Crossings | Fall 2022

Crossings

Baltimore, Canterbury, & Beyond

CDSP alums contribute to momentous summer of church councils

Teach Us to Pray: Spiritual direction program coming to CDSP

“Do you have a spiritual director?” When I was bishop in Arizona, this is a question I often asked the clergy I served with. I am convinced that having such a “soul friend” is an essential part of anyone’s spiritual growth.

A spiritual director is not the same as a therapist, coach, career counselor, or mentor. A spiritual director listens deeply and prayerfully to the individuals they serve, and seeks to guide them in that sometimes long and difficult process of learning how to pray, and of growing into a closer relationship with God.

Spiritual direction has its origins in the role Jesus played for his disciples, and in the practices of the earliest Church whereby wise and faithful Christians nurtured the faith of new converts. It has been integrated into monastic life for millennia. The practice has the potential to greatly enrich the lives of all Christians—in and out of religious orders, lay or ordained—who are striving to live into our baptismal covenant.

Having a healthy prayer life and relationship with God is especially vital for a seminarian or clergy person because we are in the role of spiritual teacher for the communities we serve. The disciples asked Jesus,“Teach us how to pray.” There will be many in our congregations and communities who, directly or indirectly, ask the same of us. The people we serve long for a closer relationship to God and will seek our guidance in cultivating that closeness. We can’t teach something we don’t know ourselves.

With this in mind I made a request of our board at Trinity Church Wall Street: that they fund spiritual direction services for every full-time faculty member, staff member, and student at CDSP. Trinity’s board members agreed, and beginning in January, the school will pay for up to eight sessions with a spiritual director per academic year for full-time CDSP faculty, staff, and students.

Those faculty, staff, and students who already have spiritual directors are encouraged to maintain those relationships, making use of the new funds available. For those who do not yet have a relationship with a spiritual director, the director of student services, the chaplain, and I are assembling a diverse cadre of experienced directors to choose from. In this digital age, a spiritual director need not be local, although it is always great if one can meet face to face. We intend to publicize this list of available spiritual directors along with instructions on how to make use of the designated funds.

This spiritual direction program, made possible by Trinity, is completely voluntary. Still I hope everyone in our community will take full advantage of it, both for our own spiritual health and the spiritual health of those we serve. I am confident it will be an attractive offering for our prospective students as well.

CDSP has the spiritual well-being and growth of our community on our hearts and minds, so we all can become wise and faithful guides to the larger Church, as our various roles allow now and in the future. It’s all part of our goal of applying the ancient practices of the Church to the needs of a new century.

This spiritual direction program, made possible by Trinity, is completely voluntary. But I hope everyone in our community will take full advantage of it, both for our own spiritual health and the spiritual health of those we serve.

Undeterred

Crossings

‘Holding Faith Together’ in Discernment

Barham, Hassett bring more parish experience to CDSP staff

20 Community News

New books, new calls, ordinations, & more from the CDSP family

22 Season of Transition, Continued

A letter for this moment from Vice President Dwyer

The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, PhD, Interim President and Dean

Editorial: Learning Forte, with assistance from the Rev. 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

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On the cover:

CDSP alums contributed in significant ways to the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD, and the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England. | Photos courtesy of the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows ‘97 (left) and the Rev. Isaiah Shaneequa Brokenleg ‘18

Photo by Richard Wheeler

FALL 2022

(right).

Baltimore, Canterbur y, & Beyond:

“It felt like half a convention,” the Rev. Edwin Johnson ‘10, director of organizing at Episcopal City Mission in Boston and chair of the Diocese of Massachusetts’ deputation to the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (GC80), said in an interview with Crossings.“So much of convention is the exhibits, the children’s program, the worship that includes both houses and everybody else. It was wonderful, and by comparison with past conventions it felt more sterile.”

Fellow deputies agreed with his assessment.

“You generally expect that you’re going to see friends there whom you might have gone to seminary with, and [with whom] you’ve probably lost touch,” added the Rev. Canon Debbie Low-Skinner ‘97, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of California, longtime attendee of past General Conventions, and a first-time deputy this summer.“Somehow, when your eyes meet across the convention room floor or as you’re shopping around in the various vendor booths, you’re going to say, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in years!’” she added.“We missed a lot of those opportunities this year.”

alums contribute to momentous summer of church councils

Johnson and LowSkinner were among dozens of members of the extended CDSP community who participated in the convention July 8–11 in Baltimore. And for the bishops among them, it was just the first of two rescheduled international councils of the Church on their summer docket.The once-per-decade gathering of Anglican Communion bishops known as the Lambeth Conference, rescheduled from 2020 in light of the global health emergency, had its own twists and turns.

In both structure and content, a common theme of the events was how Episocpal and Anglican communities can respond faithfully to urgent priorities of their changing societies. This article will survey contributions to and reflections on these events by several CDSP alums.

GC80: Less debate but wider inclusion

Deputies and bishops alike cited the disorienting effects of the truncated calendar. A ten-day affair in recent years, this iteration comprised only four days of work. Together with other limitations, this change was intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at the event, a decision leaders announced amid the spring surge in cases associated with a highly contagious Omicron subvariant.

“We managed to get our business done in about three and a half [days],” said the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-

Burrows ‘97, bishop of Indianapolis, in a video message to her diocese after the event.“That speaks to the ability for us to be incredibly focused and discerning and faithful to the work God has given us to do.”

Low-Skinner shared with Crossings her experience of the logistics and impact of the changes:“ A lot of resolutions wound up being on the consent calendar,” she said.“You can get a lot of stuff checked off that way, but sometimes we missed an opportunity to get a little more visibility on important causes through floor debate.”

CDSP-Connected House of

On the other hand, Johnson pointed out that the shortening of convention had at least one very welcome benefit for visibility and inclusion. General Convention has long been criticized for tacitly excluding people who are unable to take as much as two weeks away from work and family responsibilities to travel to the host city. But for the first time, many GC80 committee hearings were held in advance online and therefore open to participation from a much wider public.

“At one of our committee hearings, we were looking at a resolution that dealt with questionable practices around immigration enforcement,” said Johnson, who chaired the House of Deputies’ legislative committee on social justice & U.S. policy. “A woman gave her testimony, in Spanish, about how these practices were impacting her. It was really great to hear directly from her, as opposed to hearing from someone who could actually make the trip, talking about her.”

