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GTS T S E • News Quarterly SUMMER 2016 THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING SEMINARIANS OF COLOR CONFERENCE NEW APPOINTMENTS COMMENCEMENT NEWS & NOTES ALUMNI NEWS Attendees enjoy a break of sunshine at the annual Garden Party on June 23, 2016. I fnally heard someone use the phrase, in what I suspect has always The Proof of the been the right way. The proof is not in the pudding, as I had always heard. Rather, the proof of the pudding is in the eating! Now that Pudding makes sense. You can talk all day long about some thing or some The Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle idea; but the true test is in the fnal analysis. After all, pudding is Dean and President meant to be eaten, not speculated upon. One of the delightful things about growing up Seminary education is like that. We can talk all day long about is learning how humorous verbal misunder- thoughts and ideas and plans and curriculum. But, if the fnal pro- standings had been in my youth. My mother duct is not efective ministry, the pudding just tastes bad. In this kept a small notebook labeled “Malaprops.” It was never malicious; issue of GTS News Quarterly, you will read about some great new just humorous. For example, her best friend used to say she was appointments as well as the achievments of our students, gradu- wearing a “little casualty dress.” So, as I grew up, I listened for my ates, alumni, and faculty—the proof in the pudding. own collection of malapropisms. One of the most powerful proofs is how our graduates are deployed I always thought the phrase “the proof is in the pudding” was odd. for work in the vineyard. It is with great pride that General Seminary Why the pudding, I thought? Is proof—as in yeast—something graduates continue to be 100% deployed by, or shortly after, gradu- missing from pudding and, therefore, was the phrase more of a ation in meaningful ministries. This year is no diferent and to make polemic? Perhaps, it had some Old English meaning lost on our the point, we have been sending e-mails every week or so high- contemporary ears about the composition of pudding. After all, lighting our graduates and their new ministries. the English still call dessert of all types “pudding.” Nevertheless, legions used it as a summary line of skepticism, with the doubtful The breadth of our graduates new ministries is tremendous. So is possibility of being proven wrong for the fact just commented the depth. Our young alumni are energetically beginning with upon. I thought so until a few weeks ago, that is. jobs which touch many lives. The Rev. Charles Bauer was this year’s (Cont’d on p. 2) THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY S E T OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH R S M • E O S • T TA 440 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011 UUS • VERI Elizabeth Schrader ’16 Receives General Seminary Student Participates the Clement J. Whipple Prize in Canterbury Scholars Programme Elizabeth Brooke Schrader, M.A. ’15, The Canterbury Scholars Programme is a conference which S.T.M. ’16, was awarded this year’s provides opportunities for Anglican/Episcopalian Christians Clement J. Whipple Prize for an aca- from around the Anglican Communion to pray, study, and live demic paper submitted by a grad- together at the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge, on the doorstep uating student accepted for publica- of Canterbury Cathedral. The participants are given the opprtu- tion for her article, “Was Martha of nity to learn through partnership, against the backdrop of the Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel history and tradition of Canterbury. in the Second Century?” which is forth- coming in the Harvard Theological Recently, as part of this two-week pro- Review in early 2017. An online pre- gram, Michael Horvath, a rising senior view will be available in July 2016. from The General Theological Semi- nary, joined other seminarians and The paper examines scribal activity in over 100 manuscripts of newly ordained from around the world the Gospel story, where Lazarus is raised from the dead. Martha to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury, of Bethany’s presence in the text is unstable throughout the as well as to visit the Anglican Com- entire manuscript transmission of the Fourth Gospel. This paper munion ofce and Lambeth Palace. suggests that Martha may have been added to the Gospel of John by scribes at a very early stage of the text transmission— In an article about the conference and Martha’s absence may provide us with new information from the Anglican Communion News about the identity of Mary Magdalene in the Gospel. Service, Horvath is quoted as saying, “It’s been a game-changer for me. I have developed a greater Schrader has accepted admission to the Ph.D. program at understanding of the breadth and scope of the