Vantage Fall 2019 by Columbia Theological Seminary

VANTAGE F AL L 2 019 COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

VANTAGE

P O I N T

A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Advent and Christmas are often depicted in Christian art as very, well, clean. The angel that announces an impending pregnancy to Mary wears brilliant white clothes, often sports a halo, and spreads lush wings. The shepherds wear permanentpress robes and even the sheep look freshly laundered. The manger scene looks scrubbed and vacuumed. Clearly, classic Christian art assumes that the Incarnation and everything around it is clean and tidy. A children’s Christmas book that I used to read to my daughter years ago had quite a different take. The angel in this Christmas book had muddy boots, frayed wings, a crooked and bent halo, and smudged robes. Likewise, the shepherds were dirty and scruffy and the Dr. Leanne Van Dyk PRESIDENT sheep looked grumpy. The exhausted wise men showed up in the last few pages with gifts that had ripped wrapping paper and stained ribbons. If forced to choose between these two options, we would have to go with the tattered angel and the scruffy shepherds and the weary wise men. This is because the Christian doctrine of Incarnation insists that God took on full humanity, real humanity, unwashed humanity for the sake of us and our salvation. Perhaps medieval painters and stained-glass artists found this big claim

/ CTSNET.EDU

hard to fully believe and so they tidied everything up, scrubbing the angels and the shepherds and the manger. But the Incarnation is messy, not pristine. When God bears the weight of human sin and brokenness in the Incarnation, God’s persistent love and grace will win in the end. But reconciliation takes everything God’s got, including the beloved Son in a cruel death on the cross. Everything about Incarnation gets messy. Perhaps because the claims of the Incarnation are so large, the ripple effects of this big Christian claim hit shores both near and far. For one thing, the Incarnation implicates our worship. One of our professors, Dr. Rebecca Spurrier, has recently published a book, The Disabled Church: Human Difference and the Art of Communal Worship. This book affirms the truth of the Incarnation by insisting that the Christian community

The Disabled Church Human Difference and the Art of Communal Worship

Rebecca F. Spurrier

can and must practice the disciplines of hospitality and inclusion for all persons, including persons with disabilities.

Seminary is to nurture pastoral leaders to take up this call of incarnational ministry; we are unwavering in our commitment to fulfill this mission with your help.

In addition, the Incarnation implicates our ethics. When we are fully seized by the truth that God became one with us in Jesus Christ, we are compelled to respond with our heart and soul and mind and strength. When we truly grasp that God took on messy human form to heal us from within, we are compelled to enter into similar messy human situations and bear the burdens of others. Our faculty and staff and students here at Columbia Seminary are involved in many such messy human places and seek to follow Jesus by serving with commitment and care. We sometimes call this kind of service “incarnational ministry.” By this we mean that we are called to get messy and dirty and smudged with the troubles of our world so that we can bring signs of hope and love. The mission of Columbia

We are now in the season of Advent that marks twin Christian instincts: celebration of Christ’s first coming and anticipation of Christ’s coming again. I invite you to celebrate Advent this year with fresh awareness of the depth of God’s love for us in taking on our messy humanity. We at Columbia wish you all joy and peace in believing in this season of Advent. Blessings,

Leanne Van Dyk P R E S I D E N T

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

TABLE OF CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURE

GOD WITH US GOD WITH US: WHY DO WE WORSHIP GOD TOGETHER?

Rebecca Spurrier’s new book leads us in essential questions about understanding the full spectrum of humanity.

VANTAGE POINT

pg 2

NEW @CTS MEDIA

pg 21

LIFELONG LEARNING

pg 28

TAUTA PANTA

pg 33

NEWS FROM COLUMBIA

pg 34

ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

pg 40

FACULTY & STAFF

pg 43

BEST OF THE BLOG

pg 47

VANTAGE / VOL. 111, NO. 3 FALL 2019

EDITORS

Michael K. Thompson Corie Cox

DESIGN

Lucy Ke

PHOTOGRAPHY

Michael K. Thompson DRC Photography Shoccara Marcus

THE INAUGURATION OF PROFESSOR RALPH BASUI WATKINS

An interview with Watkins on how his journey shaped his vision THE HUMAN ORIGINS PROJECT

What does it mean to be human and what can we learn from the Neanderthals on campus? LEARNING TO THRIVE

The Hispanic summer program in its 30th year.

