{"id":3175,"date":"2017-10-17T15:02:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T20:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2024-06-20T15:49:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T15:49:02","slug":"2017-ips-alumni-and-friends-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/?p=3175","title":{"rendered":"2017 IPS Alumni and Friends Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 17, 2017\"\"<\/a>The Institute of Pastoral Studies <\/strong>community gathered this past weekend for the 2017 Alumni and Friends Dinner<\/strong>, an event dedicated to raising funds for IPS<\/strong> scholarships.\"\"<\/a>The highlight of the evening saw Evelyn and James Whitehead<\/strong>, beloved IPS professors, receive the Aggiornamento Award<\/em>.\u00a0 This video tribute<\/a><\/strong> to the Whiteheads details the over 40-plus year relationship they’ve had with IPS<\/strong>; one rooted in an “emotional, spiritual, mental, and practical connection”.<\/p>\n

IPS Professor Emeritus Peter Gilmour<\/strong> gave the keynote speech titled “Golden Threads in the Fabric and Future of IPS<\/em>“.\u00a0 Professor Gilmour began his address, “Time travel with me to the year 2117, a century from now.\u00a0 One of the longest running shows in the history of TV, The Antiques Roadshow, is still a mainstay of the PBS network.\u00a0 Tonight the great, great, great granddaughter of IPS graduate, July Logue and her husband, Ed have brought to the Road Show a complete set of 1st<\/sup> editions written in the late 20th<\/sup> and early 21st<\/sup> centuries by authors, James and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead…”\u00a0 <\/em>Read on below for the full text of Professor Gilmour’s keynote address.
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\"\"<\/a><\/strong>IPS Dean Brian Schmisek<\/strong> commented on the event: “So many of those present made a point to say how meaningful the event was, how it honored our past and propelled us into the future.”\u00a0 Dean Brian also added the evening’s fundraising total exceeded expectations!<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/strong> for photos<\/strong> from the event.<\/p>\n

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“Golden Threads in the Fabric and Future of IPS”
\nKeynote Address on the occasion of Evelyn Eaton and James D. Whitehead receiving the Aggiornamento Award from IPS, October 14, 2017
\nDr. Peter Gilmour (pgilmou@luc.edu)<\/h5>\n
I\u2019d like to begin tonight with a brief history of tomorrow.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, a brief history of tomorrow.\u00a0 No doubt you are delighted to hear it will be brief.\u00a0 Perhaps you wonder if the speaker will live up to that promise.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got it on good authority he will!<\/h5>\n
But, \u201ca brief history of tomorrow\u201d?\u00a0 What\u2019s that all about?<\/h5>\n
Time travel with me to the year 2117, a century from now.\u00a0 One of the longest running shows in the history of TV, The Antiques Roadshow, is still a mainstay of the PBS network.\u00a0 Tonight the great, great, great granddaughter of IPS graduate, July Logue and her husband, Ed have brought to the Road Show a complete set of 1st editions written in the late 20th and early 21st centuries by authors, James and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead.\u00a0 The antiquarian book dealer looks them over, and tells them that he is familiar with these books for several reasons.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFirst of all, the Whitehead\u2019s work has been referenced in myriad dissertations and books on church ministry this past century, as perhaps you already know.\u00a0 But they have been more than footnotes; their work is the stuff of headlines.\u00a0 Many of these books have also been referenced in some of the Documents of Vatican III, the church council held from 2054 to 2060.\u00a0 Secondly, since your complete collection of the Whiteheads\u2019 books are all 1st editions signed by both the authors, this is even better since so many of their books went through several printing due to their perennial popularity.\u201d<\/h5>\n
The Antiquarian book dealer, Mr. Theodore Guzie, continues, \u201cAnd I have a personal interest in these books.\u00a0 My great, great, great grandparents, Tad and Noreen Guzie spent many summers teaching at the Institute of Pastoral Studies, and no doubt knew the Whiteheads.\u201d\u00a0 Lastly, Mr. Guzie refers to the golden threads that run through the entire history of IPS to date, some 153 years now, which can be found and documented in the Whiteheads\u2019 books.\u00a0 The antiquarian book dealer, Mr. Guzie, concludes, \u201cit\u2019s hard to put an exact dollar figure on this complete collection of autographed first editions by authors Jim and Evelyn Whitehead, but I\u2019d say that you know, like so many others who have been associated with IPS through its more than century and a half tradition, that it is fair to say, these books are priceless.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Back to tonight, 2017.\u00a0 IPS has been witness to 10 presidents of the United States, 8 mayors of Chicago, 5 popes, 5 cardinal archbishops of Chicago, 5 university presidents here at Loyola, and 7 directors of IPS.\u00a0 Who would have guessed 53 years ago that the Internet would develop into a significant conduit for information, misinformation, and education?\u00a0 Add to the Internet the phenomenon of social media instantaneously connecting the citizens of the world with one another.<\/h5>\n
