The Missioner Pentecost 2014

MISSIONER The

NASHOTAH HOUSE

Pentecost 2014 Vol. 30, No.4

Summer-Fall 2014 July

1 7 7-11 7-18 20-25 21 - AUG 1

New Academic Year (2014-2015) Begins Petertide Term Begins Spring Recess for Hybrid Distance Old Testament & Liturgics Residential Week Petertide Session I Classes Anglican Heritage Residential Week Petertide Session II Classes

September 1 2 28 29-Oct 3

October 17-18 20-23 22 23 24

Labor Day – No Classes, Administrative Offices are Closed First Day of Michaelmas Term Classes Fall Module Begins Fall Module Residential Week: New Testament, Ascetical Theology, & Church & Contemporary Society

Symposium: Newbigin & the Pluralistic 21st Century: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Ends of the Earth Residential Students’ Annual Retreat, No Classes Meetings of Trustee Committees Meeting of Board of Trustees Academic Convocation and Matriculation – No Classes

November

6-7

January

5-9

Experiencing Nashotah – Prospective Student Program

Epiphany Term Distance Learning, Residential Week – Ethics and Moral Theology, Historical Theology, & Systematic Theology Session II Classes

Doctor of Ministry:

Forming Reflective Practitioners, Specialists with Proven Ministry Skills – Actively Engaged in Strengthening the Church in Biblical Exposition/ Preaching, Liturgy, Ascetical Theology/Christian Spirituality, and Congregational Development.

For more information, contact admissions@nashotah.edu.

“For I fully believe, that, with divine blessing we are laying a deep and permanent foundation upon which the Church of the living God will be gloriously established.”

Indeed, for 170 years Nashotah House has remained anchored to “that deep and permanent foundation” by providing a faithful priesthood for the Church – one that has spread mightily the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people.

Joining Bishop Kemper and giving expression to his desire for solid and faithful financial management, we have established The Jackson Kemper Annual Fund, the cornerstone of our annual fundraising and the springboard for expanding the legacy entrusted to us.

Nashotah House Theological Seminary The Office of Institutional Advancement

2777 Mission Road Nashotah, Wisconsin 53058 USA (262) 646-6507 To partner with the Jackson Kemper Annual Fund

give.nashotah.edu

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ashotah House invites you to our campus and experience the wonderful atmosphere we can provide for the next retreat, conference, wedding, or other event you hope to hold. We are especially pleased to offer the use of the DeKoven Commons which contains a large auditorium that seats up to 300 people, five conference rooms that each seat 20

to 60 people, and an additional attached dining/reception hall.

The DeKoven Commons auditorium may serve as a worship space, a lecture hall, or can be transformed into a breathtaking reception hall. The auditorium and conference rooms are equipped for all audio/visual needs. Nashotah House also offers excellent catering options available upon request.

For more information on holding an event at Nashotah House contact the Events Department at events@nashotah.edu or 262.646.6500

Table of

Contents

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169th Commencement

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James Lloyd Breck: A Life of Mission Beyond Nashotah

published quarterly by Nashotah House, a theological seminary forming leaders in the Anglican tradition since 1842.

Ms. Amy Cunningham

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meditation

Publisher The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr.

Attuning to the Symphony: A Review

Publishing Director Ms. LaRae Baumann

The Rev. Canon Brien Koehler, SSC, ’76

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The Rev. Shane Patrick Gormley, ’12

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Institutional Advancement The Rev. Noah Lawson, ’14 Recruitment Ms. Sarah Prosser Senior Editor The Rev. Andrew J. Hanyzewski, ’09 Managing Editor Ms. Rebecca Terhune, ’15 Art Director Ms. Bliss Lemmon Copyeditor Ms. Amy Cunningham

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Address & Telephone 2777 Mission Road Nashotah, Wisconsin 53058-9793 262.646.6500 Websites nashotah.edu give.nashotah.edu

In that light, we are ever mindful of the words of St. Benedict of Nursia who wrote in his rule,

The Missioner email missioner.editor@nashotah.edu

“He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.”

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Staff writers The Rev. Benjamin Jeffries, ’14 Mr. Cameron MacMillan ’16 Ms. Ezgi Saribay, ’15 Contributing photographers Mr. Nat Davauer Ms. Bliss Lemmon Ms. Sarah Pokorny

The words from the prophet Micah tell us that God has shown us what is good, and what are we to do in response? We are to love mercy, do justice and to walk humbly with our God.

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Feature Writers Mr. Tyler Blanski, ’14 The Rev. Philip Cunningham, ’07 The Rev. Canon Brien Koehler, SSC, ’76

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ast August 2013, I was blessed to be one of a small group of Bishops who had the privilege of meeting with the Most Reverend and Right Honorable the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in Canterbury for the greater part of a day. We had the opportunity to discuss the state of The Anglican Communion and our ministry within it. Archbishop Welby celebrated the Eucharist and laid hands upon each of us.

We learned from him that reconciliation would be his focus as Archbishop of Canterbury. He plans to visit each Primate of the Communion in their jurisdiction as part of a strategy of reconciliation.

On January 30, 2014, Archbishop Welby preached at All Saints Cathedral, Juba, South Sudan. He first thanked them for their faith and courage which gives us courage and faith. Then he said, “Reconciliation is long and hard work.

The first place we find reconciliation is in Jesus Christ…If you want reconciliation in South Sudan, renew your reconciliation with God in Jesus…

In summary, reconciliation needs: reality and telling the truth; and it needs to be lived out in relationships…I have to spend time in repenting…otherwise we store up hatred for the next time…

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we have to nourish reconciliation. God resources us in reconciliation.”

I have just finished re-reading The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World by Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale. Having been educated in the West and married to an American, he tells of his resulting mistreatment by authorities when he was summoned to military service in, then, Communist Yugoslavia. The book is about the painful journey of reconciliation. He writes, “As much as a therapist, I need a spiritual director to challenge me—sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully—that Christians have no options when it comes to reconciling, since failing to reconcile with fellow human beings, for whom Christ died to reconcile them to God and each other, is to reject God’s work on our behalf ” (Volf, 222).

Reconciliation is the foundation of the Pax Nashotah. We are a seminary related to the Episcopal Church since 1842, not owned by the Church. For 172 years we have formed seminarians for the priesthood in the Anglican, Benedictine and Catholic tradition, as well as providing continuing education in the same for others. In a Church divided, which often seeks to be faithful by winning, we live as a community of reconciliation by the sheer grace of God. There is a cost to the Pax Nashotah; one that goes deep into the history of the House, as one can read in James Lloyd Breck: Apostle of the Wilderness

by T. I. Holcombe, 1903, “Poverty and persecution would be part of everyday life at Nashotah throughout almost all of its subsequent history. Graduates expected to be excluded, because of their Catholicity, from opulent parishes

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and positions of authority. It is notable that only sixteen House graduates in 150 years would be elected to the episcopate.

At numerous times critics would be convinced that they had silenced the Church’s Catholic seminary. But their many efforts, continued to this day, would prove futile” (Holcombe, 17).

Not a week goes by that I do not receive calls or email accusing us of selling out to one or the other side. My response is that we have indeed sold out—to Jesus Christ. Since 1842 we have done what others talk about—and our work, our aim, our desire has not changed.

We invite you to the House. Come and see for yourself. Support us with your prayers, with your good will and with your resources. Reconciliation was bought at a price on the Cross; it continues to be costly.

The Right Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr.

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The Right Rev. Daniel H. Martins, ’89 11th Bishop of Springfield

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hristian communities experience disagreement and conflict. It has been so ever since the apostlesiblings James and John tried to secure VIP seating for themselves at the heavenly banquet table (Mk 10:37).

We quibble about trivial things, like what’s the best tune for Love divine, all loves excelling (I think it’s Blaenwern;

you may prefer Hyfyrdol). We have quarreled over very substantial matters, like the relationship between the divine and human nature in Christ. And we have struggled over everything in between. Of late, it is sexuality and sexual behavior that have vexed us, with resonances in ecclesiology and biblical interpretation. In many ways, Nashotah House has been Ground Zero for this conflict. It certainly felt that way during my student days a quarter century ago, and while the particular character of that experience on campus is different now, it remains a lurking omen of darkness.

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The prophet Micah offers us a simple compass by which to traverse this tricky territory: “… do justice … love kindness … walk humbly with your God” (Mi 6:8). Simple, perhaps, but not particularly easy.

