Newsmakers: Kimsey Named Assisting Bishop in Navajoland; Presler to Join Faculty at General Seminary
Episcopal News Service. June 16, 2005 [061605-2-A]
The Rt. Rev. Rustin R. Kimsey has been named assisting bishop, or interim bishop, for the Navajoland Area Mission.
The appointment, in the form of a covenant agreement, was announced at the June 10-12 convocation of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, and was ratified unanimously at the convocation. The covenant was also signed by Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who has oversight over the area mission.
Kimsey was not able to attend the convocation because of his leadership in a long-scheduled Celtic spirituality tour and workshop. The covenant was read to the convocation by Bishop Mark MacDonald of Alaska, who had served in Navajoland as a priest.
Kimsey will fill the vacancy created by the death of Bishop Steven Plummer, who died in April after a long battle with cancer.
Kimsey retired in June 2000 as bishop of Eastern Oregon. He worked with Plummer and the Navajo people at Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the fall of 2001. He served then as a volunteer clergy, and returned in 2003 during Holy Week.
"I appreciate the opportunity to join in the community of faith that the Navajo people represent," said Kimsey. He said that he plans to help the Navajo people share their faith with the larger church.
"If our understanding of Jesus Christ is continuously being strengthened and expanded by how unique cultures embrace Him, then we need to pay close attention to the Navajo. What Christ brings to them and what they bring to Christ is as rich a weaving as one can imagine, and to stand in the midst of that integration is a rare privilege," Kimsey explained.
Navajoland Area Mission was created by General Convention in 1977 from parts of the Dioceses of Arizona, Utah and Rio Grande. Its boundaries coincide with that of the Navajo Nation. The only area mission in the Episcopal Church, it functions much the same as a diocese but with more oversight from the office of the Presiding Bishop and House of Bishops.
There are three regions within the Area Mission -- Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Each of those currently has one full time clergy position. Worship there blends traditional Navajo and Anglican traditions.
Kimsey said another goal that he has is developing additional Navajo leadership in both ordained and lay positions within Navajoland. He is an advocate of the program of mutual ministry -- developing the ministry of all the baptized -- that Navajoland has adopted.
A sixth generation Oregonian, Kimsey was born in 1935 in Bend, Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1957 and Episcopal Theological School in 1960.
He has been married to Gretchen Beck Rinehart Kimsey since 1961. They have two children, a foster son, and two grandchildren. He and his wife served at churches in Redmond, Baker City and The Dalles before he was elected the fifth bishop of Eastern Oregon in 1980.
He served two terms on Executive Council and was the clerical representative for the Episcopal Church on the Anglican Consultative Council. He chaired the planning committee for the Church's first Partners in Mission Consultation and the Church's Standing Commission for Ecumenical Relations from 1994-2000. He was also the first chair of Domestic Missionary Partnership (formerly Coalition 14), an organization to which Navajoland also belongs.
Since his retirement as diocesan bishop, he has been invited into various communities of faith to share issues of faith development, baptism and ecclesiology, and to lead retreats on Celtic Christianity.
-- Dick Snyder, a deacon in the Diocese of Utah, is senior correspondent for Episcopal Life.
Presler to join faculty at General Seminary, announces departure as ETSS dean
[ENS, Source: ETSS] - The Very Rev. Dr. Titus Presler, dean and president of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest since 2002, has announced that he will leave the seminary's leadership this summer.
In mid-August, Presler will become sub-dean and vice president for academic affairs at the General Theological Seminary in New York City, where he will also be professor of mission and world Christianity.
"I'm very excited about joining and strengthening General's ministry of forming leaders for the church," Presler said, citing especially the challenges of multicultural ministry in today's world. He and his wife, the Rev. Jane Butterfield, mission personnel officer for the Episcopal Church, are looking forward to making their home at the seminary in Manhattan.
"Titus brought a larger awareness of our place in the world and in the Anglican Communion and enriched us with his enthusiasm and heart for mission," said the Rt. Rev. Don Wimberly, Bishop of Texas and chair of the ETSS Board of Trustees. "We are deeply saddened by his leaving but know that he and Jane will continue to bless the church through their ministry both at General Seminary and through Jane's work in world mission."
Wimberly said the Board plans to have an interim dean in place by September 1 and that a search process will be initiated for a new dean and president to be called for the 2006-07 academic year.
Presler said he will leave ETSS with regret. "I love this seminary, the people who minister here, and the students for whom we exist," he said. "We have moved forward in significant ways over the past three years, and I will miss being a part of this seminary's future."
Since Presler came to ETSS in June 2002, a detailed strategic plan has been implemented that is strengthening the seminary's ethnic diversity, leadership formation, Hispanic emphasis, global mission awareness, continuing education, and ecumenical cooperation with the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest. New classrooms and faculty offices were added, and a capital campaign is planned. The internal organization of the seminary was clarified in a new faculty handbook and bylaws. Three new professors and two interim lecturers have joined the fulltime faculty of 12, serving about 130 students in four degree programs.
"One of the developments I'm most pleased about," said Presler, "is our consensus around a Conversation Covenant that will help the ETSS community talk with intentionality and care about difficult issues, whether in the seminary or the wider church. This is especially important in a time of polarization in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion."
Presler opened ETSS to the global church during his tenure in Austin. Church leaders from throughout the world visited the seminary campus for presentations and informal discussions with community members. About 100 outgoing missionaries completed two-week orientations organized by Butterfield on campus during the past three Januarys. Some seminarians completed mission internships in Africa, Asia and Latin America during January Term and summer months.
At General, Presler will oversee the academic program and work closely with faculty. In May, the General Trustees approved a reconfiguration that enables the sub-dean to be called from outside the seminary and expands the position's scope. "One of the excitements of this position will be that I will oversee the programming of the Desmond Tutu Education Center, which will include a Peace and Reconciliation Center and a Continuing Education Center," Presler said. He will teach in the area of mission and world Christianity.
Presler came to ETSS from an 11-year rectorship in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he helped transform a declining inner-city parish into a growing, mission-focused community. He taught mission at General, Episcopal Divinity School, and Gaul Theological College in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Preslers and their four children were missionaries in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. Presler holds the A.B. degree from Harvard, an M.Div. from General, a Th.D. in missiology from Boston University, and the D.D. from General and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois. He is the author of two books and numerous articles on mission and world Christianity.