June 11, 2014
Dear Friends,
As the 2013-14 academic year comes to its close, I shared a report on the year at Mercer School of Theology last evening with our Board of Trustees, led by Bishop Provenzano. I share with you here a portion of my report on the year just past. Your comments are welcome.
In a word, the 2013-14 year at Mercer was
busy. We increased the number of events
several times over. We added for the
first time Mercer events outside Garden City under the title Mercer
Avenue. We initiated with a first
lecture the Mercer Institute of Spirituality.
We worked to regularize our outward communications using Constant
Contact email (Next Month @ Mercer), Facebook (Conversations at Mercer),
Twitter (@MercerTheology), website improvements (www.mercerschool.org), and a daily online newspaper “Open Gates” (www.mercerdaily.org).
We brought Charles Egleston, our valued
Librarian and the Archivist of the Diocese, from part-time (Tues, Thurs, Sat)
to full-time, thus increasing our staffing and the availability of the Mercer
Library to visitors. The Rev Kate
Salisbury, working from her home, took responsibility for the design and
dispatch of Mercer's Constant Contact emailings.
We continued our cooperation with various
other offices of the Diocese, as well as with the New York Metropolitan Synod
of ELCA, the Parish Resource Center, and other occasional cooperative
relationships.
Mercer Fund support of our diocesan
seminarians, studying at General Theological Seminary, Virginia, Yale, and Sewanee
continued, as did our support of seminarians across the Episcopal Church. In cooperation with the Society for the Increase of Ministry, Mercer School provided the
financial support for the awarding of the first SIM/Mercer Challenge
scholarship, designed to support the brightest and the best in their
preparation for ordination.
Mercer School for Deacons became Mercer
School for Ministry. Over the past year
the School has been preparing 5 for ordination as deacon, 2 for priesthood, and
continued support of one recently-ordained deacon, Anthony Jones. In February we lost a valued faculty member
when the Reverend Allen Shin was elected Suffragan Bishop of New York. Last Saturday we had
the joy of having two students of the school ordained as deacons, Jennifer
Webster and Jason Moskal.
In cooperation with the Canon to the
Ordinary, the Rev John Betit, Safe Church procedure and guideliness for the
Diocese were re-written and released. Work on increasing the number of in-person
training sessions, as well as assuring that parishes are ready to handle online
ongoing training continued. Racism Awareness, diversity, anti-oppression
workshops began again following a 3-year hiatus. Annual Parish Leadership Workshops for Treasurers and Vestries & Wardens, continued.
The Dean of Mercer, as Canon for Formation, assumed
responsibility for the content of the diocese's two clergy days and the 3-day
clergy conference each year. We
streamlined the outline of Clergy Day agenda.
The Reverend Eric Law of the Kaleidoscope Institute was well-received at the
May Clergy Conference.
Ongoing support and responsibility for
Christian faith formation planning and execution is now more effectively shared
within the Faith Formation Cohort or team.
Members this year were Myra Garnes Schuler (diocesan staffperson on
youth and young adult ministries), Matt Tees, Emma Tees (Camp DeWolfe), and
Brother Mark Gregory of Little Portion Friary.
Emma has just left the Camp staff as the Tees young daughter continues to grow.
Our 2nd annual Faith Formation
Convocation for the Diocese took place on May 3. James DeWolf Perry of the Tracings Center in
Cambridge MA was keynote speaker. Eight break-out
workshops were offered as well with excellent presenters and content.
Planning continued and has been solidified
for the updating and strengthening of technological capability at Mercer for
online programming, including the recording and presentation online of events
and live sharing of course content.
More in the coming days on what we are up to at Mercer School for the coming year.
Blessings,
John P. McGinty+
Canon for Formation
