Bloy House News
The Episcopal Theological School at Claremont |
Greetings!
Greetings from Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, where preparations are under way for the coming fall term. Thank you for considering Bloy House/ETSC for theological coursework and continuing education alike. For information, phone 909.621.2419, or email bloyhouse@cst.edu.Faithfully in Christ,
(The Very Rev.) Sylvia Sweeney, Ph.D.
Bloy House Dean and President
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 Ministry in Times of
Conflict and Change:
A Special Celebration of
Jonathan Daniels
September 7 at 11:15 a.m. in Kresge Chapel,
led by the Rev. Dr. Michelle Woodhouse
One of the names that was added to our Holy Women, Holy Men cycle of saints commemorations in the last several years is Jonathan Myrick Daniels. Jonathan was a seminarian attending the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge (now EDS) in 1965 when he heard a plea from Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Selma and march for voter rights. Responding to a call to continue the work he had been a part of through the march, Daniels took a leave from his seminary studies to become a missionary for the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity. On August 14 Jonathan and his companions were jailed for joining a picket line and then later that day unexpectedly released in what was clearly a dangerous public atmosphere. Shortly after their release, Daniels was shot and killed while trying to protect a 16-year-old black woman as the newly released protesters were entering a small store to buy some sodas.
This fall as we commemorate the life and ministry of Jonathan Daniels, we are delighted to have with us as our guest preacher and presider the Rev. Dr. Michelle Woodhouse, a fellow marcher, friend and seminary classmate of Jonathan Daniels. In addition to sharing her remembrances of Jonathan Daniels, Michelle will give a special presentation at 1 p.m. on the 7th to discuss her own life experiences of those tumultuous years of the church and what they have taught her about ministry in times of conflict and change.
Please join us for our worship service, lunch, and this special Education for Episcopal Leadership Presentation on "Ministry in Times of Change and Conflict." There is no cost for this program, but those planning to attend lunch are asked to make reservations by contacting bloyhouse@cst.edu. Cost of the lunch is $12.
New student orientation set for Saturday, August 17
The incoming class of 2013 will be gathering for orientation on Saturday, August 17. At that meeting new students will have the opportunity to get to know the Dean, Lydia, Allison Cornell, the Liturgical Coordinator for this academic year and several Board of Trustees members including Dr. Steve Nishibayashi, vice-chair of the board and Rebecca Welch, who serves as a writing consultant to our seminarians.
Most importantly this will be an opportunity for members of the incoming class to get to know one another and begin to build those all-important peer relationships that stand at the heart of the Bloy House formation model. This fall we will be welcoming Jennifer Pavia, James Prothero, Robert Sammis and Dennis Sheridan into the Bloy House community community as they pursue degrees and certificates, and Dottie Andersen and Pamela Keelin will be our newest Education for Episcopal Leadership students. Please keep all our seminarians in your prayers, as they seek to do God's will and to answer the church's call upon their lives.
In September we will look forward to welcoming our newest cohort of Fresh Start for Lay Leaders students. Our September issue will contain more information on the Fresh Start for Lay Leaders Program for any who might be interested in becoming a part of that group.
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Classes Begin August 23 and 24
Bloy House is already preparing for the new academic year which will begin on Friday August 23rd and Saturday August 24. There will be a matriculation of new students as a part of our opening Eucharist on August 24. Dean Sweeney will be the preacher and presider at that service commemorating St. Bartholomew.
The Fall teaching schedule is at right and always available online at our website. Students who are interested in enrolling as either for-credit students or as Education for Episcopal Leadership Students should contact the Bloy House office by August 15. All Bloy House classes are open to lay persons seeking to understand their faith more deeply or clergy seeking continuing education.
Classes that will be offered this fall include:
New Testament I: An introduction to the religious, socio-historical and spiritual context of central documents of the New Testament taught by Dr. Greg Riley
Major Christian Doctrines: An introductory overview of the major theological principles that ground our Christian approach to systematic theology taught by Dr. Michael McGrath.
Introduction to Episcopal Worship: A class designed to acquaint students with the central historical and theological elements of our two primary sacraments of the church, baptism and Eucharist taught by Dean Sweeney.
