[Church Divinity School of the Pacific] Two graduate students and one professor at Church Divinity School of the Pacific have been awarded grants for innovative projects to promote evangelism.
The grants announced by the Evangelical Education Society of The Episcopal Church will fund research that: a) explores the establishment of a church in Poland, b) produces short films exploring faith, science and eco-justice, and 3) redesigns a Web site and compiles resources and to empower the Church’s ministry by and with people with disabilities.
The Fall 2011 CDSP grant recipients are:
* Dr. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, Associate Professor of Church History, who will explore establishing an Episcopal congregation in Krakow, Poland, by convening a workshop for interested persons and discerning next steps and leadership.
* Jonathan Potter, third-year Master of Arts student from Oregon, who will produce a series of short films exploring faith and science in eco-justice, for the purpose of engaging faith leaders, policymakers and individuals in the issues and conversation.
* Twila Smith, first-year Master of Divinity student from Oklahoma, who will compile resources for the Episcopal Disability Network and re-work their website, in order to empower the church’s ministry by and with persons with disabilities. She will survey each diocese and seminary for resources.
“We are pleased to hear that EES has rewarded the commitment and creativity of our students and faculty with these grants, as we continue to draw on our traditions and community to engage today’s church in a changing world, ” said the Rev. Dr. Linda Clader, Dean of Academic Affairs at CDSP.
Matthew Seddon, a third-year Master of Divinity student at CDSP, was awarded a grant last spring to study Mexican religious symbols and worship spaces in the U.S. and in Mexico. An anthropologist, he will produce a Web site explaining the symbols to assist non-Latinos in developing welcoming authentic and welcoming Latino worship.
A year ago, M. Regan Humber, a second-year Master of Divinity student at CDSP, was awarded a grant to develop a lay chaplaincy program for hospitals in Panama, where he also participated in CDSP’s Summer 2011 Panama Project of language and ministry immersion.
In 2010, the Rev. Andrea Baker, M.Div. ’10, of California was honored with a Director’s Award as a 2009 grant recipient whose work in Honduras “best exemplifies the objectives of the Society.”
The Evangelical Education Society of the Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, established in 1862, serves as a catalyst and a resource for innovative witness to Jesus Christ by awarding grants to Episcopalians in the eleven Episcopal seminaries, and in seminaries accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. Students, faculty, staff, and their spouses and partners are eligible.
The Society encourages initiatives in evangelism and education that connect the academic and professional world of the seminaries to the work carried out by lay and ordained ministers in surrounding communities, fostering new initiatives and methodologies that may result in pilot programs or models that others can adopt or adapt. For more information, go to http://www.ees1862.org.
Church Divinity School of the Pacific is a seminary of The Episcopal Church and founding member of the Graduate Theological Union. Women and men come to its Berkeley, California, campus to prepare theologically and spiritually for innovative leadership in the Church and the world. Founded in 1893, CDSP offers post-graduate courses and degree programs for students pursuing a variety of lay and ordained careers and is committed to academic excellence in an active worshiping community. For more information, visit www.cdsp.edu, or call 510-204-0700.
Ms. Twila Smith’s efforts to amass and expand information on resources for people with disabilities within the Episcopal church comes not a moment too soon. Just taking the single group of blind/low-vision people as but one example, liturgical support for such parishioners has gone backward. Gone is the ability to order a braille edition of our 1982 hymnal. The best my local parish could do was find 80 percent of one last braille hymnal available from the Illinois-based organization, whose volunteer members used to produce and distribute a 15-volume braille edition containing only the libretto. Blind organists were still on their own for the music. With 12 volumes now found and the first three yet to be located, I keep toying with the idea of working my way down from our presiding bishop to someone who has a complete, current braille hymnal, who would be willing to risk shipping me its first three volumes to copy locally on the braille equivalent of a single-page copy machine and then return the borrowed, irreplaceable braille volumes safely and unharmed to their rightful, original owner. Maybe now my remaining search might not have to start quite so high up.
Even more disheartening, though, was my electronic correspondence with the Episcopal survey group, gathering information for the inevitable, future production of a new, 21st-century Episcopal hymnal: They did not even know that such a thing currently existed already. Ms. Smith has certainly picked a job well worth doing, and, perhaps, just in the nick of time, long before the next hymnal is published.