Do Justice. According to the classic definition, in a completely just world, everybody has what is legitimately due them. No more, and no less. Of course, “legitimately due” is susceptible to a broad range of interpretation, and that’s why we have a civil and criminal court system. So we’re back to square one. As a result, “do justice” might helpfully be paraphrased as, “Do the right thing.” Most of the time, if we are fearlessly honest with ourselves, we know what the right thing is, though it often requires considerable courage to do it. But we do well to bear in mind that justice does not necessarily have anything to do with making others feel indulged, pleased with us, or otherwise happy. Justice never strays too far from truth. It’s like they’re joined at the hip.

When we “do justice” as we live with conflict among Christians, we both speak and hear difficult truth. Often these articulations of truth compete with one another. Hence, the need for what follows.

Love Kindness. St. Jerome was canonized for some good reasons, but, according to most accounts, the sweetness of his disposition was not among them. He had no problem speaking the truth (“doing justice”) but was less than exemplary in how he did so. It has several times fallen to me to be the bearer of news—the teller of truth— that I knew would not be welcomed by the hearer, news that would affect that person’s life in a negative way, and which resulted from a decision that was mine to make. But it’s never necessary

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to say “You’re fired” with an exclamation point. It’s not usually possible to remove the sting associated with “doing justice,” but it is possible to wrap justice in kindness. It is possible to preserve a person’s dignity even in the midst of excruciatingly difficult circumstances.

And it is especially important to do so when we tell truth at a distance, as is so often the case in our cyber-connected society. Most of us are motivated to be kind when we’re looking another person in the eye. It’s more challenging when we’re emailing or texting or blogging about them in the third person.

Walk Humbly. I have my views and opinions. Some of them are relatively casual. In Wisconsin, you may hear that LeDuc’s has better frozen custard than Culver’s. Others are matters of firm conviction – the designated hitter rule in baseball is a disgrace. It is entirely meet and right that we be prepared to speak up for and defend our firm convictions.

But as we hold them confidently, we have an opportunity to also hold them humbly. In those areas where I am firmly persuaded, I don’t believe I am mistaken, and I do not foresee changing my view. But I could always be wrong, and I need to regularly remind myself of that fact. I am not God. I am fallible. I need to know that and those with whom I am intractably in conflict need to know that I know that. Of course, I also need to know that they know they might be wrong. Only on the basis of such mutual assurance of opinions humbly-held can there be fruitful relationship, whether within the Body of Christ or in society at large.

There is grace in the prophet’s counsel.

Nashotah House stands in a place to make that grace manifest.

World Mission: The Frontier is Always Before Us The Rev Julian D. Linnell, PhD, Executive Director of Anglican Frontier Missions Anglican Frontier Missions Anglican Frontier Missions (AFM) goes where the needs are greatest today. AFM’s vision is to see biblical indigenous churches planted amongst ethnic groups where there are few, if any, Christians, in a region of the world stretching from North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East. About one third of the world’s population today does not have access to the gospel. Experts tell us that 87% of all Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and tribal groups have no personal relationship with a Christian.

AFM is a modern day mission society, the sort that the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper (1791-1870), First Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church, would have resonated with. As a frontier missionary himself, he saw that priests on the East Coast were slow to respond to the needs of the frontier, so he came up with the idea to train priests on the frontier where they would then serve. His seminal idea soon led to the founding of the House, so he recruited priests already in the West. His outreach to Native American peoples, translating the Bible and liturgy into their languages, was exemplary. Perhaps Bp. Kemper might see some similarities with the needs of frontier peoples today. The frontier is always before us.

Why the focus on unreached peoples?

A lot of mission work today is aimed at other Christians. Todd Johnson, a colleague of mine at the Center for Global Center of Christianity in Hamilton, MA estimates as much as 85% of all Christian mission today is directed towards other Christians.

This is what I like to call “inter-church aid.” We must do it; we must help out our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that’s different from telling an ethnic group like the Bell People of Southeast Asia about Jesus for the very first time. So, yes, AFM is focused on 25 ethnic groups with populations over 1 million, many with fewer than a handful of Christians. Many don’t even have the Bible translated into their language yet.

Someone has to tell them the gospel of Jesus!

Guest Feature Writer

How are churches responding to this today and what are the results?

Most churches from an Episcopal or Anglican tradition in the US do “inter-church aid.” Their focus on highly Christianized countries like Mexico, Honduras and Uganda is an expression of doing justice and loving mercy. However, such parishes have yet to really discover unreached peoples! There are some marvelous exceptions where rectors and church leaders take on the challenge to reach people in places like Turkey and China who have yet to hear the Gospel. In terms of results, we’ve seen new churches started amongst the Hani of Southeast Asia, a growth of believers in Turkmenistan, and a decent number of baptisms amongst the Miao of Southeast Asia. However, this is tough sledding terrain and you may need to wait 5, 10 or 20 years before seeing lasting fruit.

What can Nashotah House do to learn more or to be involved with reaching unreached peoples or support AFM? The prophet Micah ministered to the people of Judah, exhorting them, “He has shown you what is good. What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mi 6:8). The Christian mission reflects this call. There are six ways for people to be a part of our mission. First, they can sign up for the AFMConnect – our monthly e-newsletter that informs them about the unreached and missions in general. Second, they can go on a short-term missions’ mentoring trip with AFM to India, China, Turkey or Borneo this year. Third, they can serve as a mentor to send someone else to the mission field. Fourth, they can support AFM financially through our secure online portal or by traditional checks. Fifth, they can contact our office to volunteer their home as a site to invite students, faculty, alumni and staff from the House to learn more about unreached peoples. Sixth, they can send their seminarians, faculty and parish leaders to become long-term missionaries to those ethnic groups where Jesus is not yet known. That’s a legacy of which Bishop Kemper would be proud. For more invormation about AFM, please visit, www.anglicanfrontiers. com.

The Rev. Julian Linnell, PhD, directs AFM. Julian was educated in the UK at Cambridge University (B.A., M.A.), at the University of Pennsylvania (M.S., Ph.D.) and Trinity School for Ministry (M.Div.), in China at Wuhan University and in Taiwan at Tunghai University (Mandarin language studies).

He served in China and Taiwan for five years, teaching English and Applied Linguistics. As a researcher and professor, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at various US and overseas universities. As a friend of Nashotah House, he encourages us to remember the frontier may change location, but it also stays the same.

STUDENT FEATURE

Nashotah House Reflects on Presiding Bishop’s Visit to the House

The recent visit to Nashotah House by the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was marked by a number of events. She joined the community for the Feast of Sts. Philip and James, May 1, 2014 , observing how the community engages in worship. She attended Mass with a sermon delivered by Ms. Tanya Scheff, ’14.

The Presiding Bishop shared several meals with students in the refectory, and was one of the first “customers” for the new coffee bar in Shelton Hall (she pronounced the brew, “Excellent!”). The Presiding Bishop also attended Moral Theology 601, taught by the Rev. Daniel Westberg, DPhil, and was then given a walking tour of the campus by the Academic Dean, the Rev. Steven Peay, PhD. She was accompanied by the Canon for Domestic Poverty Mission, the Reverend Mark Stevenson (’00), his wife Joy, and Neva Rae Fox, the Public Affairs Officer of the Episcopal Church.

An academic colloquy engaging the Presiding Bishop with Faculty and students was planned for the afternoon. Bishop Jefferts Schori requested a time of question and answer, so questions were solicited from students and Faculty. The Academic Dean served as the moderator of the colloquy. Fr. Peay began with a brief overview of the approach to theological education at Nashotah House.

This was done at the Dean-President’s request; so that the Presiding Bishop could better understand the nature of the House.

The atmosphere of the colloquy was truly academic, open, polite, respectful, but not without substance. At one point there were questions and exchanges between the Presiding Bishop, a Faculty member affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America and a student from the Diocese of South Carolina. The interactions were honest and generous. It was an opportunity for sharing positions that really could have occurred nowhere else but the House.

The Presiding Bishop attended Evensong joining the Dean-President, Faculty, student body, and several guests from the community in Adams Hall. Following the conclusion of Evensong, the Presiding Bishop delivered an encomium homily in honor of Dcn. Terry Star, a middler student from North Dakota, who had been behind the invitation to visit, and who died unexpectedly in March, 2014. The evening concluded with a reception and dinner – and a trip to a local frozen custard stand.

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The Witness of Christ’s Love –

Where We Find Our True Callings

By Ms. Ezgi Saribay, ’15 “Here I am. Send me!” This verse from Isaiah 6 has been the theme of my calling since the beginning of my discernment process.

