Simpson has now two chaplains

By Vania Quiroz

News Editor

In a unique step toward an improved ministry, Angela Gafford andChris Waddle became co-chaplains of Simpson College. Each one willfocus on a different area.

“[This new structure] allows us to make a wiser use of [Angela’sand my] gifts as ministers,” said Chris Waddle, chaplain anddirector of church relations. “It will let us go further with thesame amount of energy.”

With her new title of chaplain and director of Religious LifeCouncil, Gafford plans to devote most of her time and effort to theneeds of RLC.

However, she won’t push aside her responsibilities aschaplain.

“Both Chris and I have different experiences as pastors,”Gafford said. “As people relate to different people in differentways, I hope they can relate to either of us.”

According to Waddle, the decision to change Angela’s title cameup as a result of the long conversations he and Angela had lastsummer about their performance.

Even though certain responsibilities were assigned to eachchaplain, the two have agreed not to make a tight division of theirwork.

“None of us wanted to divide everything and let one of us be incharge of just administrative stuff and the other one of pastoralcare,” Waddle said. “We’re both ministers, so we agreed we both hadto have some amount of counseling and prayer worship.”

Gafford said one of the most rewarding aspects of her job isbeing with students in the critical times of formation anddevelopment of their lives.

“Some students often come to college with a particular idea ofwhat religion and being faithful means,” Gafford said. “Thechallenge is to provide students with the opportunities to be ondialogue with another students whose experiences are different andto find ways to learn from them.”