Rev. Dr. David Lowry
  Rector

What in Heavens is
the Rector up to?

Bishop Provenzano kindly thanked the congregation of Christ Church for lending some of the Rector’s time and energy to the work to the Diocese of Long Island and the National Church. Many of you know pieces of that work but there are probably few who know what the Rector is doing, when he is away from Christ Church. For the Diocese of Long Island Father Lowry is Dean of the George Mercer School of Theology and Administrator of the Mercer Fund. In those roles Father Lowry is developing an innovative way in which to train those who seek to minister in the church. At the Mercer School academic work is combined with active practical experience in field training so that those who are seeking ordination will be able to combine their growing knowledge of their faith with their actual mission and ministry within the life of the church To help this process move forward the Mercer School is integrating clinical pastoral education (which is usually done as a separate summer—long growth experience) into the on-going process of preparing for ministry for Deacons. This three year work-guided education will help both candidates and the church to effectively prepare people for ministry in the rapidly changing secular and religious cultures of the 21st Century. Along with this core program the Mercer School is offering a broad array of practical short courses in aspects of ministry and parish life for laity and clergy.

On both the diocesan and national levels Father Lowry is deeply involved in creating new ways in which to support candidates for ministry financially through their preparation for ordination. Through the Mercer Scholarship Fund thousands of seminarians have received relatively small scholarships. For the last 50 years, along with the Society for the Increase of Ministry, the Mercer Fund is the major independent source of financial aid for seminarians. However, most seminarians complete their education with substantial debt This debt has become a great burden to many clergy. There are also too many people being approved for ordination by the dioceses and Bishops of the church. This over abundance of clergy has caused a depression of compensation which exacerbates the problem of clergy debt. Father Lowry also serves on the board of the Society for the Increase of Ministry and is working on proposals to restructure the selection process, deployment and financing of perspective clergy within the church.

The Rector in South Sudan

Father Lowry is also heading up an effort nationally and internationally within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to develop a program in support of the church in the newly independent nation of South Sudan. South Sudan is rich in natural resources those resources will be rapidly developed as part of the partition agreement between Sudan and South Sudan. The challenge is to avoid the so called “resource curse”, which afflicts many undeveloped countries and regions when natural resource development takes place. Endemic corruption, social and cultural dislocation hinder the proper flow of funds from development projects from being reasonably and sustain ably divided among the people within a developing country. Africa has been especially vexed by the “resource curse”. It is Father Lowry’s hope that people with knowledge of resource exploitation and community development can be recruited from within the world-wide Anglican Communion to help communities in South Sudan to work with multi-national and parastatal corporations to provide fair and equitable benefits for communities and individuals while supporting the investment needs of the companies and the overall development strategies of the government of South Sudan.