December 2015
In This Issue
Welcome

 

Each month, we share news of CDSP's students, faculty, alumni and campus life. We welcome your news, ideas and suggestions via email to Patrick Delahunt. Thank you, as always, for your support of CDSP.
Dean Richardson Reports from Paris
News from Episcopal Church delegation to climate change conference

From December 5-10, the Very Rev. Mark Richardson, dean and president of Church Divinity School of the Pacific, attended the Conference of Parties, the international climate change conference in Paris. He was part of the official delegation funded to represent the Episcopal Church at the event.

"The message of all the traditions is that we need compassion, reverence for the ground of our being, forgiveness, and reconciliation," Richardson wrote on December 8. "Our Episcopal worship this week has centered on these four themes, among others. I was moved by the clarity, depth, and common voice coming from many religious traditions of the world. It reminded me of the richness of our context in the Graduate Theological Union."
Standing Against Islamophobia
CDSP students, faculty join Graduate Theological Union vigil


On Thursday, December 17, more than 100 people, including Dean Richardson and many CDSP faculty members and students, processed across Holy Hill to pray, sing, and, in the words of a statement signed by Richardson and his GTU colleagues, "condemn the bigotry and hate-mongering vilifying and marginalizing our Muslim colleagues, leaders, and their communities here in the United States and around the world."

The vigil began at Pacific School of Religion and visited the Graduate TheologicalUnion library and annex, CDSP, the Jesuit School of Theology, and Starr King School for Ministry before concluding at Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States.

"Tonight we are gathered not as strangers but really as friends and neighbors," Richardson told the crowd gathered at All Saints Chapel. "I think what's happening in our culture right now demands of 
us that we be visible in that friendship and neighborliness that we have. In the Christian tradition we think of the spirit of God being incarnate in the world. It is a time for us to be visible, to make in flesh and blood the kind of community that is a hope and a sign to the world that stands against the kind of hatred and fear we've been hearing." 

Before the vigil, leaders from American Baptist Seminary of the West, the Centers for Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies and Dharma Studies, and Zaytuna held a forum now available online. Afterward, Zaytuna hosted a discussion titled "For God's Sake," also available online.
Professor Emeritus Kater on Our Lady of Guadalupe
Sermon concludes his academic year teaching at CDSP

This semester marked the end of Professor Emeritus John Kater's academic year teaching at CDSP. Beginning in 2016, he will teach at CDSP during the summer intensive. On Thursday, December 17, he preached at the celebration of our Lady of Guadalupe in All Saints Chapel:

Timothy Klinefelter, age 8, carries an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe in All Saints Chapel.
"I don't suppose there is a more powerful image for the Advent season than the figure of the mother of Christ who is also the patron, the friend, the advocate, the supporter of a people who continue to be mistreated, not least by political demagogues. It's the message of the Magnificat:  God has shown strength with his arm, scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. That's what happens when God comes to be with the people who need God most:  They are vindicated. The lies that they heard to 'keep them in their place' are revealed for what they are -- lies."
CDSP Marks Record Year in Giving
Gaines scholarship, Refectory Refresh campaigns meet goals

Two special fundraising campaigns launched in 2015 have met their goals in the final days of the year, and the 2015-2016 annual fund has already reached more than 50% of its $1.2 million goal, reports Patrick Delahunt, CDSP's director of development.

In August Bob Gaines, husband of the Rev. Canon Winifred B. Gaines '78, established the Winifred B. Gaines Scholarship Endowment with a $100,000 gift to support seminarians from the Diocese of Northern California. Since the Rev. Gaines' death on September 30, generous donors have matched Gaines' contribution with an additional $105,000, bringing the total scholarship fund to just over its goal of $200,000.

At General Convention, CDSP launched a campaign to refurbish the Denniston Refectory with upgrades and furnishings that will provide updated, flexible space for community meals, gatherings, and programs. Thanks to the generous support of alumni donors, the campaign reached its goal of $55,000 on December 18.

"What's most encouraging is that the number of alums contributing to CDSP has increased 98% over this time last year, and the number of donors overall has increased 94% in the same time period," said Delahunt, who assumed his post in February 2014. "We're just halfway through our fiscal year, but as we mark the end of the calendar year, the sense of excitement about what's happening here at CDSP is palpable. We're looking forward to a great 2016."
Trinity Institute at CDSP
Save the date:  Saturday, January 23, 7:30 am-7:30 pm



You're invited to Trinity Institute (TI2016), "Listen for a Change:  Sacred Conversations for Racial Justice," an annual conference that takes place in New York City, but that you can attend at CDSP via webcast! Explore the most pressing issues of our time, including structural racism, mass incarceration, and the church's response to these injustices. Come with open ears; leave with a greater capacity to go back into your community and create change.

