Photo Essay

Thomas Robert Trimbach

Professor Hudgens

WRD 110- Photo Essay

10/9/15

            When it came to this paper I was stuck for a little while. When I was first asked to write a speech about a community I belonged to I didn’t have any current one that I felt connected with. After thinking for a short time I knew that one community that I had always felt like I belonged to was my church. Then we went to the library and the librarian made me think of something I hadn’t thought about before, that I wouldn’t be able to find any books or resources on my topic. Soon after our library visit I had an idea of talking about how many college students still actively practice their faith. When I asked 10 people two simple questions on the way home from class one day last week "Were you a religious person before you came to college" And "How many times have you attended mass." Out of those eight people, three of them had been to mass, and only one of the three had been to mass more than three times while staying at UK. Then I knew what community I was going to talk about, it wasn’t a specific community in particular but the religious student community. Students at Kentucky have a variety of churches and places of worship, twelve on and within a mile of campus. St. Augustine’s Chapel, Holy Spirit Parish and Catholic Newman Center, and United Methodist Wesley Foundation all have great accessible hours, are in walking distance, and are popular faiths in America.

           

                                

St. Augustine’s Chapel is a Lutheran and episcopal campus ministry at UK. Lutherans make up six percent of all citizens of the United States And 11 percent of the citizens of Kentucky. (Pewforum.org) The picture above is of St. Augustine’s Chapel. It is located on Rose Street right next to Sorority Row. This church is 10 minutes walking distance from virtually everywhere on campus. They even have a sign in their lawn saying there is a free meal on Sundays at 5:35 PM. They are trying to reach out and really get the attention of the college students by using the free food technique. They hold worship times on Sunday at 5:35 PM, Thursday at 7:00 PM and 9:35 PM. When I look at the picture above I feel welcomed. On their website they even say,  “Whoever you are, and wherever you are on your faith journey, you have a place here at St. Augustine's! All are welcome!!” (Saintaugustineschapel.com)

                                    

            The Catholic Newman Center is a place of worship for catholic living in Lexington. It is located right behind the Chi Omega house. If you do not know where that is it is very close to Qdoba. The catholic faith makes up 20.8 percent of all citizens living in the United States. In Kentucky however they only make about 10 percent (Pewforum.org). If you think about it that is still a lot of Catholics walking around campus.  They have mass at many different times so that if you are busy during one time you will be able to make it to a different one. Their mass schedule is Saturday at 6:00 PM, Sunday at 9:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 5:00 PM, 8:30 PM, and on Monday at 12:10 (uknewmancenter.org).  The mass that is held on Monday is only in session during the UK school year. This just goes to show you that the college is a big part of this church; they care about the students and their faith. You can tell that by the picture above, they have a University of Kentucky flag hanging from the church. If that doesn’t scream that the university of Kentucky students are welcomed here I don’t know what does.

                      

The Wesley Foundation is a Methodist Student center. They are located right across the street from the Woodlend Glen Dorms. This means that if you live in Woodlend Glen it is approximately a 45 second walk.  However the side you can see from the dorms is not the appealing to the eye. The Wesley foundation actually shares a parking lot with the JCF. This building doesn’t have anything that really sticks out or that is too inviting but they actually do a lot of good here. Every Monday night at 6:30 PM they have a “renew” worship and free meal after. Again they are using the free food approach to try to get college students to come check them out. 12 percent of all Protestants in America are Methodist, and protestant make up 53 percent of the civilians who live in America (Pewforum.org). Again, this is a huge number of people who are this faith that are on this campus.

As a student body we have the recourses and buildings around us. People use the excuse that they are too busy but in the end these places all have different worship times and all of there websites say that you may make meetings with the ministers of the worship places. When I started this paper I had no idea that there were this many different places of worship. The three places I talked about above are only 3 worship places there are 9 more with in a mile. I’m sure that no matter what your faith is that there is a place for you to pray with in walking distance of the campus.

           

Bibliography

"Religious Landscape Study." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. N.p., 9 May 2015. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.

"Holy Spirit Parish Newman Center." Holy Spirit Parish Newman Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

ABC News. ABC News Network, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

"Saint Augustine's Chapel." N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.