wfn.org | Graduate's $1 million gift funds economic and justice studies at ETSS

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2001-220

Graduate's $1 million gift funds economic and justice studies at ETSS
(photo available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens/2001-220.html)

by Bob Kinney

     (ENS) Generations of seminarians will better understand economics and social 
justice issues, thanks to the generosity of a graduate of the Episcopal Seminary 
of the Southwest.

     The Rev. Michael Athey has given his seminary one million dollars to 
establish the Zacchaeus Endowment. The gift is the second largest in the 
seminary's 50-year history and the largest given by a graduate.

     "Michael's gift affirms his own faith journey and will enhance the journeys 
of generations of seminarians to come," said the Very Rev. Durstan McDonald, 
seminary dean. "Our graduates will have a thorough understanding of economics and 
social theory, as well as insights into issues like wealth, community organizing, 
and poverty and the welfare system, from the perspective of the Christian faith. 
It underscores our seminary's commitment to evangelism and justice," he said.

Fulfills biblical imperative

     "It's important for graduates to have the basic tools to integrate theology 
and socio-economic policy in the light of scripture. It fulfills the biblical 
imperative to proclaim the good news and to seek justice," said Athey, of Tulsa, 
Oklahoma.

     Named for the rich tax collector from Jericho who welcomed Jesus into his 
house and then made fiscal restitution, the Zacchaeus Endowment is already 
funding a seminary symposium lecture series by a University of Texas economist 
and the work of all first-year students in Austin Interfaith. The symposium-part 
of the seminary's new mission-based curriculum-uses the city of Austin as an open 
textbook to explore a topic that affects everyone. This year's focus is "Health 
and Theology" while the premier year dealt with issues of "Work." 

     Dr. Steven Tomlinson, UT graduate school of business professor, opens the 
symposium each year with several lectures on the free market economy. Seminarians 
work with Austin Interfaith during their first year and then are placed in Austin 
area parishes for the last two years of their studies. Student work within 
Interfaith last year included health care issues for children and establishing 
the Alliance program, a cooperative venture of parents, students and East Austin 
public school administrators.

     Endowment funds can also underwrite seminarian study at San Antonio's 
Mexican American Cultural Center and visits to the colonias along the Mexico-U.S. 
border every January, in addition to placements with exemplary outreach 
ministries throughout the country, much like what transformed Athey during his 
seminary studies in the mid-1990s.

 From banking to ministry

     Athey came to the seminary in 1994 following a career in banking. "I went 
from repossessing Harleys to being senior lender at the Security National Bank in 
Enid, Oklahoma, before coming to the Seminary of the Southwest. I'm a lifelong 
Episcopalian and had thought about the priesthood since I was a child," the 38-
year-old priest said.

     Seminary education transformed him in two fundamental ways. "Bible studies 
of the Old Testament realigned my understanding of God and the people of God," he 
said. And seminary-sponsored internships in ministries in Atlanta and Seattle 
showed him a way of ministry that would become his life work.

     He spent one January term working at St. Luke's Church, Atlanta, a large, 
urban parish with many ministries to the marginalized. He worked the next January 
with the Rev. Susan O'Shea, also a Seminary of the Southwest graduate, at her St. 
Martha and Mary's Pike Market Ministry along the Seattle waterfront. "My 
experience in Seattle really set in stone my idea of an alternate vision of the 
priesthood," Athey said. "The congregation of primarily homeless men was not 
formed around a church building but rather was shaped in worship and communal 
support. Justice and hospitality were the primary focus."

'Who is the servant? Who is being served?'

     After graduation from the seminary in 1997, Athey returned to the Diocese of 
Oklahoma and served two years as curate at St. Luke's Church, Bartlesville. "It 
was a really wonderful experience but I felt I needed more formation to hone my 
edge of social awareness." 

     Athey left Oklahoma and lived for six months within the community of the 
Church of the Savior, an inner-city, ecumenical religious group that serves the 
poor in Washington, D.C. He worked in the N Street Village, a shelter for 
homeless women that connected them with needed social services. 

     It was there one cold night that he found the answer to "Who is the 
Servant?" and "Who is Being Served?" It was near midnight when Athey was leaving 
work at the shelter after a winter storm had dropped the temperature from shirt-
sleeve to winter coat weather. Athey had no coat to wear on his way home until he 
found one in his office with a note saying "Stay warm, Michael" - a message from 
one of the homeless women. 

     Athey returned to Oklahoma and joined St. Aidan's Church, a racially diverse 
congregation in north Tulsa with a long history of service in the neighborhood. 
He is coordinator of the church's Christ House Episcopal Ministries, an 
expression of the congregation's commitment to outreach, as well as being 
associate priest of St. Aidan's. 

     Many of Christ House's ministries are rooted in justice issues for young 
people. "These issues are at the core of St. Aidan's being," he said. The 
Crossroads Academy, an after-school program for 20 third through seventh graders, 
offers academic enrichment and social skills training. Critical Response, Inc., 
provides family, group and individual counseling for children by licensed 
counselors at about one-third the usual fee. The parish also houses a retreat 
center for Christian education.

     Athey's gift represents a significant part of his personal wealth. "How is 
it possible to thank the seminary for renewing my vision of life and ministry? 
The only answer I could come up with is to ask them to keep doing it," he said.

--Bob Kinney is publications director for the Seminary of the Southwest.