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Past News from Fall 2003News Archives
December 20-31
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New Saint Andrews College wishes all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. May the Triune God bless all our students, faculty, staff, administrators, Board members, parents, friends, supporters, neighbors, and community in 2004. And thanks to Nathan Wilson, Gordon Wilson, Rob Sentz, Mark Beauchamp and others who helped adorn the New Saint Andrews building with the streams of lights to celebrate our first Advent and Christmas in our new building with color and style.
December 5
Chamber Choir celebrates Christmas with carols and stories
The New Saint Andrews College Chamber Choir performed "Carols and Stories," a history of Christmas carols and advent songs, before an audience of about 300 at the First Presbyterian Church in Moscow, Friday, Dec. 5.
The Chamber Choir, a select group of student vocalists, is directed by Dr. Louis Schuler, Jr., Fellow of Music. Dr. Schuler introduced each carol and song with brief histories and stories of the music and lyrics. Mrs. Kim Schuler accompanied the choir on the organ. A recorder quartet, including Dr. Schuler, Katy Cummings, Noel Craft, and Bethany Hoyt also performed. Freshman soprano Nicole de Martinprey was featured as a soloist on one number.
(Upper) The Chamber Choir performs its opening carol; (lower left) Dr. and Mrs. Schuler with their gigantic chocolate bar, a gift from the choir students; (right) Nicole de Martinprey (center) solos.
At the conclusion of the concert, the Chamber Choir students presented Dr. and Mrs. Schuler with a five-kilogram (11 pounds) solid block of Belgianchocolate bar as a thank you for all their hard work this year.
The Concert Choir will perform "The Liturgy of St. John Chrysystom" by Rachmaninoff on Friday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m., at the UI SUB Ballroom.
December 5
Senior Fellow Doug Jones honored for "Best Writing"
The annual anthology The Best Christian Writing has selected an essay by Senior Fellow Doug Jones for its current 2004 collection. Jones’s essay “Just Wood” appeared in volume 14, No. 4 of Credenda/Agenda magazine, which is published in Moscow and edited by Douglas Wilson.
Publisher’s Weekly calls the 2004 anthology “an eclectic treasure trove,” and Library Journal says “it provides a mixture of the sublime and the accessible.”
Booklist says “the fourth edition of this annual challenges and entertains . . . . Douglas Jones’s ‘Just Wood’ . . . alternates, with never a line’s space between them, long paragraphs on rendering trees into lumber and long paragraphs on a family encounter with giant redwoods, and conveys much botanical and religious lore about trees in both expository streams.”
The 2004 anthology is published by Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, (www.josseybass.com), an imprint of Wiley & Sons. John Wilson, editor-at-large of Christianity Today is the volume’s editor, which features an introduction by Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School. Other authors in the 2004 anthology include Kathleen Norris, Philip Jenkins, Lewis Smedes, and Frederica Mathews-Green.
Doug Jones is senior editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine and a senior fellow of philosophy at New Saint Andrews College. He is co-author of Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth. Christianity Today described his parody, The Mantra of Jabez, as “a mixture of delightful mimicry, Swiftian-strength theological satire, and inspired silliness in the great Monty Python tradition.” Doug Jones lives in Potlatch, Idaho, with his wife Paula and their five children, who are also budding writers, poets, satirists, and goofballs.
November 13
An Open Letter to the Moscow-Pullman Communities from Dean Roy Atwood
October 31
College celebrates Reformation Day with annual banquet
One hundred seventy-five students, faculty, and friends of New Saint Andrews gathered for the College's annual feast to celebrate the Reformation and completion of the first term, October 31, at Moscow's University Inn Best Western. This was the largest attendance at a fall banquet since the event began. The program included readings, singing, tongue-in-cheek student "awards" to faculty, and faculty "awards" to students. Being Calvinists, worried that students might enjoy themselves a touch too much for one night, the College faculty distributed first term grades at the conclusion of the banquet. Attendees gave the banquet a grade of CL (Cum Laude).
Reformation Banqueteers (left to right): Jen and Joe Carlson, Ty Rawlins, Nathan Anderson, and Bethany and Jacob Harding
September 27
Senior Fellow Jones and Unitarian clash over "Living Well"
Doug Jones, Senior Fellow of Philosophy and chairman of the New Saint Andrews Board of Trustees, debated Dr. Forrest Church, senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City, the country's largest Unitarian congregation, on "Conflicting Visions of the Art of Living Well," Sept. 30. The debate, attended by an estimated 700 political and theological liberals, conservatives, and Trinitarian Christians at the University of Idaho's Student Union Ballroom, was sponsored by the Collegiate Reformed Fellowship, a campus ministry of Christ Church, Moscow, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse.