THORNWELL AND WILSON PAPERS

Explore the meanings of the latest release from Seminary archives.

LOCKED OUT: A LESSON ON EMBODYING GRACE

Healthy Seminarians Healthy Church takes on “Miles for Ministry.” An educational institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

/ CTSNET.EDU

CONTRIBUTORS

Jess Adams Julie Bailey ’09 Ali Brathwaite William P. Brown Erskine Clarke ’66 Sarah Erickson ’03/DEdMin ’10 Israel Galindo Heidi Gleason Chassidy Goggins William Harkins David Huffine Brian D. Hecker Christopher Abreu Rosario (MDiv/MAPT ’21) Mindy McGarrah Sharp Rebecca F. Spurrier Valrie Thompson Leanne Van Dyk Ralph Basui Watkins Karen H. Webster (DMin ’16) Travis Webster (ThD) Debra Weir

This issue of VANTAGE is available online at www.ctsnet.edu.

Art for the cover design of Vantage this year is provided by Jerome Walford. You can learn more about his work at his website: brooklynillustrator.com.

AN ADVENT

PRAYER

Our God of Advent, In the midst of our preparations for Christmas— the tree, the decorations, the parties, the gifts— we are pressed to do it all before that deadline, December the 25th. And while our preparations are hectic, we delight in the activity and color and sounds, for they distract us from the common time, and remind us that some things about life are extraordinary: like the wonder of children’s imaginations; the anticipated joy of surprises—received and given; the reliving of the seasons in our lives, ever the same, ever changing, remembering good friends and family who’ve left us; and rejoicing in new friends and new family—through the bond of vows, or the miracle of newborn life. But in the midst of our Advent preparations, O God, give us longing hearts as reminders of the deeper mysteries of this season: the anticipation of the coming Child King who delivers us from the bondage of both Law and Sin and redeems through the power of humility and submission; who brings the knowledge of God into our hearts through the gift of His love; For it is in His Royal name we pray, Amen. — Galindo, Israel. (1999) Let Us Pray, Contemporary Prayers for the Seasons of the Church. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

WHY DO WE WORSHIP GOD TOGE T HER? WORS H I P â&#x20AC;&#x201D;AN D T HE PRES ENCE OF O T HERS

B Y R E B E C C A F. S P U R R I E R

Why do we worship God together? This question, with which I begin every introductory worship class that I teach, presses my students and me not only to consider the God who is worthy of prayer and praise but also the compelling and challenging presence of other Christians who worship with us. Once we begin to take seriously not only the God who is with us in worship but the embodied differences of those with whom we worship, other questions follow. For if we need our siblings in order to worship God, in what ways must our worship persistently account for the needs, desires, and access of others to common worship? My reflections on the social dimensions of Christian liturgy expanded alongside a community of people with and without disabilities with whom I worshipped and researched for several years. While myriad human differences are part of every worshipping assembly, in this congregation varied responses to the order of service were more apparent than in some other communities with whom I have prayed. Some of us remained seated for the reading of the gospel, while others of us stood. Some of us worked on artwork or filled notebooks with mathematical equations and musings, while others manifested their attention through eye contact with the preacher. Some of us whispered with neighbors throughout the service, while others of us preferred silence to any form of reading or singing together. Some of us walked in and out during the service, apparently finding it difficult to sit still for the whole service, while others moved only when they were invited to do so by the priest.

