Crossings | Spring 2023

Crossings

In Community. In Context. In Curacies.

CDSP Announces Shift to Bold, Fully Hybrid Model

CDSP… Everywhere: New seminary approach has Pentecost parallels

During the 2022 Summer Intensive, we had a contest among the students to rename their program. It was then known as the “Low Residency” or “Low Res” program. This title struck many as rather demeaning.There is nothing “low” about these students except for the fact that they are on campus for one month instead of nine! I am pleased to say that the winning suggestion was “Hybrid Program,” thus rightly advancing their status from “low” to “high” (pardon the pun).

There were other good suggestions as well. One that was particularly appealing to me was “CDSP Everywhere.”

I thought about that title a lot when we made our January announcement that CDSP will be moving to an all-hybrid format. This change will make it possible for students everywhere to earn their MDiv from CDSP through online instruction, with occasional in-person sessions. We are beginning a new chapter in the history of the school in which our theological education will no longer take place just in Berkeley, but literally everywhere. There is an important biblical precedent for this shift. In the history of Israel, it was the Temple in Jerusalem, a physical location, where God’s Spirit or shekinah was believed to dwell. One had to go to Jerusalem to worship and learn.

For Christians, that changed with Pentecost. When the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit descended upon them as a living community. The shekinah was no longer in the Temple or any singular physical place; it was with everyone, everywhere.

With the destruction of the physical temple in 70 CE, Jewish rabbis had a similar insight: God was no longer confined to the Holy Mount. God could be found wherever Torah was taught, in a synagogue, or even at home. Again, God was not limited to a special location.

All of God was everywhere. All of God is everywhere.

As scripture says,“The Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual temple made of living stones … being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

These biblical insights are helpful touchstones for those of us living and working in another kind of temple, Holy Hill in Berkeley, CA.

In the past we have thought of CDSP as a place. We are now called to think of it as a people. This place, our campus and buildings, have of course been an important part of our spiritual lives. This place is beloved by our faculty, staff, and alums who worshiped together in the chapel, enjoyed fellowship in Denniston Commons, and enjoyed late night theological discussions in Parsons Hall. So too was the Temple Mount beloved by the people of Israel. Just read the Psalms! But the communities that followed came to realize that God’s Spirit didn’t reside solely there. It was present in the lives and hearts of the people of God. The tongues of fire didn’t just burn on sacrificial pyres of the Temple Mount. They danced upon the heads of all believers.

CDSP is taking a quantum leap.Thanks to modern technology and transportation, we are no longer the seminary of only Province VIII of the Episcopal Church. Nor is our community limited to the physical confines of Parsons or Gibbs Hall; our teaching, to Classrooms A, B, and Tucson; our research, to the Flora Hewlett Library; or our worship, to All Saints Chapel.

We are truly “CDSP Everywhere”: in the training and enrichment of clergy and lay leaders, in curacies connected to congregations throughout the country, and in the interactions of diverse communities. May the holy fire of Pentecost that inspired the foundation of our school more than a hundred years ago continue to light up the hearts of all our people—everywhere.

“All of God was everywhere. All of God is everywhere.”

Crossings

18

PB Curry Visits CDSP

PB on TEC and CDSP “being reinvented by the Spirit of God”

20 Community News

New books, new calls, ordinations, and more

23 To 2025 and Beyond

CDSP faculty and staff laying strong foundation amid transition

The Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith, PhD, Interim President and Dean Editorial: Learning Forte, with assistance from Paul Impey and the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23 Design: Trinity Church Wall Street

Crossings is published by Church Divinity School of the Pacific 2450 Le Conte Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709-1249

© Church Divinity School of the Pacific, all rights reserved. For additional print copies, e-mail communications@cdsp.edu. Crossings also is published as a pdf online, at www.cdsp.edu/news/crossings, with archive copies available.

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On the cover:

Hybrid student Elaine Patrick ‘26 sits with colleagues at a community meal during the 2022 June Intensive. | Photo by Richard Wheeler

SPRING 2023

Views of CDSP hybrid students (from left): the Rev. Elizabeth McElroy ‘23, the Rev. Ashley Gurling ‘23, Dr. Luis Ottley ‘23, the Rev. Tim Hartley ‘22, and the Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones ‘20. | Photos (from left) by Thomas Minczeski, Richard Wheeler, and courtesy of Baker-Fones

HYBRID SHIFT:

New model builds on low-residence excellence,

The spring of 2023 marked the most significant milestone yet in a years-long season of transition and discernment at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. On January 31, CDSP and Trinity Church Wall Street announced the decision to focus the seminary’s model of theological education on the low-residence Hybrid Program that has been its main source of growth and innovation since the early 2010s (CAS in 2011, MDiv in 2014).

The model will continue the seminary’s community-centered approach to forming ministry leaders in the very contexts where most of them are likely to serve.

It will also add new elements to the program rhythm, which currently consists of online semesters alternating with January and June intensives in Berkeley.

First, the new approach will also include long-weekend sessions in New York City. During these sessions students will focus on practical leadership skills that have received

increasing attention in the CDSP curriculum in recent years, including personnel management, church finance, real estate administration, community organizing, and conflict resolution. This element will allow CDSP’s curriculum to benefit from Trinity’s own expertise in theological education, especially as expressed in the Trinity Leadership Fellows program.

Second, graduates of this strengthened Hybrid Program will be able to participate in a bold new curacy initiative. In addition to providing participants with cohort-based continuing education during another critical period of their professional formation, this program will fund salaries for their ministry positions in their dioceses for the two years following graduation.

funds two-year curacies for graduates

“While there certainly is a continuing need for residential core strength lies in its already successful hybrid learning model. We believe that by expanding and enhancing that model, we can best serve our students and the Episcopal Church in the years to come.”

