Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
summer|fall 2020
In this Issue Class of 2020 | 6
Campaign a Resounding Success | 8 Honor Roll of Donors | center
Your gift to Austin Seminary
is an investment in the future. MAIL:
ONLINE:
PHONE:
Please make checks payable to Austin Seminary and mail to: Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Office of Institutional Advancement 100 East 27th Street Austin, TX 78705
You can make your donation on our secure website: AustinSeminary.edu/support
For stock transfers or credit card contributions over the phone: Advancement Office, 512-404-4886
AUSTIN
AUSTIN PRESBYTERIAN
PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGI C AL
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
SEMINARY
summer | fall 2020
Volume 135 | Number 3
President
features
Board of Trustees
Campaign Builds Firm Foundation
Theodore J. Wardlaw G. Archer Frierson II, Chair James C. Allison Janice L. Bryant (MDiv’01, DMin’11) Kelley Cooper Cameron Claudia D. Carroll Katherine B. Cummings (MDiv’05) Thomas Christian Currie James DeMent (MDiv’17) Jill Duffield (DMin’13) Britta Martin Dukes (MDIv’05) Jackson Farrow Jr. Beth Blanton Flowers, MD Stephen Giles Jesús Juan González (MDiv’92) William Greenway Walter Harris Jr. John S. Hartman Keatan A. King Steve LeBlanc Sue B. McCoy Matthew Miller (MDiv’03) W. David Pardue Denise Nance Pierce (MATS’11) Mark B. Ramsey Stephen J. Rhodes Sharon Risher (MDiv’07) Conrad M. Rocha Lana E. Russell Lita Simpson John L. Van Osdall Teresa Welborn Elizabeth C. Williams Michael G. Wright
8
A Grateful Reflection
By Theodore J. Wardlaw
11 The College of Pastoral Leaders
8 “Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry” was more than the theme for Austin Seminary’s comprehensive campaign. Jackie Freeman (MDiv’20), a recipient of the Jean Brown Fellowship, prepared for a lifetime of ministry by weaving together knowledge gained in the classroom, the liturgy lab (shown), and the chapel with experience within the Seminary community and the congregational setting. Photo by Jody Horton.
8
By Melissa Wiginton
12 Faculty Chairs
By David Jensen
13 Student Fellowships
By Nancy Benson-Nicol
14 Student Housing
By Paige McCoy Smith
15 Library Renovation
By Randal Whittington
16 Faithful Friends
By Donna Scott
Center: The 2019-20 & Campaign Honor Rolls of Donors
Trustees Emeriti Lyndon Olson B. W. Payne Max R. Sherman Anne V. Stevenson Louis H. Zbinden
Austin Seminary Association (ASA) Board
Sheila Sidberry-Thomas (MDiv’14), President Melinda Hunt (CIM’16), Vice-President Josh Kerr (MDiv’14), Secretary Barrett Abernethy (MDiv’13), Past President Sarah Allen (MDiv’07) David Gambrell (MDiv’98) John Guthrie (MDiv’06) Carl McCormack (MDiv’95) Denise Odom (MDiv’99) Noemi Ortiz (MATS’15) Jean Reardon (MDiv’05) Valerie Sansing (MDiv’00) Rita Sims (DMin’15) Paul Sink (MDiv’00) Ayana Teter (MDiv’06) Michael Ulasewich (MDiv’05)
4 Editor
Randal Whittington
Contributors
Selina Aguirre Bridgett Green Nancy Benson-Nicol Usama Malik (MDiv’20) Gary Mathews Alison Riemersma Sharon Sandberg Mona Santandrea Kristy Sorensen
& departments 2 seminary & church 3 twenty-seventh & speedway 6 the class of 2020 18 faculty news & notes 20 alumni news & notes 21 live & learn
Windows is published three times each year by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Austin Seminary Windows Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 E. 27th St. Austin, TX 78705-5711 phone: 512-404-4808 e-mail: windows@austinseminary.edu AustinSeminary.edu ISSN 2056-0556; Non-profit bulk mail permit no. 2473
seminary church
from the president |
L President’s Schedule Sept. 19: Preach, Presbytery of Northern Kansas Sept. 20: Preach, Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis Oct. 4: Preach, Davidson College Presbyterian Church, Davidson, North Carolina Oct. 6: Virtual Visit, Austin Community Oct. 8: Virtual Visit, Houston Community Oct.15: Virtual Visit, Dallas / Fort Worth Community
The Thunderbirds soared through Austin skies in a flyover salute of coronavirus workers on May 12. Photo captured by Usama Malik.
ooking back over the 2019-2020 academic year, I reflect upon the difference between its beginning and its ending. It began with the enthusiasm and excitement and energy with which we tend to greet any new fall semester. The Summer/Fall 2019 and Winter 2020 issues of Windows celebrated both the 2019 graduating class and the new students making their entrance into the fall semester. In the earlier issue, my annual Charge to the Graduating Class was presented, and in the later issue there was a story about Austin Seminary alumna Cindy Kohlman (MDiv’99), then the co-moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She was to have been the Commencement Preacher at the end of the academic year in spring 2020. She served until what would have been this summer’s General Assembly gathering in Baltimore. Who could have known how our world would change in March of this year as we became aware of the ravages of the coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19? Now, in the first third of summer as I write these words, that General Assembly is being conducted virtually, and the Commencement ceremony expected in early May 2020 has been postponed to late January 2021 (and yes, Cindy Kohlman will still be able to preach). In early March, our world turned upside down. COVID-19’s ferocity sent us scrambling into the mode of “sheltering-in-place” (a hard and punishing “lockdown”) and laid bare the vulnerabilities of our world’s economies. It killed many people, and is still doing so. Some of us know some of their names. The virus also played a decisive role in pulling the scabs off simmering racism and police violence and the inequities that have long existed between the rich and the poor. It created a profoundly different and often exhausting learning environment for campuses everywhere, including ours. Its monotony dulled our energies and shriveled our souls and exacerbated our anger. And those of us consigned to our homes and privileged enough to stay inside were often bored-to-death, yes, but were also the lucky ones. Those less privileged—those who couldn’t afford to stay inside but had to continue to work low-paying jobs in order to feed their families—faced daily, and still do, the gambles of putting their lives in the virus’s path. If you didn’t know their plight before the pandemic, you know it now. Again, our world turned upside down. And so did our Seminary. But we are still here, still comparatively fortunate. We are opening virtually, for the most part, in the fall. We are welcoming a total of some seventy-plus entering students in all of our degree programs. We are watching the data on a daily basis—data that will help us navigate a roadmap that can shift quickly. Our sights are set on that moment, however near or distant, when this will be over and something new and different will emerge. Meanwhile, again, we are still here, by the grace of God, and we are still eager to embody God’s purposes by preparing new leaders for service in and beyond the church.
