E P I S C O PA L D I V I N I T Y S C H OO L
EDS NOW
Spring 2012 | Vol. XXXVIII No. 1 The Interfaith Issue
»
What
Would It
Take to
Move the
Map?
. . . page 4
INSIDE
3 Brattle Street Diary
8 Dr. Ingrid Mattson
12 On Campus
4
18
EDS NOW
EDS Now is a publication of
Episcopal Divinity School and is
published twice a year.
Address correspondence to:
Editor, EDS Now
Episcopal Divinity School
99 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
comms@eds.edu
Editor
Jeffrey Perkins
Director of Communications
and Marketing
Design
Sarah Caitlin Henderson
Photography
BK Hipsher, Ed Muse, Laura Parrillo,
Jeffrey Perkins
Contributors
Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, Kelly Feeney,
The Rev. Dr. T. James Kodera, Dr. Kwok
Pui Lan, Judith Nies, Laura Parrillo
Publisher
Hugo De La Rosa
Vice President for Institutional
Advancement
President and Dean
Katherine Hancock Ragsdale ’97
Board of Trustees Officers
Brett Donham, Chair
The Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski ’78,
Vice Chair
The Rev. Devin McLachlan ’02, Secretary
Dennis Stark, Treasurer
Board Members
E. Lorraine Baugh
The Rev. Clayton D. Crawley
The Rt. Rev. Thomas Clark Ely
Douglas Orr Fitzsimmons
The Rev. Dr. Robert L. Griffin ’06
The Rev. Hall Kirkham ’08
Patricia Mathis ’05
Edward Nilsson
The Rev. Warren R. Radtke ’64
Susan B. Samson
The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE
The Rev. Dr. Robert E. Steele ’68
Benneville N. Strohecker
The Rev. Canon Daniel S. Weir ’72
Honorary Trustee
Charles V. Willie HD’04
It is the policy of Episcopal Divinity School not to
discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, sex,
marital status, sexual orientation, physical disability, or age.
Welcome to EDS Now,
the New EDS News
JEFFREY PERKINS
W
hen I started my new position at
EDS at the end of January, I was
told there was an upcoming conference that I should help publicize. The name
of the conference was “What Would It Take to
Move the Map?” which was part of a series of
interfaith initiatives and projects supported by
a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York.
At first I was at a total loss. How could I promote an event with a title I didn’t understand?
If I am trying to get to New York City from
Boston, why would I “move the map” to include
the Cape and the Islands, all of New England,
or the entire Eastern Seaboard? I was coming to
the conversation with a limited image of maps
as markers of place used to navigate from one
location to another, which clearly was not what
the organizers had in mind.
So went my first EDS lesson in looking at
the world in a broader context, and in how the
words we use in one context can shift in meaning when used in another. The conference was
not about helping someone travel per se but
about the inner orientation that guides our every step. The conference was a great success, and
I hope you enjoy the coverage offered in this
new EDS publication, EDS Now.
EDS News 1974
EDS News 1989
EDS News 2011
This publication takes the place of EDS
News, which has lived through various incarnations over the years. The orginal EDS Newsletter began in 1974, and the name was shortened
to EDS News in 1977. Now, as we launch the
new EDS website (which I hope you will visit
soon at www.eds.edu), we are also relaunching
this publication to work with the website to
provide up to the minute information that keeps
you informed of the latest news from Episcopal
Divinity School.
Inside EDS Now you will still find updates
from EDS classmates and faculty members, but
you’ll also find news of the latest publications by
our faculty and an introduction to larger themes
on campus, such as the one featured in this issue,
Interfaith.
We encourage you to send us your thoughts
and comments on this new publication and let
us know of any special features you’d like to see
in future issues. We’ll take your suggestions to
heart and print excerpts from letters whenever
space allows.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this redesigned issue of the tried and true. I look forward
to hearing from you soon.
Jeffrey Perkins
Director of Communications and Marketing
jperkins@eds.edu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
3
4
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
15
17
18
20
21
Welcome
Brattle Street Diary
What Would It Take to Move the Map?
Going Further: EDS Goes to China
Q and A with Dr. Ingrid Mattson
Alumni/ae Days
In the First Person: Lydia Kelsey Bucklin
Educational Technology Grant
On Campus
Faculty Writing
Faculty Updates
Annual Fund
A Life Following the Questions
History Among Us
Class Notes
brattle street diary
“How do I help my
congregation participate
in interfaith community
services with sensitivity,
respect, and integrity?”
Brattle Street Diary
K AT H E R I N E H A N C O C K R A G S DA L E
spring is once again upon us, bringing with it the regular
transitions of the academic world. Bonnie Baranowski completed her
assignments of reordering and rebuilding our technology systems and
consolidating our Student Services Department, and she has left EDS for
new challenges.
Chris Medeiros ’99 in Admissions has also
moved on, and Liz Magill ’02 has reduced her
hours at the school to 1/4 time, as her congregation has grown sufficiently to require, and be
able to afford, the rest of her time. In the meantime we have welcomed Jeffrey Perkins as Director of Communications and Rachel Shelton
as Director of Recruitment. We have also completed a successful faculty search and, pending
successful visa applications, will welcome Stephen Burns as Associate Professor of Liturgics
and Anglican Studies this summer. (Stay tuned
for a profile in the fall issue.) All of these transitions are occurring as we face the annual loss
graduation brings to our community, as students
graduate and begin the work for which we have
helped to prepare them. But following this loss
comes the much anticipated arrival of new students and their families, who will bring gifts to
our midst that we cannot yet imagine. These are
the rhythms of the academy.
This Spring has also seen a number of less
routine activities. Thanks to a generous grant
from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York,
EDS has been busily involved in interfaith explorations. First, a word about the nature of this
grant. The aim of our application was not to
seek funds to re-create the work of other firstrate interfaith studies projects, such as Harvard’s
Pluralism Project; we are grateful for the work
that has been done and see no need to duplicate
it. It is our intention, rather, to take the next step
and begin to explore how that good work can
be applied to the daily realities of ministry in
local congregations and communities: How do
I deal with the reality that people from many
varied backgrounds may appear in my pews on
any given Sunday? How do I help my congregation participate in interfaith community services
with sensitivity, respect, and integrity? How do
I work for community change in similarly comprehensive ways?
This practical application of sound academic
work is a hallmark of an EDS education. In fact,
two special events have already been held this
spring: the conference entitled, “What Would
It Take to Move the Map? Abrahamic Religions on the Silk Road,” to which we welcomed
nearly 100 participants from all over the world,
and “Borders and Transnationalism: Religious
Perspectives,” a symposium of the Migration,
Theology and Faith Forum, which was taking
place as this issue was going to press.
Later this spring, the Kellogg Lectures and
Alumni/ae Days program, “From Monologue to
Dialogue: Exploring World Religions to Promote a Culture of Peace,” are taking place on
May 2 and 3. Dr. Ingrid Mattson will deliver the
Kellogg Lectures. She will speak about what it
means to be an observant Muslim in America
and about the current state of Christian-Muslim relations (p. 8). A study trip to China in late
May promises to introduce students and faculty to cross-cultural expressions of Christianity
(p. 7). In the meantime, Professor Christopher
Duraisingh’s ’65 theology class has welcomed
guests who are practitioners of Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, and Hinduism.
The Luce grant will fund three years of such
activities. Please take advantage of the wonderful opportunities this grant affords. Join us for
the Kellogg Lectures, come to a conference, take
an intensive class in June or January, or, if time
and logistics permit, audit a fall or spring semester class. Whether you’re an alum or a friend
of EDS, we’re always glad to see you. And, as
always, we thank you for your continued support of this fine school and our extraordinary
students.
The Very Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale ’97
President and Dean
eds now | Spring 2012
3
what would it take to move the map?
The Rev. Dr. Cameron
Partridge speaks to
the conference while
panelist Dr. Bruce
Lawrence listens and
watches from Norway.
BK HIPSHER
What Would It Take
to Move the Map?