Today, many of our students first learn about IPS through the Internet rather than word of mouth.\u00a0 Stories and information about IPS once shared via religious communities in Ireland, coffee houses in Germany, church halls in Australia, and bars in Bangkok are spread today via Facebook and Google.\u00a0 Who other than perhaps a Nobel Laurette who sang in 1964, \u201cThe Times, They Are A-Changin\u201d would have given much thought to the ever-increasing rapidity of change, the effects of robotics, artificial intelligence, the formation of the multiverse, and within it myriad universes, and the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in creation?\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you Bob Dylan!<\/h5>\n
I have heard it said about the Institute of Pastoral Studies that no explanation is necessary for those who have had the experience; for those who have not, no explanation is sufficient.\u00a0 So, identifying the golden threads for so many gathered here tonight who have been such a significant part of IPS \u2013 students, alums, staff and faculty \u2013 you already are well able to recognize and celebrate this continuous living tradition.\u00a0 For others, it is my hope and prayer that my few words and stories might give you more than a hint about what we have been about these past 53 years, and what we will no doubt be about in the next hundred years.\u00a0 In the words of the Proverbs: \u201cwisdom has built herself a house.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, wisdom has built herself a house here in this place!<\/h5>\n
One of the insightful commentators on the church in America, the late Tim Unsworth, described IPS as \u201ca sturdy, innovative graduate program in pastoral studies at Loyola University of Chicago that draws…students each year from all over the world.\u201d Good description, for sure, but no big clues about the magical, mystical, miraculous golden threads that are the inner dynamism of IPS.<\/h5>\n
IPS is, first and foremost, about people.\u00a0 Perhaps not since Chaucer collected characters for The Canterbury Tales have spiritual and spirited personalities rubbed shoulders so closely.\u00a0 National and international, intricate and intimate, witty and wise, rural and urban, sensual and sacramental, the people who are IPS are on pilgrimages of mind, heart, and spirit.\u00a0 From places as near as the south side of Chicago, the North Shore, Waukegan, Harvey, Oak Park, Holland, Michigan, and as far away as Sydney, Australia, Patna, India, Beijing, China, San Paulo, Brazil, Quebec, Canada, Bochum, Germany and many other places round the world, our students have come.\u00a0 This community of students and faculty gathers every semester and summer to examine in-depth various aspects of religious traditions, classical and contemporary cultures, and personal experiences.\u00a0 IPS draws faithful people from around the world into an epicenter of Transformational Education.<\/h5>\n
What began with a single degree in Religious Education has evolved into degrees in Pastoral Studies, Pastoral Counseling, Spirituality, Divinity, and Social Justice.\u00a0 Duel degrees with other schools at Loyola as well as certificates and workshops complete the spectrum of offerings for the diversified students of IPS who now come from many religious traditions and backgrounds, from most all continents of the world (Antarctica aside!), and an ever widening age demographic, from young adults to retirees.<\/h5>\n
Yes, IPS is essentially about people.<\/h5>\n
IPS is also about the people to whom our students and graduates minister, whether it be in religious institutions, public and private venues, on the streets, or in our families.\u00a0 Our graduates, return to their holy places, or go on to new venues to assist faithful people who strive to identify purpose in their lives and pursue action that is oriented toward care and service to others, especially those in most need.\u00a0\u00a0 Transformative Education, gestated at IPS, becomes a generative force in our graduates\u2019 ministries that in turn transforms — touches the hearts \u2013 of those to whom they minister.<\/h5>\n
This inner dynamism of lPS, one golden thread that runs through IPS since its inception in 1964, is a call to Transformative Education.\u00a0 Sometimes this golden thread is a gentle pull towards recovery and growth.\u00a0 Other times it is a well laid out curricular path.\u00a0 Sometimes that golden thread shines through the inevitably dark night of the soul many people encounter on that journey towards spiritual adulthood.\u00a0 Other times that golden thread, carefully woven into the colorful tapestry of life and living unnoticed to the untrained eye, but becomes a lodestar.\u00a0 Alternatively, it might point the way toward a rock-strewn road that a prophetic voice urges us to follow.<\/h5>\n