Three years later, I heard a similar call, “Who will go for us, and whom shall I send?” My answer was none other than: “Send me Lord, I will go wherever you take me.” After this, I quickly found myself at Nashotah House Theological Seminary pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree and studying to be a priest. I quickly learned that we don’t “study to be priests” here, but rather we are “formed” to be priests. The House forms its matriculated students, the “sons and daughters,” by three distinct Benedictine ways: prayer, work, and study. Daily, our life at Nashotah springs forth from the chapel. Each morning, we gather with the ringing of Michael, our campus bell, for Morning Prayer followed by Holy Eucharist. After chapel, we go to breakfast as a community at the refectory. With another ring of classroom bells, we walk to classes. After our classes, we gather again with the ringing of the Angelus for lunch. Afternoon is generally occupied by private study, liturgy rehearsals, or CONTINUED ON PG 20

Following Bishop Kemper: “Doing More Than Ever Before”

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In the early days, Bishop Jackson Kemper always and repeatedly encouraged the House to consider the future by “doing more” each and every year. This month that work continues unabated: the Rev. Noah Lawson,’14, will officially begin his work as Director of Annual Giving, and will manage the expansion of the work and scope of the Jackson Kemper Annual Fund, the Donald Parsons Scholarship Fund, and the seminary’s endowment fund.

continue to be a center of orthodox faith, catholic teaching, evangelical mission, and spirit filled witness.

Before Nashotah House, the Rev. Noah Lawson served as District Director for California State Assemblyman Danny D. Gilmore, 30th District. He has managed and consulted on numerous campaigns and political party organizations over the span of 15 years, including his own campaigns for public office.

The Rev. Noah Lawson was elected to serve three four-year terms as Trustee for the Lemoore Union High School District in Lemoore, CA, representing over 30,000 voters and serving over 2,000 high school students with an annual budget of over 19 million dollars. He served three terms as Chairman of the Board and was the youngest elected school board trustee in the state of California when he was sworn into office at the age of 19 years old. The Rev. Noah Lawson is a graduate of Fresno Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in social science, holds a teaching credential for secondary social science, and is also a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the United States Navy Chaplain Candidate Program. He expressed his excitement about this new ministry,

“Going forward our advancement strategy must include having one person — an experienced, proven leader who understands the power of relationships — dedicated to annual giving,” says Fr. Wilson. “The Reverend Noah Lawson is that person. Faithful, intelligent, and passionate about our mission of forming priests and lay leaders for service on the modern frontier, he brings clarity, discipline, and the proven approach necessary to enhance and expand what God has done among us over the last three years. I could not be more pleased with the direction the House is taking in partnering with the Reverend Noah Lawson.”

“Over the last three years I have grown to more fully understand that God does not waste time or experiences,” he says. “In fact, He redeems them for His good purposes. I thought that I left a career in politics for ministry in the Church. What I have found out is that the Lord has called me into a new ministry that requires all of the best skills, knowledge, and attributes that my political career gave to me. Only this time I will not employ them to get a partisan official re-elected or advance a party platform. Rather, I will be promoting our Lord Jesus Christ, His platform, and principles of the Kingdom of God. I am very excited about this new work and am thankful for the foundation that has been laid by the Rev. Charleston Wilson.”

Under the leadership of the Rev. Noah Lawson, the Office of Institutional Advancement will work to deepen and broaden the network of complex relationships that Nashotah House maintains. The mission of the House will be strengthened as she continues to provide to the Church deacons, priests, bishops and lay leaders who have been formed and are deeply rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, His Gospel, and the faith once delivered to the saints. Nashotah House will PENTECOST 2014

The Rev. Charleston Wilson, ’13, who working with Dean and President Edward L. Salmon, Jr., and the Board of Trustees, expanded the scope and mission of the Office of Institutional Advancement over the last two years, expressed his confidence in the appointment, saying:

The strengthening of the House and the continued focus for the Office of Intuitional Advancement will be to nurture relationships for the purpose of securing a sustainable financial future for the House. The reality is that Nashotah House is a charity that educates the future leadership of the Church.

Tuition can only account for 30% of the seminary’s income. This means that 70% has to be raised to support the seminary through the faithful stewardship of our most committed relationships. The ratio does not change, regardless of the size of the student body. The sustainability and vitality of Nashotah House will require the House to raise an additional 20 million dollars for the seminary endowment fund. The next 172 years of Nashotah House’s future is in the hands of those who she seeks to serve: the Church.

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Re-enacting the

World’s Story The Rev. Dr. Tory K. Baucum

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n Feast and Holy Days, the Eucharistic liturgy both carries the meaning of this history and carries us into that history. It is an ancient learning, more kinesthetic than didactic. The liturgy allows us to enter more fully into the truthful way of rehearsing and re-enacting the world’s story.

The Eucharist encompasses everything from “the night he was betrayed” until “he comes again.” It is a grand old “suspension bridge” between the First and Second Advent of Christ. We are people who are stretched between the past and future as they collapse into this very present, where Christ gives himself to us. It reminds us, at the very least, that all ministry is Jesus’ ministry and all worship is Jesus’ worship.

The Eucharist is a principal way that we regain consciousness; that we are in the same relation to the Father as Jesus. What Jesus is by nature, we are by adoption. The liturgy clothes us in Christ. May we be reminded of another easily forgotten truth: the liturgy not only re-narrates our bodies into a new way of telling the world’s story, it carries us into that story by the power and through the invocation of the Spirit. The liturgy is a “charged reenactment” of that story. Like Shakespearean actors, we are simply not content to rehearse our lines. We seek to be molded by them. Every parish church is a theatre of the sacred drama.

We are dependent on the Spirit in our worship, there are times we specifically and consciously invoke the Spirit’s sanctifying presence. One of these times is during the Epiclesis. Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son… Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy and peace…

Let’s focus on the second “sanctify.” Good liturgical theology addresses the issue of “faithful reception.” This invocation has criteria for faithful reception. That we might serve God in Unity, together not divided; Constancy, faithfulness; Peace, harmony and flourishing of relationships. Lay this criteria over your parish, diocese or province and it will be an occasion for repentance. Further, these same criteria help us discern the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

I had my first experience of Anglicanism at an Anglican guest house in Cairo, Egypt. I was 21 and this trip was also my first exposure to third-world poverty. It was also my first exposure to Anglican clergy. I remember distinctly one night sitting

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up late with three Anglican missionaries, each of whom were drinking beers, smoking cigarettes and telling one another how they were sharing the gospel with Muslim friends. As a good Baptist boy from Texas, I never saw all three of those things happening simultaneously. Though I did not have words or categories for what I observed, I now know I was drawn to their “unity, constancy and peace” in the service of God. The impact was such that when I returned to the States I found the closest Episcopal Church and attended it.

I still vividly remember the service and the Gothic space where it occurred. I fumbled with three or four books and stood and kneeled always at the wrong time. But I knew when everyone walked forward toward the altar it was the climactic moment of the service. I was a very reluctant communicant but went forward and did exactly what the guy in front of me did. When the priest put the bread in my hand with the words, “the body of Christ given to you” and when he placed the chalice of wine to my lips with the words, “the blood of Christ shed for you,” I found myself on that suspension bridge in Christ’s unforgettable presence.

Our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church have a wonderful way of describing this moment when the priest is invoking the Holy Spirit on the sacramental bread and wine.

They say, “He is in the flame.” I would only add that “we, too” are in the flame. Recall the words of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding,’ from the Four Quartets:

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

The one discharge of sin and error.

The only hope or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre –

To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised this torment? Love Love is the unfamiliar Name

Behind the hands that wove

The intolerable shirt of flame

Which human power cannot remove.

[Brothers and Sisters] We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.

The Rev. Dr. Tory K. Baucum serves as Rector of Truro Anglican Church in Fairfax, VA and is one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral. He has expertise in Augustine, Wesley and Missiology. He currently teaches at Virginia Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary, and has taught at Nashotah House and Trinity School for Ministry. He is chairman of the board of Fresh Expressions USA and a long time board member of Alpha-USA.

