Meet the Chaplain
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The Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel+ ('89)
Office location: Third Floor Old Sem Feel free to visit my Facebook page. |
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My name is Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel ("Fr. Cathy", "Padre", Catherine...answering to just about anything) . I am an Episcopal priest, and privileged to serve my alma mater as Cornell's Chaplain in an ecumenical and interfaith capacity.
What do I do? As Therese of Lisieux would say, my vocation is love. My living out of that vocation as Chaplain of Cornell College involves the care and growth of souls--not only as a priest and spiritual guide but through teaching, mentoring, interfaith-understanding, and serving as an institutional and spiritual leader of complex community. I provide pastoral care and spiritual nurture for students, faculty, and staff of diverse backgrounds and needs within Christianity, other faith traditions, among seekers, the "spiritual but not religious", and folks with secular perspectives. In this pastoral/spiritual guide context and beyond I help people explore their interior lives, discern their sense of meaning, awaken a sense of awe and wonder, clarify their values, and expand their sense of interconnection with others, world, and God. I provide voluntary opportunities for spiritual and/or religious growth, wellness, literacy and practice including worship [i.e. Soul Feast Chapel w/ Peace Eucharist (Holy Communion) on Wednesdays; Meditation, Silent Centering Prayer & Mindfulness on Fridays, spiritual retreats, service projects, social justice programming, preaching and presiding at Baccaluareate, and assisting Hillel, Sanctuary, evangelicals, and other student groups with their religious needs]; help shape leaders including the 20+ students who serve on The Office of Chaplain & Spiritual Life Christian (Soul Friends) and Interfaith (Interfaith Exploration & Understanding) leadership teams; teach in the Religion Department; provide pre-theology and pre-ministerial career advising; serve as minister in campus ceremonies and memorials; assist various Divisions of the College as needed (Alumni & Advancement, Admissions, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs); and help President Garner sustain the College's relationship with the United Methodist Church in and beyond the Iowa Annual Conference (this position reports to the President.)
Folks who seek me out know I will not coil as they voice doubts or the difficult questions they're suppose to be asking amid their college years. Part of theological humility before Mystery is using the gift of reason as a prayer form. As thinking people of faith we embrace reason. We use it as we explore the universe, though in opening ourselves to such wonder, love, loss, forgiveness, beauty, and awe we often experience something we can't quantify or name with rational mind. For me, here is where the poet-priest, mystic, spiritual wisdom of Rumi or quantum physics, and practices like meditation/contemplative prayer comes into play (cultivating consciousness and awareness of that which exists beyond thought). Same with any act of self-emptying or unselfish love in which Ego-mind thins. Somehow it helps us see and live from something deeper than a surface level self. All of this is my life quest for Union as I try to live less opaquely (what Episcopalians call Incarnational lens). As I desire to pull back the veil strung across the brow beyond the surface level of reality. To live from--and glimpse-- the Eternal within yet beyond all beings (what my tradition knows as Spirit--the 3rd member of the Holy Trinity though others may call it Atman, Chi, Ruach--breath of God, "God energies" as Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition puts it...and other names for the Infinite Life Force which, like sap, courses through life's veins). When I tap this sap, it can't help but bring me humbly toward gratitude, laughter, awe. Toward radical monotheism amid our differences--toward a sense of oneness beyond all of our illusions of separation and Ego-mind "answers" be they from the "left" the "right" or other religious and/or secular division.
As an Episcopal priest, I am a devout Christian with neo-orthodox spiritual leanings whose commitment to interfaith understanding flows out of my Christology. Theological humility, reconciling virtue, what John Wesley called vital piety (loving God with all one's mind and heart via compassion in the world), and sensing an underlying sacred oneness amid our differences is all part of this faith stance.
In my spare time I enjoy long distance runs along flowing Iowa fields, spiritual writing, study of mystical theological tradition (union with God) as found in Christian tradition (i.e. eastern Orthodox i, Frs. Bede Griffiths whose Benedictine monastery--Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanum, I journeyed to in India) and Eastern traditions (The Gita, Upanishads, the writings Swami Prabhavananda, and poems of Rabia, Mirabai, Rumi and others). I enjoy meditation and study of contemplative wisdom traditions East and West (overlap of themes such as self-emptying, non-clinging/relinquishment, silence, learning to lean into uncertainity and discomfort with both curiosity and loving kindness). I savor Christian desert & monastic wisdom from the 4th c. on, and Carmelite spirituality). Mary is my model for faith: Being a tabernacle or vessel housing the Eternal within her being, as well as her faith amid fear of unknowns, and--her saying "Let it be" as one open to being a Godbearer of Light and Love in the world. Consecrated myself to God through her at Lourdes. Also try to live, as Therese of Liseux, St. John of the Cross, Paul, and many an unpretentious Iowa farmers do in the way of humility, littleness, and childlike trust.
My academic field at the masters and Ph.D. level included Holocaust religious thought, theology of human suffering and lament tradition, history of Christian anti-Judaism and Jewish-Christian relations, and the field of religion and visual art. Also interested in liberation theology and obviously mystical and contemplative theology, especially non-dualism as found in Fr. Bede Griffiths writings and others. My M.Div. and M.A. in Religion are from Pacific School of Religion. I left my PhD. in Theology, Ethics, & Culture in order to be a mom and the chaplain of my alma mater. Prior to ordination as a priest, I was ordained for ten years in the United Church of Christ--a tradition I still cherish. I've created and taught courses in Jesus & Judaism, Suffering & the Sacred, and will take students to India in 2010 for a course entitled Namaste: Meditation, Mysticism, and Love.
Favorite things: Belly laughter. Black jelly beans. Playfulness among family, friends, and clergy. Gardening our acreage. Being a wife and mom. I serve as Associate Priest at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City in my "spare time." I have served on the Board of Directors for the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, the diocesan Reconciliation team, and was the Director of Diocesan Summer Ministry School and Retreat from 2006 to 2009.
I live in Mt. Vernon with my husband, Craig ('87), our daughter, Rachel, and our dog Atticus Finch.
