ALUMNI
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TRAINING FOR MINISTRY
THE MANY HANDS OF COMMENCEMENT
FOR EATING
The Missioner is a free publication for alumni and friends of the House, but there is a hard cost to bringing our magazine to you. Please consider a donation today at nashotah.edu/give Thank you! This is a publication of the Nashotah House Advancement Team. Contact Labin Duke, VP for Institutional Advancement, at SHARElduke@nashotah.edu.INOURSPECIAL nashotah.edu By Labin Duke By the Rev. Maureen Martin, ‘20 BASIC By the Rev. Jonathan Mohler, ‘21 By the Rt. Rev. William C.R. Sheridan, ‘42 transcribed by Rebecca Terhune, ‘15 By the Rev. Canon Kelly O’Lear ONCE By Labin Duke THE MISSION By the Rev. Thomas L. Holtzen, PhD SEED SOWING, BREAD By the Rev. Paul Wheatley, PhD (cand.) By Robert E. Armidon, ‘21 Featuring Jacob Schlossberg & the Rev. Steve Schlossberg
WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE?
A HIDDEN GEM IN THE FORT
OUR TIME IS IN GOD’S HANDS
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ROOKIE & VETERAN
MOMENTS
WE HAD EVERYTHING BUT MONEY
FOR
A SON OR DAUGHTER . . .
ON THE COVER: The Rev. Yehoshua Odidi, a Middler student, lights a processional torch before the 2021 Commencement Exercises.
IN
ISSUEthis
Thankfully, we couldn’t have prayed for a more beautiful morning as we gathered on the Garth to celebrate our 2020 and 2021 graduates at Nashotah House’s 175th Commencement exercises. The day was exceptionally heartwarming, after a year of COVID precautions and restrictions, as we resumed the annual tradition of hosting graduates and their families and welcoming back many cherished alumni and friends for commencement festivities and a luncheon under the big white tent. Much credit is due to the behind-the-scenes staff who worked diligently to make the celebration truly memorable. First to receive kudos is Laura Groetsch for excellence in her inaugural role as lead event planner. True to form, Laura jumped straight in with poise and professionalism, committed to the work with vigor, and managed to improve upon the planning protocols in the process. Many thanks also to Dawn Anderson for helping with event logistics and for hosting a delightful senior dinner, complete with warm candlelight and hearty conversation. Hosting Commencement outdoors on the Garth demanded a lot of extra work by our operations staff, headed up by Fr. Jason Terhune. I’m sure that Ricco Medina and Bill Stocks would agree that if they never saw another black folding chair, it would be too soon. Randy Savage and the refectory staff outdid themselves with meals and hospitality. Cheryl Pawelski and Anne Pardee dutifully staffed the merchandise tables. Matt Bills ensured that all the “tech” was up and functioning correctly – no small feat considering our internet on campus was in transition to a new, faster connection. Then there was all the work following the celebration. Kelly Medina headed up the housekeeping staff, Loriann Knapp and Deann Eighmy (who had also served double-duty as kitchen assistants to Randy all week), to ensure the campus housing and facilities were properly cleaned, restored to order, and prepped for our next events on campus. It took many hands to accomplish the work of Commencement. From a certain point of view, Commencement serves as a microcosm of the full formation process at the House. That process requires a dedicated community committed to work, study, and prayer and cannot be done well (or perhaps at all) in isolation. Our students and faculty need one another in order to be fully formed in the same way that the Commencement event staff needed each other to accomplish that work. What is truly beautiful about Commencement at Nashotah House is that, despite – or, more likely, because of – the rigorous work involved, all things finally come together for the glory of God and the spread of the gospel.
THE MANY HANDS OF Commencement
LABIN DUKE Exec. VP for Institutional Advancement
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Preparing for this year’s Commencement proved to be a real highwire act. With the pandemic still a serious barrier to large, in-person gatherings, we worried that our commencement speaker, the Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley, might need to cancel if travel restrictions stayed in place. We wondered how to structure the events themselves to navigate for social distancing and to accommodate two graduating classes. Partly to alleviate concerns regarding indoor gatherings, and thanks to the cando spirit and meticulous seating arrangements of Dr. Williams and the sacristans, we opted to reinstitute the mothballed tradition of hosting the events outdoors but still needed a back-up site in case of rain, which prompted conversations about overflow seating and remote live feeds. Besides all this, the logistics and planning had to happen while most of our staff were still working remotely.
THE MISSIONER6 COMMENCEMENT Congratulations Erin M. Diericx CAS 2020 Edward Francis Patrick Gibbons CAS 2020 Sonya Anna Boyce MM 2020 Jennifer H. Dorsey MM 2020 Corey Blaine French MPM 2020 Sara McCracken Oxley MPM 2020 John Frederick Tucker, Jr. MPM 2020 Christopher Maxwell MPMWright2020 Edward MDivFitzhughAlexander2020 David Brent Manley MDiv 2020 Maureen Louise Martin MDiv 2020 Matthew Thomas Rogers MDiv 2020 Peter MDivSchellhaseChristopher2020 Lee Richard Stafki MDiv 2020 Clifford M. Syner, III MDiv 2020 Mason MDivWaldhauserMurrow2020 Shawn Patrick McCain DMin 2020 Elizabeth DMinPapazoglakisBrumfield2020 Gene Wilton (Tripp) Prince, III DMin 2020
nashotah.edu 7 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. ISAIAH 41:10 CLASSES OF 2020 & 2021 Carl Girvin Harkins, Jr. CAS 2021 Jerome Peter Molitor CAS 2021 Hunter J. Farrow MPM 2021 Katie MPMJohnsonElaineHamlin2021 Gary L. Ball, II STM 2021 John STMFranicevichAlexander2021 W. Edwin Kalish MTS 2021 Robert MDivArmidon,EdwardJr.2021 Mark Williamson Brown MDiv 2021 John William Conner MDiv 2021 Julia Roane Hendrix MDiv 2021 Jeremy Paul Johnson MDiv 2021 David R. Knox MDiv 2021 Amanda Leigh Payne Lindsay MDiv 2021 Jonathan Randall Mohler MDiv 2021 Audrey J. Sutton MDiv 2021 Thomas W. Papazoglakis DMin 2021
THE MISSIONER8
the homeliness we talk about in Anglicanism was unmistakable, and I have never looked back. As I explored God’s call on my life, I wanted that sense of quiet assurance for myself; I wanted to be a “Nashotah Priest.”
The overarching memory of Nashotah House that I hope I carry with me forever is the sense of family, of belonging. That and the recollection of walking into chapel feeling totally exhausted and then coming out refreshed, time and time again. Every semester I would hit this point where I could not imagine how I was going to get it all done, and then I would remind myself that was exactly the point: I cannot get it all done myself. It is the grace is
COMMENCEMENT THE REV. MAUREEN MARTIN, MD iv `20 Our Time
in God’s Hands A STUDENT REFLECTION
I grew up as a Lutheran and made my way to the Episcopal Church as an adult, after being invited to hear a friend’s parish priest preach. It just so happened that the priest was a son of the House from the early 70s, and, in addition to his very good sermon, I was taken by the simplicity of worship in this Anglo-Catholic church. I know we don’t usually associate Anglo-Catholicism with simplicity, but hear me out. This particular church was small and built in the austere Spanish Mission style. The worship had a “fittingness” to it. The silences were comfortable, the vestments weren’t overblown, the service was unselfconscious in all aspects. The wideness of God’s mercy was tangible there, with ordained men and women serving together in friendship;
In thinking about the passage in Mark where Jesus is asleep on a cushion at the stern of the boat, I ask myself a few questions on this side of the pandemic. Why was he there and not at the rudder? Why was he placed on a cushion – were the Apostles protecting him from their reality? Returning for Commencement offered the opportunity to hear people’s stories of life in their little boats and to share the ways in which we experienced Jesus at the rudder and maybe became brave enough not to keep him tucked on a cushion of our own business and self-importance, a safe distance from us.
I feel as if I am in the Nashotah House watershed. When I drive down US 41 to get to the House for a visit, I wonder about the dirt road through farmland that had been traversed by an unknown number of Nashotah folks well before we had cars and concrete. There is a history of the House nourishing and watering this congregation which I am very glad to serve. Though I may have felt adrift for a while due to quarantining and social isolation, I am happy to feel settled back in the nest of such a closely neighboring tree.
I am priest-in-charge at St. James Episcopal Church, West Bend, Wisconsin, where we are celebrating the church’s 151st anniversary in a few weeks. It is amazing to be here for this moment. Parishioners are digging through the history and finding evidence of Jackson Kemper’s visits here, photos of Bishop Hallock at their confirmations, etc.
nashotah.edu 9 of God which carries us through, leaving us simply to be sincere in our work and ask for God’s help. I was forced to look at my perfectionistic tendencies – work that is still in progress – and accept my limitations while allowing God to use my strengths. Thanks be to God, parish life does not require me to write term papers, but being able to enjoy other forms of writing is a bonus. It has given me great pleasure that I took the time to work on writing while in school because I now find myself writing daily. Before seminary I would have looked at the amount of written communication required of me now as an impossible downside. Now I relish the opportunity to put things into words, hopeful that others may come to understand themselves and God just a little bit better. My new-found love of writing definitely saved my bacon during the shutdown, as I found myself enjoying the opportunity to write weekly letters to the parish list. Another impression of my time at Nashotah House is that every student’s success there is a group project. If you are looking for a seminary experience that will feed your ego, go somewhere else. If you want to be prepared to go out into parish ministry and fly solo in your first call, Nashotah is the place for you. Nashotah students are in direct contact with faculty for much of the day, every day, and their expectations for our moral character are high. It is humbling to come into chapel and look at “Faculty Row” looking right back at you. How can that not lend itself to our formation? Every moment of interaction in the parish setting can feel like a test, but it is easier having already been under a microscope of sorts. Thankfully, it goes both ways at Nashotah House, though. The faculty have to live under our microscope as well. It is a pretty honest place and not for the faint of heart.
Last year, we 2020 graduates were sad about not being able to commence “on time.” Unfortunately, that was the way of the pandemic, commencing all sorts of things out of sync, coming to grips with the relativity of time. Nevertheless, joining with the class of 2021 at Commencement this spring was a blessing I could not have predicted. One of my 2021 friends said that for her, having us return a year later helped immensely. It was as if we were able to heal
For a few days, we could live again the “before time” that we had shared as classmates and friends. Our time is in God’s hands, and so it was good to be back in the nest, so to speak, from which we had been so untimely flung. For me, it began to crack open the bubble of isolation and was the beginning of feeling normal again. People talk about how we will never go back to “normal,” and that it’s a good thing. I have one adjustment to that: we are back to normal, but now we have the opportunity for realism regarding our place in this world, the opportunity to let go of the American nightmare of having to be – or thinking we actually are – the masters of our own destinies.
a wound, a gash ripped open by the loss of rhythm created by the endless season of Coronatide.
