Our History
Who We Are
Acknowledgements

Since 1917, The Witness has been examining church and society in light of faith and conscience - advocating for those denied systemic power as well as celebrating those who, in theologian William Stringfellow's words, have found ways to "live humanly in the midst of death."

Though we are independent publishing organization unaffiliated with the institutional church, we have deep Anglican roots. We were founded by Irving Peake Johnson, Episcopal Bishop of Colorado, and our corporate name is the "Episcopal Church Publishing Company" (ECPC). We provide a depth of analysis on spiritual questing and theology in practice, always ready to hold our own cherished beliefs and convictions up to scrutiny.

The Witness has served for decades as the communications and organizing vehicle for progressive Episcopalians in the U.S., and in more recent years, in the international Anglican Communion too. Historically, this ministry was conducted through our print magazine. Currently, we are published exclusively in an online format, although we do continue to produce some print products. Our web-based publishing reaches thousands of worldwide readers through a free email newsletter, and our articles, editorials, and news coverage come from writers across the globe.

We are deeply committed to raising up the voices of people of faith throughout the world, particularly within the Anglican Communion, to consider justice and peace issues from a broad diversity of cultural and regional perspectives. We embrace the liberation perspective that flows from the very core of Christian belief and values. We side with Jesus' radical claim that every person, every creature, every part of creation belongs to God and deserves the deepest respect and care.

OUR HISTORY:

Social criticism has a long and honored tradition as an expression of Christian faith. The biblical prophets measured the performance of society by the word of God; injustice and oppression had no sterner critic than Jesus himself. The Witness, a voice of Christian social conscience, draws its inspiration from these early witnessings for an earthly kingdom of justice, peace and freedom for all people.

The Witness is the descendant of a fiery religious publication which played a crucial role in the life of the Episcopal Church for half a century following World War I, reminding its readers of their biblical heritage and social responsibilities. From 1919 to 1972, The Witness was the ministry of Bill Spofford, an Episcopal priest who wrote the news, set the type, and preached at the church in tones that sometimes thundered, sometimes cajoled. Some of his critiques on the evils of capitalism are as relevant now as when they were first written.

In 1974, Bob DeWitt, one of three Episcopal bishops who ordained 11 women to the priesthood without the broader church's approval, became editor of The Witness. Based in greater Philadelphia, DeWitt continued the magazine's advocacy for racial, social and economic justice with the support of visionary board members John Hines, Coleman McGehee, John Burt, and Suzanne Hiatt, among others.

During the 1980s, Barbara Harris served as ECPC's executive director, until her election as the Anglican Communion's first female bishop in 1988. During that period Mary Lou Suhor served as the magazine's first female editor. The organization championed many progressive causes: tax resistance, solidarity with liberation struggles in Central America and South Africa; antinuclear activism; gay, lesbian, and women's rights; and environmental concerns.

In 1991, ECPC moved to Detroit, Michigan, under editor Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann, a journalist and activist. In 1997 she and Julie Wortman, who had previously been managing editor, became the first co-editors of The Witness, with Wortman working from the coastal village of Tenants Harbor, Maine. Together with assistant editor Marianne Arbogast, Wylie-Kellermann and Wortman remained true to the publication's core politics while offering new, ecumenical and interfaith voices who reflected the need for spiritual discernment in these millennial times. The publication earned numerous awards and honors for its unique artistic approach and outstanding content. Wortman served as the magazine's sole editor and publisher from 1998-2003, following a stroke suffered by Wylie-Kellermann.

In 2003, Ethan Vesely-Flad became editor of The Witness, and its office moved to Oakland, California; in late 2004 he and the organization returned to the east coast, settling in New York City. The Witness focused its publishing ministry on an electronic format in 2003, and since that change has dramatically increased its readership. Before moving on in 2005 to become editor of FOR, the magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliantion, Vesely-Flad expanded the base of contributing editors to include writers from developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, making The Witness an international "public theology" resource.

Sarah Dylan Breuer became editor of The Witness in 2005.

