Priest Associates at St. Paul’s: BiographiesFrancis + Hauge + Kirking + Searls-Ridge + |
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Mary Jane’s ordained ministry began in 1984, and on Easter Day, 2011 she celebrated 26 yrs. as a priest (although she officially retired in 2004). She has served congregations both in Tennessee and in the Seattle area, as well as serving as a ‘spiritual director’ (companioning people on their faith and life journeys) since she was in seminary. Since 1986 she has been an Associate of the Community of St. Mary (which follows a rule very similar to the rule of Benedict). Over the years she has chaired a Commission on Ministry, been a deputy to General Convention, been involved in developing diocesan norms and program designs around human sexuality, and chaired a Church Consultants Task Force. In the Diocese of Olympia she also has served as an ‘itinerant priest’, as the founding Convenor for the diocesan Team for Spiritual Formation [T4SF], as a mentor/teacher/program designer for the Total Common Ministry Movement, and as Board Member, Faculty and an Interim Dean for the Diocesan School for Ministry and Theology [DSOMAT]. Her passions include adult Christian formation, Celtic spirituality, music (in just about any form), ballet, opera, native art, reading, and messing around in the kitchen.
Father Hauge has been interested in and involved with leadership training since the 1960s when he became a member of the TACS (Training and Consultation) network in the Diocese of Olympia. Through TACS he helped to lead group development training sessions and served as a consultant to congregations working to strengthen their common life. He is currently a trainer with the Diocesan College for Congregational Development. Father Hauge’s interests include Carl Jung and how Jung’s psychological approach can augment the Christian Gospel. During a three-month period between positions, Father Hauge read Jung’s Collected Works, later becoming involved in Jungian circles in Oregon and giving a presentation to a Jungian gathering at the University of Oregon on the relationship of Jungian Psychology and Christian Theology. Father Hauge also has an interest in Celtic Holy Places. In the last six years he has made two pilgrimages to Celtic Holy Places: Lindesfarne, Iona, Whithorn, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St. Andrew’s. This interest has led him to involvement in offering sessions on Celtic Spirituality more broadly in the diocese. Morrie and his partner Scott Martin have been together for more than 30 years and live in the Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle.
In 1964, he became rector of St. Andrew's, Nogales, AZ (on the US – Mexican border). In 1970, he moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and was—simultaneously—vicar of the Iglesia Episcopal de la Epifanía, the pastor of the Union Church of Santo Domingo, and the director of a residence for twenty-two male university students. Fourteen years of cross-cultural, bilingual ministry motivated him to want to better understand the relationship between religion and culture. To that end, in 1977 he returned to the USA as a full-time graduate student at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, where he earned the degree of Doctor of Ministry in the area of religion and culture. Chuck “retired” in 2001, after serving as Rector of the Church of the Ascension (Magnolia). Three months before my retirement he began a year’s study of Appreciative Interim Ministry. He served as Interim Rector here at St. Paul’s for 2-1/2 years, during the prolonged search process between Fr. Morrie and Mother Melissa’s tenures. He has also been interim at St. Andrew’s, Tacoma, St. Margaret’s, Bellevue, and Emmanuel, Mercer Island. His interest and love for Hispanic ministry—especially across-cultural ministry—continues. He served on the Board of Directors of VIA—Viviendo la Identidad Anglicana/Living the Christian Life in the Anglican Way—for five years, celebrated the weekly Spanish Eucharists at St. David’s, Shelton for about a year, and has taught Spanish for Liturgy at Diocesan House. He is an Oblate at the (Roman Catholic) Benedictine Priory of St. Placid, Lacey, WA, and practices T’ai chi. He and his wife Courtney have lived in West Seattle since 1998, have a grown son and daughter, and one grandchild. “Two things that I am so grateful for that I want to share with you are: 1) I realized my vocation to the priesthood my junior year in college and feel indescribably grateful that I have never once doubted it and 2) After 47 years of celebrating the Eucharist, day in and day out, every time is still a privilege and a thrill for me!” Grace, peace, and love,
The Rev. Ralph Carskadden dies at age 71