Faithfully yours,
2 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Theodore J. Wardlaw President
twenty-seventh speedway
Dean outlines plan for the fall semester
community notes |
D
Alumna and board member Jill Duffield (DMin’13), received the Award of Excellence for her book, Lectionary Reflections: Cycle A from the Associated Church Press 2019 Best of the Church Press. The Presbyterian Outlook, for which Duffield is editor, received top honors in several categories including an Award of Merit for the “Benedictory” columns written by Austin Seminary Professor Cynthia Rigby.
ue to the global pandemic, Austin Seminary cancelled classes on March 13; within a week, the Seminary faculty quickly and creatively adapted to distance learning and online teaching resources. These learning technologies—and the strong commitment of faculty and students—allowed us to maintain our focus on outstanding theological education and the importance of a community of learners. In these uncertain times, all of us have wondered how the 2020-21 academic year will be different from years past and how we might foster theological learning in community while adhering to prudent standards of public health during a global pandemic. In late June, Academic Dean David Jensen announced the plan for the fall semester for master’s-level degree programs conducted on the Seminary campus: • All larger courses (fifteen students or more) will be conducted online for the duration of the fall semester. • Instructors of smaller courses (fourteen students or fewer) will have the option of hosting regular or occasional face-to-face sessions during the regularly scheduled hours of these courses. These sessions are wholly at the discretion of the instructor. If a faculty member chooses to exercise this option, all appropriate guidelines for public health will be followed. Those include: 1) only the largest classrooms and outdoor spaces will be used, ensuring six feet of social distancing; 2) masks will be required; 3) classrooms will undergo regular disinfecting. • If a faculty member chooses to exercise the face-to-face option outlined above, s/he will also need to provide an analogous online option for those students who choose not to participate in face-to-face learning. This means that students can opt for a fully online fall semester, if they wish. “Guided by public health recommendations,” says Jensen, “the Seminary administration will monitor the data surrounding the coronavirus in the months ahead. If that situation worsens, we may have to rescind the face-to-face option outlined above or more strictly limit the numbers of students who can gather in a classroom. Whatever the shape of the semester ahead, we can trust that theological education at Austin Seminary will continue in service to the church and the world.” v
In June, the 1970s wing of the Stitt Library was removed revealing beautiful Gothic windows which will be preserved in the new addition.
Penny Baker will become the program coordinator in the Office of Ministerial Formation and Advanced Studies. She follows in the footsteps of Brenda Osbon who retires this year after eleven years at Austin Seminary. Monica Tornoe is the new director of Latinx Learning. Working out of both Education Beyond the Walls and Academic Affairs, she will oversee programs such as the Spanish-language Certificate in Ministry and Certificate in Christian Leadership for Hispanic Women. Tornoe has been instrumental in promoting the Seminary’s outreach to Latinx learners. The Alice Phiri Award, established by the student body in 2018 to honor the memory of the wife of Arnold Phiri (MATS’16) of Malawi, was created to recognize a student who “goes above and beyond to help another person or persons.” Congratulations to Usama Malik (MDiv’20) and Rachel Watson who received the 2020 Phiri Award. Lex Allum (MDiv’20) received the 2020 Chidester Preaching Award, established by the First Presbyterian Church of Malvern, Arkansas, to recognize a graduating senior with the greatest potential in the area of preaching. She was chosen by the homiletics faculty. See page 7 for a list of other graduating seniors who were honored with special awards voted on by the faculty. v
Summer | Fall 2020 | 3
Austin Seminary students in the time of pandemic In addition to learning quickly to navigate online classes and ZOOM worship, students have learned lessons not found in the regularly scheduled spring curriculum.
“
A wise person once said, “It is hard to be depressed when I’m thankful.” In times like these, it is hard to be thankful. My wife lost her job at the beginning of COVID-19. Things have been hard on us financially, spiritually, emotionally, etc. Yet, despite our nation’s hospitals being overwhelmed, I have to appreciate just how sheltered from this virus we have been. The zip code where the seminary resides has one of the lowest infection rates in all of Travis County, despite being smack-dab in the middle of Austin. As well, the zip code where my essential work takes place has only seen 47 total cases since the pandemic began! I am incredibly grateful that, despite so much uncertainty and despair around us, God has placed me in a (relatively) safe place to work and live. – Luke Donahue
“
{
I have been fortunate enough to volunteer at The Welcome#Table at St. James Episcopal Church. This is a food distribution program for persons/families unable to leave their homes to grocery shop, due to their underlying health issues. It has been very rewarding to know I was able to contribute to someone’s quality of life during this crazy COVID-19 season. Along the way I’ve met some beautiful humans dedicated to helping those who are not able to help themselves. I also had the good fortune to work alongside Seminary of the Southwest senior Addie Tyler! – Karen Sprouse (at left)
Photo by Usama Malik
In June, some members of the Seminary community joined protest marches against police brutality; others assembled this memorial in front of Shelton Chapel in remembrance of Black lives tragically taken. 4 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
twenty-seventh speedway The Class of 2019 When Professor Jen Lord’s scheduled travel study pilgrimage to Spain was converted to a directed study over the summer, student Aiden Diaz (right) decided he would walk from campus to the Texas Capitol every day for two and a half weeks, encompassing the freedom days of Juneteenth (June 19) and July 4. He invited people to join him and engage in conversations about racial inequality, being allies, and related topics.
“
{ “
Dr. Lord’s directed study class for those who would have been walking the Camino de Santiago this summer included a group of us who decided to embody walking in various locations (Barton Creek Greenbelt, Enchanted Rock SNA, and the NPS Missions Trail in San Antonio) as part of our project. It has been an incredible opportunity for transformation and building community. My photos represent three of the elements we tried to incorporate in each walk—fellowship, a meal, and always the open trail. Great places, great people, great experience. – Leslie Sinclair-Worley (shown here behind student Christy Martin)
Since the beginning of the pandemic, some of the students and staff have made 669 masks, and we have enough supplies for 491 more. We have donated to our campus including alumni/DMins/faculty/staff, local hospitals, homeless ministries, and friends/family of students. Everything has been funded through our student group budget, donations from other student groups, and donations from individual recipients. All of this started by using fabric from my grandma’s collection, which I inherited. She used to say, “She who dies with the most fabric wins.” Now, I keep thinking that she who dies with the most fabric saves lives. My grandma was a quilter, and every time she gave a quilt, she would tell the recipient that the quilt wasn’t made to be hung on the wall. It was made to be used—for warmth, for comfort, to feel surrounded by love. As I see her fabric walking around campus, it feels like I’m watching a moving quilt, a patchwork of love for one another. – Kimberlee Runnion
{ Summer | Fall 2020 | 5
Master of Divinity Graduate, denomination, and future plans
Lex Allum
PC(USA), Detroit Presbytery Pastoral Resident, Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana
Jean Corbitt
Sheth LaRue
Sonja Miller
PC(USA), Pueblo Presbytery Pastor, First Prebsyterian Church, Aurora, Missouri
PC(USA), Mission Presbytery Outreach and Faith Director, Texas Freedom Network, Austin, Texas
Chelsea May Law
Wilson Nicholson IV
PC(USA), Arkansas Presbytery Pastoral Resident, Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas
PC(USA), Mission Presbytery Pulpit supply while completing ordination requirements
PC(USA), Grace Presbytery Seeking a call
Curt Davis
Lee Legault
PC(USA), National Capital Presbytery Austin Seminary Pastoral Resident, St. Philip Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas
UMC, Rio Texas Conference Associate Pastor of Community Engagement & Program Development, Westlake United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas
Nick Demuynck
PC(USA), Salem Presbytery Associate Pastor, Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina
Savannah Caccamo Demuynck PC(USA), Salem Presbytery Pastoral Resident, Myers Park Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, North Carolina
