The
Episcopal Church Network
for Science, Technology, and Faith
Newsletter
| Volume 6-2 | Feast of St. Augustine | August 2007 |
|
The
Episcopal Church Network
|
| Volume 6-2 | Feast of St. Augustine | August 2007 |
In This Issue |
ST&F Network Steering Board Elected for 2007-2009 Triennium |
| Member | Position | Diocese, Province | ST&F Background |
| Dr. Sandra Michael | Co-Convener | Central New York, II | Genetics, reproduction |
| Dr. Stephen Stray | Co-Convener | Mississippi, IV | Virology |
| The Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran, S.O.Sc. | Records Secretary, pro tem | Massachusetts, I | Chemistry, astronomy, theology |
| The Rev. Dr. Peter Arvedson, S.O.Sc. | Treasurer, Membership Secretary | Western New York, II | Chemistry, theology |
| The Rev. Dr. David B. Bailey | Communications Officer | Southern Ohio, V | Chemistry, theology |
| Mr. Raymond J Spreier | Newsletter Editor | Eastern Oregon, VIII | Astronomy, physics, theology |
| Mr. James Burke | Episcopal Ecological Network Liaison | Virginia, IV | Science, technology studies, ecology |
| The Rev. Dr. Thomas Lindell, S.O.Sc. | Seminary Liaison | Arizona, VIII | Cell biology, theology |
| Dr. Peter Atherton | At-large | Washington, III | Engineering, physics |
| Ms. Amy Case | At-large | Texas, VII | Epidemiology |
| Dr. Janice Kotuby-Amocher | At-large | Utah, VIII | Soil chemistry |
| Dr. Robert Schneider | At-large | Western North Carolina, IV | Theology |
| Dr. James Jordan | Ex-officio (appointed) | Northern California, VIII | Physics |
| The Rev. Alastair So | Ex-officio (appointed) | Washington, III | Microbiology & immunology, genomics, protomics, theology |
2007 Genesis Award Presented to Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith-Moran, S.O.Sc. |
| At the 2007
Annual Meeting held in Manchester, NH on 20 April 2007, Dr.
Barbara Smith-Moran, S.O.Sc. was presented with the Episcopal Church
Network on Science, Technology, and Faith 2007 Genesis
Award. On behalf of the Network, Dr. Sandra D.
Michael, Co-Convener, presented the award to Barbara with the
citation, Teacher and mentor to the Episcopal Church on
science and technology; Pioneer and ecumenical partner for
integrating science and Christian faith; Network founder, and visionary
leader for the Committee on Science, Technology, and Faith. Barbara
thanked everyone and expressed her heartfelt joy in seeing how the
Committee, with its new and continuing members, is approaching the
mission of education to the Church. Barbara Smith-Moran grew up in Richmond, Virginia, in a family of scientists. She was trained as a physical chemist in the 1960s and 1970s, taking a B.A. at Randolph-Macon Woman's College and M.A.T. at the Johns Hopkins University. She taught high school chemistry for several years, during which time she became increasingly interested in astronomy and the contributions made by chemists to the study of the gases and dust in interstellar space. She positioned herself to do this sort of research herself for two years in the laboratory of Harvard College Observatory, and then she entered the graduate department there, earning an M.A. When she returned to science teaching, she designed an innovative science course for students with "discipline problems" that precluded their participation in ordinary science classes. She describes this successful program as equal parts teaching and listening to the difficulties of her students' lives. She began to feel this as a calling and took a ministry discernment seminar for several months through her church. She married astronomer James Moran, who was associated with the same research group she had earlier been part of at Harvard. In the early 1980s, they moved from Massachusetts with their two children to Berkeley, California, for a sabbatical year. Barbara tested her growing sense of vocation by taking courses that year at CDSP. Across the street from CDSP, she discovered the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS)--a name that immediately drew her attention. Her talks with the Director, the Rev. Dr. Robert Russell, convinced her that her background in science was much needed for ordained ministry--she would not be leaving her science training behind, but taking it forward into ministry. These conversations were to set the course of her life in ministry. At that time, it was so rare for people trained in physical sciences to enter religious vocations that it seemed almost taboo to do so, as if immersion in matter and energy denied the existence of things spiritual--which, of course, is not the case. When she returned to Massachusetts, she finished seminary training at EDS. Theology professor Owen Thomas, who is also a physicist, and the Rev. Scott Paradise, longtime Episcopal chaplain at MIT, mentored Barbara in her pursuit of a ministry to and among scientists and engineers, a neglected group in Christian evangelism. Bp. David E. Johnson, recognizing the value of such a ministry in his diocese of Massachusetts, encouraged her aspirations and ordained her to the diaconate in 1989 and the priesthood a year later. In 1990, she