Learning in community

To understand the story of CDSP’s hybrid shift, it’s important to begin well before the 2019 strategic alliance with Trinity.

Hybrid Anglican Studies Programs have seen full enrollment and increasing demand.”

The numerical strength, geographic distribution, and vocational diversity in the Hybrid Program have given rise to a remarkable sense of community among students and alums (see “Low Residence, High Impact,” pp. 8–11). Graduates consistently emphasize that it’s possible to form very deep relationships in the hybrid modality.

“Since 2019, when CDSP and Trinity began our partnership, we have been looking to define and focus on CDSP’s unique contributions to preparing clergy to meet the changing requirements for successfully leading and growing churches of the future,” said the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson ‘94, chairman of the CDSP Board of Trustees and rector of Trinity.

“This decision reflects a recognition of what the data have been showing us for years,” said the Rev. John Dwyer, vice president and chief operating officer at CDSP. “Applications for our residential programs have steadily declined and are approaching unsustainable levels, a trend we know is not unique to our institution. On the other hand, our Hybrid MDiv and

“For more than a decade, we’ve invested significantly in online education, from the design of hybrid curriculum to extensive pedagogical training for our faculty,” said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, dean of academic affairs. “We’re really proud of the academic achievements of our hybrid students, but even more so of the ways they support each other during the program and beyond.They develop strong cohorts who will be ministry colleagues for years to come.”

The seminary expects these advantages to grow under the new model. Students will continue to meet for the first time during an onsite intensive in Berkeley following their admission to the program. They will also continue

Hybrid Shift Transition Timeline

to meet throughout the year in small spiritual formation groups. Moreover, they will benefit from year-round seminary worship life that will be designed specifically for the needs and availability of hybrid students.

“We are still early in the process of imagining what community worship will look like during the semester in the new model,” said the Rev. Stephen Hassett (DMin ‘16, MDiv ‘06), director of chapel. “But I think it’s fair to say that liturgy designed primarily for online participants tends to be a more inclusive experience for them than onsite worship in a traditional worship space made accessible via cameras and microphones.”

Learning in context

As CDSP and Trinity have continued the process of getting to know each other and their values, one especially strong source of common mission has become clear: each institution’s emphasis on the importance of community connections.

“A hallmark of our ministry at Trinity in recent years has been a commitment to making a difference for our neighbors in downtown Manhattan,” said Elizabeth Warnick, chief strategy officer at Trinity. “The CDSP Hybrid Program has the same community-first orientation, allowing students to remain immersed in the culture and social fabric of the neighborhoods and regions where they

experienced their call to new ministry in the first place.”

The seminary says this commitment will play an increasing role in recruitment as well as in the curriculum.

“We are looking for students with a track record of making an impact in their local community and who want to respond as leaders to the needs in our changing societies,” said the Rev. Michael Barham (DMin ‘12, CAS ‘07), director of student services and recruitment.

“Many of our hybrid students explore calls to multi-vocational and multi-site ministry. They’re working full-time in schools, in healthcare, in community organizations. These students tell us their formation for ordained ministry would not be possible without this model. Other alums go on to more familiar configurations of full-time congregational ministry, and we’re confident the new model will help them be more effective in those contexts as well. The nature of ministry is changing, and formation for ministry must change with it.”

An internal study of hybrid alum deployment found that 65 percent of the roles held by graduates are in congregations (parishes, missions, cathedrals), 11 percent in diocesan ministry and local nonprofits, 10 percent in schools, and 9 percent in healthcare and correctional facilities.

Learning in curacies

In a landscape where online and hybrid training for ministry is increasingly common, the final element of CDSP’s hybrid shift is likely to be what sets the new program apart.

When leaders from CDSP and Trinity met with bishops and grassroots leaders during listening sessions in 2019 and 2020, a significant source of frustration with the outlook for ordination-track seminary graduates was the loss of so-called curacies.

For decades, most seminarians could expect to return to their dioceses after graduation and serve in a financially healthy congregation under an experienced mentor. Today, assistant and associate jobs of any kind are increasingly rare. Many seminarians and their bishops are forced to choose: a graduate can return to their diocese and step immediately into a solo clergy role (vicar, priest-in-charge, etc.), or they can enter the nationwide job market and compete for the small number of positions in wealthier congregations that can afford to support larger staffs. Finances alone, rather than a more holistic sense of call or an intentional continuing formation plan, tend to dictate what is possible for recent alums.

“As a former diocesan bishop who has been speaking to many of our students’ bishops, it’s definitely the

Class of 2023 graduates, begins ministry positions with two-year, $60K/ year salary assistance

Class of 2024 graduates, begins ministry positions under curacy program

Class of 2025 graduates, begins ministry positions under curacy program

Final semester-long onsite courses taught by CDSP faculty

Final year of residential program includes housing, meals, GTU onsite electives

New MDiv curriculum launches (curacy program, Berkeley and NYC onsite sessions)

curacy program that has me most optimistic about the future of CDSP,” said the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, interim president and dean.“This is the chance for us to reimagine a time-tested way of training new clergy on the job, one that everyone agrees has huge potential but that almost no church or diocese can afford anymore.”

Although past use of the word curacy captures this important formative aspect of the program, students entering any ministry position with the approval of their bishop can participate, not just those seeking a traditional parish role (sometimes called a cure).The curacy program will formally launch in 2024, but hybrid and residential students graduating this spring will also receive $60,000 per year in salary support for their first two years of ministry, again with the approval of their bishop.

