SPRING 2022
Crossings
Looking Toward
The TheFuture Future u
Retiring President and Dean on Strategic Priorities
u
Interim President and Dean on Presence During Change
Letter from the Rector Board of Trustees chair shares gratitude, blessings, for retiring president and dean By
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Rev. PhilliP A. JAckson ‘94
Rector, Trinity Church Wall Street
I’m breaking Crossings tradition by borrowing the “dean’s pen” to celebrate the Very Rev. W. Mark Richardson for this final issue before his retirement. As Mark’s nearly twelve-year tenure as president and dean draws to a close, I know you’ll want to read his own reflections on his time at CDSP (see cover story, p. 4). But on behalf of CDSP’s Board of Trustees and Trinity Church Wall Street, and as a proud alumnus of this beloved seminary, I’d like to use this space to share my thoughts on and gratitude for Mark’s service. At my visit to the CDSP campus in Berkeley earlier this year, I was able to spend time with faculty, staff, and students in classroom settings, group meetings, and informal conversations. What I experienced was extraordinary— dedicated and passionate faculty and staff members, energized and engaged students, all walking this journey together to find new and innovative ways to serve God and their neighbors. While it would have been easy for me to wax nostalgic during my visit, the focus on the future and the myriad possibilities ahead was palpable and exciting. As Mark has written in this space, the challenges of theological education are many and ever-changing. But in his time at CDSP, he has worked to address those challenges head-on, in matters both practical and spiritual. Mark has championed bold and imaginative thinking, while remaining committed to scholarship and formation. Through his leadership, the seminary expanded the availability and inclusiveness of theological education beyond the physical walls of the classroom by introducing and then expanding online and low-residence programs. CDSP also developed a new MDiv curriculum focused on preparing leaders to serve God’s mission in today’s world, as well as a new strategic plan that sets a strong course for the seminary. And, of course, he has shepherded the institution in the development of its partnership with Trinity.
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Mark also fostered partnerships and innovation in his approach to CDSP’s campus, including space-sharing and innovative educational programs with University of California, Berkeley, sharing residential space with other schools, and developing a business model for CDSP’s conference and guest services.The school undertook major renovations of campus public spaces and supported efforts to address climate change including by adding solar panels and making the campus more energy efficient. In addition to citing the accomplishments we tend to put on paper, I want to join those who have worked, studied, and worshiped with Mark over the years in expressing my gratitude for the way in which he has led. Mark’s humility, thoughtfulness, and faithfulness, as well as his wisdom, intelligence, and care for those around him will stay with us all long after he leaves our campus and begins his retirement. Mark has been my friend for more than twenty-five years, and it has been my great personal pleasure as well to work with him closely over the past few years. I give thanks for Mark’s steadfastness in faith as he has answered God’s many calls during his ministry. I am grateful for all that he has contributed to CDSP, to the Episcopal Church, and to other partners in theological education. And I wish Mark and his wife, Brenda, a season of peace, respite, replenishment, and time to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Mark has achieved a key goal to which all of us who lead should aspire: To leave a place better than we found it. As we embark upon this next era at CDSP, I ask you to join me in prayer for Mark, Brenda, and the extended CDSP community. It is now up to us to continue the good work that Mark has led and that God has given us grace to accomplish.
Richardson preaches in All Saints Chapel during the final year of his tenure as president and dean. | Photo by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23
4 Richardson Reflects
14 Gibbs Society Giving Recent bequests total $1.5 million for seminary’s mission
Looking back, looking forward with CDSP’s retiring president and dean
16 Faculty Scholarship
8 Bp. Smith Comes to Berkeley
Snow, MacDougall preview research on Episcopal history, Anglican theology
New interim dean to keep focus on church as “by definition missionary”
10 Students in the Spotlight Current students on classroom experiences, vocation in the world.
18 ‘He Is Still Teaching Us’
Crossings SPRING 2022
Students, friends remember preeminent liturgical scholar Louis Weil
The Very Rev.W. Mark Richardson, PhD, President and Dean Editorial: Learning Forte, with assistance from Paul Impey ‘23 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.
On the cover: The 2021–2022 school year marked a cautious return to more robust on-site operations at CDSP, including indoor community gatherings (left) when pandemic conditions allowed.
| Photos by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23 (left) and Thomas Minczeski (right)
We want to know what you think of our magazine. Please send your comments, story ideas, and suggestions to communications@cdsp.edu. Go Green with CDSP: Email communications@cdsp.edu to subscribe to our monthly email newsletter, and stay connected on Facebook at /cdspfans, on Twitter @cdsptweets, and on Instagram @cdspstudent. Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 3
CDSP and the Future of Leadership Development Upon retirement, Richardson reflects on seminary identity, strategic priorities v V R . W. M r R r ,P d By the b
As I think about the years of my service at CDSP and where we are today, I count the experience as a dear privilege. And the greatest joys about this time have been the relationships I have formed with so many of you, and that the institution has formed more broadly. The work of a seminary is shared work and accomplishment. I would be remiss if I did not begin my personal reflection with a brief word of gratitude for the companionship of my wife, Brenda, who has shared many ideas and ways of supporting me. Brenda has written stories for Crossings, contributed to many institutional advancement efforts, and in particular prepared more than fifty events in our home to host donors, friends, students, faculty, board members, alums, and leaders of the Episcopal Church. These events will be special reminders for me of the privilege of knowing so many who are part of this community and have contributed to its success. I will give other specific words of thanks throughout and at the end of this piece, but please know that I am grateful to this entire community— students, faculty, staff, alums, board members, donors and friends, other colleagues in church leadership—for your collaboration and counsel during my tenure as president and dean. In that time, we have achieved a lot together. In this piece, I will reflect on where we have been and where we are going as an institution of leadership formation.
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Early Years: Investment and Innovation I think first of the theme of investing in our community. Through the vision and generosity of board members, donors, and friends, CDSP has rallied support for our students, our faculty, and our mission. Together, we funded several new scholarships: the Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows Endowed Scholarship for Black and Native American Students, the Winifred B. Gaines Endowed Scholarship for students from the Diocese of Northern California, the Rev. Dr. John L. Kater, Jr. Endowed Scholarship for a wide range of students, the Kellor Smith Endowed Scholarship for Youth Ministry, the Fran Toy Endowed Prize for Multicultural Ministry at a Field Education Site, and scholarships for international students.
CDSP announces the creation of the Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows Endowed Scholarship for Black and Native American Students at a gala reception at General Convention in 2018. | Photo by Bill McCullough
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These investments have paralleled action and further commitment to fund faculty endowments to assure the continuing excellence of CDSP’s teaching and scholarship and to support our chapel program and worship life. Especially significant, the reorganized St. Margaret’s Visiting Professorship in Women in Ministry has brought outstanding exemplars of lay and ordained leaders to our campus.These visiting professors have taught, preached, and shared with students from their experiences in ways that have added great value to the CDSP experience. With encouragement from Peter Ng, the Rev. Fred Vergara, and the Rev. Bruce Woodcock, CDSP has built relationships with Episcopal colleagues and institutions in Asia.These Asia.These efforts led to the formation of a program with St. Andrew’s Theological Seminary in the Philippines to help train three of its new faculty in recent years, with more anticipated in the future. We have also begun partnerfuture.We ship work with the Diocese of Taiwan and its Trinity School for Christian Ministry in Taipei. CDSP has committed itself, through expert consultation expert consultationand andrigorous rigorous training, training,the to to path the path of personal of personal intercultural intercultural competence competence and of and community of community practices to support greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. Paired with a similar focus focus in in formation formationactivities activities and worship, we are taking steps more authentically to embody God’s dream of Beloved Community.
