Newsletter, Episcopal Church Network for Science, Technology & Faith

Vol. 5-2

Holy Cross Day

14 September, 2006

Contents

Scientist-Bishop elected Episcopal Church Primate

ST&F Network Convener elected to Examining Chaplains Board

Archibishop of Canterbury advocates sound science teaching

For Creation care: green energy & food security

	"Food for Thought" course at CDSP
	Geothermal initiative at GTS
	Greening-up resources from the Diocese of Alabama
	Province IV Bishops' Pastoral Letter, "Care of Creation"

Opinion: "In praise of Anglican fudge"

Some good resources for sexuality discussions

Letter to the Editor

In the Spotlight: Some Network members take a bow

	Louis Fay
	Claire Lofgren
	John Lewis
	Carole Belgrade

Downloadable Network fliers in English and Spanish

Previous Newsletter Issues

Scientist-Bishop elected Episcopal Church Primate

As soon as Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada, was elected to be the 26th Presiding Bishop at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Columbus last June, she spoke of the qualities that her scientific training has fostered in her.

Above, The Presiding Bishop-elect at the post-election news conference (Credit: ENS)

At a press conference following the election, she was introduced by the current Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold, and welcomed to "the ministry of reconciliation." Bp. Jefferts Schori talked about her research interests when she was a practicing oceanographer--creatures of the seafloor and octopus and squid. She said that her training in science has given her "the gift of looking at the world carefully, not assuming I know ahead of time how the world works but being willing to investigate. I think the connection with what I'm doing now is the delight in the incredible diversity of creation. I never cease to marvel at the strange and wonderful ways in which we and the rest of this Earth are made."

In a nationally broadcast NPR interview with Diane Rehm on 21 June, she began to show the churches and the wider culture how a science background can enrich traditional religious vocabulary. When Rehm asked her to explain her views on the importance of unity and inclusiveness to the Episcopal Church, she replied:

The Anglican tradition, of which the Episcopal church is the American expression, has always valued comprehensiveness. We come with a variety of strands of belief and emphasis, and we are only a healthy body when we can incorporate the best of all of those strands. If we focus completely on one of those strands, we lose the diversity that makes us healthy. And, one of the perspectives of a biologist is to look at the natural world and see that--you know, if a farmer tries to grow only corn in a field, tries only to grow one crop, one quickly discovers that it takes massive inputs of fertilizer, of nutrients, of insecticides, and then you might get a crop. But the natural world flourishes when there is a diversity of creatures in the environment. Rehm asked about a stirring scientific image she'd used at a meeting of the House of Bishops last March. Bp. Jefferts-Schori recalled:

[T]he House of Bishops and, certainly, by extension, the General Convention, is not unlike what happens in the Pacific Ocean every year. Humpback whales sing songs--you've probably heard recordings of them. When they come together--they come together a couple of times a year, one of the places is off the Hawaiian islands. They come together for a time, and while they are together, they learn a new song. Each of their individual songs changes, and they begin to sing a common tune. When they go home again, they teach that song to their neighbors in their home localities, and over the coming months, that song changes again. And the next time they come back together, they learn a new song together. And to me that was an image of what the church in its legislative gatherings might imitate. What can we learn from each other? How can we come to sing a common song? Such enriched vocabulary and concepts "will be a hallmark of her primacy," predicted Bp. Barbara Harris, retired Suffragan of Massachusetts, speaking recently at a clergy gathering in that diocese. Using these tools, "Katharine has the ability to move a conversation to a whole new level."

Bp. Jeffert Schori takes up her new responsibilities officially on All Saints Day, 1 November. She will be invested and seated at a service at Washington National Cathedral on 4 November.

Members of the ST&F Network Steering Board met with Bp. Katharine in Las Vegas in 2004. They offer her their congratulations, best wishes, and blessings as she keeps "fishing and working at the depths," as she says. We know that she'll come up with more fresh images and concepts from science and technology to serve our faith and our Church!

[A podcast of the post-election news conference can be found at www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_77550_ENG_HTM.htm. The NPR interview can be heard at www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/06/29.php.]

ST&F Network Convener elected to Examining Chaplains Board

Above, Sandra Michael ponders the engagement of science with society

Other amazing things happened at the General Convention, besides the election of a scientist-bishop to head the Episcopal Church for the next three years.

For one thing, the Convener of the ST&F Network since 2004, Dr. Sandra Michael, was elected to a six-year term on the General Board of Examining Chaplains (GBEC). This is the body that writes, reads and grades the General Ordination Examination, taken by most seminarians seeking ordination. Taking the GOE is a week-long rite of passage for most seniors, and it purports to indicate strengths and weaknesses in their preparation for ministry leadership.