“Our seminary has a charism shaped by the experience of the Church in the West. We’re asking questions about how to be compellingly faithful for changing times and contexts,” said the Rev. Mark Chung Hearn, PhD, associate dean of academic affairs. “The vocational flexibility that this

for the seminary’s new beginning with an awareness of several significant endings.

The days following the announcement included numerous planned and organic large- and small-group meetings and listening sessions that brought together members of the CDSP and Trinity leadership teams with residential students, hybrid students, staff members, bishops (including Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, see “Reinvented by the Spirit of God,” pp. 18–19), past board members, and other stakeholders.

“I want to acknowledge that the impact of this decision is difficult for some members of the CDSP community,” Smith wrote in a message during the week following the announcement.

“Many of our current and past residential students have expressed understandable pain and frustration that the particular way they have experienced formation here on Holy Hill will not be available to new classes and generations of students. Our residential program may not be large, but it is distinctive in many ways, and we want to celebrate and

catering during academic semesters. Thus, during the 2023–2024 school year, residential students will receive 150 meal tickets per semester to UC Berkeley food service facilities, an additional $1,500 food stipend, and—most importantly—four catered community meals each week.

“Our faith testifies to the power of sharing food and other forms of hospitality when the community gathers,” said Hassett, who also serves as campus chaplain.“We know how important these weekly community meals are for our continuing residential students. It’s a big part of what makes the seminary experience special, as both our residential and hybrid students attest.”

Although many details of both the transition period and the new program are still being fine-tuned by faculty and administrators, the emerging picture is bright.

“There is so much to celebrate about this new model, and we are grateful for the statements of love and support that many have shared with us in the past few months,” Dwyer said.“Even after we entered our strategic alliance with Trinity, it was difficult to see a

curacy program will support means new opportunities for our students and their bishops to think creatively about ministry leadership and continuing formation.”

Supporting the community

The extension of the salary support aspect of the new curacy program to current residential and hybrid students is just part of how CDSP is working to balance enthusiasm

give thanks for the community gathered here, even as we begin taking steps toward our new reality.”

An important source of spiritual and material support for the residential community involves the plans being made to continue both gathering and feeding the community during the transition to the new model.

One of the shifts necessitated by the change is the conclusion, at the end of the 2022–2023 school year, of in-house

fiscally responsible future for a seminary that was investing so many of our resources in a large and aging campus that is no longer a good fit for our size and mission. This decision is all about aligning our strengths as an institution with the needs of the Church, and laying a robust new foundation for the future of CDSP.”

Photos here and previous page by Thomas Minczeski, Richard Wheeler, the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23, and courtesy of the Rev. Sarah Kye Price (MDiv ‘18), PhD.

Low Residence, High Impact:

Alum perspectives highlight strengths of Hybrid Program

by C arly l ane

In January CDSP announced a new curricular approach, committing to a hybrid-only model for its degree and certificate programs beginning in 2025 (see “Hybrid Shift,” pp. 4–7).

The seminary has long been a leader in online theological education and spiritual formation, especially through its Hybrid Anglican Studies and MDiv Programs launched in 2011 and 2014 respectively (though formerly known as “Low Residence”—see “CDSP… Everywhere,” p. 2).

A recent series of conversations with alums of these programs surfaced a number of significant themes about the impact of this learning modality both during students’ studies and beyond.

Accessibility & hybrid vocation

One of the primary virtues of a hybrid format is that it makes theological

education and formation for Christian leadership available to students who might otherwise be unable to attend seminary.

they couldn’t in good faith uproot and relocate for a residential program. Others discussed the financial burden associated with doing so.

Some alums discussed the importance of maintaining their current jobs while enrolled in the program and how this professional continuity informed their sense of call:

“If you’re asking me to leave what has been my primary vocation in order to be formed for ministry … [y]ou’re asking me not to engage in the kind of blended vocational work that I feel I’m being called to do,” said the Rev. Sarah Kye Price (MDiv ‘18), PhD, professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University and vocational development minister for the Diocese of Virginia. Price also served as St. Margaret’s visiting professor of women in ministry at CDSP last year.

Several hybrid alums cited family or other life commitments that meant

“To do that blended vocational work, I can’t leave one side of my vocation and actually get the formation I need,” she added.

Hybrid students from the Class of 2019 gather during the 2018 January Intersession. Top row from left: the Rev. Tim Dyer, the Rev. Julie Vice, the Rev. Michael Coburn, the Rev. Alex Leach. Front row from left: the Rev. Sarah Kye Price, PhD, the Rev. Sarah Thomas.| Photo courtesy of Price

Relatedly, several alums spoke of how enriching it was to be able to continue to rely strongly on networks of local support (healthcare providers, mentors, ministerial communities, close friends, etc.) while pursuing their new or evolving call.

Diversity & contextual ministry

One benefit of increased accessibility for the CDSP Hybrid Program has been a broadening of many factors in the overall demographics of enrolled students.

“I was connected to and in formation with a much more diverse group of people than I would have been otherwise,” said the Rev. Dan Carlson ‘22, curate at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Portland, OR, who spent time as both a residential and a hybrid student. “That’s in terms of age, life experience, and where we were in the world.”

Many hybrid alums agreed, speaking enthusiastically about the wide range of life experiences represented in their cohort of classmates. One class included students based in Massachusetts,

Oregon, and Japan; another included students based in New York, Hawaii, and California.

“My seminary experience exposed me to fellow students and faculty who are very different from me,” said the Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones, curate at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Eugene, OR. “We come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, and are in different contexts.”

