Fr. Vilar Named Acting Rector of Caribbean Seminary
Diocesan Press Service. July 21, 1975 [75248]
CAROLINA, Puerto Rico -- The trustees of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Caribbean elected the Rev. Jose E. Vilar acting rector for a one-year term beginning July 1st. Fr. Vilar, who is the first Latin American or Caribbean head of the institution, will exercise full authority on behalf of the trustees. He has been serving for the past three years as Director of Field Education as well as vicar of St. Thomas' Mission which worships in the Seminary chapel. In accepting the post, Fr. Vilar asked that he might continue with the pastoral leadership of the congregation of St. Thomas, with the assistance of a full-time deacon, insisting that it was his "involvement with such pastoral work that maintained the authenticity of his leadership of the Field Education program in enabling seminarians to develop pastoral abilities. "
Fr. Vilar, who was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico in 1937, the son of an Episcopal priest, graduated from Ripon College in Wisconsin in 1959 and from the Berkeley Divinity School three years later.
In the Diocese of Puerto Rico he has held parish and hospital chaplaincy responsibilities as well as serving as diocesan program director for two years.
Married in 1962 to Elizabeth Allen Holmes of Washington, D.C., Fr. Vilar has three children.
His concern for pastoral ministry has led him to complete four full quarters of clinical pastoral education, and his graduate biblical studies have equipped him to teach both Greek and Hebrew at the Seminary.
The retiring rector, the Rev. William P. Haugaard, has stated that "Fr. Vilar, as director of Field Education, building on the solid foundation of his predecessors, has imaginatively combined practical experiences in parish, in clinic, and in institutional settings, with disciplined theological reflection. I anticipate that his leadership of the Seminary will lead to a further integration of the so-called ' academic curriculum ' with a concern for pastoral ministry. "
The trustees of the Seminary also called for the implementation of a study committee to define the mission of the Seminary in preparation for the election of a permanent rector. Members of the committee include the Rt. Rev. Telesforo Isaac, chairman of the board of trustees and Bishop of the Dominican Republic; the Rt. Rev. Adrian Caceres, Bishop of Ecuador; the Rt. Rev. Edward M. Turner, Bishop of the Virgin Islands; the Rev. Professor Jose Luis Lana of the Seminary faculty; and Mr. Juan Marquez, a Seminarian. The study will be financed by a recent grant from the Board for Theological Education.
The Seminary is a founding and participating member of the Caribbean Center for Advanced Studies, an ecumenical and interdisciplinary educational complex, including in addition to the Seminary, the Roman Catholic Dominican Fathers of Puerto Rico, and the Psychological Institute of Puerto Rico. The academic work of the Seminary is carried out through the Center which has recently been accorded accreditation by the regional agency for Puerto Rico, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Former rector Haugaard will continue as Chancellor of the Centre and Professor of Church History. The Caribbean Seminary, in addition to the basic programs offered at the Center, conducts extension programs in collaboration with local leaders, for ministerial preparation and for continuing clerical education in St. Thomas and St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, in Ecuador, in Colombia, and in Nicaragua.