The cost, which includes lunch and dinner, is $50 ($40 for GTU students and $25 for CDSP students). Learn more and register on the website and download a flyer.
Organizing for Public Ministry
Industrial Areas Foundation training January 17-22 in Berkeley

Organizing for Public Ministry is a weeklong intensive class, taught by a team of experienced Industrial Areas Foundation community organizers, about how to engage the public mission of the church in the world.

Students will participate in presentations, discussions, role-play, and readings that foster practices for:
  • Mission
  • Sustainable leadership
  • Strategic thinking and acting
  • Forming collaborative relationships for missional action.
Organizing for Public Ministry is open to clergy and laypeople for continuing education credits and to Graduate Theological Union students for academic credit. Learn more.
Online Learning with CALL
Winter courses begin January 25

Join CDSP online this winter for new courses from the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL):

Biblical Heroines with Dr. Sandra Collins
Focusing on women from both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as well as the Christian Bible (New Testament), this course will explore how women are represented as complex characters in this ancient literature, with some reflection on the theological and ethical significance of that representation. Learn more and register online.


Church History: Wisdom for Mission Today with Dr. Bradley Peterson
This course will explore the history of Christianity by focusing on snapshots in different times and places, by attending to its diversity over time, by encountering contrasting historical figures, and by pondering how these historical forms of Christianity may inform our faith and practice today. Learn more and register online.

Facing Choices: Ethics in the Anglican Tradition with the Rev. Dr. Austin Leininger
Ethical dilemmas continue to challenge lay and ordained leaders across the wide diversity of our church. In this course, students will explore how thinkers as diverse as Plato and Marcella Althaus Reid, a contemporary social justice and post-colonial liberation theorist, have helped people of faith make hard choices and live faithfully with the results. Learn more and register online. 

This course explores the theological roots of the Anglican tradition through major figures in Anglican theology including Richard Hooker, F.D. Maurice and William Temple. We will wrestle together with how we approach creation, incarnation, the Church's sacraments and some of the contemporary issues that have concerned Anglicans, both in our own setting and around the world. Learn more and register online.

Born of Water, Born of Spirit with the Rev. Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook
This course will focus on the evolution of our understanding of baptismal living and ministry from the time of the earliest Christians until the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Students will examine ways to support the ministry of the baptized in daily life and in churches, and investigate resources for local ministry development. Learn more and register online.
SeeCDSP in 2016
Prospective student visit events nearing capacity:  register now

Our annual SeeCDSP events scheduled for February 3-5 and March 2-4 are nearing capacity. Visit the website soon to indicate your interest in attending.

 

SeeCDSP is for aspirants to holy orders and seekers. Once prospective students arrive in Berkeley, we provide lodging, meals and hospitality. Participants can attend a class, meet with professors and talk with other students in discernment. Families are welcome and encouraged to attend. 

 

Questions? Talk with Director of Admissions Andrew Hybl at 510-204-0738 or via email.
Homebrewed Christianity Visits GTU in February
Popular podcast to record episode during SeeCDSP

On February 4 at 8 pm in Denniston Refectory, the Graduate Theological Union will host Tripp Fuller and his Homebrewed Christianity podcast. Fuller, who is pursuing a PhD in theology at Claremont Graduate University, says that his popular podcast brings listeners "the best nerdy audiological ingredients so you can brew your own faith."

The event will include an interview with Fuller by Tripp Hudgins of American Baptist Seminary of the West. A panel discussion on theological education will feature leaders of the sponsoring seminaries including Paul Martin of American Baptist Seminary of the West, CDSP Dean and President Mark Richardson, and Arthur Holder of the Graduate Theological Union. There will also be a theological quiz show!

Space is limited; reserve your free ticket online now.
Community News



Faculty News
Academic Dean Ruth Meyers preached at the Christmas Carol service at the San Francisco Mar Thoma Church on December 12.

Visting Professor Scott MacDougall taught two classes at All Souls Parish Berkeley on faith and politics in December. The first session was titled "Faith and American Politics:  Friends? Enemies?" and the second was "Liberating the Political: Did Jesus Act Up?

Alumni News
The Rev. Gary Commins '56 has written a new book, "If Only We Could See:
Mystical Vision and Social Transformation," published by Cascade Books. Learn more online.

The Rev. Barbara Miller '14 has been called as rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Paso Robles, California.

In Memoriam

The Rev. Ralph Edwin Parks '62 died in November. Read his obituary.

News to share? Please email us. 
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