wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 14, 2002

2002-064

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Web site offers communion-wide vacancy ads

(anglicansonline.org) In a move to assist the Anglican Communion 
in the area of clergy deployment, Anglicans Online 
(http://anglicansonline.org), one of the best known religion web 
sites on the Internet, has launched a Vacancies 
Centre to publish advs for vacancies, both lay and clerical, 
in Anglican dioceses, parishes, schools, and agencies. 

Until March 29, Anglicans Online will publish vacancy ads free 
of charge. After that, posting a vacancy advertisement for a 
period of four weeks costs US $80. Ads are entered, previewed, 
and paid for entirely online. In addition to carrying posted 
advertisements, the Anglicans Online Vacancies Centre links all 
Anglican diocesan web sites that carry notices of positions 
open.

"Many parishes--especially those in developing countries or 
rural churches with small budgets--can't afford the cost of 
print advertising. Offering an affordable online venue for 
adverts made sense," said Cynthia McFarland, managing editor of 
Anglicans Online. "We're betting that in future years we'll see 
more intra-Communion position-hopping. A Church of England vicar 
might be interested in serving as rector of a group of rural 
parishes in the United States. Someone in the Anglican Church of 
Australia might want to serve in Europe for a time. Perhaps a 
cathedral organist in Japan might consider a similar position in 
Canada. Currently there's no easy way to know what positions are 
open across the entire Anglican Communion. The more we thought 
about it, the more we decided a 'one-stop shopping' portal made 
sense."

All income received from vacancies advertisements will support 
the Internet activities of the Society of Archbishop Justus 
(SoAJ). The Society hosts web sites without charge for Anglican 
dioceses and organizations that cannot afford the cost of a 
commercial ISP. In addition, SoAJ sponsors numerous mailing 
lists for Anglican and Episcopal groups, serves as trustees of 
the ANGLICAN.ORG domain, and administers an overall Internet 
naming plan for the more than 550 dioceses of the worldwide 
Anglican Communion.

On the web since 1994, Anglicans Online has on its web site 700 
web pages of current material and 1,000 pages of back issues and 
archived copies. Its text content is bigger than the collected 
works of Shakespeare, and there are more than 9000 current 
well-maintained links to external resources. About 100,000 
people look at Anglicans Online in a typical month.

Symposium to focus on values and ethics in education

(ENS) In a post-September 11 world numbed by violence and 
danger, there is a renewed interest in teaching values and 
morality in schools. But few opportunities have been afforded 
for a sustained dialogue between teachers, administrators, 
clergy, and leading thinkers and writers about the spiritual 
life that informs our moral and ethical choices.  

St. Pauls School in Concord, New Hampshire, one of the oldest 
private religious boarding schools in the United States, will 
convene a symposium June 16-18 to focus on spiritual formation 
as the foundation for teaching values and ethics in American 
secondary school education.

Community and Character: Schools and the Spiritual Formation 
of Young People will convene educational thinkers, school 
trustees, teachers, and administrators of 140 of the worlds 
leading private schools to explore the future of spiritual 
education as the foundation for moral and ethical education.

This symposium will bring together prominent thinkers and 
educational leaders to discuss the challenge of preparing a new 
generation for leadership, said Bishop Craig B. Anderson, 
rector of St. Pauls School.  The time is right for a vigorous 
discussion that moves us beyond calls for morality to a deeper 
education of the spirit of young people. So much of what the 
educational system needs is already happening in our independent 
schools.

Fifty years ago St. Pauls School hosted a similar symposium in 
which Dr. Paul Tillich addressed the same issues, Anderson 
added.  Times and our culture have changed, but the questions 
remain the same and, as Tillich said, Every generation must 
revisit the answers in light of the current existential 
situation.

The symposium is offered in cooperation with the National 
Association of Episcopal Schools and the Association of Boarding 
Schools.

Symposium leaders will include Dr. Martin E. Marty, professor 
emeritus of the University of Chicago; the Rev. F. Washington 
Jarvis, headmaster of the Roxbury Latin School in Boston; David 
Hornbeck, former superintendent of schools in Philadelphia; and 
Dr. Kim Hays, sociologist and author of Practicing Virtues: 
Moral Traditions at Quaker and Military Boarding Schools.  
Other speakers include the Rev. Dr. Gerald R. Blaszczak, S.J., 
professor, chaplain, and rector of a Jesuit community at Fordham 
University; and the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding 
bishop of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.

We hope those who attend will go away enormously refreshed 
and invigorated about the possibilities of spiritually educating 
our young people to make moral and ethical choices, said the 
Rev. Anthony C. Campbell, a civil rights activist, 
internationally known speaker, and canon pastor at St. Pauls 
School.

We stand at a crucial moment in time, when it is 
self-evident that we must teach our children well, Campbell 
said. This is the beginning of that movement. Our struggle for 
the human spirit must begin in the communities in which we 
live.

For more information or to make reservations contact Barbara 
Ferman, St. Pauls School, 325 Pleasant St., Concord, N.H. 
03301, 603-229-5678, or by e-mail at symposia@sps.edu.  Also 
visit the school's website at www.sps.edu.

 

Chester Cathedral finds medieval inspiration for new bottled 
beer  

(ENI) An English cathedral has revived an ancient monastic 
tradition by producing its own beer and has found modern 
visitors as enthusiastic as their medieval counterparts.  

The monks of Chester, in northern England, used to produce beer 
for themselves and for pilgrims to the shrine of St. Werburg, a 
7th-century abbess to whom were ascribed many miracles. Now 
Chester Cathedral has launched Chester Pilgrim Ale, a strong (5 
per cent alcohol by volume) bottled beer. David Burrows, the 
cathedral administrator, told ENI: "Sales have been going crazy. 
What we expected to sell in a month has almost gone in less than 
a week and a half."  

