The relevance of Newman Clubs on college campuses and the role of Newman in the development of the Christian community was the theme for the 35^th annual southeastern Province Convention.

The convocation of 117 students and chaplains met at Rock Eagle 4-H Center on Jan. 27-29. This gathering of student leaders from the four-state area of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida was hosted by the Catholic students at the University of Georgia.

Ronald N. Del Bene, theology professor from Mary Manse College in Toledo, Ohio, was the guest speaker. He stressed the fact that Newman is dead and that what was Newman must now be “the Church on campus.”

Del Bene explained the idea of Christian Community and how he thought it could be attained on the college campus. In the formal and informal discussions that followed, the students and priests sought to apply this idea of community to their own campuses how they must be reevaluated to, as Del Benen put it, meet “the signs of the times.”

On the question of what role the Church on campus should play, most students agreed that on the large residential campuses the church must be a true student parish—a chance for students to take an active part in the Church. On the smaller commuter campuses where the students belong to their own home parishes, the Church on campus must be a disseminating point of Christian love and example.

Many thought that the name “Newman,” which is too often aligned with the small Catholic club mentality, should be dropped completely and that “the Church on campus” should never again be solely a social retreat for Catholic students as it has been in the past on many campuses.

These are just a few of the ideas the students and priests discussed at Rock Eagle. Many participants wanted more freedom for experimentation in liturgy. They also favored a closer alignment of the bishops to the college apostolate and more emphasis on substance rather than structure.

At Mass Sunday morning a representative from each school made a symbolic offering to God at the offertory. Al Mangin from Georgia Tech, when presenting a pine cone to the celebrant, said that the Church on campus was like the pine cone. It may look dead or at best dying, but with proper care and nourishment it can produce a great tree. David O’Brien, the convention chairman, expressed somewhat the same idea when at the closing of the convention he said he hoped the meeting would act as the seed from which “the Church on campus” would grow.

During the weekend Steve Nimmer, outgoing chairman of the Southeastern Province, turned over the gavel to the newly elected chairman, John Schaffer from Georgia Tech. Charles Scott a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta will serve as vice chairman.