Hulst Installed as Calvin College Chaplain

In a colorful service that took place in the chapel at Calvin College, Rev. Mary Hulst was installed this week as chaplain of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., the 133-year-old college of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Actually on the job and busy with students and other concerns already, Hulst says she was deeply moved by the installation service.

"It was just amazing. It was great," she said of the service. "This was the college’s gift to me. I felt the love of the community and their delight in the certainty of God and having someone here to help as chaplain."

A longtime preacher at Calvin's Living Our Faith Together (LOFT) services, Hulst has been getting better acquainted with Calvin students in recent weeks since being appointed chaplain.

“What I love about working with college students is they’re so open and eager to talk. They ask big questions. They listen to the answers. They can be very wacky and playful and funny," she said in an earlier interview for the college’s News and Stories web site.

Hulst spent eight years serving as the senior pastor at Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids before leaving to pursue a Ph.D. in communication ethics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her bachelor's degree is in classical studies from Calvin College, and her Master of Divinity was granted by Calvin Theological Seminary. Hulst taught for one year in the Communications Arts and Sciences Department at Calvin College and then for two years at Calvin Theological Seminary, as Assistant Professor of Preaching, where she maintains a teaching position.

During the message, based on Isaiah 42, at the installation service, Rev. Scott Hoezee said, "Here we are this October afternoon at John Calvin's college installing a new chaplain who is eager to stand with students and faculty and staff foursquare in the tradition of complete submission to the God to whom we offer our very hearts."

Commentators point out, said Hoezee, Isaiah 42 is the first of several chapters that direct people to think about "the Servant of the Lord." Ultimately this Servant will be no less than the Messiah, he said, but there are others who can and do serve God.

"To my friend Mary, you have taken on a vital role in this place," said Hoezee, director of the Calvin Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin theological Seminary. "What you will say to students, your words from the pulpit, and your (other) words (with students)…can have a profound shaping effect on future servant leaders in God's kingdom. Your interactions with faculty peers, with the administration, with the staff are all nestled within the larger mission of this place to equip hearts and minds for the making of shalom."

At her installation, Hulst was given a stole on which, among other things, "a dove supports several hands that offer up one heart to God."

Hulst will serve a pastoral role for students and for faculty and staff as well, reporting to both the vice president for student life and the provost. She will head the office of Christian formation, mentoring associate chaplains and other staff. Hulst will also teach in the new department of congregational and ministries studies and in the seminary.

After the retirement of Calvin Chaplain Dale Cooper in 2007, the college refocused the role and position of chaplain and restructured the Campus Ministries office and personnel. Some of the duties of Dean of the Chapel were enfolded into the new College Chaplain position, a position that had been held by Neal Plantinga and then Laura Smit.