Ken Arnold

Mel Ahlborn

Jerry Hames

Thomas Moore, III

The Rev. Dr. Clayton Morris

The Rev. Robert L. Tate

Phoebe Griswold

Gurdon Brewster

Brie Dodson

Ruth Councell

Diane Walker

C. Robin Janning

Ken Arnold
Interim President

E-mail: ken@ken-arnold.com

Mel Ahlborn
Member of the Board

Mel Ahlborn specializes in manuscript illumination and is a frequent lecturer on the history and production techniques of illuminated manuscripts. Her fine art exhibitions include the Washington National Cathedral, The Getty Center, the British Library, Oxford College, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Mel is an elected Fellow of the Center for Arts, Religion, and Education (CARE) at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, teaching Studio Arts courses in Manuscript Illumination and Visual Preaching. Interweaving the arts, spirituality, and religion throughout her career, she has served as a consultant to museums, film companies, and academic institutions. Mel resides with her husband, Paul, and their two children, in Moraga, California.

E-mail: mahlborn@ecva.org
Web site: www.illuminationstudio.org
Parish: St Stephen’s Episcopal Church - Orinda, CA

Jerry Hames
Member of the Board

Jerry Hames, Canadian-born journalist, spent his more than four-decade-long career writing about religious life and a multitude of Christian events and activities. He was religion writer for two Canadian newspapers, served for 22 years in communications positions with the Anglican Church of Canada, and retired in 2007 as editor of Episcopal Life, a position held for more than 17 years.

His interests have included research and program planning for religious television, providing media services for a national halfway house movement in Canada, and promoting a drama program and arts contest for incarcerated men and women. In 2007, he was named recipient of the Jeannette Pierce Award by Episcopal Communicators for outstanding commitment to excellence in church communication. He is an honorary life member of both the Canadian Church Press and the Associated Church Press.

E-mail: jerrold.hames@gmail.com
Parish: Trinity Episcopal Church, Princeton, NJ

Thomas Moore, III
Vice President

Thomas Moore serves as Vice President for the ECVA Board of Directors, and was recently appointed as the Executive Director of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry (SIM). He has also worked with the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral in the United States (FOCCUS); the Church Pension Group (CPG); and the Episcopal Church Center in New York.

Tom is married to the Rev. Helen M. Moore, a priest of the Episcopal Church. Helen has served parishes in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut, and Virginia.  In addition to their five grown children, Tom and Helen have seven grandchildren.

E-mail: t.moore@simministry.org

The Rev. Dr. Clayton L. Morris
Secretary

Clay Morris is Program Officer for Worship and Spirituality for the Episcopal Church. Working at the Church Center in New York, he provides staff support for the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.  He assists the Presiding Bishop with tasks like planning liturgy for major events Convention and provides a communication link among the dozen or so national organizations, Episcopal and ecumenical, which are concerned with music and liturgy. He also manages the liturgical life of the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the Church Center.

Over the past thirty years he has served variously as curate, rector, organist-choirmaster, and director of liturgy and music in several California congregations.  He has also taught courses in church music at CDSP.

E-mail: cmorris@episcopalchurch.org

The Rev. Robert L. Tate
Treasurer

Bob Tate joined the ECVA Board in 2003 and serves as Treasurer and as Supervising Board Member to the Visio Divina program. Throughout his distinguished career in church service, Bob has earned recognition for his work in outreach, social justice, youth and young adult ministry, and stewardship.

In 2009, after fourteen years as Rector of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Bob retired from full-time parish ministry. He is now working part-time as a parish ministry consultant. Bob currently is Chairman of the Board of Servant Year, an Americorps urban ministry program in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. He formerly chaired the Program Board at The Cathedral College of Washington National Cathedral.

E-mail: rlt19119@aol.com

Phoebe Griswold
ECVA Co-Founder and Member of the Board

Phoebe Griswold is co-founder of the ECVA Board of Directors with Gurdon Brewster and continues to serve as a Board Member. She serves as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Woman, representing the United States. Honored as the 2002 Humanitarian of the Year by New York Public Television, Mrs. Griswold is the wife of retired Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold.  

Her passion for the needs of others led her to convene AWE (Anglican Women’s Empowerment) which calls for an expanded women's presence on all Anglican Communion governing bodies.

Gurdon Brewster
ECVA Co-Founder

Brie Dodson
Artist Outreach

Brie Dodson is a realist painter who seeks to evoke the “unseen eternal” in the subjects she portrays. Her work has been featured in Gallery & Studio, The Living Church, Art and Christianity, Manhattan Arts, and other publications. Brie's art has been exhibited at various venues in New York City, Washington, D.C., and several states; and her work resides in many private collections. She served as ECVA Director of Communications from 2005 to 2007.

Brie lives in Virginia. Her family includes husband, Tom, and four sons.

E-mail: bdodson@briedodson.com
Web site: www.briedodson.com
Parish: Trinity Episcopal Church - Upperville, VA

View artwork by Brie Dodson

Ruth Councell
Chapters Director

Ruth Tietjen Councell is an artist and illustrator, who, at various times, has specialized in drawing and painting, graphic design, children’s illustration, and botanical art. Between 1986 and 1997, she illustrated six books for children, some of which earned honors. Ruth was a member of the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild. Her illustrations have been exhibited at Michelson’s Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her botanical illustrations have been exhibited at Seabury Western School of Theology in Evanston, Illinois, and prints of her botanicals are available at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She has taught drawing and painting to children and adults.

Ruth is the chair of the New Jersey chapter of ECVA.

E-mail: chapters@ecva.org
Web site: http://www.councell.net
Parish: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Trenton, NJ and
            St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Pennington, NJ

View artwork by Ruth Councell

Diane Walker
Exhibitions Director

Diane Walker is a professional photographer and poet who has spent the best part of her adult life on islands in the Pacific Northwest. She delights in the play of light and shadow, the natural world, reflections and fog, farms, old boats, and the art of portraiture.

Diane's photographs and meditations reflect her years of study with Cynthia Bourgeault and emerge out of her daily practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina. She is presently developing two books—a series of photographic meditations on the Gospel of Thomas and a set of photographic meditations for Advent.

Diane continues her practice of daily photographic meditations, and is a regular contributor to the ECVA blog Image & Spirit. Her work has been published in numerous newspapers and journals, and can be seen in local galleries on Bainbridge Island, WA.

E-mail: dwalker@ecva.org
Web Site: Contemplative Photography
Parish: Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island WA

View photographs by Diane Walker

C. Robin Janning
Editor-In-Chief

Robin confesses that the first image she loved was that of words on a simple printed page. Time passes, we grow, and our first loves evolve. Robin's simple printed pages have moved to the internet and various web spaces. After a career as a technical writer and editor, words have now entered into a partnership with color and line in the form of abstract art. "At its best" she says, "abstract art is called forth by a word, or words, from the soul, and goes on to call a word, or words, from the soul of the viewer."

Robin lives in Michigan with her husband Bill. She has one daughter, Eujenia, who lives in Denver with her husband Will and their several cats. Robin also serves as Registrar for The Artists Registry (ECVA).

E-mail: crjanning@twmi.rr.com
Web Site: gramercydigitaldiary.blogspot.com
Parish: St. John's Episcopal Church - Plymouth, MI

View artwork by C. Robin Janning