The Army takes civilians and turns them into soldiers. When you show up at reception, you’re met by grim-faced, uniformed drill sergeants waiting for their next batch of civilians. One of these drill sergeants climbs aboard your transport bus and immediately starts screaming. In the next distressingly disorienting 72 hours of your life, all of your personal belongings are taken from you, you are issued uniforms, your head is shaved, you’re poked and prodded, presented with textbooks and orientation briefings . . . and you get screamed at a lot. When that’s over, you’re placed back on a bus and shipped out to basic training. During the rigorous ten weeks of basic training, drill sergeants strip you down to your bare parts and then build you back up again as a soldier. It is an intense experience, and those with strong personalities or strong wills who fight this molding tend to struggle the most. You head out day after day for training, repeating drills over and over and over again, the goal of which is to train reactions into you. In a moment of crisis, you can’t afford to think about reacting – it must be instinctual, having done it so many times in training that when a crisis happens in reality, your knee-jerk response is the correctly trained one. The drill sergeants want you to learn to trust your equipment, to trust your training, and to trust your battle buddies, your fellow soldiers. The intensity of this experience leaves lasting marks on the individual and drives deep and fiercely tight relationships that abide for a lifetime. Every soldier has stories about basic training and the lifelong friendships that have come out of it. Furthermore, every soldier can immediately bond and connect with other soldiers because of that shared experience, even if they didn’t go through it together. I have been in the Army for 13 years,
COMMENCEMENT THE REV. JONATHAN MOHLER, MD iv `21 Basic Training for Ministry A STUDENT REFLECTION
THE MISSIONER10
nashotah.edu 11 and the experience is still palpable. It has left an indelible mark on me and shaped who I’ve become, a fundamental part of my identity and the man I am today. In May of this year, I finished my MDiv and graduated from the Nashotah House. Reflecting on my three years, it’s remarkable to me all of the ways the pedagogy of Nashotah House is similar to formation in the military. Thankfully, there aren’t drill sergeants screaming at you, nor do you get your head shaved when you arrive on campus. Still, there is a similar intensity and disorientation, a similar kind of tearing down and building up. When you show up, you do get a uniform – or, rather, you bring one with you. You and everyone around you wears the same black cassocks, which serve as a type of uniform. During orientation, the “trainers” use all sorts of weird words and names for things, like “refectory,” “cloister,” and “garth.” As an aside, I actually remember at our orientation being told (lovingly, I now understand) that Nashotah students were like “refugees from the island of misfit toys,” which surely ranks up there with things I have heard a drill sergeant say (not so lovingly) to a private. Further parallels include the rigid pattern of life and intense (and in some cases forced) community. Every morning begins in chapel together, then breakfast together, class together, lunch together, work crew together, back to chapel together; then you go home to eat dinner and tuck your babies in bed before heading back to the library together. I spent the last three years looking at the same eight faces every day. I didn’t choose those eight faces. They were my classmates, they were my battle buddies, and if we were going to get through this, we had to learn to get along despite sometimes profound differences. As you are systematically torn down, the civilian in you is stripped away, and you are built up into your vocation as a minister in Christ’s church. I’m not just a priest but a Nashotah alumnus. This peculiar identity carries with it a particular perspective and mindset. Just like in the Army, the ones who struggle the most are the ones with strong wills or personalities who fight this formation. But for those who submit to it, the result is an ability to think and respond in life and ministry like a priest. The repetitive nature to the training and the pattern of life instills into those shaped by them the appropriate automatic reactions for the moments of crisis. You can really live into your vocation. Ministry life can be challenging. Right after I graduated from Nashotah House, I moved back to Texas and was ordained a priest. Halfway moved into my house, I showed up for work at the diocesan office. The Canon to the Ordinary told me that there wasn’t much going on, so I could take it easy, take time off, spend time with my family, decompress from seminary, and move all the way into my house. The next day he had a stroke, and five days later he died. This has understandably shifted the whole dynamic of my summer. On my first Sunday as a priest, I was sent to fill in at a church that uses the 1928 Prayer Book. I have never used the 1928 Prayer Book and had never looked at the rite outside of the classroom. At the time I write this article, I’m assisting in the planning of another funeral. And the list goes on and on and on. Not at all how I thought this summer would go, I keep promising my wife that I’m hoping to take some time before the end of the summer to finish helping unpack our house. In the fall, I leave for 14 more weeks of Army Chaplain training.
I don’t mention these things to invite pity. No, in fact, in some ways, I think I’ve gotten off easy. In talking to some of my classmates, I find that they too have been blindsided by tragedies, challenges, and other complex issues. Yet, it’s incredible to sit on Google Meet with them and listen as they explain what’s happening and how they’re handling it, with a steady calm in their voice. Some are people who, three years ago, one could be forgiven for looking at them, scratching your head, and wondering, “Is this person really going to be a priest?” They are now deftly navigating the storms coming their way. Being trained at Nashotah House was an incredible experience. It has left an indelible mark on me and become a fundamental part of who I am. It’s given me relationships that I expect to last a lifetime. And, most importantly, it has helped shape me into the priest I am today.
WE
COMMENCEMENT
Father Dean and Faculty, Brother Bishops, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I have the advantage over some of you because none of you here present this afternoon, I think, was here at the House during the Depression when I was, so you can’t really gainsay my reminiscences. The title, “Life at the House during the Great Depression,” could be subtitled “We had Everything but Money.” I became a collegian at Nashotah House during the grim financial year of 1937. Most of Nashotah’s graduates have forgotten, or have never known, about the House’s last-ditch plan for preparing students as future seminarians during those catastrophic years. It was straightforward and elemental. Men who had not completed their college degree lived at the Fort, entirely separate from the seminarians, until they had completed their courses at Carroll College, in Waukesha, for a bachelor of arts degree. Our numbers averaged from 15 to 20, but during the worst of the Depression, only eight to ten seminarians were enrolled. Yet, in some ways, the “college plan” helped to save the institution during those Havingyears.toleave the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for financial reasons, I spent two years at Nashotah as a collegian. Life was well-disciplined: daily mass at 6 a.m. in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Fort, 20 minutes to get to Shelton Hall (the old Refectory) to wolf down breakfast, and then drive away to college. The wolfing down generally consisted of toast and marmalade on the run. One day this practice caused me to be the butt of the joke in my English literature class. Professor Flitcroft held up my paper and said, “Mr. Sheridan, you really stuck to the subject this time!” and pointed to a blob of orange marmalade on the first page.
THE MISSIONER12
In his address, Bishop Sheridan speaks of a time at Nashotah House none of us has known: deprivation during the Great Depression; turning off the heat to conserve costs; times of receiving a small meal at the Refectory each morning to tide you over until the next day. Sheridan began his studies at Carroll College in 1937, lived at the Fort as a collegian, commuted to classes, and then studied at Nashotah House for the priesthood, graduating in 1942. The bishop also speaks of what we all share: a love for Nashotah House; gratitude for professors who could have taken positions elsewhere but answered God’s call to teach here instead; and the camaraderie we enjoy with one another, sharing stories, and pondering God’s plans for us after Commencement. HAD EVERYTHING BUT MONEY
THE RT. REV. WILLIAM C.R. SHERIDAN , ‘42, presented this address at the Sesquicentennial Convocation in 1992 transcribed here by REBECCA TERHUNE, ‘15, Coordinator of The Chapter
I begin with the famous – some might say infamous – Dean Nutter. Edmondson John Masterson Nutter was a Yorkshireman. Outwardly, he was utterly intractable about principles. He often acted like a sergeant major from the old-school British army. On the interior, he was soft-hearted, with a great love for his students. No one ever had to leave the House for lack of money. Somehow he carried them through to graduation. Added to all that, he was a passionate Lancastrian. All his life he wore the red insignia of the War of the Roses in the buttonhole of his jacket; moreover, he did not believe in “vitamins.”
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The Reverend Dr. Frank Hudson Hallock taught dogmatic theology, Old Testament, and Hebrew, among other studies. To this day, I think of Fr. Hallock as an Anglican Athanasius. He was monumentally orthodox in faith and life. I revere continued on page 14
Our transportation was the “Yellow Peril,” a secondhand school bus driven by my roommate Robert Folks, now a retired priest in Colorado. He was a very good driver, often under adverse conditions; we were nearly always late starting, and the roads were frequently treacherous. There was not much social life for us at Carroll College as collegians because we always had to head back to the House after classes. I remember one exception: my fiancée, a Carroll College student, invited me to her sorority‘s formal dance. Fortunately, from my more opulent days at the University of Virginia, I had my formal clothes. The problem was financing a gardenia corsage for my beloved. The flower cost 25 cents, and the florist permitted me to put 10 cents down and pay 15 cents later. Those were the days. To give you a flavor of life at the House as I remember it more than 50 years ago, allow me to share some reminiscences. For starters, the dean and faculty, truly the heart of any seminary, are the lifeblood of our spiritual formation. I still recall that faculty after all these years with a special love and gratitude. All of them, of course, were utterly human, but they were completely devoted to our Lord, our faith, and the church; at the same time, they were nearly all characters, in the best sense of the word.
Family, friends, and faculty gather at the 1942 Commencement
In addition to his very heavy burden of duties and constant worries, Dean Nutter taught homiletics, liturgics, and pastoral theology. No one who studied homiletics under him had the slightest doubt of the importance of the word of God. The Dean himself was widely considered to be one of the great preachers of the American church. Most of us, though not all, thought he was an extraordinary and wonderful man and priest, in spite of his foibles.
Mrs. Whitman served as the unofficial hostess for the seminary, as Dean Nutter was not married. We all remember her afternoon teas as a gracious and civilizing touch in the midst of so much masculine interaction. I can still see “Whitty,” as we called him behind his back, smiling at Commencement, attired in his Oxford hood. As he explained to the seminarians every year, his hood should properly be lined in white ermine, but he substituted rabbit, in deference to the Depression.
continuedMONEY from page 13 Cloister
The Rt. Rev. Sheridan with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, at Nashotah House, circa 1980
his memory and that of his wife, as they brought honor to the name of Catholic Christianity. He knew the Church Fathers so well that he could recall quotations by the exact page numbers, including the number of the paragraph on the page. His memory was phenomenal. The Reverend Dr. Freeman Whitman began his life in Cleveland in what we would call posh circles. His family were devout Presbyterians. When their son became interested in one of our parishes in Cleveland, they were horrified and sent him off to Protestant Harvard. Alas, his parents had never heard of the Cowley Fathers in Cambridge and Boston. The future priest and professor at Nashotah House knew about them, however. His whole life was formed spiritually by that relationship with the society of St. John the Evangelist. His bishop required him to attend Bexley Hall to which he dutifully reported, and the next step was Oxford, where he received excellent spiritual instruction. In some ways Fr. Whitman’s holiness reminded me of Edward King of Lincoln. Until his death, he taught at the House, where he had a wonderful influence on all his students. His subjects were church history, theology, ethics, ascetical theology, canon law, and he was a confessor for the Sisters of the Holy Nativity. Twice a month he went up, as he said, “to dust off the angels.”