JEFFREY PERKINS
O
n Saturday, March 3, 2012, nearly 100
people gathered on the third floor of
Sherrill Library at Episcopal Divinity
School to explore the fascinating and challenging
question, “What would it take to move the map?”
EDS Assistant Professor of Historical and
Systematic Theology and conference co-chair
Patrick S. Cheng explained: “Although maps are
usually associated with geography, there are also
intellectual maps that delineate the boundaries
of a given field of study. This conference was
an attempt to shift the discourse and narrative
trajectory of the early history of the Abrahamic
religions from west to east, from Europe to the
Middle East and Asia.”
Larry Wills, Ethelbert Talbot Professor of
Biblical Studies at EDS and a conference co-organizer, added, “People in the West, even academics and theologians, cannot imagine that there is
any history of Jews, Christians, or Muslims in the
East in the early period, yet we have increasing
information about these groups. What is required
is a deliberate challenge to move the area of interest to see what is there. It requires an intentional
shift of focus to overcome the subconscious assumptions of a Western perspective.”
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episcopal divinity school
In his introductory remarks, Wills broke
down the notion that there were clear identities
at the beginning of the evolution of Christianity
and Judaism. Wills argued that the two faiths
were becoming religions in response to each
other and to the increased interaction between
people in the region. He explained that the
Christian and Jewish faiths were both heavily
informed by Greek and Persian influences, and
that current efforts to reach back to solid identities for either group is a form of what Wills calls
“neo-primordializing,” i.e., taking new doctrines
and assuming they were primordial.
On the same panel, The Rev. Dr. Cameron
Partridge, Episcopal Chaplain at Boston
University, examined the very assumption of
the Western progress that underlies the traditional narrative of expansion and how this notion is complicated by early writing that considered the human body itself a crossroads terrain.
Bruce Lawrence ’67 joined the conversation from
Norway, discussing the movement of Islam and
how commerce along the Silk Road was critical
to the eastward movement of religion.
On the second panel, Jeanne-Nicole SaintLaurent, from Saint Michael’s College, explored
Syriac, a common language of the early period,
and how its history complicates the way this period is considered. Roberta Ervine, professor of
Armenian studies at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, looked in depth at Armenian Christianity
as a space influenced by both East and West.
In his keynote speech, Robert Gregg, Teresa
Hihn Moore Professor Emeritus of Religious
Studies at Stanford University, explained that he
is one of the people who reinforced the “wrongheaded” map of the expansion of Abrahamic
religions westward as a series of battles and confrontations in Europe. He is now helping to dispel the myths of separation by researching the
common stories that reach across faith traditions.
On the third panel, Patrick S. Cheng explored
how textbooks on the history of Christianity
provide common maps for professors to use in
introducing students to the subject. However,
these texts often have a limited view of the
movement of Christianity, let alone the other
Abrahamic religions. Cheng shared the example
of the how the movement of Christianity into
China is often explained.
In the standard narrative, the Jesuits introduced Christianity in China in the sixteenth
century CE. However, there is evidence that the
Nestorian missions actually brought Christianity
to China in seventh century CE. Furthermore,
of the 24 textbooks Cheng surveyed, 50 percent
made no mention of this movement eastward,
and another 25% included only one sentence.
On this same panel, Esther Huang Yao
shared her research into Jewish communities in China. The Rev. Dr. T. James Kodera
’83 explored how Christianity spread in India
(see article on facing page) and how its history
further complicates the story of the westward
movement of Abrahamic religions.
The conference was capped by commentary from EDS professors Kwok Pui Lan and
Christopher Duraisingh, who offered reflections on the events of the day. (Read an excerpt
of Kwok Pui Lan’s closing reflections on page
6.) Duraisingh asked the group to remember
that the conference was really exploring the
stories not of religions but of “flesh and blood”
people of faith meeting each other.
The proceedings will be made into a book for
the wider field of theological education in the
coming year. Stay tuned.
what would it take to move the map?
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE
TO MOVE THE MAP?
Going South from the Silk Road
First Panel: Introducing
the Map
Lawrence Wills (EDS), Cameron Partridge
(Boston University), Bruce Lawrence (Duke
University)
Christians in India
T H E R E V. D R . T. J A M E S KO D E R A
W
hen we meet Christians from India, we are in the habit of asking
them, “How long have you been
Christians?” The retort is often, “For 2,000
years.” Then we are dumbfounded, not knowing
what to say next. “How can it be?” might be the
question we would ask, if we dared. Our question stems from our woefully inadequate understanding of the Christian heritage in India.
Our assumption is that those not of European heritage would have to be “newcomers” to
the Church, as a result of European and North
American missionary work in and for the rest
of the world. The expansion of Christianity by
the missionaries beyond the confines of Western
Europe did not begin until the sixteenth century, in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation by the Church
of Rome. In the case of North Americans, their
Protestant missionary activities did not begin
until 1806, when a handful of Williams College students gathered in prayer at the Haystack Monument on the college campus. The
BK HIPSHER
The Rev. Dr.T. James Kodera
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, the first North American Protestant
mission, was inspired by the Second Great
Awakening and was largely Congregational
in polity. It was proposed by Williams College graduates in 1810 and chartered two years
later. The London Missionary Society, formed
in 1795 by Evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists who were largely Congregationalists,
was the first British missionary movement. India was a major target of their mission, since it
was already a de facto British colony, although
not officially ruled by the British Raj until 1858.
It was followed by the Netherlands Missionary
Society, which was formed in 1826. Its early activities were confined to coastal Southern China
and Java, Indonesia. So, how could Indians have
been Christians for 2,000 years?
It is said that in 52 CE, Apostle Thomas
reached the western coast of India to proselytize among the Jews, who had arrived in Cochin
in 562 BCE after the destruction of the First
Temple in Jerusalem. Thomas arrived in Maziris,
an island near Cochin, which was wiped off
the map in the fourteenth century by a massive
flood. From there, Thomas went to Palayoor, near
present-day Guruvayoor, a Hindu Brahmanic, or
priestly, community. From there he journeyed farther south, in today’s State of Kerala.
Before he was stabbed to death in 72 CE
in Mylapore, part of today’s city of Chennai,
Thomas is believed to have founded in India
a “seven and a half churches,”1 ezhara pallikal
in Malayalam,2 a Dravidian-based cognate of
Tamil. The phrase is open to different interpretations. It sounds as if Thomas was in the
process of founding his eighth church when he
was martyred. This interpretation would make
sense, since the last two of the “seven and a half
churches” are located in Tamil Nadu. The eighth,
the “half church,” is not far from Chennai. According to The Rt. Rev. Thomas Samuel, the last
Bishop of the Diocese of Central Kerala of the
Church of South India, the word in Malayalam
for “half ” sounds similar to the word for “beautiful,” suggesting that Thomas established “seven
beautiful churches.”3 Samuel hastens to add
that “church” means “community” in the sense
Second Panel: Moving East
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent (Saint Michael’s
College), Roberta Ervine (St. Nersess
Armenian Seminary)
Lunch and Keynote Address
Robert Gregg (Stanford University)
Third Panel: Asia
T. James Kodera (Wellesley College), Esther
Huang Yao (Independent Scholar), Patrick S.
Cheng (EDS)
Closing Reflections
Christopher Duraisingh (EDS),
Kwok Pui Lan (EDS)
of the Greek koinonia. Malayalam for “beautiful”
is azhakulla. Does it sound sufficiently similar
to the Malayalam for half, ara, arapalli for “half
church,” or arapallikal for “half churches”? Perhaps. When transcribed, the words seem different, but when uttered and heard, the difference
may dissipate. Most people were illiterate in the
time of Thomas, not only in India but in the rest
of the world. They had to rely on the sound and
not the spelling of words. And yet, what would a
“beautiful community” mean? Questions remain.
The Rev. Dr.T. James Kodera is Professor of Religion and
Department Chair at Wellesley College and rector at St.
Luke’s Episcopal Church in Hudson, Massachusetts. In
1986, he was the first Asian American ordained to the
priesthood by the Diocese of Massachusetts since its
inception in the late eighteenth century.
