Speakers’ biographies and photos

Deacon Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidt

Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt is a deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (ordained 2007) and Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of several books, including Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason, and Following Christ (Oxford University Press), Catholic Theology: An Introduction (with James Buckley, Wiley Publishers), and The Deacon’s Ministry of Liturgy (Liturgical Press). His wife, Maureen Sweeney, is an immigration lawyer and teaches as the University of Maryland School of Law.

Deacon Josephine (Phina) Borgeson

Ordained in 1974, Josephine Borgeson serves in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California. Her community work centres on food system ministries and related environmental concerns, including interfaith networking and consulting. She is involved in ministry development and education, mentoring new deacons and teaching those preparing to be deacons. Phina worked in the dioceses of Nevada and Los Angeles before moving to Sonoma County and working with the Redwood Cluster. She was president of the North American Association for the Diaconate from 1987 to 1991 and is a member of the Association of Episcopal Deacons task force on Vocational Development and Lifelong Learning.

Canon Rosalind Brown

Rosalind Brown recently retired as a Residentiary Canon at Durham Cathedral, where she had oversight of the nave, or public, ministry of the Cathedral. Prior to that she trained people for ordination in the UK and was priest in charge of a parish in the US. She chaired the Diocese of Salisbury’s working party on the ministry of deacons, edited the Salisbury report on The Distinctive Diaconate and is author of several books on ministry and preaching, including Being a Deacon Today (Canterbury Press 2005). “Expanding the Theological Foundation of the Deacon’s Ministry” was published in Ecclesiology 13 (2017).

Subdeacon Brian A. Butcher

Brian A. Butcher, a subdeacon in the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, is currently Lecturer and Research Fellow in Eastern Christian Studies in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael's College (Toronto School of Theology). He is part of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptysky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, newly relocated to USMC from Saint Paul University in Ottawa. His second book is Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur (Fordham University Press, 2018). He contributed a chapter on Orthodox sacramental theology in the 16th -10th centuries to the Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology (2015).

Deacon Susanne Watson Epting

Susanne Watson Epting was ordained deacon in 1989. Active over many years in ministry development, she eventually became Canon to the Ordinary (an assistant to the bishop), working in that area with individuals and congregations, as well as in deployment and discernment. She served as a board member of the Association for Episcopal Deacons for eight years and as its director for ten. She remains involved in ministry development, doing both consulting and teaching. Her book Unexpected Consequences – the diaconate renewed was published by Morehouse Publishing in 2015. She is married to Christopher Epting, a former Bishop of Iowa.

Canon D. Michael Jackson

Ordained to the diaconate in 1977, Michael Jackson is the longest-serving deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada. He is author of The Diaconate Renewed: Service, Word and Worship and The Deacon in the Worshipping Community (Diocese of Qu’Appelle website), coordinates an international network of Anglican and Roman Catholic deacons, and is a frequent reviewer of diaconal publications. He is co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Covenant Implementation Committee of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle and the Archdiocese of Regina. He serves as a deacon at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Regina and has been a canon of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle since 2013.

Sister Gloria Marie Jones, OP

Sister Gloria Marie Jones recently completed eleven years as Congregational Prioress for the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, an international community with sisters in Mexico and the United States. Her years of service in formation and vocation ministry extended to the congregational, diocesan and national levels. She received her M.A. in Religious Studies from Catholic University of America and served the Catholic Community at Stanford University as Director of Faith Formation and Chaplain until she was elected to leadership in her congregation. As daughter of a deacon, she brings keen interest to the question of diaconal ministry in the Church today.

Deacon Maylanne Maybee

Maylanne Maybee has been a deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada since 1978. She is an educator, social justice activist, ecumenist, and writer on the diaconate and ecclesiology. She retired in 2017 as Principal of the Centre for Christian Studies, a theological school in Winnipeg for diaconal candidates. She has served the Anglican Church of Canada in the areas of peace, justice, and ecology, social housing and inner city ministry, and school chaplaincy and religious education. She edited and contributed to All Who Minister: New Ways of Serving God’s People (2001), a collection of case studies of innovative models of ministry.

Deacon George Newman

George Newman was ordained to the diaconate in 1987 and served as Director of Diaconate Formation in Toronto from 1992 to 2002. He was given Honorary Master of Divinity degree by St. Augustine’s Seminary in 2002. He established a diaconate formation program in St. Catharines Diocese in 2003, retiring from this position in 2017. He currently assists Newman Theological College as instructor for courses included in diaconate programs. He has assisted with the establishment of diaconate programs in a number of dioceses in Ontario and Western Canada.

Canon Alison Peden

Alison Peden was a medievalist at St Hilda's College, Oxford, before moving to Scotland in 1990, where she taught at the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling. She trained in the Scottish Episcopal Church and at Edinburgh University for her ordination in 2002. When Rector of Holy Trinity, Stirling, she became involved in the formation of ordinands. She was appointed Provincial Director of Ordinands in 2011, with oversight of recruitment and selection for ministry throughout the Scottish Episcopal Church. She is chaplain to the students in training and serves a small congregation. Her interests lie in the theology of ministry and the history of Scottish Episcopal theology.

Dr. Brett Salkeld

Brett Salkeld is Archdiocesan Theologian for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina, where he is responsible for diaconal formation. Brett is the author of Can Catholics and Evangelicals Agree about Purgatory and the Last Judgment? and How Far Can We Go? A Catholic Guide to Sex and Dating (with Leah Perrault), and serves the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as a member of the Roman Catholic - Evangelical Dialogue in Canada. His podcast, Thinking Faith! (with Eric Gurash), is available on the archdiocesan website. Brett grew up in small town Saskatchewan and currently lives with his wife Flannery and their six children in Regina.