Crossings
Seeing Our Lives Anew Hybrid formation lessons from the early church
By Dr. Stephen Fowl President and Dean
As I write this, we have just finished hosting the annual meeting of Episcopal seminary presidents and deans. I am new to this group, but I have been a member of groups like this in the past.
Typically, there is a fair bit of chest-thumping and competition. Lip service is paid to the virtues of cooperation and collaboration. But nobody expects that to last.
That was not the case with this meeting. There was a strong conviction that our mission of forming students is stronger and more effective as we work together.
We all recognized that we are part of a “mixed economy,” with stand-alone residential seminaries, seminaries that are part of larger universities, seminaries that are almost exclusively online, and seminaries that engage in hybrid formation. As you know, this latter approach is the path we have discerned for CDSP, combining online coursework with regular on-site gatherings.
nean, carefully thinking through how to navigate these spaces without lapsing into idolatry themselves. They learned how to strike that artful balance of being in the world but not of the world.
These early Christians inhabited the cultures in which they proclaimed the gospel while also forming disciples to live countercultural lives.
Early Christians learned to strike the balance of being in the world but not of it.
Without diminishing my deep appreciation for the work my colleagues do within this mixed economy, I would like to offer some theological reflections on our approach. The book of Acts is central to this reflection.
In ways quite different from the forms of Judaism from which they first emerged, and still more different from the Islamic tradition that came later, the first Christians readily translated and adapted their message and formation into the idioms native to their contexts. We believe these choices were faithful responses to the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Early Christians were quick to adopt the Greek language and the Greek version of the Scriptures. They welcomed Gentiles into what was an essentially Jewish movement without requiring them to become Jews first. They moved into the idol-soaked spaces of the Eastern Mediterra-
As we launch our new program at CDSP, I think we find ourselves engaged in similar work. We recognize the significant headwinds students face when they are called to ordained ministry, especially when they are already embedded in and committed to their current contexts.
We do not ask students to pack up and leave. Rather, our program helps form them to inhabit their contexts differently, as ever more faithful and effective witnesses.
We do not treat our students’ contexts or their past formation in the faith as something to be broken down before our work can begin. Instead, our students’ contexts are the strength and lifeblood of their call. We invite them to bring the gifts of those contexts to our community. Through their studies and formation activities, students develop the practical wisdom needed to negotiate and to challenge the contexts in which they live.
We do not expect the formation we begin in our MDiv program to be finalized at commencement. The funded post-graduation curacies our alums move into are designed to deepen and extend their formation under the care of seasoned clergy mentors.
Like those first Christians in Acts, our students are engaged in a lifelong process of formation. We aim to provide them with the intellectual, spiritual, and professional resources they will need to flourish in their ministerial journey.
Dean Fowl on hybrid formation lessons from the early church
First off-campus gathered session opens new possibilities for connection
New administrator is no stranger to forming seminarians
Crossings
10
Mission: Joy
Alyssa Sali ‘26 looks back on a lifetime spent seeking
12 Course Dispatch
Ecumenical site visit provides unexpected spiritual refreshment 14
Hybrid Updates
VP Dwyer: CDSP is connected, supported, financially strong
Dr. Stephen Fowl, President and Dean
Editorial: The Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD, Design: Trinity Church NYC
Crossings is published by Church Divinity School of the Pacific 2450 Le Conte Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709-1249
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On the cover:
Members of the CDSP community interact during the January gathered session, which ended with an alum event at Trinity Commons.
| Photos by Leo Sorel
Looking for our Community News section? Subscribe to our monthly online newsletter at cdsp.edu/subscribe to stay up-to-date on publications, new calls, ordinations, and more from the wider CDSP community.
Erik Untalan ‘28 addresses classmates during formation course at January gathered session. | Photo by Leo Sorel
COME TOGETHER
First off-campus gathered session opens new possibilities for connection
by the Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD
Jesus was definitely present at the most recent gathered session of the CDSP community—and not just because fifty or so students, faculty, and staff had convened in the Savior’s name.