Congratulations

to the 169th Graduating Class

of Nashotah House

Commencement Exercises with Solemn Eucharist Thursday May 22, 2014 St. Jerome Catholic Church Oconomowoc, WI

The 2014 Nashotah House Commencement address was given by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Anthony J. Burton, the Rector of the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, TX, and a sometime Bishop of Saskatchewan. At the time of his consecration 1993, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Burton was the youngest Anglican Bishop in the world and among the youngest since the Reformation. He was educated at the University of Toronto; Oxford University; and Dalhousie University, where his studies focused on the theoretical basis of Scriptural interpretation. He is a Doctor of Divinity of the University of King’s College, and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Elliott House of Studies, an institution devoted to the training of clergy and based in Savannah, and on the Board of Visitors of Ralston College. He has been married to Anna Burton for more than 20 years. They have two teenagers.

Congratulations

to the 169th Graduating Class

of Nashotah House

Commencement exercises with Solemn Eucharist Thursday, May 22, 2014, St. Jerome Catholic Church, Oconomowoc, WI

Certificate of Anglican Studies

Pedro J. Acosta Zapata Robert O. Baker Jacalyn I. Broughton Alan L. Heatherington

Master of Arts in Ministry William T. Barto KeeHoon Cheung Jennifer A.C. Fulton Allison A. Hammond Daniel L. Jones, Sr. Jada D. Kearns Nancy E. Kin Patrick R. Malone Jonah M. Porter Robert E. Rhea Nancy S. Streufert Julie M. Walsh Master of Theological Studies

Christopher E. Hage James G. Kreuger Justin W. Long

Master of Divinity

Tyler W. Blanski Cynthia A. Bisser

Walter E. Born Caleb S. Evans Benjamin D. Hankinson, Jr. Stephen A. Hilgendorf Benjamin P. Jeffries Noah S. Lawson William T. Matthews Gabriel C.D. Morrow Richard M. Moseley Alexander R. Pryor Tanya L. Scheff Lars D.J. Skoglund Evan W. Simington Clinton M. Wilson

Master of Sacred Theology

Pratik K. Ray

Doctor of Ministry

Fyneface N. Akah Kevin G. Holsapple David N. Mutisya William E. Schwartz

Licentiate in Theology, posthumous

The Rev. Terry L. Star

Episcopal Schools Offer Ministerial Opportunities to Serve The Rev. W. L. Prehn, ’85, PhD, Headmaster Trinity School, Midland, TX

This experience still frames my understanding of school vocation. From the very beginning, I knew that school ministry is an apostolate in the world; it is not parish work, and the typical school has scant ecclesiastical ethos or parish culture to support a priest. Nevertheless, Christ is everywhere present and waiting in the scholastic world and the deep professional satisfaction I feel as an ordained person working in that world can hardly be put into words.

And what a world it is! When I was Rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, San Antonio, a huge public elementary school sat next door.

For six years I watched the children come and go. I reflected on my deep concern for “America’s youth,” and how they might be taught to grow up to love and fear the Lord. I wondered whether the Church alone can Christianize the next generation?

Moreover, I realized that I could not ignore modern anthropologists, child and adolescent psychologists, and trusted Christian mentors who insisted on the importance of intentional community for the formation of human beings. As an Evangelical Catholic, I had discovered the phenomenon of the Church as the Body of Christ and the truth that Christianity must be practiced in the world.

As an Evangelical Catholic, I had discovered the phenomenon of the Church as the Body of Christ and the truth that Christianity is nothing if it is not practiced in the real world.

I had been a happy parish priest for twelve years in Dallas, Philadelphia, and San Antonio when in April 1996, God called me to school ministry.

One day as I was offering a homily on George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878), the Missionary Bishop of New Zealand, I recognized that the Lord Christ was leading me away from parish ministry. Two weeks before the Selwyn homily, the Headmaster of the Episcopal School of Texas (TMI) asked me to consider taking the Chaplaincy of that historic school. I was hesitant until the middle of that homily on Bishop Selwyn. I was telling the congregation how in 1841 Selwyn had accepted the call to serve as Rector of a fashionable London parish. One day he ducked into the office of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) seeking news of a dear friend serving in the mission field abroad. While in the CMS office, he listened to several missionaries recently returned. Selwyn felt an unexpected but powerful calling to leave London and take the Gospel out into the world. He resigned his rectorate and informed CMS officers that he was the Lord’s unconditionally for foreign service. A few weeks later he was startled when the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him the first Missionary Bishop of New Zealand. In December of the same year, he sailed for the South Pacific.

Twelve years in parish life had taught me that even the best youth ministry and Christian education does not meet the full needs of children or their parents. Even youth from committed families spend an average of only three hours per week, including the Liturgy, in Christian formation and fellowship.

Clear religious instruction for our children is needed to become mature Christian thinkers who might challenge the world’s assumptions.

I began to think that we parish clergy have one arm tied behind the back. Further, I had to swallow my ordained person’s pride. While I was sure that my dutiful preaching and energetic catechizing were an important contribution to the fight against “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” I became convinced they were not enough. The Church in post-modern (or metamodernism) America needs help. The Church needs schools, so that our children and youth might gain the deep benefits of these institutional experiences working together.

Let us consider and pray how a deep, lasting and intellectually robust Christian formation can happen in our time for our children and youth.

The happy news is that Episcopal schools and other ecclesiastical and faith-based schools are growing. In 2013, I met on-fire Episcopalians who have founded a new Church school in inner-city Philadelphia. Similar efforts are under way in other major cities across the land.

As seminarians, have you considered school ministry? Church schools must have highlytrained personnel. Good chaplains are hard to find, and yet most school chaplains will tell you that “it’s the best job in the Church.” These scholastic communities need dedicated clergy to serve as chaplains, teachers and administrators. Schools are intensely alive and happening places, teeming with people of high purpose. One is never bored. You may be thinking that you are at the House to train for parish ministry. But I pray you will be open to another possibility.

The Rev. Dr. W.L. “Chip” Prehn, ’85, is Headmaster of Trinity School of Midland in West Texas. He was a parish priest for 12 years prior to entering school ministry in 1996 at the Episcopal School of Texas (TMI), San Antonio. Fr. Prehn earned his PhD in the History of American Education from the University of Virginia, 2005. His dissertation was a study of the school-making movement founded by William Augustus Muhlenberg and his protégés beginning in 1828, an initiative that resulted in some of the best American collegepreparatory schools, called Church Schools by Muhlenberg. Fr. Prehn wrote the chapter on Episcopal schools for The Praeger Handbook of Faith-Based Schools in the United States, 2012.

He has been married for twenty-five years to Celia Jones Prehn. They have three almost-grown children. A published poet, Fr. Prehn also plays the harmonica. Besides the many hours spent at school each week, he enjoys hunting, fishing, bird-dogs and horses.

James Lloyd Breck:

A Life of Mission Beyond Nashotah Ms. Amy Cunningham Archival Assistant, Frances Donaldson Library

Editor’s Note: The writer dedicates this article to the memory of Dcn. Terry Star who provided the inspiration for its writing when he shared that James Lloyd Breck was considered a hero among the Dakota people. Mr. Star was kind enough to review the article before it was submitted for publication.

In 1850, after eight years serving as priest, educator and administrator at the Nashotah House Mission he founded, the Rev. Dr. James Lloyd Breck left for the Minnesota Territory.

Several reasons surrounded Dr. Breck’s resolve to seek a new mission field: his desire to follow the rapidly westward moving frontier and his disappointment that the House had strayed from the quasi-monastic order he had originally envisioned.

In Minnesota, Dr. Breck initially established a mission base camp near Fort Snelling. From here, he travelled to conduct religious services in the remote frontier and to scout potential mission sites among the Indian tribes, founding mission churches in Stillwater and St. Paul. Additionally, the church he founded at St. Anthony Falls, the original name for Minneapolis, was the first place of public worship in this nowthriving metropolis. In the first six months alone, by his own estimation, he traveled 4,639 miles by foot, boat and sleigh.

In 1852, Dr. Breck moved 150 miles northwest to establish educational, agricultural and missionary centers among the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people. At Gull Lake, near present day Brainerd, MN, he founded St. Columba Church, a parish which still thrives to this day. Breck diligently studied Ojibwe and was able to obtain a prayer book in this language allowing the converts to practice the faith in their native tongue. The Ojibwe people called Breck Makuhdayakuhnaya, meaning “Black Robe” or “Man in the Cassock.”

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In 1855 Dr. Breck married Jane Marie Mills, a teacher who worked with him at the Ojibwe missions. Breck seems to have had a change of heart in his vision of the ideal missionary remaining unmarried stating it was “necessary to marry where the domestic life was to be taught as well as the Christian.”