Angilican Boston University’s School of Theology. Communion and the issues that face us globally.” Proof of the Pudding (Cont’d from p.1) winner of the Edwin Cromey Prize for Excellence in Liturgical Prof. Michael Battle refned his reconciliation seminars with Studies and will now integrate his experience and seminary research in South Africa; Prof. Barbara Crafton is able to learning in his frst call as Curate at Hickory Neck Episcopal complete her next book, Called; and Prof. Clair McPherson will Church in Toano, Virginia. Mid-career alums are efectively conduct a pilgrimage/tour/course of the spiritual centers using prior degrees and doctorates to grow new branches on throughout Early Medieval Western Europe. The proof of that well-rooted stock. Before the call to ordained ministry, the Rev. pudding is very good eating, indeed. Dr. Tommie Watkins, Jr., earned a Master’s in Social Work and a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Alabama, and General Seminary’s education and formation have nurtured spent over a decade doing HIV prevention and counseling in these lives of ministry in ways which would not have been Miami and Birmingham, Alabama. He will now return to the possible without, well, General Seminary. A frequent way Diocese of Alabama, where he has been called as Associate parishes assess their current state of afairs is asking the Rector at Canterbury Chapel Episcopal Church and Student pointed question of whether their communities would be Center, and will also teach as an Adjunct Professor at the afected, or even notice if they were not there. In The Episcopal University of Alabama School of Social Work. Church, General Seminary’s presence is defnitely noticed. Any lack of the good pudding being made by our faculty and Students preparing for lay vocations are making truly remark- students would similarly be a huge hole on the bufet table able contributions to ministry and scholarship. Graduating of our Church. M.A. student Libbie Schrader’s master’s thesis, “Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Cen- General Seminary’s pudding is becoming tastier every day. tury?” was recently accepted for publication in the Harvard Come have a bite. You will see that the proof of our pudding Theological Review, expected to come out in early 2017. This is is defnitely in the eating. tremendous for a student! Please call or write me; I love hearing from you. Faculty pudding these days is also very good eating. This past year our faculty applied for and received the most Conant Grants in at least the last decade. Prof. Todd Brewer traveled to Egypt in search of discoveries about the Nag Hammadi texts; GTS News Quarterly Issue Nº 20 June 2016 Published four times a year in March, June, September, and December A publication of the Ofce of Communications The Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle, Dean and President Editor The General Theological Seminary of The Episcopal Church Chad Rancourt, Director of Communications 440 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011 Copy Editor (212) 243-5150 V.K. McCarty Experiencing the Seminarians of Color Conference The Rev. Sharon Sutton M.Div. ’17 This past March, I had the pleasure of joining other students at the Seminarians of Color Conference in Oviedo, Florida, near Orlando. We gathered at the Canterbury Retreat Center for the Diocese of Central Florida, under the conference’s theme, “Gathering around the Jesus Movement: Evangelism and Rec- onciliation.” Three seminarians from General attended: Michael Horvath, Deborah Lee and Sharon Sutton. In total six Episcopal seminaries and three non-Episcopal seminaries were repre- sented. We were diverse in ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious background, and upbringing; but united in our love and desire to serve Christ in his Church and in our love of the In our opening session, we discussed how race figures into Episcopal Church as well. our lives and ministries. All of us felt that our race or ethnicity is not a detriment; but rather an enhancer, which enriches The conference leaders were missioners of The Episcopal our shared life in Christ. Of particular interest was the ses- Church: the Rev. Canon Angela Ifll, Missioner for the Ofce of sion, “How do we preach in mixed race communities?” led by Black Ministries, the Rev. Canon Anthony Guillen, Missioner for the Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara. As preachers, our engagement Latino/Hispanic Ministries and the Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara, with the Word of God is filtered by culture, language and Missioner for Asiamerica Ministries. The Missioner for Native experience. It’s not surprising that our parishioners experi- American Ministries is currently unflled. The Conference was ence the same engagement of the Word through, perhaps, a underwritten by the Episcopal Church Foundation, with Ange- slightly different filter.