May 10-13, 2004—Omaha
Rev. Richard Jeske, 2004 National Chair
Allen C. Johnson, 2004 Local Chair
Seminars
- Hunger for Communion at the Lord’s Table
Presenters: Rev. Dr. Diedra Kriewald, Bro. Jeffrey Gros
The seminar will review the understandings and practice of the Eucharist in the churches and note some of the steps toward reconciliation. The seminar will explore some of the bilateral and multilateral dialogue results relationship to one another and review the convergences that have emerged from the 20th century liturgical reforms. Participants will engage one another on sensitive issues like sacramental preparation and sacramental sharing.
- Ecumenism 101
Presenter: Rev. Lydia Veliko
A seminar designed for the newcomer to the National Workshop on Christian Unity, or to ecumenism in general. While this seminar does not presuppose background in the ecumenical movement, it acknowledges that nearly everyone has a wealth of experience to share in the area of ecumenical relationships. This seminar will attempt to answer the question, “Where are we today in the ecumenical movement?” Group interaction will be encouraged.
- Forming Leaders for the Ecumenical Church
Presenter: Rev. Dr. Phyllis Anderson
How are ministers being formed today to lead the ecumenical movement into the future? How do we prepare pastors who will help communities of faith live out the unity that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ? Some seminaries seem to focus on denominational identity to the exclusion of ecumenical vision. Other seminaries welcome diversity without challenging our divisions. Using the experience of Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry, this seminar will explore positive models of ecumenical formation that honor the particular gifts of each denominational tradition and foster passion to break down barriers and make visible our unity.
- Full Communion
Presenters: Sr. Lorelei Fuchs, SA and Rev. Dr. O. C. Edwards
The term full communion sounds deceptively simple but the Full Communion study group of the Faith and Order Commission of the NCCCUSA has found the issue to be very complex. This seminar will communicate the process used in the past quadrennium’s work and present a synthetic overview of the findings and the complexity of the issues encountered.
- Christian Churches in the Holy Land
Presenters: Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, Dr. Tony Kireopoulos
The impact of the Middle Eastern Crisis upon the lives of the Christian Churches in the Holy Land. Among those issues to be considered will be the impact of the Christian Zionist movement upon the Christian Community.
- Virtue as an Ecumenical Ethic
Presenter: Rev. John W. Crossin, OSFS, Ph.D. and Rev. James M. Childs, Jr. Ph.D.
This session will discuss the contemporary renewal of virtue ethics and its ecumenical significance. It will also review some of the dialogues that have treated ethical issues and some of the principles most useful in approaching particularly controversial ethical issues.
- Conference on Faith and Order in North America 2005
Presenter: Rev. Dr. William G. Rusch
For some time now plans have been developing to hold a Conference on Faith and Order in North America in 2005. This seminar will share the latest information on the Conference and the study process leading up to it. It will provide information on how individuals, parishes, seminaries, divinity schools, regional councils of churches, and regional jurisdictional units of Canadian and American churches can participate in the study process
and Conference.
- Community Organizing
Presenters: Rev. Marshall Johnson, Tom Holler
Churches are well-defined networks with a strong history that care about communities. This seminar will show how churches can work with and take the leadership in efforts to sustain and improve the quality of life for people in communities of all sizes. Ecumenical dialogue and partnership will be emphasized.
- Health Ministry – Wellness Begets Oneness
Presenters: Ronnette Sailors, RNBSN, Stephanie Ulrich, Rev. Dan Johnston
This seminar will share models for health ministry that enhance the mission of the faith community, empower the church to participate with God in the continuing journey toward wholeness of body, mind, and spirit, and develop a new vision of relationships and service within and beyond the community of faith.
- Rural Ministry
Presenters: Rev. CarolWindrum, Rev. Neal Noellette, and Marilyn Mecham
The changing face of rural America brings challenges to churches and denominations. Cooperative parishes and collaborative ministries are responding to the call for a new vision, a transformation that addresses the realities of crisis and hope. This seminar will focus on the current culture of rural America and its implications on ministry and ecumenical relationships.
- Real Theological Communication between Churches – A Proven Method Demonstrated
Presenters: Rev. John T. Ford, CSC, Dr. Douglas Foster
This seminar first describes a highly interactive dialogue method developed and used by members of the National Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission in the 1990s. This method focuses on specific theological issues (like apostolicity, holiness, baptism) and explores areas of compatibility, incompatibility and confusion. The method can be used between churches of strongly differing theological styles or those that are very close in heritage
and theology. Presenters, who are members of the Faith and Order Commission, will demonstrate an example of the method at work between Churches of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church. They will follow the demonstration with an exercise in which participants will be able to use the method to explore their own church’s view of the Church.
- Ecumenical Challenges in Global Christianity
Presenter: Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D.
The advent of global Christianity with the growing strength and vitality of churches in the Southern hemisphere is a radically new reality for the Church and world today. At the same time mission theology is being transformed into what missionlogist David Bosch has described as an “emerging ecumenical paradigm.” This session will consider the ecumenical and mission – logical challenges and possibilities of contemporary global Christianity.
- The Missing Link: Peace and The Ecumenical Movement
Presenter: Dr. Michael Kinnaman
What have we said historically about peace? What are we saying now? This seminar will explore the past and present integration of Peace Witness in ecumenism, with special emphasis on the historic peace churches.
