Donald Romanik named Episcopal Church Foundation's president
Leslie F Terrell
August 25, 2005 -- Newsmakers: Donald Romanik, Paul Kowalewski, Timothy
Holder
Donald Romanik named Episcopal Church Foundation's president
By Episcopal Life staff
[ENS] -- 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.
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Paul Kowalewski named 9th rector of St. James' Church, LA
[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.
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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.
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