Episcopal Press and News

People

Episcopal News Service. August 7, 1990 [90202AA]

The Very Rev. Robert E. Giannini has been selected as the 20th rector and fifth dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis. "Dr. Giannini is a dynamic and powerful preacher, who has a knack for putting matters of religious faith into language readily understood by people of all educational and social levels," said Richard Ferguson-Wagstaffe, the cathedral's senior warden, in making the July 22 announcement. Giannini is currently dean of the University of the South's School of Theology and previously served as dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in St. Petersburg, Florida. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and was ordained a priest in 1967. Giannini will succeed the Very Rev. Roger S. Gray, who retired last year.

The Rev. Martin Seeley, director of Thompson Center, an interdenominational retreat and conference center in St. Louis, will assume a position with the Church of England in October. Seeley, 36, has been appointed selection secretary and secretary to the Continuing Ministerial Committee of the Advisory of the Church's Ministry, and will be based in London's Westminster Abbey. He described his forthcoming role as "sharing in the selection process of candidates for the ordained ministry, and having responsibilities for nurturing the continuing education of clergy throughout the Church of England." A native of England, Seeley was a curate in the English Midlands before coming to the United States, where he initially served in a similar capacity at the Church of the Epiphany in New York City.

The Rev. David Norgard has been named the new executive director of The Oasis, a diocesan-sponsored ministry in the gay and lesbian community in Hoboken, New Jersey. Norgard, who is himself gay, recently served as assistant rector of Church of the Holy Apostles in New York City, where he was also managing director of the church's extensive soup kitchen project. His experience in the parish's social ministries gave him the "practical and spiritual edge" sought by the search committee, said Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, co-chair of The Oasis. Norgard, 32, a native of Minnesota, is a 1983 graduate of Yale University's Berkeley Divinity School. He succeeds the Rev. Robert Williams, who resigned earlier this year.