Crossings Spring 2017 by Canticle

SPRING 2017

Lighting Up the Chapel New approach blends creativity and tradition

CDSP Extends Its Reach Online programs meet diocesan needs

Presiding Bishop Pays a Visit Michael Curry to deliver Commencement address

Photo by Thomas Minczeski

Letter from the Dean

On the cover: Isaiah Brokenleg smudges All Saints Chapel with sage during a liturgical procession. Smudging is a Lakota tradition. Photo by Thomas Minczeski

How can today’s seminaries ground students deeply in the ancient practices and rituals of the Christian church while also giving them skills to respond to the cultures and communities in which they will serve? This question shapes much of our common life at CDSP, and in this issue of Crossings, we want to share with you some of the ways in which CDSP is forming students for ministry in the church that is being born all around us. We are fortunate to have the benefit of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s wisdom about contemporary theological education distilled in an interview beginning on page 12. He will be our commencement speaker on Friday, May 19. As you undoubtedly know, he is an energizing presence, a prophetic preacher and a man who lifts spirits and instills hope. I am looking forward to welcoming him to campus and showing him the many ways in which our seminary is growing and helping to form leaders for “the Jesus Movement.” The spirit is definitely moving at All Saints Chapel where generations of CDSP alums have learned to celebrate the Eucharist and lead worship. CDSP has long played a leading role in the liturgical life of the Episcopal Church, and this semester we began to involve our students more deeply in shaping the daily experience of chapel worship. The result, as you will read in a story beginning on page 2, is that students are receiving hands-on experience both in creating liturgy that is vital, interesting and orthodox, and in crafting the programmatic life of a chapel that seeks to be a community church for the neighborhood. In today’s church, not everyone who is called to ministry can afford to attend seminary full-time, so bishops and Commissions on Ministry look for innovative ways to provide high-quality theological education at

home. CDSP has responded to this need by partnering with dioceses across the church to provide theological education and training for ministry to students in local formation programs. In a story beginning on page 7, you will read how the Dioceses of Washington, Nevada and Minnesota partner with CDSP’s CALL program in developing courses that support clergy formation at the local level and make it possible for remarkable people— a retired rodeo rider, a union negotiator, and a scholar of literature—to answer the call to ordained ministry. Students at CDSP are now required to take an intensive class in community organizing, team-taught with the Industrial Areas Foundation. In a story starting on page 16, you’ll read about students’ reactions to the most recent session of this course, which taught them skills and gave them tools that they can use both for working in their communities and organizing within their parishes. The course also provoked rich conversation on the church’s relationship to power. One student said, “I was impressed by the passion of those who do this work and equally impressed by the procedural, strategic, realistic and practical aspect of it as well. It felt remarkably professional in the midst of so many of us who resist ‘politics.’ I felt a bit ashamed by my own discomfort. But I was also inspired to share what I have learned with my friends and congregation.” In these uncertain times, we are finding again and again that God is calling CDSP to respond with faithfulness, with creativity, and with energy to shape an unknown future. I hope you enjoy this issue of Crossings and are encouraged by the glimpses it gives you into our life and work both on Holy Hill and across the church.

Balancing acts

A Crash Course in Power

Students help chart new course for chapel

Community organizers teach a bottom-up approach to change

“CDSP was a godsend to us.”

Intellectual contributions

Online program helps dioceses train leaders close to home

Our faculty, alums and students have been busy

A Conversation with Bishop Curry

Crossings SPRING 2017

President and Dean

The strengths that brought me back to CDSP

“You’ve got to have that fire in the bones.”

The Very Rev. W. Mark Richardson, Dean and President Editorial: Canticle Communications Photography: Thomas Minczeski, Todd Myra, Virginia Trudeau Design: Barbara Nishi Graphic Design Crossings is published by Church Divinity School of the Pacific 2451 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709-1211 © Church Divinity School of the Pacific, all rights reserved. For additional print copies, e-mail communications@cdsp.edu.

— T he V ery R ev . W. M ark R ichardson , P h D

A Change of Heart

Crossings also is published as a pdf online, at www.cdsp.edu/news/crossings, with archive copies available. We want to know what you think of our magazine. Please send your comments, story ideas and suggestions to communications@cdsp.edu

Go Green with CDSP: Email communications@cdsp.edu to subscribe to our monthly email newsletter, and stay connected on Facebook at /cdspfans, on Twitter @cdsptweets, and on Instagram @cdspstudent. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Photo by Thomas Minczeski

Letter from the Dean

On the cover: Isaiah Brokenleg smudges All Saints Chapel with sage during a liturgical procession. Smudging is a Lakota tradition. Photo by Thomas Minczeski

Balancing acts

A Crash Course in Power

Students help chart new course for chapel

Community organizers teach a bottom-up approach to change

“CDSP was a godsend to us.”

Intellectual contributions

Online program helps dioceses train leaders close to home

Our faculty, alums and students have been busy

A Conversation with Bishop Curry

Crossings SPRING 2017

President and Dean

The strengths that brought me back to CDSP

“You’ve got to have that fire in the bones.”

— T he V ery R ev . W. M ark R ichardson , P h D

A Change of Heart

THE

lightbulb

Rebecca Wilson

goes

Students learn to create liturgy in All Saints Chapel In the annals of Episcopal lightbulb jokes, one is sure to elicit a deep sigh from parish clergy. “How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?” “Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to talk about how much they liked the old one.” Knowing that leading liturgical change can be daunting for new clergy faced with that light bulb committee, the faculty and students of CDSP have set about developing a process to change the schedule and patterns of worship at CDSP’s All Saints Chapel.