WHO WE ARE:

Staff

Sarah Dylan Breuer is editor of The Witness. Dylan is a preacher, teacher, and thinker with a master's degree in New Testament from St. Mary's Divinity College of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and a C.Phil. (that is, she's a Ph.D. candidate) in the history of early Christianity at the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). Her lectionary blog, which offers reflections on biblical readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary, was recently named among "The Best Spiritual Blogs on the Internet" by Beliefnet.com. Dylan is a postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Maryland; she also serves on the board of Integrity and in the Emerging Women's Leadership Initiative's national consultation, and as president of Gathering the Next Generation (the national network of Generation X  [born 1961-1981] Episcopalians). As a longtime U2 fan, she was pleased to contribute six meditations to the recent book Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog. In her spare time, she loves cooking, playing guitar, and questing for the perfect cup of coffee.

Anne Higgins is poetry editor of The Witness. She teaches English and works in Campus Ministry at Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and is a member of the religious order the Daughters of Charity, and is a graduate of Saint Joseph College, Emmitsburg, the Johns Hopkins University, and the Washington Theological Union. She has had about seventy poems published, in Yankee, Commonweal, Spirituality and Health, The Melic Review, The Drexel Online Journal, and a variety of small magazines. Her book of poetry At the Year's Elbow was published by the Mellen Poetry Press in 2000.

Board of Directors

Ms. Carol Anne Brown is the president and executive director of the Patricia D. & William B. Smullin Foundation. Prior to serving in that position, she was an officer and major stockholder of California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc.

Carol currently serves as second vice president of the board of directors of the Compass Rose Society, which is a spiritual, consultative, and financial support group for the international Anglican Communion. She is also a board member with Episcopal Relief and Development, the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, and Humboldt State University Advancement Foundation. Carol has previously co-chaired the North American Cathedral Deans & Spouses/Partners Association and served as vice president of the North American Regional Committee for St. George's College, Jerusalem. She has been an active Episcopalian since her sophomore year of high school, especially in the areas of youth work, Christian education, and training and consulting.

Carol holds a BA degree from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and will receive an honorary doctorate from Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., in May 2005. She and her husband, Don, have a son who is doing graduate work in London and a daughter who works in museum education in New York City. Carol lived in Sacramento, Calif. during her husband's tenure as dean of Trinity Cathedral. Following his retirement from that position in February 2005, the Browns have relocated to Berkeley, California.

The Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, D.D., was consecrated as the eighth bishop of Washington on June 1, 2002. He serves 93 congregations and 45,000 members in the District of Columbia (D.C.) and four counties in Maryland: Prince George's, Montgomery, Charles and Saint Mary's. He is president and CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which governs Saint Alban's School for Boys, the National Cathedral School for Girls, Beauvoir Primary School, the Cathedral College and the National Cathedral, all of which are located on the 53-acre cathedral close.

He is an active member of many boards and advisory committees, including the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, the University Council Committee On Religious and Spiritual Life at Yale University, the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, the Virginia Theological Seminary and Collington Retirement Center, Saint Anna's Home and Saint Mary's Home. In addition, John serves as co-chair of the "Bishops Working For A Just Society" Coalition and on the Episcopal Church's Committee On National Affairs. He was recently appointed to serve on a Global Anglican Task Force investigating human rights violations in the Kingdom of Swaziland, Africa and his diocese has established a partnership with the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa. He has received honorary doctorates from both Virginia Theological Seminary and the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Formerly the dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral, San Diego, Calif. from 1996-2002, John has also served as rector of Saint Mark's Church, Southborough, Mass., canon pastor of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Erie, Pa. and curate/priest-in-charge of Saint Paul's Church, Montvale, N.J. He holds a BA from Boston University and an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School.

John has been married for 37 years to Karen Albright. They have two grown sons and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, working out regularly, reading and fly-fishing. Until a racing accident ended his avocation, John regularly competed as a driver in open cockpit Modified Midgets and Sprint Car racing. As a former touring professional drummer, he enjoys annual reunions with his old blues band, "The Chane Gang."