The Rev. Canon Elizabeth Easton ‘09 — Committees & Commissions

The Rev. Edwin Johnson ‘10 — Social Justice & U.S. Policy

The Rev. Eric Metoyer ‘11 — Evangelism & Church Planting

The Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD — Prayer Book, Liturgy & Music

The Rev. Sandra Walters Malone ‘13 — World Mission

He added that the tone of hearings benefited from the onscreen visibility of participants’ everyday contexts as well.

“People were offering their testimony, and their elders, their children, their animals were showing up on screen,” he said.“It was more clear that what we were doing was impacting human life, because human life was more apparent in these Zoom boxes than when everybody’s all buttoned up and sitting around a conference table.”

CDSP alums pose for a photo at the Deputies of Color gathering in Baltimore in May.

From left: the Rev. Isaiah Shaneequa Brokenleg ‘18, the Rev. Michael Sells ‘18, the Rev. Eric Metoyer ‘11, the Rev. Edwin Johnson ‘10, and the Rev. Canon Debbie Low-Skinner ‘97.

| Photo courtesy of Brokenleg.

Deputies Committee Chairs

The Rev. Jennifer Adams ‘94 — Ministry

GC80: Staying focused on racial justice

One thematic area that did receive significant attention before the full convention was racial justice and reconciliation within the Episcopal Church and beyond. A special House of Deputies order of business on July 8 dealt with six of the seven resolutions proposed by the Presiding Officers’ Working Group on TruthTelling, Reckoning, and Healing, on which Johnson also served.

The first of these resolutions, A125, reaffirmed that “every Episcopalian is called to a lifelong vocation of racial justice and equity and the dismantling of white supremacy.” It also established the Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice “as a voluntary association of Episcopal dioceses, parishes, organizations, and individuals dedicated to the work of becoming the Beloved Community.”

According to Johnson, the working group hopes this new coalition can function in a more agile and responsive way than is usually possible for General Convention and other formal structures of the denomination.

“A huge part of our collective imagination was that the coalition would have an insider/outsider perspective,” he said.“We’re excited about this group having the autonomy to be able to move more quickly to galvanize, mobilize, and engage Episcopalians.”

A CDSP alum with a vocational interest in this work agrees:“I think the coalition is meant to be something a lot of different people could participate in,” said the Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg ‘18, Episcopal Church staff officer for racial reconciliation, in an interview with Crossings. Brokenleg represented denominational staff at a pre-convention gathering of Deputies of Color held in May.

“It could steer some of the work that we do in a way that might be more reflective of the whole church, not just the people who are elected to General Convention or appointed to the presiding bishop’s staff,” she said.“My hope is that all the different voices would guide us toward right relationship in a way that maybe we haven’t always been thoughtful about.”

Other legislation proposed by the working group and passed by the convention include historical research into the denomination’s funding and its connection to enslavement and other past and current racial injustices, a review of Episcopal Church liturgical materials, and an investigation into the Church’s role in the operation of boarding schools that devastated Indigenous communities in North America.

Johnson was pleased that the shortened convention gave racial justice issues significant attention. “We had the collective lived experience of not being able to meet last year, and I think that helped us get really serious

about how to choose the sooner moment rather than the perfect one,” Johnson reflected.“I hope that we keep that urgency moving forward.”

Lambeth: Painful preparations

Responding to the urgency of the moment amid imperfect circumstances was a theme for many Lambeth Conference participants as well, even before the twelve-day event kicked off on July 27.

For the first time, bishops of the Anglican communion who are in same-sex relationships were invited to attend the gathering. However, this historic invitation was soured by the explicit exclusion of their spouses. The latter were permitted to attend public events such as worship services and to stay in the official accommodations, but they were not allowed to participate in the conference’s official programming for bishops’ spouses.

The affected group included the Rt. Rev. Thomas Brown ‘97, bishop of Maine, and his husband, the Rev. Thomas Mousin. Among other acts of witness, the two participated in an opening-day march organized by the LGBT+ Staff Network at the University of Kent in Canterbury, the facilities host for most Lambeth Conference events.

“The fact that I am physically going there is, for me, an important part as much as any conversation,” Mousin told the Portland Press Herald before traveling to Canterbury.“Often, this subject gets debated at theoretical

LGBT bishops of the Anglican Communion gather during Lambeth Conference photo day.

From left: the Rt. Rev Kevin Robertson; the Rt. Rev. Bonnie Perry, DMin; the Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson; the Rt. Rev. Cherry Vann; the Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool; and the Rt. Rev. Thomas Brown ‘97.

| Photo by the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers

levels . . . people end up meeting persons and not just thinking about this subject, they find that their hearts and minds are changed.”

Further complicating the run-up to Lambeth for LGBTQ+ Anglicans and their allies was a last-minute controversy in response to materials circulated by conference organizers a week prior to the gathering. The original Lambeth Calls document asked participants to come prepared to vote “yes,” or “this needs more discernment” on a range of issues that included reference to a 1998 Lambeth resolution against the blessing of same-sex marriages or unions.

Although the process was subsequently revised, the incident shaped the tone of the conversation heading into the event in ways that discouraged many affirming Anglicans.

“For members of the LGBT+ community who are part of [the Diocese of San Diego], I imagine that this whole Anglican Communion dispute, lasting for years, has been painful and difficult,” wrote the Rt. Rev. Susan Brown Snook ‘03 in a blog post for her diocese. She went on to apologize for that toll and to reassure readers of the autonomy of the Episcopal Church to abide by its own legislative choices.

Lambeth: Forward together

Still, the promised focus on prayer, study, and relationship-building seems to have been the prevailing tone for many who participated.

“The Anglican Communion is an incredibly diverse place,” said Baskerville-Burrows in a message recorded from the doors of Canterbury Cathedral.“To be able to sit with bishops, and to hear firsthand how different our experiences of being bishop really are, has been really instructive to me.”

Brown used his turn in a series of updates offered by the bishops of New England to reflect on the major practicalities of what Anglican Communion ties make possible: life-giving, collaborative responses to human need.

“What I heard today among the bishops who are gathered here is that. . . what we did during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and what we did around international debt relief, and what we might do about climate change: that’s what will make us the Anglican Communion,” he said in the August 2 video message. “Not structures or a sense of bureaucracy, but the way in which we might respond to God’s mission.”

