News of 2007-08 Academic Year

Commencement May 12 & 13 at Seminary of the Southwest -- Forty-one seminarians will graduate and two women will receive honorary doctoral degrees at Commencement.

Charlie Cook announces retirement -- The Rev. Charles James Cook, Professor of Pastoral Theology and member of the ETSS Class of 1974, will retire on December 31, 2008. Charlie has taught at the Seminary of the Southwest since 1984.

"Adolescence – Understanding Insanity!" -- An opportunity for lay professionals and volunteers who work with teenagers in churches, schools and other settings to audit this MAC evening course May 26 through June 27.

Death of a seminarian -- Peter Attwell, a MAPM middler, died on April 1, 2008, following a courageous nine-year battle against cancer.

Lenten Intergenerational Service features Stations of the Cross -- Seminary kids drew and then took turns saying the Stations of the Cross on campus. The evening concluded with decorating and filling bags to distribute to the homeless in Austin.

Spring Visitors Weekend -- The seminarian-staged, vocational discernment Visitors Weekend will take place March 28-30, 2008, on the seminary campus.

Faith-based Treatment of Mental Illness Workshop March 29 -- The ETSS Masters Program is hosting this free and open to the public workshop the morning of March 29 in association with the Faithbased Mental Health Ministries Initiative of San Antonio.

Register now for Fall Term of Online School in Spirituality and Mission -- Interested in the Desert Mothers, ever-pressing Consumerism or Faith Themes in Murder Mysteries? More Details.
Register Now.

Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor presents 2008 Harvey Lecture March 3 -- Taylor, renowned preacher, author and teacher, will explore "Sabbath: Self-Care or the Mending of the World?" at 6:30pm in Knapp Auditorium.

Inaugural Bishop Claude Payne Lecture and Celebration of four ETSS graduates -- The Rev. Canon Dr. Samuel Wells, dean of the Duke University Chapel, will present the first Payne Lecture on Feb. 14 as the seminary celebrates the recent conscecration of four of its graduates as bishops the day before. Details

Rather House Renovation -- Follow the renovation and expansion of Rather House into the Scott Field Bailey Center at Rather House in photos.

Rather House update -- Recent gifts have drawn the seminary closer to completing fund raising for the $3.6 million renovation of Rather House into an administrative center -- The Scott Field Bailey Center at Rather House.

Chaplaincy student is a missionary in Jerusalem -- Dr. Harry Gunkel, a San Antonio pediatrician on leave from the MAPM & MAC program, is serving as a medical missionary in Jerusalem. Keep up to date at his blog.

2007 ETSS graduate is new admissions director -- The Rev. Ken Malcolm -- an experienced educator and communicator -- is the new admissions director at the Seminary of the Southwest.

What the World Eats -- Photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith S’Aluisio traveled to 24 countries to see how globalization, migration and rising affluence are affecting the diets of communities around the globe. Each chapter of their book – Hungry Planet: What the World Eats – features a portrait of a family, photographed alongside a week’s worth of groceries.
Range of one week’s expense – $500 to $1.23.

Dean Douglas Travis Installation Service -- the Very Rev. Douglas Travis, D.Min., was installed as the seventh dean and president of ETSS on November 8. View several photos of the service and read the sermon by the Rev. Theodore Wardlaw, dean of the nearby Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

New Kittredge book published -- Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of John , a new book by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, has been published by Morehouse Publishing in association with the Anglican Assocation of Biblical Scholars.

2007 Polity Bowl -- The combined flag football team of ETSS and the Lutheran Seminary Program continued the decades-old Polity Bowl rivalry with the neighboring Austin Presbyterian Seminary in early December.

Theology of film -- Greg Garrett ETSS '07 and writer-in-residence at the seminary, is the author of The Gospel According to Hollywood. Austin American-Statesman religion writer Eileen Flynn explores the book with him. The national book launch party is slated for 7pm Sept. 6 at St. David's Church in downtown Austin. The evening will feature live performances of movie music, food and drink, a reading from the book and a booksigning.

Two from ETSS attend annual Seminarian Gathering -- Seniors Amy Moehnke and Roxanne Ruggles represented the Seminary of the Southwest during the annual conference in late September.

Diana Butler Bass 2007 Harvey Lecturer -- Author and expert in American religion, Diana Butler Bass presented the Blandy Lectures and three persons were honored during the ETSS Alumni/ae Convocation in late September. View photos and read citations.

ETSS grad wants students to think beyond the pulpit -- The Rev. Catherine Tyndall Boyd ETSS 2006 is the new chaplain and diversity officer at Austin's Trinity Episcopal School -- an eight-year old school with students from an ecumenical range of faith denominations.

Rev. Stephen Kinney gives homily at Lady Bird Johnson eucharist -- A 1984 ETSS graduate, Kinney co-celebrated the eucharist and gave the homily at the July 13 service for Mrs. Johnson at her Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. He had been her rector when he was at St. Barnabas Church in Fredericksburg.

Three trustees retire -- the Rev. Jo Roberts Mann '85, Dr. Joseph Smith and the Rt. Rev. Barry Howe retired from active service to the Seminary of the Southwest after the board's pre-Commencement meeting in May.

ETSS Online School -- ETSS Online Courses are receiving extensive development and improvement. We will be re-launching our program in 2008 as the “ Online School for Spirituality and Mission .”

Summer 2008 Continuing Education set -- Dr. Greg Garrett will present "Bread for the Journey: Imaginative Literature for Preaching, Teaching and Formation" on the ETSS campus June 2-6, 2008.

Recent news about ETSS faculty -- The faculty report to the trustees in May details the work of ETSS faculty members during the past spring semester.

ETSS Fall Visitors Weekend October 26-28 -- Seminarians host the second Visitors Weekend of 2007 on October 26-28.

ETSS and low student debt -- ETSS believes that preparing for ministry in the Episcopal Church should not result in massive student debt. The Seminary of the Southwest graduates students with among the lowest educational debt.

June 10-16 Certificate Programs open for clergy continuing education credit -- Clergy are welcome to take a course or two in the upcoming Certificate Programs in Youth Ministry and Christian Education to further their education and receive CEUs.

ETSS hosts World Refugee Day June 23 -- Several Austin area groups are hosting UN Refugee Day on the seminary campus June 23