This is a hard question to answer for I have had many counselors over the years many of them like Velma Albritton quiet and unassuming but indispensable in the end. Nevertheless when I view this question it is impossible not to think of Alan Burry. When I try to set him aside for others, it's like trying not to think of a blue cow.
Alan Burry was the chaplain of the Wesley Foundation when I was an undergraduate at the University of South Florida. Like me, I think he found the University something of a challenge, for the atmosphere was vibrantly secular. A spiritual or religious point of view was not the keynote of the institution. This points out that the purpose of the University greatly changed from its inception as basically a religious institution set aside for the allowance and reverence for the spiritual core of mankind. Alan navigated this somewhat alien environment with great aplomb, cheerfulness, and joy. He was thus a great and tremendous inspiration for me. Of course I have long since left the University, but I find that the environment in America is in many ways unfriendly to the perception of and reverence for the divine spark in each and every human being. I often remember a line from The Lake Isle of Innisfree (W.B. Yeats): "While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core." I see the encouraging, joyous face of Alan J. Burry.
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