The Rev. Canon Jay Magness
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Interviews ECUSA Chaplain
Jay Magness and other Navy Chaplains as Correspondent Kim Lawton
takes an in-depth look at multiple duties for military chaplains
during this time of war, and why Magness and other chaplains
say spiritual peril is one of the many dangers facing the soldiers
in Iraq.
To
Read or View the video of the full story
Read
the entire interview with Capt. Jay Magness, Chaplain for the
U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
The Rt. Rev. David J. Bena
The Right Reverend David J. Bena is Bishop Suffragan
of the Diocese of Albany. A native of northern New York State,
Bishop Bena received his education at Stetson University, Virginia
Theological Seminary, and the Graduate Theological Foundation.
Before entering seminary, he was a Marine line officer, flying
as a bombardier-navigator, included 252 bombing missions in
the Vietnam/Laos theatre of operations in the late 1960s.
Following seminary, Bishop Bena served churches
in North Carolina and Texas before returning to military active
duty as a chaplain in the Air Force. His tours of duty included
bases in Washington State, Alabama, Texas, Turkey, Washington
DC, and North Dakota. He retired from the Armed Forces in 1992,
and spent the next two years at the Episcopal Church Center
in New York City as the Executive Assistant to the Bishop for
the Armed Forces, and as Assistant at the Cathedral of the Incarnation
on Long Island. In 1994, he was called as Rector of Calvary
Church in Burnt Hills, New York, and served there until he was
elected Bishop Suffragan of Albany in December of 1999. Bishop
Bena was awarded a Doctor of Divinity, Honoris Causa from Virginia
Theological College in 2001.
He has been married to Mary Ellen Knott since
1967, and the couple has three children and two grandchildren.
The Rev. Canon Andrew White
Canon Andrew White is a Residentiary Canon and
Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation (ICR)
at Coventry Cathedral, as well as the Eric Lane Fellow at Clare
College Cambridge. He also serves as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s
Special Representative to the Middle East, and continues to
co-ordinate the religious track of the Middle East peace process
– known as the Alexandria Process.
Andrew studied at St.Thomas’s Hospital,
London, qualifying as an Operating Department Practitioner in
1985. He trained for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and
also studied at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He served
his curacy at St.Mark’s, Battersea Rise, before becoming
Vicar of The Church of the Ascension, Balham Hill.
Whilst Vicar in Clapham, Andrew also served as
a Wandsworth Borough Councillor, serving as Deputy Chairman
of Social Services. He was at this point the only elected Conservative
politician in the UK who was also an Anglican minister.
In 1998, Andrew was installed as Director of International
Ministry for the Diocese and Cathedral of Coventry. Since then
he has headed up Coventry’s international ministry of
reconciliation, more recently with Canon Justin Welby, which
includes conflict resolution and the Community of the Cross
of Nails, with centres in over 50 countries.
Andrew’s particular interest is the Middle
East. He is very involved in Israel and the Palestinian territories,
and Iraq. He is a regular visitor to Jerusalem and Baghdad,
working closely with religious and political leaders. Early
in 2003, Andrew published a book entitled Iraq: People of Hope,
Land of Despair. His primary area of academic expertise is in
the role of Israel in Christian theology, and in the relationship
between religion and violent conflict.
Over recent years, Andrew has acted as negotiator
in many areas of conflict, including the siege at the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the bloody riots between Christians
and Muslims in northern Nigeria. He has been awarded several
significant prizes for his peace work, including the International
Sternberg prize and the ICCJ Prize for Sustained Intellectual
Contribution to Jewish-Christian Relations.
Andrew is married to Caroline, who is a lawyer,
and has two young sons.
Dr. Kenneth Ruge
Dr. Kenneth Ruge is a marriage and family therapist who practices
in New York City. For over 25 years he has been working with
couples going through the Othello Response and other issues,
helping them to heal and re-design their marriages. A contributor
to the Ladies Home Journal column, “Can This Marriage
be Saved?”, Dr. Ruge is a frequent lecturer on marital
health and parenting issues. He is the author of Where Do I
Go From Here? and co-author with Nina Frost and Richard Shoup
of Soulmapping: An Imaginative Way to Self-Discovery. Dr. Ruge
can be contacted directly via
e-mail at www.revruge@aol.com.
The Rev. Dr. Jack Williamson
The Reverend, Doctor Jack Williamson is the Executive Director
for The National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces
(NCMAF) and The Endorsers Conference for Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy
(ECVAC). NCMAF and ECVAC are associations that bring together,
in a collaborative and mutually supportive relationship, official
representatives of all the major faith communities in the United
States. These members provide chaplains to each military service
of the Department of Defense and to the Department of Veteran
Affairs from each one’s particular faith community —
representing over 250 faith traditions.
Reverend Williamson retired from the Air Force
Chaplain Service in July 1998 in the grade of Colonel after
serving twenty-three years as a chaplain. For 4 years prior
to his retirement, he was Chief of the Plans and Programs Division,
Office of the Chief of the Air Force Chaplain Service. In this
capacity, he advised the Chief of the Chaplain Service on professional
plans, programs, and activities and developed policy guidance
for the Air Force Chaplain Service. In addition, he was responsible
for all the professional education and training programs for
Air Force chaplains worldwide.
Jack Williamson was born in Alliance, Ohio, in
1945. He received a Master of Divinity degree in pastoral theology
in 1970 from Asbury Theological Seminary. He was ordained a
minister of the Evangelical Friends Church (Quaker) in 1970
and served as pastor of the Friends Church in Salem, Ohio, until
entering the active duty Air Force in 1975. In 1975 he earned
the Doctor of Ministry degree in Marriage and Family Counseling,
from the Consortium of Higher Education Religion Studies, Ashland
Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio. In 1998 he completed a
post-graduate training certification program through Georgetown
University, Washington, D.C.
Jack also serves as a certified trainer and business
consultant for Interchange International, Inc. He regularly
serves as a consultant, speaker and trainer addressing issues
around managing the impact of personal and organizational change.
He is the co-author of the book, DIVORCE: 6 ways to get
through the bad times…for good.
Most recently he has become the Director for Global
Grandparents, an affiliated program of Generations United.
Jack Williamson has two married children: Chad,
a physical therapy assistant and a High School teacher in Tampa,
Florida and Christen, a horticulturist in Albertville, Alabama.
He is also the proud grandfather of two wonderful grandsons,
Davis and Ben.
The Rev. Dr. Clay
Morris
The Rev. Dr. Clay Morris is Liturgical Officer for
the Episcopal Church. Working at the Church Center in New York,
he provides staff support for the Standing Commission on Liturgy
and Music. He assists the Presiding Bishop with tasks like planning
liturgy for General Convention and provides a communication
link among the dozen or so national organizations, Episcopal
and ecumenical, which are concerned with music and liturgy.
He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in organ
performance from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, the
Master of Divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of
the Pacific, and Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in theology
from the Graduate Theological Union.
He was ordained deacon in the Diocese of Oregon
in June of 1971 and priest in the Diocese of California in January
of 1972. Over the past thirty years he has served variously
as curate, rector, organist-choirmaster, and director of liturgy
and music in several California congregations. He has also taught
courses in church music at CDSP.
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