The Rev. Tim Dyer ‘19 added that such exposure is essential, given that political and social issues are divisive in many communities where students will serve. Price made a similar point:“We constantly brought our contexts into our learning with each other. And I think that that’s different than when everyone comes together at [a] residential seminary … I think the constant exposure to each other’s contexts helps you become aware of the contextual nature of [ministry].”

The Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones ‘20 (left) traveled to Garden City, NY, for the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Anthony Jones ‘20 (right) at the Cathedral of the Incarnation.| Photo courtesy of Baker-Fones

Community & applied learning

Another refrain that stands out from these conversations is the profound sense of community within the hybrid program, a sense of digital intimacy.

The Rev. Amy Newell-Large ‘22, curate for parish life at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO, is another alum who participated in both learning modalities. She reported that the online forums supported especially rich sharing.

“People could really think deeply,” she said.“We trusted one another and could share very openly. I think that also contributed to the depth of our relationships, our willingness to

engage theologically, wrestle with one another a little bit, and always do so with so much thoughtfulness.” As a result, she said the “the depth and strength” of relationships in the program were, and continue to be, important to her.

In a similar vein, the Rev. Robin Woodbury ‘20, deacon-in-charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Canton, OH, shared that she and her hybrid classmates “built lasting relationships online” and “still stay connected … celebrating each other’s ordinations and marriages, and sharing anything else we have going on.”

The Rev. Anthony Jones ‘20, assistant priest at St. Augustine’s Church in Brooklyn, NY, and the Rev. Alex Leach ‘19, priest-incharge at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Woodland, CA, each made a related point. They suggested that because they were daily engaging both their coursework and their local contexts, they had the opportunity to apply, reflect on, and then share what they were learning with one another in a powerful way.

“The online education gives you an opportunity to bring those things forward,” Jones said.

The Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones ‘20 (top center) with students at the Episcopal Campus Ministry House at the University of Oregon, where he served as chaplain.| Photo courtesy of Baker-Fones

The Rev. Amy Newell-Large ‘22.

The Rev. Joél Muñoz (CAS ‘21), EdD, also spoke to the power of this repeated action-reflection model. Muñoz is curate at St. Francis in-theFields Episcopal Church in Zionsville, IN, and a public school administrator working in the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township.

“My way of understanding ministry and the work that I actually did at the time as a school leader was pushed and challenged in ways that I could apply,” he said.“It wasn’t, ‘Here’s a theory and we’re going to just think about it.’ I was gonna go—as soon as I finished my course readings, I was applying it as I worked with the families, the students, the community, and the faculty of the school.”

Still more perspectives

The summary above represents a very small sampling from this rich series of conversations with hybrid alums. Together, the interviews paint a picture of an initiative that is offering highly-accessible degree and certificate programs to people from all walks of life, including those who feel called to hybrid vocations; fostering opportunities for applied learning as students engage coursework while

embedded in their various contexts; and cultivating a deep sense of community between diverse students, so they can effectively enrich and support one another as leaders in a diverse and evolving Church.

To read more individual excerpts and view a video highlight reel, visit cdsp.edu/hybrid-stories .

The Rev. Robin Woodberry (CAS ‘20), DMin, participates in a blessing of the animals in downtown Canton, OH.| Photo courtesy of Woodberry

The Rev. Joél Muñoz (CAS ‘21), EdD

Student Spotlights: Ministry rooted in Jesus, flexible in approach

Student Spotlights: rooted Jesus, flexible approach

Greg Klimovitz: Please share with us who you are, where you call home, and what has drawn you to CDSP.

Connie Bowman: I am currently living in Howard County, MD. What drew me to CDSP was my friend and my priest. I went into her office one day, with tears almost streaming down my face. I said,“I don’t know what’s going on but I think I want to go back to school. All I care about is God. I just want to learn about God and talk about God.”

So we got up and we took a walk around the church parking lot. At the end of our conversation she said, “Let’s go get you into the discernment program.” And we did. And the rest is history. It’s been one step at a time. It’s a long process but we do it in community and discern whether it is a call from God.

GK: Before you discerned this call and entered seminary, what was life before CDSP?

We regularly interview current CDSP students about life amid formation for ministry. Listen to the full recordings as part of Crossings Conversations at cdsp.edu/podcast Transcripts have been edited for length and clarity.

CB: I’ve been married to my husband for 40 years now. I have two great adult kids. For about the past 20 years, I’ve been a freelance voiceover actor in the Baltimore-Washington area. I’ve also done some on-camera work.

When I went to school, I did some PR work. Over time, I decided I was tired of doing PR for everybody else. So I was doing commercials, PR writing, and copy editing and I wanted to do PR for God. One day, I just blurted that out. I said,“I’m just tired of doing everybody else’s PR. I want to do PR only for God.”

GK: That sounds like a sense of call to storytelling.

CB: Yes. I have to give a shout-out to the Education for Ministry program. I think that has caused a lot of us to feel a call. I went through that program and it really deepened my faith. I was asked to mentor. So I give a lot of credit to EfM for inspiring me to go deeper.

GK: What is one question that you’ve encountered in the classroom as a student that has sparked curiosity related to ministry and your vocation?

CB: One of the things I really love is that we can explore so many questions. For example, why are there so many masculine names for God?

And what can we do about it? We are reading great books by theologians like Elizabeth Johnson. We were talking about the Trinity this week, and I was reading her take on the Trinity from a more feminist perspective. There are so many questions and so many wonderful people with whom I can bounce some of these ideas off.

GK: What is one event or issue that’s happening in the world right now that has impacted how you view ministry today?

CB: During the pandemic, my call was getting clear. I have had quite a bit of experience in the voiceover and on-camera world. I’ve been doing a little bit of production work. It gets my creative juices flowing. So that digital piece is important to me.

