Episcopal Press and News

Search the Episcopal Press and News

Year

All 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962

Enter search query

Newsmakers

Episcopal News Service. August 25, 2005 [082505-3-A]

Donald Romanik named Episcopal Church Foundation's president

The Episcopal Church Foundation has named Donald V. Romanik, an Episcopalian from Connecticut, as its next president. He will take office on September 12.

Romanik, 51, has been attorney and vice-president for legal and corporate affairs of the Connecticut Institute for the Blind for the past 13 years. He has been senior warden of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford and chair of the diocesan Spanish Language Ministries committee.

"Donald has impressive professional credentials and a strong spiritual commitment to work to strengthen the Episcopal Church," said Bernard J. Milano, chair of the foundation's Board of Directors, who made the announcement. "His professional and church activities combine to give him a skill set that includes both internal management responsibilities, as well as significant experience representing organizations to the public."

Romanik succeeds William G. Andersen Jr., who has served as president for the past 17 years.

The foundation was started in 1949 by Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill to nurture the formation of religious leaders and develop the financial means to support a competent, compassionate and faithful ministry. "There ought to be an organization that could set great objectives for the work of the Christian church," he said.

In recent years, the foundation has become a lead source for the church for research and development.

Further information: http://www.episcopalfoundation.org.

- - - - -

Paul Kowalewski named 9th rector of St. James' Church, L.A.

[ENS, Source: St. James' Church] -- The Rev. Canon Paul J. Kowalewski, Ph.D., has been named the ninth Rector of St. James' Church, Los Angeles.

Kowalewski grew up in Buffalo, New York, and received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, New York. He was ordained in the Roman Catholic Church, which he left a few years later.

He received a Ph.D. in Communications in 1982. After serving as the inter-religious chaplain at Syracuse University, he was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1990. He served two parishes as rector for 12 years and was called by the Bishop of Central New York to his current position as the diocese's Canon for Formation and Leadership. He has helped the diocese re-imagine and re-energize the church to meet the needs of the 21st century church and has developed several initiatives for outreach and ministry to the growing unchurched population.

Paul is married to Karen, who is currently the director of an adult day program for seniors. They have two children, Jason, 24, who works as a web developer for the national Episcopal Church in New York City, and Joel, 22, who is a senior in college. The family has two dogs, Gwendolyn and Hildegard.

Paul will assume his new position on October 16.

Further information: http://www.saintjamesla.org.

Hip Hop Mass pioneer Timothy Holder receives Harvard Alumni Award

[ENS, Source: Harvard Divinity School] -- The Rev. Timothy Holder, Hip Hop pioneer and rector of Trinity Church of Morrisania in the Bronx, New York, has received the 2005 First Decade Award from the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Association for his innovative approach to inner-city ministry.

His "Hip-Hop Mass," a street-side mass that incorporates slang and rap music into a "traditional" worship service, attracts record numbers of young parishioners into Holder's South Bronx Episcopal Church. The pioneering ministry, which is taking place in an area that gave birth to the hip hop genre, seeks to communicate the Christian messages in the language Holder's parishioners use. With refrains of "word" and "holla back" echoing from these curbside summer services, Holder hopes to reach his congregation by uniting established scripture and prayer with vernacular and reforming techniques. In his efforts, he has succeeded in transforming a fading church into a vibrant community teeming with young members.

"When I came to the South Bronx, my first question was 'How do we all worship and pray together as one?'" Holder said. "I saw in the community an opportunity to be closer to that question. I was drawn into the burgeoning population of people from the West Indies, Hispanic people, and by all of the children and young people especially. Some people pray to fill the church up, but for us, it was being filled with people really stretching our notions of church and community -- and that's hip hop."

Holder's work in the Bronx follows on the heels of a similar revival he led at Grace Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Ordained as the first openly gay priest in diocesan history in 1997, Holder founded the first Spanish-speaking congregation in the history of the Alabama Diocese there, reviving an otherwise defunct parish. His work with disenfranchised and poor segments of the population continues in his recent work in prisons. In September, Holder spread his Hip-Hop Mass south, visiting Southern Virginia's Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center.

The Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Association's First Decade Award, established in 1989, recognizes HDS graduates from the past ten years whose professional pursuits have demonstrated the values and skills developed at the Divinity School, and who is an inspiration and encouragement to all graduates to rededicate themselves to the values, hopes, and visions that led them to study at HDS and launched them into service since.

Holder's remarks at the 2005 Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Dinner can be found online at http://www.hds.harvard.edu/alumni/events/ADRD2005/Holderremarks.html.