According to the website of the Office for Ministry Development , members of the Board "come from all walks of life. They are chosen by the Administrator from names suggested by GBEC members, by bishops, other clergy, lay people, or by experienced readers. About half of the readers are clergy, often with pastoral cures. Many clergy readers have themselves taken the GOE. Whether clergy or laity, the readers work conscientiously and carefully and are fully cognizant of the importance of their task."

Dr. Michael is a geneticist and endocrinologist, Distinguished Professor of Biology at Binghamton University (SUNY). "I have been privileged to participate in a number of activities to help Episcopalians become better informed about fundamental elements of both faith and modern science. The engagement of science with society is pervasive and complex, and often leads to questions of value and meaning, and of ethics and religion. As a member of the GBEC, I welcome the opportunity to bring this experience and expertise to raising up the next generation of ordained leaders of our church."

Dr. Michael is active in the Diocese of Central New York, which she represents as a Deputy at the General Convention. To learn more about her, see the "In the Spotlight" feature of Network Newsletter 3-2 and Binghamton's research e-newsletter.

Archibishop of Canterbury advocates sound science teaching

The Most Reverend Dr. Rowan Williams, Archibishop of Canterbury, has spoken emphatically in favor of sound science education in British schools, rather than creationism or Intelligent Design. In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian at Lambeth Palace last spring, he said that Creation and the sacred stories in the Scriptures that tell of it, are not in the same category with scientific accounts of star formation, for example, and life-form development.

And he is concerned for more that just science education. "My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it," he said.

The article in The Guardian said that while creationism and ID do not pose nearly the threat to science education in England that they do in the U.S., several privately-funded evangelical academies have made creationism their science curriculum.

Read the full interview at http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1735731,00.html on The Guardian website.

For Creation care: green energy & food security

"Food for Thought," course offering at CDSP
Geothermal initiative at GTS
Greening-up resources from the Diocese of Alabama
Province IV Bishops' Pastoral Letter, "Care of Creation"

Opinion: "In praise of Anglican fudge (Yes, no and maybe)" by Nick Knisely

[Reprinted by permission from "Entangled States: Quantum Physics, Theology and World Mission... living at the Intellectual Crossroads," www.entangledstates.org/science/index.html.]

"Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' be 'No.'"

I've noticed more and more people using this phrase lately. It's an injunction from Our Lord (Matt 5:37) and, as such, needs to be taken seriously. I know that I try to. When I'm asked a direct yes-or-no question, and there is any way for me to answer it directly, I answer it either "yes" or "no."

I imagine the reason that we're hearing this particular phrase so often right now in Anglican circles is that people are getting tired of "process" and want to move to "decision" with regard to the questions confronting the Communion. I hear their frustration, and I share it. It's hard to live in the in-between times and it often feels like we're wasting time and effort when there are so many other frankly more important issues to tackle.

But...

There exist questions that don't have "yes" or "no" answers. Important questions.

I was trained as a physicist. I still teach physics and astronomy to undergraduates a couple of times a week these days. As such I am spending a portion of my intellectual life in a landscape where there are not "yes" or "no" answers.

"Is light a particle or a wave?" The answer is "yes" and the answer is "no." It depends on how you are looking. It is completely a wave sometimes and completely a particle sometimes. It has zero (rest)mass.

"Is a bowling ball a particle or a wave?" The answer is "yes" and the answer is "no." It is both--same as for light--in spite of the fact that a bowling ball has mass.

Physicists eat paradox for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is their great delight and their great scandal.

I used to think that there was someway to resolve the paradoxes of physics. Einstein certainly did. He didn't like the fact that Quantum Physics implied that there was no ultimate answer to a question--just a fuzzy "maybe". It's where his famous quote "God doesn't play dice with the Universe" comes from.

But the work done (in the area of Quantum Entanglement) around the issue of Bell's Theorem and Quantum Mechanics has pretty much indicated that Einstein was wrong. The Universe does come with a set of dice. The best answer we can ultimately give is "maybe."

No one frankly likes this. The experiments that have shown it have been repeated many times. They keep giving the same answer. The dice are real--and they are fundamental.

In the thinking of Thomas Kuhn, this represents a profound paradigm shift. Determinism is wrong. There is no ultimate reality to which we can appeal--at least in terms of this created Universe. The Newtonian paradigm is giving way the Quantum paradigm. We are still in the process of making this paragdigm shift. It has been underway for nearly 90 years and it's yet not completed.