Photos by Thomas Minczeski

Building on the new master of divinity curriculum that emphasizes building Christian communities through community organizing, Professor Susanna Singer and the worship committee she chairs decided earlier this year to approach changing CDSP’s chapel program as a community organizing project. The seminary’s worship committee functions as the core team, Singer says. The group comprises Singer, the Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel, the Rev. L. Ann Hallisey (DMin ’05), who is retiring as dean of students, a representative from each class year and the team of sacristans. Members conducted one-on-one meetings about chapel with members of the CDSP community and held community meetings with residential students and with low-residence students when they were on campus in January. Feedback from the one-on-one conversations and community meetings helped the worship committee identify four values for CDSP’s chapel worship, Singer says. The community values balance between teaching

and worship and between innovative liturgy and the authorized rites of the Episcopal Church; the role of daily liturgy in the formation of students as Christians and as evangelists; the importance of creativity in liturgy; and diversity and inclusion in planning and conducting worship and preaching. “Using these values, we decided to try out new ideas in Lent, evaluate them during Eastertide, and then put something in place that’s fixed and more agreed upon for the whole of next year,” Singer says. “The jello sets slowly.” Mia Benjamin, a first-year Excellence in Ministry scholar from the Diocese of Massachusetts, sits on the worship committee and presented the trial Lenten plan at a community meeting last December. “Because we value creativity, autonomy, innovation and respect for a wide variety of piety, we are proposing a much freer pattern of worship,” Benjamin says. “But because we value balance and the teaching role of the chapel, there will be boundaries. Every service

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

THE

lightbulb

Rebecca Wilson

goes

Photos by Thomas Minczeski

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

will incorporate readings from an authorized lectionary of the church and the CDSP prayer cycles, and Tuesday and Thursday Eucharists will use the authorized rites of the church and authorized musical resources.” During Lent, the worship committee decided, all worship except the chapel’s principal services would be planned either by pairs of students—at least one of whom has

The Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel, works with Kim Brittain in a workshop on Anglican prayer beads.

taken Professor Ruth Meyers’ introduction to worship course—or by a student and faculty member working together. A sacristan served at every service to assist and collect data “about how things are going,” Benjamin says. “Seminary chapel,” says Singer, “is a place to make mistakes and learn from them. We are always trying to do two things at once, to have meaningful worship and to learn.” The “Customary for the Lenten Experiment” given to all students and faculty planning worship reads, “Part of the learning potential for each leadership occasion is to learn to pay attention to the myriad elements that make a gathering positive for individuals and a contribution to community. Planning is not necessarily a natural act, and all of us can learn through the practice of planning followed by feedback and reflection. Communication is not necessarily an intuitive function, so learning to pay attention to what one needs to know and to what others need to know is important.”

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“Students know that they are going to be called upon to design and lead all kinds of worship when they leave this place,” Singer says. But, she reports that CDSP students are eager to pair opportunities for innovation with “continued teaching of the authorized rites of the church in all of their depth and tradition.” The chapel schedule helps make possible this balance between tradition and innovation. During Lent, 10 services are held each week at All Saints Chapel, with Eucharists on Tuesday morning and Thursday evening. “We have so much worship here that students have the opportunity to be deeply formed in the traditional rites even as they have the opportunity to experience something very different,” Meyers says. At CDSP, liturgical innovation is grounded in creative use of space and symbols. Last year, Bogard Fellow the Rev. Stephen Shaver worked with students to hold a liturgy in the refectory where the congregation could pray facing east in keeping with ancient Christian tradition. Another recent service, held outside with the moon rising in the east, used rites from the authorized prayer book of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, which is known for its emphasis on creation. Because students in her introductory worship class “spend a lot of time reflecting on how symbols work in worship,” Meyers says, students are equipped to “think analytically, critically, and creatively about symbols.” Recently, the class discussed an Episcopal News Service article about “glitter ash,” an

For first-year student Kathleen Moore, an Excellence in Ministry scholar from the Diocese of Vermont, rigorous training in authorized liturgies makes it possible to experiment with integrity.

effort by some LGBT advocacy groups to have churches mix glitter with their ashes on Ash Wednesday as a sign of support for LGBT people. “We talked about dynamic equivalence between ashes and purple glitter,” says

“Not only the leader up front, but the participants in the pew, are responsible together for how the spirit of a gathering is full of grace and beauty.” — Professor Susanna Singer

Meyers, who advises against the practice. “Does glitter introduce something that is an appropriate inculturation of ashes?” For first-year student Kathleen Moore, an Excellence in Ministry scholar from the Diocese of Vermont, rigorous training in authorized liturgies makes it possible to experiment with integrity. “At first, I didn’t want to go to an Episcopal seminary because I wanted to learn a variety of worship practices and liturgies,” Moore says. “But one of the reasons I decided to come to CDSP is that I want to know Rite I and Rite II backward and forward, to understand why every line is the way it is. To be taken seriously in the church as an innovator, you have to know the foundations first. “With Ruth Meyers here at CDSP, that’s a draw. You know you’re going to learn that stuff really well but also have the opportunity to experiment, to make mistakes and learn from them.” As part of the Lenten experiment, several students introduced worship practices that helped shape their call to ordained ministry. First-year Bishop’s scholar Phil Hooper from the Diocese of Nevada led a workshop on making Anglican prayer beads in a common room at Easton Hall in preparation for a

contemplative Eucharist in which the beads were used. Tamra Tucker, a second-year Excellence in Ministry scholar from the Diocese of Massachusetts, helped plan and lead a Eucharist modeled on that of The Crossing, an emergent church community at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston where she served as co-convener before coming to seminary. Tucker, who preached on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well at the Eucharist, says, “The Crossing is another well of nourishment, one where I could be my true self without judgement, without needing to be fixed or whole … Sometimes, our true selves and the true Jesus is found outside the walls of Jerusalem, or outside the temple, or outside of ‘typical’ church. We have to be willing to enter into conversation, and be willing to see the possibility of Jesus being where we think he ought not be. That is where nourishment comes from.” Variation in worship practices nearly guarantees that not everyone will be comfortable all the time, Singer says. The Lenten customary developed by Gardner made a virtue of that unease. “No matter who the leader of a service is, we all support, affirm and bless that person by keeping our hearts open and our critical side suppressed,” it reads. “With

The Rev. Susanna Singer distributes Holy Communion in All Saints Chapel.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

The Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel, works with Kim Brittain in a workshop on Anglican prayer beads.

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

For first-year student Kathleen Moore, an Excellence in Ministry scholar from the Diocese of Vermont, rigorous training in authorized liturgies makes it possible to experiment with integrity.

“Not only the leader up front, but the participants in the pew, are responsible together for how the spirit of a gathering is full of grace and beauty.” — Professor Susanna Singer

The Rev. Susanna Singer distributes Holy Communion in All Saints Chapel.