Let us time travel once more, back to the future — a brief history of tomorrow — for another moment.\u00a0 Again, the year is a century from now, 2117.\u00a0 A descendent of Heidi Russell has stumbled across information about her great, great, great, great grandmother, a theologian who published groundbreaking work in early part of the 21st century while teaching at Loyola University\u2019s Institute of Pastoral Studies.\u00a0 Professor Russell\u2019s great, great, great, great granddaughter, recently ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic tradition \u2013 one of the developments of the latter 21st century interfaith Council, Vatican III \u2013 is herself pursuing a doctorate in theology.\u00a0 She is searching the archives at Loyola University Chicago, not only for information on her famed ancestor, but also to gather data on her doctoral dissertation subject \u2013 Pastoral Theology.<\/h5>\n
To her amazement, she comes across an original copy of the founding document of IPS, duplicated with the now quite faded purple ink of the mid 20th century known then as hectograph, involving a gelatin stencil and alcohol moistened paper.\u00a0 She comes across the following statement in this founding document: \u201cThe Institute provides an interwoven program of studies.\u00a0 It is not a catechetical, biblical, or liturgical Institute, but pastoral.\u00a0 This means that the Institute studies the total action of the Church, which is preaching and teaching, praying and worshiping, guiding and forming.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Our view of church is not exclusively parochial and our practice of ministry transcends traditional religious structures and institutions.\u00a0 This of course generates a dynamic, constructive theology that meets people where they are, evolves with the experiences of each individual life and every secular and sacred culture.\u00a0 Or, as Ignatius succinctly said\u201d \u201cFinding God in all things.\u201d\u00a0 These are the benchmarks of Pastoral Theology unfolding in the many and varied forms of ministry our graduates pursue: pastoring churches as either ordained or non-ordained leaders of faith communities, teaching religion in school and parish settings, counseling people within the context of faith, providing spiritual direction, providing hospital chaplaincy, working towards social justice for the poor and marginalized, and in so many other settings and situations.<\/h5>\n
And so we gather here tonight to celebrate not only the internal dynamism of IPS, but also what Karl Rahner, S.J. spoke about in his 1979 talk titled, \u201cToward a Fundamental Interpretation of Vatican II.\u201d\u00a0 He heralded the coming of a world church, not Euro-centered, but world-centered.\u00a0 A church that celebrates other faiths as crucibles of revelation, which reveres the many and varied cultural experiences and expressions of faith, and finds great meaning and strength in diversity.\u00a0 Alfred Lord Tennyson hinted at this epic change in Idylls of the King: \u201cThe old order changeth, yielding place to the new.\u00a0 And God fulfils himself in many ways.\u00a0 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.\u201d\u00a0 IPS is both a sacred crucible of Rahner\u2019s world church and a prophetic glimpse into that future. As the holy Koran says, \u201cWe have created you\u2026and appointed you races and tribes, that you may know one another.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Tonight we gather to take seriously the gospel of Matthew\u2019s words: \u201cYou are the light of the world.\u00a0 No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where in shines for everyone in the house.\u00a0 In the same way your light must shine in the sight of humanity, so that, seeing your good works, they may give you praise\u2026\u201d<\/h5>\n
We gather here tonight to give praise to IPS and, particularly, to a partnership of mainstays whose teaching has been a constitutive part of Transformational Education and Pastoral Theology, the golden threads running through the life of IPS, calling people to the coming world church.\u00a0 They first taught at IPS just two years after the moon landing.\u00a0 One small step for the Whiteheads; one giant step for Transformational Education and Pastoral Theology at IPS.\u00a0 In the words of Ecclesiasticus:\u00a0 \u201cMany will praise their understanding, and it will never be forgotten.\u00a0 Their memory will not disappear, generation after generation their name will live.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Tonight we celebrate you, Jim and Evelyn. Your contributions to the ever-ongoing development of Transformational Education and Pastoral Theology are many.\u00a0 \u201cNow thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices. Who wondrous things has done in Whom this world rejoices\u2026\u201d\u00a0 All of us who are IPS thank you for your dedication to its transformational and pastoral vision and mission of IPS.<\/h5>\n
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October 17, 2017The Institute of Pastoral Studies community gathered this past weekend for the 2017 Alumni and Friends Dinner, an event dedicated to raising funds for IPS scholarships.The highlight of the evening saw Evelyn and James Whitehead, beloved IPS professors, receive the Aggiornamento Award.\u00a0 This video tribute to the Whiteheads details the over 40-plus year read more <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,14,15,16,17,18,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ips","category-ips-alumni","category-ips-events","category-ips-photos","category-ips-student-orientation","category-ips-students","category-ips-videos","category-loyola-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4972,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions\/4972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}