Fr. Benjamin Stewart Burt was the librarian and curator and, a most devoted priest himself, honestly believed that all priests, without exception, should be celibate. Knowing that I was engaged, he relentlessly urged me to change my ways. In this instance, I am so thankful that Fr. Burt was unsuccessful; he also believed that his homemade onion soup was superior to any medical product and useful for any malady; he virtually forced us daily to have some of that appalling concoction. Recalling Nashotah House as a series of vignettes, I remember the winters as quite severe. The temperatures from 1937 to 1941 hit some of the most extreme lows of the century, with some days hitting zero at noon and dropping to 25° below zero at night, conditions that strained both the heating equipment and the battered finances of room, 1933
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There was, of course, no escaping the daily realities of the Great Depression, many times when the pantry was almost bare. At intervals when the faculty could not be paid, they received IOUs redeemable only at the grocery store in Delafield. From the large dairy herd kept at the House in those days, the cream was shipped to Milwaukee for cash, and the skim milk was consumed by the collegians and the seminarians. When I enter the Refectory these days, I am struck with two emotions. The first one is gratitude. I thank God over and over again for the generosity of Jessica Pond. She was parishioner in my care of souls at St. Thomas‘s church in Plymouth, Indiana, and by God’s grace I was able to restore her to the communion of the church after a long lapse. I was also able to persuade her to remember the House in her will; her request made possible the new current refectory.
A number of us served as student vicars of local missions. I was placed at (now-defunct) St. Chad‘s in Okauchee. I rode a three-dollar, second-hand bike the approximately six-mile round trip when the weather permitted or walked when it wasn’t possible to ride. Three Sundays a month, my duties consisted of the following: arrive at 7 a.m., build a fire by 7:15, lead Matins at 9:30, and preach the homily. On the first Sunday of the month, the faculty priest would preach the Word and celebrate mass, and I would serve him. My honorarium at St. Chad’s was two dollars per week, which I saved religiously for three years. By graduation time, I had purchased a classic topcoat and two, custom-made-in-Milwaukee clerical suits – the best clothes I ever owned in my 49 years of priesthood – with my St. Chad‘s money. As has always been true, we seminarians experienced periods of great boredom in our studies and a certain weariness with refectory food – the cheap, canned salmon was frequent and awful. In a word, we were utterly fed up and needed a change of scenery. In my case, four of us would carefully plan for some riotous living. First, we would amass the royal sum of 25 cents. Sometimes one of us would receive the loan of a dime to make things even all around. We would then walk the gravel road to Al Seger’s tavern in Delafield. Here we dined sumptuously. One could buy a large portion of roast beef and mashed potatoes for 15 cents. This was finished off with two large glasses of beer, at five cents a piece. Then we started back to the House, refreshed and ready to resume our studies.
nashotah.edu 15 the House. In desperation, the dean ordered the night temperatures in the cloisters, where all the seminarians lived, to just above freezing. That meant all of us studied in bed for the sake of survival, as we could not sit at our desks. To save money on fuel, the dean ordered Christmas holidays to be one month long. That meant that those who lived in the midwest went home, but the four eastern students remained at the House because they could not afford the travel. I remember one Christmas Eve mass vividly. Two of the four eastern seminarians were sick with the flu, but the dean was determined to have a full proper sung Christmas Eve mass. Needless to say, the service was a bit of a liturgical nightmare. The other student was an organist, thus couldn’t help at the altar. By default, I was the crucifer, thurifer, the first and second server . . . and also a very poor onemember choir for Christmas Eve. The dean then preached – to approximately 16 local farmers and their wives, and to the angels and archangels – the most powerful sermon on the Incarnation that I have ever heard in my life.
My other emotion is sheer amazement as I look around at the food served and the great variety. It may be impossible for you to imagine what the food was like in Shelton Hall during the Great Depression. First of all, we sat by classes, with each student taking a week waiting on his classmates. As to choice of food, the choice was one meal, three times a day. If you were so imprudent as to suggest a change or a choice on the menu, Josie, our head chef, was known to brandish a meat cleaver and chase you as you ran out of the kitchen. continued on page
THE REV. CANON KELLY O’LEAR, DMin Director of Formation & Leadership Development
5 William Cox Pope, Life of the Reverend James De Koven, D.D.: Sometime Warden of Racine College (New York: NY, J. Pott, 1899), p. 9 6 “History,” The De Koven Center, accessed July 15, 2021, https://www.dekovencenter.org/history.
One in four U.S. pastors (23%) selects “lack of leadership training and development” as a major concern facing their church today. 1 Leadership as an art seems to have been lost in many parts of the church. The U.S. Army defines leadership as “influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.” 2 I learned this in two decades as an Army Chaplain. I have often thought that definition as good and possibly useful for church, as purpose, direction, and motivation correspond to the Christian goals of new life in Christ (purpose), sanctification (direction), and love for God and neighbor (motivation) while fulfilling the Great Commission (mission/improving the organization). In a graduation speech at Stanford University, Steve Jobs stated: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” 3 I believe this when it comes to inspirational church leadership. The Anglican Communion has a rich tradition of leadership within the church and to the wider world.
1 “What’s on the Minds of America’s Pastors,” Barna Group, last modified February 3, 2020, accessed July 19, 2021, https://www. barna.com/research/whats_on_mind_americas_pastors/.
THE MISSIONER16 LEADERS
gone
Where have all the ?
FATHER JAMES DE KOVEN Father James De Koven was born in Connecticut in 1831. De Koven’s father was a successful sea captain and early investor in Chicago. His mother
A young James De Koven
2 Headquarters, Department of the Army, AR 600-100, Army Leadership, Washington, D.C., Department of the Army, 2007. 3 Stanford University, “Text of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (2005),” Stanford News, last modified June 12, 2017, accessed July 15, 2021, https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/. 4 “Second Tuesdays: James De Koven Was Not an Orphan.” The De Koven Center. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.dekovencenter.org/dekoven-sponsoredretreats-1/2020/3/10/second-tuesdays-james-dekoven-was-not-an-orphan.
6986 8 James De Koven, A Theological Defence for the Rev. James De Koven, to the Council Held at Milwaukee, February 11th and 12th, 1874 (Racine, WI: Advocate Steam Printing House and Book Bindery, 1874), pp. 8, 48 9
Robert Boak Slocum and Du Travis Priest, To Hear Celestial Harmonies: Essays on the Witness of James De Koven and the De Koven Center (Cincinnati, OH: Forward Movement Publications, 2002), p. 56 10 “De Koven, James 1831 - 1879,” Wisconsin Historical Society, last modified August 8, 2017, accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS6986 11 Slocum & Priest, Celestial Harmonies, p. 16 12 De Koven, Theological Defence, 34
“I hope the day may come when we can approach the question of what law must be, in a spirit of charity; and when we do, I hope we shall find room for both lofty ceremonial, and for simple services.”
FR. JAMES DE KOVEN
nashotah.edu 17 raised nine very accomplished children. 4 It seems that De Koven had leadership instilled in him from birth by two capable parents. De Koven displayed creativity and leadership early in life. By the age of 12, he was already writing hymns for use by children in church. 5 Clearly, De Koven stood out in his ability and willingness to accept difficult ministries. Ordained to the diaconate in 1854, he became Chair of Ecclesial History at Nashotah House that year at the young age of 23! He was ordained to the priesthood in 1855 and became the first rector of St. John Chrysostom in Delafield a year later. In 1859, he became Warden of Racine College and expanded the educational rigor and popular reputation of the school. For example, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln visited and considered Racine College for her son Tad. 6 By the age of 28, De Koven had served as deacon, priest, professor, church planter, and established a college. As De Koven became more influential, newspapers took great interest in his defense of what was disparagingly considered “ritualism’’ within the Episcopal Church. “Ritualism” generally referred to the use of candles, incense, bowing, and kneeling.
De Koven was highly criticized by evangelically minded members of the church and the secular press for his views. 7 His name regularly made the headlines of Milwaukee papers. The Chicago Times printed a lengthy interview with De Koven. 8 Throughout, he firmly and capably defended his views in sermons, interviews, and conventions. De Koven’s oratory abilities and respectful, yet firm, leadership garnered attention inside and outside the church. For example, in 1876 he preached a stinging sermon criticizing the bishops of the Kemper.Bishopsucceedbecameleadership.tothanHeinvestingChurchEpiscopalfornotineducation.9wasaskedonmoreoneoccasionconsiderpoliticalIn1874,heacandidatetothedeceasedJacksonIn1875,hewas elected bishop of Illinois but was rejected by the general convention. 10 His firm and confident belief in historically contingent elements of worship cost him both elections. Strong leaders prefer truth in humility above promotion and prestige. A priest of many talents, he published a children’s novel in 1879 titled Dorchester Polytechnic Academy .11 The book seeks to encourage young readers toward virtue by way of narrative. He is most often remembered for his defense before an 1874 council in Milwaukee. There he explained his views, saturated with citations from Scripture, Canon Law, patristic writings, and the Anglican Divines. He appealed to both sides in a collegial fashion in making his defense. “While I hold that every rubric of the Prayer Book must be obeyed, I do not believe the Prayer Book to be a book of full ritual directions . . . I hope the day may come when we can approach the question of what law must be, in a spirit of charity; and when we do, I hope we shall find room for both lofty ceremonial, and for simple services.” 12 continued on page 18
7 “De Koven, James 1831 - 1879,” Wisconsin Historical Society, last modified August 8, 2017, accessed July 14, 2021, https://www. wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS
“DeBIBLIOGRAPHYKoven,James 1831 - 1879.” Wisconsin Historical Society. Last modified August 8, 2017. Accessed July 13, 2021. https:// www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS6986.
A mature James De Koven
INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP De Koven’s legacy is as one of those leaders who found new life in Christ (purpose), sanctification (direction), and love for God and neighbor (motivation) in service of the church and world. He is commemorated on March 22 in both the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979) and Anglican Church in North America Book of Common Prayer (2019). Great leaders inspire during their life but also into the future. Father James De Koven is a wonderful example of Anglican leadership in his time and for ours. Almighty and everlasting God, the source and perfection of all virtues, you inspired your servant James De Koven to do what is right and to preach what is true: Grant that all ministers and stewards of your mysteries may impart to your faithful people, by word and example, the knowledge of your grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.13
from page 17 13 The Proper for Lesser Feasts and Fasts Together with The Fixed Holy Days (New York, NY: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1980), p. 176.
continuedLEADERS
THE MISSIONER18
Slocum, Robert Boak, and Du Travis Priest. Essay. To Hear Celestial Harmonies: Essays on the Witness of James De Koven and the De Koven Center. Cincinnati, OH: Forward Movement Publications, 2002. The Proper for Lesser Feasts and Fasts Together with The Fixed Holy Days, New York, NY: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1980. University, Stanford. “Text of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (2005).” Stanford News. Last modified June 12, 2017. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/ jobs-061505/. “What’s on the Minds of America’s Pastors.” Barna Group. Last modified February 3, 2020. Accessed July 20, 2021. www.barna.com/research/whats_on_mind_americas_pastors/.https:// Z
De Koven, James. A Theological Defence for the Rev. James De Koven, to the Council Held at Milwaukee, February 11th and 12th, 1874, 8, 48. Racine, WI,: Advocate Steam Printing House and Book Bindery, 1874. “History.” The De Koven Center. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.dekovencenter.org/history. “Nashotah Scholiast.” The Nashotah Scholiast. Last modified 1884. Accessed July 19, 2021. http://anglicanhistory.org/ nashotah/scholiast/1/8.html.