Introduction to Ethics: An introduction to Christian ethics and moral theology that draws deeply upon foundational learning gained in Major Christian Doctrines and Contemporary Theology (or their equivalents), taught by Dr. Michael McGrath.
Old Testament: A lively introduction to the historical, religious, and cultural foundations that have shaped the books of the Old Testament and our understanding of them. This class will focus on the Pentateuch and the early history of Judaism. Taught by Dr. Jim Sanders.
Anglicanism I: This course introduces students to important issues related to our global Anglican identity including varying expressions of polity, traditions, cultural diversity, and spirituality. Taught by Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook.
Greek: An introduction to Koine Greek, taught by Dr. Ted Fisher.
Church Leadership: What does it mean to be a Christian leader in the 21st century? How do the roles of the ordained complement and support of the ministry of all the baptized? What are cogent new models for leadership in the 21st century in a rapidly changing church? These questions and questions related to church canons, stewardship, church management, and alternative models of church will be explored in this class. Taught by Dr. Bob Honeychurch.
Media and Ministry: This class is designed for all those who want to develop both a philosophical and ethical framework and hands-on practical skills for communicating in faith communities through social media and various other technologically centered platforms. A wonderful tool for all those who are looking for ways to better utilize FaceBook, Twitter, Websites, and in-house communications vehicles to help the church better serve its mission to the world. Taught by Canon Bob Williams.
Fresh Start for Lay Leaders: This semester long program offers lay leaders in congregations the opportunity to learn valuable skills for being effective change agents in their congregations. While the focal point of the class is congregations in transition, almost all congregations are in some period of growth and transition and one's congregation does not have to be in the midst of a search process in order to participate. Contact Canon Joanna Satorius at the Cathedral Center (jsatorius@ladiocese.org) if you are interested in knowing more about this program.
 Next 'Intro to Media & Ministry' Satellite Course Set for September 14 in San Clemente
Bloy House's next "Introduction to Media & Ministry" satellite course -- covering social media, crisis communication planning, and marketing/outreach -- is scheduled for 9am-3pm on Saturday, September 14, at St. Clement's by-the-Sea Church in San Clemente. Instructor will be Bob Williams, diocesan canon for community relations and a former communication director of the Episcopal Church. Course cost is $75 per participant with some scholarship aid available. To register, contact Lydia Sohn, bloyhouse@cst.org.
Bloy House website adds
'Ideas and Inspiration' section
If you haven't visited the Bloy House website lately, you may be surprised to see how much we have expanded the site. In addition to providing all pertinent information for prospective students considering entering Bloy House, the website also provides access to our "Claiming the Vision" video course on baptism and its history, a copy of our catalog with descriptions of all the classes offered at Bloy House, videos of segments of our Education for Episcopal Leadership lectures, and now a new section called "Ideas and Inspiration" where we will host papers written by our own seminarians on topics we believe others may find interesting and challenging. Currently there is a paper by Francisco Garcia that discusses the tradition of Dia de los Muertos, and soon there will be another paper there by Ann Dumolt that looks at the issue of celibacy in the 21st century. We hope that this will be an evolving section of the website and we invite alumni and friends who would like to submit articles for consideration for this section to send them to the dean's office in electronic form at ssweeney@cst.edu. We can't promise we will publish them all, but we can promise that what we publish will give you food for thought. Tippet seals once again available
A number of you have asked if it is still possible to get a Bloy House tippet seal. We have just placed a new order and tippet seals will once again be available through the Bloy House office for $20 plus shipping. If you are interested in purchasing one, contact bloyhouse@cst.edu or come find our booth at diocesan convention this December where we will also have them available. |
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Bloy House students begin classes
at Episcopal Divinity School
 The 2013 incoming class of Episcopal Divinity School's Distributed Learning Master of Divinity Program included three Bloy House students; Allison Cornell, Gina Gore, and Robyn Henk. Dean Sweeney was also honored to be on campus at EDS for the start of the new academic year and to take part in matriculation for the incoming class.
Preaching Excellence Program (PEP)
Bloy House was delighted to send seminarians George Daisa, Ann Dumolt, and Nancy Frausto to take part in the Preaching Excellence Program, a four day mini course in advanced preaching that includes seminarian representatives from all the seminaries of the Episcopal Church. This year PEP celebrated its 25th anniversary by inviting Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori (who is herself an alumna of the program) to be present. A number of you graciously made special contributions to Bloy House to help defray some of the costs our students bore to attend the program. Below is a short paragraph from Deacon Ann Dumolt, one of the attendees, about what she gained from being a part of the Preaching Excellence Program.