Indeed, there was nothing controversial about so many of the issues the bishops discussed: that God makes no distinctions among the humans created in God’s image, that churches and societies should do more to protect women and children around the world, that all humanity must rally to protect God’s creation and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. For a robust coalition of Anglicans, it seems possible that the good work of

this global community of Christians can continue even as they hold theological differences in tension. The Most Rev. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, nodded to this hope in his remarks about opposing groups’ understandings of marriage:“They have not arrived lightly at their ideas that traditional teaching needs to change,” said Welby of those in the communion who hold positions like that of the Episcopal Church.“They are not careless about scripture. They do not reject Christ. But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study and reflection on understandings of human nature. . . For these churches, not to change traditional teaching challenges their very existence.”

Many leaders in the Episcopal Church received this and similar statements and actions as a sign of welcome progress in Anglican Communion relations. At the very least, these developments helped to end this second summer gathering in a manner not unlike the first—with a sense that God expects much of Episcopal and Anglican Christians in a time of interlocking global crises, and that by God’s grace we can accomplish much in Jesus’s name.

If these events are any indication, we can expect CDSP students, alums, faculty, staff, and friends to be there in the midst of this work, following Jesus Christ in the mission of justice, reconciliation, and mercy.

The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows ‘97 with (from left) the Most Rev. Justin Welby, Harrison Burrows, and the Rt. Rev. Keith Riglin. Baskerville-Burrows wrote, “We are building and renewing relationships one meal, one prayer, one day at a time.”

| Photo courtesy of Baskerville-Burrows.

Setting Fires and Issuing Permission Slips: Davidson brings

expanded vision of music, worship

by C a R ly l ane

“Why have those big red doors open at all?” asks Professor Dent Davidson, if the doors of our worship are going to be metaphorically shut.

Throwing open the doors of our music and liturgy—and with them, the doors of our hearts—is what Davidson is all about.

His new title at CDSP is chapel musician and lecturer in church music, but it’s the title “animateur” that most fully captures what Davidson has been up to for the last four decades. It’s also what he feels called to do at the seminary.

An animateur animates or enlivens others, especially in the context of creative projects.“It’s not about being up in front saying ‘You do this,’” he told Crossings.“Rather, it’s about being alongside others and saying, ‘Come with me; let’s take this trip; let’s make some music! We’re gonna find ourselves in a different place, and it’s going to be great. Our hearts are going to be on fire.”

Early life and ministry

Davidson vividly recalls the experience by which his own heart was set on fire,

and he was “pulled into the church.” Having spent his early childhood in several West Coast cities as well as Honolulu, HI, he entered an Anglican boarding school in Victoria, BC, at age 11.

“The music teacher there was also the organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral. He saw something in me and in a few other new boarders,” Davidson said.“He was like, ‘You need to

come sing with the boys’ and men’s choir.’ The first Sunday I was out there in my little blue robe and chorister collar—you know, the little ruff around my neck—I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”

It turned out he was right, though the intervening years and evolution from cathedral chorister to creative animateur represent quite the journey.

“I was that musician,” Davidson said of an early role at St.Thomas Episcopal Church in Medina, WA.“It was the prayer book and the hymnal, and that was it. I wouldn’t even allow a piano.” He said this rigidity was all the more striking given that a full third of the congregation was participating in the Cursillo renewal movement, which involved weekends of teaching and praise song.

“The person who would eventually become my husband looked me in the eye and basically said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Davidson recalled.“‘You call yourself a pastoral musician, and you won’t listen to a third of your congregation?’ I realized I had been the Grinch for a long time.”

Davidson remembers people coming to him in tears after he began opening the doors to new liturgical expressions at St. Thomas.“There’s a wider world of hearts that want to be touched,” he said.“They’re looking for ways to find God in the arts and in music and in worship.”

Doors flung open

The experience led Davidson to a career helping to expand what Episcopal worship looks like in Seattle, Chicago, New York, and even the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church, where Davidson has served as a chaplain since 2006.

When he served at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, Davidson saw the number of choirs grow from three to eight. They explored world music, gospel music, and the music of Hildegard of Bingen. At the invitation of the dean, Davidson experimented with opening the 9 a.m. service with piano and a guided sing-along. It was so successful that he would carry the practice into his subsequent ministries.

This experimental approach to music and liturgy would go on to catch the eye of the Rev. Jeff Lee, a rector in Washington State at the time.“This is your mission: to light fires and issue permission slips,” Lee told him. In other words, Lee saw in Davidson an ability to inspire congregations and their ministry leaders about what’s possible, and encourage them to follow where that inspiration leads.

After Lee was elected bishop of the Diocese of Chicago, he invited Davidson to continue that mission in a diocesan context. In Chicago, Davidson brought the sing-along approach to all sorts of genres, taking

time during services to teach congregations how to sing canons and drones, and leading them in a wide range of spirituals and sacred music.

When COVID-19 hit, Davidson was working with St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York City to bring principles of jazz—innovation and improvisation—into their music and liturgy.

One might expect that the pandemic’s singing prohibitions would prove devastating for a ministry like Davidson’s, but this was just the sort of challenge his career trajectory had prepared him for. He was soon called to Santa Barbara, CA, to serve as a year-long interim.

“Our whole ethos there was to find ways to engage the body in prayer without fully singing,” he said. They started with body movement, then moved into “body percussion” and shaker eggs. A parishioner who signs ASL developed a series of signs for the Sanctus, which they then incorporated. Because they were outdoors, the congregation was gradually able to add humming. “We did drones underneath, and I would maybe sing a line on top of the drone,” he said.“It was enough so that even under those conditions, we could all engage in corporate worship.”

A new chapter

At CDSP, Davidson holds the title of “professor” for the first time. “It’s a whole new name!” Davidson exclaimed.“So at this age, at 62, I’m learning new things, and that’s great.” Of his fellow professors, he added, “I’m blown away that they are calling me a colleague and I want to challenge myself to meet those standards.”

As for his relationship with students, Davidson says he hopes to be their professor-animateur, training them in a host of technical skills, while also offering them “a key to letting worship be something more than just a drill.”

“To quote a wise priest, ‘It’s not a drill, it’s a dance,’” he added.“Go past the boring. Go past the absurd. It can also be sublime, and it can be passionate, and it can be a conduit between the people of God and God’s own heart.”

Davidson hopes to be a catalyst for his CDSP students, their fiery hearts, the hearts of the people his students will serve, and ultimately his own heart as well.“It’s the circle,” he mused.“At some point you don’t really know where it begins and ends. And that’s where you find that it’s all… well, it’s all in God.”