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Mia Benjamin’s interest in rethinking chapel worship began almost as soon as she arrived on campus last fall. CDSP’s Eucharists use the lectionary readings approved by General Convention, which include readings for the commemoration of saints. But “white Anglo missionary saints” were overrepresented in chapel services, she says, “and the depth and breadth of what the Episcopal Church has been in the last century was lacking. I wanted that to be reflected.” Benjamin offered to help plan one new service right away. Her fiancé, Aaron Kano-Bower, is the greatgrandson of Hiram Hisanori Kano, a Japanese immigrant to the United States who converted to Christianity as a teenager after almost dying of typhoid. He was added to the Episcopal Church’s calendar of commemorations by General Convention in 2015. Kano immigrated to the United States on the advice of William Jennings Bryan, a friend of Kano’s father, who encouraged him to move to Nebraska and become a farmer. While advocating for the rights of Japanese-American immigrants, he met Bishop George Allen Beecher of Western Nebraska who, Kano-Bower says, “convinced him that he had a call

to be a priest.” After attending Nashotah House for a year, he was ordained an Episcopal deacon in 1928 and a priest in 1936. On Pearl Harbor Day, Kano was arrested at a hotel in North Platte, Nebraska, because he was believed to have contacts in the Japanese government. He was sent to jail in Omaha. During World War II, the U.S. government imprisoned Kano in four different internment camps, where he ministered to his fellow JapaneseAmericans. “He was moved from camp to camp because he was organizing and ministering,” Kano-Bower says, “and because he had better English than most Japanese immigrants.” At CDSP, Kano’s commemoration

creativity comes variety, and we may not like a particular form of worship that is presented. Grace and peace are created when we let go of our own desire and consider what it means to support and accept what the person up front has put before us. “Not only the leader up front, but the participants in the pew, are responsible together for how the spirit of a gathering is full of grace and beauty.” After each Thursday Eucharist, Meyers says, the worship team gathers to talk about the experience. “Where was God present?” is a regular question at those gatherings. “What did we learn? What do we wish we’d been better prepared for?” The worship committee decided to keep those meetings in place during the Lenten experiment. Before the end of the spring semester, students and faculty will

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was transferred from October 24, which fell during reading week, to October 31. The Rev. David Ota ’83, head of the Asian Commission of the Diocese of California, preached. “Father Kano doesn’t just belong to Aaron’s family,” Benjamin says, “but to the whole church. His example is to be a witness to Christ in the world, to be a saint who inspires other people to be who God calls them to be. “It’s cool to me to be planning worship that opens the chapel up to the surrounding community,” she says. “It’s great to have different parts of the Asian-American community celebrate with us.”

also evaluate Lenten worship and develop next semester’s chapel schedule. Singer and worship committee members are planning a community meeting, an online survey, and a meeting with worship leaders. Low-residence students will work online to plan worship for the intensive session they will attend in June. They will also evaluate those services. The goal, Singer says, is to have a chapel schedule that meets the immediate needs of the campus community and gives CDSP students the experience of both leading worship in many contexts and communities and managing liturgical change. “We are working to form leaders who are comfortable in the richness of our tradition and are looking forward into a creative future,” she says.

Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership develops network of diocesan partners

CALL has the right response When the Rev. Dr. Catherine Gregg joined the Diocese of Nevada’s staff in 2014, she faced a Herculean task: develop a local formation plan for the diocese. From scratch.

L u S ta n t o n L e ó n

“It was one of the first things Bishop Dan Edwards asked me to do,” says Gregg, canon for congregational vitality. “There was no consistent clergy training, no actual way of getting through a formation process here. It was hit or miss, nothing written down as of what to do. No two people prepared for ordination in the same way. Some people would be in process here six to eight years; those are the horror stories. We have a lot of priests here who had no training for ministry except EFM (Education for Ministry).” Photo by Virginia Trudeau Photography

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership develops network of diocesan partners

CALL has the right response When the Rev. Dr. Catherine Gregg joined the Diocese of Nevada’s staff in 2014, she faced a Herculean task: develop a local formation plan for the diocese. From scratch.

L u S ta n t o n L e ó n

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“You meet people from all over the world,” Walker says. “That’s the thing about online learning, you learn so much about what they are doing in other parishes.” — The Rev. Susan Walker

Washington all have formal partnerships with the CALL program, which works actively with the dioceses to develop curricula and courses that support local formation for ordained ministry. The close relationship with partner dioceses means CDSP can offer new courses as needed and track students through their program. “Our hope is to develop formal partnerships with as many dioceses as possible,” Snow says of the CALL program. “With a formal partnership, a diocese can work closely C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

church history. “We have been pleased with the relationship so far, and most, if not all, of the students have enjoyed and learned much from the classes,” says the Rev. Sue Von Rautenkranz, archdeacon in charge of the discernment, formation and deployment process for deacons in the diocese. “We have over 15 students who are either taking classes right now or have in the last year.” It was the Rev. Susan Walker, spiritual formation advisor to the diaconate program, who introduced the diocese to the CALL courses. She was considering the diaconate in 2010 when someone suggested she call Dr. Rod Dugliss, who was teaching online courses at CDSP. “I got very interested because I knew little about the diaconate, and I was very confused about what CALL was,” says Walker, who was ordained in 2012. “I came home and emailed

with us to design a curriculum appropriate for their needs, co-design courses that we don’t already offer, consider instructor evaluations, and track and evaluate their students. I work closely with the coordinators from our

“We do our best to be sure that when we schedule courses, we are providing exactly what a diocesan partner needs and helping them plan ahead for their students…” — Jennifer Snow

partner dioceses to be sure that their students are being well-served.” The online courses are taught by experienced instructors—often seminary professors—and students can work directly with their instructors as well as fellow students. Church-wide, most diocesan local formation programs have in-person, diocesanbased components focused on mentorship, spiritual growth and collegiality, and offer retreats or local courses. CALL complements these diocesan-based experiences by offering courses that teach students the canonical areas for ordained ministry. “We’ve worked with the Episcopal Church in Minnesota to offer a new course next year titled Jesus: Person and Way, as well as Preparing Congregations for Mission, which was offered for the first time last year,” Snow says. “At the request of the Diocese of Washington, we’ve developed a new Old Testament introduction course, which next year we will split into a two-course sequence, and a second church history course for their scheduling needs. We’ve also developed an Introduction to Pastoral Care course for the Diocese of Nevada, and we are offering an online homiletics course as well. “We do our best to be sure that when we schedule courses, we are providing exactly what a diocesan partner needs and helping them plan ahead for their students,” Snow says. The Diocese of Washington is in its first year of partnership with CALL for diaconate training. CALL offers five courses each calendar year for those in the program. Courses include Old Testament (two classes), New Testament, ethics, systematic theology and