The missionary couple’s son, William Augustus Muhlenberg Breck was born the following year. Later they had another son, Charlie, and informally adopted a half Ojibwe girl, Clara Mokomanik.

Unfortunately, in 1857 in fear for their safety, the Brecks were forced to flee the upper missions. Their home was attacked several times by Indians under the influence of ‘fire-water’ (whiskey) and 40 settlers were killed by the Dakota Sioux.

Dr. Breck’s take on these events are worth noting; he took the side of the Indians, blaming the troubles on the “white man’s speculations and indiscriminate sale of fire-water.” While it was illegal to sell whiskey to the Indians at this time, the law was not enforced. Dr. Breck wrote in a letter, ”I am convinced that the fault is with the policy of our Government and the unprincipled character of the frontier whites.” He wrote to church and government officials explaining his views.

To this day, James Lloyd Breck is remembered through oral tradition as an advocate and hero among the indigenous people of the Midwest. His missionary legacy is still with us today at Nashotah House, through students like Deacon Terry Star, member of the Standing Rock Sioux (Dakota) Tribe in North Dakota, who recalls as a child hearing about Dr. Breck from his grandmother.

“My grandmother tells that Breck started the missions, and then was a very good advocate for Indian people, always

urging the local farmers and ranchers and townsmen to be more Christian in their behaviors towards Indian people,” says Dcn. Star. “The ‘uprising’ was instigated by the ranchers and townsmen who refused to honor recently signed treaties in which the Indian ceded land rights in exchange for peace, healthcare, education, and food... none of which they received.

In oral tradition, it is taught that Breck was a good Christian man, who fought for fair treatment, and encouraged the Indian people to use restraint. Breck and Whipple, and later, Whipple’s grandson, Bishop Hare, lobbied for fair treatment by the US Government.”

Over the next 10 years, Dr. Breck headquartered his mission work at Faribault, in southern Minnesota. Here he founded Seabury Divinity School in 1858, modeled after Nashotah House. (In 1933 Seabury merged with Western Theological Seminary to become Seabury-Western in Chicago.)

Dr. Breck saw the fruits of his tireless labors for the Episcopal Church when the Diocese of Minnesota was created and received its first Bishop, the Rt. Rev. H.B. Whipple, and the first Diocesan Convention was held in 1859. In addition, Bishop Whipple ordained J. Johnson Enmegawbowh, an Ojibwe, to the priesthood. Enmegawbowh, who now has a feast day in the calendar of the Episcopal Church, had been baptized by Dr. Breck and ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Kemper.

After the uprising, most of the Dakota were forcibly removed from Minnesota and relocated to reservations further west. This, along with the death of his beloved wife in 1861, were huge set-backs to Dr. Breck’s mission. Rather than withdrawing, he put his energy towards building the first Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Faribault, MN. It would remain the sole Cathedral of Minnesota until 1941 when St. Mark’s, Minneapolis was built.

From here he remarried and moved to California where he died in 1876 at the age of 58. At Nashotah House, we rightfully claim James Lloyd Breck as our founder and knowing that many other places also claim him as their own, only adds to our appreciation of this great man. Dr. Breck referred to Nashotah House as his ”first born” and his legacy continued in his own family with his son, Muhlenberg, receiving his divinity degree from the House in 1880.

One of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Wisconsin is the adjoining building to Alice Sabine Hall, The Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, already on the National Registry of Historic Places. Hopefully, Alice Sabine Hall will join its neighbor on this list and the Nashotah community can appropriately remember and honor one of its greatest benefactors.

Little did Dr. Breck realize when he decided to move to the southwestern Minnesota city of Faribault, that he would place himself directly in the midst of the Dakota War of 1862. The killing of at least 500 settlers led to the largest mass execution in American history when 38 Dakota Indians were hung.

For an extended account of Dr. Breck’s ministry after the House, please visit, blog.nashotah.edu.

“The Continuation of Faithfulness.”

PAGE 14 Dr. Breck (rt.) with the Rev. J. Johnson Enmegahbowh (lt.) and Mr. Isaac Manitowab (c.), c. 1865. BOTTOM LEFT Seabury Divinity School, founded by Dr. Breck in 1858, Faribault, MN, c. 1900. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.

BOTTOM RIGHT The Rev. Dr. James Lloyd Breck with Clara Makomanic, c. 1855.

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Newbigin, Pluralism & the Digital World: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Ends of the Earth

October 17-18, 2014 “If the Gospel is to challenge the public life of our society... it will only be by movements that begin with the local congregation in which the reality of the new Creation is present, known and experienced; and from which men and women go into every sector of public life…”

- Lesslie Newbigin A Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society

by Lesslie Newbigin

In his day, missionary Bishop Lesslie Newbigin drew upon principles he had learned in foreign mission to think about the mission frontier of a secularized West. Today’s digital world presents yet another dimension on this frontier. Almost any congregation is, at the same time, influencing and being influenced by its neighborhood, region, nation, and the world. Christians must think creatively about the Mission of the Church and the reign of Christ in the 21st Century. This symposium will provide an educational experience through a dialogic learning model involving Keynote Presenters, ministry veterans, and emerging leaders to consider both ancient and future ways of sharing in faithful Gospel Mission today.

Presenters: Bishop Todd Hunter

Church Planter and Anglican Bishop

Dr. George Hunsberger

Professor of Missiology, Western Theological Seminary Cost $200 per person – includes: sessions, meals, refreshments and hand-outs Discount price $150 (for groups of five or more) For more information please contact our host Fr. Jack Gabig at jgabig@nashotah.edu.

To register for the symposium please visit: http://www.nashotah.edu/academics/fall-2014-symposium/

Meditation

Walking in

Your Sight

By the Rev. Canon Brien Koehler, SSC, ’76, Chaplain at Nashotah House and Associate Rector of Christ Church, San Antonio, TX All parents know the joy it is to see a child take those very first steps. There is probably no moment more preserved in video or memory than the first steps of a daughter or son. And as the little one masters the skill, the supporting role of the parent quickly fades. What begins as a few halting, tentative and labored steps soon turns into headlong running and, inevitably, headlong falling.

And that is where the parents come back into the picture. They become comforters and then again become teachers. Children learn that there is a right way of walking and a wrong way as well and the goal, of course, is walking the right way. This complex developmental process of learning to walk safely and securely is, in fact, lifelong. There is always the temptation to pick up too much speed in our walking, and in imitation of the careless toddler we sometimes walk—sometimes run— headlong into disaster. And just when we thought we had our mature stride and balance, walking or running again becomes the antecedent of falling as it so often does for the toddler.

The good news is that we are never far from help for the Father is there for his children. And when we fall, or even when we begin to veer or drift in our walking, the Father is there for us. Help, training, encouragement and support are ours for the asking. “Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it” (Ps 119:35).

And so we are lifted up and led as children are led by the hands of their parents. Maturity and balance in our walking is found in the path of the commandments, but maintaining maturity and balance requires that we know where we want to be. Perhaps you remember Alice’s question to Cheshire Cat in chapter six of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: PENTECOST 2014

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t much care where—’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. ‘—so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’

Christians indeed care where we “get to” and we care how we get there. The focus is in how we walk and, of course, it has everything to do with our walking companion. Walking humbly with God should be natural for us because it is how we began our journey, and it was a daily pleasure in the cool of the day until the Fall took its toll on us (Gn 3).

In response to this, the Father has lifted us up through Christ.

And through Jesus he has shown us true maturity and balance, and he has invited us to walk again as we did in the beginning.

We not only know how we should walk, but we also know where we are going. We walk (and even sometimes by God’s grace, run) in good company. We run with perseverance the race that is set before us (Heb 12:1). We walk with kindness and justice, because we are walking with Jesus, the saving model of loving humility. And he leads us in the path of the commandments which is also the way of the cross, the way of life and peace.

O heavenly Father, in whom we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray thee so to guide and govern us by thy Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget thee, but may remember that we are ever walking in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 57).

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Nashotah House & Me: Contemplations

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The place transcends the experience. That, I believe, is my single-most, significant thought about Nashotah House as a unique seminary of the Episcopal Church. I was never a student at the school, so I cannot embrace that component of the experience.

But I lived at the House for my first 20 years, and it left an indelible impression on me and who I am today.

I arrived at Nashotah in the fall of 1952, a precocious, I suspect, six-month old. My father, Arthur Vogel, was a new faculty member and we moved to the seminary from Hartford, Connecticut. Dad was a Son of the House, having graduated less than ten years earlier. Memories of my first years on campus are vague. I do recall the construction of Kemper Hall.