Jackie Freeman
UMC, Rio Texas Conference Pastor, First United Methodist Church and Rabke United Methodist Church, Cuero, Texas
Unitarian Universalist, Association of Congregations, Southwest Region Chaplain Resident, Dell Seton Medical Center, Austin, Texas
Kallie Pitcock
Susan Shaw-Meadow
Piper Madison
PC(USA), Mission Presbytery Completing ordination requirements
Usama Malik
UMC, Rio Texas Conference Associate Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas
PC(USA), Mission Presbytery Discerning next steps
Muslim Program Coordinator, Student Affairs and Vocation, Austin Seminary
Brendan McLean
PC(USA), East Iowa Presbytery Austin Seminary Pastoral Resident, First Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, Texas
Jason Surdy
Carrie Winebrenner
PC(USA), Mission Presbytery Pastoral Resident, First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Taylor McLean
PC(USA), Presbytery of Eastern Virginia Searching for work in policy or mitigation fields; youth minister at Northwest Hills United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas
Please join us on
January 27, 2021 to celebrate the graduation of the
Class of 2020
at University Presbyterian Church* following MidWinter Lectures. The Reverend Cindy Kohlman (MDiv’99), co-moderator of the PC(USA) 223rd General Assembly, will be the guest speaker. * Dependent, of course, on the course of the global pandemic. 6 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
The Class of 2020 Master of Arts in Youth Ministry Graduate, denomination, and future plans
Katie Brown
Master of Arts (Theological Studies) Graduate, denomination, and future plans
Debbie Beares
No church affiliation; Discerning call
PC(USA); Youth Minister, St. John the Divine, Houston, Texas
Courtney Houston
Kara Jarzombek Dawson
Dane Jones
UMC; Discerning call
UMC; Discerning call
PC(USA); Discerning call
Shaira Ronolo
United Church of Christ, Philippines Finishing MDiv at Silliman University Divinity School, Philippines
Joseph Soko
Reformed Church of Zambia; Pastor, Chalumbe Congregation, Reformed Church
Garret Gottlob
UMC; Youth Director, Lighthouse Fellowship United Methodist Church, Fort Worth,Texas
Jey Jones
UMC; Discerning call
Jeremiah Law
UMC; Youth Pastor, The Foundry Church, Houston, Texas
Christina Moore
PC(USA); Discerning call
Michael Niswander
2020 Graduate Awards
UMC; Discerning call
Ryan Nordon
Donald Capps Award in Pastoral Care Carrie Winebrenner
Brittany Wright
Chidester Preaching Award Lex Allum
Non Denominational; CPE Residency, UT Southwestern Medical Center UMC; Youth Director, First Rowlett United Methodist Church, Rowlett, Texas
Doctor of Ministry Graduate, position, and title of doctoral project
Lisa Patterson
Associate Pastor, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton, Texas “Thanksgiving and Intercession: Prayers for the People of God”
James Roberts
Senior Pastor, Oak Hill United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas “Thus, Saith the Lord?”
Dawn Northcutt Rosignol
Senior Minister, Monte Vista Christian Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico “Maintaining Spiritual Health in the Trenches of Ministry”
Rachel Henderlite Award Chelsea May Law Hendrick-Smith Award for Mission & Evangelism Kallie Pitcock Ethel Lance Human & Civil Rights Award Savannah Caccamo Demuynck Carl Kilborn Book Award Susan Shaw-Meadow Charles L. King Preaching Award Savannah Caccamo Demuynck Max Sherman & Barbara Jordan Fellowship Sonja Miller John B. Spragens Award Sheth LaRue Summer | Fall 2020 | 7
A Grateful Reflection COLLEGE OF
3
FACULTY CHAIRS
PASTORAL LEADERS
NEW STUDENT APARTMENTS
Promise Practice WEAVING
INTO MINISTRY
THE CAMPAIGN FOR AUSTIN PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
9
STUDENT LEARNING
FELLOWSHIPS
& INFORMATION
CENTER 8 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
2
INTERNATIONAL
FELLOWSHIPS
Upon a Comprehensive Campaign
I
It was indeed comprehensive. That large
By Theodore J. Wardlaw
word “comprehensive” is one of the first things that struck me, so many years ago now, when so many of us began putting words around an ambitious set of goals that we imagined would change the course of Austin Seminary. It wasn’t simply a “capital campaign”—somehow a less ambitious description, to me at least—but a “comprehensive campaign.” It wasn’t just the dream of raising a potful of money to add to our endowment; it was a purposeful blueprint that would change the face of the campus, enhance the impact of the faculty, enrich continuing education programs, and raise the overall academic achievement of the student body. The dream inviting our attention, energy, and benevolence was, well, comprehensive. It was also audacious—particularly so in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008-09, the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression of 1928-29. I had been in the President’s Office since 2002. In that time, I had worked with so many others to complete the last third of the Centennial Campaign, and then to raise the $10,000,000 for the John and Nancy Anderson House. That four-story apartment building for students was completed in 2009. No one would have blamed us if we had decided to take a deep breath, rest on our laurels, and set aside audacious dreams for the future. But our Office of Institutional Advancement, our Campaign Planning Committee of the Board, and our board members generally considered were composed of bold and visionary people. I remember sitting in a meeting with the first iteration of the planning committee for our next campaign. We were in Room 204 of the McCord Center as someone with a magic marker scribbled on a big whiteboard the dreamy results of a campaign survey we had completed. The entire ecosystem of the Seminary had been invited to suggest initiatives The Reverend Dr. Theodore J. Wardlaw has been president and professor of homiletics of Austin Seminary since 2002. Summer | Fall 2020 | 9
for the next campaign, and now we were tallying up the total dollar-figure for those initiatives—a number just over $100 million. Just a few years after the Centennial Campaign had raised $25 million—then the largest campaign ever in the Seminary’s history—we were looking at a potential figure four times that amount! We had to pare down, of course, and we did. What emerged from that meeting was a consensus that our next campaign should have five specific initiatives: (1) three new distinguished faculty chairs, (2) nine new full-ride merit fellowships and two new international fellowships, (3) the endowment of the College of Pastoral Leaders—a cohort-based program of continuing education, (4) the construction of a second four-story apartment building as a “twin” to sit next to Anderson House, and (5) the renovation and expansion of the Stitt Library. Our goal would be a relatively prudent $44 million, but still the largest goal we had ever embraced. That meeting, by the way, was maybe a year after the impact of the Great Recession. Its conclusion launched first the planning and then the execution of what became a ten-year campaign. The theme “Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry” was designed to be a profound emblem of Austin Seminary’s enduring commitments. As a seminary defined since its very beginning by its ecclesial fidelity to the church—and in this regard not simply fashioned as a graduate school of religion—the words “practice” and “ministry” are deeply intentional. Moreover, the word “promise” signals a profound hope we have in God’s ongoing commitment to the life of the church. We embrace this hope stubbornly and ferociously— particularly in a time in which it is often fashionable, even in seminaries, for scholars and leaders to wonder how long it will be before the church as we know it goes out of business. Austin Seminary, though, is not preoccupied with that topic of conversation, and the most recent proof of this is this campaign itself. Here in the wake of the campaign’s successful conclusion, in which we ended up raising just a little less than fifty million dollars, it is a pleasure to survey its results. Because of new merit fellowships, some thirty percent of Austin’s master’s-degree recipients (some of whom are international students) are meritorious fellowship recipients. This raises the overall academic achievement of the student body and minimizes their indebtedness in postseminary years. Moreover, with a total of fourteen out of 10 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