Pope, William Cox. Essay. Life of the Reverend James De Koven, D.D.: Sometime Warden of Racine College, 9. (New York, NY: J. Pott), 1899. “Second Tuesdays: James De Koven Was Not an Orphan.” The De Koven Center. Accessed July 15, 2021. dekovencenter.org/dekoven-sponsored-retreats-1/2020/3/10/https://www. second-tuesdays-james-dekoven-was-not-an-orphan.
nashotah.edu 19
continuedMONEY
William Cockburn Russell Sheridan (1917 - 2005) was the fifth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana and served from 1972 to 1987. Born in New York, New York, on March 25, 1917, to John Russell Sheridan and Gertrude Magdalen Herley Sheridan, he died September 24, 2005, having attended nearly a half-century’s Commencement ceremonies at Nashotah House, served as Chairman of the Board, and become renowned for his devotion to the House. Z from page 15
In closing, I believe that my recollections are essentially accurate. My relationship with the House is a long and cherished one. Quite simply, I believe that anyone trained for the priesthood here owes a debt which can never be fully repaid. But I believe that we must keep on making payments on this debt out of a profound gratitude for the spiritual formation that we have received. Everywhere I go, I try to witness to the treasures that we have received here. For all its frailties and faults, I do honestly believe that Nashotah House is the best seminary in the Anglican Communion, and blessed Michael Ramsey, who taught here for a time after his retirement, said the same thing. Like most of us here at Nashotah during all those years ago when her existence hung by a thread, I believe God has sustained the House for his own purposes. No one could persuade me to the contrary. I naturally look back to past glories, honors, and sacrifices with gratitude. Some say Nashotah House’s glory is in the future, but I would not want to minimize the past. I would at the same time remind us that it is always true that we live in the future to that great and glorious day when the living and the dead shall rise to meet their Redeemer and Judge. In the time that remains, there is war in heaven and on earth, and we are called, as St. Paul told Timothy, to fight the good fight of faith and to make the good confession. We are called to bear our witness. The first prayer I pray daily is for the greater conversion of the faculty, seminarians, and alumni – beginning with myself. When we consider God’s unceasing mercies to the House, one cannot do less without being an ingrate.
So, we have two requests as you consider the Halls of Nashotah:
ONCE A DAUGHTER...SON OR AN INTRODUCTION TO
NASHOTAH HOUSE LABIN DUKE Exec. VP for Institutional Advancement
No one knows better than you what you need – and what you have to offer – at this point in your ministry. Whether you’re just beginning a curacy or are seasoned and have perhaps learned a few things “the hard way,” we’re confident that the exchange of ideas among those who share the bond of Nashotah House will encourage all who participate and bear fruit for the church.
1. Please look over the proposal found on nashotah.edu/halls and fill out the short survey at the bottom with your candid comments and questions.
We’re pitching you this idea because we’re committed to providing opportunities for connection and formation beyond the point of graduation. However, this isn’t a plan that can work just from our end. We need you, our Nashotah House alumni, to provide input and feedback.
THE MISSIONER20
Dubbed “The Halls of Nashotah,” a draft proposal of the concept is explained more fully here: nashotah.edu/halls
2. Complete the Halls sorting quiz included in the center of this copy of The Missioner and return it to us using the included postage-paid envelope, or go to nashotah.edu/halls to take the quiz online.
Once a Son or Daughter of the House, always a Son or Daughter of the House . . . yet, because of Nashotah House’s remarkable model of formation, community, and worship, after students leave the House, they often find themselves missing their people and feeling bereft of those fundamental components that contribute to their ongoing growth. Unless alumni return to campus for more coursework or to attend a conference (and we hope you do!), they may feel their alma mater has little else to offer after they graduate. We’re here to change all that, and we’ve been working on an idea that could be part of the answer.
THANK YOU! THE HALLS OF NASHOTAH THE HALLS OF Nashotah
“ ”
Is there a person who stands out to you when you think of Nashotah House? We invite you to celebrate and recognize these special individuals by telling us your story and making a gift in their honor or memory.
IN HONOR OF
RECOGNIZED BY THE REV. HAROLD REED nashotah.edu/tribute GET MORE INFORMATION & MAKE YOUR RECOGNITION AT
nashotah.edu 21
CELEBRATE recognize&
nashotah.edu/tribute I was privileged to attend the recent Breck Conference. One individual who added to the joy that I experienced was Randy Savage. I saw Randy nearly every morning, on or after my walks around campus, and he was always friendly, accommodating, and more than happy to chat for a few moments. The meals that were prepared and served were done with the utmost care, attention to detail, and the greatest degree of hospitality, all under the watchful gaze of Randy. The House is blessed to have such a dedicated servant of Our Lord as both an individual and in his professional capacity as Director of Food Services. God Bless you, Randy! RANDY SAVAGE,
Exterior of St. Mary’s Chapel, circa 1865
“The good bishop spoke very plainly, respecting the kind of men he wanted, the burden of which was – self-denying men, men willing to go there and endure every species of hardship for the sake of Christ and His church.”
JAMES LLOYD BRECK
The idea of what became known as “the Mission” was thus conceived. This idea became so deeply rooted in Breck’s mind that he spoke of “our Mission” and “the Mission” in his letters before its actual founding.3 The Mission was to exist for the furtherance of the church by training up priests to serve her needs and for the work of ministry in the surrounding settlements. It was to be something like a religious frontier fort, supplying ministers for the westward expansion of the church. There remained much work to turn the idea of the Mission into a reality, Kemperhowever.concluded that establishing a mission in the Wisconsin Territory would be best because What is Nashotah House? Answering that question is as important now as it has ever been, as we seek to reach an ever-changing world for Jesus Christ. It is a question about identity and purpose, one of ethos and character. Are we a seminary? Are we a theological college? Are we the same as other institutions of higher education? So, “What exactly is Nashotah House?” In answering that question it is helpful to recall the history of its founding. continued on page 24 REV. THOMAS L. HOLTZEN, P h .D. Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology The Life of the Reverend James Lloyd Breck, D.D., compiled by Charles Breck (E. & J. B. Young: New York: NY, 1883), 7-8 Ibid., 8
nashotah.edu 23
Kemper’s words fell like seeds upon the fertile soil of Breck’s soul. He wrote to his brother Charles and told him that there was a desire of those in his seminary class to go “out west, place ourselves under Bishop Kemper, all at one point, and there educate and preach; to live under one roof, constitute into a Religious House, under a Superior.” 2
MISSIONTHE 1
2
While sometimes history can be elusive, it gives us a picture of our shared past that still shapes our present because history and ethos are never that far apart from one another in reality. History not only records human actions, but also the reasons for those actions, as can be seen in the history of “The Mission,” as it was called, even before its founding. When Bishop Jackson Kemper spoke to a group of seminarians at General Theological Seminary in 1840, it ignited a spark in a student named James Lloyd Breck for a unique way to exercise his priestly vocation. Writing of that event which would forever change him, Breck reported: Bishop Kemper was here, and addressed us on Friday night last. He gave very great satisfaction, and made us more proud of our “Missionary Bishop” than ever before. His two chief wants at the West are means and men: the first, to found seminaries of learning to be under the control of the church; the second, laborers to assist him in preaching the Gospel. The good bishop spoke very plainly, respecting the kind of men he wanted, the burden of which was – self-denying men, men willing to go there and endure every species of hardship for the sake of Christ and His Church.1
3 Ibid., 16.
THE
They continued their practice of preaching in area churches. Hobart walked 20 miles to Prairieville, which is modern-day Waukesha, to preach there. This became their first home. Missionary life was not easy on the frontier. From October 1, 1841, until January 1, 1842, they rode 1,851 miles on horseback and walked 736 miles. 7 In January of 1842, Hobart returned back East to raise money for purchasing land and building a house for the Mission. Father Cadle resigned his position and severed his association with the Mission. 8 The work of founding the Mission now fell to Breck and Adams. Setbacks were to be expected along the way. The Mission still needed a place to reside. Much to Breck’s surprise, this was provided by Bishop Kemper’s agent, the Rev. Lemuel Hull of Milwaukee, who sought and purchased land in Nashotah. 9 As Breck reported: Our dear Bishop has authorized us to purchase land and build a small house, and this we have accordingly done. We have purchased 460 acres of land on the Nashotah lakes, ten miles from Prairie Village, and yet more central to our Mission. Nashotah means Two Lakes (it is the Indian name for twin lakes), and these are so called from their resemblance to each other. They are about a mile in length, and a half a mile in width. Their banks are bold, their bottom fine white gravel. The color of the water is a living green, and in appearance very pure.10
THE MISSIONER24 THE continuedMISSIONfrom page 23 of “its location between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi.” 4 He spoke again to the students, and four gave themselves to him “for the express purpose of founding a Religious House in the Wisconsin Territory”: James Lloyd Breck (1818-76), a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania; William Adams (1813-97), an Irishman from Trinity College Dublin; John Henry Hobart, Jr. (1817-89), Bishop Hobart’s son from Columbia College in New York; and James Warley Miles, a student from South Carolina. Bishop Kemper appointed a Wisconsin missionary named the Rev. Richard Cadle to act as their Superior. In early 1841, the Foreign and Domestic Missionary Society (the formal name of the Episcopal Church) approved the plan and gave Cadle a salary of $300 annually and $250 to the students.5
4 Ibid., 9 5 Thomas C. Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, Anglican and Episcopal History, 65, 1 (March 1996): 55-6. 6 Reeves, Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House, 56. 7 The Life of Breck, 27. 8 Ibid., 27. 9 Ibid., 30. 10 Ibid., 29-30. ‘Nashotah’ is the Potawatomi word for ‘twins’. 11 Ibid., 30 12 Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, 62 13 The Life of Breck, 30 14 Ibid., 31 15 Ibid., 30, 32 Sketch of Nashotah House from the lake, circa 1850
Shortly after their graduation in 1841, Breck, Adams, and Hobart were ordained deacons.6 Miles had to return to South Carolina for ordination and duties there at the request of his bishop. At that point, Bishop Kemper took under his authority the remaining three who were committed to the cause. He requested Breck, Adams, and Hobart be in Milwaukee on August 8, 1841. They set out on the difficult twelve-day journey, preaching at various congregations along the way, and arrived around midnight to Milwaukee, where they encountered good weather and considered this a fortunate sign.
nashotah.edu 25 The Mission now had a home. Breck said, “It is admirably calculated to answer all the purposes of this school and Mission. We have contracted for the building of a frame house, 17 feet by 22 feet, to cost $350.” 11 Breck expected to move to Nashotah on August 30, 1842, and to live in a one-story “claim shanty” of 13 feet by 17 feet, built by settlers, that would serve as kitchen, classroom, and bedroom. 12 He said, “We expect additional lodgers soon, who will be students. In this room we are to cook our own victuals (pork, potatoes, and tea). Having neither bedstead nor mattress, we shall sleep on our buffalo robes, spread upon the floor.”
