The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church
updated April 24, 2007
The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church is a group made up of Lay Episcopalians who meet annually at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan.
All members are elected upon recommendation of other members, and all members must be Episcopalians. Past members have included such figures as Frederick Pottle, W. H. Auden, and Cleanth Brooks. To propose a candidate please contact the Webmaster
Pictures from the Huntington Dinner
Nicholas Birns and Donna Gaines with ECUSA Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, William Reed Huntington Dinner, St. Peter's Lutheran Church, April 23, 2008
Nicholas Birns with Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, William Reed Huntington Dinner, St. Peter's Lutheran Church, April 23, 2008
Nicholas Birns and Donna Gaines
Nicholas Birns and the Rev. Astrid Storm
The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church came into being in 1945 as an informal group of established scholars, Episcopal lay persons, who wished through their expertise to be of service to their church as well as to each other through meeting annually for seminar-style discussions. Its tradition now is to gather in late fall at the General Theological Seminary in downtown Manhattan, with thirty five or so members in attendance. Mindful of its own rich history over sixty years, it deeply values diversity of views, a grounding in worship, and a concern for the church as a whole. The Guild's David Billington writes on bridge design after the Minneapolis collapse
The Guild mourns the loss of its much-cherished member, Pardon Tillinghast . As a teacher, historian, and churchman, he represented the values andideals of the Guild at their finest.
A festschrift honoring Guild chaplain, the Reverend Canon J. Robert Wright is published by Eerdmans Press. The book includes contributions by Guild members Marsha Dutton, E. Rozanne Elder, John V. Fleming, and Robert Bruce Mullin, and is co-edited by Marsha Dutton.
David Hein with the Rev. Canon J. Robert Wright
The Guild's David Hein was quoted in The New York Times on the election of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
David Hein has published a book on Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of canterbury from 1945 to 1961
The Guild's David L. Holmes has his new book reviewed in the New York Times Book Review
The Guild's John Sayle Watterson has his new book featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education .
Ben Brabson, Karen Evans-Romaine, Cynthia Brabson, Marsha Dutton
The next Guild meeting will be November 7-9, 2008, at General Theological Seminary .
Speakers for the 2007 meeting, held November 9-11, 2008, Marsha Dutton (on Aelred of Rievaulx's Life of Edward the Confessor ), Alec Valentine ("Walter Anderson: Artist and Nature Realized"), Karla Britton (Constructing the Ineffable: Contemporary Sacred Architecture), and George Spagna, "Towards A Quantum Theology".
If you have not sent in your $15 membership dues please do so to our treasurer
- Lewis J. Overaker
- Holderness School,
- PO Box 1879
- Plymouth, NH 03264
For a list of past papers please click here .
Current membership of the Guild is:
- Alison Anderson, University of Pennsylvania Press
- Norman Austin , Classics, University of Arizona
- Richard W. Bailey , English, University of Michigan, Immediate Past President
- David R. Billington , Engineering, Princeton University
- Nicholas Birns , Literature, Eugene Lang College , The New School, President
Nicholas Birns with Lewis Overaker and Harley Holden
- Bennet Brabson , Physics, Indiana University
- Cynthia Brabson, Indiana University
- Karla Britton , Architecture, Yale University
- Jack Warren Burnam, Organist-Choirmaster, Immanuel Church, Wilmington, DE.
- Richard Scott Carnell , Law, Fordham University
- Henry R. Cooper Jr., Slavic Languages, University of Indiana
- Bethany K. Dumas , Department of English, University of Tennessee
- Marsha Dutton , English, Ohio University Past President
- E. Rozanne Elder , Cistercian Studies, Western Michigan University
- Karen Evans-Romaine , Department of Russian, Ohio University
- David Evett, Department of English, Cleveland State University (emeritus)
- Kitty Ferguson , science writer, author of Measuring the Universe and Tycho and Kepler
- Yale H. Ferguson , Political Science, Rutgers University
- G. Donald Ferree , Political Science, University of Wisconsin
Donald Ferree with Donna Gaines and Sanford Schwartz
- Myra Marx Ferree , Sociology, University of Wisconsin
- Marshall W. Fishwick , Department of History, Virginia Tech University
- John V. Fleming , Department of English, Princeton University
- Leslie Flemming, Ohio University
- Charles R. Forker , Department of English, Indiana University, emeritus
Charles Forker with Yale Ferguson and Kitty Ferguson
- Donna Gaines , Sociology, Author of Teenage Wasteland and A Misfit's Manifesto?
- John Gatta, Department of English, University of the South (Sewanee)
- Donald F. Gerardi , Department of History, Brooklyn College
- Edward Hansen , Geology, Hope College
- Frank Harrison III , Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia
- David Hein , Religion and Philosophy, Hood College.
- Edward Henderson , Department of Philosophy, Louisiana State University
- Harley P. Holden , Archivist Emeritus, Harvard University
- David Holmes , History, College of William and Mary
- Charles Huttar , Department of English, Emeritus, Hope College
Charles Huttar with Sylvia and George Spagna
- Bruce Jennings, Center for Humans and Nature
- Shirley Johnson-Lans , Department of Economics, Vassar College
- James Justus , English, Indiana University
- Marilyn Keiser , Department of Music, Indiana University
- John H. Krantz , Department of Psychology, Hanover College
- Margaret Morgan Lawrence , Psychiatry, Pomona, NY
- David Middleton , Department of English, Nicholls State University
- Robert Bruce Mullin , American Church History, General Theological Seminary
- Judith Newman , Old Testament, Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology
- Gary Niswonger , Department of Art, Smith College
- Frank Ordiway, Associate Dean, Princeton University
- Lewis Overaker , The Holderness School, Treasurer .
- George Parshall, formerly with DuPont, Chemistry, now with National Research Council; involved in destroying chemical stockpiles.
George Parshall, Anna May Parshall, Jack Warren Burnam, Mrs. Burnam
- Sarah Pierce , Department of Human Ecology, Louisiana State University
- Ben Porter, Transportation Analyst, Porter and Associates, Seattle
- Lillian Robinson , Psychiatry, Seattle.
- Bruce Saylor , composer, Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY
- Sanford Schwartz , Department of English, Pennsylvania State University
- Curtis Smith, Department of Biology, Mount Holyoke College
- David H. Smith , Bioethics, Indiana University
- George Spagna Jr., Randolph-Macon College
- Martin Stroble, , New Orleans
- Alec C. Valentine, Hinds Community College, Mississippi
- Paul Valliere , Philosophy and Religious Studies, Butler University
- Jon Wakelyn , History, Kent State University
- John and Marianne Ward , Centre College
- John S. Watterson , History, James Madison University
- Scott Westrem , Medieval Studies, CUNY
- John H. Whittaker , Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Louisiana State University
- J. Robert Wright , Ecclesiastical History, General Theological Seminary, Priest and Chaplain
Deceased members of the Guild are listed in the Necrology
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