CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION

Photo Roger Coda

What is the purpose of clergy in the religious community? Their congregants usually look to them for spiritual and general guidance, but the question remains: Who ministers to the clergy?

The Robertson Foundation and the Holden-Daney Fellowship offer a solution. It is called the New Clergy Program, and it takes place each season during Week One.

Ten participants from a variety of religious traditions will gather at Chautauqua Institution to benefit from Chautauqua’s resources, programs and leaders to encourage and enlarge their ministries in an ecumenical and interfaith context. Guidelines admit those who have been out of seminary for no more than seven years.

“The program focuses on the potential for capacity for religious community leadership from promising new clergy,” Program Director Albert Pennybacker said. “That is being fulfilled as we watch the roles being played by former New Clergy Program Fellows.”

The program includes a worship service and lecture followed by seminar sessions.

“The program seeks to include a balanced ratio of men and women representing a variety of faith traditions and denomination heritages,” Pennybacker said.

It has become so popular that a second session with nine fellows has to be held during Week Five.

The Robertson Foundation and the Holden-Daney Fellowship pay all expenses, except transportation, for clergy, spouses or partners. Some clergy choose to bring children at their own expense. The Presbyterian House, various other denominational houses and the Everett Jewish Life Center provide lodging for the fellows.

Week One fellows are Rev. Kevin D. Anthony from the Baptist tradition, senior pastor of Resurrection Temple in St. Louis; Rev. Bill Cotman, solo pastor for two Presbyterian yoked congregations: First Presbyterian, of Wolcott, N.Y., and Huron Presbyterian of Huron, N.Y.; Rev. Todd Cutter, senior pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Cincinnati; Rev. Sara Cutter, associate pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church, Dayton, Ohio; Rev. David Greene, minister of the 15th Avenue Christian Church, Rock Island, Ill.; Rev. Carol Hunter, assistant pastor, Covenant Church (United Methodist) in High Point, N.C.; Rev. Sandhya Jha, who serves as minister of Transformation and Reconciliation for the Northern California/Nevada Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and senior minister, First Christian Church, Oakland, Calif.; Rev. John Morton, senior pastor of the Hamilton Christian Church, St. Louis; Rev. Janel Rice, pastor in a three-member pastoral team serving the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pa.; and Rabbi Jonathon Roos who leads the Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, N.J., a congregation of the Reform Movement/Union for Reform Judaism.

Pennybacker said he looks forward to offering scholarship awards in the future in addition to a foundation sponsorship, and that scholarship donors are welcome.

Pennybacker directs the program and his nephew, Cameron Pennybacker, is facilitator. Chaplain is the Rev. William Holt Terry. The three look forward to introducing the fellows to each other and to the Institution.

by Joan Lipscomb Solomon, staff writer