Photo by Todd Myra Photography

Gregg looked at three or four programs she thought might meet their needs, but “all of them required part-time residency on campus, or they were just so expensive that we couldn’t do it in Nevada. This is a scrappy diocese, and it is one of the poorest dioceses out there, so ministry has to be done in a different way. It has to be creative.” She called Jennifer Snow, CDSP’s director of extended learning, and discovered the seminary was offering exactly what Nevada needed: online courses for local formation, offered through the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL). “I found her to be incredibly helpful,” Gregg says. “I visited for a couple of days with another priest and asked what can we do to serve our local priests, many of whom have families, will be doing this as a second career and will be non-stipendiary. “They are so on top of things that people need,” Gregg says of Snow and the CALL staff. “Our postulants participate in 10 CALL courses over a two-to-three year period, including ethics, pastoral care, history, theology. Right now we have four to six people in the process to become deacons or priests. “CDSP was a godsend to us.” The Diocese of Nevada, the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and the Diocese of

The Rev. Susan Daughtry

“We are trying to create a way for people to respond to God’s call without having to quit their jobs and move their families to go to seminary.” — The Rev. Susan Daughtry

Rod, and I got a very nice email back encouraging me to take his diaconal hermeneutics course. It’s all about the focus of the deacon as distinguished from the priest, the laity and the bishop. “It was a fabulous course,” Walker says. “It really gave me a grounding. It was my first time doing an online class, and it was only six weeks long. It was strenuous. I loved it.” Walker went on to take several other CALL courses on her own. When the Diocese of Washington was looking for help with its diaconate

training program, she enthusiastically recommended CALL. “You meet people from all over the world,” Walker says. “That’s the thing about online learning, you learn so much about what they are doing in other parishes. The 25 participants in the online class I’m taking now are from the British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, as well as California, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, Ohio, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Iowa.” The Episcopal Church in Minnesota—the first diocese to form a partnership with CALL—has integrated CALL courses into its School for Formation to round out postulants’ educational needs. “We use six of the CALL courses and work closely with Jennifer Snow to make sure their offerings align with what we need,” says the Rev. Susan Daughtry, missioner for formation. “We’ve found this to be a really helpful partnership for our formation needs, and I hope for helping CDSP understand the needs of the church here. We are trying to create a way for people to respond to God’s call without having to quit their jobs and move their families to go to seminary. “CDSP has demonstrated a willingness to think outside the box and innovate new programs, trusting that the Holy Spirit is guiding these changes,” Daughtry says. Snow says she finds such comments gratifying. “It’s great to hear from the diocesan coordinators, and also the student course evaluations, that there is real learning, excitement and growth going on from these courses and interaction with our CALL faculty. The feedback from diocesan leadership

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“You meet people from all over the world,” Walker says. “That’s the thing about online learning, you learn so much about what they are doing in other parishes.” — The Rev. Susan Walker

“We do our best to be sure that when we schedule courses, we are providing exactly what a diocesan partner needs and helping them plan ahead for their students…” — Jennifer Snow

Photo by Todd Myra Photography

The Rev. Susan Daughtry

“We are trying to create a way for people to respond to God’s call without having to quit their jobs and move their families to go to seminary.” — The Rev. Susan Daughtry

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has been so fantastic. It is probably the most rewarding aspect of running the program.”

Learning at a Distance The CALL program, and CDSP’s relationships with dioceses distant from its Berkeley campus, allow unconventional candidates to pursue top-notch theological education and prepare

raised three daughters solo, and hopes to serve as a non-stipendiary priest in his parish, Holy Trinity in Fallon, Nevada. And there’s the Rev. JOHN SULLIVAN of Austin, Minnesota, a 53-year-old art teacher, union negotiator, deacon and father of four daughters, who has known he wanted to be a priest since middle school.

Photo by Todd Myra Photography

seminary, but it is not feasible.” Kelley works part-time now doing leatherwork. His wife, Liz, works full time for the town of Fallon. Kelley wants to serve in his home parish, where he is

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

a worship leader and his wife is senior warden. “The Lord knows exactly what I need, and right now it’s schooling and maybe something will happen after that.”

Photo by Virginia Trudeau Photography

JIM KELLEY, whose body took a beating from too many bucking broncos, is semi-retired on disability and lives on a small ranch about 15 miles outside of Fallon, population 8,600 and home of the Navy’s Top Gun training program. Up through high school, Kelley’s plan was to become an Episcopal priest. Then he fell in love with rodeo. “I was ranch-raised, and my godfather rode in rodeos. I looked up to him, and I got into junior rodeos in high school,” Kelley says. “There was a bunch of us who were going to go pro. I rode bareback horses and saddle broncs. I got accepted to go to college, but I never went. I met a gal, ended up being a single parent and I raised my three girls. “I didn’t get to accomplish what I wanted in rodeo, but I was part of it, and I wouldn’t change anything in the world. My girls came first. Gold buckles and such don’t matter much. My world championship is being a good father.” About eight years ago, after years in the rodeo and construction work, he made his way back to his church in Fallon and rekindled his call to the priesthood. He’s taken seven CALL courses since 2015 and will take three more. “I just love the homiletics class, and, of course, I love Christian history.” He also fell in love with the CDSP campus when he was there for a weeklong Industrial Areas Foundation course. “It is just a beautiful campus,” Kelley says. “Everyone there is really nice. I went to morning prayer every day. I went to an evening Eucharist. Just a beautiful service. “The dean, Mark Richardson, he’s really neat. I’m kind of envious of the people there. I wish I could go there for

for ordination. There’s 70-year-old ANGELA ANDERSON who was born in London, raised a Roman Catholic, earned a master’s in English literature, and hopes to serve as a non-stipendiary priest in her parish, Grace in the Desert, Las Vegas. There’s 52-year-old JIM KELLEY, a lifelong Episcopalian who was raised on a ranch by his grandmother, passed up college to become a rodeo rider,

