ECF Fellows News: Winter 2015
Claude Barbre (1995) was the keynote speaker at the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Annual Eastern Regional Conference on October 20, 2014. The title of his presentation was “Our Business is Circumference: Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education in the Wider, Professional World.” Claude presented a paper with Matthew Shang at the Cultural Impact Conference (CIC) in Chicago, IL, on February 13th, 2015. The presentation was entitled “The Cultural Adjustment of First-Generation Chinese-American Male Immigrants to the American Masculinity Paradigm.” In March, he will present a paper, “Lived Resistances to the Parabolic Encounter: Open Commensality and the Stranger as Scapegoat” at the Society for Humanistic Psychology, Division 32, The American Psychological Association (APA). Finally, Claude was recently elected to the Board of Directors of The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP)—a psychotherapy training center where he also serves as a Training Supervisor. Claude is Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology Psy.D. Department at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, Illinois.
Kelly Brown Douglas (1983) was the guest preacher in the celebration of the life and work of Blessed Absalom Jones on February 7 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. This celebration was organized by the New York Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians and The Anti-Racism Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. She was also one of the panelists in the forum hosted by Washington National Cathedral entitled “After Ferguson: Racism, Violence, and the Church’s Response,” which included Cathedral Dean and ECF Fellow (1983) Gary Hall. Kelly is the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Pamela Cooper-White’s (1995) latest book that she co-authored with Michael Cooper-White, Exploring Practices of Ministry (Fortress Press, 2014) was published this past December. She also had the chapter “Violence and Justice,” Ch. 29 published in The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender, ed. Adrian Thatcher (Oxford University Press, 2014, 487-504) and a book review essay on "Psychoanalysis, Monotheism and Morality" published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 62/6 (2014), 1163-70. Pamela also led a colloquium in February on the Second dition of her book The Cry of Tamar (Fortress Press, 2012) and the role of women in the church, for the Society for Relational Theory and Theology (SEPTT). Pamela is the Ben G. & Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and Co-Director of the Atlanta Theological Association’s joint ThD program in Pastoral Counseling. She also serves as Assisting Priest at Holy Trinity Parish in Decatur, Georgia.
Natalie Finstad (2014) was a featured speaker at the TEDx Beacon Street Conference in November of 2014. Natalie’s TEDx talk discusses the challenges we face when we address oppression as a physical symptom of poverty. Natalie calls us to instead address poverty by fostering relationships with individuals that honor their dignity and develop mutual partnership. Natalie is currently coordinating a national project that emphasizes the need for leaders in the church to build Christian communities rooted in this principle of transformative relationship. The design team for this project will meet February 8 – 12 in the Diocese of Texas to plan the launch of the project.
Nancy Frausto (2013) has been appointed a "celebrity blogger" for this year's edition of Lent Madness. The role of a Lent Madness celebrity blogger is to research and present information that will explain each saint's life and work in the most positive light possible, therefore garnering votes in the daily matchup. Click here for more information about Nancy and her role as celebrity blogger. Lent Madness begins on Thursday, February 19 and will end in Holy Week when the one saint remaining wins the Golden Halo. Nancy serves as priest-in-charge of Trinity Church in Los Angeles, California.
David Gortner (1998) spent January in Hong Kong teaching a short intensive course on the church and the public square at Ming Hua Theological Seminary and conducted some basic ethnographic observation of continuing "Occupy Central" protests and discussions in Hong Kong. He also traveled and met with diocesan, congregational, and educational leaders in the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Hong Kong Anglican Church) and the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan. While in Taiwan, he also met in a consultation with deans and faculty of Anglican theological schools across the Pacific Rim. Previously, in November, David led a weeklong educational/formational seminar with CPE chaplain residents in Houston, delivered two papers at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in Indianapolis, and led a breakfast consultation and conversation with school chaplains at the National Association of Episcopal Schools. In February, David is leading a workshop on evangelism at the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes (CEEP) conference. David is Director of the Doctor of Ministry programs, and Professor of Evangelism and Congregational Leadership at Virginia Theological Seminary.
Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (1990) delivered the keynote address, "Building the Beloved Community: The Vision of the Fourth Gospel" at the clergy conference in the Diocese of the Rio Grande. She preached and presided at the Eucharist in memory of ECF Fellow (1989) the Rev. Dr. Ellen Bradshaw Aitken at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Diego and preached at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego on November 23. She also preached at the Christmas service for the Mar Thoma Church at Christ Chapel, at the ordinations of Kellaura Johnson in Richmond, TX and of Terry Pierce at St. James, Taylor, TX. She attended the Council of Deans at Bexley Seabury in Columbus, Ohio. She taught at the Clergy Day in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, “Lent, Holy Week, and Easter in the Fourth Gospel.” Cynthia has also co-edited with Margaret Aymer and David Sanchez, The Fortress Commentary on the New Testament, a series that presents a balanced synthesis of current scholarship, enabling readers to interpret Scripture for a complex and pluralistic world. Cynthia is Dean and President of Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Lucinda Mosher (1999) was a panelist and session moderator for the Anglican-Lutheran Consultation on Diaspora Hindus and Anglican Relations, convened by the Anglican Communion Network of Interfaith Concerns (NIFCON), October 29 – November 1, 2014, at The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK. Click here for more information about the conference. She also had an article in the latest Current Dialogue, published by the World Council of Churches.The article is entitled, “Full Communion Partners and Interreligious Relations: A Comparison of Efforts and Outcomes of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” Lucinda is Faculty Associate in Interfaith Studies and Director, of the Multifaith Chaplaincy Program at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut.