Other investments have been more infrastructural. We installed solar infrastructural.We panels in in partnership partnershipwith withthe theRt. Rt. Rev. Rev. Marc Marc Andrus Andrus and and the Diocese the Diocese of of California to supply the campus with energy and contribute contribute to to the thestewardship of God’s stewardship of God’s creation. creation.We We implemented new software implemented new software to support to support the future the future of academic of academic administration administration and instruction. and instruction. We developed We developed new businew ness models business models to support to support the transforthe mative use of CDSP transformative use of facilities. CDSP facilities.
Dean Richardson joins the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, PhD, and the Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, PhD, to bless CDSP’s new solar panels in October 2016. | Photo by Thomas Minczeski
Dedicated board chairs—the Rev. Dr. Eliza Linley ’90 (DD ‘15), the Rev. Richard Morrison, Dr. Carol Anne Brown (DHL ’05), the Rev. Dr. Paul “Don” White, Jr. ’91—helped make all this investment possible.They possible.They held the school in prayer and offered major financial support and hours of labor. The second theme that comes to mind is this community’s distinct culture of innovation. Our West Coast context, relationship with a world-class university, a close-knit ecumenical and interreligious consortium, and the vibrant and diverse urban context of the Bay Area have all contributed to this ethos. With full faculty support—and following the lead of architects the Rev. Susanna Singer, PhD (MDiv ‘89) and the Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD—we built a game-changing curriculum for MDiv and MTS education. Ruth has continued to shepherd the curriculum with the faculty in her capacity as dean of academic affairs.
These professional degrees now focus much more strongly on forming leaders with a mission orientation. Alums of these programs have inspired congregations and communities in outward-facing initiatives in the world around them. The same impulse nurtured our development of required new intensives in community organizing (co-designed with IAF, the Industrial Areas Foundation), and shortly thereafter our urban ministry course, Gospel of the Masses. Expert IAF facilitators nurture an understanding of the nature of power in institutional life, differences between public and private relationships, approaches to community-based conversations, and appreciation for collaboration between churches and their neighborhoods.These initiatives form skills of urban and community interaction that support our mission orientation.
New Era: Into Shared Mission with Trinity There are moments of unpredictable adaptation in every institution, and the newly formed relationship with Trinity Church Wall Street (TCWS) is certainly one of these dramatic moments at CDSP. The relationship with TCWS was a financial lifeline for CDSP that came at a most critical time. It is not an exaggeration to say our future depended on it. However, the leaders of both Trinity and CDSP know that without a shared mission the partnership would have no basis for development.What development. What has emerged
This period was also the beginning of our low-residence model of theological education.This program quickly began to meet pent-up demand, including but not limited to training for bivocational ministers.This mode of fully accredited theological education has added tremendous vitality and talent to the CDSP community, and it will keep us on the leading edge in the future. Many who enter this program are having a major impact in the local contexts in which they are so embedded and committed. The Episcopal Church (TEC) and our peer institutions recognize CDSP as a leader in flexible, studentcentered, digitally skillful teaching and learning. The remarkable growth of our online and hybrid programs is a testament to our trusted relationships with TEC bishops and other grassroots leaders, who keep us in touch with emerging opportunities and challenges among our constituencies.
The Very Rev. W. Mark Richardson retires at the end of the 2021–2022 school year after nearly twelve years as president and dean. | Photos Thomas Minczeski (outer) and the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23 (inner)
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is a common vision regarding futureoriented leadership development. This journey has depended on intense behind-the-scenes labors.The Rev. John Dwyer, vice president and chief operating officer, has been instrumental at CDSP. At Trinity, Liz Warnick and Rob Garris have worked especially hard, as well as staff in strategic development, finance, facilities, HR, and legal.The executive committee of the board and the leadership of the Rev. Phillip Jackson ‘94,Trinity’s new rector, keep us on a steady, creative path forward. Phil knows and shares a passion for theological education from his personal history. The Trinity-CDSP Scholarship for Ordained Leadership has dramatically improved our standing with potential students and improved the quality of life of current students by decreasing the debt they carry into future ministries. For some it is the key to
making theological education possible.
Where We Are Going:
An affordable living benchmarking process undertaken with Trinity’s support has similarly improved our outlook for recruiting the most talented faculty and staff through appropriate pay raises and other benefit improvements.
Strategic Priorities
We have stabilized our endowment, begun facilities improvements, and implemented classroom technology upgrades. Our adaptation to COVID-19 has benefited from Trinity’s health and safety consultations and its funding of ventilation enhancement and other safety equipment. And we have shared with you news and stories about these and so many other developments through media productions that are close collaborations between both CDSP and Trinity communications personnel.
Preparing to welcome an interim president and visiting faculty members, successfully working with the accreditation organization of the Association of Theological Schools, and continuing our mutual discernment and community-building with Trinity counterparts have all shaped this process.
As the CDSP leadership team has been working with our partners at Trinity Church Wall Street to plot a stable and thoughtful course for our current season of transition, we have had opportunity to reflect on the future.
But perhaps the most potent symbol of the seminary’s faithful responses to the challenges of our day is the adoption of a new strategic plan, a process developed with consultant Carol Marturano Becker, assisted by the Very Rev. Martha Horne and Barbara Wheeler, PhD, and continued in conversation with bishops, our faculty and staff, many alums, and other stakeholders. The strategic plan outlines the programmatic vision for leadership development and binds together the institutional mission partnership of Trinity and CDSP. We are poised to grow our capacity for developing students’ transformational leadership skills, working from our own strengths as an institution adapting for the future and benefiting from Trinity’s expertise and distinctive role as convener and incubator of leadership excellence.
Thursday community night. | Photo by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23
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We celebrate these early successes as emblematic of the great ambitions that inspired the partnership.
Although the details of implementation will no doubt unfold in ways we cannot now anticipate, I believe the core priorities of this plan are durable and essential.They connect us to our past and present as we respond to God’s love for creation and follow the call of Jesus Christ to a mission of justice, reconciliation, and mercy.
In short, the future of CDSP will continue the path of innovation in preparing ordained and lay Christian leaders for ministry, mission, and service in their neighborhoods and society. Increasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Expanding Lay Leadership Development
CDSP will continue on our path of deepening Beloved Community through pedagogy, course content, and worship that better reflects racial, cultural, and economic diversity. We will integrate knowledge and skills for implementing anti-racist perspectives and providing opportunities for racial healing in all the work we do.
CDSP will begin expanding our accredited MTS degree with customized programs targeted to lay leadership for ministries in churches and community organizations.The first areas of concentration will be in leadership for nonprofit service and community organizing for ministry. This concentration would include coursework in moral theology, leadership for ministry, and advanced organizing. A thesis project would consolidate learning through case study analysis built on social science methods.