JOHN SULLIVAN lives in Austin, Minnesota, about 100 miles from the Twin Cities and home to Hormel Foods Corporation, makers of SPAM. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather worked in the SPAM plant. He teaches art to 5th and 6th graders and is a teachers’ union negotiator. When he was about the age of his students, Sullivan, now 53, knew he wanted to be a priest. “When I was about 10 years old, I wrote a paper on what I wanted to do when I grew up, and what I wanted to do was to be a priest,” Sullivan says. “Church was meaningful to me. I knew when I was there, something more than normal was happening to me.” As he grew older, a sense of call kept popping up, and he kept pushing it away. That was until about seven years ago when “it became too insistent, so I decided to do something about it.” He attended a Deacon Call Day sponsored by the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and decided to enter formal discernment. He was ordained a deacon in 2013. “When I was first in formal discernment, I felt, ‘Am I called to be a priest or am I called to be a deacon?’” Sullivan says. “At the time there was no bi-vocational call to the priesthood. There was no other route but to go to seminary.” His dilemma? He wasn’t finished with teaching, which he has done for 27 years. “I felt if I entered the process to become a priest, I would have to go to seminary and stop teaching. I just felt I was not ready to stop teaching.” Now, with his diocese’s School for Formation and the CALL courses, he can do both. The CALL classes “have been challenging,” Sullivan says. “They’ve been interesting to me. I love the reading. Personally, I like online classes. I know some don’t. For me, it’s nice, it works. The interaction with my classmates and with the professors has been really great.” ANGELA ANDERSON is editor of the e-newsletter at Grace in the Desert. Raised a Roman Catholic, she joined the Episcopal Church in the 1980s but, being an English literature scholar who studied the metaphysical poets, she was interested in church from more of a literary standpoint. After her husband died 10 years ago, “I got more spiritual,” Anderson says. “I felt there was something I was missing in my life. I started doing some church shopping. I went to Grace in the Desert in Las Vegas in 2009, I think I went on Christmas Eve, and I’ve been there ever since. I just knew that was the place I needed to be.” When she was about 65, she felt the call to ordained ministry. “I was still working, and I thought, this doesn’t make any sense. This is kind of a crazy thing. I’ve always loved to study and loved to learn, so I thought I would love to go to seminary. “I started looking around. I knew I was not going to be rector of a parish or have a paid position, and the cost of seminary was prohibitive,” Anderson says. “So when this opportunity came along (the CALL program), it seemed like a nice way to do it. I have a little bit of luxury of having time during the day, but if I were working full time, I could still do this.” Anderson says that in September 2015 she was one of the first people in Nevada to sign up for CALL classes. Heart valve surgery delayed some of her classes, but she expects to finish her required course work in May. Once ordained, she hopes to serve in her home parish. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned through this whole thing is I’ve learned to relax, and say, ‘Okay, God, when it’s ready, when it’s baked enough, you’ll take me out of the oven and I’ll be bread.’”

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has been so fantastic. It is probably the most rewarding aspect of running the program.”

Photo by Todd Myra Photography

seminary, but it is not feasible.” Kelley works part-time now doing leatherwork. His wife, Liz, works full time for the town of Fallon. Kelley wants to serve in his home parish, where he is

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

a worship leader and his wife is senior warden. “The Lord knows exactly what I need, and right now it’s schooling and maybe something will happen after that.”

Photo by Virginia Trudeau Photography

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be the speaker at CDSP’s 123rd Commencement. He spoke with Jim Naughton about the Jesus Movement and theological education. You’ve made “the Jesus Movement” one of the best-known phrases in the Episcopal Church, second only to “We’ve always done it that way.” What is the significance of the Jesus Movement for theological education? One of reasons I’ve used the language of the Jesus Movement is not to create a new cliché—we’ve got enough of those. But remember Verna Dozier’s book “The Dream of God?” The sub-title of that book is “A Call to Return.” Reclaiming our place as participants in the Jesus Movement is a way of returning to the deep origins and roots of who we are as Christians, as followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Leading

the Jesus Movement The Presiding Bishop talks about theological education by

Jim Naughton

When biblical scholars talk about early Christian origins, almost before the early church itself, they use the language of the Jesus Movement. It was a movement within Judaism. Elisabeth Fiorenza talks about the Jesus Movement, and then she talks about Paul having extended that

Jesus Movement to the Christian Movement, into the Roman world. Albert Nolan said, “Jesus did not start an organization, he inspired a movement.” Well, that is our origin. That’s who we are at our deepest level, and I happen to believe that our real strength, our creative energy, our deep wisdom is going to be found the closer we draw to that Jesus of Nazareth and the way, his way. We will get beyond some of the cultural accretions that have been added on to Christianity, that have been added in Christendom, that have happened in our contemporary religious environment, where you have forms of articulating the gospel that don’t look anything like Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus Movement, in itself, is a call to return. It is an invitation to return to who we are, not a new cliché. And so what does that have to do with formation for ministry, whether it is ordained or lay? What formation and equipping has to happen so that the church has leaders, so that the movement has leaders? That, for me, is the crucible for theological education. What does that look like to serve a movement that has an organization, but is not itself an organization? And that’s flipping it. And then better minds than mine have to come to play on that.

spiritual leader in this movement, they have got to be deeply formed as a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, for real. They’ve got to have a deep formation that has inner disciplines and practices that nourish a healthy vibrant relationship with Christ in community, because there aren’t going to be a lot of external props to prop them up. Which means, you’ve got to be deeply formed in scripture. If you are in a context like the one we are in, a contemporary context where Christendom is over, you don’t have a living just because you are a priest. You are not guaranteed employment. And if that is an expectation, find another job. You see me? That’s pretty much over. So if you are going to do this, you’ve got to have fire. Jeremiah says, “There is a fire stored up in my bones.” And you’ve got to have that fire in the bones. And you have to have a capacity to continue to stoke the flames. Because they will ebb and flow, to mix a metaphor. So you have to have deep Christian formation. And deep enough so that it is not just swimming in the shallows of “the way we’ve always done things,” but actually going deeper to a real relationship with God. I mean, the real deal. Which has its good days and bad days, but it’s a real relationship.

How must seminaries and their students adapt to the changing world and the changing church?

Do the academic offerings of seminaries need to change?

I’ve had some conversation with the seminary deans, and there is great openness to change. There really is. And some of it is that we are in a cultural movement where openness is a necessity. It is clear to me that there is no one silver bullet, there is no onesize-fits-all way to prepare someone for ministry. But there are a couple of constants. One of the constants is that if someone is going to be a Christian

I think you have to be deeply formed in the classical theological disciplines, which is to say you can’t be a priest if you don’t know your Bible any more than you can be a doctor and not know anatomy. You have to be deeply formed in holy scripture, deeply informed in the history of the church and how the church has evolved and developed and its ups and downs, so that you don’t get sucked in and fooled into

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

Leading

the Jesus Movement The Presiding Bishop talks about theological education by

Jim Naughton

How must seminaries and their students adapt to the changing world and the changing church?

Do the academic offerings of seminaries need to change?