Excerpted from The Rev. Dr. T. James Kodera’s written
remarks prepared for the conference, “What Would It Take
to Move the Map?”
1.
The Seven Churches are located in the order in which
Thomas founded them: Maliankara, Palayoor, Kottakavu,
Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Kollam, and Chayal. The first
six are in the State of Kerala and the last in Tamil Nadu.
The “half church” is Thiruvithamkode, which is also in
Tamil Nadu.
1.
In Malayalam, ezh is “seven,” ara is “half,” palli is
“church,” and pallikal “churches.
2.
From personal conversation with the Bishop on
January 16, 2009.
eds now | Spring 2012
5
what would it take to move the map?
Dr. Kwok Pui Lan and
Dr. Robert Gregg listen
to the proceedings.
P H OTO S B Y B K H I P S H E R
A Couple of Observations
After the Conference
K WO K P U I L A N
F
irst, we have to expand our imagination of the Christian tradition to include the many branches of Christianities and their interactions with other religious
traditions. In the United States, the teaching of church history tends to focus primarily on Western Christianity, with
little mention of Greek and Oriental Christianity.
For example, in his survey of textbooks on church history,
Professor Cheng pointed out that many leave out or mention
in passing Nestorian Christianity in China. This narrow and
selective way of understanding church history fails to do justice to the complex and multilayered Christian traditions and
impoverishes our knowledge of the many expressions and experiences of the divine.
Second, in order to expand our imagination, we need to
learn to decolonize our minds, such that we will not read history and create cartography based on Eurocentric lenses. In
his concluding remarks, Professor Christopher Duraisingh
spoke of cultivating multiple consciousness and developing
the capacity to see maps as synchronic and not diachronic.
This reminds me of what the late Edward Said, the pioneer
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episcopal divinity school
of postcolonial discourse, has said of contrapuntal reading
of history—reading history as intertwined and territories as
overlapped.
Decolonization of the mind means that we have to be
aware of the impacts of the Latinization of the world in the
first “globalization,” in which the people in the Americas were
brought into the orbit of Europe in the early modern period.
The Roman Catholic Church played an important role in
this remapping of the world. Those of us who are Episcopalians would do well to remember the consequences of the
Anglicization of the world. The British Empire has shaped
and remapped the cultures and histories of peoples under its
colonial control, and the Anglican Church has played a vital
part in it.
Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and
Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School.
These remarks are taken from Kwok Pui Lan’s closing comments at the
conference. Her full obervations, “Abrahamic Traditions on the Silk Road,”
can be found on the 99 Brattle blog at eds.edu.
going further
Going Further
F
EDS Goes to China
our faculty members, two staff members, and twelve
students will take part in a travel seminar to China
from May 18 to June 2, 2012. The seminar is co-led by
Professors Patrick S. Cheng and Kwok Pui Lan.
The focus of the seminar is to learn about the culture and
religions of China, explore the life and witness of the Chinese
churches in a rapidly changing society, and study the legacy
of the Episcopal mission in China. This is the first time that
a group from EDS will visit China. The seminar is generously
supported by the Defreitas Foundation and the Henry Luce
Foundation of New York.
The group will travel to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou,
Nanjing, Xian, and Beijing to visit churches, seminaries,
Christian organizations, and universities. Participants will
also be exposed to the vibrant religious life in China by visiting famous Buddhist temples, a Confucian research center,
and the renowned mosque in Xian.
This fall, the participants of the seminar will share what
they learned about Christianity in a multireligious society.
Please follow the progress of the travelers online at www.
eds.edu.
The EDS travel seminar
will travel to six cities
in China from May 18 to
June 2.
Beijing
CHINA
Xian
Suzhou
Shanghai
Nanjing
Hangzhou
eds now | Spring 2012
7
kellogg lectures
Why Is Interfaith Work So
Important in Today’s World?
Q A N D A W I T H D R . I N G R I D M AT T S O N
0n thursday, may 3, 2012, dr. ingrid mattson will deliver the kellogg lectures.
Dr. Mattson took a few minutes to answer our questions about the importance of thinking
from an interfaith perspective.
Q: Why do you think interfaith work is so important in
today’s world?
Q: Can you share an insight that came from your tenure as
president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)?
A: Traditional boundaries that separated adherents of different faiths are increasingly dissolving. This means that we
are living not just in a multifaith world, but in multifaith
neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Without interfaith
engagement, our religious differences can lead us to hurt feelings and even social conflict. Interfaith work seeks to ensure
that religious differences are not a cause of conflict but an
opportunity to draw on the strengths of our individual faiths
for the greater good.
A: In the decade after 9/11, when I served first as vice president, then as president of ISNA, we saw a rise in an aggressive secular movement that attacked religion. I realized that in
this context, what each faith group does affects all the others
because in many people’s minds we are all simply “religion.”
Many people will blame religion for much of the bad in the
world; therefore, it is important to show how religion can be
a positive force in society. We do this not only by building up
our own communities but by doing good work all together.
Interfaith social justice advocacy and positive action is therefore extremely important.
Q: What is one of the key elements of successful
interfaith dialogue?
A: Interfaith dialogue will only work if we are willing to let go
of our misconceptions as we encounter people of other faiths.
When we hear that the information we had about another
faith group, or our assumptions about them, are wrong, we
can become defensive and refuse to listen with an open mind
and an open heart. Interfaith dialogue can only work when
we are aware of these obstacles and seek to overcome them.
Q: What is the greatest obstacle to interfaith initiatives?
A: The greatest obstacle to interfaith initiatives is the trend
of misinformation campaigns that are undertaken to spread
hateful and incorrect information about another religion.
Email boxes are flooded with this kind of information and
the Internet is rife with it. These hateful campaigns serve to
inoculate many people against interfaith engagement.
Dr. Ingrid Mattson is Professor of Islamic Studies, founder of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program, and current director of the Macdonald Center for
Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. She earned her PhD in Islamic Studies from the
University of Chicago and is the author of The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Societies (Wiley-Blackwell 2007). From
2006-2010, Dr. Mattson served as the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America. In July 2012, Dr. Mattson will become the
inaugural Chair of Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
The Kellogg Lectures were established by the late Rev. Frederic Brainerd Kellogg ’37 in memory of his father, Frederic Rogers Kellogg, a distinguished lawyer who was founder and first president of the National Community Chest of America. Upon the death of her son in 1958, Mrs. Frederic
Rogers Kellogg continued the lectureship on a permanent basis as a memorial to her son and husband.
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episcopal divinity school
alumni/ae days
A L U M N I / A E DAY S A N D K E L L O G G L E C T U R E S 2 0 1 2
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
From Monologue
to Dialogue
Nurturing a Culture of Just-Peace
Opening Local Communities for Interfaith Engagement
1 pm | St. John’s Memorial Chapel
Join faculty member Christopher Duraisingh ’65 as he
facilitates a conversation between representatives of
different faith traditions, including Buddhist, Hindu,
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths. Professor Duraisingh
recently taught a course, “World Religions and the
Search for Community,” and he has engaged the campus
community in a series of conversations throughout the
academic year as a part of EDS’s interfaith initiatives.
Alastair Cassels-Brown Memorial
Organ Concert
Nancy Granert, Organist
I
Exploring World Religions to
Promote a Culture of Peace
n spring 2011, EDS received a generous grant from the
Henry Luce Foundation of New York to conduct faculty
training, expand curriculum, and develop online continuing education to explore multiple faith traditions. From a local
ministerial context, it is important that lay and ordained leaders are able to sensitively participate, and facilitate interfaith
conversations. Striving to create an ethos and a continuing culture of openness, EDS has embarked on a series of programs
and initiatives designed to enrich knowledge and understanding of other faith traditions.
Join us as we engage with one another during these two
days of reunion, reconnection, and conversation. Visit www.
eds.edu to register.
4 pm | St. John’s Memorial Chapel
Nancy Granert is the organist at Emmanuel Church
in Boston, Boston Jewish Spirit, and is the Organist in
Residence at Harvard’s Memorial Church. She has served
as Dean of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild
of Organists and received her training at Oberlin College
and New England Conservatory of Music.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
KELLOGG LECTURES
D R . I N G R I D M AT T S O N
LECTURE 1
What Does It Mean to Be an Observant
Muslim in America?