nineteen faculty positions now endowed, we are better able to attract the finest young faculty members and retain them for years to come. Also, pastors and other religious leaders are now able—because of a fully endowed continuing education program which will live in perpetuity—to form themselves into self-designed cohorts through which they can enrich and further empower their ministries. And because of this campaign’s deeper investment in residential formation, students enrolling at Austin can live in beautiful new apartments on campus and thus enjoy the blessing of living in community even as they learn in community in order to serve in communities. Finally, it is a joy to witness the construction, going on now, of an enlarged and modernized learning and information center which, when completed, will offer collaborative learning spaces as well as individual spaces. It will be a place that reflects the impact of the latest learning technology. Near five o’clock on Friday, December 20, 2019— the very last day of the Fall semester and on the cusp of Christmas break—we received a pledge commitment that enabled us finally to claim a one million-dollar challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation of Midland, Texas, and thus to secure the complete funding of the last of our five initiatives, the Learning and Information Center. Our deadline for claiming the Mabee Challenge was only days away. It was a complete godsend for a weary campaign team. Our “Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry” comprehensive campaign was successfully completed. Now, as I write these words, we are in the midst of another crisis—a medical one, a financial one, a spiritual one—that is perhaps the biggest crisis in most of our lifetimes. We now can observe that our comprehensive campaign, by sheer coincidence, plopped itself between two unspeakable crises in our national and global history. I dare not draw any conclusions from this coincidence, except to say that the church and its witness remains fundamentally important in our time, just as it has since the very first Easter. And because of how the seminaries—seminaries like this one—sustain the church, I give thanks to God for all of those who have joyfully and generously supported Austin Seminary in this most recent comprehensive campaign. Their names are listed in this issue of Windows, and their impact will be felt for generations to come. v
THE COLLEGE OF PASTORAL LEADERS Endowed by Robert Priddy
By Melissa Wiginton
U
nique among the initiatives of the Weaving Promise and Practice for Ministry campaign, the College of Pastoral Leaders (CPL) serves those already in ministry. Graduates leave seminary with zeal for ministry; for most of them, zeal inevitably wanes as they hit hard, dry spaces, or it is sapped by overcommitted, crazy-busy lives. For all the vocation’s joys, it can be hard and often lonely to do the work of ministry over a lifetime. CPL tangibly responds to pastors’ needs for revival. The College of Pastoral Leaders operates through a grant program for sustaining clergy. Each year, CPL offers small groups of practicing clergy financial awards which enable them to refill the reservoirs of energy needed for ministry. The $1.3 million campaign gift by Robert Priddy of Wichita Falls established an endowment to permanently sustain the program. Currently, Austin Seminary is able annually to award six grants of $10,000 each to be used over a two-year period. A committee of administrators and practicing clergy selects the recipient groups from a pool of competitive applications. The possibilities for renewal activities stretch as far as the pastoral imaginations of clergy. CPL’s distinction lies in its trust of pastors to structure the gift of time and money to meet their most pressing needs for vitality. Unlike a lectionary study group or a training for skills devel-
opment, CPL encourages pastors to answer the vocational question: What makes more of you? Or, more simply, What makes you come alive, and who do you need with you to make this happen? The responses from the more than 800 pastors who have received grants range widely. Clergy members self organize in groups of four to six members, some drawing from relationships established in seminary and others pulling together colleagues with similar contexts or core questions for ministry. They gather together for remarkable pursuits: Quarterly camping retreats in the wilderness. Trying what they have never done before, so they remember how to be brave. Immersion in arts, from collage to cut glass to dance to personal writing to poetry in preaching. Monthly one-day retreats in the city with no cell phones or internet. Exquisite meals they couldn’t afford without the funds. Places visited they’ve longed to see. Always they stay connected through regular communication, shared joys and difficulties, reflection and study. The beauty of this gift shines in the lives of pastors and chaplains from diverse denominations, races, and geographical locations—bringing light from Austin Seminary to illumine the lives of the churches’ servant leaders. On behalf of the many ministers who have found their way back to vitality through the College of Pastoral Leaders, we are profoundly grateful. v
Melissa Wiginton is vice president for Education Beyond the Walls, which administers the College of Pastoral Leaders grant program. The photograph is of the “And Now What?” CPL cohort, taken in March on their visit to the VisArts pottery studio in Rockville, Maryland; from left: Rev. Barbara McKenzie, Rev. Ramonia Lee, Rev. Gloria Grant, and Rev. Diane Hugger. Summer | Fall 2020 | 11
FACULTY CHAIRS The Clarence N. and Betty B. Frierson Distinguished Chair of Reformed Theology The Blair R. Monie Distinguished Chair of Homiletics The Edward D. Vickery Sr. Distinguished Chair of Christian Ethics
By David Jensen
O
ne common way of understanding faculty chairs is that they bestow honor: they signify status after a faculty member has established a strong record of teaching, research, and publication. Faculty chairs, in this understanding, convey gravitas, prestige, and a degree of authority gained after laboring in one’s academic discipline. When faculty members teach, speak, or write “from the chair,” they ought to be taken seriously. This understanding of faculty chairs is connected—however loosely—to the Latin phrase “ex cathedra” (literally “from the chair”) commonly used to describe papal authority. When professors or popes speak from the chair, others should listen. There is much to be appreciated in this understanding of faculty chairs: they ought to signify honor earned after years of service; they ought to convey a degree of expertise and authority in one’s discipline. But these characteristics are not the primary marks of a faculty chair at Austin Seminary. Instead, faculty chairs at Austin prize investment and conversation. First, a faculty chair signals the church’s and the Seminary’s investment in a field of study essential for ministry. We live in an age when seminaries are experiencing acute financial challenges to their ongoing viability. If seminaries in the past could rely on steady streams of support from their respective denominations, those days have long since passed. In the absence of this support, seminaries turn to: 1) increased tuition revenue;
or, 2) increased endowment revenue. The problem with the first option is that it makes the cost of theological education fall disproportionately on students who must borrow heavily to prepare for a career that is not particularly lucrative. Saddled by debt, many seminary graduates are forced to limit their vocational paths to those options that allow them to pay off their loans. Austin Seminary’s comprehensive campaign, which increased financial aid for students, also increased its endowment by adding faculty chairs. These chairs represent an investment on three levels: First, they are an investment in a theological discipline. The establishment of a chair means that a subject—preaching, ethics, or theology—becomes enshrined in the Seminary’s educational program in perpetuity. The investment stakes a claim that one cannot be a good pastor without a solid grounding in classic disciplines. Second, the chair represents an investment in faculty who are assured compensation and a place where their gifts can flourish. Good teachers make all the difference; they convey the passion of years of study, reminding us that theological education is not possible without people called to teach. Finally, a faculty chair is also an investment in students: it demonstrates that the burden of financing seminary education is shared in the community of faith and not shouldered primarily by those with
Continued on page 17
Dr. David Jensen is academic dean and professor in the Clarence N. and Betty B. Frierson Distinguished Chair of Reformed Theology. The photo is of the first Frierson Seminar in 2014, which brought scholars from across the globe to the Austin Seminary campus. 12 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS The Mert and Betty Cooper Fellowship The Crawley Family Fellowship The Grace Presbytery Fellowship The Clifford J. and Mary K. Grum Fellowship The Betty Wilson Jeffrey Fellowship The Robert W.B. and Shirley Johnston Fellowship The Robert W.B. and Shirley Johnston International Student Fellowship The New Covenant International Fellowship The Trull-Herlin Family Fellowship The Elizabeth Currie Williams Fellowship The Hugh H. and Nancy T. Williamson Fellowship
By Nancy Benson-Nicol
I
’m feeling so blessed to be in Austin, Texas, to study … I can’t explain my gratitude enough,” exclaims Kimberly Mendoza Ramos, a candidate for the MDiv degree and recipient of the Mert and Betty Cooper Fellowship, during an online video call with donors Mert and Betty. “[The fellowship] opened so many doors … it is a testament to God’s grace through it all.” Though she was reared in southern California, Kimberly was born in Henderson, Nevada, where her parents were instrumental in planting the First Filipino-American Presbyterian Church of Southern Nevada. Her father encouraged a teenaged Kimberly to consider preparation for ministry at Austin Seminary after he and their pastor returned from an Asian-Pacific church conference held at the Seminary. Kimberly recalls that he “raved about how great the professors were, how great the campus was, how friendly everyone was.” Years later, her undergraduate professors at Azusa-Pacific University would echo her father’s sentiments. As Kimberly prayed for discernment, she recognized the voice of God revealing to her “the value of a quiet walk with the Lord.” Positioned on a “peacefully quiet campus,
