Laura Lee Wilson leaving Wesley Foundation at UD

Laura Lee Wilson: “The pendulum has swung, and the University at all levels has become more open and receptive to the spiritual and religious life and needs on campus.”

4:22 p.m., May 12, 2005--“It’s a bittersweet time--I am sad to be leaving and yet feel challenged and called by a different kind of ministry.” The speaker is Laura Lee Wilson who is leaving the Wesley Foundation at UD after 14 years to become pastor of Mt. Olive United Methodist Church in Randallstown, Md.

She calls her time at UD “an incredible journey.” Looking back over the years, Wilson said she has watched the University grow and change. “The pendulum has swung, and the University at all levels has become more open and receptive to the spiritual and religious life and needs on campus,” Wilson said.

The foundation of her ministry has been working with students. “One of the joys of working with and trying to help students is what I call that ‘Aha!’ moment, a kind of epiphany when academic, personal and spiritual concerns click and they know what the right thing is to do and are energized,” Wilson said.

“It’s been a privilege to walk with students and the faculty and staff at the University and be invited into their lives,” she said. She has performed rites of passage at weddings, baptisms and memorial services, all of them a meaningful part of her ministry. Many people continue to keep in touch with her and share what is going on in their lives, she said.

Another major part of her ministry has been counseling students and others in the University community. “I also am an official adviser to students who are involved in the judicial system at the University. They look to me for help, and I am humbled by their trust,” Wilson said.

For the past nine years, an annual highlight has been taking a group of students to Lumberton, N.C., to work on repairing houses for the elderly and poor during spring break. The area is home to the Lumbee nation of Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians, where the students interact and learn about different cultures and traditions while doing manual labor. Some of the UD students return year after year to help out, she said.

“We do it all--put on new roofs, dig trenches for pipes, paint and take out ceilings. The students go with no skills and return accomplished workers,” Wilson said. “I myself am very good at cutting shingles but no longer do high-ladder work.”

Wilson (right) talks with senior Kelli Rowedder (left) and sophomore Jacqueline Custer, who volunteered over spring break to help repair houses for the elderly and poor in Lumberton, N.C.

The students are more than rewarded for their efforts, such as the time a woman who had literally not been outside in 10 years was wheeled down the ramp the students built for her, Wilson recalled.

When tragedy strikes, such as 9/11 or an untimely death on campus, Wilson, with other religious leaders, has been a presence at interfaith services, voicing the grief and confusion the campus is experiencing and offering hope and healing.

Wilson has praise for her colleagues involved in other campus ministries. “They are a great group,” she said. “Some years ago, James Newton, who chaired the Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity, which I served on, suggested that we come together in an umbrella organization, which resulted in the Religious and Spiritual Concerns Caucus.

“We work together on some projects,” Wilson said. “For example, I started serving a midnight breakfast for students at the Methodist church one night during exam period. It mushroomed from 100 students to more than 300 and from a continental-type breakfast to the works. I needed help and turned to the caucus, which came to my rescue,” Wilson said.

“Laura Lee Wilson has provided great service to the University of Delaware, her University colleagues and University students. An important part of her legacy will be the founding of the current version of the religious leaders organization and leading those colleagues to prominence during the period following the events of Sept. 11, 2001. We thank you, Laura Lee, and we wish you well.”
--UD President David P. Roselle

“Laura Lee has been a positive force on the University campus, always ready to assist students and staff with a better understanding of moral and ethical issues. Moreover, she has brought that understanding to the deliberations of the Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity, and she will indeed be missed.”
--Maxine Colm, vice president for administration

“Laura Lee has dedicated her time here at the University of Delaware to the ministry of students, faculty, staff and administration. She has given of herself completely while she has been here. She has been responsible for the development and growth of the University Religious Leaders’ Organization, the Religious and Spiritual Life Concerns Caucus and the University Religious Leaders’ Liaison to the University. Religious and Spiritual Life has become an integral part of student life on campus because of her efforts.

“I met Laura Lee 15 years ago at physical therapy, where we discovered that we were in ministry at the same campus, and we have been friends ever since. She has been my mentor, colleague, supporter and friend. I cannot imagine campus ministry at UD without her. I do know that the work she has done will live on as she leaves the University. She has planted the seeds for our future. She answered God’s call to come here 15 years ago. God bless her as she continues to answer God’s call to serve God’s people.”
--Kim Zitner, chairperson of the Spiritual and Religious Concerns Caucus

“It has been my pleasure to work with Laura Lee Wilson on a number of projects and programs over the years. Laura Lee has always amazed me with her ability to meet the needs of the many constituencies on campus. I have watched Laura Lee work with students, staff, faculty and members of the community, always showing her utmost respect for all members of our campus community. She has been an active and respected religious leader on our campus. Her enthusiasm, optimism and spiritual guidance will be missed.”
--Richie Holland, manager, Office of Human Resources

Wilson has been an integral part of the UD campus life in a range of activities--advising the Wesley Foundation, counseling students, teaching classes in women’s studies, serving as a study abroad program instructor in New Zealand and Australia, holding workshops on diversity, serving on campus committees, helping plan ecumenical and interfaith services and helping to found and lead UD’s Religious and Spiritual Concerns Caucus.

She has been equally active off campus, serving as chaplain to the chaplains at the first International Conference for College and University Chaplains and Campus Ministers in Durham, England, and as a delegate to college chaplains’ conferences in Austria and Brazil. Wilson cochaired the United Methodists in Campus Ministry and was awarded the Francis Asbury Award for Fostering United Methodist Ministries in Higher Education from the Northeast Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church.

While her children were still young, Wilson made the decision to go to college, where she majored in religious studies. She graduated from McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College) and received her master of divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where she now is working on her doctorate.

The daughter of a Methodist minister, Wilson said her faith has been an important foundation all of her life. Reflecting on her role, she said, “God uses me as an earthen vessel to bring about awareness. What I have learned is inclusion--we are all children of God and worthy of love and respect.”

Article by Sue Moncure
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson

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