located just two blocks from the seminary, with pastoral
companionship, space for events, and invitations to participate
in worship in the seminary’s Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
During the 2012-13 academic year, two Master of Divinity
students, John Bethell and Stefanie Wilson, are pursuing their
field education as chaplains to EMS first responders, under the
supervision of the Rev. Stephen Harding, an Episcopal priest,
FDNY chaplain and GTS alumnus. Another M.Div. student,
Andrew Goldhor, is volunteering as a chaplain. Their ministry
includes visiting station houses, befriending EMS first responders,
accompanying them in EMS ambulances to scenes of
emergency, and ministering to individuals and families in crisis.
M. Div. Senior Stefanie Wilson
dressed for NYFD chaplaincy.
In the aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy, and the
nor’easter which beset New
York City the following
week, the three seminarians
were quickly responding
alongside emergency
medical technicians and
paramedics to reach out to
those struggling. Once
transportation was running,
Wilson trekked up to
Station 16 in Harlem to
minister to the first
responders. “One of my
roles as chaplain is to listen
to their stories, giving
spiritual and emotional
support to those who do the necessary work of the world. They
have a hard job that is emotionally draining and sometimes
thankless.” She heard stories of climbing 15 floors to aid
persons in distress and of carrying a pregnant woman down
many flights of unlit stairs. When asked how she was led to this
ministry she responded, “Within the gates of the Seminary I
have been blessed to work in the Chapel and get a wonderful
liturgical education. I wanted to learn more about chaplaincy
and how to be with people and walk with them, celebrate with
them or cry with them.”
GTS News Quarterly Issue Nº 7 November 2012
A publication of the Office of Communications
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church
440 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011
Published four times a year in February, May, August, and November.
The Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy, Associate Dean
The Rev. P. Lang Lowrey, III, President
John Bethell pioneered the field education
placement with the FDNY and is now in his
second year of ministry. For the Feast of St. Luke
the Evangelist, Bethell gave his senior sermon
during the Seminary’s Community Eucharist and
invited FDNY first responders to attend the
service. The gospel text was Luke 4:14-21, in
which Jesus reads from the prophecy of Isaiah and then
proclaims, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing.” Bethell compared the reconciliation ministry of Jesus,
through healing the blind, caring for the poor, and freeing the
captives, to the work of the EMS first responders.
“In my work with EMS, I
have witnessed women
and men turn their daily
work into a sacrament: the
absolute care given to
people in need, to people
who are dying. Some of
the most forgotten people
in our fair city are treated
like human beings by total
strangers.” Many of the
first responders are not
Christians, he noted, “but
by the test of the Gospel,
there are those who
M.Div. Students Andrew Goldhor (l) and
John Bethell (r) at Station 7.
would never call themselves Christians who follow Christ more
closely than we do.”
The Prayers of the People for the service, written by Br. Max
Kolbe, SSF, an M.Div. Middler, included a special prayer for FDNY
first responders:
We remember with grateful hearts those who serve as
first responders, especially fire fighters and EMTs, whose
vocation often calls them to tend to human frailty. By
their inspiration, and by St. Luke’s, may we find the grace
to serve you through service to others. Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
The prayers also included remembrance of Lenny Joiner, age
31, a paramedic who died last summer on a mountain climbing
trip in Colorado, a remembrance meaningful to the first
responders who were cared for by the Seminary in the first
days of their grief. The funeral for Joiner, an Episcopalian, was
held at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church uptown and the
reception followed at GTS. “It was touching to see how quickly
we here at General sprang into action to open ourselves up to
another institution to serve Chelsea and beyond,” Bethell said.
“The reception was well attended with so many who would
normally not find themselves inside a religious institution. Here
at General, they were welcomed as though this was their home.
Because it is.”
Editor
Chad Rancourt, Director of Communications
Copy Editor
V.K. McCarty, Keller Library