The Indiana e-Christian

Campers and mentor-leaders alike found much to learn at the Chalice Camp held at Camp Barbee, near Leesburg, Ind., on October 15-17.  Almost 50 people came together to share experiences and preparation for ministry.

Chalice Camp participants Tamara Boggs (left) and Belinda Davis pause during a break in camp activities.

During the 48-hour event, attendees experienced worship in a variety of traditions from a diverse set of preachers.  Breakout groups provided attendees the opportunity to discuss and practice skills of ministry, such as presiding at weddings, funerals and the Lord’s Table.  Other breakout groups addressed dealing with conflict, church administration and developing leaders for 21st century churches.

A highlight of Chalice Camp is baptism practice, where campers have the opportunity to practice baptism by immersion.  Campers and mentor-leaders traveled to the Koskiosko YMCA for practice in the pool there.

After practicing baptism, the commissioning service was held at First Christian Church in Warsaw.  During the commissioning service, Rebecca Woods, news editor for DisciplesWorld, brought the message, and campers received a certificate along with a sprig of ivy. 

The tradition of giving ivy dates back to graduation stories for the School of Missions.  Missionaries, as they graduated from the school were given a sprig of ivy from the Missions Building that they were to plant when they arrived at their mission site.

This was the second year for Chalice Camp.  The program originated with students at Christian Theological Seminary.  Faculty and students from CTS, with representation from the Indiana Region, plan the program and activities for Chalice Camp each year.

The popular and provocative Saltsburg Distinguished Lecture Series returns to Christian Theological Seminary on September 23 and 24 to challenge audiences with the question: “Do I Know that Jesus?”

All three lectures are free and open to the public.

This year’s featured speaker is Dr. Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi whose three addresses will examine the portrayal of Jesus and Christian Identity in Latin America and the Hispanic Caribbean.  In particular, Cardoza-Orlandi will explore:

• The American missionary and national evangélicos encounter and debate about who Jesus is for the Latin American continent;
• The non-elite and popular evangélico religious expressions of Christ in the region
• The current encounter and interaction between popular religions—Spiritism and Afro-Caribbean religions—and the evangélico tradition.

Lecture one
Latin America for Christ!
Wednesday, September 23
Cross-cultural Interactions in Search of Identity Between American Missionaries and Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean Evangélicos
6:00 pm, Common Room, CTS

Lecture two
Beyond the Crucifix and the Scriptures
Thursday, September 24
Images and Sounds of an Erotic Latin American & Caribbean Christ
1:00 pm, Common Room, CTS

Lecture three
Jesus Among the Spirits
Thursday, September 24
An Emerging Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean Christology from the Encounter of Religions
6:00 pm, Common Room

Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi is professor of world Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and chairs the Governing Board of the Hispanic Summer Program, Inc. He will begin a new appointment as professor of global Christianities and mission studies at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, in July 2010.

Cardoza-Orlandi’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the fields of world Christianity and mission. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Puerto Rico as well as the United States and Canada.

More information on the Saltsburg Lecture can be found at www.cts.edu/events or contact the office of Lifelong Theological Education at LifeEd@cts.edu.

Seminarians and Others to Gather at Camp Barbee

The second Chalice Camp for seminarians and others in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indiana and other regions is set for Thursday through Saturday, October 15 through 17, at Camp Barbee. The camp is located on Kuhn Lake near Leesburg, Ind.  Camp begins at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and will conclude at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Blanche Hudson practices immersion with Elizabeth Ann Hartman during Chalice Camp 2008

The first Chalice Camp was held one year ago and was so well received that planning began soon afterwards for this second one. The purpose of the Camp is to provide a working introduction to ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for women and men who:

• are in seminary preparing for ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• are in programs of licensed ministry
• have recently come into the ministry of the Disciples movement and who seek further exposure to the Disciples ethos
• have recently graduated from seminary
• are interested in exploring what ministry might be like in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• persons from other denominations or movements

Participants will have opportunities to:

• review key ideas and practices in the ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• consider ministerial ethics for Disciples ministers
• meditate on what it means to be a Disciples minister today
• practice immersion in a YMCA pool in nearby Warsaw
• practice presiding over the Lord’s Supper
• practice leading a wedding rehearsal and a wedding
• practice leading a funeral
• consider ministerial leadership in situations of conflict
• participate in small group discussions
• work with the search-and-call process
• practice interviewing with a mock pulpit (search) committee
• work with a church budget
• hear about exciting developments in the regional and general church, including church starts, and implications of our new Disciples identity, “We are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.”
• become more familiar with Disciples resources
• network with Disciples leaders and with others preparing for ministry
• have time for spiritual renewal and reflection in a beautiful camp setting
• learn Disciples lore

The camp will have two levels of experiences: basic workshops and groups for beginning participants and more advanced experiences for those who have already participated in basic encounters.

Leaders for the camp come from all expressions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—congregations, regional staff, general staff, theological seminaries, and retired persons. Many seasoned ministers from each of these expressions of the church will be on hand as mentors and conversation partners.

Campfires, singing, S’mores and holy rowdiness will conclude each day.

The camp will include four services of worship, each with preaching by a noted Disciples leader. Preaching and worship will reflect the diversity of the Disciples of Christ.

Deb Phelps is camp director. Ron Allen from Christian Theological Seminary and Linda McKiernan-Allen, interim minister of West Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Tipton, Ind., are advisors.