Developing Practical Leadership Skills We are already developing our ministerial leadership program to incorporate executive leadership skills essential to clergy and lay leaders: change management, strategic planning, emotional awareness, team building, institutional and personal financial management, and more. These additions will reflect the likely reality that more and more of our students will serve in communities and roles the Church has often considered “nontraditional.” CDSP students are already eligible to take courses at UC Berkeley. We will encourage opportunities for study at the school for Social Welfare to increase their civic institutional intelligence, and at the Haas School of Business for training in nonprofit management. Nurturing Personal Growth and Development Our student formation program will deepen student maturity in, commitment to, and skills for integrated spirituality, emotional awareness, moral responsibility, and healthy relationships. Such focus is even more important during a time of intense social and institutional change. Recent conversations with TEC bishops have also emphasized that spiritual maturity in leadership is often a missing foundation for a mission orientation.
The Rev. Sarah Kye Price, PhD (MDiv ‘18) has been working to strengthen potential collaborative ties with the UCB School of Social Welfare. | Photo courtesy of Price
Related work is already in motion. The Rev. Sarah Kye Price, PhD (MDiv ‘18) is a recent graduate of CDSP’s low-res MDiv program. She is also our 2022 St. Margaret’s Visiting Professor of Women in Ministry and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. Part of her work with us this spring and summer has been to further cultivate these institutional relationships as the building blocks for developing a high-impact partnership
with the UCB School of Social Welfare. Social work programs form a cognate relationship to our work in theological education, with strong crossover potential to serve the community organizing and social justice aspects of ministerial leadership and attract students from a wider range of disciplines and backgrounds. This is a missing piece in TEC seminary life. Expanding Non-Degree Online Formation Our Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL), led by Dr. Jennifer Snow, continues to grow and currently averages 300 course enrollments per year, comprising both lay leaders and students in local ordination tracks. We believe interest has not yet peaked. We know that short asynchronous courses are an excellent format for broadly accessible learning not only in basic theological disciplines of scripture, history, and theology but also for special topics in religious leadership and other practical theological disciplines. CALL continues to expand its already strong slate of institutional relationships. For example, the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe recently invited CALL to lead the formation of many of its lay and ordained ministers, and hopes to further strengthen its connection with CALL. It has been the chief privilege of my career to lead CDSP through an exciting—and I believe pivotal— twelve years of our life as an institution. With a view of the future shaped by these priorities and perspectives, and in partnership with Trinity, I trust the seminary will continue its proud tradition of leadership.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 7
Meet the Interim President and Dean Smith sees seminary at ‘kairos moment’ of opportunity, r . K O , e d challenge I ntervIew by the
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On March 31, the Board of Trustees announced the Rt. Rev. Kirk Stevan Smith, PhD, will serve as interim president and dean of CDSP beginning June 6. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kyle Oliver: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Bishop Kirk Smith: I am the retired bishop of Arizona. I was born in Washington state. My dad was a Presbyterian clergyman and later went to work for the Presbyterian administrative machinery.Then he took a job at a church in Arizona, and so we moved and I went to high school in Phoenix. I went to college at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. I went to graduate school at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, studying medieval history. You really can’t do medieval history and avoid the Church. The more I got into it, the more I had the feeling that God wanted me on the front lines, so to speak—not just learning about the church, but actually being in the church. I had the good fortune to spend a year in
Oxford researching my dissertation. While I was there I decided that I would live at one of the seminaries, St. Stephen’s House.That was a wonderful experience.
KO: Can you elaborate on some of the ways that your academic interests and your parish and diocesan leadership have complemented each other over the years?
My bishop encouraged me to go to Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. When I graduated, I served a parish in West Hartford, CT. Then I was rector at a little parish down on the Connecticut shoreline in Old Lyme.
KS: I like the pastoral aspect of being a priest, and I enjoy the excitement of teaching. Most of our folks, at least in the parishes that I served, although they were hungry to learn things, they really didn’t know very much about their faith. So it was exciting to have that time with them.
Then came a total change. I went from this little New England town to downtown Los Angeles, where I was the rector of St James, Wilshire Boulevard, a big urban multicultural parish. We had forty different nationalities represented there. We say it looked like the United Nations at prayer. We also ran a day school, a nursery school, and a retirement center. After fifteen years or so, I decided it was time to do something else. I wanted to be a seminary dean way back then. I started the process at some of the places that were looking. That didn’t work out. And somebody said,“Why don’t you run for bishop?” I ended up as a candidate in Los Angeles and as a candidate in Oregon. It was the hardest thing I ever did, to be in those walkabouts.The experience in Arizona was completely different from the other two walkabouts. It just felt right.That’s where I ended up, and I had a wonderful fifteen years in Arizona as bishop.
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One thing I enjoy is making difficult things accessible, bringing those down to earth, and trying to apply those to where people are in their everyday lives.To me, that’s really the goal of teaching and that’s what energizes me. For example, when I was a parish priest, every other week we would have a little thing called Time for Tradition. It was a couple minutes at announcement time. I would talk about some aspect of what we did in the church: in our liturgical life, or in our involvement in the community, or just try to tie what we were doing to the history of the church. KO: What do you think are some of the important challenges facing churches right now in a way that is relevant for how we do things in seminaries?
Bishop Smith presents the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Reddall with the crozier at her consecration as bishop of the Diocese of Arizona. | Photo by David Schacher Photography LLC
KS: I think that discussion is very much on everyone’s mind, particularly now as we try to retool after COVID. I still think the main challenge we’re going to face as a Church is making the main thing the main thing. In other words, to really understand that the Church is by definition missionary, and how do we bring the good news to the people of the twenty-first century who are around us?
And here here comes comes Trinity Trinity with with theirtheir unbelievable history, looking for partnership to move into the future. You couldn’t make this stuff up. This is an incredible moment of opportunity, to have these two very strong institutions in their own right coming together with an openness to a new vision for the church. How could I resist?
When we’re in that transitional time, it’s extremely anxiety-producing. One of the things that I can hopefully bring to the table is a non-anxious presence, a sense of we’re all in this together. We’ve all got something to contribute to this, and we can do this.
It’s very easy for us in the church to get sidetracked with the institutional concerns. Just look at the typical parish budget, for example, or where people spend their most time. It’s mostly internal consumption. Whereas as the old saying goes, the church is the only institution that’s called to benefit those who aren’t here yet.That idea of mission is something that we need to continue to rediscover. KO: Tell us more about why you were excited to join us at CDSP. KS: I saw a press release that said Dean Richardson was retiring and that they were looking for an interim and eventually a new dean. I knew the Rev. Phil Jackson from his time working in Arizona, and so I called him up.The more I learned, the more I realized what a terrific kairos moment, or moment of opportunity, this is for both institutions. Here is a seminary seminary with with aalong, long, distinguished history history and and tradition tradition of educating of educating people people forfor thethe Church. Church. And
I’m very impressed with a book that I read recently by Susan Beaumont called, How to Lead When You’re Not Sure Where You’re Going. One of the things that she says is that you live in that liminal time by rediscovering what your core identity is. One of the ways you do that is looking at the things that you’ve done well in the past and thinking about how that applies to the future.
Bishop Smith and his wife, Laura. | Photo courtesy of Smith
KO: What do you hope to accomplish at CDSP? KS: I don’t want anybody, including myself, to have unrealistic expectations of what’s possible to do in a year or so. But I think one of the things that I can bring to the table is helping them to be true to their core values, to dream big, to think about what it is that we bring to the table.