In my field ed parish, All Saints and St. George’s in Rehoboth Beach, DE, one of my projects is to examine the digital ministry that we’re doing. I’m finding as I watch and as I look at the stats that our numbers are really growing. We even have somebody who’s watching from Korea. So I’m really fascinated by why people watch, who they are, and how we can better serve them.

Connie Bowman ‘24

One other thing that has just come up in my life is that my dad passed away last semester. He went into hospice about October and then he died right at the beginning of December. What I found was that the care system right now for our seniors is really a mess. So I am also thinking hard about how we can help the lives of our seniors to be filled with love and grace and peace and as much goodness as we can.

GK: What has been one creative or experimental ministry opportunity you have explored or encountered over the last year that has inspired you?

CB: There’s one really cool thing that I’ve been offered the opportunity to participate in: as a co-mentor of a grief group in my field ed parish. One of the coolest things about this group over the past semester is that we had one person from a different faith. So we’re learning about other faiths and how better to love our neighbor as Jesus tells us.

I also teach yoga classes for seniors. I think my oldest person is 94. Because we’re in the Baltimore-Washington area, my class of 80 and 90 year olds is very international. They speak different languages. So I’ll talk about God, but I’m careful with the language

I use. I want it to be spiritual, but I don’t want to impose anything. It’s very helpful to know the context of the people participating.

GK: How do you sense God calling you to live into your vocation beyond your seminary experience?

CB: I’m feeling that I have some gifts

“May the gift of leadership awaken in you as a vocation, / Keep you mindful of the providence that calls you to serve. / As high over the mountains the eagle spreads its wings, / May your perspective be larger than the view from the foothills … May integrity of soul be your first ideal, / The source that will guide and bless your work.”

Connie Bowman ‘24 leads yoga as a part of her ministry. | Photo courtesy of Bowman

The Rev. Dr. Mees Tielens ‘23

Jeckonia Okoth: Please share a bit about who you are, where you call home, and what has drawn you to CDSP.

Mees Tielens: I am in my third year here. I am originally from the Netherlands. I moved to the States in 2013 and then California in 2015. I started the discernment process relatively quickly after that. My family and I moved to Berkeley in 2020 to start seminary. At this time I am a transitional deacon in the Diocese of California and will hopefully be ordained a priest in May 2023.

I was interested in CDSP for a couple of reasons. Some of them were practical, like I would prefer not to move my family cross-country for three years. But also for ministryoriented reasons, I wanted to be able to take classes at the GTU. I also think the Bay Area, this unchurched Silicon Valley space, is a really interesting place to do ministry.

JO: What is one question that you’ve encountered in the classroom as a student that has sparked curiosity related to ministry and your vocation?

MT: One thing that I was interested in, coming from the Diocese of California, is bivocationality. What we as pastors often hear as bivocationality is you need a secular job to subsidize your church job or you have to be living with someone who can subsidize your current job.

But then in our second year we read something that has really sparked my imagination: It’s not just the priest who is bivocational but also the congregation. Today’s church landscape has to step up and lead in a new way.

I really value my training and preparation for priesthood and for leading churches. But I think there’s something really important about lay people understanding that they don’t need me to say prayers at mealtimes. They don’t need me to minister to each other. I work really hard on my exegesis classes, but they also don’t need me to tell them how to read the Bible.

So leading in the kind of church in which priests and laypeople work together and not in this hierarchical, top-down way—I’ve thought a lot about that.

JO: What is one event or issue happening in the world that has impacted how you view ministry today?

MT: I know the pandemic is kind of old news, but I think we’re still working through the lessons of it as a church. The pandemic showed us where the church maybe wasn’t working as well anymore. If we’re resurrection people, then we can’t ignore the places where the church isn’t working.

In my sending parish, a lot of families didn’t come back to church the way we might have expected them to, even really active ones. As a parent, I totally get it. There are a lot of Sundays where it’d be really nice if I didn’t have to get up and get my kids ready for services. Or there’s sports or birthday parties or the grocery shopping to do.

But I do think that what we are offering people is worth the trade-off. When I had my baby, she suddenly gained a million church grandmas and grandpas. My family lives a long way away, so that was really meaningful. We’re bound together by our belief in God and by our faith that there is something worth holding onto that is bigger than ourselves.

The world is desperately in need of healing. I think we can all see that. The ways in which we’re divided and hurting—I think church in both the gathering and the sending out is a way to address that. If the model of church we had pre-pandemic is not working anymore, what do people actually need? Where do people

actually go, and how can we reach them?

JO: What has been one creative or experimental ministry opportunity you have explored over the last year that has inspired you?

MT: I’ve been mostly interested in ministries that are connected to churches but are not happening in church buildings. It is important that these ministries are rooted in Jesus. We’re just not a social club. But I also think of church in a more broad sense. I’m thinking about how last week in a youth ministry class we had a priest come in who was working on a project that would take people, both church people and non-church people, and bring them together at a playground.

For my field ed, I work in a regular congregation, a small mission congregation in Contra Costa County. The vicar I work with is also the farm church commissioner for the Diocese of California. The idea of extending church that I see in the farm church and that I see in that playground ministry: I see a lot of congregations starting to think about things like that.

JO: How do you sense God calling you to live into your vocation beyond your seminary experience?

MT: I think for me it’s been really key to lean into openness and flexibility.

I’d be interested in associate work or in a CPE residency or youth ministry or school chaplaincy. But in all of those, what I’m interested in is lay formation and that kids and youth feel safe and empowered.

I want to help congregations be generous and hospitable places, which also looks like queer inclusion and disability inclusion and anti-racism and making it possible for people to experience the kind of transformation that the sacraments have given me. I do have faith that, somehow or other, a path will open.

