The Rumors Are True . . .

April 10, 2005

If you were at the PC(USA) Seminary Ultimate Frisbee Tournament this weekend in Richmond, Virginia (and trust me it was the event of the weekend), you might have walked away thinking that Columbia Seminary’s Ultimate Frisbee Team was perhaps not quite as good as some of the other seminaries’ teams.

We lost our first game to one of Princeton’s teams something like 13-2 (really we stopped counting once they were up by eight, but they kept going . . .) and later we lost our second game to one of Union’s teams something like 14-7 (I was really too distracted by the amazing plays to keep an accurate accounting of the score in my head). It was not the prettiest picture you have ever seen, though there were some excellent moves, pulls, throws and catches by all players.

Yet, if you were there, and if you listened closely, you might have heard some rumors about Columbia: about our self-sacrifice and commitment to inter-seminary fellowship and relationships. I am here to tell you that the rumors are true.

We here at Columbia recognize how brilliant our school is in so many various categories - really there is no other school that can even compete. We were worried that if we showed up at Union and whipped everyone’s butts in Ultimate Frisbee that students of other seminaries might finally realize the error of their ways and all try to transfer to Columbia. While we do encourage new students, there are a number of possible snafus with this particular situation:

1. We here at Columbia pride ourselves on being a small community. We are family. We keep our numbers small to keep the community intact. If everyone decided to transfer, we would have to turn people away and this might force individuals to question their sense of call. And, really, we don’t want responsibility for that.
2. All the other seminaries would have to close. While we occasionally lament the differences and divides in our denomination, and perhaps occasionally pass eternal judgment on those unlike ourselves, we here at Columbia really do value diversity and celebrate the fact that there are different seminaries with different strengths. After all, not everyone can get into Columbia, so it is good to have other places for students to bide their time and recover from their grief and dismay.
3. We here at Columbia recognize that some students might have grown attached to their respective seminaries (not knowing any better), and we would neither want them to have to question their entire identity because their world perspective has shifted nor harbor any bitter or jealous feelings to those of us privileged enough to attend this prestigious institution.

As you can see, these are just some of the possible snafus that might have (let’s be honest, would have) cropped up should Columbia have won the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in Richmond this weekend. So, in the interest of inter-seminary fellowship and relationships, and in celebration of diversity, we here at Columbia made a conscious choice to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good.

We did this incredibly well in our first game. But, then we realized that perhaps people would think we just couldn’t hack it. So, in the second game, we exhibited our talent a little more, but still took the hit for the team (the greater team, the cloud of witnesses if you will). All in all, we tried to think about what Jesus would do in this situation and do our best to imitate that kind of love and sacrifice.

So, you might read other posts or hear rumors that Columbia is not as great at Ultimate Frisbee as other seminaries, but I am here to set the record straight and let you know of the huge sacrifice our team made for the greater good.

Posted in uncategorized by Sarah