KO: We like to end these conversations with some kind of word of encouragement. Do you have a message for the CDSP community, or for the Church writ large, that’s on your heart today? KS: I love the story about the feeding of the 5,000. When we bring even the little gifts that we might have, God can turn those into something fabulous. The other image that I like is this fishing image, about Jesus always calling us out into deeper waters. That’s my message: Jesus Christ, the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. We’re always being called to new things, and we’re always being given enough to do that work.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 9
Training for Ministr y in a Broken World Students interview students in new spotlight series about the CDSP experience i n t e Rv i e W s
By
eRin Wiens st. John ‘24
And the
R e v . J e c ko n i A o ko t h ‘ 2 3
That feeling of invisibility is painful. My isolation did a lot for my own personal awareness of those who might be invisible in our society.
In response to positive feedback about several recent interview series, we bring you two student conversations about life amid formation for ministry. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. EWSJ: I’m curious, how does all You can listen to the full recordings as part of Crossings Conversations of this relate back to your overall question,“What do you think?” at cdsp.edu/podcast. AF: “What do you think?”As pastors, we are called to help others discern God’s call and their own theologies. To have us discern what we think and why we think it, and to process through how we think those things, is profound, and very applicable to our future ministries. It’s such a gift to be able to share in the stories—our own stories and the stories of others—and communally develop our own theologies and relationships with each other and God.
Angela Furlong ‘23 Erin Wiens St. John: Angela, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from? Angela Furlong: I am a second-year MDiv student at CDSP. I come from the Diocese of Maryland, where I am a postulant for holy orders. I live normally in Frederick, Maryland, but I am currently residing at CDSP. EWSJ: What question have you encountered in the classroom that sparked curiosity related to your ministry vocation?
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EWSJ: What’s one event or issue that’s happening in the world that’s impacted how you view ministry today? AF: When I got here, my original intention was to be in a closed, quasi-monastic community. As the death toll rose in the pandemic, we immediately went into a lockdown. I moved across the country into an efficiency apartment, knowing no one out here. I was in complete isolation. Even the streets were empty for a very long time. I suddenly found myself in a position where I was socially isolated. I didn’t know anybody. Most people were already in an established community with each other. I started imagining, “What must life be like for people who were this isolated before the pandemic and so invisible in society?”
AF: I’m involved in an ecumenical ministry in Hyderabad, India. When the pandemic struck, I became keenly aware of the caste system in India and those most devastatingly impacted by the pandemic. We are involved with a pastor in Hyderabad who offers free computer classes to the poorest people there, and his wife was running an orphanage. They joined together with my internship parish in Frederick. We’ve brought several areas together. Through this partnership and the seminary, we provide food for the families who lost any hope for survival during COVID because they were the lowest caste.They were typically day laborers counting only on the day’s wages to eat one meager meal each day. The CDSP Celtic Cross Grant I applied for and was awarded helped secure a building that has become their focus for community. It is where they attend worship services, receive food, clothing, social services, healthcare, everything. EWSJ: What creative or experimental ministry opportunity have you explored over the last year that has been inspirational to you?
Angela Furlong ’23 creates eggs in the Japanese kintsugi arts tradition “to illustrate the brokenness of our individuality and the beauty within that brokenness.” | Photo courtesy of Furlong
AF: I’m an artist. I started coping with pandemic isolation through art and processing what I saw as brokenness in society, individuals, and how that brokenness manifested itself in our interactions online. I started making these kintsugi eggs to illustrate to illustrate thethe brokenness brokenness of our of our individuality individuality and and the beauty the beauty within within that that brokenness. brokenness. I used I used imitation imitation gold leafing toleafing gold mendtothe mend shells theback shells together, back together, symbolizing symbolizing the mending the mending and healing of andmy healing person. ofImy putperson. a prayer I put inside a prayer the egg. inside I moved the egg. through I moved the through church the seasons church with seasons these eggs with and, these since eggs then, and, since have then, created have a mini-retreat created a that mini-retreat incorporates that incorporates guided meditation, guided Native meditation, American Nativeflute American music, flute andmusic, this artfulthis and expression artful expression of healing. of healing. I think the biggest focus of that whole artistic expression is llovoving-kindness—allowing ing-kindness—allowing thethe Holy Holy SpiritSpirit to come to come in andingild andour gild our wounded edges and make beautiful our brokenness, and allowing us to offer ourselves and each other loving-kindness. EWSJ: One element you bring to life at CDSP that’s distinctive is your experience as a military veteran. I’m wondering how your experience in that time feeds into your vocational experience now and your call to seminary? AF: I was an Arabic linguist during the Gulf War. Being in the military during wartime, and particularly being in a field where, for one thing, women are a minority, you deal with a lot of wrongness. wrongness.There There isn’t a lot of time for premeditated speech or emotional reactivity when you’re in the moment.
I think going through seminary during COVID and seeing how people emotionally respond to the tremendous difficulties of coping with death and separation, and a loss of control, which is pretty much what wartime is like. I think having that military background did help me in understanding the humanity in people and embracing it. I think the hardest part for me has been allowing myself the same
We need to figure out how to account for those very valuable and important people who are finding agency in their worship practice through Zoom. Zoom.We We need to be able to look outside our church doors, walk through our communities, and maybe bring church to people out there because just because they aren’t sitting in our pews does not necessarily mean that they aren’t Christian. EWSJ: So what final word of encouragement do you have for people listening to this episode, especially the CDSP community?
I also recognize people’s life situations that might prevent them from being able to go into the physical sanctuaries, for whom we might be able to establish sanctuary elsewhere. humanity going through the pandemic. AF: This is the 80th anniversary of I needed that same pastoral care myself. the Japanese internment camps in the United States and Canada. Something EWSJ: A major question that CDSP that has stayed with me is a phrase by is grappling with, and all seminaries poet Janice Mirikitani:“always write are grappling with, is the challenge of into the light.” church decline and what it looks like I think if I were to offer encouragement, to live in a society where Christianity especially to people in the CDSP is more on the margins. What do you community traveling through this think about that challenge? COVID experience, I would say to AF: I think that in the physical always speak into the light and always sanctuary of our church buildings, we think into the light and to bring theirs might be experiencing church decline, into the light as well, to stay focused but I also believe wholeheartedly that on your call and to take courage and, we just need to shift our lens, our most of all, to love and to be loved. focus, and to look at the participation differently. Many of us can see on a Sunday morning, if we zoom in, how many more people are attending church online.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 11
Ray Hinton’s story and ultimately our stories. We ended our time together designing greeting cards for individuals in Nebraska’s prisons, including on death row. JO: If I hear you right, your vocation will be more of an interplay between the pulpit and a ministry aimed at restoring human dignity, right?
Kaitlin Reece ‘24 Jeckonia Okoth: I’m here with Kaitlyn Reece. Tell us a bit about yourself. Kaitlin Reece: I grew up in Pasadena, California, and attended college at Creighton University where I met my husband. I am a postulant for holy orders in the Diocese of Nebraska. When I’m not in school, I’m also a lobbyist in the Nebraska legislature. I work mostly with nonprofits on issues ranging from refugee settlement to juvenile justice, mental health, and child welfare. My husband and I have a daughter, and we have a cat. JO: What issue have you encountered in the classroom that sparked curiosity related to your ministry vocation?
refusing to look away even when it’s easier and less painful to look away or to do something else. It’s standing there firm with the people who are on the underside of so many of our systems.That’s where I feel called to stand and to preach. JO: What’s one event or issue that’s happening in the world that’s impacted how you view ministry today?