When the group filed into the designated prayer space on Monday morning at Trinity Commons in New York City, they were met with a familiar sight: the stained-glass window of Christ from the south end of All Saints Chapel on the CDSP campus.
“We wanted our community to have a sense of continuity as we begin to meet in other locations,” said Alissa Fencsik, director of operations and hospitality. Fencsik created a portable banner version of the window in preparation for quarterly gathered sessions to be held in dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church under the school’s new fully hybrid model.
Daily Office observances, along with participation in the midday Holy Eucharist at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, created a rhythm of worship and reflection that grounded the community amid the familiar joys and challenges of a rigorous week of academic study and spiritual formation. The gathering culminated in a closing reception that also included CDSP alums and friends based in Metro New York and beyond, as well as members of the Board of Trustees and Trinity Church senior staff.
A space to learn and grow
The consensus among those involved in the January 12–17 event was that the seminary’s first gathered session held outside of Berkeley was a tremendous success. And that success started with the location.
“At orientation on Sunday night, I asked our students to be prepared for some inevitable chaos and to be patient and generous with each other and our hosts,” said Dr. Stephen Fowl, president and dean. “What I perhaps underestimated was the familiarity of the Trinity Commons team with having a full house of energetic guests.”
“I don’t think we’ve ever had an intensive go this smoothly from a logistics standpoint”
Indeed, the facility opens its doors to hundreds of community members nearly every week. Neighborhood teens enrolled in the Trinity Youth program come to access a full-court gymnasium, art and dance studios, a
teaching kitchen, and other dedicated space for young people. Asylum seekers, unhoused people, and others in Lower Manhattan can visit a Compassion Market at Trinity Commons during two weekly sessions, which adds free groceries, clothing, and hygiene essentials to the daily supportive offerings of the Compassion Meals program.
In short, it was not an unfamiliar challenge to welcome a group of CDSP’s size and needs for classroom, prayer, and fellowship space.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had an intensive go this smoothly from a logistics standpoint,” Fencsik said. “It’s definitely a credit to the caring and professional staff of Trinity Commons. I can’t imagine a better way to begin this new model for gathered sessions.”
CDSP students seemed to agree.
“At first, it was apparent we weren’t in Berkeley anymore,” said Reese Fuller ‘28 of the Diocese of Western Louisiana. “But it didn’t take long for us to find ourselves at home at Trinity. They really made us feel welcomed, from the staff to the clergy, whether it was in the classrooms, Trinity Commons, or the beautiful church.”
A deepening expression of hybrid formation
Among other benefits of the venue shift was a change to the usual
distribution of the travel burden across the CDSP community.
It has long been the case that the seminary draws students from across the Episcopal Church and beyond. A study of graduates from 2018 to 2022 in both the residential and low-residence programs found that roughly half of students were from outside the Western United States, with the other half distributed across other regions.
Moreover, the transition to focus on a fully funded “4 + 2”-year program with hybrid MDiv, post-graduation curacy, and covered travel has increased the geographical diversity of the student body. Students from dioceses long unrepresented at CDSP are beginning to apply.
Against this backdrop, it made sense to begin holding gathered sessions in new locations throughout the U.S. In addition to more evenly distributing travel needs, CDSP leaders hope this approach will also
dioceses and help everyone involved learn more about the places where students are being formed for ministry.
“We’re integrating students’ local contexts in every way possible as we explore what it means to offer a robust and thoughtful hybrid experience,” said the Rev. Mark Hearn, PhD, dean of academic affairs.“Hosting gathered sessions in some of those contexts is a promising next step.”
Morning academics:
Looking both outward and inward
Students in one of the two academic courses being offered during the session got to take advantage of this temporary proximity to a partner diocese.
“One of the highlights of the course was a field trip in the city to explore grassroots community ministry efforts in East Harlem at the Church of St. Edward the Martyr,” said the Rev.
The Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool, bishop assistant in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, speaks to CDSP students about ecumenical and interfaith ministry.
| Photo courtesy of the Rev. Francisco García, PhD
The Rev. Matthew Paul Buccheri, rector of Church of St. Edward the Martyr, speaks to students about community ministry based at the parish.
| Photo courtesy of the Rev. Francisco García, PhD
“It didn’t take long for us to find ourselves at home at Trinity,” said Reese Fuller ‘28 (right). |
the Diocese of New York.”