Olson on ‘theological blinders’ in the journey to CDSP

When Olson was still a preteen, church leadership noted her musical gifts and invited her to lead a contemporary praise team. Like so many churches in that era, Olson’s conservative CRC congregation sought to tap into a more youthful and emotive mode of worship.

Struggle, return, and surprise

A blinkered horse is hardly the image that comes to mind when talking with the Rev. Katrina Olson, PhD, visiting assistant professor of homiletics and pastoral theology. Indeed, her perspective is wide and clear-eyed. Still, she hails from horse-and-buggy Mennonite country in southwestern Ontario and leans on the metaphor to illustrate a central point about her vocational journey.

“From an early age, God has given me these theological blinders,” she told Crossings. These blinders have protected her from being limited by the expectations or disapproval of the faith communities to which she belongs. As such, they have made all the difference in her ministry.

An early call

According to her grandmother, Olson was five when she announced she would be a minister when she grew up.“I had never seen women pastors, but I was drawn to the charism, the position, the role,” she said. Those theological blinders meant that in her conservative Christian Reformed Church (CRC) congregation,“I didn’t know what wasn’t allowed.”

This move was controversial, with some congregants going so far as to walk out of the church while Olson’s team played.“Protest around my being in church has been a theme of my life,” she said.“I just never remember participating where I’ve not felt kind of at the fringe of what was going on at the center.”

Once again, those blinders proved protective, and Olson was undeterred. Through high school she continued to play a leadership role in music and worship at her CRC church. She began attending a Presbyterian church as well—running fifteen minutes from one side of town to the other each Sunday in order to make both services. At the Presbyterian church she appreciated the openness, involvement, and permission to express herself.

During her last year of high school, she took a job as choir director and worship leader at the local United Church of Christ. When it came time to pursue her undergraduate degree, Olson did so with a view to becoming a high school music teacher.

While earning her bachelor of music degree with honors in education, Olson joined a friend in attending a Brethren-inspired nondenominational church. As someone for whom “God has always been exceptionally real, a being with whom I’m passionately in love,” Olson said the tone and style of that community had a grounding effect.

“That church had a real way of talking about faith and spiritual connection,” she recalled.“I was able to say, ‘Okay, I’m not wrong in having this overtly affective relationship with God.’”

At the same time, that church community held that only men were to have leadership roles of any kind. This policy meant that even in music and worship—her areas of expertise— Olson, and other highly-qualified women, were under male authority. Frustrated by this reality, and by the insufficiency of the answers she received when she pressed the question of female leadership, Olson returned to the CRC.

Just as the Episcopal Church is not uniform, the CRC is not uniform. And unlike the rural, immigrant congregation she grew up in, the CRC congregation Olson joined as an undergraduate was urban and “much more liberal.”

“There was a variety of music, a wide range that spoke to my heart,” she said. “And they had two pastors, one of whom was female. She was ordained. This entire world sort of exploded for me.”

Search for fit

At her new church, Olson collaborated closely with the female pastor, planning college-age services, and, she said,“unlearning a lot of theological paradigms around the rules of gender within worship.” In the wake of this unlearning, Olson’s question became, “Where do I fit in?”

Her pastors suggested that “fit” might involve ordination. But Olson was burnt out academically and going through a difficult time personally. She couldn’t brook the thought of more school just yet.

“I thought, ‘I need to pay off some of my debt,’” she explained:“I need to get my head above water.” Upon graduation, she applied for positions in lay ministry and was hired as worship coordinator at a CRC church in Kalamazoo.

Spirit nudge

Olson remembers the position fondly.“I was able to grow up a little bit, sojourn, and heal,” she said.

The church was clear that with the exception of Lent and Holy Week, only 30 hours per week would be taken up with coordinating worship. She was free to choose what to do with the rest of her full-time position. She chose to found and direct a fine arts camp, lead a prayer ministry, write devotionals, and create educational materials.

Eventually Olson felt a “Spirit nudge.” She remembers thinking,“Okay, it’s time for me to really start considering

seminary.” With the support of her pastor, she started her master of divinity degree part-time and online through Western Theological Seminary. Olson credits WTS for her commitment to distance education.

Even though Olson wrapped up her MDiv at Calvin Theological Seminary, she explained that the part-time online option at WTS made entering seminary financially feasible—and had other benefits as well.“I was able to take what I was learning the first couple hours in the morning and literally go that afternoon and implement it into my job and my ministry,” she said.

Another nudge

At Calvin, Olson completed the credits for her MDiv and earned a master of theology degree in worship as well. At that point, she once again felt a nudge.

“Through the ThM, I realized I love research and writing,” she said. She also noticed that there are feedback loops coursing between the Church writ large and the institutions of higher education tasked with training its leaders. She wondered if academia might afford her an opportunity to be a part of bringing new ideas into circulation in the CRC and beyond.

Olson went through the process of ordination and put her name on the CRC call list, but at the same time she put in applications to a handful of doctoral programs, including at Vanderbilt University. There she would earn a master of arts and—following a one-year teaching externship at Austin Presbyterian

Theological Seminary—her PhD in homiletics and liturgics.

A gift for questioning

At Vanderbilt, Olson found herself in a completely new cultural milieu, yet the same gifts that found expression in her early life found expression there. She embraced her role as someone who is comfortable asking uncomfortable questions.

Together with her colleagues and students at CDSP, she wants to continue asking tough questions; and she trusts that engaging with them will bear fruit.“I feel this profound desire to hold and sift and question, and also to imagine and dream and hope,” she said.

With a view to her own professional development, Olson is grateful for the ways in which her visiting position at CDSP promises to help round her out as a practical theologian.

“I feel so utterly blessed to be invited to invest into the lives of future

Olson preaches at Faith Christian Reformed Church in Nashville, TN.

| Photo courtesy of Olson

Student Spotlights:

Witnessing to the immensity of God’s love

In response to positive feedback about our recent interview series, we bring you two more conversations with students about life amid formation for ministry. They have been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full recordings as part of Crossings Conversations at cdsp.edu/podcast .

Michael Angel Molina ‘23

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

Michael Angel Molina: I’m Michael Angel Molina and this is my final year of seminary as a hybrid accelerated student at CDSP. I call Reading, PA, home and have for most of my life. I reside just outside of the city to the north in the suburbs, with my husband and our two dogs. I was initially looking for a way to get the education and theological training I need to be, not just a good priest, but the best priest that I can be. I really want to give my all to the Church and my all to God.

