Learning from Synodal Communities

Date: October 2, 2023

Time: 6:00-7:30 PM (PST)

This panel engages with the experiential wisdom of Christian communities who have long practiced synodality. These leaders were invited to speak to how their communities engage in synodal practices as they seek to cooperate with the Spirit’s invitation to live as the Body of Christ in the world. The panelists draw on their respective experiences in Catholic communities of vowed religious, the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. In bringing these voices together, we look to learn from the diverse synodal gifts brought to God’s people by several ecclesial traditions and spiritualities.

Recording of the event:

Sr. Angela Hoffman, OSB

Sister Angela Hoffman is a Benedictine Sister and Prioress at St. Placid Priory, Lacey, WA. She is emerita from the University of Portland where she taught chemistry for many years. Sister’s interests include understanding how everyone, no matter their understanding of God, can work together to make the world a better place for all.

Bishop Laurie Larson Ceasar

Laurie Larson Caesar serves the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as Bishop of the Oregon Synod. She graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1992 and her ministry contexts have included St. John's Lutheran in Des Moines, Iowa, Lutheran Campus Ministry at Portland State University and Spirit of Grace, a congregation of Lutherans and Roman Catholics in Beaverton. Bishop Laurie enjoys reading, hiking, birding, basketball and banjo, not necessarily in that order.

Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam

Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, is a Camaldolese monk, musician, composer, author, and teacher. He has published four books Prayer in the Cave of the Heart, Spirit, Soul, Body, The God Who Gave You Birth (Liturgical Press) and Rediscovering the Divine (Orbis); and has written numerous articles on spirituality and interreligious dialogue as well as on music and liturgy, besides his numerous musical collections. He has been to India numerous times as well as other countries in Europe, Asia, and the Mideast, performing as well as studying and teaching. He was elected prior of New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur California in 2013.

V. Rev. Nathan LeRud

The Very Reverend Nathan LeRud is the dean of Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, the oldest Anglican/Episcopal congregation in the Pacific Northwest. A fifth-generation Oregonian and native Portlander, Nathan holds a BA in English and Theatre from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and an M.Div from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2007. Nathan served congregations in New York City and Northern New Jersey before coming to Trinity in 2009 as Assistant to the Dean. A former actor and singer, Nathan also serves on the board of Portland’s Profile Theatre and, in collaboration with Peter Elliott, retired dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver BC, hosts the popular podcast The Gospel Of Musical Theatre.

Moderator: B. Kevin Brown

B. Kevin Brown, Ph.D. is Lecturer of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston College (with minor concentration in theological ethics) and his M.A. and B.A. from Loyola Marymount University. Dr. Brown researches primarily in the areas of ecclesiology, Catholic sexual abuse, theologies of ministry and discipleship, feminist and liberation theologies, ecumenism, the Second Vatican Council, and the work of Sandra Schneiders. His work has been published in Vision of Hope: Emerging Theologians and the Future of the Church and So You Say You Want a Revolution?: 1968-2018 in Theological Perspective. In 2020, he and Drs. Megan K McCabe and Michelle Wheatley received a grant through Fordham University’s initiative, Taking Responsibility: Jesuit Educational Institutions Confront the Causes and Legacy of Sexual Abuse, to organize and host a seminar style conference exploring the intersection of racism, colonialism, and white supremacy in cases of Catholic sexual abuse in historically marginalized communities. At Gonzaga, he teaches Catholicism, Principles of Christian Morality, and Global Christologies: Jesus of Nazareth in Global Perspective and a graduate level course in Church History. He currently serves as the editor of the Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America.

Prayer: Michael Prendergast

Michael R. Prendergast has nearly 50 years’ experience as a musician and liturgist at the parish, cathedral, and diocesan levels. Michael is an adjunct instructor in the Departments of Theology and Music at the University of Portland. In his semi-retirement Michael still serves as an accompanist and cantor at St. Andrew and All Saints Catholic Churches in Portland. He is the founder of Sacred Liturgy Ministries, a liturgical consulting firm. He holds a master’s in theological studies from Mount Angel Seminary, St. Benedict, Oregon, and a master's in liturgical studies from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. To learn more about Michael visit www.sacredliturgyministries.org.