Bloy House News
The Episcopal Theological School at Claremont
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Greetings from Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, where the fall term is under way. 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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Sylvia Sweeney, dean and president of Bloy House, and Jeffrey Kuan, president of CST, shake hands after signing the new agreement at the Eucharist where Dean Sweeney presided and Dr. Kuan preached.
Celebrating our newest partnership
On November 15, 2014 Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont and Claremont School of Theology entered into a new memorandum of understanding, strengthening the relationship between the two schools, and offering the opportunities for cross-registration between the two schools. This relationship will also make it possible for Bloy House students to complete the final third of their course work in CST residential, online, and hybrid classes and then receive their Master's of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology. As we continue to live in an increasingly diverse religious and cultural world, one of the strong gifts the CST program brings to Bloy House students is the opportunity to engage in both ecumenical and inter-faith dialog as a significant part of their theological studies.
Bloy House students reach out to help
immigrant children in detention centers
"Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs," (Luke 18:16). There are children suffering in this world. Children who are victims of poverty and violence. Imagine the choice of sending your child away and into a stranger's care, hoping and praying they will be safe. Imagine taking children on a journey where the threat to their lives offers more hope for the future than the circumstances in their home. Children, alone and children with their families are crossing our border looking for solace and looking for hope for the future. We have an opportunity to be the presence of Jesus Christ in our world by bringing them gifts to help them in their journey.
Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, is collecting donations for refugee children to be delivered to the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. IRIS will then distribute these gifts to those who are caring for the children.
Items needed include: clothing and shoes, school supplies (dictionaries for English learners are good), bedding (blankets, sheets, pillows), toys, books, hygiene products, and sports equipment (balls, gloves, etc.; sports being an outlet/coping mechanism). Our ingathering will occur on December 13, during our 11:15 am Eucharist Worship service, at Kresge Chapel.
All members of the extended Bloy House community who would like to support this valuable outreach effort are invited to bring their gifts by the Bloy House office during school office hours or bring them to our Eucharist on December 13. Thank you for sharing your blessings with the children. "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."
Bloy House at Convention
As has become our custom, Bloy House will have a booth at this year's diocesan convention. We hope that all who are Bloy House alumni/ae will swing by, bump into some old friends, and pick up an "Ask Me About Bloy House" button to identify yourself as a Bloy House supporter. The Bloy House display will offer convention goers an opportunity to learn more about the Bloy House academic curricula, and we will be happy to answer any questions individuals may have about the seminary, its new partnerships, or our future plans. In addition, Bloy House polo shirts, mugs, and tippet seals will also be for sale at the booth.
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 Bloy House offers new
Lay Certificate of Pastoral Care
In response to an expressed need within the church, Bloy House has now developed a new Lay Certificate of Pastoral Care which is designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of lay persons serving as religious educators, Eucharistic visitors, spiritual directors, and in lay pastor roles in their congregations. This program is a part of the Education for Episcopal Leadership track at Bloy House. Students participating in the program take 21 hours of not-for-credit course work and attend four of the Bloy House long retreat weekends in order to receive their certificates. Kimberly Cortner (pictured), Christian education coordinator at St. Mark's, Upland, is our first participant in this new program. To learn more about this exciting and worthwhile educational opportunity contact the Bloy House office at bloyhouse@cst.edu.
 Professor Bob Williams
receives grant from
Episcopal Evangelism Society We are happy to announce that Professor Bob Williams has been awarded a grant by EES that will allow Canon Williams and Dr. Thomas Ni to offer a special mini version of his "Media and Ministry" class to the Chinese Convocation of the Episcopal Church at their upcoming convocation meeting. The "Media and Ministry" course at Bloy House has offered participants the opportunity to explore in both theological and concrete ways what it means to engage with electronic media in the world today as a tool for mission, evangelism, Christian formation, and pastoral care. We are very excited that this grant offers us the outreach opportunity of taking this class to Episcopalians beyond the Diocese of Los Angeles so that Chinese-American Episcopal communities across the Episcopal Church have the opportunity to learn ways to do in-reach and outreach through websites, blogs, online formational programs, and a host of other media. In addition to receiving core material taught by Canon Williams, participants will also work with Canon Williams and Dr. Ni to learn more about Chinese language platforms (and possibly other Asian language platforms). The course will be taught at the new Li Tim-Oi Center on the campus of Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel. The Rev. Ada Wong-Nagata, alumna of Bloy House, will serve as the convener of the Chinese Convocation gathering.
Other churches in the diocese that are interested in bringing the "Media and Ministry" mini class to their deaneries should contact Bloy House to discuss how to make this timely and important program available to those engaged in communications ministries across the diocese.
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 Dr. Fisher to retire
from Bloy House
This December, Dr. Ted Fisher, longtime Professor of Greek at Bloy House, will mark his 80th birthday and will officially retire from the Bloy House faculty after serving the school for the last forty-one years. While we have not been able to talk Ted into a retirement party to honor him, you are invited to send notes, cards, and remembrances to Bloy House in the next few weeks. We will gather those all together and present Ted privately with a token of the love and esteem in which we all hold him. I hope that many of you who have been blessed in these decades with the ability to study our New Testament texts in their original language as a result of his superb teaching will be able to express your thanks to Ted for the gift of his passion for the study of Greek.
