With Hope Church Gone, Bennett Chapel Still Without Chaplain

by Brittany Wilson, Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Whetstone

Wesley College Senior Teledalase Ogundipe said she was heartbroken to find out Hope United Methodist Church (UMC) would no longer be meeting at the Wesley College’s Bennett Chapel on Sunday mornings.

“Two weeks before finals last semester, [Pastor Steve] told us about it,” she said. “He had a meeting with President [Clark] and the president told him it was time for Hope Church to move on.”

Hope’s congregation merged with a church in Magnolia on the first Sunday in June.

Now, four months later, classrooms, parking lots and dorm rooms are all full, but the Wesley College Chapel and the campus chaplaincy remain vacant.

Ogundipe said she is upset the college did not have a replacement for the church or the chaplaincy in time for the new semester.

“If you’re going to take away something, the least you can do is replace it,” she said. “People need an outlet to cope with life because there are so many things [they] don’t understand. We don’t have a church or a chaplain right now, so who are we supposed to go to?”

Wesley College President Bob Clark said Hope Church left on their own accord.

“Steve LaMotte is the minister of Hope, he also had a congregation and a chapel in Magnolia,” he said. “Steve and the church were looking at a point where they would consolidate in Magnolia, and it just so happened that this summer is when this confluence happened.  So I looked at it as an opportunity— we have an open chapel, now we can get a full-time minister in.”

Clark said the move was Hope Church’s idea. He merely encouraged it.

“It wasn’t a cause and effect where I walked in and said, ‘I want my chapel back,’” Clark said. “They were thinking of consolidating and I was like, ‘Oh, really? I’m thinking of full-time ministry, maybe this can work out.’”

LaMotte said he and former President William Johnston had drafted a document to extend Hope’s relationship with Wesley College for five more years, soon before Clark was hired as Johnston’s replacement.

“I met with President Clark to introduce myself and share about how Hope and the Wesley College campus have been in partnership for over a decade,” he said. “During that meeting, President Clark shared that he had a different vision for campus ministry at Wesley, which included the chaplain running services on Sunday morning. This meant that we would need to find a new place to worship as a church.”

Clark said LaMotte’s agreement with Johnston did not apply to his vision.

“That was before my time,” he said. “(LaMotte) brought a memorandum of agreement and that’s when the discussion came up. (Lamotte said) ‘Hey, I’ve got another congregation, but I’m doing something here. At some point we will consolidate.’ I said, ‘Well if you’re going to consolidate, do we really need to do this memorandum of agreement? I have a vision to go full-time.’  It was more of a point of discussion, not a ‘move out now.’”

Associate Director of Admissions Christopher Jester, a member of Hope Church, said there was no timeline for exit, so the church had plenty of time to explore its options for a new home.

“There was always a thought that this was not going to be Hope’s forever home,” he said. “When it was announced that we were beginning to plan for a formal exit, we were sad to be leaving [but] we knew that we would find a new space soon enough.”

LaMotte said he was not entirely surprised by Clark’s vision.

“New leadership often brings a new vision and changes,” he said. “At first, it was upsetting to deal with change, [but] we were able to work with Magnolia UMC—which is about eight miles south of Wesley College—to share space and to merge our two churches into one. While I was frustrated about losing our home at Wesley, I believe that this partnership with Magnolia Church will be for the best.”

Although she still attends Hope at its new location, Ogundipe said she is frustrated they had to move.

“That was a whole community that was removed,” she said. “Families were going there, people from Dover were going there. The church would have their own community outreach, but you took them away from there.”

Ogundipe said the college should hire a chaplain as soon as possible.

“(We should) use that space, have worship nights, have discussion nights, have Sunday services,” she said. “Give people somewhere to go, somewhere [they] can just be themselves. We have freshmen on campus, they’re new to the environment. We need more toward that area of spirituality.”

Clark said administration is in the process of interviewing potential candidates for the chaplaincy, which he plans to make a full-time position.

“I really, really want to get to where we have an on-campus minister who is here during the week, but also on the weekends,” he said. “As you can imagine, it opens up a wide range of opportunities for students—community service, Bible study, and all sorts of things that chapels and congregations provide, that we as a campus have not been able to do for decades.”

LaMotte said Hope Church was already offering these sorts of opportunities to students.

“Hope Church provided the Wesley Community with 54 worship services a year, Bible Studies, community service, outreach and mission opportunities, spiritual guidance and counseling, and the opportunity to share musical gifts for the great price of (zero dollars) because of the partnership between the college and the church,” he said. “This was in addition to what the role of the chaplain is.”

LaMotte said the success of the college’s ministry will be directly dependent on the college itself.

“Will this benefit students? That depends on the college’s commitment to providing spiritual growth opportunities like having a chaplain on staff and hosting regular worship services,” he said. “The benefit to the students will directly depend on the college’s commitment to provide regular spiritual growth and worship opportunities.”

In the meantime, Clark said that students in need of spiritual guidance should go to Student Affairs for a listing of local churches and pastoral contacts.