The Rt. Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris is an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Washington (D.C.), a position she has held since 2003. On February 11, 1989, she was consecrated suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, the first woman to be ordained to the episcopate in the worldwide Anglican Communion. She served in that capacity until her retirement in November 2002.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Barbara graduated from the Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Journalism. She joined Joseph V. Baker Associates Inc., a national public relations firm headquartered in Philadelphia in 1949. She was president of the firm in 1968 when she joined the Sun Company as community relations consultant. She later was named manager of community and urban affairs and headed Sun's Public Relations Department from May 1973 until becoming a senior staff consultant at Sun's corporate headquarters in January 1977.

Barbara attended Villanova University and studied at the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield, England. She is also a graduate of the Pennsylvania Foundation for Pastoral Counseling. Ordained to the diaconate in September 1979, she was ordained a priest in 1980. She served as priest-in-charge of St. Augustine of Hippo Church in Norristown, Pa., from 1980-1984. She also served as chaplain to the Philadelphia County prisons, and as counsel to industrial corporations for public policy issues and social concerns. In 1984, she was named executive director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and publisher of The Witness magazine. In 1988, she took on additional duties as interim rector of Philadelphia's Church of the Advocate.

Barbara has been active in professional and community organizations, as well as in national church service. A member of the Union of Black Episcopalians and a past president of the Episcopal Urban Caucus, she has represented the Episcopal Church on the board of the Prisoner Visitation and Support Committee and was a member of the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns. A past vice president of Episcopal City Mission, an independent agency of the Diocese of Massachusetts working for and on behalf of the urban poor, Barbara is a board member of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. She has received honorary degrees from numerous colleges, universities and theological schools, including Yale University and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

The Rev. Canon Mark Harris is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Delaware. Married to Kathryn Harris, Mark has two children, Matthew and Emanuela. He is currently the associate for Christian formation at St. Peter's, Lewes, part-time. He writes extensively on matters related to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

His essays, reviews and poems have been published in a variety of print and on-line publications, including The Witness, Beliefnet, The Living Church, Episcopal Life, Plumbline, the essay pages on the Web Pages of Louie Crew, The Delaware Communion, The Journal of Marriage and the Family, Issues (a publication of the Consultation), The Christian Century, and the Jubilee Journal. He is the author of The Challenge of Change: The Anglican Communion in the Post Modern Era, published by Church Publishing, Inc. (1998).

Mark currently serves on the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on World Mission, The Joint Nominating Committee for the Presiding Bishop, the Joint Committee for the Philippine Covenant, and as a Deputy from his diocese to the General Convention. He serves on the boards of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and Centre Rencontre, a study center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is the honorary president of the Constantin Mircea Dan Foundation, Bucharest, Romania, and a canon of the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.

The Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton is rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. She previously served as the Episcopal Diocese of Newark's canon missioner to The Oasis (ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, their families and friends) from 1996-2002. She is especially passionate about the intersection of justice issues with regard to race, gender, age, class and physical or intellectual ability.

Prior to her appointment to The Oasis, Elizabeth was actively engaged in urban/inner city ministry for five years in Newark, N.J. She served first as executive director and vicar of the AIDS Resource Center at St. Barnabas Church, and was priest-in-charge at House of Prayer in Newark. A registered nurse since 1970, she has been actively involved in AIDS ministry since 1983, in Boston, Baltimore, Newark and New York City. Elizabeth also serves as president of the board of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. She is an avid writer who is a regular contributor to The Witness, as well as other publications.

A "passionate pilgrim on the journey towards holiness of life," Elizabeth's joyful commitment to the Gospel and her baptismal vows is evident in her life and work. She and her spouse Barbara, a nationally certified AIDS clinical nurse specialist, recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. They have loved and nurtured six children of their own, and have been actively involved in the lives of six other foster children. They are still adjusting to "the empty nest." Together, they love to travel, cook, read, laugh, and take long walks with their beloved dog, a boxer named Bogart. They find the ocean a place of restorative healing and the rural areas, especially the mountains, a place of recreation and delight.

The Very Rev. Tracey Lind is dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a growing city congregation in Cleveland, Ohio that serves the community with worship, arts and music, peace and justice ministries, and education and spirituality programs. Trinity Cathedral is part of Trinity Commons, an award-winning, environmentally-sustainable campus developed under Tracey's leadership.

