Foundation Fellows to Focus on Anglican Communion's Divisions
Episcopal News Service. January 31, 2000 [2000-024]
Lindsay Hardin Freeman
(ENS) For the first time, the Episcopal Church Foundation has called together all its Fellows -- leading theological scholars and teachers -- to probe one issue. In a February conference entitled "Tradition and Innovation in Anglicanism: Hermeneutics in a Global Communion," the group will discuss the bases for the deep divisions in the Anglican Communion that came to light during the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
The work of hermeneutics -- the study of interpretation, especially in how we seek to understand scripture -- has taken on a new importance since the 1998 conference exposed differences in basic faith understanding. Much has been said about the disparity between some of the viewpoints of the Episcopal Church in particular and those of the developing world, particularly Africa.
With the new leadership of the African and Asian churches, the Anglican Communion overall finds itself dealing with the realities of not only a post-modernist world, but a post-colonial one as well.
A total of 80 participants, including faculty, students, and trustees from all 11 Episcopal seminaries, will attend the February gathering, along with a mix of parish clergy, independent scholars, and faculty from both the religious and secular academy.
Scheduled at the House of the Redeemer in New York City, the conference will present speakers including Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and several Fellows: Cynthia Kittredge, Ephraim Radner, Titus Presler, Leander Harding, J. Robert Wright, Robert Prichard, Christopher Duraisingh and Ellen Davis. Homilies will be given by Harold Lewis and Robert Hughes.
According to Donn Mitchell of the foundation staff, the interdisciplinary gathering of scholars is built upon the model of the Church Congresses that occurred periodically from the 1870s through the early 1930s. Papers were presented from a variety of perspectives -- with open discussion but no necessity to vote legislatively allowing participants to think through issues free from political pressure to decide. "As a model, it really speaks to the Anglican experience," he said.
Episcopal Divinity School Professor Ian Douglas, who heads up the Fellows Forum, views the gathering as important on two levels. "First, it is vital for the Anglican Communion and Christianity -- at a time that the church is moving from colonial to post-colonial life, and from modern to post-modern life -- to look at the central question of "how do we know what we know about faith in the church and where are the points of convergence and points of conflict in these changing times? My own particular bias is to an Anglican hermeneutic that embraces plurality and openness."
But second, he says, "The reality of the Foundation Fellows coming together across our theological and disciplinary differences in order to have reasoned theological discourse is crucial at a time of increasing anti-intellectualism. The fact that all of us can come together bodes well for the possibilities of theological discourse and leadership in the church."
The Episcopal Church Foundation is the major supporter of advanced theological training for ecclesial scholars in the Episcopal Church, through its program of fellowships for doctoral work. Nearly a third of the foundation's 152 Fellows have gone on to serve in one or more of the church's 11 seminaries.
Since 1964, the Episcopal Church Foundation has invested close to $5 million in the Graduate Fellowship Program. Fellows have been expected to have at least 20 years of potential teaching time ahead of them and have earned doctorates in a wide range of subjects, depending on the needs of the church. Although early recipients were all clergy, 18 percent of fellowships have been awarded to lay men and women.
The Fellows Forum was conceived by Dr. Harold Whiteman, former head of the Foundation's Education Committee, who suggested that these intellectual leaders be organized formally as "lively advocates for the life of the mind" in the Episcopal Church.