10:45 am | St. John’s Memorial Chapel
Dr. Mattson will address assimilation and religious
accommodation, the difference between religious law
and civil law, and alliances for the common good.
LECTURE 2
What Is the Current State of ChristianMuslim Relations?
2:30 pm | St. John’s Memorial Chapel
In her second lecture, Dr. Mattson will survey the global
state of relations between Christians and Muslims, examine material and ideological factors that create tension and
conflict, and discuss the political and theological ideas
and activities that further peace and community.
eds now | Spring 2012
9
in the first person
f irst person
L AU R A PA R R I L L O
Lydia Kelsey Bucklin ’15, accompanied by husband Brandon
and baby Isla, at the January 2012 term. Lydia matriculated
as an MDiv student in June 2010.
In the First Person
LY D I A K E L S E Y B U C K L I N
A
ttending seminary is a life-changing experience.
For most of my seminarian friends, it meant
relocating, sometimes leaving a career, and either moving their whole family or putting plans to start
a family on hold. At one point in my life, I would have
embraced the exciting opportunity that a three-year residential seminary would offer. However, as I started to
plant some roots, leaving my home and family in Iowa
was no longer an option.
I experienced a call to seminary in my late twenties.
I dreamed of continuing my education with a master of
divinity, but was resigned to the fact that it would not
be possible for me. I had just started a new life with my
husband, Brandon, and we wanted to have children in the
near future. I had just started a ministry, working with
children and youth in the Diocese of Iowa, and I had
made a commitment to stay with that community.
When I heard about Episcopal Divinity School’s Distributive Learning (DL) program, it seemed too good
to be true. It was as if the program were made for me.
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episcopal divinity school
I spoke with other DL students, faculty, and staff, and
decided to apply to the program. I have now completed
half of the master of divinity program while balancing my
studies with my vocation, and even having a baby.
Don’t get me wrong—attending seminary, balancing a
family, and working full time is a lot of work. Some days
are harder than others. But I know the EDS community
is there to support me in my journey, and without the DL
program I never would have had the option to attend
seminary at all. My family looks forward to our regular
visits to Cambridge for the June and January terms, and
my husband and I hope our daughter will have memories
of the community that has enriched our lives.
As we all begin a new way of being church in the 21st
century, I commend EDS for thinking outside the box
and widening the circle.
Lydia Kelsey Bucklin serves as Children and Youth Missioner and
Editor of Iowa Connections in the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa.
She lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with her husband, Brandon, and
daughter, Isla.
educational technology grant
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Award Episcopal Divinity School
$200,000 Educational Technology Grant
JUDITH NIES
the arthur vining davis foundations, based in jacksonville, florida, recently
announced that they have awarded Episcopal Divinity School a grant of $200,000. The award
will be used to support President Ragsdale’s goal of strengthening the institution by updating
its educational technology.
EDS is among the first Episcopal seminaries to launch
successful web-based educational programs. In fact, distributive learning students now make up one-third of the
school’s degree candidates. As the program has grown, it has
required more sophisticated equipment, greater bandwidth,
and improved training for faculty and staff.
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, well known as
a key funder of public television, also support programs in
higher education, health, secondary education, and religion.
Among theological schools, the Foundation is known for its
due diligence, and the grant process included several stages
of assessment, questionnaires, and a site visit.
When asked what qualities the Foundation evaluates
during an institutional visit, religion program officer Cheryl
Tupper said, “Qualities that are important to our trustees
include the record of alumni and trustee support, financial
stability, and a sense of community and shared purpose.”
EDS earned high marks.
The essence of Dean Ragsdale’s proposal is to upgrade
the school’s technological capacity in order to keep up with
the growing demand for distributive learning. Although
people who visit EDS’s Distributive Learning classrooms
see smartboards and cameras, they might miss the hidden
network and infrastructure that makes these classes possible: a new server room, the addition of T1 lines, expanded
WiFi coverage, and upgraded fiber optic networks are all
part of the plan.
The grant will contribute significantly to the school’s
growth by supporting the successful integration of these
new technical elements, which will give EDS students a
personal and cutting-edge classroom experience during
their ministerial formation.
Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett
teaches a class in which students
are both in the classroom and
participating online from distant
locations.
eds now | Spring 2012
11
on campus
On Campus
P H OTO S B Y J E F F R E Y P E R K I N S
“Absalom Jones was known as an earnest preacher, he denounced slavery and warned oppressors to ‘clean
their hands of slaves.’ It is said that to him God was the father who always acted ‘on behalf of the oppressed
and distressed.’
But it was his constant visiting and mild manner that made him beloved by his own flock and by the community.
Known as the Black bishop of the Episcopal Church, it also is said that Jones was an example of persistent faith
in God and in the Church as God’s instrument.”
—Bishop Barbara Harris, from her sermon delivered at the Absalom Jones Eucharist, Monday, February 6, 2012
Artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy with her icon of
martyr and alumnus Jonathan Myrick Daniels ’66,
from her “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement”
exhibit, on view in the Sherrill Library Atrium
through May 2012.
“The Bible asks, ‘What does it profit a man to gain
the whole world and lose his soul?’ Yet, we find so
many engaged in a relentless battle to gain the
treasures of this world, in many instances, never
weighing the cost against the quality and purpose
of their own lives. This observation is not intended
to vilify the rich or the rich and famous, but to acknowledge the fact that self-sacrifice is not a human
characteristic that comes to us spontaneously. And
so we find it to be extraordinary when someone
truly considers not just rendering service, but ‘Selfgiving Service.”
—Rev. Dr. Marjorie A. Jones, from her sermon
delivered at the Jonathan Daniels Eucharist, Monday,
March 19, 2012
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episcopal divinity school
The Very Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw, Dean of the Cathedral
in San Francisco and former EDS Procter Scholar,
signs her books, A Practical Christianity: Meditations
for the Season of Lent and Octavia, Daughter of God:
The Story of a Female Messiah and Her Followers, after
preaching at the Community Eucharist on March 1.
faculty writing
Remembering Grace
T H E R E V. D R . PAT R I C K S . C H E N G
grace, simply defined, is an amazing gift from god that helps us to be reunited
with God after a period of separation. For LGBT people, an analogy to grace might be the joy felt
at reconciling with one’s friend, lover, or family member after an emotional or physical separation.
F
or example, I often experience a deep sense of joy—not
to mention peace and relief—after reconciling with
my husband Michael after an argument or even after
returning from a long work-related trip. I have noticed, over
the course of our twenty-year relationship, that sometimes reconciliation takes longer, or is harder to achieve, than at other
times. In the same way, grace is not something we can conjure
up on our own timetable. It is a pure gift from God.
In terms of grace working in my own life, I had left the
Roman Catholic Church and led a secular life after coming
out of the closet. I graduated from college with a degree in
English Literature, went to Harvard Law School, was elected
to the law review, and then clerked for a federal appellate
judge in Los Angeles. I did all the “right” things as a young
lawyer, including working for two Wall Street law firms. Although I was making a six-figure salary in my mid-twenties
and had all the external marks of success, I felt extremely
empty inside and unsatisfied. A turning point for me was
waking up one morning and telling Michael that I no longer
knew what my values were and what I stood for.
I recall two instances of grace breaking through in my life
around that time. First, I had heard about a church trial in
which Walter Righter, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, was
acquitted (that is, not found guilty) of heresy for ordaining an
openly gay man. That led me to learn more about the Episcopal Church and wander into the Church of Saint Luke in
the Fields in Greenwich Village, where I ultimately fell back
in love with God and the Christian faith. Second, I saw a
flier posted on a street corner for a summer intensive course
in biblical Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary. For some
unknown reason, I felt a deep desire to take the class, even
though I knew virtually nothing about biblical languages.
Little did I know that the class would be the start of a decade-long journey to earning my Ph.D. in systematic theology at Union.