even next to all that is UT [The University of Texas at Austin],” Austin Seminary is, for her, the perfect fit. She adds, “everybody is so welcoming … we’re listening to God’s voice together, in community.” As for future plans? Blissfully, she shares her life with her new spouse, Kayne Ramos. The two were married on campus in the McCoy House Meditation Garden on April 24. (As Kayne now supports Kimberly in her seminary journey, he contemplates future ministry in The United Methodist Church.) Kimberly is on the path to enrolling as an Inquirer in the Presbytery of Nevada. Her current Supervised Practice in Ministry (SPM) internship is with Next Step Ministries, an organization that equips youth for mission partnerships. Her passion for this ministry leads her to consider writing curriculum for youth groups and churches. Teaching in the university setting compels her, along with her sense of God calling her to return to Henderson to serve her home church. Of the possibilities, she marvels, “There’s just SO MUCH!” Mert and Betty Cooper reside in the Texas panhan-
Continued on page 17
The Reverend Nancy Benson-Nicol is the development officer for greater Texas and New Mexico. The photo is of merit scholar Kimberly Mendoza and her husband, Kayne, at their wedding in the Maclay Meditation Garden in May. Summer | Fall 2020 | 13
STUDENT HOUSING Honoring John (MDiv’63) and Sue McCoy “Then Jesus asked, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched on its branches.’” – Luke 13:18
By Paige McCoy Smith
I
t was called an “efficiency.” By efficiency—I mean this apartment was barely 500 square feet, where a single room served as the lead role in a one-act play: kitchen, dining room, living room, and study—all in one. The bedroom was large enough to force a double bed into an envelopesized area only inches wider than the mattress. The bathroom housed the essentials including a half-bathtub. You heard that right. It was a standard-size bathtub that was literally cut in half, in which the bather had to squeeze into a space roughly the size allotted to a fan in the stands of a UT playoff football game. It was tight. But we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves. My father, John McCoy, met my mother, Sue, in college on a blind date, and he continued the courtship by picking her up from the Scottish Rite Dormitory, in his ‘57 Convertible T-Bird, and taking her next door to …. The Seminary Library. What a romantic! Still, it was a love story—one for the ages. It was the beginning of a union that joined them at the altar where a young bride and groom accepted their vows and identified their faith as a basis for their marriage: For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health—
until death do they part. And death parted them, after 56 years of marriage, on August 30, 2015, with the untimely passing of my beloved father. Yet it started with a foundation inside the blueprint of a modest space—too small to hold a coffee table, but large enough to contain their love. It housed a union and planted a seed that began on the steps of Austin Seminary and continued into a lifelong pursuit of serving God. Another seed from that union has now flourished into Austin Seminary’s newest student apartments, built on the same ground as my parents’ first home. When the Seminary decided to name the building The John and Sue McCoy House, friends near and far—who had themselves been touched by our parents’ lives and ministries— stepped forth, in love, to contribute to the fundraising. My father did not survive to see the dedication of McCoy House. Yet, he would be so grateful to those who supported a ministry that began in a tiny apartment more than fifty years ago and expanded into a glorious building on the Holy Grounds of an institution committed to sharing the “Good News” and expanding the arms of God. v
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
Paige McCoy Smith, writing on behalf of her family, is the youngest of the three children of John and Sue McCoy for whom the newest student housing was named. The photo was taken of members of her extended family the day McCoy House was dedicated in 2017. 14 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
LIBRARY RENOVATION The Mary and Robert J. Wright Learning and Information Center By Randal Whittington
T
wenty-first century learning looks vastly different from the twentieth-century, postwar period when Austin Seminary’s Stitt Library was built—with its isolated metal study carrels and sparse electrical outlets. Therefore, plans to modernize Stitt Library became the final priority of the Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry campaign. While maintaining the library’s essential Gothic-inspired beauty, plans include renovating the original 1950s building by modernizing it with updated technology and a media lab to enhance digital learning. Today, the forty-year-old addition has been razed, and construction has begun on an open and spacious wing that features adaptable study spaces and what will become the largest gathering spot on campus. When completed in 2021, The Mary and Robert J. Wright Learning and Information Center will be the academic hub of the Austin Seminary campus. Included in the renovation are long-overdue asbestos remediations; a new “Information Commons” with a ground-level entrance to communicate hospitality to patrons of all abilities; a system for humidity control that will extend the life span of books and historical collections; a new roof, ensuring that library resources are housed without risk to the collection; and upgraded wiring and added capacity that will greatly improve wi-fi access while providing adequate plugs for devices. All of these changes will enhance learning by providing more opportunities for collaborative work, improved spaces for archival material, better support for personal technology, and spaces for more targeted instruction, especially in the area of digital resources. Cassandra Carr, former Austin Seminary Board Chair and vice-chair of the campaign, made the lead gift for the project in 2012, and in 2018 Mary and Bob Wright along with Stacey and Mike Wright pledged $4 million toward the project. During 2019, aided by a 12-month,
$1 million challenge grant issued by the Mabee Foundation, President Ted Wardlaw and Vice President Donna Scott ramped up efforts to secure funds to complete the campaign. New and faithful donors stepped forward to offer support, including a $1 million gift from the Perot Family Foundation, a collective $1 million from the Frierson brothers of Shreveport, Louisiana, and a $2 million gift made to honor the memory of stalwart Presbyterian Helen Walton. And, in an outpouring of love and support by its graduates, alumni pledged more than $500,000 for the Digital Education Center, by far the largest sum ever raised by the alumni association. Once completed, the center will be dedicated in memory of James Lee (MDiv’00). “The Learning and Information Center was the component of the campaign that spoke to me,” said Cassandra Carr. “With it we are creating a place that will be a central hub of the whole campus where people will come together—faculty, students, people who are attending retreats, church practitioners—and be a community. I have come to believe that the way I can impact the world positively with what I have to contribute is by making sure we have wonderful ministers available in the church.” Austin Seminary takes seriously its mission to equip leaders for Christian service in the world. This project encompasses an environment to encourage creativity and inspire dialogue among diverse groups: faculty, visiting scholars and ministers, residential and commuter students, and the local and global community. The Wright Learning and Information Center is a touchstone of Austin Seminary’s expanding view of theological education expressed through this campaign, emerging from a tradition of training pastors, inspired by the potential of technology to connect the wider church, and responding with the flexibility to meet the changing needs of Christian leaders and learners. v
Randal Whittington is Austin Seminary’s director of communications and the editor of Windows. The photo was taken at the “groundbreaking” in February for the renovation of Stitt Library; pictured are Library Director Timothy Lincoln and ASA officers Sheila Sidberry-Thomas and Barrett Abernethy. Summer | Fall 2020 | 15
The special contribution of long-time friends By Donna Scott
R