Dr. Church, the son of the late U.S. Senator from Idaho, Frank Church, was educated at Stanford University (A.B., 1970), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., 1974), and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Early Church History (1978). Dr. Church, 54, has written or edited 20 books, including: Father and Son:, A Personal Biography of Senator Frank Church of Idaho (Faber and Faber, 1985); Our Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism (Beacon, 1989) with John Buehrens; God and Other Famous Liberals (Walker, 1996); and The American Creed (St. Martins, 2002).
In the debate, Church advocated a "non-doctrinal" multiculturalism (wavering between polytheism and agnosticism) which he likened to a beautiful cathedral where everyone was looking at the light coming through different stained glass windows. He encouraged people to simply enjoy their own views and tolerate the religious views of others. The only religion he couldn't tolerate, he said, was one that excluded others or threw rocks at others. "That which unites us is good and that which divides us is potentially evil," Dr. Church said. No religion is superior or has a handle on truth compared to other religions, according to Dr. Church. He refused to defend historic Unitarian theology regarding the nature and character of God. When asked what the light was coming through his imaginary cathedral windows, he suggested it had something to do with the "divine in each of us," but he really didn't know.
Doug Jones likened Unitarians to Muslims and secularists whose gods are solitary, cranky "hermit gods." By rejecting the Triune God, Jones said, they end up with an impersonal, authoritarian, and "boring" god who cannot account for truth, beauty or goodness or best parts of life.
"To conceive of a god who does not know love, a god who has never shared, a god for whom a relationship with another is eternally irrelevant, can’t be called a healthy god," Jones said. "And it would be at odds with the good life. Even if a hermit god creates some persons around it, that god would have to learn about personality, and the persons would know more about being human than the god. Personality and community and all they bring aren’t natural to a hermit god."
Rejecting Church's universalism, Jones argued that claiming all beliefs are equal was an arrogant claim because it excludes all those who do not believe all religions are equal. Only the Trinity, as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, provides the perfect example of community, unity and diversity, that makes love and self-sacrifice for others possible. "Unitarians, secularists, and Muslims--all those who reject Trinitarian life--love power and conformity," Jones said. Love and community aren't possible under a single, monistic, authoritarian god because people become like the gods they worship and serve.
"The Christian gospel does not," said Jones, "call us to a hermit monotheism. Definitely not. It calls us to fellowship with a Triune God, the God who is a personal One, a monotheism, and at the same time three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a true one but also a society, a natural community. The three persons are not distinct gods, and they are not phases of god, and they are not parts of God. God is both One and Three, identical and different. Yes, the Trinity is a supreme mystery. As C.S. Lewis observed, 'If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions.'”
Mr. Jones called on Dr. Church and the audience to turn from Unitarianism and secularism's invented idol-gods to the living, Triune God so that they might enjoy a life lived well: "The Triune God is a mysterious, unified One of three persons giving and living the best life, the sort of God who has the breathtaking humor and creativity to sculpt giraffes, ostriches, elephants, lions, pigs, beetles, jellyfish, horses, and eagles. The Christian God is the source of personality, community, sexuality, playfulness, nobility, creativity, humor, and the best wines. The Trinity is who we would all naturally long to be connected to, an intriguing, brilliant, playful, noble, intoxicating God."
September 27
Fall Windy adds nicely to the College's scholarship fund
The College's annual fall benefit ball, the Fall Windy, held Friday, Sept. 26 and attended by about 200 students and friends of the College, was not only great fun, but raised money for the College's scholarship fund. Final tallies of ticket sales, contributions, and expenses are not in yet, but Mr. Ben Merkle, Director of Student Affairs and student events coordinator, reported that the scholarship fund will definitely enjoy a healthy boost afer expenses for the ball are substracted.
Tickets for the College's next big benefit ball, held in conjunction with Credenda/Agenda's spring History Conference, will become available through our online bookstore sometime in October. If you couldn't attend the Fall Windy but would still like to make a contribution to our scholarship fund for needy students, you can do through our secure online bookstore site.
September 20
College-sponsored community blood drive draws 150 donors
NSA students turned out to help with the blood drive and to donate. (Left) First-year students Nicole deMartinprey (CA; left), Erika Gronewold (WA; center), and Sharon Telling (VA; right) signed up to give. (Right) Charles P. VanSomeren (WI) stands amazed that not even the sight of Larson Hicks's (TX) own blood could wipe the smile off Larson's face or uncurl his "cool dreds."
The College's blood drive, in cooperation with the Inland Northwest Blood Center of Spokane and hosted at Logos School on Saturday, Sept. 20, attracted about 150 donors from the College and the Moscow communities and generated more than 130 pints of much needed blood. Thanks to John Lewis, a senior and member of the College staff, who organized and managed the event this year, taking over from the capable hands of Mrs. Rachel Jankovic, who had organized last year's drives. Several Moscow businesses generously supported the blood drive with donations of food and professional services. Special thanks from the College to Bucer's Coffeehouse Pub, Insty-Prints, La Casa Lopez, Logos School, Old Peking Restaurant, Wheatberries Bake Shop, and Zume Bakery & Cafe for their generosity.