On their way back to Nashotah, Breck and Adams were given a bell weighing 88 pounds, a pair of globes, and a variety of school books from the Mission house at Green Bay that were no longer being used.17 Bishop Kemper sent these back on a lumber wagon for the 120-mile return trip to the Mission.18 Planning on walking the entire way back to the Mission, Breck and Adams received a ride by returning a hired horse for a man after walking about twenty miles of the return trip on foot. In November 1842, Breck and Adams moved into the newly constructed Blue House, which received its name from the donated blue lead paint used on its exterior.19 The first floor of the Blue House was a living room and parlor, while the upstairs contained three rooms with living quarters and a chapel. 20 With the purchase of land, and building of the Blue House, the money Hobart had raised was depleted, but now they had theological students training for ministry. Students worked for four hours a day and in turn were educated for free. Students received six weeks of “vacation” at harvest time so that they could work in the fields and earn money. Nontheological students boarded with local families and paid tuition. It was a busy life. According to Breck, they kept a rigorous schedule: We rise at 5 a.m., Matins at 6. The Morning Service of the church at 9 a.m. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the Litany at 12. On Thursdays, the Holy Eucharist at the same hour of 12. The Evening Service of the Church at 3, and Family Prayer or Vespers at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Our students labor between 7 and 9 in the morning, and 1 and 3 in the afternoon.21 16 Ibid., 32 17 Ibid., 33 18 Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, 65 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 The Life of Breck, 34 22 Ibid., 35. 23 Ibid., 36. 24 Ibid., 27, 11, 12, 37. continued on page 26 By 1842, the Mission at Nashotah had begun in earnest and was growing with 120 communicants, 36 of whom Breck and Adams had admitted.
13 By 1842, the Mission at Nashotah had begun in earnest and was growing with 120 communicants, 36 of whom Breck and Adams had admitted.14 There were other missions in the surrounding settlements. The largest of these was a mission to the Oneidas at Duck Creek with 110 communicants, headed by a missionary priest, the Rev. Davis.15 Breck and Adams preached at Green Bay, and from there went to the mission to the Oneidas at Duck Creek, located nearby. On Sunday, October 9, 1842, both Breck and Adams “were ordained in the midst of the Oneidas” to the priesthood. Breck describes a ceremony reminiscent of the Day of Pentecost with speaking and singing in different languages: The Bell at length ceased its tolling, and the Indians were all within the consecrated walls. We went to the rear of the church, entered by two doors, approached and knelt at the altar. So as we had risen, a single voice commenced changing the first sentence of the Te Deum, in the Oneida language, at the close of which the whole congregation sung aloud Hallelujah three times, and so they continued doing at the end of each sentence. After this was sung, we left the Church by another door for the robing room, where we put on the full ecclesiastical dress, and then returned. The Indians now had their worship in their own tongue, after which the Bishop preached to them by an interpreter, and held the ordinance of Confirmation. We were then ordained, after which was administered the Holy Eucharist.16
In spite of the setbacks of 1843, the Mission continued to grow. In the summer of 1843, they constructed the two-story Red House that later became known as St. Sylvanus Chapel. It served as chapel and school house, with student rooms on the second floor and in the basement which were called “the chambers.” The basement chamber was the warmest spot in winter, and even Bishop Kemper himself slept there during the winter of 1843-44. 28
By July of 1843, Breck could report that there were 12 different places to preach on Sundays within 15 miles of the Mission. 29 They also began receiving a variety of students. Bishop Kemper sent “two Oneida Indians, the sons of two chiefs, to be educated as native teachers.” 30 And they also trained an English Wesleyan preacher for ministry. By early 1844, they had 13 students, and by the fall that number had grown to 28.31 Bishop Kemper kept a close eye on things, attending many of the student examinations personally. 32 In December of 1844, Breck offered a voluntary daily Eucharist with the approval of Adams and Kemper, but under increasing accusations of “Romanizing” tendencies, it was discontinued in 1845.33
The overall influence of the Mission proved fruitful. It founded St. John’s in the Wilderness in Elkhorn, St. Alban’s in Lisbon (Sussex), the Scandinavian Parish at Pine Lake (later Holy Innocents there), Grace Chapel in Hartland, St. Athanasius’s Chapel
Despite its poverty, the Mission at Nashotah gained respect from far corners of the church in both England and Australia, and even came to the attention of the famed Dr. Pusey.26
25 Ibid., 33 26 Ibid., 37 27 Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, 67-8 28 Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, 66–7, 78. 29 The Life of Breck, 37-8. 30 Ibid., 38. 31 Reeves, ‘James Lloyd Breck and the Founding of Nashotah House’, 69 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid., 75-6 34 Matt. 28:19-20
THE MISSIONER26 THE continuedMISSIONfrom page 25 Near Nashotah was the Swedish settlement at Pine Lake, or modern-day Chenequa (the Potawatomi word for “pine”), where Gustaf Unonius lived. He came to the Mission to ask someone to baptize his newborn child, and the Blue House reminded him of his student chamber at Upsala in Sweden, where he trained to be a lawyer. Breck baptized Unonius’s first child, who later died at the tender age of three. Unonius went on to become the first graduate of Nashotah House in 1845. He served many of the Swedish and Norwegian settlers in the Pine Lake area. He named his second son, Lloyd Gustaf Breck Unonius after his mentor and close friend. Early in 1843, Breck was appointed by Bishop Kemper to head the Mission at Nashotah upon the recommendation of Adams and Hobart, who had returned from the East.22 Breck said, “We make our house a parish hospititum; none come but they are invited to partake of our board, and many have we had to sit down at our table.” 23 There was a true sense that their “Associate Mission,” where clergy and laity lived together in the same house without following a formal rule, was a brotherhood. 24 As Breck described it: We have learned that we are in our new quarters, and are really beginning to feel that we are in a monastery. We have both cleric and lay brethren, but as yet few in number. The internal arrangement of our house is becoming more and more perfect. We have spent all, or about all, the money that Brother Hobart collected at the East, in the purchase of our land and the building of a small frame house; and now we are poor, but the poor of Christ, and therefore have nothing to apprehend. Owning to our poverty we have to get along as best we may.25
In 1843, Breck’s attempts at establishing the Mission at Nashotah, which had met with many difficulties outside its walls, now met with difficulties from within as well. In May of 1843, Adams went East claiming ill health. Hobart left a few months after Adams, never to return, but serving as the rector of Trinity Wall Street in New York City instead. Breck was able to get Adams to return in October of 1844, and, in 1848, Adams married Bishop Kemper’s daughter and continued to serve the Mission until 1892, five years before his death. 27
nashotah.edu 27 in Summit, St. Matthias in Prairieville (Waukesha), St. Olaf’s in Ashippun River (later St. Paul’s Church in Ashippun), St. Sylvanus Chapel at the Mission, Zion in Oconomowoc, and St. George’s in North Prairie. The Mission also greatly aided St. John Chrysostom in Delafield and St. Peter’s at North Lake. Beyond these parishes, the Mission continued year after year training priests for the church. As much as we associate these with Nashotah House today, the Mission itself has never been about the clapboard or stone buildings or pristine shoreline along Upper Nashotah Lake. Rather, the Mission existed prior to these, as Breck’s own words show. The Mission was to serve the church by training priests and by ministering to those around her. The idea of the Mission can be found in Christ’s own words to his Apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” 34 What is Nashotah House? Nashotah House is “The Mission” at Nashotah. And that mission continues to this very day. The Mission still exists to train priests for the church and to minister to those around us. Today, professors and students at the House still serve in local parishes, as they have done since its founding. Although we have a first-rate faculty, the Mission is not just a theological or academic institution. The Mission exists for the sake of the church. It exists to plant the seeds of the gospel in people’s lives, to shape them in thought, word, and deed into the imago Christi , and to send priests into the world. If you look closely at the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, this fact is undeniable. The woodwork is rubbed smooth by years of students praying twice a day in St. Mary’s. Likewise, the vestments used in Chapel for worship show signs of wear from their constant use in the celebration of daily Eucharist. Nashotah House is like this because we continue to believe in the Mission. What is Nashotah House? Nashotah House is “The Mission” at Nashotah. That is what we have been and, by God’s grace and the continued financial support of the faithful, what we will continue to be for many long years to come. Z Nashotah students, circa 1874
THE REV. PAUL WHEATLEY, P h .D. (Cand.) Instructor of New Testament
THE MISSIONER28
One cannot understand the Bible without some consideration of agriculture. Even the casual reader of Scripture, flipping through the Gospels looking for the greatest hits of Jesus’s teaching, must come to terms with parables of seeds, sowers, sheep, vineyards, trees, and the fruit they bear. It’s no surprise that at Jesus’s resurrection, John 20:15 tells us, Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for a gardener. Nashotah House has a long agricultural history that goes far beyond the cornfields just on the other side of Mission Road. In the early years of the House, students working in this pioneering mission to plant Episcopal churches throughout the midwestern frontier not only labored in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin; they also worked to cultivate the surrounding land to grow the food they would eat throughout the year. Corn, wheat, and livestock raised by the students and professors provided not only physical sustenance for residents, they also provided a rich world of imagery. These images stretch back throughout history into scriptures that present a picture of life within the context of seasons and ways in which God gives people “food in due season” (Ps. 145:16), makes “rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike” (Matt. 5:45), and bears good spiritual fruit in the lives of his people (Gal. 5:22-23).
EatingSowing
BREAD FOR
One of the first additions we made to Healy Cottage upon moving in was a portable chicken coop and
My own family was next to join in the feathered fun.
Several students and faculty have continued this heritage far beyond work crew duties maintaining the grounds on campus. People are raising gardens and livestock that supplement their grocery lists and refectory meals with home-grown goods. During the time the Rev. Cliff Syner (MDiv `20) was studying and living at the House, he used expertise gained from running his own farm to develop a community garden in a small unused parcel of grass behind the Fort. Now students and faculty alike enjoy peppers, tomatoes, and even some fresh-cut flowers every summer from the garden plot.
SEED FOR
The Olvers began with a small flock in spring of 2020 and by the end of summer 2020 had added enough to double their number of laying hens. They have eggs aplenty, and enough chicken compost to supplement their own garden.
Growing vegetables and herbs is just the beginning of the agricultural life beginning to hatch on campus. Starting with the family of Fr. Matthew Olver, Asst. Professor of Liturgics & Pastoral Theology, we now have three faculty families growing flocks of backyard chickens on campus.
The community garden behind the Fort is flourishing with veggies and flowers continued on page 30
One lesson readily at hand for those watching the slow growth of their flocks and plants is that, even though this cottage agricultural project has sprung up quickly, in comparison to the ages and stages of a venerable institution such as Nashotah House, real growth takes time and rarely happens as expected. In Mark chapter four, Jesus begins his teaching on the kingdom of God with a series of agricultural parables that each in their own way speak to the variations and unexpected nature of the growth of the kingdom of God. Beginning
– Canticle 10, The Second Song of Isaiah, Quærite Dominum, Isaiah 55:10-11, BCP 1979, p. 86.
run to accommodate our small flock of three. This spring, we added four new chicks to the group, and they are working to get along together in the expanded run we built for them behind our home. Of course, they are just as happy to sneak over to the front door of Shelton Hall or to catch a few food scraps under the tent by the refectory as they greet our students and guests with a hearty cluck. Not to be outdone, the family of the Rev. Travis Bott, Old Testament and Hebrew professor, have constructed a fully enclosed garden and chicken run, complete with a flock of their own egg layers fertilizing the garden and orchard trees they have growing within. The entire enclosure is designed to keep chickens in, keep predators such as hawks, foxes, and raccoons out, and to concentrate all those chicken droppings into a hearty, rich compost to boost the growth of their crops for the harvest.