At first I was not sure I would like to go to PEP. I have not had many great experiences preaching and in fact became "gun shy" to even step in the pulpit! But Dean Sweeney and a number of my classmates (past and present) encouraged me to go. PEP helped me find my voice and it helped build up my confidence. Preparing is not such a struggle anymore. But the best thing that happened to me was PEP gave me permission to be a story teller. Now I truly feel that I can preach from the heart: hearing what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Thank you to all who supported me in prayer and helped pay my shuttle fare to and from LAX through your special gifts to Bloy House.
--The Rev. Deacon E. Ann Dumolt
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 Our sacred trust
By Sylvia Sweeney
This summer I read a book I've been meaning to read for years. In This House of Sky is Ivan Doig's memoir of his own youth spent living as an only child with his ranch-hand father on struggling ranches in rural Montana in the middle of the last century. I have, for decades, loved the fiction of Doig, his ability to open the hearts of westerners to a deeper appreciation of both the poignancy and the profundity of our western life style lived in the midst of the awe-inspiring beauty and relentless heartlessness that make up the western landscape. Doig, in ways too many to note, reminds me both that I am the keeper of this great magnificence and the beneficiary of its grandeur, a holder of a sacred trust. Doig manages to say without ever being preachy or condescending, "Be grateful. Be grateful for all that you have been blessed with."
In This House of Sky also reminded me of something else. It reminded me in much the same way that the play "Billy Eliot" did, that there is a deeply valiant and virtuous nobility that resides inside each of us and that comes to fruition when we make the decision to build our present in response to our hopes for our children's futures. When we meet old souls of any chronological age who truly remember that they are part of a passing generation, mere sojourners, and that there are many who will come after them to whom they must be accountable, then we often encounter in these human beings the very best that humanity is capable of being and becoming. They live life with a love, a humility, a reverence and a steadfast sure-footedness that points to the shallowness and superficiality of so many of our own get-it-now contemporary lifestyles.
For some time now we have as an American culture lived as cynics. Instead of assuming that the next generation would do great things -- that they would accomplish what we could not, that they would dream dreams that were not within our own imaginations -- we have often critiqued, criticized, and belittled them, wishing they were more than they were, expecting that they would not amount to much, and not being the least bit surprised when to our minds they didn't rise to glory.
Both in the church and in the larger society we have now left our children (whether they are biologically ours or not is totally unimportant) with the scraps that have fallen off the table of our society's life together. We have squandered their inheritance because somewhere along the way we ceased to believe that one generation owed the next an inheritance. "I am spending my children's inheritance" is more than just a bumper sticker. It is an American way of life now.
When I think about the promise that God gave to Abraham and Sarah that their descendents would outnumber the stars, I sometimes wonder if we of this time would have cherished that blessing, or if we would have tried not to act disappointed that the good stuff was going to someone else instead of us. What do we need to find within ourselves in order to be able to truly long for and yearn for a better world, a better church, a fuller faith, a more excellent way for the next generations to come? What would allow us to give up something now so that there could be something left for them? Will our children and our children's children have faith? Will they have life? Will they have hope? Will they have the opportunity to long for more for their offspring than they had found in life, as Ivan Doig's father so clearly had? The answer of course is yes ... yes if we in the here and now begin to do all in our power to stop living just for today and together sacrifice and toil and dream to "make it so."
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 From Age to Age: How Christians
Have Celebrated the Eucharist
By Edward Foley 2008 Liturgical Press I am, this year, adding a new book to the required reading of my "Introduction to Episcopal Worship" class, and it is a book that I think many of you would greatly enjoy. From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist is a book that is built around understanding the nature of the Eucharist by learning about the material stuff of our worship life. Each chapter focuses on a different period of Christian history and contains sections on architecture, music, books, vessels, and finally the Eucharistic theology of the period. The book is filled with pictures and architectural diagrams that all come together to help us imagine what worship might have looked and felt like in these periods of history. Each chapter ends with a fictional vignette that describes a character from this time and what his or her Christian life might have been like. For those of you who love church history or who simply want to more deeply understand our contemporary liturgy -- with its many ancient aspects -- I commend this great new edition of Edward Foley's book.