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

thinking that there was a “Golden Age” of the church—whether it was the 1950s or right before Constantine or something. There was never a Golden Age; it’s always been a mess. So you’ve got a sense of that history and that flow, and you understand that the church evolves and develops because Jesus said that the spirit will lead you in all truth. Well, the spirit keeps leading. I know people say that the stuff we learn in seminary doesn’t have consequence, but I am here to tell you, it does. I “Creative, collaborative never would have heard partnerships between residential of Dietrich Bonhoeffer seminaries and diocesan nor realized that at this moment in time when formation programs are going to people ask me, “What be the key.” should we be doing and how should we be — The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry thinking?” I’d be saying, “Well, you need to read Bonhoeffer. Start there.” And Bonhoeffer was steeped in the classical theological tradition and he learned how to apply learnings from that tradition to that moment in which he lived. And you might read the Barmen Declaration and all of that and say, “Jesus is Lord. Why is that significant?” Well, it is significant if somebody else is claiming to be Lord. Or if some other power—à la William Stringfellow—is claiming to be Lord. So being steeped in the theological biblical stuff, that’s critical. How about hands-on work, such as clinical and pastoral education (CPE)? You know, that stuff works. CPE and

Join us at CDSP

123rd Commencement Exercises Friday May 19, 10:30 am Commencement Speaker PRESIDING BISHOP MICHAEL B. CURRY Awarding of honorary degrees to The Rt. Rev. Martín Barahona, retired bishop of El Salvador

The Rev. Dr. Jae-Jeong Lee, former Unification Minister, South Korea

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

things like it help a person to learn how to step out of the way enough to create space for someone else to give voice to their deep hurts. And not for yours to interfere with theirs, you know what I mean? What I have proposed, and have been just teeing up enough to get the conversation going, is that we need a parallel kind of approach and experience for people who are going to be leaders of the church, and this is whether they are going to be lay or ordained, in the ways of evangelism that are authentic and consistent with who we are. Our leaders need to know how to help a community of people—a church—to both listen to the ways of faith and share faith. They need to know how to organize a community to be a community that is genuinely and authentically evangelical in the best sense of that word, in the biblical sense, a community of good news. And finally—it has taken me a while to stumble on language that gets at what I mean —we are talking about a way of evangelism that helps to give birth to God’s Beloved Community, and that’s not a narrow definition, that’s an expansive one. That’s not about making Episcopal churches bigger, or even Christian churches bigger. It’s about helping God create God’s Beloved Community. Now that way of evangelism, that smells like Jesus to me. And how do we enable our people to be midwives of that and our community to be midwives of that? That’s being truly evangelical. So I don’t know if it is a CPE-like experience. I don’t know what that is. I teed that up with the seminary deans and I teed that up at the Evangelism Matters conference. We just have to get it out there and the better minds will figure it out. And each seminary may figure it out in a different way. But I know the impact that CPE has had on the church; it has been dramatic. Sometimes people say they wish they’d learned more in seminary about how to “run” a church. How is that best done? I know that there are courses in church administration, how do you run a church and all that kind of stuff. Practical kinds of stuff. But the best experience I got on how you provide leadership in a church was when I took community organizing training. That actually helped me learn how to provide leadership in a variety of settings, but particularly in a church. It was the best congregational development training I could have had.

And I didn’t take it for that. I wasn’t even thinking about that. But it was how do you participate in the birth of a vision that is already there but is only a fetus and not yet a baby. I kind of learned that by accident. Well, if our folk have the kind of training—and I know community organizing can scare some folks, so whatever gets at it—that helps you to bring out where the spirit is actually leading in a community, and helps that community to claim its voice and find its way and organize itself in tangible ways, that is how you provide leadership in a church environment where the institutional supports that may have existed in Christendom, or when we were established, no longer exist. It’s how you lead and organize a movement. It’s happening here and there. CDSP is doing this stuff. You put all that stuff together and you have got at least the right mix for forming Christian leaders. It’s the right kind of formula if you will.

Bishop Curry with Brenda Richardson and the Very Rev. Mark Richardson, CDSP’s dean and president.

Fewer and fewer candidates for the Episcopal priesthood are attending Episcopal seminaries. What should seminaries be doing about that? Creative, collaborative partnerships between residential seminaries and diocesan formation programs are

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going to be the key. And that may be where the seminaries begin to see their job is the job of evangelism, is the teaching of the theological traditions and disciplines to the church, in which case that means they are in partnerships and collaboration not just with a diocese that sends a postulant to them as a seminarian, but with dioceses who are training leaders for the church in a variety of different ways. There is one sense in which the mission of a seminary is to train postulants for holy orders. Okay, that’s part of it, but actually no, their real mission is to teach and train the church to do its work in the world. And if that becomes the mission, then that expands their possibility, it doesn’t dilute them, because the core mission still exists. What happens if our seminaries begin to think: “What is the real core and purpose we exist for?” Not just, “How have we done it?” And when we go back to that, I think it is to provide the kind of theological education and spiritual formation that equips the church to do its work and witness in the world. And man, when they grab that, then partnerships with diocesan programs and all sorts of stuff, then the possibilities actually expand, not to the point of losing your vocation, but actually claiming the real vocation. And that gets exciting.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

Join us at CDSP

The Rev. Dr. Jae-Jeong Lee, former Unification Minister, South Korea

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Bishop Curry with Brenda Richardson and the Very Rev. Mark Richardson, CDSP’s dean and president.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

Blessed are the Organizers Community organizing course teaches students to listen, strategize and act

Interviews by Brenda Lane Richardson

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

During the January intensive term, the Very Rev. Mark Richardson, CDSP’s dean and president, went back to school. Richardson joined CDSP students, local formation students from the Diocese of Nevada, a group from a Bay Area synagogue, observers from London, England, and others in Organizing for Public Ministry, a course that teaches communities of faith how to organize themselves to press for social and political change. “The community organizing course supports the most prominent aspect in CDSP’s mission statement: ‘Responding to the challenges of contemporary society with the good news of Jesus Christ,’” Richardson said.