September 4
College gets new look outside and new display cases inside
The College's historic building now looks like new on the outside and Tyndale now has some lovely new wood display cases inside. The display cases will exhibit the College's rare books and valuable manuscripts. Outside damaged and worn brick and mortar were repaired and the entire building received a fresh (double) coat of paint to seal and preserve the brick structure, built between 1893 and 1925. Mike Metzler's Premiere Painting (www.ppainting.com), of Moscow, did the sealing and painting work. Buzz Purnell Masonry, Moscow, repaired the brick and mortar on the building. Mr. Mark Wintz, Moscow (currently living in Lyon, France), was the designer. Mr. John Campbell, Adjunct Instructor in Interior Design at the University of Idaho, consulted on the color selection. Tyndale LIbrary's two new display cases were built and installed by Larry Turnbow of Woodcraft Unlimited, DeSmet, Idaho.
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Above: Second floor offices on Main Street Below: Northeast corner of the original 1893 section of the building. The College's administrative offices are upstairs and Zume French Bakery and Cafe lease space from the College downstairs. |
Above: Second floor offices at Main St. and Friendship Square Below: One of Tyndale Library's two new display cases. Now on display are the complete works of Athanasius, published in 1777, donated by Ball and Cross Books, Moscow, and a medieval illuminated manuscript, donated by Jeff Kezar, Boise. |
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August 28
College begins 10th academic year with record enrollment
New Saint Andrews starts the 2003-2004 academic year with a record enrollment of 134 full- and part-time students from 29 states, three Canadian provinces, Mexico and Japan. The student body has 62 women (46%) and 72 men (54%), of whom 61 were homeschooled (45%), 49 attended Christian schools (37%), 16 came from government schools (12%) and eight (6%) came as transfer students or already possessed undergraduate or graduate degrees. The College admitted 49 full- and part-time new students this fall. The College limits annual admission of new students to between 40 and 45 full-time degree-seeking enrollees. The average standardized test scores for all New Saint Andrews 2003-2004 students are 1211 for the SAT (Combined) and 27 for the ACT (Combined). The new freshman class averaged 1212 on the SAT and 25 on the ACT.
August 20
College building's 110-year-old brick face gets a lift
New Saint Andrews may only be 10 years old, but the most prominent wing of the College's historic building is 110 years old, and it is starting to show its age. So beginning this week, masons and painters will begin the work of "repointing" (replacing) weak and damaged mortar and repainting the exterior to seal the brick from moisture and the corrosive effects of the weather. The new paint will have a more natural brick look, which will replace the old "barn red
" paint that was applied by the previous owners of the building (GTE/Verizon telephone companies) almost 20 years ago. The one potentially controversial aspect to the project will be painting over the Renaissance Fair mural on the building's west wall. Painting over the mural can't be avoided, but the College hopes to eventually replace the mural with a more broadly community-oriented one which includes references to Farmer's Market, UI Jazz Festival, Rendezvous in the Park, Credenda History Conference, and other major community and College events taking place in Moscow throughout the year.
August 19
Convocation starts College's 10th year
New Saint Andrews celebrated the start of its 10th academic year by hosting its annual Convocation ceremony attended by approximately 300 people, including students, their families, staff, faculty, administrators, Board members, and guests. The center of the chiastically structured program was the inaugural address by the College's newest faculty member, Dr. Gordon Wilson, Fellow of Natural Philosophy, entitled, "A Christian Philosophy of Science Education." An ice cream social/reception on Friendship Square followed the ceremony.
August 4
Mr. Leithart goes to Washington
Senior Woelke Leithart worked this summer as an intern with Idaho's senior U.S. Senator Larry Craig at his office in Washington, D.C. Leithart's duties includied showing dignitaries and visitors the sights around the nation's capital. One of those dignitaries was Idaho resident and film star Bruce Willis, probably best known for his Die Hard series. Willis has starred in dozens of films over a 20-plus-year career, including The First Deadly Sin (1980), The Verdict (1982), Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Pulp Fiction (1994), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), The Jackal (1997), and Armageddon (1998)--really Armageddon (or was that Supergeddon?).
Even before Mr. Leithart went to Washington and started hobnobbing with world leaders and Hollywood stars, Woelke had an interest in film and hopes to write his senior thesis on film criticism this academic year. Woelke is the eldest son of Dr. and Mrs. Peter Leithart, who are not film stars, but pretty famous in their own right.
Woelke Leithart gives Bruce Willis tips on playing to the camera