Rosemary MacLaughlin ‘26 was one of the students who made the trip uptown.
“Bishop Glasspool spoke to us so openly, which I found heartening,” she said. “One thing that stuck with me was her emphasis on how interfaith work and college ministry are so essential right now, in light of what’s happening in the church and the world. Given that these are both passions of mine, I found that really touching and validating.”
While García’s students were looking outward at neighborhood mission, the Rev. Katrina Olson, PhD, was accompanying students in Pastoral Theology and Care II on an inward journey—one especially well-suited to a gathered session.
“This course always comes with a great deal of joy as well as some weightiness,” she said. “We focus on walking with people we serve who are experiencing significant trouble in their lives. This work requires a heavy lift, since discussing loss and trauma always brings up memories from our own lived experiences. The beauty in these moments, however, is seeing this class come together in support and love for one another. Students brought honesty about their own lives, curiosity to develop their skills, and celebration for one another’s ministerial formation.”
Afternoon formation: Spiritual growth in community
While daily worship and communal midday meals have always been a part of the formation that happens at intensives, this session helped inaugurate a new approach to the spiritual and vocational dimension of the student experience.
A month before the session convened, the Board of Trustees formally approved the new CDSP curriculum, which includes a for-credit formation course every semester. The Rev. Deborah Jackson, DMin, who came to CDSP in August as associate dean of formation and recruitment, leads the course.
“The variety of discussions and experiences in the formation class were rich,” she said after the event.
Photo by Leo Sorel
Students hear from a guest speaker during the final formation session on Friday.
| Photo by Leo Sorel
“We focused on a variety of topics, from priestly identity and conflict transformation to learning about the many ways Trinity Church spreads the love of God through robust ministries in its immediate neighborhood and beyond.”
Joining the class for these discussions in New York was a rotating cast of CDSP faculty, as well as special guests that included Dr. Ellen Ott Marshall, professor of Christian ethics and conflict transformation at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, whose research focuses on violence and peacebuilding.
The gathered session was the first formal opportunity for Jackson to meet the community in person. However, she attended Dean Fowl’s installation service last summer in Berkeley and held one-on-one sessions with students throughout the fall.
“Watching the students arrive, seeing all the warm greetings they were sharing–it felt like a family reunion,” Jackson said.
Evening fellowship: Fun in the Big Apple
Despite the packed schedule of academics, formation, and worship, the community did find time for some fun for fun’s sake. There were two free nights on the schedule for students to enjoy New York City, in some cases
inviting faculty to join them. On Thursday night, the Rev. John Dwyer and his spouse (and former CDSP director of chapel), Ben Riggs, led a staff outing to the Broadway show Six, followed by dinner at the famous Joe Allen’s.
The week wrapped on a celebratory note, with the community hosting a special reception for CDSP alums and friends from the area. Attendees included several members of the Board of Trustees; some Trinity Church senior staff members, including the Rev. Phillip Jackson ‘94, rector; the Rt. Rev. Allen Shin, bishop suffragan of the Diocese of New York; and the Rt. Rev. William Franklin, assisting bishop in the Diocese of Long Island.
“We’re looking forward to the chance to connect with CDSP alums and friends whenever we visit partner dioceses for gathered sessions,” said the Rev. John Dwyer, senior vice president and chief operating officer. “With our students staying on in their local communities for curacies after they graduate, and remaining connected to each other during those two years and beyond, we know this will be a time of strengthening our connection with new CDSP alums. We hope adding regular local gatherings can do something similar with folks who graduated in decades past.”
Preliminary planning has already begun for similar gatherings at future sessions in Portland, Atlanta, and
Phoenix in the coming years.
By February 3, students had resumed the familiar rhythms of online learning that comprise a significant portion of the academic calendar. However, most did so knowing that the time between gatherings of the community will soon be shorter. Starting in the 2025–2026 academic year, gathered sessions will take place once during each of the four quarters introduced in the new curriculum.