Although I ultimately followed my heart in terms of pursuing my love for theology, my vocational journey as a theologian has not always been easy. In particular, I was raised in
an immigrant Asian American family in which success was
not defined in spiritual terms. It was difficult to explain to
my parents and other family members why I was pursuing
theology even though I already had a law degree and a good
job. My father also became very sick—and ultimately died of
cancer—during the course of my doctoral program. It was a
challenge to finish my field exams, to write and defend my
dissertation, and to make a significant career change, all while
working full time as a lawyer. (By this time, I had left law firm
practice and was working as a lawyer for an agency of the
Episcopal Church.) As the elder son in a Chinese American
family, I also had to wrestle with feelings of filial responsibility that urged me to stay in a more financially lucrative career.
Thanks to God’s grace, however, I was able to stay the course.
As I write this book, I am happily teaching at an Episcopal seminary and writing about
queer theology—something I
never in my wildest imagination
could have predicted happening
two decades ago when I graduated from college. This unexpected reunion with God after
many years of estrangement and
separation has been an example
of the amazing grace at work in
my life.
The Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng is
Assistant Professor of Historical and
Systematic Theology at the Episcopal
Divinity School.
This essay is an excerpt (24-25pp) from
From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering
the Queer Christ, by Patrick S. Cheng (192
pages, $20.00, ISBN: 978-1-59627-238-5),
and used here with permission of Seabury
Books, an imprint of Church Publishing
Inc., New York. For more information, visit
www.churchpublishing.org.
eds now | Spring 2012 13
faculty writing
Excerpt from The Jewish
Annotated New Testament
D R . L AW R E N C E W I L L S
dr. lawrence wills, ethelbert talbot professor of biblical
Studies at Episcopal Divinity School, is a contributor to The Jewish Annotated
New Testament, providing annotations to the book of Mark. Here are a two
of his annotations from this groundbreaking new book.
mark 7:3-4
(3) For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not
eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,
thus observing the tradition of the elders; (4)
and they do not eat anything from the market
unless they wash it; and there are also many
other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.
mark 7:18-19
(18) Jesus said to them, “Then do you also fail
to understand? Do you not see that whatever
goes into a person from outside cannot defile, (19) since it enters, not the heart but the
stomach, and goes out into the sewer”? (Thus
he declared all foods clean.)
Comment on vs 19:
“Declared all foods clean,” literally and more accurately,
Comment on 7:3-4:
“cleansed all foods.” The earlier issue in this chapter, washing
That Mark must explain these practices indicates that the
hands, is expanded here to refer to all kosher laws. Mataudience (though not the setting) is largely Gentile; this exthew omits this clause, and Luke does not include this enplanation is lacking in Mt 15:2 (Luke and John lack this story).
tire episode. There are several distinct possibilities here. The
The Pharisees were known for observing “traditions of the
declaration may reflect Mark’s rejection of Jewish food laws
elders” not found in scripture, including hand washing, but it
(cf. Paul at Rom 14:20), or an older Jewish apocalyptic tradiis probably incorrect that “all the Jews” observed these laws
tion of the transformations of impurity at the end (Zech
at this time. Sadducees—and most Jews?—did not follow the
14:20). Further, since this line and the descriptions of Jewish
Pharisees in this matter.This raises the possibility that even if
practices in vv. 3-4 above are not found in Matthew, they may
Jesus’ followers disagreed with the Pharisees on hand washhave been added when the Gospel was brought into an uning, they were yet in agreement with many, if not most Jews.
derstanding of Jesus’ teaching that was compatible with Paul.
Concerning Jesus’ own teaching on this point, it is unlikely
that the controversy over Torah among his early followers
would have been as intense if there had been a tradition going back to him that nullified Torah in this way.
Dr. Lawrence Wills is Ethelbert Talbot Professor of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School.
Extracts from the New Revised Standard Bible text of the Gospel According to Mark, copyright (c) 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. Extracts from the annotations to Mark from The Jewish Annotated New
Testament, copyright (c) 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permission.
14
episcopal divinity school
faculty writing | faculty updates
Excerpt from
Globalization,
Gender, and
Peacebuilding
K WO K P U I L A N
“from understanding dialogue as service
to mission in the first half of the twentieth
century to the discussion of multiple religious
belonging, the Christian church has changed
quite drastically in its attitude toward other
religious traditions. As we face the future, interfaith dialogue must address some of the
burning issues in our world, such as the rise of
fundamentalisms of all kinds, the assertion of
religious identity and fragmentation of community, the exploitation of religious passion for
violence, the widespread suspicion of political
and religious leaders, and cynicism about possible social change. Interfaith dialogue must be
a force for peacekeeping. In contemporary politics there are the dual forces of politicization
of religion and the theologization of politics.
Sadly, religion is a contributing factor to conflicts and violence in some of the war-torn and
poorest areas in Africa, South India, Palestine,
and other parts in the Middle East. . . . It is
therefore imperative for people of all faiths to
work toward a future in which religion can be a
force not for destruction but for common good.”
Dr. Kwok Pui Lan is William F. Cole Professor of Christian
Theology and Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School.
Excerpt from Globalization, Gender, and Peacebuilding:The
Future of Interfaith Dialogue, by Kwok Pui Lan, (p. 28-29), copyright (c) 2012 by Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana;
Paulist Press, Inc., Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of
Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com
Faculty Updates
During her fall sabbatical, Angela Bauer-Levesque attended
a Women in Leadership in Theologial Education Seminar at
ATS in Pittsburgh, Penn. in late October and participated in
an Academic Dean’s Colloquy on the Future of Theological
Education, sponsored by the Wabash Center for Teaching and
Learning in Religion, in Fajardo, P.R. in January. She also began work on a commentary on the Book of Zechariah, to be
published in the Wisdom Series by Liturgical Press in 2016.
In February, Patrick S. Cheng delivered a lecture on queer theology for the Philadelphia Theological Institute and preached
at Grace Epiphany Church in Mount Airy, Penn. Later that
month, he participated in a panel about the future of liberation theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York
City and gave a talk at Trinity Wall Street parish on how
he experiences God as an openly gay seminary professor. In
late March he lead a Lenten retreat for Integrity Delaware in
Rehoboth Beach, Del. His book, From Sin to Amazing Grace:
Discovering the Queer Christ (Seabury Press/Church Publishing) was published this spring. (see Faculty Writing).
eds now | Spring 2012
15
faculty updates
Faculty
Updates (continued)
In early March, Bill Kondrath co-led, along with
VISIONS consultant Jo Bowens Lewis, a daylong anti-racism/anti-oppression session for the
Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Connecticut.
Adjunct faculty member and VISIONS founder
Valerie Batts co-led a similar session with Bill
in November. In total, over 300 clergy as well as
several key lay leaders participated in the training. Bill was delighted to see a number of EDS
alumnae and alumni at the sessions.
Kwok Pui Lan’s new book, Globalization, Gender,
and Peacebuilding: The Future of Interfaith Dialogue (Paulist Press) in the spring (see Faculty
Writing). She was a faculty advisor for Anglican
female doctoral students from the two-thirds
world at a conference in Canterbury, England,
from March 26 to 31. Archbishop Rowan Williams met with the group and gave them a lot of
encouragement.
Joan Martin was honored on March 2 at the
Womanist Legends Gala in New York City as
one of the nation’s foremost womanist scholars and ministers for her contribution to the
Church and Academy by the Black Religious
Scholars Group.
Ed Rodman was the featured speaker at two
events this spring celebrating the life of Bayard
Rustin on the centennial of his birth. One was
sponsored by the Cambridge Peace Commission and the other by the Nonviolence Working
Group of Occupy Boston.
Susie Snyder became a Co-Chair of the Religion and Migration Group at the American
Academy of Religion in January and is looking forward to the publication of her first book,
Asylum-Seeking, Migration and Church (Farnham: Ashgate) in the fall. She is presenting a paper entitled “Moving’ the Anglican Communion:
Migration, Strange Grace and Iglesia San Pedro”
16
episcopal divinity school
Professor Joan Martin and President and Dean Katherine
Ragsdale at the Womanist Legends Gala where Martin
was honored.
at an ecumenical conference in Assisi, Italy, in
April, and co-convened the Migration, Theology and Faith Forum Symposium at EDS on
“Borders and Transnationalism: Religious Perspectives” on March 23.