For as rain and snow fall from the heavens, and return not again, but water the earth, Bringing forth life and giving growth, seed for sowing and bread for eating, So is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, and prosper in that for which I sent it.
“At Nashotah House, our pioneer roots and our agricultural past have left us a heritage that new generations are taking up, tilling the ground once again, and learning to watch for signs of growth . . .”
THE MISSIONER30 with the parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-8), Jesus emphasizes not the quality of the seed, which He likens to the Word of God, but rather the nature of the soil as it bears its desired fruit. Numerous factors: predatory birds, rocks and heat, weeds and thorns all can contribute to a reduced crop or a plant cut short before it can yield its fruit. Yet in time, the good soil produces thirty, sixty, and even a hundredfold of the lone seed that the sower sowed. The condition of the soil, often likened to human hearts, would seem to be the variable factor. Yet our Lord suggests that it is not human hearts, but rather our ears that are the focus of the parable: “Let everyone with ears to hear listen!” (Mark 4:8).
In each case, Jesus explains to his disciples that each different soil is characterized by what happens when they hear the word: “When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the seed” (Mark 4:15); “When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy, but they have no root and endure only for a while” (Mark 4:16-17a); “Those among the thorns are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word and it yields nothing” (Mark 4:18-19). Who bears fruit? “They hear the word and accept it” (Mark 4:20a). In chapel, in class, in conversations around the refectory, and in the friendships built on work crews, in the garden plots, and around the student residences, God is sowing the word. God is sowing the word in your church, your family, your home, your work, and your play. Jesus warns his disciples, “Watch what you hear! The measure you give will be the measure you get!” (Mark 4:24). This is not simply a warning to be careful of bad language or sensitive content in the music we hear. Jesus is talking about attentiveness, about what has our focus, what words sink into the soil of our ears and what bounces along the path to be gobbled up by the free-range chickens and birds of prey all around us. When we first got our chickens, we had to adjust our attention to new sounds. I’ll never forget the day a hawk swooped down and grabbed at the wire grating around our coop to try to steal away one of our hatchling chicks. The swooping bird of prey left empty handed, but ever since then my family and our flock have learned to listen and attend to the cry of the hawk as a sign of danger for our grounded birds.
Tomatoes are beginning to ripen in the garden
The Botts’ family flock
I’ve heard the same story from students in class: between chapel, work crew, class, the parish, family, and other social life, one of the main challenges of seminary education in the structured life at Nashotah House is learning which of the many areas of life should receive the most attention. The Word, scattered in so many ways and places, can sometimes be lost among the tasks, tests, and assignments, and yes, even among the prayers in chapel. Life as a priest is no different. Neither is the life of work in the home or at a job: whether it comes from vestry members and choir masters, or from Zoom meetings, commercials, crying children, and barking bosses, in our neverquiet day, words come in faster than we can catch them. The hardest thing can be to stop for a second to pay attention to when the Word comes in amidst all the “Watchwords.whatyou hear,” Jesus told his disciples. Both sight and hearing come into play here: Sight is needed for watching, so that the soil of your hearing can receive the Word when it is sown. Jesus advocates for an attentiveness that becomes a form of spiritual sight that can see the birds and the thorns in the field for what they are and can recognize the seed of the Word when it has been sown. At Nashotah House, our pioneer roots and our agricultural past have left us a heritage that new generations are taking up, tilling the ground once again, and learning to watch for signs of growth, of blight, of predators, or of the fruit that bursts forth thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. These patterns, if we “watch what we hear” as the seeds grow into flowers and fruit, can teach us the slow process of cultivating our attention to the things that matter.
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After all, a dozen eggs can be bought at the store for just a few dollars, and a squash for even less. But that is not the point. By watching our seeds grow and our chickens feather out and begin to lay, we see God doing something we could never get at the supermarket. God is teaching us to “watch what we hear”, to pay attention to how His kingdom is coming in slow, unexpected ways through the Word He has given us in chapel, class, conversations, and the crops we grow all around us. Z
It is well-known among those who have attended, worked, or lived at Nashotah House that the highest point on the campus is occupied by Webb Hall, better known as “the Fort.” This building has seen many uses in its long history as one of the older buildings on campus, serving initially in 1865 as a residence for Dr. Azel Cole, the second Dean of Nashotah House and successor to James Lloyd Breck, and later as faculty housing, dormitory for Carroll College students resident at Nashotah House as part of the Preparatory Department, and currently as both faculty and guest housing. What is far less well-known is that on the east wing of the third floor lies one of the “hidden gems” of Nashotah House – the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. Perhaps what makes it so obscure is that currently one can only enter the chapel by walking up three flights of stairs to the apartment on the third floor, going through the hallway in the residence, and then walking down a short flight of stairs to the chapel. If someone is living or staying in that apartment, gaining access can be quite difficult! Notwithstanding these inconveniences, it is very much worth arranging a visit to this intimate chapel of simple beauty. Constructed during the time of Dean Cole’s residence and possibly to his specifications, it was restored in 1941 through the generosity of the alumni in memory of Canon Howard Baldwin St. George (1855-1932), who served as professor of church history, canon law, and liturgics from 1902 to 1932 and as a member of the Commission on the Revision of the Prayer Book from 1913 to 1928. A native of Ireland, graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and scion of what has been described as “an old-fashioned, High-Church, clerical family,” St. George was one of the young men who escorted the Ritualist Church of England priest R.W. Enraght from the gates of Warwick Prison back to his parish church, after Fr. Enraght had spent 49 days in jail for what the authorities had considered unauthorized ceremonial innovations. Ordained in 1881, Fr. St. George lived in “the Fort” during much of the early twentieth century and frequently entertained students there. After the death of his wife Euphemia in 1902, he came to Nashotah House with the responsibility of raising five children – one son and four daughters, aged seven to eighteen – in addition to his teaching duties. As the Very Rev. E.J.M. Nutter, Dean and President of Nashotah House from 1925 to 1947 and a former student of Fr. St. George’s, remarked, during St. George’s 30 years as a professor “several hundred embryo priests passed through his hands, and few left uninfluenced. . . . Pastoral theology was not officially his province, but none of his young men will forget the wise counsel and sage commonsense which he imparted in his lectures on the sacramental rites and occasional offices of the Prayer Book.”
ROBERT E. ARMIDON, MD iv `21 Postulant for Holy Orders, Episcopal Diocese of Springfield continued PETER & PAUL A Hidden Gem
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on page 34 IN THE FORT THE CHAPEL OF SAINTS
“I always found the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul to be one of those “thin places” where the boundary between heaven and earth seems especially porous, and where I could sense not only the presence of all the priests and students who had worshipped there, but in a very personal way, that of God himself.”
Pews and windows from inside the chapel
The altar in the chapel
THE MISSIONER34 HIDDEN continuedGEMfrom page 32 It is therefore meet and right that this chapel should have been remodeled in Fr. St. George’s honor, and a plaque bears his name on the north wall. On both sides of the chapel’s small center aisle are several wooden pews, placed perpendicular to the altar and facing each other in the monastic (and seminary) tradition. Behind the pews on either side are several windows overlooking the broad expanse of lawn sloping down toward the rest of the seminary grounds. The altar itself is a simple wooden affair, placed against the east wall to allow for the celebration of ad orientem Masses in the traditional Catholic style. Behind the altar is a simple reredos bearing in the center on white fields the red English cross of St. George and the red Irish cross of St. Patrick; these are appropriate choices in a chapel remodeled in honor of Fr. St. George! Above the reredos is a statue of Jesus Christ as King, a familiar sight in Anglo-Catholic circles; to his right is a statue of St. Peter bearing the keys of the Church, and to his left is St. Paul, holding a sword. It is not uncommon to have churches and chapels dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul, both apostles and martyrs. As early as 258, there exists evidence of an already lengthy tradition of celebrating the feasts of both saints on the same day. In a sermon in 395, St. Augustine of Hippo remarked, “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”
the altar reredos with crests
Closeup of
Sound advice for those studying and teaching at Nashotah House! During its history, the chapel, like “the Fort” which contains it, has seen many usages, including that of a place of worship for Carroll College students during their time of residency in “the Fort.” In later years, the chapel was used as a private oratory by Fr. Frederick C. Joaquin, librarian and Latin professor who lived with his wife Edna on the first floor of the building, and by Fr. John K. Mount, Professor of Pastoral Theology, who lived on the second floor. The saying of Masses celebrated without the people was not exceptional in the years prior to the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s; by the seventh century, with the proliferation of monastic and cathedral clergy, the custom arose of priests celebrating daily “private” Masses, and side altars were added to churches to facilitate such celebrations, irrespective of the presence of a religious community or congregation. This practice also spread to both Roman Catholic and Anglo-seminaries; for instance, one Nashotah House alumnus reports that juniors would serve Fr. Joaquin’s daily Mass in the chapel prior to attending Morning Prayer and the community Mass in St. Mary’s Chapel. It is believed that Fr. Joaquin in the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul, along with Bishop Donald Parsons, thirteenth Dean of Nashotah House, who used St. Francis Chapel in Lewis Hall, were the last two faculty members at Nashotah House who maintained the discipline
Thanks are due to John Conner, `21, Candidate for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, for his research assistance. Z The current resident of the Fort, who sometimes uses the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul, is the Rev. Matthew S.C. Olver, PhD, Asst. Professor of Liturgics & Pastoral Theology. The Anglican Theological Review will soon publish an article of his, “The Pandemic’s Mass: An AngloCatholic Essay on Certain Eucharistic Issues Raised by COVID-19” as part of a volume dedicated to liturgical issues raised by COVID-19 that addresses the question of private masses in the context of the pandemic.
Jesus himself seemed to seek intimacy with his Father in special places; for instance, we read in Mark 1:35: “In the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.” As his popularity grew, Jesus “withdrew to the wilderness and prayed” (Luke 5:16). The simple and lovely setting of this chapel lends itself to such intimacy. Despite the security and other problems in gaining access, it is my hope that it can once again be used for the purpose for which it was intended – the corporate worship of God, in which, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, “we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.”
nashotah.edu 35 of daily private celebrations. Following Vatican II, such “private” Masses were frowned upon; a former Nashotah House professor says that in the early 1990s the Dean at the time informed him that the chapel “was kept locked to prevent clandestine, unapproved Masses from being performed there by renegade priests on the faculty.” This view, while understandable and defensible to some degree, may have discounted the benefits of Masses celebrated sine populo; as the Anglican dogmatic theologian Canon E.L. Mascall wrote, “What makes the mass one and corporate is not the fact that a lot of people are together at the same service, but the fact that it is the act of the one Christ in his Body (corpus) the Church.” During my time at Nashotah House, the chapel was used for services of Compline during Lent and for occasional Masses, celebrated mainly for the purpose of training students in the more traditional way of saying the Mass, using one of the various Anglican missals, or altar service books, containing supplementary devotions of the Anglo-Catholic variety. The chapel is well suited for the latter function, despite its unfortunate lack of an altar rail. I always found the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul to be one of those “thin places” where the boundary between heaven and earth seems especially porous, and where I could sense not only the presence of all the priests and students who had worshipped there, but in a very personal way, that of God himself.