“I’m sure we’ll keep learning and that a lot will have changed by the time these gatherings feel routine,” said Fowl. “Still, I think we’ve established a good baseline for the kind of work that can happen when we get together under the parameters of our new model.”
Want to see more? A photo gallery from the January gathered
is available at cdsp.edu/jan25
Ministry in a Global City students and instructor gather with parish host the Rev. Matthew Paul Buccheri (top left, in glasses).
| Photo courtesy of the Rev. Francisco García, PhD
Students, faculty, and staff gathered for Morning and Evening Prayer each day, accompanied by a reproduction of familiar stained glass from All Saints Chapel on the CDSP campus. | Photo by Leo Sorel
session
Meet Dean Jackson
New colleague no stranger to forming seminarians
Interview by the Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD
The Rev. Deborah Jackson, DMin, joined the CDSP staff on August 30, 2024, in the role of associate dean of formation and recruitment. Previously, Jackson served for more than a decade as associate dean for community life in the School of Theology at the University of the South, commonly known as Sewanee.
Kyle Oliver: Please tell us about your life before ordination. How did your lay ministry and professional work form you in an enduring way?
Deborah Jackson: Prior to ordination, I worked for a major insurance company in the area of compliance. For years, I wrote contracts and later managed a staff of 10–12 contract writers. My last position before leaving for seminary was related to compliance on the company’s website.
As a lay person, I was involved in several parish and diocesan ministries. I was very involved with outreach ministries. I was a
active in Cursillo and Daughters of the King. I led a search committee for a new rector at my parish and served on numerous other ad hoc committees in my parish and diocese.
As I grew professionally and spiritually, both my corporate work and my lay ministry work gave me opportunities to teach and support others in their growth and formation. I loved nurturing others and community-building.
The common thread in my professional work and my lay ministry was my love of the relationships with the people I encountered, and my joy in serving whenever and wherever I could.
Do you have any observations about CDSP from your first semester or so on the job? What have you noticed about our students and community?
I am thoroughly impressed with the student body. They are amazing people who are managing multiple big priorities and doing it well. Most of them are working full-time in demanding careers, and many also have family responsibilities.
I have observed that our students are fully present and engaged in their seminary studies. It’s an honor for me to contribute to their priestly formation.
KO: As current remote employees, you and I have a bit of a head start on the rest of the staff at joining our student body in CDSP’s fully hybrid model. What have you learned from being part of a seminary community whose members are spread out geographically?
DJ: The community life at CDSP is energizing. Before the recent gathering time in New York, I had only met most of the students online. But being with the whole community together in person for a week was more heartwarming and rewarding than I had imagined it would be. Everyone was so happy to see each other and be together.
I am convinced that the deep sense of commitment and comradery that I have experienced in CDSP’s fully hybrid model comes from the common focus that is shared by the faculty, staff, and students. Our mission is clear: to form priests for the Episcopal Church of the future.
Everyone I have encountered has embraced the school’s focused and innovative approach to theological
Jackson teaches at January gathered session. | Photo by Leo Sorel
education. The CDSP leadership is intentional about contributing fully to the school’s success and the success of our students.
KO: You’ve worked in the seminary setting for a long time. What guiding beliefs about formation do you bring to your role helping shape the CDSP student body?
DJ: One of my passions is working with seminarians to assist them in their formation for the priesthood. Formation encompasses so much of our lives. We never stop being in formation.
But there are some things that are especially important to prioritize as students are being formed for ordained ministry. I think it’s critical to have a rule of life that incorporates routine rhythms of prayer, worship, and study, as well as remembering our Baptismal Covenant and striving to live into it.
I also think it’s essential to prioritize self-care, have honest self-awareness, and to be curious about others and have empathy for them. We also need to remember we’re not alone in our ministry. We need to be in community with others. It is extremely helpful to have a spiritual director and a therapist. And we need to ask for help when we need it.
KO: Another part of your job is recruiting. It’s been exciting to see how our recent cohorts have come together under the new admissions
guidelines. How has this aspect of your work been going?