If we are to understand the If we are to be faithful disciples, Called to act counter to the -The Rev. Ralph Carskadden (from Peter Hallock, ©1994, on the Compline Choir website) The Rev. Ralph R. Carskadden died Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 after battling cancer. He was 71. A Requiem Mass will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, followed by a reception at Diocesan House. Both of these events will be hosted by St. Paul's, Seattle. A Northwest native, Carskadden was born in Seattle on June 25, 1940, raised in that city and on north Whidbey Is. Baptized into Christ at 6 months old, he grew up into the faith as a Lutheran. During his senior year at Wittenberg University in Ohio, he found a home in the Episcopal Church and was confirmed by the bishop of Southern Ohio on “Low Sunday” 1962. That summer he became a postulant in the Diocese of Olympia and traveled to New Haven, Conn. to the Berkeley Divinity School, graduating in 1965. He then moved to New York, where he was a caseworker with the welfare department as well as a paid alto in the Men and Boys Choir at Trinity, Wall Street. Carskadden cherished a long association with Peter Hallock and the Compline Choir, with whom he traveled to Russia, Scandinavia and England. “A piece of my soul is connected to the art, music and spirituality of Russian Orthodoxy,” Carskadden once explained. He traveled several times to Russia as a member of the St. Petersburg, Russia, Seattle Sister Churches program, and helped raise support for the Children’s Hospice in St. Petersburg. A founding member of the diocesan Dismantling Racism Training Team, Carskadden was instrumental in facilitating conversation on race relations, working with congregations to eradicate the sin of racism and encouraging them to move toward being more inclusive, diverse and welcoming. Home was a sacred place to him, and together with his long-time partner, Steven Iverson, Carskadden lovingly and painstakingly restored their 1910 Craftsman house on Beacon Hill. Jacob, their Scottish terrier, was a constant companion. A well-respected liturgical consultant to a wide variety of churches and organizations, Carskadden taught the Introduction to Christian Worship course in the Diocesan School of Ministry and Theology and served on the Advisory Board of the Summer Liturgy Institute at Seattle University. He served a three-year term on the City of Seattle Arts Commission and also on the board of the Association of Diocesan Liturgy and Music Commissions of the Episcopal Church. As a craftsman he worked in textiles, clay and iconography. In August 1967, Carskadden returned to the Pacific Northwest and was ordained deacon, and the following year, priest, by Bishop Ivol Curtis. He served on staff at Christ Church, Tacoma; St. Paul’s, Seattle; Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Mich.; and for three years was canon liturgist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Detroit. In 1976 he became an associate at All Souls’, San Diego, and in 1979 was elected its rector. He returned again to Seattle at the end of 1986 to work on a degree in art at the University of Washington, and in 1988 became part-time on the staff at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, where dean Fred Northup appointed him canon liturgist. When that position was terminated, he finished his degree and became priest-in-charge at St. Clement’s, Seattle. After two years, he was elected rector of what he affectionately called “that wonderful, multi-racial congregation” until his retirement. Later, he served again at the appointment of Bishop Greg Rickel as priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s Cathedral, where he guided the congregation on a process of discovery and self-examination through the creation of textiles, vestments and altar cloths, made by weaving together pieces of fabric and yarn donated by the congregation and larger community. He found his spiritual home at St. Paul’s, Seattle, where he was a priest associate. Carskadden, a beloved pastor, consultant, craftsman and artist, will be deeply missed. Please keep him, Steven Iverson, their family, friends and all those who mourn in your prayers. (from the Diocesan website)
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FATHER CHARLES SEARLS RIDGE, D. Min. A postulant and candidate for Holy Orders under Bishop Bayne, in 1961, Fr. Chuck was ordained deacon at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, by Bishop Lewis, and moved immediately to Dover, DE, to be the assistant at Christ Church (founded 1703) with a particular ministry to college students at Wesley Junior College and (segregated) Delaware State College and to military personnel at Dover Air Force Base. Delaware churches and institutions were just beginning to desegregate.
FATHER SAMUEL TORVEND coordinates and teaches in the many adult formation offerings scheduled throughout the year at St. Paul's. He also serves as professor of the history of Christianity at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma) where he has taught for the past ten years. In addition to university teaching, he is the associate director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture in the Western United States. Within the Diocese of Olympia, he serves on the Commission on Liturgy and the Arts, the Committee on Liturgical Catechesis and Theology, and as a teacher in the Diocesan School of Theology and Ministry. During 2008-2009, he has been the Theologian in Residence at St. Mark's Cathedral, giving workshops on leadership in the community of faith. He is the author of Daily Bread, Holy Meal: Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion; Luther and the Hungry Poor; Praying in the Home; and a variety of articles on liturgy, sacraments, beauty, the environment, and social justice.
If we are to grasp the message of |