Larry Wills is one of the contributors to the
new Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford
University Press) (see Faculty Writing). This
commentary on New Testament texts by Jewish
scholars is intended to initiate an interfaith dialogue, and it immediately became a best-seller
in the religion and Bible categories. Larry wrote
the introduction and annotations on the Gospel
of Mark.
Gale Yee presented a paper, “The Creation of
Poverty in Ancient Israel,” at the inaugural ses-
sion of the Poverty in the Biblical World Consultation at the annual meeting of the Society
of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, Calif.,
November 21, 2011. She also served on a panel
on the Scholar/Activist for the Committee on
Under-Represented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession, and presented a paper,
“Why Cultural Criticism Helps Us ‘See’ the
Bible,” at the Old Testament Colloquium, St.
John’s University, Collegeville, Minn., February
3-5, 2012. She was also on the opening panel
presenting a biblical perspective on the theme,
“Abundant Life and Unjust Prosperity,” for the
annual meeting of Pacific Asian North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry
(PANAAWTM), held at San Francisco Theological Seminary, March 15-18.
annual fund
annual fund
Every Sunday Is Theological
Education Sunday
K E L LY F E E N E Y
E
very February, the Episcopal Church celebrates
Theological Education Sunday. At Episcopal
Divinity School, we celebrate every Sunday as
Theological Education Sunday.
Every time we come together to worship, we share the
truth that everyone is a student of God’s word. Each person is important in carrying out God’s mission of justice,
compassion, and reconciliation in the world. Every time
your congregation hears a sermon, they are listening to
people who answered the call to engage more deeply in
theological education. And every day presents an opportunity to support the next generation of leaders, lay and
ordained, for God’s Church and the world.
You can play an important role in supporting this
more expansive initiative through one or more of the following acts:
1.
Invest in the people and programs at EDS by
making a gift to the school’s Annual Fund.
2.
Encourage your church leaders to make a
theological education offering from your church
budget.
3.
Take a special collection from your church’s
congregation to support theological education.
4.
Invite a current EDS student to preach at your
church.
5.
Pray for the alumni/ae, faculty, staff, and students.
Please contact me at kfeeney@eds.edu or 617-6821542 for more information on how you can support EDS,
or about how to invite a guest preacher for next February’s Theological Education Sunday—or for any day that
meets your church’s needs.
eds now | Spring 2012
17
a life following the questions
A Life Following the Questions
JEFFREY PERKINS
in the fall of 2011, phoebe dent weil ’93 notified episcopal
Divinity School of her commitment to make a major bequest to the school
from her estate. Through her generous act, Weil will provide essential
support for the ongoing work of EDS, an institution that helped her
examine some of her deepest questions.
Phoebe Dent Weil has always been curious—whether it was when she first left the
South to attend Wellesley College or when she
walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1958 and asked the director, George
Stout, a forefather of art conservation in the
United States, for a job.
She followed her curiosity to New York,
becoming one of the first students of a new
program in art conservation at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She then found
opportunities to study with the movers and
shakers of this new field of art conservation,
building a vocation that combined her love of
science with the goal of helping to regain lost
beauty.
Weil put this knowledge to work in projects
to restore sculpture, and was deeply involved
in sculpture conservation efforts in St. Louis
through the Center for Archaeometry at Washington University. Before long, as technical
director and chief conservator of Washington
University Technology Associates, she was consulting on art conservation projects all over the
United States and the world.
18
episcopal divinity school
But the questions didn’t stop, as Weil began
to feel an inner restlessness. Having accomplished so much in art restoration and helped to
lay a foundation for the field of sculpture conservation, she felt the need to go deeper.
She began meeting with a women’s study
group led by EDS alum The Rev. Patricia Handloss ’76 in her Episcopal church in St. Louis
to explore the topics of feminist theology, feminist Biblical interpretation, Jungian psychology, the new physics, and Joseph Campbell,
and to make deeper connections between science and religion, theology and art. (See sidebar for a few of the influential books from her
journey.)
Handloss encouraged Weil to enter the ordination process and to apply to EDS. She visited EDS in 1989 and was interviewed by the
late professor Sue Hiatt ’64, who had briefly
been Weil’s Wellesley classmate before transferring to Radcliffe. Weil was turned down for
ordination but was accepted at EDS. She then
decided, with the encouragement of family and
friends, that she could not turn back from the
road she had begun to travel. She entered EDS
in the fall of 1990 and graduated with master
of divinity in pastoral theology in 1993.
“I felt a deep compulsion to explore all of
these new insights and discoveries about religion and the nature of religious experience that
brought new vitality into the religious life. The
time was now, and while I felt like I jumped off
a cliff, I wasn’t going back. I had to go to EDS
and I loved the experience. How wonderful that
at age 57 I had that opportunity and that the
people at EDS were happy to have me because I
wanted the education. It led me to a great richness of experience but also combined with a
dose of complexity to my life.”
In 2001, Phoebe Weil established Northern Light Studio in St. Louis, which moved to
Florence, Massachusetts, near Smith College,
in 2006. The studio specializes in researching
a life following the questions
A Few Key
Books and
Thinkers from
Weil’s Path
John Polkinghorne, The Way the World Is
Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The
Mystery of God in Feminist Theological
Discourse
Carter Heyward, Touching our Strength
C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Joseph Campbell—studies on symbols
and myths
Morton Kelsey, Encounter with God
William James, Varieties of Religious
Experience
and teaching historic painting and sculpture
techniques, and provides classroom space for a
course in technical art history offered at Smith.
Weil now divides her time between St. Louis
and Northampton, Massachusetts.
“EDS has been very courageous in spreading
the Word, and it’s hard. Many people don’t want
to listen, out of fear—an old and ongoing story.
They think it’s dangerous—which of course it
is! I believe in St. Anselm’s axiom of ‘faith seeking understanding’—it’s a lifelong journey and I
think we should be fearless in our pursuit.”
To learn more about how you can include EDS
in your financial and estate planning, as Phoebe
Weil did, please contact Hugo De La Rosa,
vice president for institutional advancement, at
HDeLaRosa@eds.edu or 617-682-1532.
Publications by the Jesus Seminar, especially Marcus Borg and John Dominic
Crossan
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (and
the many studies by others on recently
discovered biblical material)
Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.
Denis and Its Art Treasures, Erwin
Panofsky and Gerda Panofsky-Soergel,
editors
Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader
in Religion, Carol P. Christ and Judith
Plaskow, editors
eds now | Spring 2012
19
history among us
Tom Logan PDS ’41 and
Hermione, his wife of over
70 years, pose during the
celebration of Fr. Logan’s
100th birthday at St.
Thomas African Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia.
ED MUSE
History Among Us
The Rev. Cn. Thomas W. S. Logan Sr. PDS ’41
L A U R A PA R R I L L O
At an event held at St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Fr. Tom Logan
was recognized by family and friends on the
occasion of his 100th birthday. Alumni/ae
Executive Committee member James Shannon PDS ’73 attended the service on behalf of
EDS in order to honor Fr. Logan with the 2012
Distinguished Alumni/ae Award. Shannon was
assisted by Liz Colton ’04 and Randy Callender
’10, both of whom are priests in the Diocese of
Pennsylvania.
The Distinguished Alumni/ae Award recognizes the work of graduates in advancing the
School’s mission of justice, compassion, and
reconciliation. The citation on Fr. Logan’s certificate reads as follows:
This certificate is presented on March 18, 2012,
20
episcopal divinity school
on the occasion of your recognition as recipient
of the Distinguished Alumni/ae Award. Your
ministry in parish work, diocesan leadership,
and contemporary social issues spanning more
than 71 years continues to epitomize the work
of Christ in our midst. For your loyal and extraordinary leadership, Episcopal Divinity
School and the Church celebrate your centennial
with prayerful gratitude.
