Chaplain values spirituality

Between his graduation from the College in 1971 and his appointment this year by Provost Stanley Chodorow, Interim Chaplain Frederic Guyott has been a stock trader, an international banking consultant and a minister to a church only six blocks from the heart of campus. Now, back at the University after a 28-year absence, Guyott, an Episcopalian minister, plans to revolutionize the office of the chaplain. After former Chaplain Stanley Johnson announced his retirement last year, Chodorow and University President Judith Rodin appointed a committee to analyze the chaplain's role. The committee, chaired by Social Work Professor Jane Lowe, recommended that the University continue to have a chaplain in office. But it also advocated revisions in the chaplain's purpose and practices that would keep the position relevant into the 21st century. Guyott said that under the report's guidelines, his primary responsibility is to serve the spiritual needs of the Penn community -- whatever those needs may be. But Guyott's "faith journey" to his present position commenced only after a lengthy period without religion that began while he was still an undergraduate. "At Penn in 1969, it was my first time away from home," Guyott said. "There were so many exciting things besides studies. There were friends, dating, alcohol and parties. I stopped going to church." Although he was raised in a religious home, Guyott said the distractions of his freshman year at the University combined with his frustration with organized religion led him away from God. "I spent seven years in a spiritual wilderness," he said. But Guyott said he thinks his brush with religious disillusionment gave him a special understanding of potential problems students may face. "These days, people tend to leave the church in their youth," he said. "I've had that experience. It gives me the opportunity to learn where people are at when they are struggling with religion." Guyott lived in Washington for several years after graduating from the University. Bankrupt and unemployed, he stayed with some friends from college while he endured what he called the "real low point" of his life. At the request of one of his hosts, Guyott began attending Episcopalian services at the National Cathedral in Washington. Although he had not been raised as an Episcopalian, the prayers at the service were familiar to him and the minister's sermon moved him. "It was a very deep experience," he said. "It said to me, 'God loves me.' It was calling me to come back to a relationship with God." From that point on, Guyott said he got back into a spiritual life, and his religious beliefs deepened. Shortly afterward, Guyott moved back to Philadelphia and became a stock options trader on the floor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. At the same time, he also joined a small church in Center City and became active in the congregation. The juxtaposition between the tense, combative world of the stock exchange and the peaceful life Guyott's church advocated began to confuse him during the 1980s, he said. Finally, Guyott decided he had been called to the ministry by God, and in 1991, he entered the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. After an exhaustive education in the seminary, Guyott was ordained an Episcopal minister and was given a position at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Monica, at 36th and Bering streets in West Philadelphia. While there, Guyott became active in the University's Christian Association because of his church's proximity to campus. Through his involvement at the Association, Guyott met Johnson. When Johnson's retirement was announced, Guyott applied for the interim position. But the duties of the chaplain have been revised as a result of the committee's report so that the job is quite different from when Johnson held it. There is also one more immediately noticeable difference between the two chaplains. While Johnson rarely wore the black shirt and white collar that distinguishes a minister from his congregation, Guyott said he intends to wear the collar at all times to remind members of the community that he is always "on duty." "It's saying, 'I am here to help you. This is who I am,' " he said. "It's not comfortable at all. But it raises the presence of the office." In other ways, though, the chaplain's job is similar now to the way it was when Johnson started his term 34 years ago. Although Guyott -- like Johnson -- is an Episcopalian, the chaplain must serve the campus without regard to denomination. Guyott said this does not bother him. "Though I am deeply Christian, I am able to respect other people's different ways of seeking a connection with a divine presence," he said. "My responsibility is to do whatever I can to encourage people to be on a spiritual journey." Guyott said he will counsel students of any religion who come to him seeking to find what they believe. He added that he refers those students who are not Episcopalian to the appropriate clergy on campus. Along the same lines, Guyott said he will try to unify the many religious organizations on campus in order to advance the goal of a more spiritual community. To do so, Guyott must promote tolerance and facilitate dialogue across religious boundaries, he said. But he said he does not see the University's tremendous spiritual diversity as an obstacle in his path. "The rainbow of faces is exciting," he said. "It's a wonderful reflection of this world." He added that he thinks his arrival back at the University as chaplain, after so many years in Philadelphia, is no mere coincidence. "I believe it's the leading of the Holy Spirit that I was put here," he said.