elationships are what make Austin Seminary a community, and the number and depth of relationships the school has developed and nurtured over its 118 years are overwhelming. Our circle of friends and supporters is not just wide—it is deep—and some relationships span generations: the Herlin family, the Frierson family, and of course, the Currie family, just to name a few. Liz Currie Williams demonstrated the depth of her relationship with Austin Seminary by supporting multiple priorities of the Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry campaign. Early on in the campaign, Williams established an endowed student fellowship; her love of John McCoy was memorialized with a gift to The John and Sue McCoy House; and there will be a space in the Wright Learning and Information Center that bears witness to her ongoing and generous support of that project. The Currie family has contributed to Austin Seminary in so many ways and Liz Williams continues the legacy through her gifts of leadership as a trustee and her financial support toward the mission and future of the school. “I have been involved with Austin Seminary for a big chunk of my adult life,” she says. “My connections, in fact, go back to my infancy when I was baptized in the chapel when it was brand new. My family ties to Austin Seminary pulled at me when I was asked to join the board of trustees in the mid-1990s. As I have come to know the Seminary over the years, my involvement and commit-
ment has deepened. I strongly believe that Christ’s church will require thoughtful, intelligent, winsome leaders for years to come, and by supporting Austin Seminary, I hope to help fill that great need beyond my own lifetime.” The Mabee family, through the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, has also supported the Seminary over multiple generations and projects. In addition to health and humanitarian concerns, the foundation focuses its grant making to support “bricks and mortar” projects in the fields of education and religion in several states including Texas. The Mabee Foundation has been instrumental in helping Austin Seminary complete the funding of several buildings around campus with challenge grants that inspired others to give. Look around and you will notice plaques of acknowledgement and gratitude for the Mabee Foundation on McCord Community Center, the John and Nancy Anderson House, the John and Sue McCoy House, and the soon to be Mary and Robert J. Wright Learning and Information Center. “Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary represents many characteristics that are important to the Mabee Foundation,” says Executive Director Mike Goeke, “including an important mission, a committed and growing support base, and fine, capable leadership. It has been our pleasure to partner with Austin Seminary and, we hope, to help it continue to thrive for years to come.” v
Donna Scott is vice president in the Office of Institutional Advancement at Austin Seminary and campaign director for Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry: The Campaign for Austin Seminary. The picture is of Liz Williams, taken in Shelton Chapel where she was baptized. The Currie family story has been interwoven into Austin Seminary’s for generations. To see a complete list of donors to the Weaving Promise and Practice into Ministry campaign, see the Honor Roll of Donors in the center section of this magazine. 16 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
FACULTY CHAIRS Continued from page 12 the least to spare. Faithful establishment of faculty chairs expands possibilities for seminary graduates who can follow their true callings and not only the path with the highest salary. Faculty chairs at Austin Seminary also signify the importance of conversation. The origins of every faculty chair rest in conversation: between potential donors, churches, and the Seminary on subjects that make a difference. But the conversation that the newest chairs at Austin Seminary enable are also between doctors of the church. Churches flourish when they are served by scholars who have devoted their lives to subjects that matter. At a medium-sized seminary like Austin, most disciplines are represented by one faculty member. This means that
the Austin Seminary faculty has stimulating interdisciplinary conversations with each other, but sometimes leaves faculty members craving for deeper engagement in their particular disciplines. The newest chairs at Austin Seminary allow faculty members to host gatherings of scholars devoted to particular subjects (the future of Reformed theology, the church’s witness that Black Lives Matter) that make a world of difference. Conversations such as these can lead to constructive change in a society wracked by injustice and hopelessness. Faculty chairs certainly convey honor. But at Austin Seminary they mean much more: they signal life-giving investments and conversations for the sake of the church and the sake of the world. v
STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS Continued from page 14 dle, in the small town of Canadian. Their relationship with the Seminary began when he was elected to serve on the Board of Trustees, and, as Betty recalls, they were “inspired to be a part of the Austin Seminary family.” As high-school sweethearts celebrating 58 years of marriage, they now enjoy retirement while also tending to their cattle ranch just north of town. Mert spent much of his professional career as a pastor—first, as a Methodist minister, then switching his denominational affiliation in the 1970s to Presbyterian—serving congregations throughout the region. Eventually, Mert shifted career paths into the world of business by partnering with his father-in-law. Betty is retired from her profession as a secondary education teacher. Their upbringings were centered in the church. Reared Methodist, Mert went on to graduate from Southern Methodist University’s Perkin’s School of Theology. Betty is a fourth generation ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with deep roots in First Presbyterian Church of Canadian, where her grandparents (emigrating to the U.S. from Lebanon in 1912) made their church home. The couple earned their undergraduate degrees from McMurry University in Abilene.
What moved them to establish an endowed fellowship at Austin Seminary? Mert was keen to find ways, beyond board membership, to serve the Seminary, and to “share [their] blessings.” They remember the days when Betty supported Mert’s seminary education by commuting to Dallas to teach high school, which was a common situation for spouses in “making ends meet.” Mert also served small churches while attending seminary to keep them both afloat financially. Betty recalls, “We took ourselves back to our seminary days; saw ourselves in that” and “wanted to make it comfortable for someone to attend without having to worry about the stresses of finances.” The Mert and Betty Cooper Fellowship provides merit-based scholarship aid in the form of full tuition, housing, and an allowance for books and other seminary expenses, to master of divinity degree students who demonstrate interest in and a strong promise vocationally for leadership in the church, exceptional academic achievement, and leadership ability. It lives through the hearts, hands, and minds of students—like Kimberly—who embody that promise. v Summer | Fall 2020 | 17
faculty news notes
faculty notes | In addition to teaching eleven weeks of online Summer Greek, Margaret Aymer (New Testament) has been busy addressing the needs of the church during the crisis. She was a guest for Westminster Presbyterian Church’s “Big Questions for a Changing Church,” which is being used in Sunday school classes nationwide. She participated in “Juneteenth: A Conversation About Race and America,” sponsored by Congregation Agudas Achim, Austin. And her sermon from the Just Worship Conference last fall is in digital circulation, including being shown by Madison Square Presbyterian in San Antonio in July. Gregory Cuéllar (Old Testament) is the author of a successful grant application to The Wabash Center of Crawfordsville, Indiana. He and his working group—composed of tenured Latinx faculty in theological education—learned in May that their Race Critical Consciousness grant proposal, “Expanding the Latinx Vision of Borderlands at ATS Member Schools,” earned $85,000 to fund their research. The impetus for the research arose from a concern that little is being offered at the Association of Theological Schools (ATS)member schools to expand students’ vision of the U.S. southern borderlands. Says Cuéllar, “This pedagogical and epistemological gap can inadvertently perpetuate abiding racial prejudices against the many Latinx people who migrate through or who are settled in the U.S. borderlands.” In June, William Greenway (philosophical theology) was the bi-annual speaker for the Ethics Committee at the Austin Heart Hospital, where he has served for many years, presenting on “Agape Ethics and Prejudice: The Conscious, the Unconscious, and the Structural.” In late July he
gave a presentation at a nurses forum, also at St. David’s Heart Hospital, on “Agape Ethics, Moral Injury, Moral Distress.” He is completing final edits on a new book, Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age: Open Christian Spirituality and Ethics (Cascade, forthcoming). Timothy Lincoln (library) attended the Atla annual conference June 17-19. Because of the pandemic, the conference was held virtually rather than in Detroit. Atla is a membership association of librarians and information professionals, and a producer of research tools, committed to advancing the study of religion and theology.