After the event, Shannon shared his
thoughts: “I was happy to be a part of this extraordinary event as a member of the diocese
and a fellow PDS graduate. The church and the
parish hall were overflowing with people from
all over the country who have been touched in
some way by Tom Logan’s ministry. From the
beginning of the service, the congregation im-
mediately understood that the service would
be moving and electric. All who attended came
away knowing how deeply this priest has been
committed to Jesus and the Church.”
At age 100 (as of March 19, 2012), Fr. Logan is the oldest living alumna/us of Episcopal
Divinity School. He is a class of 1941 Philadelphia Divinity School graduate. He served as
rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Philadelphia from 1940 to 1984, was active in the
civil rights movement, and continues to serve
at St. Thomas African Episcopal Church as assisting priest.
The Alumni/ae Association and the community of Episcopal Divinity School wish Fr.
Logan many more years of good health and
active ministry. We are proud to call him an
alumnus.
class notes
Class Notes
1940-1949
Frank E. Greene ’42 reports being an active parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church in Meredith,
N.H.
Owen Thomas ’49 presented two
papers at the AAR meeting in San
Francisco in November 2011. His
essay “Kierkegaard’s Attack upon
‘Christendom’ and the Episcopal
Church” and a book review were
published in the Winter 2012 issue
of Anglican Theological Review.
1950-1959
Gil Avery ’55 recently moved to a
continuing care facility in Eugene,
Ore.
Distributive Learning student Lori Exley ’17, faculty member Patrick Cheng, Randy Callender ’10,Thomas Eoyang ’03,
Harriet Kollin ’04, and Liz Colton ’04 gather after the Diocese of Philadelphia’s Absalom Jones service on February 11, 2012.
Randy Callendar was the featured preacher at the service.
Elizabeth Myers ’62 is still enjoying reasonably good health, golf,
and friends, while grateful for her?
part-time ministry in the Diocese
of Newark.
William Persell ’69 was the bishopin-residence the last two weeks
of January 2012 at St. Paul in the
Desert, Palm Springs, Calif.
William Speer ’62 is learning to
write music and play the cello.
1970-1979
Richard Hennigar ’57 recently
checked in to tell us that although
he is unable to travel to Cambridge
for events, he fondly recalls singing
in the choir when he was at EDS
many decades ago.
Paul Thompson ’62 is currently a
part-time associate priest at St. Peter’s in Osterville, Mass., and priest
in charge of St. Andrew’s-by-theSea, a summer chapel in Hyannis
Port. He is canonically resident in
the Diocese of Vermont.
James Purdy ’70 retired as rector of
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in St.
Louis, Mo., in August 2011.
1960-1969
Martin Bayang ’65 tells us that the
congregation of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Grants, N.M.
recently presented his family with
a handsome silver-and-turquoise
cross to commemorate their 50
years in the ministry—six years in
the Philippines, six years in Massachusetts, a year in the Dakotas, and
37 years of bivocational ministry in
the Diocese of Rio Grande.
Henry Bird ‘56 recently published
his memoir, titled Ride the Wind:
Biologist and Pastor, and has moved
to a retirement home in Maine.
Richard Taliaferro ’60 was recently
elected as a delegate to the Annual
Council of the Episcopal Diocese
of Virginia for a two-year term. He
is also the convener of a Discernment Committee for a member of
his parish.
Donald Hart ’62 is serving as
chaplain to the search and election process of the Diocese of
New Hampshire to replace retiring
Bishop Gene Robinson.
Warren Crews ’65 is enjoying retirement, is doing some adjunct
teaching at Eden Theological Seminary (Mo.), and is very involved in
interfaith dialogue.
Alexander Daley ’71 was awarded
an honorary degree (doctor of divinity) by Queen’s College, a theological school in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in May 2011.
Richard Gressle ’71 has recently
retired after 40 years as a priest.
Richard most recently served at
Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack,
N.Y.
Stuart Hoke ’72 was elected to
the board of Recovery Ministries
of the Episcopal Church. Recovery Ministries is an independent
nationwide network of Episcopal
laity and clergy, dioceses and parishes, schools, agencies, and other
institutions—all with a common
commitment to address the effects
of addiction, in all its forms, in relation to the church’s mission.
Warren Murphy ’72 recently authored a book titled, On Sacred
Ground: A Religious and Spiritual
History of Wyoming. For more information, visit onsacredgroundbook.com.
Thomas Faulkner ’74 was recently
a Dean’s Forum featured guest
at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland,
Ohio. The cathedral is featuring
his sculptural interpretation of the
14 Stations of the Cross, called
“Walking the Way of the Cross,” as
part its Lenten programming.
Andrew MacBeth ’75 is serving as
interim rector of Christ Church in
Grosse Pointe, Mich.
Jim Dugan ’76 recently retired from
the Diocese of Huron. He is now
the Dean of Keewatin and Archdeacon of the Southern Region of
the diocese, which encompasses
northwest Ontario and eastern and
northern Manitoba.
Carl Beasley ’77 reports that he
attended CREDO in Richmond,
Va., in October 2011. He says that
eds now | Spring 2012
21
class notes
Pattie Handloss ’76 was one of his
fellow conferees.
Dan Warren ’77 retired from St.
Paul’s in Brunswick, Maine, in August 2011, and now serves as associate chaplain at Bates College.
Lyle Hall ’78 reports that he is enjoying retirement in South Woodstock, Vt. He occasionally helps out
at St. James in Woodstock, where
he and his wife, Liz ’95, are active
parishioners.
Laurian Seeber ’78 has recently
been appointed vicar of St. Dunstan’s in Waitsfield, Vt.
1980-1989
Francis A. Hubbard ’81 recently
had three liturgical dramas published by Church Publishing/
Cokesbury as part of its “Skiturgies.” “Joseph and Mary” is designed especially for teenagers; “He
Is Lord” is an Easter play; and “St.
Barnabas, Son of Encouragement”
is intergenerational.
James Wallis ’81 was a panel member at the Interfaith Council of
Southern Nevada Forum on the
topic of sexual morality in October
2011.
Annamarie Pluhar ’82 is an active
member of St. Michael’s, Brattleboro, Vt., and recently published
a book titled, Sharing Housing, A
Guidebook for Finding and Keeping
Good Housemates.
Pamela Hunter ’83 continues to
serve Prince of Peace Lutheran
Church in Wash. full time, while
also presiding at the St. Swithin’s
Episcopal Mission twice monthly.
Pam notes that St. Swithin is her
husband’s “patron saint,” and classmates may remember that while on
campus they held parties on that
feast day.
Jim Kodera ’83 participated as a
panelist at the conference “What
Will It Take to Move the Map?”
held at EDS in March 2012.
22
episcopal divinity school
Mary Ellen Griffin ’86 is a clinical
psychologist in private practice,
with offices in Sylva and Asheville,
N.C.
Elizabeth Kaeton ’86 was recently
elected to a three-year term on the
national board of the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Elizabeth Gomes ’87 continues to
enjoy her retirement while serving
half-time as priest-in-residence
at St. Christopher’s Episcopal
Church in Wichita, Kans.
Barbara Smith-Moran ’89 is the
warden of the newly formed North
American Province of the Society
of Ordained Scientists. She has
been a member of the society since
1992. At the end of February she
began a half-hour radio show on
1550 AM called “Neighborhood Is
Family,” on which she talks about
Grace Church, Everett, Mass., and
the congregation’s efforts to be
good neighbors to the local Haitian community.
1990-1999
Linda Brebner ’90 is retired and
writing a book on the early Presbyterian clergywomen who were
ordained between 1956 and 1976.
Webb Brown ’91 reports that she
continues God’s work in her hospice chaplain ministry at VNA
Care Hospice in the greater Western Massachusetts area. She says
that serving those facing the end
of life and their families continues
to open her heart to witness with
those in their spiritual journey of
discovery of love, mercy, and peace.
Mary Marguerite Kohn ’93 has
been serving as an adjunct faculty
member for Fordham University
for a year, teaching online courses
in the Graduate School of Religion
and Religious Education.