So...

If we are going to use natural law to inform our theological reasoning, then we have to include this piece of data as well. It would seem to imply that there are theological questions which can not have precise, logically complete answers. To use this idea would mean to accept that there are times when the best we can hope for in a moment of conflict is to create a classic Anglican fudge. And not out of our inability to reach out to the truth, but because the truth is fundamentally fudged.

(NB: I use truth vs. Truth to distiguish between the reality that we can comprehend (truth) and the reality that is the Holy One (Truth) in the sentence above.)

The first issue for us is to decide if the "issues" that we are being asked to say "Yes" or "No" to, really need to have a "Maybe" answer. I don't think this idea contradicts the complete testimony of the Holy Scriptures even if it does go against the plain meaning of Matt 5:37. But "plain meaning" can be a difficult thing to understand in and of itself as I've recently been reminded.

[Network member Nicholas Knisely is a physicist/astronomer-priest serving a parish in the Diocese of Bethlehem. He has just been called as Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Phoenix, Arizona. He may be reached by email at nick@wnknisely.org.]

Some good resource for sexuality discussions

Task forces and committees in several dioceses have engaged in studies of the science and religion of human sexuality, including sexual partner preference. In addition, the House of Bishops has adopted a "science-free" document, which is good to know about. There is a similar document available from the Anglican Church, which is mostly "science-free." All these have all been made available for personal and general use in parishes and chaplaincy discussion groups. In addition, the Society of Ordained Scientists has made its study available as a resource for churches. Titles and access information are given below.

Diocese of Southeast Florida: "Bishop's Council of Advice Report on Human Sexuality." The PDF document may be downloaded at www.diosef.org/hsr/index.html.
Diocese of Massachusetts: "The Science of Sexual Behavior in Humans and Other Animals: A Resource for the Churches." The PDF document may be downloaded at http://diomass.org:80/diomass/index.cfm?objectid=6819A372-F1FF-A620-9410B75641884272#10.
Society of Ordained Scientists, "On the Biological Basis of Human Sexual Orientation," report written by the Rev. Dr. David de Pomerai and the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lindell. May be read online at www.thesosc.org/articles/articles.html.
Theology Committee of the House of Bishops: "The Gift of Sexuality: A Theological Perspective." PDF can be downloaded at www.ecusa.anglican.org/1275_10476_ENG_HTM.htm.
Church of England, Working Party of the House of Bishops: "Some Issues in Human Sexuality: A Guide to the Debate."

Letter to the Editor

In the Spotlight: Some Network members take a bow

For this feature, we invite our members to introduce themselves with short biographies. Please send your own bio-sketch and a picture to the editor.

Dr. Louis Fay
environmental engineer, Chico, Cal.

Above, Louis Fay studies ferns in Ecuador

Born in Tucson in 1928, I lived Roswell, New Mexico, until 1943, when my family moved to Iowa and I went off to military school. Military school used to be a penalty for bad behaviour or a convenience for parents who wanted to travel. In 1943, however, it was a great privilege. I did my last two years of high school there and came out knowing a big lot about how to be a good soldier. No one had predicted THE BOMB at that time. I always liked it as it was a big contributor to my being here. I went into the military until 1949 and ended up as a charter member of the U.S. Air Force. One day in 1947, we were on the parade ground and the general said, "Men, you are no longer in the Army, you are in the Air Force."

I went to Georgia Tech 1949 to 1953, got a B.S. chemistry and a B.S. in physics, then started graduate school in chemistry at Iowa State College. In 1954, I married Alice, a junior professor in the department. That same year, I flunked out of grad school and went into industrial research. I spent five years studying applications of bulk (non-junction) semiconductors, then five years improving the magnetic aspects of the last high-capacity, big-disk magnetic memories. I became fairly expert on applications of the Hall Effect.

In 1963 the older children were in school, Alice wanted to get back into teaching, and I needed a job change. At church one Sunday, in a back pew I found a one-page leaflet about the Overseas Mission Board. A little church college Liberia, Cuttington College, badly needed science teachers. Alice and I said, "Oh Boy!" After a year of fighting church politics, we arrived at Cuttington in July 1965. Baby Susan had her second birthday in Liberia. (It was safe in those days).

We returned to the U.S. in 1967 to a recession in electronics, so I taught for a year at North Ontario Institute of Technology at Kirkland Lake. After that we went to The University of the West Indies, Trinidad branch, where I taught electrical physics at all levels and Alice was developing her interests in chemistry service courses for non-chemistry majors. After five years, social conditions in Trinidad were deteriorating rapidly and we returned to U.S. in 1973.