Revenue from the venture will help the authorities to keep 
admission to the cathedral free to visitors. Chester says it is 
one of the few historic Church of England cathedrals not to 
charge for entry. Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the 
worldwide Anglican Communion, charges 3.50 pounds sterling 
(US$5) for an adult admission, with a range of concessions and 
free entry for worshippers and people wishing to pray privately. 
 

The Chester beer is named after a famous feature of the 
cathedral, the Chester Pilgrim, a carving on a 14th-century 
bench-end in the choir. There are plenty of potential customers 
for the new beer. In 2001, the cathedral received about a 
million visitors, including worshippers. The medieval brewhouse 
and stores stood at the west and north sides of Abbey Square, 
now occupied by houses. 

The cathedral authorities, however, are not planning to follow 
monastic tradition by brewing the beer themselves. They have 
given the job to the J. W. Lees Brewery in nearby Manchester. 
The brewery was praised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) as 
combining the best of the old and the new in an era dominated by 
"clinical stainless steel and winking computer control panels."  

Chester Pilgrim has won the backing of CAMRA's local branch 
secretary, Craig Papworth. He told ENI: "It is a well-balanced 
blend of malt and hops, which should appeal to a wide range of 
customers."  

Anglican priest and physicist wins 2002 Templeton Prize

(ENS) John C. Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest who is a 
mathematical physicist, has won the 2002 Templeton Prize for 
building bridges between science and religion.

Through his extensive writing and lectures, he has applied 
scientific habits to Christianity, resulting in what is regarded 
as a modern, compelling new exploration of the faith. 

The Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion was founded in 1972 
by Sir John Templeton and is the world's largest annual monetary 
prize given to an individual. It is currently worth 700,000 
pounds sterling, or about $1 million. It claims to be the 
world's best known religion prize, awarded each year to a living 
person to encourage and honor those who advance spiritual 
knowledge and dialogue.

Polkinghorne has established himself as a scientist-theologian 
who is comfortable with traditional interpretations of Christian 
Scripture and doctrine but he has defended the role of science 
in advancing our understanding of the universe. He has written, 
for example, that a belief in the Big Bang theory of the 
universe's creation is compatible with a belief in God as the 
Creator. He also argues that evolution is a perfect fit with the 
concept of a God-given gift of creation that continues to 
evolve.

"He has not only destroyed the idea that the worldviews of 
science and theology are opposed to one antoher, but he has 
opened up the road ahead for a new stage in conceptual 
integration which cannot but make for immense progress in 
religion all over the world," said Prof. Thomas Torrance, former 
moderator of the Church of Scotland and teacher of dogmatics at 
the University of Edinburgh. Torrance himself won the Templeton 
Prize in 1978 for his pioneering insights into the rationality 
of the universe that offers evidence of God through scientific 
reasoning.

At a news confernce in New York March 14, Polkinghorne said, "I 
want to take science and religion with great and equal 
seriousness. I see them as complementary to each other and not 
as rivals. The most important thing they have in common is that 
both believe that there is a truth to be sought and found, a 
truth whose attainment comes through the pursuit of 
well-motivated belief."

President Bush appoints Episcopalian to board of advisors on 
historically black colleges and universities

(ENS) President George W. Bush has appointed Bernard J. Milano, 
president of the Episcopal Church Foundation and the KPMG 
Foundation, to a board of advisors on historically black 
colleges and universities.

Milano brings to the board a long track record in helping to 
open doors previously closed to minorities, especially in the 
business world. The KPMG Foundation has created a project that 
attracts ethnic minorities to careers as university busines 
school professors.

In his weekly radio address on February 9, the President 
reminded Americans that "historically black colleges and 
universities opened the door to knowledge, when other doors were 
barred. And today they offer exciting opportunities to young 
people to contribue to their country." He also said that he 
plans to increase funding to those schools by 30 percent by 
2005.

The board of advisors will help the president and Secretary of 
Education develop a federal program designed to achieve an 
increase in the participation of historically black colleges and 
universities in federally sponsored programs and increase the 
role of the private sector in supporting the schools.

Milano is also advising the General Theological Seminary in New 
York on how to improve the diversity in the church and on the 
seminary faculty. 

He is an active member of Church of the Epiphany in Allendale, 
New Jersey, where he has served as senior warden and chair of a 
search committee for a new rector. In the Diocese of Newark he 
has served on the Commission on Ministry and the Audit 
Committee.

Religious groups ask Congress to triple AIDS funding

(RNS) A broad coalition of religious groups is asking Congress 
to more than triple the current level of funding to fight the 
global AIDS pandemic.

In a joint letter to the House and Senate Banking Committees, 23 
mainline Protestant, evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish and 
Muslim groups asked for $2.5 billion in next year's budget to 
help the 40 million people infected with the virus around the 
world. Current funding is $779 million.

"This massive loss of human life will dramatically alter 
families, communities and entire countries," said the letter 
from the coalition spearheaded by the National Council of 
Churches. "We cannot sit idly by."

President Bush's 2003 budget asks Congress to increase present 
funding to $884 million, including $200 million for a global 
AIDS relief fund administered by the United Nations. However, a 
UN estimate says that $10 billion is needed worldwide to fight 
the pandemic and provide treatment to infected populations, 
especially in Africa. Tom Hart, director of the Episcopal 
Church's Washington Office, said that a US share of 25 percent, 
or $2.5 billion, would be more than fair.

Hart said that religious groups are hoping that the funding can 
be boosted when Congress dissects the budget this summer. Last 
year, a move to increase funding to $1.3 billion was approved 
but the money was never appropriated. Hart is optimistic that 
Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bill Frist of Tennessee 
will offer a bill featuring an "aggressive response" in AIDS 
funding.

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