As the title of her new book suggests (Interrupted by God: Glimpses from the Edge, 2004, Pilgrim Press), Tracey does her life's work in sometimes unexpected times and places. As an Episcopal priest and city planner, her ministry includes work for environmental justice, interfaith relations, sustainable urban planning, arts and culture, and the diversity of the Episcopal Church.

From 1989-2000, Tracey Lind was rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Paterson, N.J. In Paterson she led the effort to revitalize a large multi-cultural urban congregation and establish the St. Paul's Community Development Corporation. She began her ordained ministry in 1986 as the associate rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Ridgewood, N.J. During seminary, she worked for Bronx Youth Ministry and the Nightwatch Program at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Prior to entering seminary, Tracey worked in nonprofit management and community development. She continues that work as a board member of many nonprofit organizations including the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, Ten Thousand Villages of Cleveland, Community Shares, Hospice of the Visiting Nurse Association, Music and Performing Arts at Trinity, and the Levin College for Urban Affairs of Cleveland State University.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Tracey holds a BA in urban studies from the Honors College at the University of Toledo, a master of community planning from the University of Cincinnati, and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

She is also a photographer whose work has been exhibited in New York/New Jersey-area juried shows and in individual exhibits at the Chautauqua Institution, New Communities in Newark, Cleveland State University and Trinity Cathedral. To learn more about Trinity Cathedral and its ministries and to read a selection of Tracey's book and sermons, please visit www.trinitycleveland.org.

The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, the seventh Episcopal bishop of Alaska, has provided a lifetime of ministry to Native and rural congregations and communities throughout North America. He has held positions in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Duluth, Minn.; Tomah, Wisc. and Mauston, Wisc.; Portland, Ore.; and the Southeast Regional mission of the Diocese of Navajoland. Immediately prior to his ordination to the episcopate, he was canon missioner for training in the Diocese of Minnesota and vicar of St. Antipas' Church, Redby, and St. John-in-the-Wilderness Church, Red Lake, Red Lake Nation.

Mark was born on January 15, 1954 to Blake and Sue Nell MacDonald. His formal education includes a BA in religious studies and psychology from the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minn., an M.Div. from Wycliffe College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and post-graduate work at Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, Minn.

Presently, Mark is a board member for the Indigenous Theological Training Institute and the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. He chairs the board for Church Innovations, Inc., and serves on the faculty for the Leadership Academy for New Directions (Land XXVIII). He is also a Third Order Franciscan.

Among his published works are "Native American Youth Ministries," co-authored with Dr. Carol Hampton and published in Resource Book for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults, the Episcopal Church Center, New York, NY, 1995; "It's in the Font: Sacramental Connections between Faith and Environment," Soundings, July 6, 1994, Vol. 16, No. 5; and A Strategy for Growth for the Episcopal Church: Joining Multiculturalism and Evangelism, Inter-Cultural Ministry Development, San Jose, CA, 1994. He was the editor for Liturgical Studies IV, The Chant of Life: Inculturation and the People of the Land, published by the Church Publishing Company.

Married on November 11, 1989, Mark and his wife, Virginia Sha Lynn, have two daughters and one son: May Li, born November 15, 1991; Brenna Li born October 23, 1993; and Adrian Blake, born May 21, 2000.

Mr. Ben Matlock is the vice president for finance and business management at Episcopal Divinity School, where he has worked since 1996. Since 2002, he has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the seminary, teaching courses in parish administration, anti-racism, and healthy pastoral relationships.

Raised in the "Bible Belt" of the Midwest, Ben became an Episcopalian in 1975 in Germany, where he lived for nearly 20 years. In Germany he taught English as a Second Language before joining the United States Air Force base in Wiesbaden. He ran its recreation center before becoming its financial director, earning kudos from the Air Force European Command for excellence in accounting in 1987. Prior to joining Episcopal Divinity School, Ben served as the canon for mission support for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts where he executed its administrative ministries.

Ben is a board member and the treasurer of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. He holds a BA with a communications/sociology major and philosophy minor from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo. and a master of science in financial management from Troy State University in Troy, Ala. He is a longtime church leader on both the parish (senior warden, vestry member) and diocesan levels (financial consultant, overseas trip organizer, American Church Conference delegate).