/ CTSNET.EDU

In The Disabled Church: Human Difference and the Art of Communal Worship, a book in which I write in depth about this congregation with whom I worshipped, I muse over the complicated and commonplace experience of worshipping with others by drawing on liturgical theologian Cláudio Carvalhaes’s concept of the “borderless border” of worship1: As I listen to the sermon and witness to the baptism of a child of God, on one side of me sits Mr. Davis2. He tells me he is sick and proceeds to fall asleep. On the other side, Debbie shares a prayer book with me and follows with me as best she can. But when the sermon feels long, she seems to register the restlessness in the congregation, stands up, and begins to sing a solo during the sermon as she might during noonday prayer. Someone from the back rushes up to quiet her. Debbie is not the only restless one; in front of us four small children, guests of the church, crowd into three seats. One of them covers all the words in the bulletin with a purple crayon making it impossible to read the order of service. Two others begin to measure each other’s faces with their hands. They whisper to one another; they arrange their toys over the seats and on the floor. Eventually, because they cannot see the front of the sanctuary, they spill out into the aisle to get a better look at the baby; they are then invited to the front so that they can witness the baptism up close. I look at those who surround me, Mr. Davis, Debbie, and the children, and acknowledge that we have no direct access to the sermon, the baptism, and the Holy Eucharist except with and through the border of those who help to constitute the liturgy with us. Such interrelations can be difficult, distracting, or distancing, but they can also become beautiful in a consent to each other’s right to occupy a shared space and time and to do so in a manner befitting each.3

Once we begin to take seriously not only the God who is with us in worship but the embodied differences of those with whom we worship, other questions follow.

1 Cláudio Carvalhaes, Eucharist and Globalization: Redrawing the Borders of Eucharistic Hospitality (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2013 ) 29-34. 2 Names of persons have been changed to protect confidentiality. 3 Rebecca F. Spurrier, The Disabled Church: Human Difference and the Art of Communal Worship (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019) 210. FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

WHY DO WE WORSHIP GOD TOGETHER? continued

Consenting to worship with and through those most proximate to me, I became aware of the ways my encounters with God and others were profoundly affected by those with whom I shared a pew or a section of the church. If I prayed with those in the back left corner who sat silently for most of the service, my worship was different than when I shared a hymnbook with those in the front right whose eagerness to participate was difficult for them to contain. When I worshiped with an artist who sat on a far edge of the assembly near the window, my practice involved responding not only to the liturgical leaders in front of us but also to the artist next to me, observing the various drawings she wanted to share with me as worship. Rather than describing worship as unified choreography of people all doing and saying the same things or as a collection of individuals, I attended to the pairs or small groups of people whose interactions helped to create this communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worship. In doing so, I attempted to keep time with those next to me in worship, adjusting my responses to the practices of those whose bodies were closest to me. In doing so, I experienced our varied responses not as exceptions to the rule nor as a motley collection of diverse individuals, but I experienced our varied as a group of people who worshipped together while also trying to make time responses not as exceptions to and space for the embodied differences the rule nor as a motley collection of those who gathered.

of diverse individuals, but as a group of people who worshipped together while also trying to make time and space for the embodied differences of those who gathered.

With and through these embodied differences, God reveals God-self to us, not simply through a set of words that we say together about God, but rather in and through our consent to the relationships that the One who creates such diversity makes possible. Such consent invariably means that some of us must adjust our preferences so that others have access to the God who calls us to common worship. And the God who is not constrained by our liturgical borders chooses to be with us as we expand our own understanding of those whose presences and absences shape our common worship, all those whose access to God and to the church is vital for our common prayer.

/ CTSNET.EDU

I N AU G U R A L LECTURE FOR

R A L P H WAT K I N S

Dr. Ralph Watkins is the Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, a chair held previously by former President Steve Hayner. His inauguration was held on Wednesday, October 2, 2019, in the Harrington Center Chapel. His lecture was titled, “Being the Church in the Visual Age: Using Light to Share the Light.” A video of the lecture is available on our YouTube channel at www.youtube. com/user/ctsmedia. We followed up with Dr. Watkins to ask some questions: Tell us about your journey as a preacher and a scholar, particularly how media became such a big part of that journey. Well, for me, when I was teaching at Fuller Seminary in the early two thousands, I realized that we’re moving into the visual age. And being in Hollywood, and just being a consumer of film and a lover of photography, I realized there was a need to learn a new way to communicate, because we’re living in an age where people are using moving and still images via Youtube, Facebook, and then of course Instagram, and back in those days MySpace. And I realized there was the need to learn this new language, if we were going to effectively communicate with this next generation, and so I fully embraced it. I went to see a movie entitled “An Inconvenient Truth” and it starred none other than Al Gore. (You know, the former presidential candidate, who was once the most boring speaker in the world.) And I saw in that movie Al Gore’s ability to become one FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

