We are delighted to present our 2021 NAGA program for July 7, and hope you will be pleased with what has been planned for you.
We will lead off with a welcome from our president, Dianne Walters, and an opening prayer.
Then we will hear from our keynote speakers, Dr. Daniel B. Clendenin and Debie Thomas: Dan is the founder of the Journey with Jesus webzine and Debie is one of its current, very thoughtful and provocative writers. (Read her article Wild Waters here.) Only let me add that Debie had the most unusual opportunity to present both Advent and Lenten Reflections from the National Cathedral and is regarded by Cathedral staff as one of our most profound theological thinkers, and Dan produced a stirring Maundy Thursday sermon prepared for St. Mark’s, Palo Alto, California, and made available to all clergy. They will talk about their own journeys with Jesus and their paths to the Episcopal Church.
This will be followed by a presentation by Mr. Timothy Maple, proprietor of Omega Silversmiths in Snohomish, Washington. Tim is one of a handful of certified master silver and goldsmiths around the world. He opened his own business in 1981 in Kirkland, Washington, with his wife Lupe, after a nine-year apprenticeship. Tim serves a broad spectrum of clients here in the United States and abroad. You may well have seen them on Antiques Road Show where they have served as a consultants for the last 20 years. Among their overseas clients are many museums, including the Victoria and Albert in London. He is often consulted because of his enormous knowledge of the history of silver pieces. The business moved from Kirkland to Snohomish a few years ago. Tim’s business offers free estimates on all repairs by mail or in person at his shop, and he can suggest stages of repair for limited budgets. Tim has served many churches and has shown especial care in working with church pieces, He gave an amazing and incredibly well-received presentation for a Province VIII meeting a few years back, and we are delighted that he has agreed to talk with NAGA members.
The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers may well be known to many of you. She has been a long-term member of the General Convention Task Force on Liturgical and Prayerbook Revision, and is the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. Doctor Myers is an alumna of Syracuse University and received an MA and PhD from the University of Notre Dame and an MDiv at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary where she majored in liturgics. She taught at Seabury-Western for 14 years until 2009 and has been a professor of liturgics at CDSP since then. To quote her CDSP biography “I’m passionate about the power of worship to form and transform communities of faith. I chose liturgy as an academic discipline because I believed that studying worship would give me a window into what individuals and communities in different times and places believed about God.” Her talk is entitled “The Future of Common Prayer” and will bring us up to date on proposals for liturgical and Book of Common Prayer revisions that are so critical to our altar guild work!
Our final presentation will be by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus, who will talk about the relationship between the Buddhist scholar and philosopher Thik Nat Han and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is particularly timely in view of the Episcopal Church’s lead in antidiscrimination and antihate work. Bishop Andrus is the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of California, where he was installed in 2006. Prior to this he was Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Alabama. He attended Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. Dr. Andrus has served in several parishes and as Chaplain at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. His Diocesan leadership has focused on peace and justice. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry appointed him the lead in climate change work, allowing him to attend UN Climate Conferences. “Bishop Marc” has also been a leader in immigration reform and in fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline which endangers the people, especially the Sioux, in Standing Rock, North Dakota.
Bishop Andrus has been a tremendous supporter of both DioCal and Province VIII altar guilds and will close our meeting with blessings and prayer.
Albe Larsen