JO: What is one question related to ministry and your vocation that you have encountered in the classroom that has sparked your curiosity?

MAM: How can we enhance preaching in the Episcopal Church? Some folks go to Bible study during the week, but for a lot of people the only time they’re going to have to delve into the scriptures and learn about God that way is on a Sunday morning. We really have to have our preaching locked in.

Also, I’m thinking about the fact that we are trying to reach out to Black and Brown people who will be the majority in this country in a couple of decades. For them, in general, preaching holds even more importance. This is especially true in the Black community. We really have to up the game when it comes to preaching.

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

MAM: I was just reading an article the other day that said labor union support is at its highest level since 1965 in the

United States. I think we need to really get involved as a Church with the labor union movement. Jesus worked. We believe God was incarnate and worked. He got splinters in his hands. Maybe he stubbed his finger while he was working. It’s a really profound thing to think about the fact that Jesus worked.

If you think about it, Moses was the first union leader. People were being subjected to unfair conditions and then he went in and negotiated. There’s a lot in the Bible about labor. I used to be a union worker myself. I know the importance of unions and I think that the Church needs to be right there with the people fighting for better pay and better benefits. We need to look back to some of our leaders of the past, especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Besides doing the great work he did in the civil rights movement, he was also bringing

the Church together with the labor movement. One of the last things that he did before he was assassinated was try to organize the sanitation workers.

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

MAM: Pop Evensong at my parish. My parish came up with this idea a couple years ago to have a service where we include a local pop artist. We’re so lucky to have a Grammy Award-winning artist who lives right here in the Reading area. We approached him and said,“What if we take secular music that has spiritual undertones, and do that music in the context of evening prayer?”

We set out with this idea not knowing how it would go and it became a really big success. I used prayers from A New Zealand Prayer Book and other prayer books within the Anglican Communion. We tried different musical themes. For February, we did music from all Black artists. When the war in Ukraine broke out, we did music that was Ukrainianthemed. We’ve done different artists

like the Beatles or Aretha Franklin. The great thing about this service is that people who would not otherwise come into the church came in because they enjoyed music.

People who are estranged from the Church, people who just didn’t grow up in the Church, or people who don’t think Sunday morning service is something for them: They came to this service and it was a gateway for us to be able to introduce ourselves to them and get them into the regular Sunday services.

Reading is a Rust Belt city sixty miles northwest of Philadelphia. It’s been struggling for a long time. The city is 67% Hispanic. We are one of the most heavily Hispanic cities in the United States, small cities anyway. We have to reconcile that with the fact that most of the people in the parish drive in from the suburbs. They don’t live in the city. The evensong was the first service where we were really able to get people who live within walking distance to come into the church: white, Black, Hispanic, everybody. It was the first service where we really looked like the community.

JO: Where and how do you sense God calling you to lean into your vocation beyond your seminary experience?

MAM: All I know is that God is calling me to be a witness to God’s love, to tell people that God loves you, that God is here. Whether you’re having a good day or a bad day, whether you’re struggling, whether you’re rich or poor, God loves you. I don’t know where I’m going to do that. I don’t know if it’s going to be here in Pennsylvania or somewhere else. I don’t know if it’s going to be in a parish or in a hospital or in a prison.

JO: What is a final word of encouragement you have for the CDSP community?

MAM: I don’t know how your path has been, but mine has been a winding path. I have lost two loved ones during my studies. I’ve gone through a bishop transition. I’ve gone through a priest transition. It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought it would take. My advice is to be patient, to know that it is going to take however long it takes, and the journey is just as important as the destination.

Grammy winner David Cullen leads a musical offering as part of Pop Evensong at Christ Church in Reading, PA. | Photo courtesy of Molina

Michael Drell ‘24

Greg Klimovitz: Please tell us a little bit about who you are.

Michael Drell: I’m a postulant for holy orders. My home parish is St. Michael and All Angels in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It’s la Iglesia Anglicana de México, which is part of the Anglican Communion. I’m living here in Berkeley with my partner, Chris.

GK: What drew you to CDSP? Why did you choose to enroll here as a student?

MD: I had the opportunity to do the Via Frances to Santiago across the north of Spain. While I was on Camino, it came to me that I needed to get back in touch with the Rev. Spencer Hatcher ‘16, who was the associate dean of students in charge of admissions. I literally just wrote her an email. She got back to me and said that there was still space and that I could start spring term. A big part of what I was doing on

Camino was researching this Mozarabic liturgy. It just all felt right and like the obvious choice.

GK: What particular question have you encountered as a student in the classroom that has sparked your curiosity related to ministry and your vocation?

MD: I’m someone who asks a lot of questions. For someone in my position, as a postulant, I think a primary question is: How does a priest or anyone in a position of ministering offer a sense of hope that really is founded in fearlessness and trust of God, trust of the Divine, and trust of one’s path? How do you offer that to others, especially if they aren’t people of faith? I’m trying to understand better how that is brought to others and offered to others beyond the verbal.

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

MD: I feel like the issue of suffering has been a long-running issue and remains pertinent in every context of people’s experience in the very diverse world we inhabit right now.

I’m constantly reflecting on what it means to do ministry,or to be a minister, or to have a calling to the priesthood in the midst of human suffering.

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

MD: I’ve started doing voluntary work with a podiatric nurse and a woundcare nurse in a foot clinic at St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco.The concept of healing within Christianity is huge, and it’s contentious still.What does it mean to need healing? What does healing actually do? Is it the same as a cure? If not, then what is its relationship to medical care?

Actually,“physical action of care”is really what love means.These nurses at the clinic are caring for these situations or conditions that are material. I think for a lot of people to have their feet cared for is an unusual situation and it’s a powerful situation. It’s confronting

If we think of John 13:14 and the pedilavium, the foot-washing in the Gospel of John, it is the Eucharist in that gospel. As humans who suffer, our feet are the place where we make

contact with the ground—at least, ideally. We often don’t. We spend our time in shoes and on concrete.

I feel like it is really important for us to start on the ground, even with our Christian education. We’ve mucked it up trying to do it from our heads. It’s really clear to me from the example in the Gospel of John—Jesus quite literally says,“See what I just did? This is what I’m talking about. Do this. This is how you will follow me, by doing this.”