I also remember the empty field that became home to the Flats (later the Peaks), as well as the Blue House and Red Chapel, the seminary’s first two buildings, when they were behind the present chapel—adjacent to the path going downhill to the Point and the beach.

Attuning to the Symphony: A Review

the Future of Biblical

Interpretation: Responsible Plurality in Biblical Hermeneutics

by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew R. Malcolm (IVP Academic, 2013) ISBN: 9780830840410

“The Bible encompasses a plurality of voices, not only in genre but in perspective.

And not surprisingly, interpreters of the Bible have generated a plurality of interpretations.”

Mr. John N. Vogel, PhD

I was able to work on the ground crew by the time I was in eighth or ninth grade. Over time I operated the lawn tractors on campus, as well as the large Massy-Ferguson industrial tractor in the course of plowing snow or working on various grounds-related projects. One of our most challenging efforts on the crew was, along with my brother, Tony, and Phil Foster (who was a good friend and whose father was also on the faculty), to climb to the top of the water tower for some purpose or another. I remember the beehive on the backside of the ladder on one of the tower’s legs and all the efforts we ultimately had to go through to remove it, and then the contortions we endured continuing to climb the ladder as many remaining bees were flying about looking for their hive.

Nashotah House was not just a place to live and work. It was also people. There were always students, and their families, with whom to talk and be friends. With the people, the opportunity to work, the woods across Mission Road and the lake in which to swim and fish, I cannot think of a better place at which to have grown up.

When I told a friend that I planned to pursue a PhD in biblical studies, her first response was curious: “Why? Hasn’t the Bible been studied enough?” Not only has (perhaps too) much ink been spilled—meticulously and haphazardly— over the interpretation of the Bible; much of the effort that scholars and pastors have focused on studying Scripture has resulted in differing and often conflicting interpretations. One does not have to browse the bookshelves too long to find different perspectives on “who Jesus really was” and “what Paul really meant by ‘the righteousness of God.’” Stanley Porter and Mathew Malcom’s The Future of Biblical Interpretation: Responsible Plurality in Biblical Hermeneutics takes seriously my friend’s question and expands upon it: What does it mean to interpret the multivalent, multifaceted, and complex book that is the Christian Bible? How can we be responsible interpreters of God’s Word?

How can we engage the Bible creatively and attuned to its symphony—and sometimes, cacophony—of voices without resigning ourselves to say “anything goes?” At the same time, it cannot be forgotten that as an inspired text, the Bible is a means of

The fact that the seminary had a significant impact on me became apparent as I graduated from college and embarked upon graduate work. My folks were gone by then, having moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in the summer of 1971 after Dad was elected Bishop of the Diocese of West Missouri.

My discipline was American History, and I could think of nothing more intriguing about which to write a thesis than the Episcopal Church in Territorial Wisconsin. Indeed, I had lived amidst the history of its oldest surviving institution in the state for twenty years. An important part of the story was Jackson Kemper and the early years of Nashotah House. I spent many hours at the Wisconsin Historical Society reading Kemper’s letters, as well as at the seminary library reading reports of the church’s Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. It was while working at the library late one afternoon that I happened upon a mass in the chapel celebrating the 50th anniversary of Archbishop Michael Ramsey’s ordination to the priesthood.

What a treat that was! My family and I had met the Ramseys in the spring of 1963 and spent two weeks living at Lambeth Palace when Dad was on sabbatical and doing some work in England.

Stories of the House and its history notwithstanding, no place there today has more impact on me than does the cemetery.

Admittedly, my father is buried there as are my grandparents— my mother’s folks. But I enjoy walking through it just as I did

divine revelation, one that utilizes a variety of times, places and persons to communicate the dynamic relationship of God and world from creation to consummation.

The essays, comprised by a group of formidable biblical scholars, approach “responsible plurality” from the following directions: theological, scriptural, kerygmatic, historical, critical, ecclesial and relational responsibilities. Each essay deserves its own review, but here I will focus briefly on three chapters that encompass the overlapping foci and emphases of the entire volume: kerygmatic, historical and critical responsibility.

Kerygmatic (from the Greek, kērygma, “proclamation”) responsibility, according to Matthew Malcolm, is responsibility to the formational mission or purpose for which the Bible, as we know it, exists. United by a common core and circumference of the crucified and risen Jesus, the various voices of the New Testament demand “a cruciform” interpreter. The interpreter who is “particularly attuned and open to the formational orientation of the kerygma” is primed to understand scripture as a means of divine revelation and as a testimony to the saving work of God in the world, chiefly through Jesus Christ.

At the same time, Robert Morgan and James Dunn exhort interpreters to be critically and historically responsible.

Critical responsibility “makes room for critical theological reflection that presupposes that the texts speak of God but

twenty or thirty years ago. It is Jackson Kemper’s final resting place, as well as that of many of those I remember as students.

The Episcopal Church in general, and Nashotah House in particular, played a significant role in my life. I am not a Son of the House, though I am a product of it. I am proud of that!

As the seminary continues to prepare priests for service in the Episcopal Church, let us all remember the experience that is Nashotah! But the experience is, in no small part, a result of the place—that hallowed ground without which we would not have the unique seminary that we do today. And for that place on Upper Nashotah Lake, we are indebted to Kemper and his desire for an institution at which priests would be trained for service to the Episcopal Church on the western frontier.

Mr. John N. Vogel, PhD is President and Senior Historian at Historical/ Environmental Consultants in Menomonee Falls, WI. Mr. Vogel also serves on the Board of Visitors at Nashotah House Theological Seminary.

Mr. Vogel’s father was the late Arthur A. Vogel. Author of 14 books, Dr. Vogel was the Williams Adams Professor of Philosophical and Systematic Theology at Nashotah House (1952-1971), when he was consecrated as bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of West Missouri. Dr. Vogel was also the Rector of the Church of St. John Chrysostom, Delafield, WI (1953-1957).

cautiously allows for an element of evaluation.” What are readers to do with divinely ordered genocide in Joshua?

How are contemporary pastors to preach Paul’s admonitions to women in 1 Corinthians? Some may contend that there are clear-cut answers. Critical and historical responsibility, however, forces us to first consider both that divine revelation has been communicated by different voices from different times, and that the historical realities in which these texts were written bear on how they should be perceived.

The contributors to this volume are expressly committed Christians and reputable academics who do not shy away from the difficult questions that the Bible presents. We have seen in the Episcopal Church and wider Anglican Communion that the Bible can and has been interpreted in contrasting and polemical ways, resulting in disagreement and schism.

Being responsible to our lives of faith and to the Church of Jesus Christ requires responsibility in our interpretation of the Bible, wherein is found the revelation that founds and forms our Christian identity. The Future of Biblical Interpretation provides an informative and exhortative place to start if we are to faithfully “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” God’s Word.

The Rev. Shane Patrick Gormley, ’12, is a PhD Student in New Testament and Early Christianity, Loyola University Chicago. He is also a priest serving in the Episcopal Dioceses of Albany and Chicago, respectively.

Light Pours Forth

at Eastertide Much imagery surrounds the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord — Jesus is the Passover lamb; Jesus is the sin offering; Jesus is the scapegoat; Jesus initiates the covenant; Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and grants us his peace.

Old Bibles often have these images before us, beautifully and reverently illustrated. The images of sacrifice stay with us, and there are reasons why — to give identity, to give meaning, and to show the unchanging nature of Eastertide. And to make us never forget.

Yearly, at the Easter vigil at the House, as the sun is making its evening descent, we Christians give worship and praise to God. It begins solemn, dark, and somber. It is adoration, thanksgiving, and petition framed within these atonement images. How is it all things will be summed up in Christ?

Worship begins in darkness, the congregation holds unlighted candles. A new fire is kindled. Before the Cross, no sacrifice like this had ever been made. The sin of the world is being taken away. All these images go together and what makes them united? Archbishop Ramsey wrote, “They go together because of the phenomenon of agape, love in the Christian sense. The love whereby Jesus makes his pure and perfect offering is the same love whereby Jesus identifies himself completely in the bearing of the load of human calamity.”

And then the world is turned upside down.

The images change and as light pours forth, the battle is won and the same person who has been lamb, sin offering, scapegoat, and covenant, is now all that plus Prophet, Priest, and King. Life, death, resurrection, ascension — all Victory. The new fire was kindled and shared. The candles are lit. And the ‘Great Noise’ of bells begins.