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Your support is appreciatedFinancial contributions to support the work of Bloy House are appreciated year-round. Thank you for your consideration and generosity. Gifts may be mailed to Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, 1325 N. College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711.
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In this issue: Please scroll down for more on fall courses and student, faculty activities.
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Alphabet soup: An update on our sister seminary relationships
By Sylvia Sweeney, Dean
CST? CDSP? EDS?
A number of you have asked in the last several months what the status is of our master of divinity program and what is happening in ETSC's relationship with all these other alphabet letters. I am happy to report to you that after a somewhat tumultuous year, Bloy House is setting a steady course toward the future through its current relationship with Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, and what we are very optimistic will be a similar low-residency relationship with Church Divinity School of the Pacific beginning next summer.
While we will continue to be on the Claremont School of Theology campus, our formal joint program with CST is in what's called a "teach out" phase, which means that current seminarians already accepted into that program will be allowed to finish, but there will be no new students admitted into the program. Instead, entering Bloy House seminarians will choose to be involved in online and January and June intensive course work with either CDSP or EDS in order to finish their degree requirements and receive their master of divinity degrees.
While we were quite sorry to lose our current relationship with CST, the partnership between the two schools continues quite strongly in other ways. We expect to continue on the CST campus indefinitely. We also continue to be able to avail ourselves of the rich CST library and to work in collegial relationships with CST faculty members, with members of the Bloy House faculty occasionally serving on master's thesis committees for CST students. CST students will continue to be able to take classes at Bloy House with permission of their advisors. Both schools are deeply committed to finding new and creative ways to collaborate with one another through programs, special events, and potential new partnerships.
At the same time, we feel there is much that our students will gain from receiving their degrees from an Episcopal seminary in terms of formation, networking and marketability. Already our partnership with EDS has helped our students to develop a much richer appreciation of the depth and breadth and significant diversity that is a part of being an Episcopalian. Our presence in the Cambridge classrooms has allowed the east coast church to meet the west coast church and in that meeting, all are richly blessed. I know that in coming years as students begin to once again attend CDSP, those students will benefit greatly from being a part of a seminary community that serves our expansive Pacific Rim province and beyond.
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Save the Dates: Fall 2013 Teaching Weekends, Academic Calendar
August 23-24
September 6-7
September 20-21
September 27-28*
October 11-12
October 18-19*
November 1-2
November 15-16
November 22-23*
December 13-14
*The weekends printed in bold are the second of back-to-back weekends.
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El Instituto de Liderazgo
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Spanish-language course on 'Evangelism'
The Leadership Institute (El Instituto de Liderazgo) will begin a six-month Spanish-language course on "Evangelism" on Saturday, July 20 and continuing on the third Saturday of each month, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., concluding on Dec. 21. The location is St Simon's Episcopal Church, 623 North Hagar Street, San Fernando 91340.
The Institute was formed to provide Spanish-language training for lay leaders in Latino/Hispanic congregations; to motivate people to be leaders and to know their church, their faith, and the basics of ministry, so they could be better equipped to lead. It is meant to be both practical and maintain a standard of quality, to meet the people where they are yet also not to devalue the importance of a rigorous education, according to the Rev. Vincent Schwahn of the Instituto faculty.
The program is offered by the Program Group on Hispanic Ministries and sponsored by Bloy House to empower Latino lay leaders in the Diocese of Los Angeles to work with their clergy in their congregations in a collaborative way.
The upcoming semester will provide participants with the basics of evangelism: how to assure that newcomers to their congregations and communities are visited; to identify people who have become inactive and develop a plan to reactivate them; to develop an effective public relations program for the church; and to develop procedures by which new persons can become committed to Christ and received into the church.
Registration for the July-to-December 2013 course is $50; students successfully completing the course will receive a certificate from Bloy House. Childcare will be available. For more information email to info.liderazgo2012@gmail.com or contact the Rev. Vincent Schwahn (949.547.2421) or the Rev. Roberto Martinez (818.263.2584 or Carlos Ruvalcaba (818.398.2921).
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