| Sem gets new parsonage
by Laura Peterson
Staff Writer
PHOTO BY MELISSA KEELEY
The new Seminary parsonage takes shape across the pond.
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Quoting one of his own college professors, Seminary President Neal Plantinga said that hospitality might be considered the virtue of making others feel at home when you wish they were. However, he and his wife would rather define it as the virtue of “making room for others and helping them flourish.”
The new seminary president’s house has been christened “The Parsonage” for two reasons. Chaucer’s Parson in “The Canterbury Tales” is one.
“Of course it’s excellent to have a little of Chaucer at the Seminary,” said Plantinga.
The second reason is that CRC churches have traditionally provided homes, called parsonages, for their pastors. Since the Calvin Seminary president always has been and still is a minister of the Christian Reformed Church, “The Parsonage” seemed a fitting name.
Designed by Calvin alum Wayne Visbeen, the Parsonage will be built on two levels, the upper consisting of the master suite, main dining facilities, and library, with the guest rooms and recreation on the lower floor. Genuine fieldstone has been brought in from quarries in Pennsylvania for the chimney, rock walls and rock trim.
Funding for the project has been provided by generous donors, principally Ren and Elsa Prince-Broekhuizen.
President Neal Plantinga and his wife Kathleen intend to open their home and extend their hospitality to seminary students in many ways, starting with hosting regular meals, probably twice a week.
“Our working assumption,” Plantinga said, “is that no student should go through Calvin Theological Seminary without having had dinner at the Parsonage.” Not only Seminary students, but also staff, faculty, donors, alums, trustees and Calvin College students who are considering God’s call to ministry will be invited to share a meal. President and Mrs. Plantinga look forward to hosting their guests:
“We’ll have high quality food and drink, we’ll hear each other’s stories, and we’ll probably sing a little—at least those of us who know how,” he said.
Much emphasis will be placed on sharing meals at the Parsonage. Executive Chef Tim England helped design a commercial-grade kitchen for the house, and the college Food Service will be in attendance as well.
“Handing food to a guest is momentous,” said Plantinga. “It binds you to that person. The reason is that what you are saying when you pass a dish of food to another person is that you want that person to thrive.”
Plantinga considers serving a guest food as almost a sort of sacrament.
Food “binds [people] together in good will,” which is why breaking bread and taking meals together is mentioned so often in the Bible—fruit trees in Paradise, a Passover meal at the Exodus, manna in the desert, gleaning laws in farmers’ fields, the multiplication of loaves and fishes in the desert, breakfast on the beach with the resurrected Lord and parables that are fragrant with cookery and with promise of banquets to come.
In addition to the meals, Plantinga anticipates periodic Stanley Cup or NCAA basketball nights on the big-screen TV and regular sign-up times for students to play pocket billiards. Child-sized tables and chairs will be provided for students’ children, as well as an under-the-stairway hideout complete with swinging “saloon” doors.
The Plantingas expect to move into the Parsonage on or around August 15. Until then they are planning and looking forward to better serving the Seminary community and providing hospitality in classrooms, not only in social settings within the Seminary and in public events but also in the homes of faculty and staff.
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