DJ: I am pleased with the interest being shown in CDSP, based on the large number of prospective students who have reached out to us. However, we will not be able to accept every one who applies, because we are intentionally limiting our class size to about twelve students each year.
“I am thoroughly impressed with the student body. They are amazing people.”
In our guidelines, we establish that an ideal prospective student is one who can clearly articulate a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, and who has demonstrated the ability to fully participate in the rigorous study and discipline required in seminary.
A strong candidate for our program must also be willing and able to actively contribute to building community in a mostly online environment. Our primary goal is to admit students we believe are best prepared to thrive at CDSP.
KO: The Church and the world are changing so fast at the moment. Do you have a word of encouragement to share with CDSP alums and friends based on what you’ve experienced in your time with us so far?
DJ: Changes in the Church and the world call for innovative options for formation. CDSP offers a superb theological education in a modality that meets the needs of gifted students who might not otherwise be able to attend seminary.
I truly believe that the school’s comprehensive academic program, the contextual education in students’ own dioceses, the community life, the spiritual formation—all of it is working together to prepare CDSP students to become effective and adaptable priests in the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Deborah Jackson, DMin, participates in the installation service for Dr. Stephen Fowl as president and dean of CDSP on June 11, 2024.
| Photo by Tom Minczeski
Mission: Joy Alyssa Sali looks back on a lifetime spent seeking
By the Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD
“You’ve got to entertain all the questions,” a favorite undergraduate professor once told Alyssa Sali ‘26. “Not just the Christian questions, the whole culture’s questions. And if your answers don’t match the questions, your answers aren’t good enough.”
For the third-year student from the Diocese of Atlanta, this conviction has been a guiding light. From a childhood in evangelical churches, to education at Wheaton College, to missionary work in Mexico, and eventually ministry in the Episcopal Church, Sali has continued asking new questions. Her journey to CDSP has helped her articulate robust answers—with a joy and enthusiastic curiosity that those who know her find infectious.
A childhood ‘soaking up scripture’
Sali was baptized in the Christian Reformed Church, for which her grandfather served as a pastor. One of her earliest memories of ministry was “at the VA hospital singing ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth’ into a little lapel mic.”
“My mother loves to sing and sang us lullabies that were all hymns,” she added in an interview with Crossings “Those are the songs that come into my mind still today to give me comfort and joy.”
Sali’s family later joined Baptist congregations, where she participated in activities like AWANA, the popular Bible memorization course. She stressed that she has come to appreciate how all the hymn singing,
Bible memorization, and close-knit community of her childhood faith traditions formed her in an enduring way.
“Those songs were all about intimacy with Jesus,” Sali said. “I think my early faith experiences really gave me a sense that God loves not just the creation but me personally and each person personally. I’m very grateful for that foundation.”
“The idea shaping my call is joy ”
‘Everything was bigger’ at Wheaton College
As her high school years waned, Sali did research into evangelical-based programs that were also highly ranked academically. The research led her to choose Wheaton College in the Chicago suburbs. She found more religious diversity there than she had expected.
“I experienced a real breadth of Christian tradition,” she said. “I went to school with Orthodox, Catholic, all forms of Protestant—Mainline, Charismatic, and Pentecostal students. Obviously, the vibe was evangelical, but everyone was there, and in my
theology classes as well, I really encountered that wide breadth.”
The decision to stay at Wheaton for graduate work introduced Sali to cultural diversity to match the theological diversity she encountered as an undergrad.
“The international community at the Wheaton grad school was just delightful,” she said.
“I felt myself drawn to the theological, spiritual, and cultural wisdom that I experienced in people who were seeing God differently because they’d had a different life experience. The surprising ways they understood God, themselves, and the world made me feel like God was bigger, and I was bigger, and everything was bigger.”
The experience also introduced her to her husband, Judah, who was studying intercultural communication after completing an undergraduate degree in physics. The son of “Christian hippies ready to go be missionaries,” Judah spent time living in Mexico and otherwise immersed in Mexican culture.