Michigan, on March 9, 2020. In April she completed a fiveyear commitment of editorial work for Connections, the nine volume, Austin Seminary/WJK lectionary commentary for preaching and worship. Lord wrote the 2021 Celebrating the Gifts of Women Sunday PC(USA) resource, “Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries”; she wrote “Baptismal Liminality: Corporate Worship and the Church’s Betwixt and Between” for
Reshaping the Liturgical Tradition: Ecumenical and Reformed (forthcoming, OSL press); and she was a video-lecturer and panelist with Cynthia Rigby for the EBW presentation “Sacraments, Bodies, and the Future of Worship.” She also became a grandmother (pictured below with baby Sage)! v
Photo by Sopphey Oviedo
Jennifer Lord (homiletics) preached for Andrew Frazier’s (MDiv’19) ordination at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor
Andrew Zirschky joins faculty
A
ndrew Zirschky has been called by the Austin Seminary Board of Trustees to be director of the Nashville extension of the Seminary’s Master of Arts in Youth Ministry (MAYM) program. In his new role, beginning July 1, Zirschky oversees the Nashville extension of the MAYM degree and teaches youth ministry courses. The MAYM program represents a partnership with the Center for Youth Ministry Training (CYMT), based in Nashville, where Zirschky has served as academic director since 2010. In that capacity he also served on the faculty of Memphis Theological Seminary, teaching practical theology and youth ministry. The expansion, announced earlier this year, of Austin Seminary’s MAYM degree program to include on-site instruction in the southeast region of the United States, was approved by accrediting bodies in May, making it the nation’s largest graduate program in youth ministry for mainline Christian denominations. With a focus on youth ministry and a background in the Church of the Nazarene, Zirschky earned his MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary where he received the Arthur Paul Rech Prize in Theology and Pastoral Ministry. He is the author of Teaching Outside the Box: Five Approaches for Opening Scripture with Teenagers (Abingdon Press, 2017) and Beyond the Screen: Youth Ministry for the Connected But Alone Generation (Abingdon, 2015). He has broad experience in the creation and administration of innovative programs, particularly in youth ministry, including two programs at CYMT for which he received Lilly Endowment grants of more than $1 million each. He has served as a consultant to Lilly Endowment and Princeton Seminary, among others. Over the past decade he has taught courses at Austin Seminary, Memphis Seminary, Princeton Seminary, and Wesley Theological Seminary. He will continue to live in Nashville and will teach in Austin and Nashville. v
18 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
good reads | Capital and Ideology, by Thomas Piketty, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge MA: Belknap Press, 2020)
T
homas Piketty, French economist and advocate for social justice, follows up on Capital (English ed., 2014) with an expansive book chronicling the interplay of wealth (capital) and the stories that elites tell to justify their relative wealth (ideology). Using the best available data, he chronicles the ebb and flow of “inequality regimes” from pre-revolutionary France to the neo-liberal resurgence of wealth inequality around the world since the 1980s. He broadens his earlier analysis to include discussions of the evolution of the economies of India, China, the Soviet Union/Russia, and Brazil. He stresses that in every case ideology mattered as much as technological change or what counts as wealth (e.g., owning financial instruments versus land ownership). While most defenses of wealth imply that the rich deserve to be well off and the poor are poor because of God’s plans or their own moral defects, Piketty’s global analysis demonstrates that large differences between the haves and the have-nots are the result of social interactions. Things could have been—and can in future—be otherwise than they are. Piketty also documents the changing demographics of politics. Liberal parties (like Labour in the UK and the Democratic party in the USA) used to receive most of their support from relatively uneducated working people; now they are parties of the well-educated “Brahmin left” with scant support from the working classes. Parties of the right and the left seem to be satisfied with the current amount of economic inequality in their countries (perhaps echoing the position of Bernie Sanders). According to Piketty, experience demonstrates that religion can be used to defend existing inequality regimes as well as challenge them. When
board actions | The Austin Seminary Board of Trustees took the following actions with regard to faculty at its spring 2020 meeting, May 22-23: • Granted tenure to Gregory Cuéllar, associate professor of Old Testament,
Christian Britain abolished slavery, for instance, parliament compensated former slave owners for the loss of their property; the Christian abolitionists gave no thought to indemnifying former enslaved persons. Piketty is concerned that too much inequality between the richest 10 percent and the poorest 50 percent of people within a country and globally is morally indefensible and does not promote economic growth. He worries that unjust structures are too easily perpetuated by pitting disadvantaged groups against each other (e.g., the antiMuslim policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India). He concludes his book with a proposal to establish “democratic socialism.” In his scheme, the current system that sacralizes private ownership is replaced by a regime that prevents inherited wealth and class privilege from being endlessly recycled. Key features of his plan are progressive taxation on annual income and wealth, provision of guaranteed basic income, and equitable access to education. Unlike Sovietstyle communism (which failed spectacularly both from an economic and humanist perspective), Piketty’s democratic socialism insists that workers hold board seats on private corporations (on the existing German model) and that elected assemblies debate and pass taxes in a transparent manner. If all of this seems unlikely, Piketty would remind us that in 1870 Sweden had the largest gap between the rich elite and the poor masses in Europe; by 1980 it was the most egalitarian society in the world. Piketty’s book is a stunning scholarly achievement showing that local economies have been linked for centuries and that economic arrangements are human works, not baked into creation. For Christians experiencing a pandemic that has placed racial and economic disparities under a bright light, Piketty’s book is timely reading. v —Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Timothy Lincoln, research professor in theological education and director of the Stitt Library
effective July 1, 2020, and approved a six-month sabbatical, August 1, 2021 – February 1, 2022 • Promoted Carolyn Helsel to associate professor of homiletics, effective July 1, 2020, and accepted her sabbatical report • Reappointed Paul Hooker as associate dean for ministerial formation and advanced studies, effective July 1, 2020,
for a renewable annual term • Reappointed David Johnson as associate professor of church history and Christian spirituality, effective July 1, 2020, for a renewable annual term • Accepted the sabbatical report of David Jensen • Accepted the sabbatical report of Eric Wall. v Summer | Fall 2020 | 19
alumni news notes
class notes | 1970s William J. Parr (MDiv’76) honorably retired by Grace Presbytery, June 1, 2020.
1980s Dennis Winzenried (MDiv’80) honorably retired by John Calvin Presbytery, March 1, 2020.
Find your voice.
2000s Carrie M. Finch-Burriss (MDiv’09) earned a doctor of ministry degree from McCormick Seminary this May. Her thesis title was “The Bodies of Christ: How the Sacrament of Eucharist Can Build the One Body of Christ in a Bi-Cultural Community.” Mitchell Holley (MDiv’08) is currently the deputy wing chaplain at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Discover Austin Seminary.
Kaye McKee (DMin’09) founded A Spacious Place in 2006 as an outgrowth of her doctoral project. A Spacious Place is an arts-education nonprofit. Kaye writes that during the pandemic they’ve offered online creativity/spirituality practices. She thanks all who honor creativity as a way to connect to God.