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

MD: The seminary experience is very much part of this broader call to care, our actions embodying Christ’s hands. I’ve thought about training to be the most entry-level nursing or care provider, or even earning a beauty certificate, just to be able to do more hands-on ministry work.

I remember a photograph of Pope Francis dressed in the most civilian clothing I’d ever seen him in, but still with a collar on. He just looked like a regular priest, not a pope. He was working at free meals for people. All of the comments on social media were

talking about how we need to see clerics doing more hands-on work.

Foot care is a big issue because most insurance won’t cover it; there’s nothing billable for foot care. The way the medical care system is set up right now, it’s left by the wayside. At a church retreat I brought up how much of an issue it actually is, foot care, especially for marginalized people. One person said,“Yes, the church should be at the forefront of this type of stuff.”

That’s pretty much how I feel. I feel like if Jesus was washing a disciple’s feet on that Thursday evening and saw an ulcer or an ingrown toenail or a splinter or a wound of any kind, he would have offered care. It wasn’t just about this ceremonial water contact. There would be healing going on.

GK: What is a final word of encouragement you have for the CDSP community?

MD: When I took my uncertainties to the people I really trust as advisors— and I’m fussy about that—they all basically told me,“Shut up and pray.” I think our listening abilities are not very good. We’re great at petitions. We’re great at intercessions. We know what we want. We know what we think we should have in this world and what the Kingdom of God would look like to us, but we, and I’m including myself, are not good at really listening.

The immensity of God’s love is something I feel like we’re struggling with, beyond what’s excusable for our developmental stage of humanity.

We’ve been here a long time. We’ve had the gospels for a long time. We’ve said a whole lot, on paper or through sermons. We’re supposed to know that we’re loved by God, and I feel like we have hardly been able to grasp that yet.

If Jesus was washing a disciple’s feet and saw a wound of any kind, he would have offered care. It wasn’t just about this ceremonial water contact. There would be healing going on.

Michael Drell ‘24 volunteers in the foot clinic at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in San Francisco, CA. | Photo courtesy of Drell

Holding Faith Together:

Local priests new to CDSP staff reflect on vocation amid change

Greg Klimovitz:

For those who will see you walking around campus or in other spheres of the CDSP learning community, what will you be doing as a member of the staff?

Stephen Hassett:

My title is director of chapel and campus chaplain. I also teach one class for third-year ordination-track students called Leadership for Ministry. My role is to coordinate all those inputs to make a comprehensive, cohesive, worshipful experience for people who are also learning how to lead worship as part of their seminary training.

The position is based on faculty and student reflections over the years that led the school to recognize that the spiritual life of students in a community does not necessarily take care of itself just because they’re studying at seminary. They’re learning deeply in the academic fields of scripture, history, theology, liturgy, and other aspects of the tradition, but

they’ve been uprooted from or disrupted in their lives at home.They’re also in a period of transition and change, being disassembled and reassembled for life in ministry. That’s a very tender time in a person’s spiritual life.

Michael Barham:

My title is director of student services and recruitment. That encompasses a lot, but it’s largely about how we serve the students and how we form community outside of the classroom. This is not disconnected from the classroom, but I’m focused on those pieces of students’ common life outside the classroom, both for residential and hybrid students.

The Rev. Stephen Hassett (DMin ‘16, MDiv ‘06) and the Rev. Michael Barham (DMin ‘12, CAS ‘07) have a lot in common. They were both CDSP students in the ‘00s, returned to earn DMin degrees in the ‘10s, and until recently were serving congregations in the Diocese of California. This summer, they both joined the staff at CDSP. Hassett and Barham sat down with Crossings for a conversation about their new roles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Rev. Stephen Hassett (DMin ‘16, MDiv ‘06)

There’s a shared element of work with the chaplain. Our work requires that we partner with each other and be in communication with each other. We dream together and work together. My role is less the general pastoral work, and very specifically helping people do discernment work for themselves: “What kind of church will I fit? What kind of church needs and can use my unique expression of the priesthood and the gifts that God has given me?”

GK: Tell us about where you call home and your sense of call to ministry.

MB: I first started feeling called to ministry while I was growing up in Meridian, MS, in the Methodist Church. I experienced the call partly from within, but also largely from people just asking and talking about it. I kept following that question—or it kept following me. I eventually went off to seminary, became Episcopalian while I was in seminary, moved out here to California, and was ordained.

SH: I can confidently say there’s a lot of people called to the ministry in the Episcopal Church who either come from a different branch of the Christian tree or who have had some experience of being away from the church, then coming back later in their adulthood and finding that their return occasioned the discovery of this sense of call. That was true for me as well.

I grew up Roman Catholic and then spent some time away from the church as a young adult in my 20s and moved to San Francisco. After a period of time, I found my way to a local church called St. Gregory of Nyssa, and it just so happened to be an Episcopal congregation.

GK: Where have you served most recently, and what is a highlight from that time?

SH: I’ve been in parish ministry for sixteen years. For the last eight years, I was serving as the rector of a church in Orinda, California. As everybody in parish ministry knows, the last couple of years have been especially intense.

A highlight for me was learning on the job and sharing responsibility for leadership of the whole organization. The real learning is this: you just cannot do it by yourself. You better be looking out for and depending on the gifts, experiences, authority, and expertise of people in the parish who have been around a few corners themselves. They have something to offer you by way of what it means to lead an organization.

MB: I echo that. I think small churches just have so many of their own unique gifts and qualities.There are so many times when I thought, how are we going to pay for this to be fixed, or how are we going to get this program started? I got a check in the mail from somebody who had been a member twenty years ago, and we came to their mind and they sent a little gift, or somebody had some extra money for some reason and said,“I just thought of the church.” Really, what we had was our faith, and that was enough.

One thing I also learned was that on any given Sunday, no matter how small or big the congregation is, you’re going to have somebody there who’s easily holding the faith and somebody who’s really struggling. As a community, we hold faith together for each other.

GK: I am wondering what drew you to discern a call to CDSP?

SH: Well, I am a two-time CDSP alum. In fact, my whole entire experience of the Episcopal Church is in the Bay Area, in the Diocese of California. What called me to CDSP, and what felt to me like a response between the community and some gift or desire that I have, was to be among people who really feel deeply committed to their own Christian discipleship. There are lots of different reasons why people associate themselves with the parish church. I found myself continually wanting to organize in the parish around the kinds of things that people do when they’re in seminary—gathering to study and deeply learn, frequently and regularly participating in shared worship.