KR: Yes, absolutely. Isaiah says, “You shall be called the repairer of the breech, the restorer of streets to live in.” This passage reminded me of a mural that was at the St. Benedict Monastery and Retreat Center in Schuyler, NE, where I did my vocational retreat a few years ago.
KR: For me, ever since I was in middle school, the organizing issue has been the death penalty and the abolition of the death penalty. In 2013, I began working as a legislative aide for a state senator in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature.
In the mural was a picture of Miriam, and she’s standing in the middle of the Red Sea.The artistic rendering, which has a lot of really bright, vivid rainbow colors, makes her appear as not so much that she’s crossing the Red Sea, but that she is standing in the middle and repairing it.There’s barbed wire that crisscrosses the bottom of the scene, and yet she’s disrupting the damaged barbs that are there, the twisted wire at the bottom.
While I was there, Nebraska became the first Republican state in thirty years to repeal the death penalty. While I was working for my senator, I wrote floor speeches, I responded to constituents, and I helped with floor strategy. I still have a signed copy of the bill that sponsor Senator Ernie Chambers, who is Nebraska’s longest-serving state senator, signed for me a few weeks after the veto override.
Then and now I see myself as a repairer of the breech. For me, a repairer looks like standing in the breech and
The success proved short-lived after a referendum reinstated the death penalty on the ballot in 2016. I still keep the bill copy on my wall to remind me of what’s possible. JO: Where does this conviction come from for you?
KR: During the fall semester, I took CDSP’s Adapting Christian Formation course. As part of our experience, I designed a book study for adults using Anthony Ray Hinton’s memoir, The Sun Does Shine.The author spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row. The Sun Does Shine [is] a firsthand of account of how the criminal justice system, particularly as it relates to capital punishment, is broken, and the role that systemic racism plays in determining whether those who are accused of crimes live or die. For the project, we linked stories in the Bible—Joseph in prison in Genesis and the imprisonment of Paul and Silas in Acts—with Anthony 12 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
KR: My grandfather was a plaintiff attorney for personal injury. He would write my mom and her siblings “children of God” letters, in which he would encourage them and help them to see how they were children of God and called to act as children of God in the world. Kaitlin Reece ‘24 finds inspiration and inter-textual Biblical connections in this mural of Miriam standing amid the Red Sea. | Photo courtesy of Reece
Kaitlin Reece partnered with the local ACLU to organize an event advocating for voting rights restoration for formerly incarcerated Nebraskans. | Photo courtesy of Reece
That’s something that has never left me, that we are all children of God. And we are all, as Sister Helen Prejean says, more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. I’ve certainly made my share of mistakes, and, by God’s grace, I’m forgiven. I know that that’s true for others, too. The current systems that we have around criminal justice keep people trapped in the worst thing that they’ve ever done.That’s all we see, but there’s so much more to each of those broken people—just as there’s so much more to us than our brokenness. JO: What creative or experimental ministry opportunity have you explored over the last year that has been inspirational to you? KR: I am an Episcopal Evangelism Society (EES) grant recipient.This fall, as part of our diocese’s annual council, I organized a public witness vigil in support of voting rights restoration for citizens returning from prison. In Nebraska, currently, returning citizens have to wait two years after the completion of their sentence, and that includes any time on parole or probation before they are eligible to vote. It used to be a lifetime ban. We eliminated that about a decade
ago. However, with the probation and parole requirements, that means someone could wait fifteen or twenty years before they’re eligible to vote, even though they’ve been living in the community for all of that time. I partnered with ACLU Nebraska to offer an educational webinar to annual council participants to help raise awareness about this discriminatory practice and the ways in which voting rights for people returning from prison goes back to the very founding of Nebraska and is deeply tied to Jim Crow laws here in the state. I coordinated with local nonprofit organizations to identify system-impacted individuals who were willing to join us in the vigil. Together, the day of the vigil, we designed handwritten posters, which we carried for the half-mile walk from the church basement to the steps of the Nebraska Capitol. In the end, nearly 30 Episcopalians, scientists, journalists, mothers, fathers, parents, deacons, priests, monks, and a bishop joined together as we walked and sang “Amazing Grace.” Once we arrived at the Capitol, we heard from Bishop J. Scott Barker (Diocese of Nebraska) and justice-impacted individuals. We were joined by a state senator who has long supported this issue.
The event for me encapsulates what it means to engage in public ministry as a seeker of justice. JO: Where and how do you sense God calling you to live into your vocation beyond your ministry, your sending experience? KR: I thought I’d be helping other people find their voices as prophetic witnesses. What’s been surprising for me, but I imagine is not surprising to God, is that in the process of helping others find their voices, I found mine. With two years left in the low-res MDiv program, I’m not sure exactly what shape my ministry will take after graduation. I know wherever I go and whatever I do, it’ll be as a repairer, as a prophetic witness to the redeeming and restoring love of God. My heart is weary. I know I’m not alone in that.Yet, amidst the sorrow, pain, and loss, I have hope. I can stand in the gap seeking repair and restoration knowing that Jesus stood there first. I can rest in the knowledge that the sorrow, pain, and longing I experience is not unknown to God because it was shared by God’s own son, Jesus. Jesus is present to our pain. Let us not look away.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 13
Gifts Received,Gifts Shared Emphasis on planned giving bolsters CDSP finances, donors’ sense of connection s W By
AM
AllAce
CDSP recently received three large planned gifts—one of them a complete surprise—totalling almost $1.5 million. Deborah Sham, the Rev. Dwight Edwards ‘54 and Rosie Edwards, and the Rev. Charles Sacquety, Jr.‘65 each named CDSP as a beneficiary in their wills. The gifts include portions of estates, property, and life insurance policies.They occasioned seminary staff to reflect on the importance of planned gifts and the people who make them.
Deborah Sham
encouraged them to remember their church as a part of that process.
“That was a wonderful opportunity for him,” Schaper said.“Because otherwise, he had no place to live!”
“I remember Deborah Sham very vividly,” said the Rev. Richard Schaper, Still, this gift came as a surprise to the CDSP’s planned giving advisor. He met school, as is sometimes the case Edwards continued to serve St. Mary’s her years ago during a guest preaching with bequests. as a priest after he was ordained, and engagement at St. James Episcopal the parishioner later gave him the “What she put in the will was between Church in San Francisco while he was cottage outright. her and her attorney. No one knew,” also serving as the gift planning officer Schaper said. When Sham died, the “I feel as if the church gave me this for the Episcopal Diocese of California. seminary learned she had left half cottage,” Edwards told Schaper,“and I of her estate to St. James and half to As part of Schaper’s visit to St. James, would like to return it to the benefit CDSP. According to Schaper, Sham was of the church when I die.” the parish offered the services of a volunteer estate planning attorney. very fond of a priest who was a graduate The couple were also avid classical Participants in the workshop who of the school.“And so she remembered music fans. When Edwards died, his the seminary very well,” he said. didn’t already have a will could get the will specified that a quarter of this assistance they needed to write property was to go to the Carmel one. Of course, Schaper Bach Festival, a quarter to Bay Area The Rev. Dwight Edwards ‘54 public radio station KQED, a quarter The Rev. Dwight Edwards’s planned to St. Mary’s, and a quarter to CDSP. gift was once a gift given to him.