Titus Presler (1988), Principal-in-exile of Edwardes College, Peshawar, Pakistan, was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Boston University School of Theology in September 2014. His address, “Engaging Difference: A Major Challenge of Our Time,” is available here and a recording available here. During the fall Titus preached and spoke at St. John’s, McLean, Virginia; Trinity Church, Boston; and Trinity Church, Shelburne, Vermont. In November he spoke at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, on the topic, “Duty, Witness and Risk: Dilemmas of a Mission in Peshawar, Pakistan,” and at the Maryknoll Mission Institute on the topic, “A Toll on the Soul: Costs of Persecution among Pakistan’s Christians.” During the winter term Titus is teaching missiology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His chapter, “The History of Mission in the Anglican Communion” appears in the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion.
Albert R. Rodriguez’s (2013) American Latino Evangelistic Outreach project (ALEO) has led to a teaching partnership with the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, where he has designed a new course, “Latino Worship in an Episcopal Setting.” This course provides a broad review on how to manage and lead worship services, liturgies and rituals carried out in Spanish-speaking congregation. The various models of multilingual services will be explored, as well as other rituals, such as Quinceañeras, the Virgin of Guadalupe and other traditional Lenten and Christmas ceremonies. Under the auspices of the Seminary of the Southwest, Al is also coordinating a summer national conference called, Nuevos Horizontes, whose theme is “ConeXión with the New Latino Generation.” This conference is also sponsored by the Episcopal Office of Latino/Hispanic Ministries. The event is designed for clergy and lay leaders seeking competency in a re-conceptualized Latino ministry that now must include the multiple generations of American born whose lifestyle is bicultural, bilingual or English-dominant.
Jane Shaw (1991) moved in September 2014 from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where she was Dean, to be Dean for Religious Life and Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. In November, she gave a lecture at the Center for Christianity and Culture at the University of Oxford, and spoke in the Westminster Faith Debates in Oxford, on the ways in which Anglicans of all kinds can be engaged in the church of the future. Later in November, she spoke on forgiveness in response to Miroslav Wolf at the American Academy of Religion, where she became President-Elect of the Society for the Study of Anglicanism. She also now serves on the Board of the Anglican Theological Review. In February she spoke at a colloquium at Rutgers University on the work of Phyllis Mack, a historian of Christianity. Jane has recently been named Canon Emeritus of Salisbury Cathedral by the Bishop of Salisbury, having previously served as Canon Theologian there.
C.K. Robertson (1998) is delighted to share that his new book, Barnabas vs. Paul, will be available on March 17 through Abingdon Press. Chuck also has a chapter in an upcoming five-volume work through Springer Publishing, The Changing World Religion Map (Stanley Brunn, editor) entitled, “A Breath of Narcissism: Hollywood as Proselytizer of Secular Religion.” This coming October, Chuck will be the lecturer on The Footsteps of St. Paul, a cruise through the Mediterranean following the life of St. Paul. Chuck serves as the Canon to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church.
Andrew Thompson (2011) has been named Assistant Director of the Center for Religion and Environment at Sewanee, the School of Theology at the University of the South. Click here for a press release announcing his appointment. The Center for Religion and Environment‘s threefold mission is to help students of the University of the South and the broader community integrate religious belief with care for the environment, to prepare students across the curriculum for environmentally conscientious work and ministry, and to serve as a focal point for University-wide initiatives related to religion and the environment. Andy’s book All My Holy Mountain: A Christian Ethical Approach to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, will be published later this year by the University Press of Kentucky.
Edwin Chr. van driel (2003) was installed in the Directors' Bicentennial chair of Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in May 2014, and his installation lecture was published this past November. In the December 2014 issue of Presbyterians Today he published an article, “Rethinking Church: Fresh Perspectives for a Tired Denomination,” offering a way forward for the denominational conflicts within the mainline church. This past January, he published an essay, “Climax of the Covenant vs. Apocalyptic Invasion: A Theological Analysis of a Contemporary Debate in Pauline Exegesis,” in the International Journal of Systematic Theology offering a theological analysis of a contemporary debate in Pauline exegesis between a "salvation-historical" and "apocalyptic" reading of Paul.
Barrie Wilson (1966) has retired as Professor of Religious Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Specializing in early Christianity, Barrie’s major publications included How Jesus Became Christian (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) and most recently he co-authored The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene (Pegasus, 2014). Barrie shares that, “The ECF Fellowship contributed greatly to my career and involvement theologically with students and community, in St. Louis initially and then Toronto, and for that I’m very grateful.” In retirement he looks forward to increased travel.
Joseph Wolyniak (2012) recently published an essay titled "Progress and progressio: Technology, self-betterment, and integral human development" in the Journal of Moral Theology, along with a review of Stanley Hauerwas's Approaching the End(Eerdmans, 2013) in the Anglican Theological Review. As member of the Scholar-Priest Initiative (SPI) Leadership Team, Joseph helped organize SPI's recent 'Theologian Webinar' with the Rev'd Dr Andrew Davison, (Starbridge Lecturer in Theology and Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge) and is helping to plan the upcoming annual conference held this year at All Saints' Cathedral in Milwaukee, WI, July 9-11. Joseph is a Theologian-in-Residence at the Church of the Ascension (Denver, CO), DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford, and visiting scholar at the University of Denver.