A rabbinical seminary in New York and the Phoenix Board of Rabbis are challenging the leader of a fledgling Ahwatukee Foothills Jewish congregation over his claims of ordination from that seminary. In its July 6 issues of the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, managing editor Leisah Woldoff reports on the controversy surrounding Cantor Victor Beck of Congregation Eitz Chaim, which opened in 2004. Seems the American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism in Baldwin, N.Y., has no record that Beck completed his rabbinical education even through he told the Jewish News a year ago he had been ordained there. Things became inconsistent when the seminary, which offers a nondenominational approach to Jewish studies, informed the Jewish news in a July 3 letter that Beck had been accepted into the rabbinic program but never official registered for classes as a student, nor to date has he ever paid for any classes. The schools dean of students, Michael Baum, said Beck sat on a few classes and was categorized as a non-matriculated student with the promise that his official paperwork would be completed and payment for classes would begin.Despite the seminarys contentions, Eitz Chaim Congregation, which has 25 member families, is standing behind Beck, according to Woldoffs story. Its president/treasurer Gerald Kramer told the paper, He received one type of certification and has completed the second level. He is our rabbi.Beck told the Jewish News that he chose not to continue his studies at American Seminary because of some personal problems with some of the people there. His Meet Our Rabbi link on the congregations web site (eitzchaimahwatukee.org) suggests seeks to explain his educationi: In his private time, Cantor Beck spent a good deal of time and effort continuing his own personal studies toward the goal of receiving S’micha and becoming a rabbi. After several years of study he finally was presented with an intermediary certificate during a moving ceremony proclaiming him as Rav V’Yisrael. He then continued his studies at Yeshivah Mesilat Yesharim - Rabbinical Academy of America and has just qualified for his second S’micha, with the injunction of Yoreh Yoreh. Beck insisted to the Jewish News that his first smicha (rabbinical ordination) came from the New York seminary and a second came from a yeshiva (a rabbinical college or seminary) based in Gilbert and headed by Rabbi David Roller. Roller told the paper a diploma for Beck was dated April 23, 2007, and that his seminary is not affiliated with or accredited by any other organization. Roller explained that he is a post- or non-denominational rabbi and that his seminary offers a unique individualized program for training of the rabbi. Rabbi Andrew Straus, spiritual leader of Tempe Emanuel of Tempe and rabbi board president, said his group contacted the New York seminary last fall to verify credentials when Beck applied for membership. But it wasnt until May that the seminary responded in a letter signed by five administrators. They said Beck was not a graduate, was issued a provisional status allowing him to function as a student rabbi under the schools supervision. But in the course of things, Beck failed to meet the requirements. Numerous attempts to reach him have gone unanswered. Thus the provisional status or teutah is no longer valid, the seminary explained.If Beck was finally ordained in April, why did he apply last fall to the Board of Rabbis for membership? Straus has never heard of the Gilbert-based yeshiva and the Internet shed no light on the Rabbinical Academy of America.

Our 34th wedding anniversary on Saturday is being upstaged by all the buzz about 7-7-07 and the luck that couples hope to enjoy by having THEIR wedding on that day this year. Little did we realize on our hot summer day in 1973 that we would one day celebrate an anniversary on a record-setting wedding day more than three decades hence. In my wallet all these years, I have carried a billfold-size photo of Patty and me taken that Saturday afternoon on the chancel of St. Pauls United Presbyterian Church in Washburn, Iowa. It was taken by our contracted photographer a woman who forgot the assignment and had to be called just before the wedding to get her to show up. She missed the first part of the wedding so we never had the up the aisle photos. But the old photo of us on the chancel, frayed now around the edges, always reminds me of the major, major milestone in our lives; that we once were young and trim; and that we have continued our faith traditions without so much as a break. (At the time I was on my first job as a farm editor/assistant state editor and columnist, a year out of graduate school. Weeks before we produced our first computerized word processing).It was such a simple church wedding. I doubt we spent more than $1,000 for everything. We were fortunate to have been married in another time when so many costly frills, gimmicks and gotta-have extras hadnt been invented.—-Here in the dead of summer, congregations scramble to fill regular volunteer jobs. At my church, we choir members are off for the summer, so we are recruited actively to be lay leaders; the elders in charge who handle service logistics; greeters at the door; ushers; and coffee-servers. This Sunday, I am the elder-in-charge. On July 22, Aug. 12 and Sept. 2, I have the duties as the lay leader. My wife and I are greeters on Aug. 5 and 26. So far. Its a thankless job to be coordinator of volunteers, someone charged with filling the perfunctory roles in doing church. Many folks beg off when asked, using such comments as I think my husband has something that weekend or we want to get away this summer and I dont want to take a day and then say I cant make it or maybe another time or let me check my calendar, and I will get back to you. But some volunteers will take everything pitched to them.Recruiters, of course, begin to know the dynamics and come to know whom they can reasonably ask and get a yes from, and who keeps putting them off. Then there are the unexpected no-shows on Sunday morning, when other people are pressed into duty spontaneously to fill gaps in the division of labor. Vacations of pastors and church members alike lead to much disconnect all summer long. So many are not around to hear or read announcements, to get in on meetings when key things are discussed or to be on hand for funerals of saints of the church. Church mailboxes assigned to staff and volunteers fill and stay full. Administrative assistants sit in their offices for hours without seeing a soul. Vacation Bible schools whiz by a big hiccup of activity on the long summer church calendar.Summertime, and the living is easy. On church campuses, folks are luxuriating in the slowdown and glad the July (and maybe August) meetings of committees and boards are canceled. All are taking a break before the busy-ness of church begins all over again.