Cost is $85, and scholarships are available. Please bring a Bible, sleeping bag, clothes appropriate for unpredictable fall weather, and an electric heater.

Congregations and individuals are urged provide scholarships for participants and to make donations to support the camp.

For more information contact Ron Allen at ron.allen@cts.edu or Deb Phelps at dphelps@cts.edu.

Patrice Rosner and Philip Gulley are this year’s recipients of Christian Theological Seminary’s annual Distinguished Alumni Award.

An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rosner earned her M.Div. from CTS in 1975 and has served on the CTS Alumni Board and Board of Trustees. She is the managing editor of the upcoming Faith Practices: Worship, Learning, and Serving for Vital Congregations, a web-based resource from the United Church of Christ for local congregations to provide “significant new resources which will empower vital ministries of worship, learning, and serving.”

Rosner has served as the director of Churches Uniting in Christ and as the associate general secretary for education and leadership ministries of the National Council of Churches for six years. As vice president and director of the General Editorial Division at the Christian Board of Publication for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she was instrumental in the development of the ecumenical Bible Quest curriculum.

Philip Gulley graduated from CTS with a Master of Divinity in 1992 and is a Quaker pastor at Fairfield Friends Meeting in Danville, Indiana. He and his wife Joan have two sons. Gulley was the featured speaker at the CTS 2007 General Assembly Alumni and Friends Luncheon, and has written fourteen books, the first of which was Front Porch Tales, published in 1997. He has also earned an Emmy for his commentary on the PBS show Across Indiana.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Gulley “has a charming sense of small-town life – and a shrewd sense of life in general.” He is currently writing a memoir recounting his coming-of-age on Broadway Street in Danville called My Life on Broadway: Memories of a Misspent Youth, scheduled for release in 2009.

Every year, the CTS Alumni Association recognizes up to two CTS graduates as “distinguished alumni.” Among the criteria for this distinction are effectiveness in Christian ministry, distinctive service, positive impact on peers and the greater community, and the personification of personal and professional integrity.

Donna Campbell, a student at Christian Theological Seminary and student associate at New Light Christian Church, is one of five Disciples semarians selected by the East Asia and Pacific office of Global Ministries to participate in the People to People Pilgrimage. The group will travel to China from May 29 through June 9.

Global Ministries ministers Julia Brown-Karimu and Dr. Xiaoling Zhu will travel with the group as they study Christianity in China and visit various historical sites. During the group’s 10 days in China, they will visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Xi’an, Zhoukou and Beijing. They will meet church leaders, attend worship services, and visit seminaries and projects.

City tours will include the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, the Great Wall and Forbidden City in Beijing.

The other seminarians chosen for the People to People Pilgrimage are: Rebekah Cypert, Brite Seminary; Ryan Charles Motter, Vanderbilt Divinity School; Tara Lyn Thompson, Phillips Theological Seminary; Jonathan David Wallace, The University of Chicago Divinity School.

The East Asia and Pacific office of Global Ministries encompasses a vast region from Mongolia to New Zealand, China to the Pacific Island nations. The region is home to nearly 1.6 billion people – one-quarter of the world’s population – and contains one-sixth of the world’s landmass.

Global Ministries currently has partners and projects in Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Micronesia, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands, including 16 missionaries in 7 different countries.

The economic outlook for religious giving and fundraising in 2009 is uncertain, if not downright sobering, but in the words of Barbara Wheeler, President of Auburn Theological Seminary, we should not "waste a good recession!"

To that end, the Lake Institute would like to invite you to learn what research data, your local congregational peers, and religious nonprofits have to say about coping with today’s financial challenges.

The Religious Giving in Uncertain Times Conference, sponsored by Christian Theological Seminary and the Lake Institute for Faith and Giving, will be held May 4, 2009, 9:00am – 2:00pm, in the Shelton Auditorium at Christian Theological Seminary.

The conference will include a presentation by staff members from the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and Lake Institute, in which they will share research and anecdotal data relative to religious giving in recessions.

Two panels—one representing clergy and leadership from Catholic, Evangelical, Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, and Jewish congregations, and another composed of nonprofit CEO’s and managers from the United Way of Central Indiana, Catholic Charities, Shepherd Community Center, the Jewish Federation, and the Islamic Society of North America—will discuss how they are learning from the current crisis and moving forward in these uncertain times.

At the end of the program, participants will have the opportunity to engage their peers in dialogue about ways to translate these learnings into a proactive plan for their own congregation.

Register by following the “Religious Giving in Uncertain Times” link at the top of the Lake Family Institute website to reserve your space. The $25 registration fee includes lunch.

CTS and the Center on Philanthropy look forward to this opportunity to learn together, exploring new options and opportunities amidst these challenging economic times.

The Congregational Resource Center, located at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, will host a Curriculum Fair at CTS on Saturday, March 21, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.  The fair will be located in the east wing of the seminary, outside the entrance to the CTS library.

There is no charge for admission to the fair, and curriculum materials will be on display from Group Publishing, Judson Press and others.  The fair will also feature hands-on previews of material from other well-known publishers, including Cokesbury, Logos Ministry and Kerygma.

A workshop on curriculum selection, led by Nancy Dickinson, will also be available in two sections, one at 11:00 with the second at 1:00.  The workshops will be held in the media center classroom, located in the Congregational Resource Center on the lower level of the CTS library.

Dean Reynolds, Director of Information Technology Services for CTS, will be available in the CTS computer lab, room 126, for computer consultation on a drop-in basis throughout the fair hours.