2010s
Virtual
Lunch & Learn September 16, 2020 October 14, 20202 November 18, 2020
AustinSeminary. edu/visit
Amber Reber (MDiv’11) married David Fuentes on September 1, 2019 (photo at right). Amber runs (pun intended) her own business, Rise Runner, offering quality run coaching for youth and adults with an option for spiritual exploration and faith development in both personal and group settings. John Harrison (MDiv’15) left Afton Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri, to become fulltime chaplain at Concordance Academy, also in St. Louis, where he has worked part time since 2016. Tiffany and Ryan Gafney
20 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
(MDiv’16) welcomed daughter, Lydia Jane, into the world on June 19, 2020.
Joe B. Donaho (MDiv’63), March 23, 2020, Germantown, Tennessee
Evan Solice (MDiv’16) was featured in a November 29, 2019, article in the Austin Chronicle about his role as chaplain to Dell Seton Medical Center’s “Buprenorphine Team” and its innovative approach to addiction.
Thomas “Tom” E. Brown (MDiv’63), December 31, 2018, Lakeland, Florida
Jasiel Hernandez (MDiv’18) has been called as associate pastor for engagement and mission at Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia.
ordinations & commissions | Michele Lott (MDiv’18), Reese Henry (MDiv’16), Janet Larson (MDiv’16), and Susan K. Rang (MDiv’16), ordained by the Rio Texas Annual Conference of the UMC. The official ordination date was June 10 and the service of ordination will be held in October. Ezequiel I. Herrera (MDiv’19), ordained on June 28, 2020, by Mission Presbytery. He serves as Rio Grande Valley Evangelist for the presbytery.
in memoriam | J. Robert Hawkins (MDiv’50), November 14, 2018, Odessa, Texas Rodney B. Peacock (MDiv’62), December 26, 2019, Kermit, Texas Bert Bronaugh (MDiv’62), March 30, 2020, Lampasas, Texas
Charles J. Freeland III (MDiv’65, DMin’79), died on June 26, 2020, in Owasso, Oklahoma. He was former trustee (1984-1993) and also served on ASA board. William J. Kerr (MDiv’66), March 2, 2018, Yankton, South Dakota Bailey P. Phelps (MDiv’66), April 9, 2018, Lafayette, Colorado Vic Dindot (MDiv’68), May 11, 2020, Navasota, Texas Justin Jones (MDiv’77), March 9, 2020, Georgetown, Texas Joel D. Cherry (Diploma’79), July 30, 2017, Sherrills Ford, North Carolina Howard C. Leming (DMin’79), July 31, 2014, Fredericksburg, Virginia Frank A. Brooks Jr. (DMin’80), January 17, 2016, Corinth, Mississippi Richard Gilmer (MDiv’87), April 29, 2020, Paris, Texas Kenneth Chadwick (DMin’89) May 4, 2020, Waco, Texas James S. Feliciano (MDiv’94), April 5, 2020, Fontana, California Martha J. Martin (MA’97), September 5, 2019, Midland, Texas
Submit your nominations for the 2021 ASA Awards Deadline: September 13 AustinSeminary. edu/asa-nominate
live learn A Message from the Vice President for EBW
I
t could’ve happened any time—the closing of our doors to lifelong learners, but the time it happened was March 16, 2020. Our beautiful spring plans like buds about to open now chomped by COVID-19. We paused only briefly to take a deep breath. Something new stirred. We moved a day-long conference on trauma to a series of weekday mornings in cyberspace and expanded our reach. “YES” We discovered groups ready to learn by William Stafford online who we were sure would never do it and shattered our assumptions. It could happen any time, tornado We convened people on weekly video calls and built a community of profound earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen. depth. Bonuses, these things. In the Or sunshine, love, salvation. way of things, what looked like an end turned out to be a commencement. Stay It could, you know. That’s why we wake tuned. and look out—no guarantees – Melissa Wiginton
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning, like right now, like noon, like evening
William Stafford, “Yes” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. © 1994 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.
upcoming from education beyond the walls | Until further notice, all Education Beyond the Walls events scheduled for the fall will be conducted online. September 2, 2020 | What am I going to say? Preaching Through the Election Season | Leah D. Schade | In this workshop for preachers, Rev. Dr. Leah Schade will help you think strategically about your sermons. Based on her book Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), Schade offers a new way to approach preaching in this politically divisive climate using two tools: a “dialogical lens” for interpreting scripture and the “Five Paths for Prophetic Preaching.” Together, participants will workshop sermon topics for the five Sundays preceding the national election using these tools. | Cost: $65 October 5-7, 2020 | Dipping Deeper into the Well of PC(USA) Ministries | Stephanie Fritz | in partnership with SCRAPCE | This workshop will Introduce attendees to the wide array of resources available through the PC(USA) Program Ministries for use in Christian formation and educational ministry in the local church setting. Attendees will experience first-hand the many options for church school studies, mission enhancement, programming for intergenerational or age-and-stage educational and spiritual formation. | Cost: $40 per person including certification; $25 per person for workshop only October 19-22, 2020| Tending the Soul of a Community: A Workshop on Storytelling for Communities of Faith | Mark Yaconelli, Melissa Wiginton | Education Beyond the Walls is hosting an online training in community storytelling for those interested in the transformational power of stories. Facilitated by veteran storytellers, the program offers a variety of experiential exercises, individual skill-building, practical teaching, presentations by community activists, with written and online resources. | Cost: $395 early bird rate for registration before Sept. 1.
AustinSeminary.edu/ebwworkshops
Check out all our resources available online: • Faculty videos in the “Resources for Desert Times” section of the web site (AustinSeminary.edu) • Weekly meditations, interviews, and other content on Facebook. com/ebw
PLPL Rural EBW is launching a new Pastoral Leadership for Public Life (PLPL) cohort focused on pastors serving in rural Texas. PLPL helps pastors stretch their vision, develop their capacity, and increase their confidence to lead at the intersection of the Good News and the Common Good. We recognize that many clergy in rural settings lack connection to supportive colleagues within their region and beyond. Woven throughout this cohort program are opportunities to deepen relationships with peers, engage in practical action, and reflect theologically. PLPL Rural is a twelvemonth commitment to learning in a community of sixteen pastors with five to fifteen years in practice. This cohort will meet online and in-person. We are accepting nominations now! Applications are due October 16 for a January 2021 start date; look for the application on our web site. Summer | Fall 2020 | 21
Windows
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 East 27th Street, Austin, Texas 78705-5711
Non Profit Org U.S. Postage PAID Austin, TX Permit No. 2473
2021 MidWinters January 25-27 Currie Lecturer
Scott Black Johnston
Pastor, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York
! e d a r a p n o i t a u d a r Faculty and staff g
Westervelt Lecturer
Carlos CardozaOrlandi The Frederick E. Roach Professor of World Christianity, Baylor University Jones Lecturer
Carol Howard Merritt Author and Pastor Preacher
Kaci Clark-Porter Co-Pastor University Presbyterian Church, El Paso, Texas
AustinSeminary. edu/midwinters
On hand to wish God Speed to seniors after the Baccalaureate service were (among others) Alison Riemersma, Professor Bridgett Green, President Ted Wardlaw and Dean Dave Jensen, and Professors Cynthia Rigby, Whit Bodman (with his boat!), Paul Hooker (the Baccalaureate Preacher), Melissa Wiginton, and David White. The parade was the brainchild of Professor Carolyn Helsel who was there with spouse and fellow faculty member Professor Phil Helsel.
