A Lifelong Commitment to Wine

By Monica Yantosh

Father Gerry Waterman leads a wine tasting at Grove Winery

Father Gerry Waterman, the Catholic Campus Minister, says everyone needs a hobby, even priests. But his favorite hobby might come as a surprise.

“Wine is alive. It brings people together,” Waterman said. “It’s a conversation starter.”

Waterman’s relationship with wine began when he was just five years old. He learned to make wine with his grandfather and it was love at first sip.

“It is a tradition that I enjoy, and I’m passionate about it because I started so young,” he said. “And I never abused alcohol as a child, and as a high school student because it was always on our table. You know, we were taught to respect it. And it’s a good thing.”

That relationship is still strong today. Waterman gives wine tastings at Grove Winery in Gibsonville. Being a priest that gives wine tastings may seem strange or contradictory to some, but Waterman doesn’t think so.

“I don’t think people see it as dichotomous. I think, you know, certainly wine is mentioned in the Bible numerous times,” hesaid.  “For me, it really brings it home, you know. Jesus said, ‘This is my body, this is my blood.’ And the first miracle was Caana and at the Last Supper he gave them his body. So it’s a spiritual thing for me.”

Waterman said he enjoys the wine tastings and even used to make his own wine.  By having this partnership with Grove Winery and the owner, Max Lloyd, Waterman said he hopes to share the fruits of his labor once again.

“I would love to start making wine again in Grove Winery,” Waterman said. “I would love to make a port again and call it whatever Max Lloyd would like to call it…but I’ll do whatever God wants.”

For more information about Grove Winery, visit their website.  Father Gerry is hosting two more wine tastings this spring, one on April 12, and one on April 26.  To register, click here.

Bombardment of apps changing the Internet, Pew study says

By Addie Haney

In today’s mobile world, there seems to be an app for everything – from an app for Sky Mall to a virtual, pixel fire. There’s even new software in development for online browsers to feature apps, called HTML 5. But all these apps could change the way we use the Internet.

Associate Professor and director of Imagining the Internet Center Janna Anderson said that while apps may be fun and entertaining to use, they could hurt the open web.

“Some people are saying ‘yes but…’ the web is going to become appified. People are finding ways to kind of build “walled gardens,” Anderson said. “There this concern that people will just use the web for entertainment and to watch video…instead of this amazing, amazing resource that it’s already developed to be.”

According to the results of a recent Pew Internet and Elon survey, 59 percent of web experts agree that the web will remain the top place to access and share information. But some fear that money will be the driving force behind innovation.

“Once ppl go to those places, the other places will no longer available,” Anderson said. “People won’t be developing anything else because nobody’s looking at it.”

Take Facebook for example. Users can watch and post videos, read articles and even play games all in one spot. That gives the website a lot of power. And Anderson says this one-stop-shop thinking can make users concerned only with being entertained and not actively thinking.

“People go to attractive gateways and having their information diet limited by the fact that they’re just going for dessert and they’re not going for the important main course,” she siad.

As for students and all Internet users, Anderson has a few words of advice.

“Be responsible web citizens,” she said. “Don’t just appify your life. Don’t squeeze yourself into a little gate-way. Really get out and build, create, share. Don’t just passively consume.”