TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, November 24, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] All ordained women in the Episcopal Church -- and 1,500 male clergy -- are beginning to receive invitations to participate in what is one of the comprehensive studies of female clergy by any denomination in recent years.

Every ordained woman -- deacon, priest, and bishop -- will be asked about her aspirations, needs, and experience of how ministry is lived out through her life. The Called to Serve survey is unprecedented in the Episcopal Church for its attempt to obtain responses from those in both paid and unpaid ministry, those actively engaged in ministry, those who are taking time out, and who are retired. It also seeks the input of young new clergy, second-career clergy, those ministering in two-career families, and those ministering as single parents or caregivers.

Inclusion of both women and active and retired men is meant to give comparative data on careers, and men's needs for family leave as well as retirement. It is also meant to help the church understand the way the call to ministry is being lived out in 2008.

The survey is "the first to include and hear the voices of those in non-institutional and non-traditional ministries" in the same survey as those serving in traditional ministries, according to the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, one of two research consultants working on the project.

Nesbitt said her conversations with research colleagues show that the scope of the Called to Serve project is also unprecedented among denominations.

Researchers want to learn about how ordained women and men have ministered in the past, what they think their ministry might be like in the future, and what constraints on their choices they experience, he said.

The survey will consist of a combination of check-the-appropriate-box questions and questions for which people can write fuller answers. The two types of questions are meant to give a more complete picture of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, Price said.

There also will be opportunities to volunteer for a confidential research interview.

Coming as it will during Advent, Price said he hopes clergy will consider the survey as a chance to reflect on their vocation, and take the opportunity to share part of that reflection with those who will be influencing ministry policies and ordination preparation in the church. The study is expected to help the church analyze, improve and sustain ordained ministry as a vocation.

Called to Serve is the third survey of Episcopal Church employees that has been conducted during the 2007-2009 triennium. An earlier survey considered lay employee demographics, the exercise of authority in the employment setting, and compensation and benefits. The second survey studied the way the church provides health care coverage to its employees and the feasibility of changing current structures.

A letter was recently sent to the Episcopal Church's 4,026 ordained women and 1,500 ordained men. The letter says participants will soon receive an email with a link to the online version of the survey. Participants can request a paper copy of the questionnaire. All responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Women clergy who do not receive the letter by December 1 or the e-mail invitation by December 8 should request a link or paper copy by contacting CalledToServe@cpg.org or calling Andrea Van Zile at the Church Pension Group (800-223-6602 x9474). If people think the Church Pension Group may not have their correct mailing or email address, they can also contact customer service at 800-223-6602 to update that information.

Labels: Called to Serve, clergy, Mary Frances Schjonberg, ministry, vocation, women

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Church of England issues 'apology' to Darwin

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, September 17, 2008

[Episcopal News Service] A spokesman for the Church of England has said the church misunderstood Charles Darwin's work nearly 150 years ago and that "by getting our first reaction wrong," has continued an on-going misunderstanding.

The Episcopal Church has said that the theory of evolution does not conflict with Christian faith. In 2006, the General Convention affirmed, via Resolution A129, that God is creator and added that "the theory of evolution provides a fruitful and unifying scientific explanation for the emergence of life on earth, that many theological interpretations of origins can readily embrace an evolutionary outlook, and that an acceptance of evolution is entirely compatible with an authentic and living Christian faith."

The previous year, the Episcopal Church's the Episcopal Church Network for Science, Technology and Faith released a Catechism of Creation. In its section on creation and science, the catechism says, in part, scientific researchers since Darwin have refined and added to his ideas, "but never thrown out his basic theoretical framework."

In response to the question of whether accepting biological evolution conflicts with the biblical statement that humans are created in the image and likeness of God, the catechism notes that "image and likeness" have often be described as "those divine gifts of unconditional love and compassion, our reason and imagination, our moral and ethical capacities, our freedom, or our creativity."

"To think that these gifts may have been bestowed through the evolutionary process does not conflict with biblical and theological notions that God acts in creation," the catechism says. "Scripture affirms that God was involved (Gen. 1:26-27)."

Robert Schneider, a retired Berea College professor who was the catechism's lead author, wrote in June 30 essay here that the catechism grew out of a concern that "Episcopalians by and large shared [an American] ignorance about science, and even more distressing, showed little understanding of the doctrine of creation, even though we profess it every time we recite the Nicene Creed."

Schneider wrote that "it is incumbent upon all Episcopal educators to learn the basics about the doctrine of creation and its relationship to the work of science."

"God's two books, the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature, come from the same source, the creating Word of God, and we need to help the faithful develop a better understanding and appreciation of this fundamental truth," he wrote.

Brown's essay is part of a new section of the Church of England's website developed to mark the approaching bicentenary of Darwin's birth in 1809, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859.

The Darwin pages include ones that explore Darwin's faith and his relationship with the Church of England. Diocese of Swindon Bishop Lee Rayfield, a former biological scientist, contributed a welcome page to the section in which he comments that "theology and science each have much to contribute in the assertion of the Psalmist that we are 'fearfully and wonderfully made.'"

The website also includes sections titled Darwin and the Church, Darwin and Faith, and Brief History of Darwin, as well as a list of further reading, and an events page listing how various bodies are celebrating Darwin's bicentenary over the coming months.

Darwin attended a Church of England boarding school in Shrewsbury and trained to be a clergyman at Cambridge. He married into an Anglican family and was inspired to follow his calling into science by another clergyman who was fascinated by the study of botany.
However, Darwin is said to have lost his faith, in part due to the death of a daughter and an increasingly need for evidence to back up belief.

"There is no reason to doubt that Christ still draws people towards truth through the work of scientists as well as others, and many scientists are motivated in their work by a perception of the deep beauty of the created world," Brown writes in his essay, adding that "for the sake of human integrity -- and thus for the sake of good Christian living -- some rapprochement between Darwin and Christian faith is essential."

Labels: Charles Darwin, Church of England, evolution, faith, God, Mary Frances Schjonberg