Preaching competition winner announced

[ENS, Source: All Saints Episcopal Church] All Saints Episcopal Church in New York City recently announced the Rev. William S. Bennett as the winner of their nationwide preaching competition.

Bennett, a monk of the Order of the Holy Cross, a Benedictine monastic community for men in the Episcopal Church, beat out 22 contestants from across the country who submitted All Saints Day sermons for consideration by a panel of clergy and lay judges.

Bennett is a graduate of Davidson College, Stanford University, and the General Theological Seminary. He has been a priest for 22 years and has served parishes in Brooklyn, Manhattan and North Carolina.

He will preach his winning sermon on November 6 at All Saints’ 11 a.m. service.

For further information on the preaching competition email http://www.info@allsaintsnyc.org

New dean of students at Church Divinity School of the Pacific

[ENS, Source: Church Divinity School of the Pacific]  The Rev. Canon Jan Smith Wood has joined the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) staff as the dean of students. Wood, who graduated from CDSP nearly 20 years ago, said, "It's a deep blessing and grace to be back.”

In the 1990s, she served for a term on CDSP's Board of Trustees and Alumni/ae Council.  She said she delights in seeing concepts that were incubated many years ago now fully-grown and thriving as part of the seminary’s life.  Concepts such as CALL and on-line learning were "emerging ideas," she says. "It's exciting to see how they've become reality, and part of the fabric of life here."

For the past 15 years, Wood served as Canon Educator for the Diocese of El Camino Real, where her work in program development, congregational support, pastoral care, and faith formation will serve her well in her new role.  She received her B.A. degree in Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara; her M.Div. from CDSP in 1986; and she also attended Universidad de las Americas, in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico.

In her new position, Wood enjoys "exploring how we are knit together as a community, and seeing where we might need to provide more support, even a safety net."  She cites her top priority simply as "helping people find the resources they need, enabling them to do what they're called to do." 

"I've learned we have to depend on the grace of God, and the grace and gifts of others," Wood says.  "What unfolds is greater and richer than anything we could imagine."

When asked what inspires her, she says, "Right now? Oh, right now it's the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers -- wise older women from all over the world who are focused on the next generation, how we can live in peace, and stop the destruction."  Their web sites: www.forthenext7generations.com and www.grandmotherscouncil.com.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific's mission is to provide the highest quality Christian theological education in an environment of scholarship, reflection and worship, rooted in the Anglican tradition.

CDSP is currently focused on a major Capital Campaign, Preserving Tradition - Building the Future.  To date, more than $14 million has been raised toward the campaign goal of $20 million. 

CDSP is a founding member of the Graduate Theological Union, an ecumenical and interfaith consortium based in Berkeley, Calif.  For more information, visit the web site: www.cdsp.edu