JO: What is a final word of encouragement you have for those reading this transcript?

MT: We hear a lot about the Church dying. We know the Church is dying. I wish we heard a little bit more about what resurrection might look like. When I look around me, I see so many bright and passionate and compassionate people who love God and love the Church and have a lot of good ideas about where they could go.

I also see a lot of churches that have been broken open by the pandemic and by the world’s injustices. We’re now paying a lot more attention. I see a lot of courage for change. That in itself gives me a lot of hope for the future.

The Rev. Mies Tielens ‘23 helps lead Ashes to Go on Ash Wednesday.| Photo courtesy of Tienlens

William Sutherland Stafford: Reflections on a long career in a changing Church

The Rev. William Sutherland Stafford, PhD, visiting professor of church history, announced last fall that the spring semester of 2023 would be his last at CDSP. Stafford has shared his gifts with the seminary on a part-time basis for a decade, since his 2012 retirement as dean and professor of church history in the School of Theology at the University of the South, commonly known as Sewanee.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

recognition of Jesus Christ’s love for humanity.

CL: You moved to California from New Jersey at a young age. What are some of the changes you’ve noticed over your years living on the West Coast?

WS: The difficulty of getting personnel and financial resources behind the mission of the Church has grown substantially. The Church is now having to adapt to a secularized culture that it really wasn’t ready for in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which was when I was originally formed. That’s an enormous challenge for our future.

a lot of what I think moved the Church in the direction the Holy Spirit wanted us to move regarding women’s leadership, the impacts of racism, and other issues was voices from outside the Church that were demanding justice.

CL: Can you tell me a little bit about your move from the Presbyterian Church into the Episcopal Church?

WS: One is that my enthusiasm for the Reformation was qualified. I came to the conclusion that the Reformation was really wrong to judge the whole medieval Church as a giant conspiracy against the laity.

Carly Lane: Tell me about the context you were formed in, spiritually and intellectually.

William Stafford: I was raised in the Presbyterian Church. My father was a Presbyterian minister, and my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and missionary. Today my mother would certainly be ordained as a minister, but she was not able to in those days, nor did she recognize that calling. She sure taught a lot. She used to say to my siblings and me, “Your father preaches one day a week; I preach six days a week.”And that’s pretty much how it was. It was an intensely Christian religious environment: a deep love for scripture and a deep

CL: You say,“I study and teach as a Christian and a priest but with an open ear to the non-Christians around me.” What do you mean by that statement?

WS: Growing up, we subscribed to two magazines. One was Christianity Today, the evangelical banner publication. The other was The New Yorker, which was definitely not that. I also went to Stanford University as an undergraduate, which was no hotbed of piety. So I needed to learn how to listen to other voices than those that came from the heart of the gospel. My graduate education was in the ‘70s. Even at Stanford, I only had one class that was taught by a woman. Quite

The other aspect of my conversion to the Episcopal Church is that I came to believe what some Anglicans do believe, which is in the real presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. That belief, which I share with Luther, was not at home in the Presbyterian Church at all.

In my first years of teaching at Brown University, we found the nearest church to us was a very high-church Episcopal congregation, St. Stephen’s in Providence, RI. We instantly found a home there. When we had a personal tragedy, the liturgy carried us, and so did the care and love of the people and clergy. It just made sense for us to get confirmed at that point.

CL: What led you to pursue holy orders in the Episcopal Church?

WS: When I was teaching, the students simply couldn’t understand why I wasn’t ordained. I kept saying, “I don’t need to be. I don’t particularly want to be. I don’t feel called to be.” They kept on asking. So I went on a series of retreats to try to see if that question was alive in me, and it was. I had a pretty clear experience of God’s call to the priesthood. I answered that call as best I could.

CL: Thinking about today, what do you notice has changed in theological education?

WS: I had a former colleague who said that every 500 years the Church has a fire sale. I think one’s underway right now. In many respects, I am clueless about what’s going to come out of it. I do think that a couple of values need to be held onto in theological education—even or especially in remote theological education.

One such value is community. I think that the community aspects of mutual formation, for people who are preparing for ordination and for learned lay ministries, is of critical importance. Community is a given in residential theological education. I think CDSP has been working very hard on learning how to do that remotely.

Another such value is a fundamental centeredness in the basic gospel, what we Episcopalians refer to as the Paschal mystery: Christ has died,

Christ is risen, Christ will come again. We must continue to find our center in that central, inexplicable, but lifechanging mystery.

CL: What is a curiosity you’ve pursued and written about in your career?

WS: I’ve noticed a certain embarrassment, not just in the Episcopal Church, but across the spectrum of clergy and lay people being willing to use that three letter word, “sin.” It used to be very popular, in the centuries that I mostly studied. Now, many people seem to be allergic to the whole idea, no doubt because it’s been so badly misused by the Church.

But there is a way in which I think the Christians really need to talk about it. For example, racism is sin. Racism is an offense against God and an offense against neighbor. I do not think it’s adequate to treat major social disorders without that category coming into play.

I also think that, in people struggling with God, the role that is played by guilt in their lives sometimes is a block to their spiritual growth. Having an adequate understanding of sin, and above all redemption, God’s grace, and God’s forgiveness in Christ—that’s just central to people making any real kind of spiritual progress. It’s only through reconciliation that we can seek new life.

Before his call to Sewanee, the Rev. William Stafford, PhD, served in multiple teaching and administrative roles at Virginia Theological Seminary from 1976 until 2004. | Photos courtesy of the Virginia Theological Seminary Archives, Bishop Payne Library.