I feel called to fearlessly examine questions of ecclesiology, mission, and identity as a matter of personal commitment. The seminary is the environment where those kinds of things are all on the table.

MB: What was drawing me to this season of my life was being embedded in a single community and living in that community, to enter into that conversation that happens in the community with faculty, with students. I find myself in this space as a learner and as someone who’s helping those who are learning and teaching.

GK: You could say a large part of being a parish priest is knowing what questions to ask and when. What is a question that you believe many leaders are asking or should be asking related to their ministry?

MB: What I think I’m feeling, and part of what drew me to this environment, is the need to spend time rethinking the questions I need to be asking. I want to be able to clarify what are the questions that really matter to me in relation to what God is asking of me and of all of us.

I am clear that the questions we’ve been asking as priests, the work we’ve been doing as priests, is facing a real reality test. It is inviting us and demanding us to ask ecclesial questions and maybe stop asking institutional questions. For me, part of what’s attractive about being here at CDSP is that we are trying to grasp what are those ecclesial questions, with faith and God’s love being at the very center.

SH: One of the former jobs I had preparing me for ministry unbeknownst to me was working after college at a restaurant, waiting tables. It was a small, family-owned cafe in southern Connecticut. The owner was from Argentina and was a deeply pastoral presence in his own way. If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, there are these peak times when the demand surges and everybody’s maxed and the kitchen is going nuts and the wait staff are coming in and out. During those times, you might come into the kitchen with an energy of anxiety or panic in your work. The owner, whose name was Manny, was always the calmest, most grounded person in the middle of all that busyness. He would perceive and sense your anxiety and ask you, “What’s going to happen? Are you scared?” Somehow it always had the effect of reminding you,“Oh, okay, these orders are going to get placed. The food will be prepared and delivered to the table. People will eat and be satisfied and then it’ll calm down again.”

The church is going through a time of great uncertainty. Its leadership and many of its parishioners feel like the staff at that restaurant; we all feel a little overwhelmed by the demands being placed on us. I think Manny’s

questions are questions that could help us,“What is going to happen? Are we scared?” Then I think we find ourselves reflecting on the stories of scripture when other people felt overwhelmed. They didn’t know what was going to happen, and God came and found them.

In the Episcopal Church, we haven’t necessarily always owned those stories. I think we’ve imagined a story of ourselves as secure and safe and unchanging and dependable in some ways. We are going through changes now, and there’s insecurity and unsafety that might be new and unfamiliar to us. But it’s not new or unfamiliar to the people of God. From the parish to the seminary, those are the questions we might ask ourselves: “What is going to happen? Are we scared? Where can we see God leading us through those uncertainties and demands that can cause us to feel stressed out and unsure?” I know there’s a way.

Church. It might look like a loss. I think the challenge priests in the parish face is to continue to be faithful for the sake of their congregations that are going through new experiences and who, in their anxiety, think the Church might be dying when in reality it’s being made new.

SCRIPTURE

MB: In some ways, the challenge facing a lot of clergy is the challenge facing all of their people.

On one hand, trying to be faithful and anchored and, on the other hand, realizing society and our religion is changing. We have no control over that. God does, but we do not.

We need to be able to see what’s needed and what’s coming and interpret that in a way that makes sense to people who only understand an old way—so they can enter into that new way. This is not to say that they haven’t sacrificed something, but that they’re still connected to a thread that is transcendent beyond just this new thing we’re doing.

GK: I love that. Can you share with us what you believe is a primary challenge parish priests are encountering presently?

SH: Just referring back to that, this really may be an unprecedented, at least in living memory, period of transformation and change in the

Change occurs whether we want it or not. We can either sit here wishing it weren’t happening, or we can figure out how to carry forward what is essential from tradition in new ways. That’s especially hard for us Episcopalians.

GK: What is a word of encouragement you have for aspiring clergy and for the CDSP community that you are joining?

MB: I want to say, just remember what the angels said,“Do not be afraid.” Jesus tells us,“I’m the way.” We don’t have to make the way. We have the way. Jesus is the way. And we who are called—there are many sheep of different folds—Jesus has his way of reaching us and them. Those of us who choose to be Christians and those of us called to be clergy have to remember whose way it is we are advocating for and teaching about and calling people to be part of.

SH: I would say those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs.

GK: Thanks so much to both of you for joining us. May the Lord be with you.

The Rev. Michael Barham (DMin ‘12, CAS ‘07)

Communit y News

Recent updates from CDSP faculty, students, alums, and friends

The Rev. John Kater, PhD, professor emeritus of ministry development, published Ministry in the Anglican Tradition: 1534-1900 in a series of books on Anglican Studies. He also presented via Zoom at the Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong.

Dr. Scott MacDougall published the book The Shape of Anglican Theology: Faith Seeking Wisdom and the course Spirituality x Activism on GTUx. He also participated in a panel, “Intercultural Theological Dialogue as a Contribution to Decolonizing the Anglican Communion,” and gave the sermon at the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Kathy Lawler ‘21.

The Rev. Ruth Meyers, PhD, offered a commentary on the online video project Anglican Worship and Anglican Communion for Being Anglican: Learning from Global Perspectives. Together with the Rev. Paul Fromberg (DMin ‘14), she also participated in “A Conversation about Liturgical Issues” as part of the North American Cathedral Deans Conference.

Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda was appointed the Global Fellow 2022 by the Center for Advanced Study of Religion at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society in Oslo, Norway. She published chapters in the following books: Religion and Sustainability, An Economy of Life for Living Well with Earth and People, Toward a Healthy Planet, and Decolonizing the Privileged. She delivered multiple keynote presentations at conferences and gatherings.

The Rev. Kyle Oliver, EdD, adjunct instructor in Christian education, successfully defended his dissertation, “Becoming Tapestry: A Multimodal Ethnographic Podcast Exploring Storytelling and Belonging in a FaithAdjacent Foster Youth Mentoring Network” in the educational media program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he was later named a visiting scholar for the Digital Futures Institute.

The Rev. Katrina Olson, PhD, presented “Hearing God’s Voice: How Preaching Can Construct Narratives about the Other with the Other” at the Societas Homiletica in Budapest, Hungary.