A unique interview experience between a current student & CONVERSATIONS WITH THE
STEVE: In my doddering old age, I can’t remember what my expectations were. I’m sure I had a lot of them, and I’m pretty sure I would have tried to suppress them, if only to avoid disappointment. That’s how pessimists cope with life. But I wasn’t pessimistic about Nashotah House. I was really excited to go there, and to finally learn all the things I’d wanted to learn about the Scriptures, the tradition, the liturgy – the whole megillah. But one of my surprises was that I ended up learning some things I didn’t go there to learn.
JACOB: Like what? STEVE: I thought I understood leadership before I got there, but I learned that I knew a lot less than I’d hoped. Some of my best teachers when it came to that were some of my classmates. And that was another surprise for me – the way we helped each other learn. We were a motley crew, I suppose like most classes are, all over the map when it came to churchmanship, theological orientation, and life experience. But over the course of three years, we learned to learn from each other. And I got challenged by others in ways I didn’t expect. That wasn’t always enjoyable, but it was almost always honest and charitable. And it left me better than it found me. But you’re going there differently than I did, Jake. For me, Nashotah House was something completely new and strange. For you, it’s a place where you spent some growing-up years. So I’m guessing you brought some expectations to it that I didn’t. Have any of yours been subverted?
JACOB: In your doddering old age, I think you’re remembering that wrong. continued on page 38
STEVE: The first thing that leaps to mind is schooling you on the basketball court.
JACOB: What about Nashotah House defied or subverted your expectations?
STEVE: You lost me when you mentioned schooling me on the basketball court.
STEVE: I think it is. Which is why learning to pray the Offices at the House has been so important to me as a priest. It’s the anchor of my daily prayer life. So when a day goes off-schedule and I end up blundering my way into one thing or another, I am leaning on the habits of daily prayer I learned at the House – including the habit of shoehorning.
In the following interview, the Rev. Steve Schlossberg and his son, Nashotah House seminarian Jacob Schlossberg, speak about their respective calls to serve God, their ministries, families, and time spent in formation at Nashotah House.
JACOB: For most of the time we were here then, I lived my life adjacent to the seminary. I loved attending the Easter vigil, community dinners, and schooling you on the basketball court, but I knew very little of seminary life. I thought I was cognizant of my ignorance, and I tried to bring very few expectations, but I was surprised to discover how very great that ignorance was. For being a nearcradle Episcopalian, I had (and still have) a lot to learn and wrestle with in our tradition.
JACOB: What do you miss most about Nashotah?
JACOB: I know. Another thing is that I thought I would find more time for personal prayer, maybe with long walks in the woods; to my surprise, it turns out that they teach us about prayer in Ascetical Theology and then give us no extra time to practice it. Part of the education seems to be shoehorning prayer into miniscule pockets of time. Which might be an accurate representation of ministry life.
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Are the burn marks on the floor of the Sanctuary in St. Mary’s Chapel from you or Uncle STEVE:Bert?IsUncle
STEVE: So anyway. What were we talking about?
STEVE: Well Uncle Bert matriculated at the House in the 1960s. I think a lot of stuff got burned back then.
JACOB: I have loved growing into the Daily Office. In the fall, I felt like I was stumbling through it; I didn’t understand why we sometimes said the Apostles Creed and sometimes not; I couldn’t get the rhythm of the Psalms; I felt awkward in my cassock and even more so in my surplice. But over the year I have settled into the rhythm, and now I’m no longer self-conscious about what I’m doing, I finally feel present in worship. I’m ashamed, however, to say that I’m not representing the Schlossberg name very well here: in three turns as thurifer I have not committed a single act of arson.
You know the old story about the time I took your mother on a date to the allegedly Italian restaurant in Delafield . . .
JACOB:over-disclosing?Nomore
Bert going to read this?
STEVE: Anyway, what in your experience there so far has been most rewarding, Jake?
One thing I definitely do not miss is that it’s impossible to get a good pizza pie in Wisconsin.
JACOB: I don’t know.
THE MISSIONER38 ROOKIE & VET continued from page 37
JACOB: I’ve heard the story before.
JACOB: We burn stuff too, but it’s all legal, and it’s mostly at bonfires. In this COVID season we have had to scrounge to find the community that we expected to be part of the Nashotah experience. We have found it in bonfires and picnics behind the Peaks; we have found it in socially-distanced coffees on the Refectory lawn; we have found it in dish crews and work crews. I am sure some of this is normal Nashotah, but tinged with COVID protocols, it has come in fits and starts. What do you wish you had taken advantage of here that you didn’t?
JACOB: I can’t remember.
STEVE: Seldom have I lost all amorous feelings more quickly than I did at that moment. Am I than usual.
All of the Schlossberg kids (Jake, far right/back)
JACOB: Yes. I know the story.
STEVE: So anyway, when I ordered the calamari appetizer, the guy brought me three fish sticks. When I told him he got the order wrong, he said, “No sir, those are calamari steaks.”
STEVE: I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking JACOB:about.
STEVE: Anyway, the second thing that leaps to mind is the collegiality. As a student there, I was surrounded by peers, and for all our many differences, we were all on more or less the same journey, facing more or less the same challenges, hypothesizing solutions to the same problems, and we all loved talking shop. A part of the experience of parish priesthood is a certain amount of loneliness. Pastors have to work hard to keep from being isolated. Isolation is a spiritual killer – and being fairly introverted, I’m prone to it. I was prone to it at the House too – but the community of the House drew me out of that, both by demonstrating the dangers of it and the rewards of resisting it.
39
STEVE: My single greatest regret is that I cared too much about my grades, so I avoided some academic challenges. So for instance, whenever I could, I chose to write papers on subjects I already knew something about. When I had a choice, I chose to read theologians I was already in sympathy with. So I graduated a narrower thinker than I could have been. But even if you repeat my mistake, Jake, you are going to graduate better trained than I was. And I think I was trained exceptionally well. But I’ve told you before how much I envy you for some of the courses you’re taking, which weren’t available when I was a student. And some of the approaches to the academic disciplines there are wiser and richer now than they were in my day.
JACOB: One of the first days in Pastoral Ministry class, Dr. Anderson lectured on the ethos of priestly ministries based upon Titus and Timothy; it was a sobering look at what is expected of us. From there we dove into Canon Law case studies and waded through failures in pastoral conduct. But standing in contrast to this are the lives of the faculty, displaying their love for Christ and his Church every day. It is a gift to be able to pick the brain of Fr. Wheatley, play basketball with Fr. Olver, to go for a run with Fr. Buchan (or Fr. Bucket, as Juliana calls him), or have a beer with Dr. Anderson. What we get from them in class is great, but it is the interactions with them outside of class where the characteristics outlined in the Pastoral Epistles are on display. For them, it continued on
nashotah.edu
page 45 The Schlossbergs dueling it out on the basketball court
STEVE: That’s another thing you and I have in common: we’re both students of Fr. Henery. And that’s the first thing he taught me in Homiletics: how to JACOB:listen.
STEVE: It is. But to be fair, that’s an accurate representation of practically everyone’s life, ordained or not. And maybe that was the most important thing Nashotah House gave me: it prepared me to be ordained by teaching me to return to my baptism and begin living it out as an ordinary disciple.
Maybe the greatest challenge so far has been learning to balance what I need and want to do with what I am able to do with the time I have. This has been a regular topic of conversation between Jillian and me, how we find time for each other, for ourselves, for our daughter, for her job and for my studies, and for our spiritual lives. There is a lot to balance and we are finding ways to do it; it amazes me that you and Mom did it with even more children. But I suppose that’s another accurate representation of parish ministry.
JACOB: I’ve loved every class I’ve taken so far, but one of my favorite assignments has been writing book introductions for my New Testament class. This brought me greater intimacy with the Scriptures. Seeing our work in that class, paired with our work in Greek, coming out in the sermons that my classmates and I have written has affirmed our sweat and tears under Fr. Paul Wheatley and Dr. Garwood Anderson. I’ve shared my homilies with you, so you’ve seen the way my exegesis and writing have evolved over the course of one semester. But more than that, the class taught me to be a better student and listener to other people’s sermons. Having to provide feedback on a sermon forced me to pay greater attention and notice details, and that informed my own work.
Formerly a political fundraiser in Washington, D.C., at the National Association of Broadcasters, Robin learned the “basics of fundraising” and how to create and implement development plans. She then moved to the National Association of Convenience Stores as their Director of Development. Both of these trade associations had sleepy programs that had been doing the same things for years. Robin’s development team was able to revise the plan and double the giving levels at both organizations.
“I am thrilled to have recently joined the team at Nashotah House,” said Robin. “I was raised at and have learned so much from my time at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, so the opportunity to continue in the work to which God has called me in this new capacity is a blessing.”
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LITTLEHouse.MEET Robin
Nashotah House is pleased to welcome Robin Little to the Nashotah House Advancement team as our new Director of Development. After several years as Assistant Director of Development at The Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas, Robin is eager to pair her fundraising experience with an enthusiasm to serve the alumni and friends of Nashotah
Life soon took a crazy turn for Robin, and it was time to sell her business and home and get back to Dallas with her very young twins. She was now a single mom and needed the support of her relatives to help with two 18-month-old babies. The day before the moving van arrived, she received an email that her hometown church was looking for a development officer. “God placed us in the right place and the right time, and it was just where we needed to be,” Robin said. “Fast-forwarding a few years, when I heard about an opening at Nashotah House from another development professional in Dallas, the position sparked my interest, and it has been a great move.
I believe in exercising our God-given spiritual gifts during our time here on earth, and working in development allows me to do so. Being able
“I then had a major career change after moving to the deep south in Mobile, Alabama,” she said. “I opened a Barre3 fitness studio and loved teaching and educating the community there about health and wellness . . . . At the time, our studio sold more opening memberships than any other in the country, which indicated that we were helping meet a need.”
to educate others about the work God is doing at Nashotah House could not come more naturally to “Forme.”me, working with supporters starts with being a good listener,” she said. “We simply cannot help someone get to know Nashotah House in a more intimate way if we don’t listen to what is important to them. If our donors become more engaged, and are invited into the work and the mission of Nashotah House, increased support will follow.”
