The Episcopal Church Basis introduced on April 23 that “a transformational legacy present” from the property of the late Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright will completely fund the Father J. Robert Wright Tutorial Fellowship, supporting an rising Episcopal scholar pursuing a doctorate. The primary Father Wright Fellow will probably be introduced in June.
“Father Wright is an Episcopal luminary, a celebrated church historian who [was] an integral a part of the school of Common Seminary for many years,” stated Yvonne Jones Lembo, director of growth for ECF, in a particular episode of the muse’s Profiles in Generosity, which centered on Wright’s present and legacy. “He additionally was a 1965 alumnus of the ECF Fellowship Companions Program.”
Talking as a visitor within the episode, Jim Murphy, a former pupil of Wright’s who now works at Episcopal Aid and Growth, recalled how the late scholar and ecumenist was “so proud, fairly actually, to be an ECF Fellow and to be one of many first.”
“Due to that delight in that accomplishment, he needed to proceed that into future,” Murphy stated.
“This property present to the Episcopal Church Basis will proceed to endow future educational fellows like himself,” Jacob Sierra, senior program director of ECF, informed TLC.
The primary Father Wright Fellow will probably be chosen from those that utilized for a 2025 fellowship (the deadline was in March). The man will obtain as much as $15,000 within the first 12 months, with grants accessible for 2 further years in a lesser quantity.
Sierra highlighted that Wright was a fellow when the muse solely labored with these pursuing a Ph.D. in theology. “This system itself has been modified to fulfill the wants of the altering church,” he stated, including that ECF now affords two fellowship tracks: educational and ministry. The ministry observe is for these engaged in ministries on the neighborhood or congregational degree.
Apart from the overall utility necessities, nothing else is required from whoever is chosen because the fellowship’s inaugural recipient. Sierra additionally added that educational fellows typically don’t must be pursuing a doctorate in theology.
“For those who’re getting a doctorate in finance however your focus space is straight impacting the world of the church, the lifetime of the church … that’s completely one thing we might contemplate supporting,” he stated.
Potential ECF fellows should be members in good standing of their Episcopal parish or any member church of the Anglican Communion. These making use of within the educational observe should be enrolled in or planning to enroll in a doctoral analysis program.
“We’re all the time on the lookout for fellows whose work aligns with our values of inclusive management, expansive neighborhood, racial justice, and creation care,” Sierra stated.
In the present day, ECF awards three to 4 fellowships annually, some educational and a few ministry-focused. That is considerably fewer than the six or seven educational fellowships typically awarded per 12 months in different durations of the program’s historical past, which stretches again for greater than 40 years. It’s unclear if the endowment will enhance the variety of fellows chosen.
As a scholar and trainer, Wright mentored successive generations of clergy, Bishop John Bauerschmidt of the Diocese of Tennessee wrote for The Dwelling Church. “All the time ‘Father Wright,’ he was an early supporter of the ordination of girls within the Episcopal Church: a noteworthy stance on the time from a Catholic Anglican,” Bauerschmidt wrote.
For a few years, Wright taught a category on liturgical celebrations, which turned a “ceremony of passage” for a lot of at Common Theological Seminary.
World-renowned for his work as an ecumenist, Wright contributed to the creation of the World Council of Church buildings’ 1982 assertion Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, which Bauerschmidt referred to as “one of the vital influential ecumenical paperwork of our time.”
Wright participated within the worldwide dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church and the bilateral dialogue between the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church in the USA. He additionally served as a member of the World Council of Church buildings’ Fee on Religion and Order for 14 years.
The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin preached in 2022 that the late scholar’s most important contribution to the ecumenical motion was his work in Anglican-Lutheran relations, which led to full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2001.
In response to theologian Michael Root, the communion wouldn’t have been realized with out Wright’s “unflagging dedication.”
In 2006, Eerdmans printed One Lord, One Religion, One Baptism: Research in Christian Ecclesiality and Ecumenism in Honor of J. Robert Wright, a group of articles by distinguished historians and ecumenists, edited by Marsha L. Dutton and Patrick Terrell Grey.
“Father Wright’s explicit present to the ecumenical quest has all the time been his profound sense of the orthodoxy of the early church and his heartfelt loyalty to basic, catholic Anglicanism,” the Very Rev. Andrew C. Mead, rector emeritus of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York Metropolis, wrote in reward of the e-book.
In 2008, the well-respected scholar, who served because the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery Emeritus Professor of Ecclesiastical Historical past at GTS, acquired the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Cross of St. Augustine from Archbishop Rowan Williams. The award honored his position as adviser to many bishops and archbishops all through the Anglican Communion.
Wright died on January 12, 2022, at 85.
Bishop John Bauerschmidt is a former president of the Dwelling Church Basis.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Dwelling Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has additionally appeared in Christianity In the present day, Broadview Journal, and Presbyterian Outlook, amongst different publications.
