Pentecost Guest Preacher
The Right Reverend
Frederick H. Borsch, Ph.D., retired bishop of the
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, interim dean of
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and associate dean of
Yale University Divinity School will be our guest speaker
on Pentecost Sunday.
Bishop Borsch received his undergraduate education at Princeton University and graduate education at the University of Oxford (B.A., M.A.), the General Theological Seminary (S.T.B.) and the University of Birmingham (Ph.D.). A specialist in New Testament studies, he has taught at the University of Birmingham, Seabury-Western Seminary, the General Theological Seminary and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, where he served as dean and president from 1972-81. Prior to his election as bishop of Los Angeles in 1988, he was dean of the chapel and religious life and professor of religion at Princeton University.
He has served as a Visiting Lecturer at the Princeton Theological Seminary, and he continues to present lectures, to be a guest preacher and to lead conferences for various church groups, colleges and seminaries in the United States and abroad. In 1985, he was for thirteen weeks the preacher for The Protestant Hour radio program. Bishop Borsch's lectures and addresses usually center on New Testament issues, but he has also lectured and written on peace and justice and other ethical concerns, spirituality and Christian poetry, theological education, topics of more contemporary church history, pastoral theological matters, church administration and teaching values in higher education. In Princeton, he was active in the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and has been a part of various university and church groups working for peace and social and economic justice concerns, most recently in Los Angeles working with the living wage coalition.
Bishop Borsch has long been active in the life of the Anglican Communion. Most recently he served as chair of one of the four major sections at the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently said of him, "What I certainly know is that you have some special ingredient that affects the chemistry between people. You have a formidable intellect, and yet you can communicate some of the most abstruse things and make people wonder why they never thought to express them quite that way."
He is the author or editor of 16 books and numerous articles, including The Son of Man in Myth and History, Introducing the Lessons of the Church Year: A Guide for Lay Readers and Congregations, Coming Together in the Spirit, Anglicanism and the Bible, Jesus: The Human Life of God, Many Things in Parables: Extravagant Stories of New Community and Christian Discipleship and Sexuality. He has written extensively on contemporary issues in theological education and the ministry.
A member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, Borsch served as chair of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops from 1988-2000. He co-founded the Los Angeles Interfaith Environmental Council and has held numerous leadership positions within local, national and international charities and organizations. Bishop Borsch is married to Barbara Edgeley Sampson Borsch, and they have three sons.
We look forward to Bishop Borsch's visit with us on Sunday, May 19.