Most of us will admit that college no matter how many years its been for us — caused us to rethink what we knew and believed. Besides learning vocations and professional skills, much of that schooling served to develop critical thinking. Such training may have caused us to cast serious doubts on our spiritual teachings in our upbringing.Its a clich that good church- and temple-going high schoolers head off to university campuses, and then rarely return to active religious lives. The June issue of the journal Social Forces carries findings of research done at the University of Texas at Austin. The study, termed Losing My Religion, actually found that those who graduate from college are more likely to maintain their religious beliefs and practices than those people who never attend college.Speculate for yourself the reasons for it. Those who never attend college are more apt to encounter a wide spectrum of economic and social stability challenges. Expected to earn markedly lower incomes, they are more likely to have problems affording good housing, may opt to have families before they can adequately support them and may be more mobile and perhaps less anchored to a faith community.The researchers said four-year college students and college students in general are the least likely to curb church attendance. Theyre least likely to say religion is less important in their lives or to completely disassociate from religion. Young adults who do not pursue a college degree are the most likely to abandon their faith, the report said.Many people assume college is public enemy number one for religion, said Mark Regnerus, assistant professor of sociology and author of the book, Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers. Young adults who dont experience college are far more likely to turn away from religion, he asserted. The author has a fascinating theory. Todays university students face less academic challenges to their core beliefs than in the past and may get out of there unscathed.The evolution of campus culture might explain the surprising results, Regnerus said. As more universities shift attention and resources from liberal arts to professional programs, students are increasingly sheltered from philosophical questions or debates that challenge their beliefs. When they are challenged, they can gain support from campus religious organizations and like-minded peers.Jerry Uecher, a graduate student and the studys lead author, asserts that campuses and their intellectual circles are more friendly to religion and spirituality. Religious students are encountering a much less hostile environment than in years past, Uecher said. Lillian Kwon, writing in the Christian Post, said many pastors and church and youth leaders have expressed concerns and fears that the younger generation is lost. that they fall away in the transition from high school to college and will never be active in their faith again. Some point to the dangers of secular worldviews that are imparted onto students when receiving a college education, Kwon writes. She quotes David Wheater, author of University of Destruction, who has called the secular college campuses the most radical aspect of society with many students losing their understanding as to what it means to be a Christian.Here are some numbers: The highest rate of decline in church attendance (76.2 percent) was for those who never attended college, That group expressed a diminished importance for religion (23.7 percent) and a disaffiliation from religion (20.3 percent). For those who at least got a bachelors degree the percentage was 59.2 percent attendance and 15 percent each for diminished importance and a disaffiliation from religion.Researchers determined that those least likely to drop out of their religions were Jews, Catholics, black Protestants, women, Southerners, young adults whose parents are still married and married young adults. They concluded that students themselves do not perceive a great deal of competition between higher education and faith. Moreover, many young Americans are so under socialized in their religious faith (before college begins) that they would have difficulty recognizing faith-challenging material when it appears.

We are midway through the vacation Bible season. Rarely are they held the week of the 4th of July, so they come before or after the national holiday. Typically church leaders and Christian educators debate where in the summer months to schedule their week of Bible schools. Some argue for having it soon after the schools dismiss for the summer. Catch the kids before families escape en masse for their vacations, they argue. Another option is mid-summer to catch families planning either early vacations or their last flings before school begins in early August. Then theres the alternative to hold it the last week in July or catching the first days of August. That way kids will maybe begin anew thinking about learning on their way to regular fall classes.As a child, I remember VBS mostly for the arts and crafts and it being like Sunday school taken outside and having more fun than the Sunday morning classes. But researchers have found that vacation Bible schools are diminishing as churches bail out of the tradition, due in part to it getting harder to recruit adult leaders. Among the factors are too many working mothers, high school and college kids finding summer jobs or cant-miss adventures thus making them unavailable to help, vacation conflicts and veteran teachers tired of leading Bible school year after year.In July 2005, The Barna Groups research found a 15 percent decline in the percentage of churches offering vacation Bible schools compared to counts taken in 1996. Of all churches, 69 percent were offering VBS a drop of 38,000 churches in that period. It remained strong in Southern Baptist churches and those mainline churches with at least 250 adults attending, along with predominantly black churches. America, of course, has a large number of small congregations with 60 or fewer adult members on the rolls, many in rural areas, and their childrens populations are too small to reach critical mass to offer a viable VBS.For many years, the Tribune has been publishing a list of all churches that have notified us about their vacation Bible schools, and we run that rundown weekly until each is over. The list lengthens and shortens each week. It is always fascinating to see which Christian publishers zany VBS packages are the most popular each summer. Companies like Gospel Light, Cokesbury, Concordia Publishing House; Cook Communications Ministries, Lifeway Christian Resources, or others come up with packages that must be biblically based, carry a theme that is contemporary and catchy and a full of a weeks worth of activities and gimmicks. Some of this years themes: Avalanche Ranch: A Wild Ride Through Gods World; Game Day Central: Where Heroes Are Made; Lift Off: Soaring to New Height; and Tumbleweed Gulch: A Rip-Roaring, Rootin-Tootin Wild West Adventure.There was a trend a decade ago for intergenerational VBS. Held in the evening, they were tailored for total families to show up and have activities together, or provide a class for adults while children were doing their own thing. We seem to be hearing about fewer of those now, suggesting they didnt attract enough adults. Vacation Bible schools traditionally serve as an outreach to the neighborhood, with non-member neighbors eager to get their kids into church for some fun and religious exposure, at least for that week. And some parents enroll their children in two or more successive VBS programs in area churches offering great and relatively inexpensive child care (plus some moral teachings) for three hours a day for a week. For parents, vacation Bible school gives them a brief vacation from the kids.