Photos by Thomas Minczeski

The Industrial Areas Foundation, or IAF, is the organization founded by legendary organizer Saul Alinsky, who developed the techniques the IAF now teaches to “grow the voices of families and communities that have little power over decisions that impact their own lives,” as the organization’s website now says. The IAF’s method proceeds from the notion that communities know best what they most need. The organizer’s job is not to arrive with an agenda for progress, but with a method to tease out the community’s desires and strengths. The IAF method uses one-onone conversations, house meetings and large public “actions” to build local organizations that are large enough and passionate enough that their demands cannot be ignored. “The Gospel was never meant to be a private affair of the heart alone,” Richardson said, “so learning the skills taught in Industrial Areas Foundation’s community organizing program, of building public relationships and community modes of interaction, is in keeping with the mission impulse found in CDSP’s curriculum.” “I was impressed by how challenging it was to contemplate power, particularly in our individual reactions to it as Christians,” said Judith Lyons, a low-residency MDiv student from the Diocese of Los Angeles. “I

was also impressed by the passion of those who do this work and equally impressed by the procedural, strategic, realistic and practical aspect of it as well. It felt remarkably professional in the midst of so many of us who resist ‘politics.’ I felt a bit ashamed by my own discomfort. But I was also inspired to share what I have learned with my friends and congregation.”

Jan Robitscher, John Sullivan and Christina Boehm Carlson

“Building community while working towards issues of justice seems so important right now to counteract fear, which is being used as a political tool to divide our nation.” — Christina Boehm Carlson

The course was offered in two sections. The CDSP students taking the class for credit had a substantial reading list to complete before the class began and papers due when it was over. They met each morning with the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, CDSP’s academic dean, to reflect on the theological foundations and pastoral use of community organizing. Richardson and others joined the group later for sessions taught by four IAF organizers. Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

Blessed are the Organizers Community organizing course teaches students to listen, strategize and act

Interviews by Brenda Lane Richardson

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Photos by Thomas Minczeski

Jan Robitscher, John Sullivan and Christina Boehm Carlson

The Rev. Mary Blessing and the Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel

“This training will help me guide my congregation into ways of bridgebuilding which will help us know how we can be truly welcoming to the stranger.” — The Rev. Mary Blessing

“The course is helpful to students in a number of ways, and some of them are not immediately obvious,” Meyers said. “They learn tools and techniques for having conversations that allow other people to speak about their needs. That’s a key step in organizing, but it’s also an essential skill for any pastor. So it provides our students with a means of getting to know the communities in which they serve. But what I think surprises people is how the same tools that can be used to organize a community for a specific purpose can also be used to help a congregation focus its attention and energy on aspects of its life that need to change.” “I found the course very stimulating and helpful,” said John Reardon of the Diocese of Rhode Island, who is pursuing a Certificate of Anglican Studies in the low-residence program. “It integrated insights from political science, economics, psychology, philosophy and theology in a manner that provides very practical insights for helping communities to come together to seek justice and proper treatment.” In the middle of the week, participants

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

The Rev. Rafael Pereira

ventured out for an evening field trip to to observe an organizing event in support of immigrants facing housing needs in San Rafael. On the night of the event it was raining so heavily that the streets were flooded and driving conditions hazardous. When CDSP participants arrived to observe the meeting, however, 350 people were in attendance, well over original expectations. The meeting had been called by the Marin Organizing Committee, part of the Bay Area Industrial Areas Foundation of which CDSP is a member. A meeting of this kind is referred to in IAF argot as an “action.” It is the culmination of a campaign that begins with one-on-one conversations throughout a community to bring to the surface issues that have the poten tial to stir the community to action. These one-on-ones are followed by house meetings in which people tell one another their stories that focus on the theme that has arisen with most frequency and energy in the one-on-one conversations. The community then makes a request to public officials, phrasing it in a way that requires either a yes or a no.

In this instance, the community wanted San Rafael Police Chief Diana Bishop to commit herself and her officers to a series of conversations with the local immigrant community about the seemingly pointless traffic stops in the community. The community also wanted assurances from Bishop that the police would not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants. Dennis Rodoni, a Marin County Supervisor, also attended the action. The community asked him to research its complaints regarding the lack of affordable housing and the behavior of landlords who, especially since the presidential election, have been threatening to turn tenants who seek repairs over to ICE. Both officials agreed to the community’s requests. “I have felt so much anger, disgust, fear and distrust due to the recent elections and political rhetoric,” said Christina Boehm Carlson, a low-residence MDiv student from Minnesota. “This course made me realize that there are many people constructively channeling those emotions to address issues in the local community. … Building community while working towards issues of justice seems so important right now to counteract fear, which is being used as a political tool to divide our nation.” Others students were struck by the immediate take-home value of the course. “As my congregation works right now to build relationships of trust with our local Latino community, which is quite segregated in our town, this training will help me guide my congregation into ways of bridge-building which will help us know how we can be truly welcoming to the stranger,” said the Rev. Mary Blessing ’92, of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of El Camino Real, who is now pursuing a Certificate of Theological Studies in Congregational Development. “The skills can be used anywhere and can be modified for use for one’s personal style,” said Alison Lee, a low-residence MDiv student from the Diocese of Arizona who has previously used the techniques at her home parish of St. Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson. “The current endeavor is working on ‘bridging the divide’ between the two political sides within our congregation. First, we connect, we listen, we learn, we come together, then, an action. And the first section takes a long time.”

IAF training also helps students examine their own style of leadership. “Much of my leadership has been including others in my bright ideas,” Lyons said. “Though not oppressive (I hope), I did not do enough to get out of the way and allow bottom-up ideas and energy in group situations.” Richardson says courses like the community organizing class are essential to prepare students for the challenges of ministry. “In addition to an education in the classical theological disciplines, our aim is to assist in the development of emotional and spiritual depth for leadership, and in the capacity to lead communities into a greater consciousness and practice of mission in local public life,” he said. “IAF recognizes that our culture needs to rebuild strength and health in small- to mid-sized o rganizations in our communities—churches, synagogues, mosques, labor unions, PTAs, voluntary civic organizations, neighborhood associations. These are the carriers of value, the backbone of local healthy civic communities. Many of our churches need to rediscover this aspect of themselves and the potential of alliances with others toward common aims.”

“The Gospel was never meant to be a private affair of the heart alone, so learning the skills … is in keeping with the mission impulse found in CDSP’s curriculum.” — The Very Rev. Mark Richardson

The Rev. Rafael Pereira, a transitional deacon from the Diocese of Nevada, writing from Las Vegas after the course had concluded, summed up his experiences this way: “Now that I am back home, the purpose is to continue serving, organizing people through one-on-one meetings, in every moment of our lives, ministering all the time: at work, at the supermarket, at church, hospitals, in the streets, everywhere. Organizing people and organizing money will lead you to take care of the world’s needs, to change the world, for a better world of justice and love.”