Anne Stanley ’94 retired on October 2, 2011, as rector of Christ
Episcopal Church in Norway,
Maine, after 13 years.
Daniel Torto ’94 was recently elected Bishop-Coadjutor of the Anglican Diocese of Accra, Ghana. His
ordination will take place on June
24, 2012.
Ralph Moore ’95 has been retired
from full-time service since 2007,
although he does serve part-time
for congregations in Maine. He
currently teaches ethics and is
a trustee at Watershed School,
Rockland, Maine.
Laurie Auffant ’98 will be graduating with an MSW from Salem
State University in Salem, Mass.,
in May 2012. She is currently facilitating group therapy for adults
with chronic mental illness in Lexington, Mass.
Sarah Clark ’98 says that she recently played the princess in a production of Cradle Song at Theatre in
the Pines in Rockport, Mass., thus
making her the first Unitarian Universalist minister to be a Dominican Mother Superior!
serving as rector of St. George’s
Episcopal Church in York Harbor,
Maine, since December 2010.
J. Michael Bell ’03 is currently serving as rector at Church of the Holy
Trinity in Manistee, Mich.
Marta Valentin ’03 recently had poems published in Encounters: Poems
about Race, Ethnicity and Identity.
Additional works will be published
in the forthcoming Been in the
Storm Too Long. Both books are
from Skinner House.
Elaine McCoy ’05 gave the keynote
address at the annual Convocation
at Heidelberg University in Tiffin,
Ohio, on August 30, 2011.
Marjorie Raphael HON ’05 recently had several pieces of her artwork
displayed at the Helen Bumpus
Gallery in Duxbury, Mass.
Susan Ackley ’99 is currently serving as president of the N. H. Council of Churches. She is also serving
at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation
facility in Plymouth, N.H.
Sue Redfern-Campbell ’06 (formerly Sue Spencer) married Chuck
Campbell of Albuquerque, N.M.,
on January 1, 2012, at the UU
Meetinghouse in Chatham, Mass.
She is also currently completing a
two-year interim ministry at the
Unitarian Universalist Church of
Columbia, Mo.
Diane Wong ’99 is enrolled in
a master’s program in Teaching
English as a Second Language at
Simmons College. She is priest-incharge at St. John’s in Holbrook,
Mass.
Jane MacIntyre ’06 and husband
Tim finally welcomed two granddaughters into the family after 13
years of having grandsons. Jane
continues at South Parish UCC in
Augusta, Maine.
2000-2009
Mary Jellison ’01 will retire on
April 1, 2012, as rector of All
Saints’ Episcopal Church, Torrington, Wyo. She is moving to
Bellingham, Wash., to be a fulltime grandmother.
Valerie Dixon ’02 continues to lead
the Chrysalis Program, an interfaith living unit on the grounds of
the Connecticut State Women’s
Prison in Niantic, Conn.
Calvin Sanborn ’02 has been
Richard Belshaw ’08 was ordained
to the transitionary deaconate at
Christ Church, Exeter, N.H., by
Bishop Gene Robinson on December 3. The next day he began
as deacon-in-charge of the mission
church of St. John the Evangelist
in Dunbarton, N.H.
Rosemarie Buxton ’08 currently
teaches ethics and writing at Hesser College in New Hampshire and
writing at UMass Lowell. She is
also president of Merrimack Valley
Project, a community organizing
group in the Greater Lawrence/
Lowell, Mass., area.
class notes
Anita Schell-Lambert ’09 loves her
position as rector at Emmanuel in
Newport, R.I., a dynamic parish
deeply rooted in outreach and in
the community of Newport.
John Higginbotham ’10 began as
priest-in-charge at Holy Trinity
Church in Tiverton, R.I., on January 1, 2012.
2010 to Present
Marie Alford-Harkey ’10 was promoted to associate director of education and training at the Religious
Institute, effective January 1, 2012.
Katherine Stiles ’03, director of pastoral care at EDS, Mpho Tutu ’03, and
Bev Hall ’02 at the Tutu family home in Soweto, South Africa. The photo was
taken during the October 2011 pilgrimage to South Africa in celebration of
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday. During the trip, the Tutu family
home was recognized with a blue plaque (shown in photo) honoring the home
on Vilakazi Street as a South African Heritage site. This is the only street in
the world to have housed two Nobel Prize winners—former President Nelson
Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu—and as such holds a special place in
South African history.
Sue Crommelin-Dell ’08 has been
pastoral associate at Eastern Shore
Chapel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach, Va., for over a year.
She previously served at Trinity in
Portsmouth, Va., for two years.
Kevin Cross ’08 was elected president of Recovery Ministries of the
Episcopal Church in the 2012 election. Recovery Ministries is an independent nationwide network of
Episcopal laity and clergy, dioceses
and parishes, schools, agencies, and
other institutions—all with a common commitment to address the
effects of addiction, in all its forms,
in relation to the church’s mission.
Miranda Hassett ’08 is now the
rector of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal
Church in Madison, Wis. Her
son, Griffin, once a familiar face
at EDS, is now six and flourishing
in first grade; her daughter, Iona, is
two.
Hall Kirkham ’08 has been called to
be rector at St. Michael’s in Milton,
Mass.
Keith Patterson ’08 returned to
EDS in January to sit for the General Ordination Examination. He
applied for candidacy for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Vermont and
will have a review of his credentials
for the Association of Professional
Chaplains board certification as a
healthcare chaplain in the fall of
2012.
Joan Saniuk ’08 reports that she
and her wife, Sharilyn Steketee,
have been approved to launch a
new work, Metropolitan Community Church New England Ministries. This organization will provide spiritual resources that affirm
New England’s LGBTQ college
students.
Jeremi Colvin ’09 serves as the
assistant rector for Mission in
Homeless Ministry at Church of
the Holy Spirit in Fall River, Mass.
She is founder of the Bayside Fellowship, an ecumenical community
of clergy and lay ministers engaged
in street ministry and worship for
individuals who feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in a traditional
church setting.
Joseph Gatto PDS ’59
Anson B. Haughton ’49
George E. Hearn ’61
William David Leech PDS ’52
Hone Te Kaa ‘03
DeWitt Loomis PDS ’65
William Mawhinney ’60
Paree Metjian PDS ’64
John J. Morrett ’47
Douglas M. Norwood ’57
Frederick Vander Poel PDS ‘57
Richard A. Pollard PDS ’54
Frederick Powers PDS ’71
George C. Ruof PDS ’52
Graham T. Rowley ’68
Loie Shires (friend)
John P. Thomas PDS ’61
Erica Wood ’02
Lea Brown ’10 was named one
of Six Women Who Make a Difference by SouthFloridaGayNews.
com. In June 2011 she became senior pastor at Metropolitan Community Church of the Palm Beaches in Florida.
HON= Honorary Degree
Recipient
Constance Meadows ’10 is retiring
from her position as assistant to the
moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches after eight years
of service.
Richard Belshaw ’08
Stephanie Mitchell ’10 and husband Richard welcomed their first
child on February 24, 2012. Henry
“Hank” David Jenkins weighed in
at eight pounds, seven ounces, and
is 21 inches long. Stephanie currently serves as curate at St. Luke’s
Episcopal Church in Bartlesville,
Okla.
Suzanne Wade ’10
K. Booth Towry-Iburg ’11 recently
completed CPE and expects to be
ordained sometime in 2012.
Necrology
Barton D. Berry PDS ’66
Richard J. Burns ’59
Anna Caskey ’81
Stuart Coxhead ‘67
John Crocker ’54
Gary J. DeHope ’70
Michael Elliott ’66
David E. Evans PDS ’42
William Forbes ’42
HA= Honorary Alumna/us
Ordained Deacon
Ordained Priest
The readers of EDS Now want
to hear from you. Please email
Class Notes to alum@eds.edu, or
write to Laura Parrillo at EDS,
99 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA
02138.
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Insurance Benefit
Now Available from
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you could receive exclusive savings on
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eds now | Spring 2012
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