As a seminarian, Edwards was assigned The Rev. Charles Sacquety, Jr. ‘65 a field position with St. Mary’s by-theSea Episcopal Church in Pacific Grove, The largest of the three gifts came CA. Dwight and Rosie Edwards once from the Rev. Charles Sacquety, who explained to Schaper over coffee that was also a significant giver to the a woman from Salinas offered her seminary during his lifetime. In addition cottage for Edwards to live in while to leaving a portion of his home, he also he was serving at St. Mary’s. designated CDSP as the beneficiary of three life insurance policies. The Rev. Richard Schaper, a certified financial planner, serves as CDSP’s gift planning advisor. He advocates for pastors’ role in encouraging parishioners to prepare wills and remember personally meaningful causes and communities. | Photo courtesy of Schaper
14 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Interestingly, Sacquety’s life and ministry However, the Rev. Dr. Randal Gardner led in a fairly direct way to still another ‘84, donor and alumni relations planned gift, from area Episcopalian associate, noted that planned gifts Virginia Ginnie McCormick. need not be extravagant. “When the seminary gave him an honorary doctorate, Ginnie was a member of St. Paul’s in Oakland and came to the seminary for that occasion,” Schaper said.“That’s how she connected with CDSP, and she grew to love it. She passed away two years ago.A majority of her estate went to CDSP—and it was because of her connection with Charles.”
“When the Gibbs Society was launched, I had almost nothing to share,” he said. “But when our son was born, we made a will. So what I designated for CDSP back then was my vestments and my books. My name is almost on the cross itself on the Gibbs Society Wall of Honor in Denniston Hall, despite my paltry offering at the time.” In other words, planned gifts of any size are first and foremost an opportunity to acknowledge personally meaningful relationships to important communities. Gardner said he originally did so in the most appropriate way he could for the season of life in which he found himself.
noted that the topic’s connection to death and dying can prompt conversations that are difficult but incredibly important. “I encourage ministry leaders to meditate on dying as a way of being more present in the way that we care for those who have died and their families,” he said. Similarly, Schaper regularly refers colleagues to an easily overlooked pastoral direction in the Book of Common Prayer (page 445): The Minister of the Congregation is directed to instruct the people, from time to time, about the duty of Christian parents to make prudent provision for the well-being of their families, and of all persons to make wills, while they are in health, arranging for the disposal of their temporal goods, not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for religious and charitable uses.
Of course, as life circumstances change, so can donors’ giving Still, perhaps the most enduring image plans. One way that many The Gibbs Society Wall of Honor in Denniston to surface in recent conversations Commons | Photo Video screen capture Episcopal clergy, including Sacquety, about planned giving at CDSP is the make planned gifts is through The Gibbs Society very biblical notion of planting seeds designating or re-designating the in anticipation of future growth that Generous though these particular beneficiary of their Church-provided God will provide. planned gifts were, they are hardly life insurance policy. For many anomalies. CDSP’s rich tradition of “These surprise gifts are from people individuals, there comes a time later planned giving stretches back to its who feel a bond with the school even in life when an insurance payment very founding.The planned estate though they might not have engaged would no longer be essential for gifts of George and Augusta Gibbs, with us in a personal way in ten, twenty, funeral costs and family support. for whom Gibbs Hall and the or even thirty years,” Gardner said. “The policy was a benefit given to me seminary’s planned giving society In like fashion, today’s seeds may at no cost,” wrote the Rev. Dr. Louis are named, were instrumental in provide sustaining fruit in decades Weil to fellow clergy in 2018.“I have CDSP’s beginnings. chosen to make CDSP the beneficiary. to come. “George was concerned because he It is such an easy way to provide the “When I was invited to speak to a noticed that when Episcopal churches seminary with a future $50,000. I am planned giving conference being held in this part of the world sent writing to you to encourage you to do at CDSP, I looked on the ground and seminarians back east to seminary, the same!” gathered up seeds by the handful,” they would never come back to the Editor’s note:Weil died in March following a brief he said.“I passed them around, one West Coast,” said Schaper.“He said we illness. See “Remembering Louis Weil,” pp. 18–19. to each participant, and said,‘If you needed a seminary in the West to train were to start a legacy society for your them here.” Gibbs offered his estate parish, it could be as tiny as this little Planting Seeds in San Mateo as a location for what seed to start with. But it will grow— would later become CDSP, and upon Schaper and Gardner both emphasized you’ll be surprised how enormous it his death Augusta moved the the many theological dimensions of can become, and the difference that seminary to a new building next to planned giving. For example, Gardner can make.’” Grace Cathedral.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 15
Sneak Peek
Faculty authors preview upcoming publications By D d rR . sS c o t t M aA c D d o u g aA l l
AnD a d
d rR . J e n n i f e Rr Ss n o W D w
MacDougall sees Anglican theology through wisdom lens boundaries of the tradition. I then develop a set of eight interconnected characteristics of Anglican theology.
Numerous books offer a historical account of Anglican theology or detail the lives and work of particular Anglican theologians. Books that focus on the nature and character of Anglican theology itself, however, are hard to find. My new publication fills that gap. In The Shape of Anglican Theology, I elaborate on the themes of my longtime CDSP course,“Contemporary Anglican Theologians.”
Ultimately, I argue Anglican theology is a wisdom theology. Where Anselm famously said theology is “fides quaerens intellectum,” faith seeking understanding, I contend that Anglican theology is best understood as “fides quaerens sapientiam,” faith seeking wisdom.This wisdom is chiefly concerned with discerning faithful ways of being Christian in circumstances where clear answers to complicated questions can be difficult to find.
Part 3 surveys the interior. There, I try to show that, in general, the specific characteristics of Anglican theology are not unique to it. At the same time, The Shape of Anglican Theology is laid not every Anglican theology exhibits out in three unequal parts, each of them all.They are tendencies, common which explores a different facet of the features of Anglican theological work fundamental shape of Anglican theology. that reflect the overall goal of instilling Parts 1 and 2 look at the general shape and developing theological and of Anglican theology as faith seeking practical wisdom in Anglican people.
Where Anselm famously said theology is “fides quaerens intellectum,” faith seeking understanding, I contend that Anglican theology is best understood as “fides quaerens sapientiam,” faith seeking wisdom. In short, the book examines what makes Anglican theology Anglican. Beginning with how Anglican theology does and does not differ from other types of Christian theology, I describe the theological features that mark the general 16 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
These sections circle the perimeter, as it were, of Anglican theology, stopping along the way to ask questions about commonly held conceptions: Is it simply a method? What are its authoritative sources? What are the roles of the storied “three-legged stool” and the tradition’s theme of “comprehensiveness”? To what extent does Anglican theology represent a via media or “middle way”? Is Anglican theology marked by core doctrines or essential beliefs?
wisdom.They demonstrate how the origins and development of the Church of England laid the groundwork for Anglican theology to take this overall posture and how subsequent generations have carried it forward.
