Venue: Chapel + Cultural Center at Rensselaer
Town: New York, US

The Chapel + Cultural Center at Rensselaer ( REN-sə-LEER) is an architecturally unique, multipurpose performing arts and spiritual space in Troy, New York. The Center is owned and operated by the Rensselaer Newman Foundation (RNF). It is conventionally referred to as "The C+CC"; the "+" sign has come to be formally used instead of "and" or an ampersand as a representative symbol of the Christian cross. While located on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the C+CC is managed and operated as an independent organizational entity. The C+CC provides a home to the Catholic University Parish of Christ Sun of Justice. Its staff members offer administrative support for chaplaincy services at RPI for the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim communities. The Roman Catholic Church at RPI began as a Newman Association with a faculty advisor in 1907. ("Newman Associations" and "Newman Centers" are often used to designate Catholic campus ministry centers at state and other non-Catholic universities; they take their names from Cardinal Newman). In 1914, a part-time chaplain was assigned to RPI by the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. In 1936, Monsignor William M. Slavin was appointed as the first Resident Catholic Chaplain at RPI, serving the entire campus community. He was succeeded in that position by Reverend Thomas W. Phelan in 1959. In the early 1960s, the issue of a permanent home became more pressing when the chapel of the Convent of the Good Shepherd was sold to RPI, leaving the Catholic community without a regular worship space. A petition was filed with the State of New York to incorporate a nonprofit organization to support fundraising for and operation of an independent facility. On November 22, 1963, the Regents of the University of the State of the New York chartered the Rensselaer Newman Foundation (RNF) as an educational corporation. The RNF's founding trustees were Martin F. Davis, William A. Kerrigan, John I. Millet (Board Presi