Trinity Church Wall Street acquires Church Divinity School of the Pacific

From ENS-

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, or CDSP, and Trinity Church Wall Street announced March 4 that the New York parish has acquired the Berkeley, California-based seminary.

The Very Rev. W. Mark Richardson, CDSP president and dean, told Episcopal News Service in an interview that the deal will put the school on a solid financial footing and position it for growth. CDSP and its assets now belong to Trinity, he said, and the value of those assets “will be a fund, among other resources they have, that supports the program at the school and operation.”

“It’ll be starting point of the kinds of funds we need to, say, augment faculty or to provide scholarship funding for students,” he said. “This becomes part of their assets that are poured back into the mission of the school.”

Trinity sees CDSP as part of its strategy “to present and offer the curriculum that will bring new leaders into the world that can gather communities and resource them in a way that we have not been able to do currently,” the Rev. William Lupfer, Trinity’s rector, told ENS in an interview.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/03/04/trinity-church-wall-street-acquires-church-divinity-school-of-the-pacific/

Ann Hallisey named dean of students at CDSP

From ENS-
The Rev. L. Ann Hallisey has been named the new dean of students at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal Church-affiliated seminary in Berkeley, California. CDSP's president and dean, the Very Rev. Dr. W. Mark Richardson, announced Hallisey's appointment Aug. 15, the day she began work.

Hallisey returns to serve the seminary where she earned a Doctor of Ministry degree. In her 28 years of ordained ministry, Hallisey has served as rector and interim in congregations and has developed an independent practice as an organizational consultant, according to a CDSP press release.

She is a spiritual director and retreat leader, and a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is currently working toward certification as a master practitioner in Appreciative Inquiry, described as "the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential." "These skills and experiences will be great strengths for her ministry at CDSP," Richardson said in the release.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_129429_ENG_HTM.htm

Facing Six-Figure Deficit, CDSP Cuts Staff

Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) has announced that five full-time staff positions would be eliminated as part of “a response to mounting financial pressures and changes in the educational needs of The Episcopal Church.” The restructuring does not affect the number of faculty positions at the Berkeley, Calif., seminary.

“In the past two days CDSP has said goodbye to five good and faithful staff members,” said Donn Morgan, president and dean, on May 29. “They are leaving not of their own volition, nor because of performance issues, but because of our school’s need to bring its budget into a more realistic place, to try to get closer to matching revenues with expenses.”

Elizabeth Drescher, CDSP’s director of the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL), said the seminary does not usually make public its financial statements, but that prior to the staff cuts the budget, which begins July 1, had a six-figure deficit. Enrollment during the past year also declined about 10 percent, she noted.

Ms. Drescher said the staff reductions were part of a restructuring which involves reorganizing faculty and staff into a number of cross-functional teams that will encourage greater sharing of expertise and broader involvement in the full range of work performed by all seminary faculty and staff members.

“On the one hand, this was a difficult and painful process because there was tremendous pressure to balance the budget,” she said. “The good news is that we continue to prepare for the future. We see this as part of an overall repositioning of the seminary to serve the church better.”

CDSP announced two new faculty hires. The Rev. Ruth Meyers will replace the Rev. Louis Weil as professor of liturgics for the fall 2009 term, and the Rev. Flora Keshgegian will become the new professor of pastoral theology and women in ministry beginning with the spring 2010 term.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/6/2/facing-six-figure-deficit-cdsp-cuts-staff