PB Cur r y Visits CDSP

That question was one of many the Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, explored with students, faculty, and staff during a visit to CDSP on February 7.

“The Church has a dual focus to create Christian community as church but let that be a witness and a springboard to help people nurture it in the society,” he said in an interview. “And when that happens in society, there is, as the old enslaved Africans used to say, ‘plenty good room, plenty good room, plenty good room for all God’s children.’”

The visit was made possible by Bishop Curry’s early arrival for a meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church February 9–12 in San Francisco. He preached at a special CDSP Community Eucharist that capped off a day of conversations: with residential students, with hybrid students, and with faculty and senior staff.

“The God behind you is greater than any problem ahead of you,” he said in his sermon, quoting the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris (DD ‘02) in commemoration of her ordination as the first woman to serve as bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Although not the focus for the visit, Bishop Curry’s time at CDSP followed shortly after the seminary’s January 31 announcement of a shift to a fully hybrid education model beginning in 2025 (see “Hybrid Shift,” pp. 4–7).

“When I began to understand what you all are talking about, I realized that this may be reflective of the trajectory of the entire Episcopal Church,” he said. “I don’t mean the exact same thing happening. I think we as the Episcopal Church will be reinvented—not just by cultural forces without or demographics within—I’m talking about something bigger than that. We are being reinvented by the Spirit of God.”

Bishop Curry named the curacy program as an especially significant aspect of the new approach.

“What I see here is some creative work that opens even more the possibilities of theological education actually making a difference in the life of the Church in the world.”

You can watch Bishop Curry’s full sermon for the CDSP community at cdsp.edu/curry-sermon

‘We are being reinvented by the Spirit of God’

“How do we train and prepare and form leaders for the Church in a world… where the Church is not the only game in town?”

The Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, spent the morning of February 7 meeting with CDSP faculty and senior staff.

Bishop Curry preached at the seminary’s commemoration of the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris (DD ‘02), a service that also included the presence of many residential and hybrid students and the return of water to the baptismal font amid the easing of pandemic safety restrictions.

In an on-campus interview, Bishop Curry spoke about the responsibility of church leaders to balance their attention between within-church community and beyond-church witness in broader society.

Communit y News

Updates from CDSP faculty, students, alums, staff, and friends (July 2022 – March 2023)

The Rev. Michael Barham (DMin ‘12, CAS ‘07) recently offered recorded remarks on the theme of gratitude and thanksgiving for students at Seabury Hall, an Episcopal school in Maui, HI, at the invitation of the Rev. Christopher P. Golding, the school’s chaplain.

Dr. Julián Andrés González Holguín published “Is the Hebrew Bible Racist? Diversity and Antiracist Reading Practices” in Race and Biblical Studies: Antiracism Pedagogy for the Classroom

The Rev. John Kater, PhD, was installed as rector emeritus at Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he served as rector 1974–1984. He also taught at Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong during the spring semester.

Dr. Scott MacDougall published “On the Theological Status of Experience in Seminary Education” in Anglican Theological Review and “Pursuing the Decolonial Agenda: A Future for Anglican Studies” as part of a larger article, “The Future of Anglican Studies,” by Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski and Joy Ann McDougall in Journal of Anglican Studies. He also presided as member of the steering committee of the Ecclesiological Investigations Unit of the American Academy of Religion

for a panel called “Catastrophe in the Life of the Church,” co-presided at the annual meeting of the the Anglican Studies Seminar as co-chair of this new five-year project, and was selected to participate in a year-long online workshop called “Becoming a White Antiracist” through Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.

The Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, led the webinar “Symbols, Resources, and Sanity” sponsored by the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission and was elected deputy to General Convention from the Diocese of California.

Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda published the edited volume, How Would We Know What God Is Up To?; delivered the keynote address, “Protecting Our Common Home,” for the SIGNIS World Congress 2022 in Seoul, Korea; served as keynote speaker for one of the Ecumenical Conversation groups of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Karlsruhe, Germany; delivered a plenary address, “Economy of life in a time of inequality and climate change,” for the Ecumenical Encounter Programme at that WCC Assembly; and served as keynote speaker for the Central States Synod Assembly of the ELCA in Kansas City, MO.

The Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD, was named a visiting scholar by the Digital Futures Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University, and presented “Research with/about Youth by/ while Making Media in ‘Faith-Adjacent’ Spaces” in an invited session for the faculty and staff of City Seminary of New York.

The Rev. Katrina Olson, PhD, delivered the presentations “Experimenting with Ungrading: Reflections on a Collaborative Practical Theology Classroom” at the Academy of Homiletics and “Hearing God’s Voice: How Preaching Can Construct Narratives about the Other with the Other” at the Societas Homiletica in Budapest, Hungary.

Angela Furlong ‘23 was ordained to the diaconate December 3 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, MD.

Robert G. Stevens ‘24 completed the Episcopal Church’s Episcopal Latino Ministry 7-Day Competency Course.

Dr. Mees Tielens ‘23 was ordained to the diaconate December 3 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA.

The Rev. Lisa Aguilar ‘20, was ordained to the priesthood December 9 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Omaha, NE.

The Rev. Andrea Arsene ‘20 was installed as rector of the Episcopal Church of All Saints in Indianapolis, IN.

The Rev. Nora Boerner ‘22 was ordained to the priesthood on September 25 and called as curate at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City, IA.

The Rev. John E. Day (MDiv ‘91), DMin, retired on July 31.

The Rev. Elisabeth Fitzgibbons ‘06 was called as the twelfth rector, and first woman rector, of Trinity Parish in Seattle, WA.

The Rev. Peter Fritsch ‘92 taught an online course, “Introduction to Celtic Christian Spirituality and Community.”