A lawyer and lifelong Episcopalian, Ms. Muffie Moroney is particularly interested in issues at the intersection of law and the church. She is an active member of St. Stephen's, Houston, where she serves on the altar guild, lector, and chalice bearer, and which she has represented as a delegate to diocesan council and diocesan convention. She is also a frequent participant in the activities of Brigid's Place at Christ Church Cathedral.

Muffie serves on the boards of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, as well as the executive committee of the River Oaks Area Democratic Women (ROADwomen). She is passionate about issues of justice and oppression, and has been an occasional contributing writer to The Witness for many years.

She attended St. John's School in Houston, Texas, Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va., and the University of Houston Law Center in Houston, Texas. She has two grown sons and a granddaughter.

Mr. Jim Solheim retired in February 2004 after almost 16 years as director of news and information for the Episcopal Church. During that time he transformed the Diocesan Press Service into Episcopal News Service (ENS) with a much broader range of coverage of the church--including ecumenical and interfaith issues.

Although raised a Lutheran in Minnesota (a graduate of St. Olaf College and Luther Theological Seminary), when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988, he accepted an offer to serve as director of communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. A few weeks after he arrived in Boston, the diocese elected Barbara Harris as the Anglican Communion's first female bishop.

While his journalistic career saw him edit a series of publications for the Lutherans, the United Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ dealing with controversial issues, nothing quite prepared him for those years in the Episcopal Church. The ENS staff attempted to cover the news of a church that was struggling to respond with a gospel passion to its mission challenges--especially the challenge of inclusion, building a church that was able to rise above the distinctions of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

Among the greatest challenges during Jim's tenure at ENS were dealing with an embezzlement by the church's national treasurer, an attempted heresy trial of a bishop for ordaining an openly gay man, the continuing struggle against the sin of racism, the national and international furor that resulted from the consecration of the church's first openly gay bishop, the 1998 Lambeth Conference of the world's Episcopal/Anglican bishops (he wrote a journalistic account, "Diversity or Disunity?"), and a series of budget and staff cuts at the Episcopal Church Center.

Throughout his career, Jim has been deeply committed to the role of the church press in keeping the church open and honest. He is a current board member for the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. For many years he served on the board of the Associated Church Press (ACP), an ecumenical organization of about 150 publications in the U.S. and Canada, including a term as president. His role in the ACP nourished his life-long commitment to ecumenism, especially full communion between the Lutherans and the Episcopalians.

In retirement he is still sifting through boxes of paper, news clippings and photographs, wondering if he will find material for another book.

The Rt. Rev. Orris G. "Ja" Walker, Jr. became the seventh bishop of Long Island, New York on January 1, 1991. The Diocese of Long Island, one of the most populous of the Episcopal Church, comprises the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk.

Ja (pronounced "Jay") was born in Baltimore, Md. in 1942. He received his early education in the Baltimore public school system, graduating from Baltimore City College in 1960. In 1964 he graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in political science and philosophy, and in 1968 he received a STB from the General Theologicalgreen Seminary. In addition, he holds a doctor of ministry degree from Drew University, an MA in religious studies from the University of Windsor, and an MBA in church administration from the Graduate Theological Foundation.

Ja is a board member for the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and serves as board chair for two hospitals and two nursing homes. He received honorary doctorates in canon law and divinity from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the General Theological Seminary, respectively, in 1988. In 2000, he earned a doctor of humane letters from St. Paul's College, Lawrenceville, Va. Ja is married to the former Norma Eloy McKinney and they have two adult children and one grandson.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

This website was designed and developed by Kate Kilbourne & Associates. The Witness wishes to express its deepest gratitude to that California-based team of web consultants for their tireless efforts to create this resource for our readers. Additional consulting and support was provided by ECOSERVE Computer Service Ministry in New York City.

We wish to particularly acknowledge the hard work of the following individuals in the process of creating this website: Jonathan Callard, Andy Chang, Kate Kilbourne, Michael Macrone, Peter Ng, Pamela Tang, Maurice Tani, and Ethan Vesely-Flad.

For more information about the photographer whose work graces the home page of this site, click here.