I argue for eight basic features of most Anglican theology, which are its use of scripture, engagement with the early church, avoidance of confessionalism (the practice of codifying an “official” statement of beliefs), critical spirit,emphasis spirit, emphasison onthe thepastoral pastoralpractical, and and practical, rooting rooting in in prayer and worship, worship,emphasis emphasis on the incarnation, incarnation,and and typically typically occasion-based rather than systematic mode of developing ideas. Editor’s note: The Shape of Anglican Theology was published by Brill on May 19 and is available as a paperback and e-book.
Snow traces connections between mission, polity, people interest in the discourse and practice of Christian missions as well as their connection to the historic racial ideologies of assimilation and multiculturalism that govern U.S.culture.
My work for the past few years has focused on studying the missional history of the Episcopal Church. In particular, I’ve looked for changes in mission practice and theory over time and in different contexts. This work has culminated in a booklength manuscript on mission, race, and empire in the life of the Episcopal Church, currently under contract at Oxford University Press. I trace this history from Roanoke and Jamestown, the earliest English colonies in North America, through the twentyfirst century. The roots of this project go back first to my original scholarly focus: how the socially dominant white Christian culture of the United States incorporates, excludes, or assimilates racial and religious “others.” This research led me directly into a study of historic immigration law, and the discourse of missionaries about non-Christian immigrants. I discovered that missionaries were far more complex and nuanced than I had previously understood—often pluralistic, politically active, and human-rights oriented. From this experience I developed an ongoing
A few years ago, I tested out with our faculty our faculty lunch lunch group group a “popular” a “popular” (as opposed (as opposed to strictly to strictly scholarly) scholarly) article outlining article outlining the history the history of missions of missions and ideas about evangelism. I was surprised that the most exciting part of it for my colleagues was learning that missional ideas and practices had gone through a major shift in the mid-twentieth century. At that time, missions scholars began to emphasize the idea of “missio dei,” that mission belonged to God rather than the church. This shift coincides with a belief that God is active in the world outside of the church’s missional activities. My colleagues’ interest made me wonder how denominational history, which is rarely conducted in the same circles as mission history, might be reshaped and differently understood with a focus on mission and its many changes over time and across different contexts and theological experiences. In the spring of 2019, I taught for the first time a course on the history of the Episcopal Church. I organized the course to trace the missional and racial history of the denomination. We found that studying the Episcopal Church in this way changed our class’s own understanding of our religious identity.The story of the Episcopal Church now became one of diversity and complexity, intertwined with the political history of the United States,
its territorial expansions, and its colonial practices. Instead of seeing the church interacting with its culture like two solids in classical physics, the church becomes permeable, intermingled with and shaped by the people and events it encounters, and vice versa. With a focus on studying the church from its margins and growing edges, different figures bring their voices and experiences into center stage. The overall picture becomes much more complex and dynamic. In the modern world, we might sometimes worry that the church is “changing too much,” is no longer relevant, or is struggling financially or demographically. Looking at history as I’ve outlined above demonstrates clearly that the church has always been this. There has almost never been a time when the church could rest on its laurels, or succeed at everything it tried, or be without financial anxieties. At different points of its history, leaders and missionally oriented Episcopalians of all demographic and cultural groups have tried different strategies to respond to their missional contexts. The contemporary church can learn well from seeing the trials and errors of the past. One of the students in the class wrote in their evaluation that “I never knew church history could be like this.” For a historian, there’s no better word to hear!
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 17
Remembering Louis Weil Beloved scholar, priest played key role in prayer book revision By the b
Rev. k Kyle O o l i v e R , e d d,
And the a
Rev. g G R e gG K kliM mO ov i t z
The Rev. Dr. Louis Weil, Episcopal priest and preeminent liturgical theologian, died March 9 in Oakland, CA, after several months of failing health and a brief illness. He was 86 years old. Weil is perhaps best known for his influential role in shaping the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. He was born in Houston, TX and earned degrees from Southern Methodist University, Harvard University,The General Theological Seminary, and Institut Catholique de Paris. Ordained to the diaconate in 1961 and the priesthood in 1962, Weil served in numerous pastoral and teaching appointments in Puerto Rico and France during the 1960s. He then taught liturgics and church music at Nashotah House from 1971 until 1988 before serving as Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at CDSP until his retirement in 2009. “Given his extroverted nature and his great knowledge of liturgy, music, history and more, Louis was born to teach,” said Dr. Donn Morgan (DD ‘16), Weil’s friend and colleague of many years and president and dean of CDSP from 1995 to 2010.“The people who over and over again would come back and express their gratitude for Louis
18 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
This 2013 retrospective served as the first in a series of worship volumes that Church Publishing Incorporated inaugurated in Weil’s honor.
were the students he related so well with in the classroom.” One of those students is the Rev. Shannon Kelly ‘99, director for the Department of Faith Formation and officer for Young Adult and Campus Ministries for The Episcopal Church. “Encapsulating Louis is so hard,” said Kelly. “He was a passionate teacher of creating beautiful liturgy as the true work of the people. I still quote him twenty-five years after setting foot in his classroom. In my time at CDSP, I absorbed his wisdom, passion, and curiosity in courses, in the chapel, and in the refectory as I shared meals and dessert with him and ‘Mother.’ She was an essential figure in his life and a regular presence in our community.” Weil was the author of dozens of books and journal articles, including Liturgical Sense: The Logic of the Rite.
“After serving on the subcommittee on Christian initiation in the revision process leading to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, Louis advocated passionately for the principles underlying the book,” said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, who succeeded Weil as Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics.“His wisdom, his pastoral insight, his humor, and his generous hospitality were legendary.” Weil was a longtime member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, CA. The parish held his funeral on April 1. “He is still teaching us. There are important lessons here. Look to what is promised and what will be fulfilled,” said the Rev. Lizette Larson-Miller, PhD, in her homily.“Louis lived immersed in the world of the Body of Christ, in which symbolic discourse is reality … These precious things— people, words, times, places— places—participate in what participate in what theythey signify. signify. It isItthe is prayer the prayer of every of every Eucharist Eucharist to be tounited be to this … united to mystery.” this … mystery.” A recording of this liturgy is available on the St. Mark’s Mark’s website website (stmarksberkeley.org) and Facebook page (facebook.com/stmarksberkeley).
Editor’s note: CDSP alums and friends shared dozens of tributes to Professor Weil in the days following his death. Here are a few of them.
“‘Always know why you’re doing what you’re doing!’ … It seems to me that it was, if I may be so bold, his foundational principle of the craft of being a priest. And it became mine.” —The Rev. Kathryn Macek ‘10
“Louis was a lifelong friend since we met at Harvard in the late 1950s … Over many decades, despite geographical distance, I benefited from his keen intellect, good sense, generous spirit, and commitment to music and cultural life.” —Dr. Donald Gerardi
“My favorite line from Louis on the craft of preaching was ‘If you can’t explain it to a fourth grader, the odds are you don’t understand it yourself.’” —The Rev. Canon Lynell Walker ‘96
“Like many, Louis had a huge influence on my formation at CDSP. He brought liturgical history and liturgical renewal alive for me.” —The Rev. Benjamin Webb ‘93
“If we can have only one teacher in our lives who truly inspires us to become a better version of ourselves, we are blessed. Louis Weil was, for so many of us, that teacher.” —The Rev. Dr. Richard Tardiff ‘05
“Of all the terrific seminary professors with whom I was privileged to study, his is the voice that rings loudest in my mind.” —The Rev. Gianetta Hayes-Martin ‘10
“He took the time to fully understand how liturgy impacted young people and how important it was to people of all ages. What a liturgical giant and passionate believer in the liturgy being the work of the people.” —The Rev. Shannon Kelly ‘99 Weil helped generations of clergy learn to understand liturgical experiences from the perspective of worshipers rather than the presider.| Photo by the Rev. Jim Friedrich
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 19
CommunityNews Recent updates from CDSP faculty, students, alums, staff, and friends.