And that is why when we participate in the Easter liturgy and hear the familiar accounts of Creation, the Flood, the sacrifice of Isaac, Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea, God’s presence in a renewed Israel, Isaiah’s prophecy of salvation offered freely to all, the giving of a new heart and a new spirit, the valley of dry bones, and gathering of God’s people, we say with David: God is in the midst of her; she shall not be overthrown; God shall help her at the break of day (Ps 46:6). All is summed up in Christ, in his loving act of obedience, bearing our sin. His self-giving love, His sovereignty, and our shared Victory.

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Continued from pg 6 volunteer work. At 4:30, we come together one more time for Evensong.

We start our day with prayer blessing the day and thanking God for the blessings He bestowed on us, and asking Him to give us strength for the tasks of the day ahead.

We study, we work, we break bread, we share laughter, joy, and tears together, and we end the day with prayer singing praises to God as the sun goes gown. As future priests, we live lives intentionally in this daily life; in being obedient to the elders of this community, allowing our willingness for God to break our egos and to form a new self within us according to His purpose, and our continual repentance. St. Benedict of Nursia taught that the more we listen to God, the more capable we are of listening to each other.

Many friends ask whether or not seminary is really what I had expected of my life. My answer is: Absolutely not!

Sleepless nights, reading pages by the thousands, field education site assignments, daily worship, class lectures, trying to balance private prayer, social, and family life… It feels like a great challenge of being all things to all people while trying to catch a breath. In all this, our greatest lesson is perhaps to learn how to imitate our Lord who came to this earth to serve and not to be served.

It is in our acceptance of His will to transform us to witness the love of Christ, where we find our true callings.

Born in Turkey, Ms. Ezgi Saribay, ’15, converted to Christianity after arriving as a teenager to the United States. She is studying for her MDiv at Nashotah House and is from the Diocese of Western Missouri.

Beauty & Goodness — Worship Set Apart The Rev. Philip Cunningham, ’07

Letter from the Associate Dean of Administration

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here are times when I find myself rather surprised that I have ended up back at Nashotah House, for I feel so fortunate in being called to serve here. One of these waves of surprise coupled with bliss occurred a few days ago when one of our students was being ordained to the diaconate and his Bishop commented on the ease with which a major service like this could be executed.

Another time occurred this past winter when we had a requiem mass for a Son of the House, and as the doors opened for the body to be removed, I glimpsed the beauty of St. Mary’s contrasted with the white starkness of the surrounding landscape.

Daily, as I worship in the Chapel, I listen to the diverse and marvelous parade of professors uncover Scripture and extol PENTECOST 2014

a knowledge of things of which I was previously unaware. For how many places do you get to hear a professor of Church History preach on Absalom Jones or a Catechist on Brother Lawrence? What I get to hear and see each day is something completely unlike any place on earth.

When visitors come through they comment on the transcendent spirit that this place exudes. It is that place, of which we speak in the House prayer, that has been “set apart to the glory of thy great name.” The greatness of the seminary is directly proportional to how seriously we take that mission, how much we realize that this place has been set apart.

The Rt. Rev. Daniel Martins, Springfield, coined the term Pax Nashotah, referring to the calm that exists within these 300 acres. It is a calm that transcends all of the divisiveness that has been the hallmark of the Anglican Communion over the past several years. The peace of Nashotah comes because it has been NASHOTAH.EDU

decided here that God is bigger than we are and that if we focus on this we may know the peace of Christ. If we focus on worship and praise, we can transcend those things that have so disturbed the world of the church.

Some may view the House and our rather fussy ways and see a people who like to dress up too much while producing too much smoke with our thurible; that we are nothing but a bunch of Pharisees who like to show our piety before men. That is simply not the case when the House is at its best. Our fussy ways are and must continue to be the way in which we stake the claim for God. Declaring that this is a place where God will be worshiped as the God of the universe and that all who come here must submit all they do to that reality.

The beauty and the good fortune I feel for being here are hinged on our underlying mission. Our greatness will not reside in where we stand in regards to the demarcations of a church war, but rather on how thoroughly and how fully we worship God almighty. This place is truly set apart because of those who are here now and those who have gone before and those who will come after. The House is beautiful because the perfection that is God is beautiful, and the more we reflect on that the more beautiful we will be. We must never forget from where our strength comes so that the House may continue to be set apart for the ages to come. the MISSIONER

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Alumni Corner

Retired New Testament Professor Publishes

Mystery

Novel The Rev. O.C. Edwards is the author of Runagates in Scarceness: A Holy Mystery (2013). The story tells of a murder that took place in a fictitious Episcopal seminary in Indiana during the Vietnam War. The victim is a student there who represented the flower-child movement of the time, and the chief suspect is a fellow student who won the Medal of Honor in the war before coming to the seminary.

The wife of the suspect had accepted the victim as a spiritual director, and he had intended to encourage her to take narcotics as a means of inducing mystical experiences. The professor of church history solves the crime by his use of what he considers “correct principles of historiography.”

O.C. Edwards has not only written a compelling who-done-it, he has given us a vivid picture of church life in an era when piety, propriety, and intellectual accomplishment were prized,” says Michael Kinnamon, Spehar-Halligan, Visiting Professor of Ecumenical Collaboration in Interreligious Dialogue, School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University.

Courtesy Wipf and Stock Publishers The Rev. O.C. Edwards, Jr., was Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the House (19651975). He was Dean at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL (1975-83).

Dr. Edwards is married to Jane Hanna Trufant.

The Edwards’ have three children.

The Joy of the Ordinary The Rev. Joe Hermerding, ’09 I can’t believe it has been five years since I graduated from the House. My wife, Ellora, and I had only one child as we prepared for “what’s next” after seminary. At the time, it felt like staring into a precipice. Now, our oldest daughter Norah is five years old and we have two more children—Luke (3) and Maggie (9 months).

These past five years have been the best years of my life. Between the blessing of raising three kids and the blessing of learning the art of priest-craft, I manage to stay busy. As I write this article I am sitting in the hallway of a community center, my daughter is in ballet practice across the hall, and I’m surrounded by chattering parents and crying toddlers. Bring it on—the joy of the ordinary!

My own experience as a priest has reinforced the maxim that I heard often as a student, “The rhythms of daily prayer will be your bedrock” Thank God for the daily masses at my church. Thank God for the sweet office of Evening Prayer that we sing together each night as a family before we put the kids to bed. Choral Evensong is beautiful, but nothing comes close to hearing my three-year-old son sing the Lord’s Prayer. There was a story of a former Dean of Nashotah House who confronted students who consistently missed chapel and asked, “In light of your lack of commitment to a Rule of Life, what on earth makes you think you’re called to be a priest?”

The priesthood is a joy: sharing life with others, administering the sacraments, blessing children, seeing hearts unfold like flowers to God. These are all daily realities in the trenches of ministry. As priests, people invite us into the most sacred, the most memorable, the most authentic and sometimes even painful moments of their lives. They want us there with them. As priests,

often we are asked to show up, listen and be present. When we share these sacred moments with God’s people, we develop bonds with them, deep bonds that cannot be expressed in words. We are called, “Father,” because we of our relationship with the people, our family in Christ.

I have much to learn about the art of priest-craft. It is an art that I desire from the bottom of my heart to perfect to the best of my ability. I am thankful for my time at the House, for the seeds of truth that were planted in those years, continue to grow and bear fruit out here in the “real world.” This art that we are learning is an art expressed, not with oil on canvas, but with the grace of God on human souls. We are in the business

of shaping souls, feeding souls, forming souls into the image of Christ. And that is the best business ever.

The Rev. Joe Hermerding, ’09, grew up in Buffalo, MN. He graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in Bible/Theology in 2006. He met his wife, Ellora, at Wheaton and they were married shortly after graduation. Fr. Joe attended one year at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and transferred to Nashotah House Theological Seminary in 2007. He graduated in 2009.

As a Curate, he served at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, LA for three years before accepting a call in 2012 to be an Assistant Rector at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, TX. He and Ellora have three children, Norah, Luke, and Maggie.

alumni feature

Does the Lord Want More?

The Rev. John Inserra, ’10 “Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?”(Mi 6:7a) The Prophet Micah asks this question and then continues with another: “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” –Mi 6:7b-8.