The Rev. Susanna Singer, PhD (MDiv ‘89), professor emerita of ministry development, convened vestry consultations on post-COVID reopening and strategic planning at St. Stephen’s in Orinda, CA, and St. Mark’s in Palo Alto, CA.

The Rev. Dan Carlson ‘22 was called as curate at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Portland, OR.

Annalise Deal ‘23 and the Rev. Kevin Neil were married on May 28.

Michael Drell ‘24 published an online pilgrimage resource with the Berkeley Art and Interreligious Pilgrimage Project.

The Rev. Kathy Lawler ‘21 was ordained to the priesthood Jan. 15 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, CA.

Phillip Lienau ‘24 and the Rev. Amy Newell-Large ‘22 participated in a GTU-wide and nation-wide reading of Martin Luther King’s speech “Breaking the Silence: Beyond Vietnam” on April 4.

Betsy McElroy ‘23, Tim Hartley ‘23, and Ashley Gurling ‘23 attended the Episcopal Preaching Foundation’s Preaching Excellence Program as CDSP student nominees.

The Rev. Amy Newell-Large ‘22 was called as curate for parish life at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO.

Jeckonia Okoth ‘23 was ordained to the diaconate on December 31 in the Anglican Church of Kenya.

The Rev. C. Susanne Wright-Nava ‘22 was called as curate at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church in San Marino, CA.

The Rev. Nora Boerner ‘22 was called as curate at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City, IA.

The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Brown ‘97 was featured in a spotlight of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in the Boothbay Register

The Rev. David Carlisle, PhD (MDiv ‘18), was featured in “Northern Michigan priest joins new Benedictine community” at Episcopal News Service

The Rev. Peter L. Fritsch ‘92 published The Spirituality of the Holy Grail: Restoring Feminine Spirit in the Western Soul

The Rev. Polly Hamilton Hilsabeck ‘85 published the novel American Blues, which was released on April 12.

The Rev. Phillip A. Jackson ‘94 was inducted as the nineteenth rector of Trinity Church Wall Street on February 26.

The Rev. Brett Johnson ‘21, the Rev. Jen Crompton ‘22, and the Rev. Perry Pauley, PhD (MDiv ‘21), attended the Episcopal Preaching Foundation’s Preaching Excellence Program as CDSP alum nominees.

The Rt. Rev. Edward Konieczny, PhD (MDiv ‘94), was named a new member of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

The Rev. Chun-wai Lam (DMin ‘13), was awarded Best Emergent Writer (academic section) by the Joint Chinese Christian Literature Publication Association for his book on the Eucharist, a comparative study on the Rite 1 and Rite 2 Eucharist used in Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui.

Ryan Macias ‘22, Suzanne WrightNava ‘22, and Tim Hartley ‘22, were ordained to the diaconate on June 11 at St. John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles, CA.

The Rev. Lucas Mix, PhD (MDiv ‘07), was featured in a public theology article, “Lucas Mix on Life in the Cosmos,” published January 26 at Patheos by science and theology scholar Ted Peters.

The Rev. Joél Muñoz, EdD (CAS ‘21), was ordained to the diaconate on December 4 at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN, and called on July 10 as curate to St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Zionsville, IL.

The Rev. Colby Roberts ‘14 (MA ‘16) was featured in the news article “Community Q&A: New rector at St. Timothy’s brings enthusiasm, spectacular singing voice” in the Yakima Herald-Republic

The Rev. Patricia Rose ‘21 was ordained to the priesthood on April 23 at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, OH.

The Rev. Amanda Taylor-Montoya ‘22 was ordained to the priesthood on June 18 and called as curate at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Albuquerque, NM.

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

The Rev. John C. Keester ‘55 died May 23 in Claremont, 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 (MDiv ‘90, DD ‘15), died February 6 in Aptos, CA.

Ardeen Russell-Quinn, former trustee and a champion for the St. Margaret’s Visiting Professorship of Women in Ministry, died March 21.

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

The Rev. Steven G. Yurosko ‘12 died June 15.

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/

Photos by Richard Wheeler and (far right) the Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor.

Is Your Information Up to Date?

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

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We’ve been on a hiring spree here at CDSP. In the past nine months, we’ve brought on board twelve new employees: an interim president and dean, an executive assistant to the president and dean, two new faculty members, a director of chapel and campus chaplain, a director of student services and recruitment, a student services and recruitment administrator, a director of human resources, a facilities maintenance technician, an operations administrative coordinator, a director of contextual education, and a staff accountant.

There are a multitude of factors driving these hires: retirements, transfers, promotions, and the creation of a new position. It is important to recognize that our seminary, like so many churches and other institutions, has been affected by the pandemic and the seismic changes these last two years have wrought on our society and culture.

Many people, including CDSP faculty, staff, and students, are re-evaluating their lives, goals, objectives, and desires. We have responded with steadiness and calm, carefully restructuring positions to fit the institution’s needs as they stand now, not as they stood the last time a particular position was filled. Of course, we’ve tried to think about where we’re heading as well.

Season of Transition, Continued:

New perspectives help us train leaders for a changed and changing world

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

As the Church changes, the needs of the servant-leaders of the Church’s local institutions are changing. CDSP is taking a leadership role in adapting and providing resources to these new leaders to help them be successful in their vocational missions.

With our many new hires come new perspectives and insights. New people bring change to institutions, and change is definitely afoot here at CDSP. Having new eyes, ears, and voices present among us helps us all see things in a new light. There is new energy and excitement in the office hallways and common areas. New folk encourage us to pose the age-old question,“Why do we do these things this way?”

It seems to me that the self-reflection that results from this question is good for an institution, in particular one that is charged with forming leaders who can respond to change. It is good for us, as staff and faculty, to bring new

attention and intention to our institutional processes. And it is good for our students to witness and learn from our example, since they themselves will face analogous questions and opportunities in the future.

As an institution, we are learning that traditions can be hard to step away from gracefully—but also that new personnel, new energy, and new opinions enliven the imagination and quicken the pulse. We’re embracing our curiosity about experiments we might try in the future to further serve our mission and improve our effectiveness. This continuing work showcases how our seminary has been affected by, and responding to, major challenges in Church and society, and how we are growing as a result.Those twelve new CDSP employees are assisting us in prayerfully seeing, imagining, and creating our tomorrow.

Many people, including CDSP faculty, staff, and students, are re-evaluating their lives, goals, objectives, and desires. We have responded with steadiness and calm, carefully restructuring positions to fit the institution’s needs as they stand now.