Last year Vivien Zelazny and her husband, Matt Dinan, moved back to Fredericton for the first time since graduating from St. Thomas in 2006.
Dinan was hired to chair the Catholic Studies program at St. Thomas.
“We always hoped to come back to Fredericton,” Zelazny says. “We are overjoyed to be back.”
The return home seems fitting for the new campus minister and part-time professor in the Aquinias program. Zelazny’s contract as the interim campus minister is for three months. She was hired after Janice Ryan resigned in October.
She’s happy to fill the campus minister position so the religious community at STU has continuity and students have someone to go to for spiritual guidance.
“It’s an exciting time for campus ministry. I thought there were some exciting things that could happen if there was someone to spearhead it.”
During her undergraduate studies, Zelazny was a member of the faith community at STU and attended Mass regularly. As a student in the Aquinas Great Books program as an undergraduate, she was exposed to Christian classics that influenced her faith journey, she says.
After their undergraduate studies, Zelazny and Dinan travelled to the United States where both obtained PhDs. Zelazny’s is in English with a concentration in religion.
“I worked on the Pearl or Gala manuscript, which studied three parables of Jesus. The cool thing about parables is that they teach us by shocking us… by overturning our expectations.”
While STU helped shape her understanding, she says faith was a common topic in her household growing up.
“I was raised in a family where we were very serious about faith. We were very open and questioning and really interested in trying to figure out the truth.”
One of the events exciting Zelazny is the official opening of the new chapel in Holy Cross House on Nov. 8 at 11:30 a.m. The chapel will be consecrated, and there will be a mass and a reception after the celebration.
“It’s beautiful. They’ve done a wonderful job, it’s bright and airy and they’ve really accentuated the fact that there are beautiful, big windows in there. I think it’s going to be a lovely space.”
Zelazny wants the new chapel to be a restful and quiet space for all students to enjoy. In the meantime, she encourages students to drop by her office anytime, no matter their faith. She’s eager to hear what students want, and what they want the campus ministry to do.
“The first and foremost message that I want to get out is that we are here for everybody and we want to serve in a way that people want to be served. I want students to know that the door is always open.”