Several years and two children later, the young family had the opportunity to move to the state of Jalisco in Central Mexico “to continue that trajectory of being stretched and grown and formed in a bicultural way for us and for our kids.” More new questions awaited them there.
‘The wonder of being confused’ Sali explained that she and her husband were missionaries, but not in the sense most people imagine. Indeed, the family joined a local congregation led by a Mexican pastor.
“We did no church planting. We did no evangelism,” she said. “Judah’s mission was really to short-term missionaries, to help them gain enough cultural competency so that they could do what they came down to do without also doing damage.”
Sali and her husband had similar goals for their family.
“We wanted our kids to have the experience of not being the center,” she said. “We wanted them to enjoy what we were enjoying, which is the wonder of going outside your house and being confused, of knowing that there is always something new to learn.”
Sali and her family lived in Jalisco for a decade, staying until the children were 12 and 14. Her older child is autistic, and his needs eventually surpassed, in Sali’s word’s, “my amateur abilities of occupational therapy, social skills therapy, and homeschooling.”
But her children’s needs were only part of the decision.
“Our theological convictions got to the place where we didn’t feel that we could represent our organizations while still being true to ourselves,”
Sali said. “We actually stepped aside from our missionary work before we moved back to the United States. That gave us freedom to worship with folks who didn’t feel welcome in the religious communities that were available to them because of queerness, because of having been abused in Christian contexts.”
A joyful discovery
When they returned to the U.S., one of the family’s first goals was to find a faith community that did align with their evolving priorities.
“I actually walked to the closest Episcopal church to our apartment on the first Sunday we were there,” she said. “I had a checklist. It included women in leadership. It included care for immigrants. It included commitment to racial reconciliation, understanding and care for disability. I came home and said ‘Judah, it’s amazing!’ We stayed.”
It was in that first summer that Sali’s self-understanding shifted in a way that would eventually land her at CDSP. In the process, a new theological North Star began to shimmer into place.
“The idea shaping my call is joy,” she said. “There is this deep joy in being completely incompetent, in not understanding a word that’s being said, in having to accept hospitality, in having to express oneself like a child, in holding somebody’s hand as we walk into a situation where we’re both incompetent, or they feel out of place. I know what that feels like. Can we laugh at ourselves and have that joy of encountering difference?”
Sharing joy, especially unexpected joy from life’s uncomfortable situations, has become a major part of Sali’s vocational mission.
“I want to call others into that,” she said. “Joy is not necessarily everyone’s natural reaction to feeling incompetent. But it feels so good, and I want people to have that experience.”
Want to hear more? Listen to our full interview at cdsp.edu/podcasts
Alyssa Sali ‘26 leads a group of young people during her family’s time in Jalisco, Mexico.
| Photo courtesy of Sali
“Eventually we just became very embedded in our local church,” said Sali. “It was a blessing.” | Photo courtesy of Sali
Course Dispatch Ecumenical site visit provides unexpected spiritual refreshment
By Dr. Emily Guimaraes ‘28
When I received the assignment in Dr. Liza Anderson’s historical theology class, I knew I’d enjoy the practice of visiting a faith community different from my own. I also knew it would be stressful.
I once spent a month working in Tanzania and worshiped in the Anglican church there. That was one of a few experiences I’ve had as a visible racial minority, a “mzungu” pointed at by children.
I chose to seek out an Ethiopian Orthodox church for my site visit because of its unique antiquity and continuity as an African non-colonial church. The listing I could find gave service times starting at 3 a.m.
That couldn’t be right, I thought. I decided to walk by this congregation on Saturday afternoon and see if the building posted service times. Nope. I sat down on a bench, thinking about giving up.
Then I saw someone come out of the back of the church. I’m not shy, but there was a cultural barrier, a language barrier, a race barrier. And then, after he put on his seatbelt, he paused and made the sign of the cross before starting his car.
It was the signal I needed. I do that I put my hands together in prayer, bowed my head, and approached the car. He rolled down the window.
“Does your church welcome visitors?” I asked.
Big smile. “Yes! Of course.”
“What time are services tomorrow?”
