A New Vision

A new vision for Collegiate Ministry in the PC(USA) was launched  this week at General Assembly. The center of this vision is a new organization, UKirk Ministries. This will be a "brand", a Westminster Fellowship for the Twenty-first Century, as well as an organization which will encourage, support and advocate for college ministries in the denomination. This "brand" is not proscriptive, that is, no campus ministry will have to call themselves a UKirk ministry. The hope is that the existing ministries with good name recognition might include somewhere in their literature that the ministry is "a UKirk Ministry."

UKirk - for "University Church" - seems appropriate for this time. It has a strong congregational tone, and the logo has a steeple. "Kirk" has historical Presbyterian /Church of Scotland connections. One comment in the past decade was that no student had any idea what "Westminster" had to do with a church. Perhaps many students will not know what a Kirk is (besides Starfleet's youngest Captain). Prebygeek students will get the Presbyterian connection. The "UKirk" combination has a current, edginess to it.

An initial UKirk.org website has been developed. The website also includes an introductory video.  PACHEM and pachem.org will shortly be folded into UKirk.