Title:Reverend TauVaughn Toney, Protestant Chaplain, on life’s questions

How did you come to the work of university chaplaincy?

While in seminary at Princeton, I did my internship in their Office of Religious Life. I liked being able to wrestle with students’ tough questions and bring the heart and mind together, balancing the spiritual and intellectual. Now in my fourth year at Georgetown, I am where I am supposed to be for such a time as this.

What does call mean to you?

When I think about calling, the words of womanist theologian Katie Cannon come to mind: “To do the work your soul must have.”

What spiritual needs do you encounter at Georgetown?

Like with any place, the needs are diverse and many. Our students have questions about everything going on in the world. We accompany each other in community to share those questions, to celebrate those questions, or just let people know that we have those questions, too. Hopefully God answers, and if not, we have each other to wrestle with and live with unanswered questions. Sometimes we try to run from or work through or grind away questions, but sometimes God is calling us to just sit with them, in community.

Another spiritual need is finding community. It’s one thing to be a student body, but to actually be in community is different. Our work in Protestant ministry is to provide that sanctuary for anyone to just come and be. We don’t have to try and be anything beyond what God has already created us as. We live into that and do the work that our souls must have.

What might surprise alumni about your work?

Maybe that students really appreciate what those before them set in place and take ownership of continuing traditions, like the Gospel Choir. Also we welcome alumni back for special events like Friends and Church Family Sunday, and Reverend McGee Sunday, celebrating the ministry of our first Protestant chaplain, who started at Georgetown in 1972. He preached the DC ordination service for some of the first women in the Episcopal church, and his wife was one of the ordinands.

How do you measure success in chaplaincy work?

For me success is not something that you can quantify. It’s more a quality of life, a feeling, like when students say, “Oh, I really enjoyed our conversation.” You don’t always realize the work that you’re doing. My prayer for each of our students, and alumni, is that they find that kind of success that doesn’t grind the life out of them, but the success that gives them life, that helps us wake up and be grateful for what we have.