About: St. Mark's on the Campus

The Mission Statement of St. Mark's on the Campus

“St Mark's on the Campus strives to be a Eucharistic Community of reflection and action, acceptance and growth, Gospel and world.”

Our Church's History

For a history of St. Mark's on the Campus, see Our History from the church website – the account is only partial, from around 1921, when the current land was acquired. Before that 1921 transition it was a chaplaincy; after that it was something else. After 1921 it was neither a parish nor a University Church (although it was still called “the University Episcopal Church”). It was, rather, unique in the country: a University Church independent of the University, that was "not parochial in any sense, and had no parish organizations, but [was] one of the Diocesan institutions, under the control of the Bishop". This History is still, however slowly, in progress, here in that link you can read about the origins of our church.

According to the cornerstone, on the left side of the "Big Red Doors," on the east side of the Courtyard that is the entrance to the chapel, the new church was built in 1965. These doors are in the courtyard that welcomes our neighbors to our property.

On the west side of the courtyard is Parish Hall, where various community-oriented events occur, both religious and non-religious. "at The Lion" refers to various non-religious events that occur in Parish Hall. The "Lion" is the bronze sculpture that stands — or rather, sits — just outside the windows on the north end of Parish Hall.

Meanwhile, if you are TRUELY motivated and energetic, you can, until such time as the church's History on its website is updated to the present day, review Search Results at Nebraska Newspapers about St. Mark's on the Campus. There you will find many articles and other items from 1952 to 1994, some of which provide interesting insights into the church and its community missions and activities.

About: at The Lion

The Venue

at The Lion, so named for the bronze sculpture of a wingéd lion, in the courtyard next to the venue at St. Mark's on the campus Episcopal Church at 13th & R streets, is a place where activities of interest to the community are held on the evenings of select Fridays each month.

Church & Community

Of all those words, the most threatening to many people is: “Church”.

Rest assured that no one should feel reluctant to come. This is only about the community with 13th & R streets at its center: UNL and downtown Lincoln (roughly "A"to "X" streets, 1st to 27th streets, plus the Near South and East Campus areas); a neighborhood not in a religious, or even in a demographic, statistical, economic, or particularly geographic sense, but in the sense of people who live near each other – in this instance sharing a mutual, academic & often artistic, cosmopolitan environment. And many of these neighbors visit from well outside this geographic area.

It is, sadly, an all too fragmented community, due mainly to the gentrification of its center, around 13th & R streets. While the venue is in a church (all that is left of the older neighborhood), we nonetheless hope to nurture that wounded, inherently cosmopolitan, academically and artistically inclined neighborhood, which continues to exist, just scattered over a wider area.

Activities at The Lion

On the 2nd Friday of each month, poetry readings are held, called “Poetry at The Lion”.

On the 4th Friday of each month, potluck dinners are held – with a speaker or event of some interest to our neighbors, called “Potluck Possibilities”.

These are held for the community to help our neighbors (and ourselves) become more familiar with each other. Our "religious motive" is nothing more ominous than that found in the second part of The Great Commandment: 'to love our neighbors as ourselves' (Mark 12:31).

Our Neighbors

Regarding the idea of "Neighbors", this neighborhood was in 1970, at the time of the Kent State shootings, a thriving residential neighborhood, stretching roughly from A to Vine streets & 10th to 22nd streets, which as part of the UNL milieux, frequently welcomed many new people as part of its family.

That neighborhood family was very heavily humanities based (Arts & Sciences), primarily in theatre, graphic arts, music, poetry, philosophy, and sciences – from anthropology to physics & zoology – as well as many other disciplines. It consisted entirely of off-campus housing and residents. Many people lived here around 13th & R streets, with St. Mark's as one of the most visible landmarks at it center.

Today it has been divested of that feeling and identity as a neighborhood; yet it still is one. Only St. Mark's on Campus remains at the center of the old "town & gown" neighborhood that transitions the UNL and the Downtown areas. It was and still remains, emphatically, a transitional neighborhood: the gateway for students to downtown Lincoln, and for downtown residents the gateway to UNL. It has, simply expanded geographically, returning it to boundaries more characteristic of the first half of the 20th centurty, when luminaries such as Willa Cather, John Frederick Ballard, Weldon Keys, Marie Sandoz, Karl Shapiro, Loren Eiseley and others of their ilk were residents, and often found in creative downtown venues.

The spirit of the neighborhood nevertheless remains in the “students,” be they the more permanent residential students 'of life and the arts' (downtown), or the more fleeting, ever-renewed presence 'of academic students' (UNL). These are the elements that mix at 13th & R streets.

The people of St. Mark's on Campus want to embrace their neighbors – all of them – as neighbors; people rather than “fodder” serving any religious or economic-political role. We want to become visible as a people, mostly settled academics and other educated people who care and share; rather than as nothing more than an old building in a highly gentrified area, beside the oil-stained 'bedrooms for cars' (parking lots) and school buildings – of significant, meaningful interest only to a few Christians – and Episcopalians at that.

We hope, of course, that anyone interested in the church will check us out, and maybe help us grow, but that is not the purpose – or function – of "at The Lion".

Purpose

Our purpose as a venue (and a church, for that matter) is, simply put, to be good and caring neighbors in our community. (Mark 12:31)

While this is true for all of Lincoln, this neighborhood in particular is the most cosmopolitan area of the town, due largely to the influence of UNL. Our neighbors, both at UNL and in the downtown area, are of all nations and all religions . . . which includes atheists as well as other religions and denominations.

And all are welcome here, from all parts of Lincoln and the world. They might not share our beliefs or wish to worship with us, but we hope they will enjoy mixing with us.

The Arts

Poetry is one of the classically recognized Fine Arts.

Arts, the metaphysical phenomenon behind the artifacts of our cultures, speaks to all, so we are offering an arts-focused venue for readings, the rubbing of elbows, and neighborhood-related interactions centered on a metaphysically based take on the physical world we all inhabit.

Beyond, and aside from, the craftsmanship of the artist is found the art, which, as humans, we all inherently possess – which is what makes us sentient beings. This is what we reach out to in each of you whom we invite to "at The Lion". Here we try to connect with the consciously & unconsciously feeling creatures that are our neighbors; the aware and creative neighbors in our community.