Robin with her children, Lucy and Jack Robin with friends in Florida
ALUMNI UPDATES18172016 19 1514131211 109876 54321
ERIN DIERICX, ‘20, has been named Postulant in the Holy Order of Priesthood at Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Central Florida. [photo 3]
THE REV. JENNIFER DORSEY, ‘20, is a bivocational priest serving as supply clergy at Trinity Episcopal Church, Rensselaerville in the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, and Professor of History at Siena College. [photo 4]
THE REV. GARY BALL, ‘21, is a church planter and Anglican priest serving Redeemer Anglican Church for the past three years in Asheville, NC. Fr. Gary is a graduate of Trevecca Nazarene University, in Nashville, with most of his graduate studies completed at Fuller Seminary. He received a DMin at the House in May 2021. [photo 1]
AMANDA PAYNE LINDSAY, ‘20, serves as chaplain resident at UnityPoint Health in Madison, WI. [photo 9]
JULIA ROANE HENDRIX, ‘21, DAVID BRENT MANLEY ‘20, AND JEROME PETER MOLITOR, ‘21, were ordained into the Sacred Order of Priests by the Right Rev. Matthew A. Gunter, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Fond du Lac, WI, on July 10, 2021. [photo 6]
THE REV. JONATHAN MOHLER, ‘21, was ordained to the priesthood June 29, 2021, at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Arlington, TX. [photo 10]
THE REV. DEACON PETER SCHELLHASE, ‘20, serves as vicar-deacon at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Albany, NY, as he pursues priestly ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Deacon Schellhase was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons in March 2021, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. George M. Sumner, Bishop of Dallas. [photo 13]
&APPOINTMENTSORDINATIONS,RECOGNITIONS
THE REV. MARK BROWN, ‘21, was ordained to the transitional diaconate on May 1, 2021, at All Saints Anglican Church, Springfield, MO. All Saints is a member of the Jurisdiction for Armed Forces and Chaplains. [photo 2]
THE REV. DEACON DAVID KNOX, ‘21, accepted a call to Trinity Episcopal Church in Mattoon, IL. Deacon Knox serves as Priest In Charge. [photo 8]
THE REV. PAUL NESTA, ‘13, will begin the MBA program at the University of Dallas in Spring 2022, with a focus in strategic leadership. [photo 11]
THE REV. SHANE SPELLMEYER, ‘19, accepted a call to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kankakee, IL. Fr. Spellmeyer serves as Rector, and he began on July 4, 2021. [photo 14]
THE REV. SARA OXLEY, ‘20, is Priest-inCharge at The Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Orlando, FL. [photo 12]
THE REV. DEACON AUDREY SUTTON, ‘21, a ccepted a call to St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Frisco, TX. Deacon Sutton serves as Curate. [photo 15] The following alumni are located in the Episcopal Diocese of Albany and were appointed to the respective deaneries in 2021: THE VERY REV. SONYA BOYCE St. Lawrence Deanery
THE VERY REV. BRAD JONES Metropolitan Deanery
THE REV. DEACON JACK FRANICEVICH, ‘21, was ordained to the diaconate by the Rt. Rev. Eric V. Menees, the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, on May 21, 2021. The ordination took place at St. Michael’s Anglican Church in Delafield, WI. Deacon Franicevich serves in the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. He is licensed by the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch, III, as a visiting member of the Diocese of the Upper Midwest and serving at Immanuel Anglican Church. [photo 5]
THE VERY REV. MARCUS A. KAISER, SR. ‘09 , was instituted as dean and rector of St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral on June 20, 2021, by the Rt. Rev. Neil G. Lebhar, Bishop of the Gulf Atlantic Diocese in the Anglican Church in North America. [photo 7]
THE VERY REV. TOM MALIONEK Hudson Deanery continued on page 44
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THE VERY REV. DAVID OUSLEY Northern Adirondack Deanery
THE MISSIONER44 NOTIFICATIONS OF DEATH
DIANE STANTON , Kellermann Foundation Executive Director, departed this life on June 27 with her family by her side. Diane was diagnosed in March with what seemed to be a treatable form of lung cancer. After significant attempts with two protocols of treatments that did not produce results, Diane elected to transition to a beautiful hospice center where she could be made comfortable and spend quality time with her family. Diane and Bishop Stanton have many dear friends at Nashotah House, and she received the Michael Ramsey Award from the House in 2019. In the days ahead, the Kellermann Foundation will continue to provide updates on developing projects in Uganda and the Batwa’s greatest needs. More details about a special memorial to honor Diane will come in the weeks ahead. We invite you to connect with our staff as you feel led to express your condolences, memories and hopes for a bright future for the Batwa. [photo 17]
ALUMNI UPDATES
Fr. John-Julian graduated from Nashotah House in 1957, and went on to serve the Lord in Connecticut as the rector of a small church. He became very active in the anti-Vietnam War protests and was involved in the Mass for Peace performed at the Pentagon, where he and the other participants were subsequently arrested.
[photo 18]
THE REV. DAVID FERGUS WITH, ‘63 , passed away Friday, June 4, 2021, at the age of 83. He was predeceased by his parents, Fergus With and Beatrice With. David is survived by his wife Nancy and three children and their spouses, Randal and Roberta, Thomas and Jill, and Jeannie and Mike, as well as his five grandchildren – Daniel, Thomas, Lindsay, Matthew, and Lauren. David is also survived by his sister Nancy Larson.
THE RT. REV. CHARLES EDWARD JENKINS III, ‘76, tenth bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, died on April 9, surrounded by his family. A graduate of Nashotah House (‘76), Bishop Jenkins was a native of Shreveport, LA, and consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana on January 31, 1998, where he served until 2009. [photo 16]
Fr. John-Julian was friends with Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian from Episcopal Divinity School who was shot and killed during the civil rights movement in 1965. During this time Fr. John-Julian also headed up Connecticut Child Services, where he worked to remove children from abusive or dangerous homes and place them in foster homes. He was later invited by the former Bishop of New York and the rector of Trinity Wall Street to found the “Seminary of the Streets” in New York City. This ministry focused on bringing the gospel outside the walls of the classroom and the parish and to the people. They focused on addressing poverty and addiction and advocated for radical love and peace during the turbulent times of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fr. John-Julian was an early advocate of gay rights and became deeply moved by the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, whose picture he kept in his stall at Nashotah House. Later, he founded a small religious community in New England called the Order of Julian of Norwich , a contemplative society of men and women. Later they were invited by the then-Bishop of Milwaukee to take up residence in the former Racine College and later moved north to White Lake, Wisconsin. Per his request, his requiem Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin at Nashotah House on Saturday, August 21. The Celebrant was the Rev. Matthew S.C. Olver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Liturgics and Pastoral Theology; the homily was preached by the Rev. Sister Hilary Crupi, OJN, Guardian of the Order of Julian of Norwich; and the music was under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Williams, Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of St. Mary’s Chapel.
THE REV. JOHN-JULIAN SWANSON OJN, ‘57 , died July 15, 2021. Nashotah House was the place where he worshipped for almost 15 years.
THE REV. R. ROBERT SMITH, ‘78 , was born on August 6, 1921, and died June 20, 2020, in Parker, CO. He graduated from Nashotah House in 1978 with a Master of Divinity degree. Fr. Smith served as rector at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Littleton for 10 years and also served in various capacities at St. Luke’s, Denver and St. Timothy’s in Littleton. After retirement, he volunteered as a chaplain at Littleton Adventist for seven years.
THE REV. ARTHUR E. WOOLLEY, JR. died May 29, 2021. An outspoken Episcopal priest and community activist, Fr. Woolley died in Lake Ridge, VA, of natural causes. Ordained in 1957, Fr. Woolley’s ministry in urban work and community involvement reflected an Anglo-Catholic reverence of the Anglican tradition. He was rector of two predominantly African-American parishes in New York City and Philadelphia. [photo 20] Please send alumni ordinations, appointments, obituaries, and other newsworthy announcements to: missioner@nashotah.edu begins and ends with the practice of love. And I guess that’s the most important thing we carry away from the House into parish ministry.
David was born May 1, 1938, in Milwaukee, WI. He grew up in Whitefish Bay, WI, where he graduated from Whitefish Bay High School and went on to attend the University of Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 and attended Nashotah House Seminary. He was ordained on September 22,1963, alongside his father, Fergus With. David served at several parishes in Minnesota and Wisconsin before finding his home at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in 1975. He was Associate Rector for seven years. In 1981, he became the fifth rector at St. Michael’s and served in this position until 1995. David departed St. Michael’s to serve as an interim minister for the next 13 years until he retired in 2007. David loved to travel, play golf, and root for his favorite sports teams: the Royals, KU Basketball, UW Football, and the Chiefs. Throughout his ministry, he touched many lives through his charity work, missions, sermons, marriage ceremonies, baptisms, and funerals. David was a man of deep faith and service to others. His love of life and of the goodness in all people were the cornerstones of his relationship with the world. [photo 19]
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STEVE:now.Me too. What are you feeling?
STEVE: I know a place. Fr. Schlossberg serves as Rector at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. Previously he served at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Troy, New York; Zion Episcopal Church in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; Nashotah House as director of field education and communications; and the Lamb Center, a ministry to the poor and homeless in northern Virginia. He and his wife Angie have five children: Jacob (married to Jillian), Isaac, Abraham, Joseph and Lydia. No stranger to suffering, he is a fan of the Mets, the Jets, and the Nets. He also likes rhyming. He loves the Bible, relating our worship to our service in the world, and how these things combine to grow us in faith, hope, and love.
Jake Schlossberg is an aspirant to ministry through the Diocese of Central Florida, though he is most recently from the western Chicago suburbs. He and his wife Jillian are subservient to the whims of three-year-old Juliana, who will have her throne destabilized by the birth of a sibling later this year. Jake inherited his father’s masochism by cheering for the Twins, the Washington Football Team, and the Wizards. While Jake loves literature, he can’t rhyme.
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nashotah.edu AN UPDATE TO SHARE? WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
JACOB: I could go for some fish sticks.
STEVE: It is. Did I ever tell you the story about the time I . . .
JACOB: I’m sure you did, Pop, but I’m getting hungry
STUDENTS RECEIVE GRANT
HAVE SOME NEWS TO SHARE?
The Rev. Canon Scott Leannah was appointed Canon for Ministries by the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, provisional bishop of Milwaukee. Canon Leannah began his ministry with the diocese on July 1, 2021.
communitySCHOLARSHIPS
FORMER FACULTY MEMBER HAS NEW APPOINTMENT
Please send your announcements to: missioner@nashotah.edu
Fr. Jonathan Kanary, MDiv ‘11, STM ‘15, recently defended his dissertation, titled Authorized Readers: Scriptural Mediation as Spiritual Formation in Walter Hilton and Nicholas Love He will be awarded a PhD in English, with a concentration in Religion and Literature, from Baylor University this summer. Fr. Kanary will continue to serve in an expanded role at Christ Church, Waco, and as Scholar-in-Residence for the post-collegiate Brazos Fellows program. He also plans to lecture part-time at Baylor. Tyler Been and Micah Hogan, both rising seniors, received the Rath Distinguished Merit Scholarship. The Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU) manages the endowment and the Rath scholarship program which recognizes students for academic achievement, community involvement, and civic leadership.
The Canon for Ministries is responsible for overseeing the clergy search processes in the diocese, working with clergy and vestries to develop congregation mission and vitality, caring pastorally for clergy, and providing counsel and advice to the bishop. The canon also serves as rector of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Greendale, WI, and served as the Director of Field Education for Nashotah House until his new appointment.
THE MISSIONER46
CAMPUS&
The Church Periodical Club Grant was awarded to Tyler Been, rising senior; Elizabeth Garfield, rising middler; Jacob Schlossberg, rising middler; and Justin Taliaferro, rising middler. The Church Periodical Club is an independent, affiliated organization of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, dedicated to the worldwide Ministry of the Printed Word and to the Promotion of Christian Mission. It is the only organization in the Episcopal Church dedicated solely to providing free literature and related materials, both religious and secular, to people all over the world who need and request them and who have no other source for obtaining them.
Alum DissertationDefends
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REAL PRESENCE. REAL PREPARATION. 2777 MISSION ROAD NASHOTAH, WI 53058-9793