- Religious Plurality: Living With Other Faiths
Presenter: Rev. Dr. Russell L. Bennett
We live in a new situation and changed world in our US context, where believers of a much wider variety of faith communities than in the past live within the same civic world as we ourselves inhabit. What does our context of religious plurality call on us to do in the parish, theologically and programmatically? How can we take a humbler theological stance, devoid of arrogance, while being faithful ourselves? How do we faithfully sing our praises to Jesus without expecting all around us to sing our song?
Special Presenters
CAROL JOY W.T. GALLAGHER
Bishop Gallagher was born in San Diego, California on December 24, 1955 to the Rev. Donald K. and Elizabeth Anne WalkingStick Theobald. She received her BA from Antioch College in 1976 and her MDIV from the Episcopal Divinity Seminary in 1989 and a MTh. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1998. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware in the area of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Her dissertation topic concerns Native Leadership in the Episcopal Church.
The Rt. Rev. Gallagher is the first American Indian (Cherokee) female bishop in the Episcopal Church, the first indigenous female bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion and the first female bishop in the three Episcopal dioceses in Virginia. Bishop Gallagher’s primary responsibilities within the dioceses centers on the clergy and their families, its 65 mission and small churches and the postulants and seminarians assigned thereto.
Bishop Gallagher’s Native American heritage comes through her mother, Betty WalkingStick Theobald. Her great-great-great grandmother walled the Trail of Tears from North Carolina to Oklahoma in the 1830ís. Her father was a Presbyterian minister for 52 years at the time of his death in 1994. Bishop Gallagher is married to Mark Paul Gallagher. They have three children, Emily, Ariel and Phoebe. She loves to sing and plays several instruments.
MARTIN E. MARTY
Marty is The Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the university of Chicago where he taught for 35 years and where the Martin Marty Center has since been founded to promote “public religion” endeavors.
The author of over 50 books, Dr. Marty has written the three-volume Modern American Religion. Other books are The One and the Many America’s Search for the Common Good; The Promise of Winter; and When True Simplicity is Gained. His Righteous Empire won the National Book Award.
Dr. Marty is past president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association. He has served on two U.S. Presidential Commissions and was director of both the Fundamentalism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Public Religion Project at the University of Chicago. He has served St. Olaf College in Northfield MN since 1988 as Regent, Board Chair, Interim President in late 2000, and is now Senior Regent.
Born in West Point, Nebraska, February 5, 1928, Dr. Martin Marty was ordained into the ministry in 1952 and served for a decade as a Lutheran parish pastor before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1963. Dr. Marty and his wife Harriet have seven children, nine grandchildren, and one great grandchild.
RHYMES H. MONCURE JR.
Dr. Moncure was elected to the Episcopacy at the July 2000 South Central Jurisdictional Conference. He was elected on the first ballot and assigned to the Nebraska Area.
Dr. Moncure earned his Master of Divinity Degree (M.Div.) from St. Paul School of Theology with honors in preaching. His doctoral studies began at San Francisco Theological Seminary, the area of Biblical Studies and Church Administration. He completed the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) at Carolina University School of Theology, graduating with academic honors. Dr. Moncure served as a Director of the General Board of Global Ministries (1988-1996).
He has served as a Director with the general Commission on Christian Unity, Co-Chairing the Acts of Repentance Task Force. Dr. Moncure has taught in Regional & Conference Schools of Mission for the Womenís Division. Throughout his thirty years of parish ministry, appointments have included churches ranging in size from 50-2500 in urban and suburban congregations and cross-racial settings. He served as Director of Congregational Development for the Missouri East Conference and Executive Director for Urban Ministries in the Kansas East Conference. In Nebraska, in addition to other duties, he serves on the Executive Committee & the Board of Governors of Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Bryan-LGH Hospital Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Paul School of Theology and Mt. Sequoyah Board of Trustees. On the General Church level, he serves as a Director on the General Council on Ministries and the University Senate.
Dr. Moncure has been married for 34 years to Jewell Lena, who is a public school psychologist. They have two adult children and a grandson.
WILLIAM TABBERNEE
Dr. Tabbernee is President and Stephen J. England Distinguished Professor of Church History at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is ordained in the Churches of Christ in Australia, a denomination closely related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He is also a minister with standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He attends First Christian Church in Tulsa.
Before coming to PTS, Dr. Tabbernee served as Principal of the Churches of Christ Theological College in Australia, among other scholarly and administrative positions in Australia. Dr. Tabbernee has served as president of Phillips Theological Seminary since 1991. During that time, he oversaw the move from Enid to Tulsa, and he currently provides leadership for the Capital Campaign and the plans for the seminary’s new campus. He also teaches in the Church History department at PTS.
Dr. Tabbernee publishes numerous articles, essays, and book reviews every year. His scholarly interests are primarily in the area of EarlyChristianity, though he has also published in the areas of Medieval Church History, Disciples History, Australian Church History, and Ecumenism. Dr. Tabbernee is a member of the Standing Commission of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission, where he has recently particpated in studies of hermeneutics and theological anthropology.
Curriculum Vitae
T.P.T.C., Coburg Teachers’ College, 1965
Dip.R.E., Melbourne College of Divinity, 1968
L.Th., Melbourne College of Divinity , 1968
Diploma in Ministry, College of the Bible, Melbourne, 1970
B.A. (Hons.), University of Melbourne, 1972
S.T.M., Yale University, 1973
Ph.D., University of Melbourne, 1979
D.D., Phillips University, 1993
Litt.D., University of Melbourne, 2002