“3 a.m.! Or you could come at 4.”
When I returned the next morning, the church building was silent. But lights were on, and the door was open. I went in and found myself in the altar precinct with a priest who shouted and shooed at me.
“Woman! Out!”
I got out quickly, with profuse apology, through the curtain and into an empty congregational area. Another man pointed to where I should sit. (“Women.”)
The three of us were the only people in the building.
“Did someone invite you?” he asked.
“No. I am here to visit. Is that OK?”
“Yes, of course.”
I sat down and regained my composure. The room was a basically familiar Orthodox layout: congregation facing a wall with icons. New to me in the Orthodox context were pews! A powerful smell of incense permeated the building, the same blend I’m accustomed to from my own tradition.
The service began. Two men, one in vestments and one wrapped in a white cloth, chanted in an unfamiliar language and musical mode.
There were smells. There were bells. My Anglo-Catholic heart just settled right in.
At about 4, I was handed a Bible, open to Mark 1:35-45. “Here is where we are, so you can follow.”
By 5, the place was filling up as more people drifted in. A deacon fired up a couple of video screens: Now the congregation could follow a script unreadable to me. The dominant sound was voices in polyphonic chant.
Two women sat down near me, tucking their children right in to sleep on the floor under the pews. They checked in with me hospitably a few times.
“Can you understand any of this?”
“Nope,” I said. “But the art helps. And I can pray. Really, I’m great.”
“When the main prayer starts, there will be translation in English.”
Something about the art, the music, the incense, the fact that the only words I understood were “Maryam” and “Jesuchristu” repeated regularly, and the impossibility of doing anything else set me free to pray. Which I needed.
I received genuine gestures of welcome from many people, despite how different I looked from literally everyone—I think because, as this very long service wore on, I did not look so different. I was just praying, as we all were. We weren’t obliterating
lines of race, dress, or language, just looking past them. In Christ, there is no Jew, nor Greek.
Around 7, the video screen began displaying the eucharistic liturgy with an interlinear English translation. I was amazed by the familiarity. And yes, this is what I, too, think of as “the main prayer.”
The Eucharist in Orthodox worship is offered on behalf of all present. Among congregants, primarily young children and the elderly receive. All of us were liberally censed. Since few adults my age approached the table, I did not feel excluded as I typically do as a guest at the Roman Catholic mass.
I was a bit stunned when I had the opportunity to really look around. It was around 8. The place was packed
By the time the post-communion prayer concluded five and a half hours into Sunday morning church, I was exhausted and headed for the door. Several people invited me to stay: “We are now going to have fun! Please, join us!”
ordained leaders of this congregation to have grown up in positions of such authority and then to live and work in a Western city. It gave me a new appreciation for how hard it is for a man from a patriarchal culture to encounter a woman like me as his physician when receiving medical care.
The church I visited is clearly at the center of a secular immigrant community as well as a faith community. I wondered how members who don’t feel deeply connected to the faith stay connected to their language and ethnic community. I quit wondering that when someone needed my parking place and I realized there’s a whole food-centered event after the service.
These wonderings and more left me with a fundamental question we had been discussing in class: Where is “the heart of the parish?”
I don’t, fundamentally, experience Jesus’s voice as “Woman! Out!” But it has taken me a long time to arrive at this conclusion. I honor that many people continue to feel most comfortable in communities with more rigid gender roles, though I remain deeply curious how this will evolve over time.
I came away more open to the diversity and beauty of the Christian experience while remaining committed to our Episcopal tradition of inclusion, equality, and welcome. I can be an ambassador of my own faith and bear respectful witness to the faith of others with whom we share what matters: the love of God in Christ.
My most important and lasting impression of the visit was the primacy and deep Christian unity created in the prayer and eucharistic experience.
A secondary impression was the dissonance of gender segregation. I wondered what it must be like for the
This parish displayed an icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His heart is found in each of us when we are open to him in prayer. It is found in the love shared between Father and Son and reflected in our love for friend, family, community, and stranger. This love, the work of the Spirit, is the heart of the parish. It is the job of the priest to help explore that heart in prayer and reveal it in liturgy and work. And clearly this parish is doing a fantastic job of that right now: they are praying up a storm, and thriving as a people of God together.