As I approached my graduation from the House in 2010, many well-meaning priests sought to give me words of wisdom as I entered ordained ministry. A priest who had graduated from the House thirty years before me, offered this counsel, “If you want to take the joy out of your ministry, fixate on increasing numbers, you will soon find that you are always wanting more or wondering why there are less, and the joy in ministry will fade.” Of course, I was sure that type of thing would never happen to me. However, I realized a year or so into ministry, that prophecy was realized as I worried about getting more people into one particular adult education class.

It is too easy to put all our self-worth as a priest in the numbers (pledges, ASA, Confirmations, Children in Sunday School, the list goes on). Seasoned priests know this too well and seminarians soon to graduate will learn it soon.

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The text from Micah gives us a different sense of what the Lord requires, and it is not higher numbers. Micah speaks on behalf of a God who is not satisfied with mere increasing quantities.

In Micah’s day, it was animals for sacrifice and oil for offering.

Micah speaks for a God who desires sincerity, a God who desires that we cast our net deeper.

What does the Lord require of you? That’s the question Micah poses to the nation of Israel, to priests and people alike. The answer is a genuine practice of faith, justice in actions, a propensity for mercy and humility before Almighty God. None of those things are the first to show up in a parochial report or in a parish register, but they are the things that make the Kingdom of God visible in a world opposed to it.

In our age of consumerism, it is a constant struggle against the desire for more, and the church is not immune from this struggle. Of course, an increase in giving and attendance can signify the Holy Spirit’s work in our parish, but it is important to remind ourselves that Our Lord’s commission to make disciples of all nations is concerned with the depth of conversion, not the quantity. Quality should not be sacrificed in the name of quantity, nor depth for width, as we minister to God’s people. It is a text worth reflecting on often as we pray for God’s guidance in our ministries, and as we agonize over why attendance was so low this Sunday or celebrate a new high point. The words of Micah ring as true today, in our consumerist culture obsessed with more, as it did for Israel.

The Rev. John Inserra, ’10, is the Rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Sheridan, WY. He has previously served at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and School in New Orleans, LA. Fr. Inserra and his wife, Sarah, have one daughter, Rosina.

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In Memoriam: the Rev. Dcn. Terry Star The Rev. Benjamin Jeffries, ‘14

T

ruly, Nomen est Omen—the name determines the man: the brightness in Terry’s gentle eyes really did shine like a Star in the night sky. And what image is more apt to describe our peaceful, giant friend than his Lakota name, “White Mountain.”

The impression of his calm, thoughtful, big, guileless, and playful presence is etched into my memory.

We at the House miss him sorely. And we will miss him indefinitely. His faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord was evident in his life, carriage, and vocation as deacon. We thus have every available assurance that he is with the blessed souls in paradise, being drawn nearer to our God. We miss him like one who has gone away for a little while, but who we will see again before too long, when our time comes.

In his life and ministry, Death was no stranger to Terry. Although from our vantage there is a horrible suddenness to his own departure from this earth.

Terry had no pretenses about the End that comes to us all.

Editor’s Note: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The words spoken at the imposition of ashes, this past Ash Wednesday, 2014, took on new meaning for students, their families, faculty, and staff of Nashotah House. One of our own, Dcn. Terry Star, a middler from the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota, died unexpectedly on March 4, 2014. As the preacher for Ash Wednesday reminded us, Lent’s true purpose is what St. Benedict gave his monks as one of their “Tools for Good Works” (chapter 4), to keep death daily before their eyes.

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This last winter, Terry and I were pallbearers at a funeral for a deceased Son of the House. The celebrant remarked he had buried nearly a thousand people in his time. Terry whispered to me that he had buried about that many in his time as a deacon. “Really?” I whispered, to which he replied that it was probably more like several hundred. Terry had mentioned to me before (We lived in Kemper Hall together for a year and a half) that he had buried more of his “kids” – the teenagers he ministered to back home – than he would ever have liked. These, coupled with his parochial ministry generally, as well as recent passings in his family, brought death frequently before his eyes. Only someone who has looked Death so squarely in the face could be that peaceful in Life.

Death. Liminality. Staples in Terry’s life that he had accepted. Other souls might have become depressed by such things,

but Terry used them like the proverbial oyster uses the irritating sand, and it blessed us: The calm comportment he gained was a welcome blessing in a Hall where we young men were often losing our composure under the stress of life and school-work. He was a ballast to us – helping to keep us upright in times of trial. This ministry of presence was far from passive. Almost weekly Terry would make one of his marvelous stews or soups for we Kemper guys, and anyone else who happened to be passing through at dinner.

He brought his TV out to the common area, so we could all watch movies together – an activity that, no matter how mundane, did much to build community.

Beyond domestic life, the experiences Terry had engendered a profound intellectual life.

Although classroom work was sometimes a struggle for Terry, compounded by how often he was called for off-campus (for funerals back home or to the Executive Council), Terry had profound perspicuity into the relationship between Christianity and Culture, arising from his reflections on ministering within a Native context. Many things he shared with us about his vision for ministry were paradigm molding.

In the spirit of Justin Martyr, he wrote a paper outlining how the pre-incarnate Logos had directed the religious thought of the Dakota people to be congruous in form to the Christian message. He spoke of using sage – an herb used by the Dakota in religious ceremonies – in a thurible, to connect Christian worship with the senses of the people-group from whence he came. And many other things like this. Terry kept the difficult balance between recognizing Christian identity as first and trump, but not neglecting the riches that culture affords, nor overlooking the facts of history.

Ordinations The Rev. Meghan Jean Farr, ’13, was ordained priest January 14, 2014, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Gladstone, NJ by the Rt. Rev. William “Chip” Stokes.

The Rev. Jennifer Ann Coe Fulton, ’13, was ordained deacon February 14, 2014, the Cathedral of St. James Lafayette, IN by the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II, Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana.

The Rev. Benjamin David Hankinson, Jr., ’14, was ordained deacon January 30, 2014, the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, Nashotah House Theological Seminary, Nashotah, WI by the Rt. Rev. Daniel Hayden Martins, Episcopal Diocese of Springfield.

The Rev. Verlon Stanley Matthews, ’13, was ordained priest June 22, 2013, Christ Church Episcopal Missionary Church by the Rt. Rev. William W. Millsaps.

The Rev. Richard David Moseley, ’14, was ordained deacon February 15, 2014, St. John’s Church, Fort Worth, TX by the Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, ACNA Diocese of Fort Worth, TX. The Rev. Christopher Pokorny, ’15, was ordained deacon December 26, 2013, Christ Church, Warrenton, VA by the Rt. Rev. Council Nedd II, Episcopal Missionary Church.

The Rev. James Martin Stanley, ’13, was ordained deacon February 14, 2014, the Cathedral of St. James Lafayette, IN by the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II, Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana.

NOTIFICATION OF DEATH The Rev. David Judson Hogarth, ’64, died October 7, 2013.

We will miss Terry. We will miss his calm. His ministry. His keen intellect. More than these we will miss his smile, that warm, generous smile, with those bright eyes. More than this, we just miss him.

The Rev. John Pahls, ’73, died January 26, 2014, St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Colorado Springs, CO.

Terry succumbed to complications of heart disease. He will forever be a Son of the House, a Child of the King. We are poorer at his loss, as is the Church.

The Rev. Terry L. Star, Deacon died March 4, 2014, the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota, Seminarian, Nashotah House Theological Seminary.

Ms. Dorothy Spaulding, died February 10, 2014, St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Washington DC.

Editors’ Notes Nashotah House is pleased to publish updates in the Biddings and Bindings for our matriculated students, alumni and honorary degree recipients. We publish the information as it is submitted after the date the event occurred. If you would like to submit a transition announcement, please visit www.nashotah.edu/ eventsandmedia and select The Missioner Magazine – Contact Us to complete an online form. Your update will appear in an upcoming issue of The Missioner and appropriate updates will also be noted in the Development Office.

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Deadline: October 22, 2014

Whether you are discerning a call to ministry or considering the possibility of attending seminary, there is no better place in which to retreat from the world and begin to contemplate your call than Nashotah House. A two full-day feast of worship, classroom experience, private reflection and candid discussion with our students, faculty, and staff, Experiencing Nashotah is expressly designed for prospective students and their spouses.

Offered twice each year, in the Fall and the Spring, Experiencing Nashotah is your opportunity to taste and see what life is like at Nashotah House, giving you and your spouse a real introduction to our community, its vibrant life and its living tradition. *If you intend to have an official admissions interview during your visit, you will need to have submitted your portion of the Admissions Application prior to your visit.

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