founded the Center for Faith & Science Exchange (F&SE), which initiated a Science and Religion Program for the Boston Theological Institute. The Center presented conferences and consultations with the BTI, and initiated a lecture series that included such luminaries as theologians Wolfhart Pannenberg, Rosemary Radford Reuther, and Arthur Peacocke, and Nobel-laureate physicist Charles Townes. To further the networking needed to nurture and grow the new Center, she published a monthly newsletter for the ten years she headed up F&SE. It was Arthur Peacocke who invited her to join the Society of Ordained Scientists (S.O.Sc.), a dispersed religious order of the Anglican Church, which he and physicist-theologian John Polkinghorne had helped to found. She became the first woman priest admitted to membership in S.O.Sc. at a time when women deacons in England were not yet admitted to priesthood. In 1990, with the help of a Jesuit geologist-priest with long experience as a retreat director, Barbara designed a 40-day religious retreat expressly for scientists and engineers. A variation on the Ignatian Exercises, these meditations invite retreatants to reflect upon their lives in science and engineering as vocations and faithful responses to a call from God to attend closely to the Creation in love. She co-directed this retreat annually for ten years. The meditations were published by St. Mary's Press in 1997 with the title, Soul at Work: Reflections on a Spirituality of Working. In order to grow the science-and-theology field, she knew that she needed to encourage and publicize the work of theological students with an interest or background in science, just as she herself had been encouraged by Bob Russell at CTNS. She and the BTI hatched the idea of a new periodical, The Journal of Faith and Science Exchange, to be published annually by the BTI. With grant money, she organized a student essay contest to which seminary and graduate school faculty members were encouraged to submit the work of their best students. The cream of the crop were published in the Journal alongside essays of established scholars in the field. The Journal was launched in 1997, only the second journal in the science-and-religion field (the other being Zygon). The Journal of Faith and Science Exchange was awarded a Polly Bond Prize of Excellence in 2001 by Episcopal Communicators. In 2000, she became the Northeast Regional Director of the Science and Religion Course Program, a major project of CTNS that encouraged undergraduate, seminary, and graduate school faculty to develop and teach courses about the science-religion interactions. As part of this project she presented a major conference for teaching faculty entitled "Truth in Science, Truth in Religion," held at Harvard in 2001. Around 1995, she became involved with the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church, an annual meeting of grass-roots delegations from several Christian denominations in the U.S. and Canada. She agreed to take over the leadership of the ad hoc delegation of Episcopalians that had been led initially by the Rev. Dr. Fred Burnham, a science historian and Director of the Trinity Institute. This group believed strongly that in order for the Episcopal Church to minister effectively within contemporary society, it needed to be scientifically and technologically savvy. With a mission to make this happen, the group made a favorable impression upon the Executive Council and eventually became established (1997) and then funded (2000) by the General Convention as the Executive Council's Committee on Science, Technology and Faith (ST&F). Barbara co-chaired ST&F until 2005. The talent, experience, and expertise for the Committee has come from the members of the Episcopal Church Network for ST&F, a churchwide membership organization. Barbara served as the Convener of the Network from 2001 till 2005, as well as Editor of its quarterly electronic newsletter (http://home.earthlink.net/~smithmoran/). In 2005, The Committee on ST&F, with consultants drawn from the Network, produced a major resource for the church called A Catechism of Creation: An Episcopal Understanding, which was given a Polly Bond Award of Excellence the following year. In diocesan work, she founded the Faith and Genetics Working Group in 1997 and led it for 8 years. During this time, the Working Group produced reports on human genetic enhancement, stem cell research, and sexual behavior in humans and other animals. Her other publications include invited chapters for God and Science: Must We Choose?, a curriculum for adult Christian education (BTI, 1995); and for God for the 21st Century (Templeton Foundation, 2000). She also co-edited Consumption, Population & the Environment (Island Press, 2000) and co-produced the education documentary, Living in Nature: Religion & Science in Dialogue on the Environment (BTI, 1996). At the end of 2005, Barbara resigned from the Committee on ST&F in order to begin doctoral studies in pastoral theology at CDSP. |
 The
Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith-Moran, 2007 Genesis Award Winner.