The Rev. Edwin Johnson ‘10 was called as director of organizing at Episcopal City Mission in Boston, MA.

The Rev. Marguerite Judson ‘17 is serving as assisting priest at All Souls Episcopal Parish in Berkeley, CA.

Myrna Koonce ‘21 published “Moral distress and spiritual/religious orientation: Moral agency, norms and resilience” in Nursing Ethics. This peer-reviewed article is based on research she conducted for her MTS thesis at CDSP.

The Rev. Jane Maynard (MDiv ‘92), PhD, was called as interim rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Medford, OR.

The Rev. William Muller Jr. ‘06 was called as rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Blackstone, VA, and Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in McKenney, VA.

The Rev. Joel Muñoz (CAS ‘21), EdD, was called on July 10 as curate to St. Francis in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Zionsville, IN.

The Rev. James D. Richardson ‘00 published The Abolitionist’s Journal: Memories of an American Antislavery Family and was also the keynote speaker at the convocation of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX, a historically Black college founded by his ancestors.

The Rev. Robin Woodberry (CAS ‘20), DMin, was profiled in the Canton Repository

The Rev. C. Susanne Wright-Nava ‘22 was ordained to the priesthood on January 14 at St. John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles, CA, and was called as curate to St. Edmunds Episcopal Church in San Marino, CA.

The Rev. Richard Yale (MDiv ‘85), DMin, retired after serving twentyfive years as rector of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Chico, CA.

The Rev. Robyn Elizabeth Arnold (MDiv ‘08), PhD, died July 5 in Birmingham, AL.

Dr. Theresa Brown died September 11.

The Rev. Carol Lee Cook ‘91 died November 17.

The Rev. David Green ‘63 died December 25.

Dorothy Elizabeth Meyers, mother of the Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, died September 14.

The Rev. Clayton L. Morris (MDiv ‘71), ThD, died October 24 in Brooklyn, NY. Canon Peter Ng (DD ‘18) died December 10.

The Rev. David Shewmaker ‘07 died February 9.

The Rev. Cn. Jeffry Smith ‘85 died November 29.

The Rev. Canon S. Mortimer Ward, IV, ‘64 died July 28 in Santa Barbara, CA.

Grant to them eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them. May their souls, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

SHARE YOUR NEWS

Please send news items about members of the CDSP community, including death notices, to communications@cdsp.edu or via the CDSP website at cdsp.edu/alumni/information-form/.

2022–2023 guests at CDSP (from left): the Rev. Amy Jacober, PhD; the Rt. Rev. Jos Tharakan; the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Reddall (serving chalice); and the Rev. Canon Martha Korienek. | Photos by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23

Is Your Information Up to Date?

We do our best to communicate with the entire CDSP community, but we know many of you are on the move!

Please use the forms to keep us posted on your whereabouts, roles, contact information, and news to share.

For alums: cdsp.edu/alum-form

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Since you have made it to the end of our Spring 2023 issue, you are probably already thinking about opportunities for change and growth in how the school operates and functions. These pages have also made it very clear that there are areas of our work together in which the seminary is already excelling. My column usually focuses on the operational logistics of our work and life together at CDSP, so allow me to zoom in and provide some important details.

Our remaining residential community

We offered the residential classes of 2024 and 2025 three options for finishing their degrees: remain in residence at CDSP, finish their programs in the hybrid modality, or transfer to another seminary. The vast majority of the returning residential students have decided to remain in residence and complete their degrees with us here in Berkeley.

How the seminary provides meals and worship opportunities will change during the next two years, due to the size of the residential community. We will continue having a community-wide lunch on Tuesdays at which students, faculty, and staff can casually connect.

All other meals will be student-focused. The food program will consist of (a) monthly food stipends provided to each student, (b) meal tickets our

To 2025 and Beyond:

CDSP faculty and staff laying strong foundation amid transition

B y the R ev . J O hn F. D wye R Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

students can use at four different UC Berkeley cafeterias, (c) funds for catering in weekly student community meals, and (d) funds for occasionally holding more elaborate special events that will help build and strengthen the student community.

As I write this article in mid-March, we have not yet finalized worship details. We will continue to worship both in person and online during and after the transition.

June Intensive and January Intersession

Our June 2023 Intensive will take place here on our Berkeley campus. It is likely that the January 2024 Intersession will be held here as well.

We have begun talks with colleagues at UC Berkeley to create a long-term agreement to host subsequent onsite intensives on their campus. We are committed to CDSP retaining a presence in Berkeley.

Making this change will create the opportunity for our real estate assets to assist in funding our mission of creating new leaders for a changing church. We will be funding people and mission as opposed to property maintenance.

Salary assistance and curacy program

Residential and hybrid MDiv students graduating in May 2023—that is,

before we launch the curacy program described below—will receive salary assistance during the first two years of their post-graduation ministry in an Episcopal context. CDSP will send the students’ dioceses $60,000 each year, paid in quarterly installments. The dioceses must use this money for funding students’ positions.

Beginning with students graduating in May 2024, all MDiv students approved for ordination will be able to participate in designing a two-year curacy experience that will provide mentoring, further development of leadership skills, and experiences that foster a mindset of adaptation.

Each student, their bishop or bishop’s designee, and CDSP personnel will collaborate on the design of each curacy. Like the salary assistance, the curacy funding will be paid on a quarterly basis. Dioceses will confirm that the money is funding participants’ salaries, that mentoring is ongoing, and that participants are meeting the reasonable expectations of their position.

I will continue to keep you updated in this column on the operational follow-through for these important new initiatives. We still have a lot to decide and to learn, but we are building on many strengths as we enter this new era at CDSP.