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

The Rev. Mary Blessing and the Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel

“This training will help me guide my congregation into ways of bridgebuilding which will help us know how we can be truly welcoming to the stranger.” — The Rev. Mary Blessing

C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific

The Rev. Rafael Pereira

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

an Eschatological Ecclesiology: More Than Communion,” is reviewed by the Rev. Dr. Ellen Wondra in the same issue. Academic Dean Ruth Meyers recently published an essay titled, “Liturgy and Justice: Ninety Years of Contributions of ‘Orate Fratres’ and ‘Worship’” in the November 2016 issue of Worship. Meyers will have her newest book, “Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission,” published in traditional Chinese in 2018.

Community News 20

Photo by Thomas Minczeski

Faculty News Assistant Professor Julián González gave a reflection titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” at a service commemorating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 15 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Assistant Professor Scott MacDougall was interviewed by Daniel Kirk alongside theologians Monica A. Coleman and Cynthia Rigby on the LectioCast podcast. He has published an article titled, “‘Coherent, Inclusive, Dialogical, Hospitable’: Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s Constructive Theological Method” in the Anglican Theological Review. His book, “The Shape of

Professor Cynthia Moe-Lobeda has published two book chapters: “A Haunting Contradiction, Hope, and Moral-Spiritual Power,” in “Eco- Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril” and “The Subversive Luther” in “The Forgotten Luther: Reclaiming the Social-Economic Dimension of the Reformation.” At the Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting in January, she gave a juried paper titled, “Is Climate Change Structural Violence?” She was the featured speaker at the Fifth Annual Interfaith Climate Conference at Davis Community Church on March 11. Associate Professor Susanna Singer attended the Evangelism Matters Conference in Dallas in November. She preached at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on December 4.

Alumni News The Rev. Richard Hogue ’16 will attend a program for seminarians and new clergy at Centerbury Cathedral in June. Wendy Salisbury Howe ’97 has written a book, “Like Rain on a Dry Place,” about finding a son she placed for adoption in 1965. The Rev. Dr. Austin Leninger ’06 is the new priest-in-charge of Calvary Episcopal Church in Santa Cruz, California.

The Rev. Emily Mellott ’05 is the new rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Moorestown, New Jersey. The Very Rev. William H. Petersen ’66 ’97 celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on December 27. The Rev. Sarah Quinney ’15 was featured in a story in Episcopal News Service about a Christmas service she developed for children with special needs. The Rev. Suzanne Watson ’03, who will graduate from medical school this spring, was recently the subject of a story in The Coast News Group.

Student News Isaiah Brokenleg ’19 wrote an essay about her first semester at CDSP for The Clarion, the newspaper of the Diocese of Fond du Lac. Scripture reflections from Phil Hooper ’19 were featured in the Episcopal Church publication Sermons That Work.

In Memoriam The Rev. Canon Dr. Grant S. Carey ’57, priest at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, died on February 21. In 2007, he received an honorary degree from CDSP. The Rev. Sheila Lee Ann Crisp ’10 died on November 16. At the time of her death, she was vicar of St Joseph - St. John Episcopal Church in Lakewood, Washington. Her funeral was held on December 3 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Olympia.

May light perpetual shine upon them.

Why I Came Back by

This article should come with a warning label: Mine was not the best seminary experience.

The Rev. Ron Culmer, MDiv ’94

which has been both a source of strength and aegis throughout my ordained life. It’s about a school whose professors are exceptional; whose lessons I attended CDSP I continue to chew on; whose chalduring a time lenges feed both me and the church when my class community I serve, even decades was the largest after I set foot in the classroom. contingency of It’s about honesty and integrity: African-Amerian institution that is trying very hard can students in to move adroitly with the changing the Episcopal times, acknowledging its mistakes, Church, the and innovating for future leadership, status of which provided gravitas durboth lay and ordained, and for God’s ing the good times and agita during church. the bad. On many days, it was bad, a At the end of the day what “wilderness experience’ of time spent remains is this: How can I not supwith the beasts and the angels. Like port this institution, especially when I a good student I put my nose to the count the blessings that are mine and grindstone and powered through. that of my fellow alums because of it? Indeed, I recall graduation day Most priests are practical theololike it was yesterday; then Presiding gians with one foot in academia and Bishop Browning gave my diploma one foot in the praxis of theology in and I, a 29-year-old student, kissed it, the world. My return to CDSP again held it to sky, and in the inimitable and again has been the affirmation words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther of a foot rooted in theology, seeking King, Jr., said in a loud voice: “Free firm footedness in challenging at last, free at last! Thank God times. Almighty, free at last!” But my return has also been If you were to ask me on It’s about consistent academic integrity gratitude that the school continthat day if I would ever darken grounded in Anglican theology which has ues to endure at a time when the door of the school again, or theological education has been serve on any of its councils, ask been both a source of strength and aegis imperiled, when seminaries are my congregation to give subthroughout my ordained life. closing, when the voice of thestantially from its treasure, or ology on the world stage seems include the school in my will, I — The Rev. Ron Culmer, MDiv ’94 dim, and in the minds of some would have laughed you out of considered irrelevant. the room. Nothing could be further That was then. from the truth. innovative improvements the school Needless to say, in spite of my And so long as CDSP is around, has made over buildings, grounds, experience, I believe in CDSP. a world with Anglican leaders and and office space. Such words do not roll carelessly theological education will be here Nor has it been the distance of off the tongue of a priest who’s had long after me—strong, active and time, space, or the wisdom of the more than two decades in the trenches relevant. years. of parish ministry. Thank God for that! Rather, it’s about the long view. No. It’s about consistent academic integIf anything, after graduation, I rity grounded in Anglican theology, found myself coming back to CDSP magnetically, serendipitously in various ways. At first, it was serving on the Alumni Council. While I did not finish that first term, I nevertheless committed my energies to the school for several years, even as a member of the board of trustees. Indeed, I did all those things I thought that I’d never do: got my congregation to give of its treasure to the school, picked up the phone and called other alums to donate on behalf of the students, and put the seminary in my will. If that weren’t enough, I came back as a DMin student and doubled down by rejoining the Alumni Council last year. That makes me either a glutton for punishment or a convert to the good news of what God’s doing in this school. I’ll take the latter, please. You may ask: “So what changed?” It’s not that easy to explain, but here goes. For me, it wasn’t the bold and

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

Community News 20

Photo by Thomas Minczeski

May light perpetual shine upon them.

Why I Came Back by

This article should come with a warning label: Mine was not the best seminary experience.

The Rev. Ron Culmer, MDiv ’94

Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Spring 2017 C R O S S I N G S

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