Ethiopian Orthodox iconography, for illustration purposes only.
Dr. Emily Guimaraes ‘28 | Photo by Leo Sorel
Hybrid Updates
Connected, supported, financially strong
By the Rev. John F. Dwyer Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
As you know, we are well into the planning and implementation of policies, processes, and logistics necessary for CDSP to live into our new curriculum and fully hybrid educational model. As usual, I will use this column to emphasize a few important points from an operations perspective.
Gathered Sessions
As I write this, we have just concluded our first gathered session “on the road,” from the perspective of our longtime home in Berkeley (see “Come Together,” pp. 4–7). It was good to make this trial run supported by our colleagues at Trinity Church. One of our achievements was the confidence we have gained that this model works and can indeed nurture deep spiritual and intellectual formation experiences.
We look forward to our next gathered session in Portland, OR, September 8–12. These quarterly convenings will move around the Episcopal Church to distribute the travel burden more evenly and allow us to connect with partner dioceses.
In particular, we are committed to keeping close ties with Province VIII and will gather in one of its dioceses yearly. We know that many of our alums value the experience of having been formed in the American West. Province VIII patterns of church life have long been quite different, in ways likely to be increasingly relevant elsewhere due to social trends like religious disaffiliation. Formation for
effective leadership in the future church remains a high priority for CDSP.
Curacy Program
Another key element of our new “4+2”-year MDiv is providing curacies to our graduates. This program is already making a difference to the parishes and dioceses where our graduates are serving. Allow me to enumerate some answers to common questions I receive about our curacies:
(1) Although managed by CDSP personnel, this program is funded by the philanthropy department at Trinity Church.
(2) The costs associated with these two-year restricted grant agreements cover salary, medical benefits, pension assessments, employer share of SECA, other diocesan-mandated payments, and a provision for authorized cost-of-living increases.
(3) These agreements are drafted collaboratively by the graduating student, diocesan personnel, the mentor, the local curacy site, and myself.
(4) Reports from mentors are provided to CDSP on a quarterly basis, and twice per year by the curate.
Facilities & Finances
A consequence of our hybrid shift is the reality that maintaining aging facilities is a major distraction from our reinvigorated mission of training leaders in their local contexts. You have likely heard that in early Feb-
ruary we finalized contracts to sell our two apartment buildings. We do not know, at the time of this writing, how the sale of the campus will resolve, but we hope to finalize it by early 2026.
Like the apartment proceeds, the money from the campus sale will be placed in CDSP’s endowment, managed by San Francisco-based Cerity Partners. Together, these sales will dramatically improve the seminary’s financial outlook.
When CDSP was acquired by Trinity in 2019, we had an endowment of approximately $19 million and frankly dubious prospects for continuing operation. Trinity immediately added $6.8 million to the endowment, correcting fifteen years of drawing down the principal. The present-day value of the endowment is approximately $54 million.
With the addition of all the real estate proceeds, we are projecting an endowment of approximately $80 million. That will not be enough to make us fully financially self-reliant, but it will reduce Trinity’s contributions to our operating fund from approximately $4.8 million per year now to a projected $1.4 million per year going forward.
I am proud of our difficult but responsible decisions to secure CDSP’s future and invest in our students and the local church. I hope you will join me in spreading the word about all that we’re up to together.
BIG DISCOUNTS on CALL Continuing Education
Have you heard the news? This year, our Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership lowered its prices for all students.
The general rate is now $150 per seven-week course, with major discounts available to alums of CDSP’s degree programs and to members of our local formation partner dioceses.
Courses are online and fully asynchronous, each week a separate interactive lesson featuring discussion with your classmates and instructor.
Learn more and sign up for registration reminders at cdsp.edu/call/online
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
These forms will also let you go paperless by opting out of receiving Crossings in print. If you’re not currently receiving our monthly email newsletter, we encourage you to sign up at cdsp.edu/subscribe
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