Photo courtesy of James Jordan Copy of ECUSA Executive Council Citation |
Pollard Lecture Series - From Providence to Chaos |
The Boston Theological Institute hosted the second speaker in the Pollard Lecture Series on Science and Theology on 11 April 2007. The Rev. Professor Dr. Sjoerd L. Bonting recounted William G. Pollard's influence on Bonting's ordination to the priesthood at Washington National Cathedral while Bonting served as Section Chief of Biochemistry at the National Institute of Heath in Bethesda, Maryland. Bonting was educated at the University of Amsterdam, and Chaired the Department of Biochemistry At Nijmegen. His work has included research into active sodium transport and the biochemistry of vision. Bonting has worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Ames Research Center in California, and has served at the Universities of Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. The Pollard Lecture Series is named for William G. Pollard, deceased physicist and Episcopal priest of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Pollard conducted wartime research as part of the Manhattan Project and founded the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. He was ordained in 1954 and remained active in science and research management throughout his life. The purpose of the Pollard Lecture Series is to encourage scientists and science teachers to examine the theological and ethical implications of their scientific work. Download presentation materials Complete text of 11 April 2007 Concord Lecture. Presentation: Unitarian - Trinitarian. Can Science Bridge the Gap? 11 April 2007, Concord, MA. Presentation: Can Theology Keep Up With Science? 12 April 2007, MIT Presentation: Intelligent Design and Creative Chaos. 12 April 2007, Brown University. [Top] |
 The
Rev. Prof. Dr. Bonting (R) with
Mr. Courtland Randall (L), Pollard Lecture Coordinator Photo courtesy of Barbara Smith-Moran. |
Presiding Bishop Testifies Before US. Senate on Climate Change |
David Sloan Wilson Addresses Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology, and the Church |
| The 2007
Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology, and the Church was held
20-21 April in Manchester, New Hampshire. David Sloan Wilson,
founder of
the Evolutionary Studies Program and Binghamton University, delivered
the keynote address. In his speech, Wilson summarized his
recent publication Evolution
for Everyone which parallels the courses he teaches at
Binghamton University. Wilson emphasized that "evolutionary
theory is a powerful tool for improving and changing the world in a way
that does not threaten the values of morality and hope for a better
future". He also offered that at the core of his current work
is the question, "Can evolution make more progress than previous
theoretical frameworks in making sense of religion?" In a subsequent session on the 21st, Wilson participated in a panel discussion in which he presented thoughts on "Biology and Evolutionary Aspects of Homosexuality". The panel included participants from the ECUSA Executive Committee on Science, Technology, and Faith, and from the Faith and Genetics Working Group of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Related article in Episcopal Life by The Rev. Deacon Josephine Borgeson.  Attendees at the 2007 Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology, and the Church. (click for larger image in new window) Photo courtesy of James Jordan. |
 David
Sloan Wilson addresses the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science,
Technology, and the Church. Photo courtesy of
James
Jordan.
|
Sally Bingham and Rowan Williams Recognized for Environmental Leadership |
Book Review - The Physics of Christianity, by Frank J. Tipler |
In the Spotlight |
| I
was born in Santa Monica, California in 1960, and resided in Southern
California through 1983, at which time my wife, daughter, and I moved
to Central Oregon. Throughout my youth, I was immersed in the
aerospace and physics community, as my father served in various
capacities, culminating his career as flight controls program manager
for the Titan IV launch vehicle program for the USAF. It is
because of him that I was introduced to astronomy and science at a
young age, and to him that I owe a debt of gratitude for a lifelong
passion for learning. In 1983, I earned a degree in Russian linguistics from the University of California at Irvine, with secondary studies in physics and foreign policy. This started as a double degree, but it became quickly apparent that I tended to excel at languages, yet was a pretty mediocre mathematician. Between 1983 and 2001, I served as an information security professional in both the government and private sectors. Career highlights include open source research in the former Soviet republics and developing distributed knowledge systems for the international AV-8B Harrier II+ program (USMC, Royal Navy, Kingdom of Spain, and Republic of Italy). In 2001 I re-entered the private sector, and currently serve as Chief Information Officer for Mid Oregon Federal Credit Union. In 1986, following a two year period of interaction with the intelligence community, I "rediscovered" my faith and the Episcopal Church. It was a home where I could find solid ethical foundations, practice my beliefs, yet still question and probe. In 1989, I began a discernment process toward the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. I was very involved in lay eucharistic ministry, preaching ministry, elder care, and rural parish dynamics. I was also able to help establish some early online communication systems between the parishes in our missionary diocese. I completed the two year dicoesan course of study and some additional studies in philosophy. In 1991, I withdrew from the process, believing that I could be effective as a lay person. Unable to escape the persistence of the Call, in late 2006, I once again entered into a formal process toward the permanent diaconate. I currently attend Trinity Episcopal Church in Bend, Oregon, and serve in an educational and preaching rotation among the parishes that comprise the Episcopal Convocation of Central Oregon, for which I also serve as webmaster and Co-Convener. The nexus of science and faith, the apparent congruence of quantum theory and propositions of the Christian faith, and practical ministry (talk about opposites!) are areas of particular passion. In 2006, I discovered the ST&F Network and immediately joined. Earlier this year, I responded to a call to follow (or attempt to!) in the footsteps of Barbara Smith-Moran as newsletter editor. I'm a strong believer in participatory citizenship. I am a Chaplain with the Boy Scouts of America, serving at the troop level as well as in regional leadership development programs. Other activities include the United Way of Deschutes County, COLINK (a grassroots ministry organization seeking to provide financial education, resources, and access to at-risk and marginalized individuals), and serving as a guest lecturer at the Sunriver Nature Center Observatory. I can often be found volunteering in a classroom or conducting astronomy viewing for people of all ages. A moonless night under the dark high desert skies of Central Oregon is often where I feel closest to my Creator. To quote John Dobson, the sidewalk astronomer, "How can you ponder the ultimate questions of the universe if you've never seen it"? My wife, Nancy, and I met in high school in Southern California and have been married for 28 years. She is a true bibliophile and works at the Deschutes County Library. Our daughter Tanya is a graduate of Gonzaga University, and works as chemist and project manager for Bend Research. Our son Alex is finishing up his degrees this year in History and Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. I can be reached at rspreier@bendcable.com. |
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Items in the News |
The Episcopal Church Network for Science, Technology, and Faith |
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