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Remembering Bloy House in your giving
As the year draws to a close and many of you are making final determinations about what non-profit groups you would like to support in 2014, a reminder that Bloy House is another one of the many worthy causes that could greatly benefit from your giving. As the costs of higher education have gone up exponentially in the last decade, here at Bloy House we have worked hard to keep those costs as low as possible for our students, to do all we can to help ensure that our graduates do not leave seminary with massive looming debt, debt that it becomes more and more impossible to be sure students will be able to repay in our current church economies. Every gift you make to Bloy House helps us offer scholarships to worthy students. It also helps us pay the rent, replace our antiquated office equipment or fund the salaries of our grossly underpaid staff and faculty. On less than $300,000 a year, much of which has to come to us through donations, we are providing an outstanding graduate level theological education to our students, preparing them for the questions, challenges, and opportunities that will be the substance of life in the church in the 21st century. Your generous gifts to Bloy House make the continued success of this seminary a realized dream in an age when, across the church, God is inviting us to dream new dreams. To make a donation please make checks out to Bloy House, ETSC and mail them to 1325 N. College Ave. Claremont, CA 91711, or go to our website to donate.
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 Confessions of a churchgoer
By Sylvia Sweeney
So, I have a confession to make. Some Saturday evenings after a long week in the office and a busy weekend at school, right before I go to bed, I say to myself, "Maybe I'll skip church tomorrow. It's been a long hard week, and it would be lovely to sleep in and not be on a schedule in the morning." For many of us, most of the time, our lives are on intense schedules with too many demands, too much traffic to contend with, and more pressure on our lives than we'd wish for. Life in the 21st century is life in the fast lane. Everything happens fast, much of it close to instantaneously. Information is at our fingertips and every waking hour of our days we have the potential to be plugged into some device that will remind us that we have not yet arrived at our life's final destination. We are on a lifelong journey of exploration and discovery and the more we discover, the more there is yet to learn, to know, to do, to be, to possess. It's exhausting, and it makes me just want to sit quietly in my sunroom and drink another cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.
The good news is, I don't. I don't stay home because I have been shaped by decades of habit -- habit that I am now deeply grateful for. Down deep I know that something will be deeply lacking in my life if I skip church. I will miss the singing and the silence, the hugs and the prayers, the moments of grateful thanks and unearned gift that bend me toward grace even when I am not looking to be bent. I will miss the sound of small running feet coming down the center aisle at the end of Sunday School, and the smile the teenage crucifer offers me as she leads the Gospel procession toward my pew. I will miss the ninety-something year old percussionist at church who reminds me that the Spirit happily keeps moving our bodies along with our minds if we will let Her. I will miss the puzzles of words and images that are meant to release me from my preconceived notions of how the world must work. And I will miss God's voice spoken, sung, danced, clapped, whispered into the still sweet air of life lived in community.
Will it be restful? Probably not. Will it ask something of me? Most definitely. But it will give me oh so much more than it will take; food for the journey, a coin with which to cross the river Styx, spiritual oxygen for my smog-filled lungs. People to know me and love me and journey with me as I take to the freeways again all too soon. I will receive the gift of living life outside myself, beyond myself, as a part of something greater and more precious than that which I alone can hold. I will be blessed, and perhaps some days I will even be a blessing. And in that I will remember the real journey I am called to and the one who sends me out and leads me home.
During this upcoming crazy busy season of Advent when our treadmills seem to have taken on a life of their own, may God grant you the wisdom to shed your comfy old bathrobe, throw on your Sunday hat, and venture out into the mystery that is the church. For in that mystery you may find everything you really want for this moment ... and oh, so much more!
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Your support is appreciated
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Financial 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 upcoming courses and student and faculty activities.
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Deacon Dennis Gibbs preaches on the diaconate
On October 11 of this year Bloy House welcomed as our guest preacher alumnus  Dennis Gibbs, deacon of the church, director of Prism ministries, and co-prior of the Community of Divine Love. The service was a commemoration of Philip the Deacon and below is the sermon Dennis preached in celebration of the ministry of deacons. Those interested in learning more about the ministry of the diaconate here in the Diocese of Los Angeles are invited to contact Archdeacon Joanne Leslie or Dean Sweeney to learn more about this vital ministry of our church. |
An easy way to support Bloy House, ETSC
Support Bloy House by shopping at Amazon! It is very easy. Just go through this link, or go through Amazon smile. Log in using your existing Amazon account and then search "The Episcopal Theological School at Claremont" as your charity of choice. Bloy House gets 5% of all proceeds!
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Bloy Bling
Just a reminder that Bloy House polo shirts in Bloy House Blue with the Bloy House seal on them and Bloy House coffee mugs are still available through the Bloy House office. Cost of the polo shirts is $26 and mugs are $10. Bloy House tippet seals are available through the office for $20. These items will also be on hand again this year at the Bloy House booth at Diocesan Convention.
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