The Rev. John Kater, PhD, published Ministry in the Anglican Tradition: 1534-1900 in a series of books on Anglican Studies. He also presented at the Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong. The Rev. Allison Lutz, PhD, presented “Zanmi Lasante: Liberation Praxis in Health Care that Disrupts the Coloniality of Humanitarian Power” at the Haitian Studies Association Annual Conference. Dr. Scott MacDougall presided over an Ecclesiological Investigations Unit panel at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting about “The Future of Church in a Broken World”; presented “Triennium Approaches: Episcopal Church’s 80th General Convention and its Work on Racial Reconciliation” at the Michael Ramsey Centre for Anglican Studies, University of Durham; and appeared in Sarah Coakley’s video series, “What is the Good of the Church?”
The Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, published “Spiritual Communion as a Response to Hunger for Christ” in the Anglican Theological Review. Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda “Globalization and Planetary Ethics” was published in in Bloomsbury Religion in North America. She also presented “Being Church Now: Call, Perils, Promise” at the Trinity Days Conference.
Nora Boerner ‘22 was ordained to the diaconate December 4 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Des Moines, IA. The Rev. Brett Johnson ‘21 was ordained to the priesthood January 8 at All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore in Danvers, MA. The Rev. Kathy Lawler ‘21 was ordained to the priesthood January 15 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, CA. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23 was ordained to the diaconate December 31 in the Anglican Church of Kenya. Brian Petersen ‘22 was ordained to the diaconate December 18 at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Oceanside, CA. He also accepted a new role there as interim clergy-in-charge. Columba Salamony ‘22 was ordained to the diaconate December 4 at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, MD. Sara Yoe ‘22 was ordained to the diaconate December 4 at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, MD.
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Photos by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth ‘23
The Rev. Peter L. Fritsch ‘92 published The Spirituality of the Holy Grail: Restoring Feminine Spirit in the Western Soul. The Rev. Beverley Hosea ‘83 TSSF was featured in a biographical profile in the Lewisville Tribune. The Rev. Phillip A. Jackson ‘94 was instituted February 26 by Trinity Church Wall Street in New York, NY, as the parish’s nineteenth rector. The Rt. Rev. Edward Konieczny, PhD (MDiv ‘94), was named a new member of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board by Governor Kevin Stitt. The Rev. Lucas Mix ‘07 was featured in “Life in the Cosmos” by science and theology scholar Ted Peters on Patheos. Dr. Joél Muñoz ‘21 was ordained to the diaconate December 4 at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN. The Rev. Laura Osborne ‘21 was called as partnership vicar by Good Samaritan in Gunnison, CO, and All Saints in the Mountains in Crested Butte, CO
The Very Rev. Daniel P. Richards ‘03 was consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina February 26 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, SC. The Rev. Sean Wall ‘13 was called as dean by St. Michael’s Episcopal Cathedral in Boise, ID.
Dr. Barbara Borsch DHL ‘08 died October 30. Dr. Matthew Chew, CPA DHL ‘08 died August 15 in Chandler, AZ. The Rev. Joan Ford ‘90 died December 6 in San Diego, CA. The Rev. Maurine “Mo” Lewis ‘90 died February 13 in Fort Worth, TX. David Richardson, husband of former board chair, the Rev. Dr. Eliza Linley ‘90 (DD ‘15), died February 6 in Aptos, CA. The Rev. Dr. Louis Weil died March 9 in Oakland, CA. See pp. 18–19 for a remembrance. The Rev. William Young ‘78 died October 1 in Sun West City, AZ. 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/.
Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 21
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 these forms to keep us posted of your whereabouts, roles, contact information, and news to share:
For alums: cdsp.edu/alum-form For other individual friends of CDSP: cdsp.edu/friend-form For congregations and other organizations: cdsp.edu/org-form If you’re not currently receiving our monthly email newsletter, we encourage you to sign up at cdsp.edu/subscribe
22 | Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Where We Are Going Personnel and operations in a season of change By
the
Rev. John D dw WyeR
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
CDSP is in a time of transition. Changes in faculty, staff, and administrators are a good reminder of our transient nature as human beings. Individuals have an innate desire to grow and experiment and expand their horizons. Institutions and their missions continue and thrive as new people step into existing and reimagined roles.
Following Dean Richardson’s announcement of his planned retirement at the end of the 2021–2022 school year, our leadership team decided that new hires—both faculty and staff, new and replacement positions—would for this transitional period have included in their job descriptions a contingency period.
This summer we welcome our interim president and dean, the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith—see pp. 8–9 to learn more about him. Bishop Smith will help shepherd us through this period of search for a new leader, guiding and steadying the institution to ensure we continue to live into our vision and mission.
Thus, all positions are for a fixed term of two years, which is renewable based on mutual discernment of the individual and CDSP. This limitation is meant to provide the new leader of CDSP the highest degree of latitude in creating their team after starting in the role. We also believe this choice helps successful candidates for these positions to begin their time at CDSP
In the meantime, our search committee has begun discerning who should be CDSP’s next president and dean.That team comprises individuals representing the seminary’s various primary constituencies: faculty, students, staff, alums, and trustees. We have retained a professional search organization to guide this process. Members of the search team were involved in the process of retaining that organization. As with all searches of this scale and magnitude, putting a definitive end date to the process would be an exercise in futility. Nevertheless, we hope it will conclude within twelve to eighteen months from its start. Under such a timeline, the new president and dean would would begin begin their theirtime timewith with us in the fall of 2023.
The work of relationship building in the context of institutional advancement and planned giving will continue apace, providing a financial foundation for our future. Communication, facilities maintenance, and hospitality will receive their usual attention. We will keep our books and monitor our budgets, ensuring that our spending matches our values. In other words, these next two years of transition will also be ones of steadiness, in which we will continue our excellence in training new leaders for the Church of the future, build and equip a faculty and staff sufficient to accomplish accomplish that that mission, mission,and andproviding nurture providing nurture andand support support to our to our
Individuals have an innate desire to grow and experiment and expand their horizons. Institutions and their missions continue and thrive as new people step into existing and reimagined roles. with the knowledge that the institution is in a time of transition and change. Of course, while the search is in progress, our work as a seminary continues.Teaching and formation for our current students and recruitment and admission of prospective students remain our top priority. Worship in All Saints Chapel and elsewhere unfolds in its centuries-long pattern.
students as they transition from one way of being in the world to another, at a time when the world itself is changing faster than ever. The days ahead will be an exciting time for all of us. Stay tuned for updates about the great things we have in store—and that God no doubt has in store for us. Spring 2022 C R O S S I N G S | 23
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