I wanted to return to Third World but had learned a few items: 1) People need clean water much more than fancier electronics; 2) at higher adminiatrative levels you got little respect without Ph.D.; and 3) politics and culture were the main reasons that a third-world "Marshall Plan" was a total failure. So Alice became chemistry department head at a junior college in Anderson, S.C., and I went back to school at Clemson.

In 1975 I earned my M.Ed. in science teaching after hearing a talk by 'minority' leaders that one of their major problems was a shortage of teachers with experience teaching Black students. I had had plenty--in Africe--but that was not, as it turned out, the sort of experience they needed. As that endeavor was a complete flop, I went back to grad school and took an M.S. in environmental systems engineering and a Ph.D. in 1983 in water resources engineering.

A Fulbright Professorship took us to the University of Sierra Leone, Njala campus, 1984-85. By then most of Africa had become dangerous for upper middle-aged folks (I was 55 when I got my doctorate). When we returned, I did a year at McNeese University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and then found a fun, but odd, position at Georgia Military College, a junior college. The Administrators were pleased to find a Ph.D. who was a graduate of a military high school and with four years' military service. The teaching demands were well below my academic qualifications, but it was great fun to associate with the cadets, participate in P.T., go rappelling, etc. I had absolutely no classroom discipline problems, and no need to put on a "monkey show" to convince the class that the subject was relevant. I spent seven grand years there, 1988-95. Then the school had financial problems and became a "football factory." Academic standards declined. As second-year calculus and calculus-based physics became redundant, I was sidetracked at age 66 after the 1994-1995 school year. While my students took military training that summer, Alice and I went to South America to collect ferns. I am not complaining about the change in the school. The new general did a wonderful job of saving the institution (and many jobs) while providing a big remedial school, still much needed in central Georgia.

Looking for something useful to do, Alice and I joined Teachers for Africa, which had lots of older people and was very safety-oriented. We taught at the University of Nairobi, 1995-97. We returned to U.S. just before things warmed up in Kenya for the '97 election.

Again looking for something to do, I tried Habitat for Humanity in Bolivia and Ghana but found it to be too "groupie." In the fall of 1999, I ran across the Earthwatch Institute. I thought the name looked suspicious, but their literature carefully stated that their projects are science, not fancy vacations or ecological tours. When I saw that "A Botanical Survey of the Cameroon Rainforest" was led by the British Royal Herbarium, Kew, I figured that this was just what I wanted. Luckily we had sent about a hundred collections to the Kew from Sierra Leone when we were there in 1985, so I was recognized as a fern expert. I made several 2-to-4-week trips for field work from 2001 till 2005 (see photo).

Alice went completely blind at Christmas 2003 and had to move last fall to California (where our younger daughter lives) for better-supervised assisted living. I followed her in January of this year.

Alice is a deacon and our daughter Delia is a priest in the Diocese of Northern California.

This little autobiography may be too much, as I have done too much.

I'm not connected to the internet, but Network members can write to me at my home: 1675 Manzanita Ave., #22, Chico, CA 95926-1636.

[Dr. Fay's letter to the editor is printed above.]
The Rev. Sr. Claire Lofgren, O.S.H., S.O.Sc.
biologist-priest-nun, Vails Gate, N.Y.
When I tell someone that I have an interest in faith and science I almost always get a response of surprise or disbelief: "They're opposites, aren't they?" "Really?" "Does your church allow that kind of thing?" My answers are "No, yes and yes."

My interest in science goes back to childhood and I worked in medical research for a time as a young adult. I left that work about 20 years ago to become a priest, but my interest in science has never left and I've discovered that I am among a growing number who share an interest in the intersection between science and faith.

Above, Sr. Claire, stopped at the intersection of science and religion
In the spring and summer of 2005 I was able to attend two gatherings of people who share my interest. The first was in Santa Fe, New Mexico from April 7 to 10. The first part was devoted to the Steering Board of the Episcopal Church Network on Science Technology and Faith. This is a rather loose association of laypeople and clergy in the Episcopal Church who have an interest in faith-and-science issues and who are willing to offer their expertise to the wider church. At the moment, I am serving as treasurer of this group.

A highlight of this meeting was a presentation on the newly released document, A Catechism of Creation: An Episcopal Understanding. Its format is question and answer, like the Episcopal Prayer Book's Catechism (pp. 843-862). Part I builds upon the Bible's basic doctrine of creation. Part II outlines the modern scientific worldview, including the Big Bang and the evolution of life. Part III presents the biblical roots for environmental care. It is available on the web at http://www.dfms.org/19021_58393_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=58392.

