Faculty Report to the Board of Trustees on May 14, 2007

Greetings to you all from the members of the faculty. I’ll catch you up, first, on what we’ve been doing since February, and then make some comments at the “macro” level about the overall ethos of the professors here.

Cynthia Briggs Kittredge , who has been in and out today seeing to commencement matters, and who worked with me on compiling this report, continues her Sabbatical. Her book on the Gospel of John is now at the publishers, and she’s on to the next project in line, an edited volume on the vocation of the bible scholar. And there’s at least one more cued up after that. As Charlie says “once Cynthia gets started, just keep the printer warm-up.

Russell Schulz has made a valiant recovery from his big scare that led to a big surgery. He’s back on the bench, and heading off to Kenya this summer to continue his project on intuitive music.

Paul Barton has been involved for several years with an international theological organization called el Comisión para el Estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina y el Caribe. He currently serves as the director of the USA branch, and for this year served as interim director of the entire Commission. Paul organized a conference of the US branch at Notre Dame in April. The two book projects that Paul is currently working on are connected with larger historical projects that this Commission is engaged in.

Charlie Cook continues the editings and revisions of his book on the wheels, dials, and gears that keep a church running. I’d love to give you the title, but I can only supply you with the one he gives me every time I ask: “Parish: The Thought.” Real or facetious? You know Charlie, so your guess is as good as mine.

And we scratched the label “Interim Lecturer” off one of our office doors, and replaced it with “assistant professor.” After much very careful searching, interviewing, and deliberating, the faculty agreed with the search committee, that Steve Bishop was the teacher, the researcher, and the faculty member for us. And we agreed to that, I might add, with a collective resounding “No duh.” We’re glad that particular search is over, and to a person we couldn’t be happier with the result. Steve, by the way, was received at St. David’s by Bishop Harrison yesterday morning.

Kathleen Russell has been working on the project funded by the Conant Grant she received last spring, researching the best practices in field education. She’s been traveling about the country meeting with faculty and supervisors from EDS, Harvard, Seabury, and Wesley Seminary, among others. And all this while continuing in her DMin program at the Presbyterian Seminary, where she is now a candidate for the degree.

As for me, Tony Baker , I’m academically committed to a show of humility, so I don’t think the fact that the most recent edition of the Journal of Anglican Studies contains my article on unity in the Anglican Church even bears mentioning. That’s “Journal of Anglican Studies,” volume 5, issue 1. Available in Booher library, or in a theological library near you…

There’s more happening, of course, Susan Dolan Henderson continues to work on her book on life ethics. Nathan is beginning to cast glances at the shelf on which his dissertation sits, and think about publication. Nathan Jennings' research interests, combined with his intuitions about how the nuts and bolts of liturgy constitute a performance of the Christian life, provide a real glimpse of the new future of liturgics here at ETSS. And when Alan Gregory is not cobbling together power point presentations on clandestine theological-biotechnologies, he’s dreaming up his next book project.

As a group, we have continued with our Lexington Seminar project, the ongoing series of conversations initiated by our participation in a grant program by the same name, and devoted to fostering a spirit of community, friendship, and collaboration among the faculty. The central topic of discussion over the past year has been the imminent transition of leadership of the seminary, and so I want to devote the remainder of my comments to sharing with you the general mood of these conversations.

First of all, how many times, how many ways, can we say thank you to this board for bringing Dean Turner into our lives two years ago? His humor, his friendship, his scholarship, and his wisdom have not only been a salve for the communal soul, but they’ve also given us a vision of the future of this institution. To paraphrase one of his many memorable sermons delivered in Christ’s Chapel: If we can walk together here into a shared culture of Christian unity, then we can be a light that shines in darkness, and the darkness will not overcome us. And we’ve been given a gift, a remembrance that may come in handy in the months and years to come, and may be part of what sustains us if and when the darkness creeps up on us: the gift, I mean, of knowing that Phil Turner believes in this seminary, this board, this faculty. And that’s something to hold on to. So thank you, Trustees, thank you Bishop Wimberly, and thank you Phil. From the bottom of our hearts. (Now please don’t kick me in the shins.)

And this semester, thanks again to a bit of wisdom from this group, we have had the added gift of our new Dean’s presence. Through our conversations in the Lexington seminar, the faculty has repeatedly brought up a glaringly obvious question, but one with a less obvious answer. What’s in a dean? A dean, we all agreed, should be first among equals in regards to the faculty—that is to say, a member of the faculty, engaged with us and collaborating with us, while also able to discern how and when to speak with authority. A dean should be an advocate for the seminary to the surrounding church, a dean should be a pastor to the seminary community. And, while all that’s going on, a dean should raise about a jillion dollars and bring in students from around the country and world.

So it became obvious that we were hoping, as Charlie says, for the Messiah.

Now, granted that Dean Travis seems to have arrived without countless throngs of angels in tow (and we’re actually grateful for that), let me say something about our experience of the Dean you have found for us. Doug has spent a semester listening: to students, to bishops, to alums, and to faculty. He has gotten to know us individually and collectively. He has joined our conversations on vision and formation, both listening to us and sharing ideas that his years of experience in the Episcopal Church have formed in him. And he has shared with us an excitement about our future that is, I’m afraid, bound to be contagious. Doug has expressed to us, and I believe also to many of you, what this faculty has hoped to be the case for years: there’s something unique, visionary, and simply right about what we’re up to here. And under his leadership, we are confident that the horizons will only continue to expand and the visions will continue to materialize.

Part of the experience of a dean, as Phil said, may indeed be to discover gifts that the dean himself or herself may not know that he or she has. Another aspect, I believe, is to allow the faculty to discover gifts, both individually and collectively, that they may not know they have. Dean Travis, we’ve now ascertained, is not Dean MacDonald, not Dean Presler, and not Interim Dean Turner: he’s Dean Travis, and we are excited and confident about working with him to become more than what we’ve been, and even perhaps more than what we thought we could be.

I want to say, finally that the biggest question mark hovering over Dean Travis has now been put to rest: a couple of weeks ago, some students hosted a Motown dance party, raising nearly $1000 for scholarships for African American women. And I want you all to rest assured: The new dean can dance.

Respectfully submitted

Anthony D. Baker, in conversation with Cynthia Briggs-Kittredge

Faculty News Archives

February 2007