Meeting at the same time in Santa Fe were faith-and-science groups from a number of other denominations, about 50 people in all from the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Together they form the annual meeting of the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science Technology and the Church. We heard from leading scholars on topics that included some of the questions being raised in the areas of cognitive science and religion and on the complex relationships between venture capitalism, the scientific community and religion. Other areas touched upon included ethics, the environment, social justice and the use and interpretation of scripture.

Later in the summer, I traveled to Scargill Retreat Center in northwest Yorkshire, England, for the Annual Gathering of the Society of Ordained Scientists. It is a religious society that was formed in the Church of England about 20 years ago. All of the members of the society are ordained and are or were active in some field of science. While most of the members belong to the Church of England, there are members from other denominations and others parts of the Anglican Communion. I serve as North American co-convener for the Society.

My own role in the faith-and-science dialogue is a small one. Apart from serving on the boards of these groups, most of my involvement is at the parish level; speaking with groups of all ages from young children to adults about faith and science, and touching on these issues in some of my sermons. I look forward to the possibility of meeting with parish groups to study the new Catechism of Creation, using it as a tool for discussing some of today's crucial issues of theology, ethics, social justice, and human understanding that are raised at the crossroads of faith with science. I am a sister of the Order of St. Helena, which has convents in Vails Gate and Manhattan, N.Y., and Atlanta, Ga. You can reach me by email at clofgren@osh.org.
Dr. John Lewis
computer scientist, Acton, Mass.

Above, John Lewis ponders the big questions

I have a life-long interest in science and a life-long affiliation with the Episcopal Church. I graduated from Dartmouth with a major in mathematics, and received a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale. I've been an active member of Trinity (Episcopal) Church in Concord, Mass., for many years. I find the relationship of faith and science to raise fascinating questions--and important ones in today's world, as well. I have pursued my interest in these questions through work with InterFase (International Faith and Science Exchange), and I am currently the Convener of the Working Group on Faith and Genetics of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

You can reach me by email at jlewis@trinityconcord.org.
Ms. Carole Belgrade
bioethicist, Roslindale, Mass.
I am currently a MA candidate in the Religion and Psychology program at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Mass. In 2004 I completed a Certificate in Theological Studies at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Prior to my theological studies, I graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. I have worked in both corporate and non profit organizations in the areas of database applications and quality control.

Above, Carole Belgrade showing off the new publication, "Science of Sexual Behavior in Humans and Other Animals"
Presently, I serve as Assistant Convener of the Faith & Genetics Ecumenical Working Group, Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. In 2005, I was pleased to help produce group's 2005 report, "The Science of Sexual Behavior in Humans and Other Animals: A Resource for Churches." [For more about this publication, see above.]

In addition to her academic and diocesan work, I am a contributing book reviewer for Science and Theology News, an online e-newsletter. I am involved in the Celtic Spirituality and Worship groups at a nearby parish, and I am involved with Open Studio Roslindale and the AIDS Action Committee, Boston.

My research and professional interests are focussed in the areas of bioethics, women's health and political issues and interfaith/ecumenical dialogue. I enjoy travel, yoga, and attending theatre performances and concerts.

I can be reached at carolebelgrade@hotmail.com.

Downloadable Network fliers in both Spanish and English

Why not print out Science, Technology and Faith Network brochures for your parish or cathedral tract-rack? Help spread the word to those who wonder how Christian faith interacts with developments in science and technology. There is a real hunger among Episcopalians to be able to ask important questions about faithful living within contemporary society. The Network welcomes questioners.

The Network brochure is available both in Spanish and in English versions, as PDF files (Acrobat Reader required).

Previous Newsletter Issues

Vol. 1-1, All Saints 2001 Vol. 1-2, Epiphany 2002 Vol. 1-3, Trinity 2002 Vol. 2-1, New Year 2003 Vol. 2-2, Sts Peter & Paul 2003 Vol. 2-3, Christmas 2003	Vol. 3-1, Ash Wednesday 2004 Vol. 3-2, St. Luke (18 Oct.) 2004 Vol. 4-1, Lent 5 (mid-March) 2005 Vol. 4-2, St. Aidan (31 Aug.) 2005 Vol. 4-3, Christ the King (20 Nov.) 2005 Vol. 5-1, Pentecost (4 June) 2006
Newsletter Homepage: http://home.earthlink.net/~smithmoran/

Send comments and contributions to the Network Newsletter editor, The Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran, S.O.Sc.
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Revised 21 November 2006