I N AU G U R A L L E C T U R E F O R R A L P H WAT K I N S continued

of the most interesting, exciting speakers in the world. I went into that movie knowing very little about global warming, but I left that movie riding my bike and committed to loving the planet, because he so convincingly communicated with me. Then I realized that Nancy Duarte, she prepared that presentation for him. I bought her book Slide:ology. I went down and took her course about communicating visually, and then I was sold, and my journey began. And then, of course, I went back to school to get a masters of fine art photography and videography from Savannah College of Art and Design. And I committed myself to learn this language to communicate in the visual age, so that we may use the light to share the light to change the world. What scriptures guide you and why? The scripture that really guided me is, I guess, the basic foundational scripture out of Matthew, where Matthew records those famous words of Jesus, when he tells his disciples to go and to make disciples. I feel we’re called to develop mature disciples of Jesus Christ that make a real difference in the world by actively seeking the love, justice, freedom, liberation, and peace of God. Of course, that’s linked to Luke 4 and 18 and Matthew 25. But really it’s the witness of Jesus. Jesus always cared for, took care of, and went out of this way to address the needs of the marginalized, the left out, the maligned, the rejected, the least of these. So at the core of my faith is this commitment to justice, this commitment to freedom, this commitment to caring about those who are on the margin, because that’s who Jesus cared about. And I think those of us who call ourselves Christians must care about them. I’m also deeply moved by John’s gospel, because in the beginning of John’s gospel he talks about the light. Jesus was the light of the world. Photo means

/ CTSNET.EDU

light. Photography means writing with light. So I’m very much committed to using light, using photography, and using moving and still images to shed light on injustice and to move the world towards a course of activism that leads to a more just place, more just planet, more just state, and more just city. How does your pastoral ministry complement your role as a scholar and teacher at Columbia Seminary? For me I’ve always lived this life of intersectionality and integration—my life as a pastor, my life as a professor, a preacher, photographer, documentarian. All those worlds intersect to become one world. I see them as one. I don’t see myself as having multiple roles. Some call me a pastor, professor, or photographer. I’m Ralph Watkins, and I feel God has gifted me and called me to use these tools to share God’s gospel. So I really see these worlds working together. You’ll see my photography in my preaching, my photography in my teaching, and vice versa, so to me they’re all rolled up into one. As God has uniquely created and crafted me to do the things God’s called me to do in this lifetime. What insights can you share about the future of ministry? I think we’re in a great place in the life of the church, the future of ministry. We are in good hands, if we will embrace the change. We’re living in a much different world. When I first started my first church, I had a beeper. Then I had a carphone that was attached to my actual car. And now, well, it’s this trusty iPhone. The world has changed dramatically. But what God has blessed us with are these wonderful, powerful tools to communicate with. We have the ability to touch the world through Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and Twitter and the worldwide web and mobile technology. And I am super excited about the future and I’m committed to preparing leaders to lead in this present age—to use these tools to shine light on injustice, but also to shed light on the ways God is moving in this world to make this world a more just place.

So, I think we’re in a sound place. I think we at Columbia are committed to preparing leaders for the future. I know that the church I pastor: that’s what we do. We’re taking an historic church and making that church the church of the future, while not forgetting its past. We’re not writing a new book. We’re simply writing the next chapter, we’re drawing the next picture. We’re painting the next portrait. We’re taking the next snapshot. We’re making the next movie. We’re developing the next documentary. I think that’s the future of ministry. And I think both Wheat Street Baptist Church and Columbia Seminary are firmly planted in that future, and we’re preparing leaders to lead in this present age. Tell us something most people don’t know about you. I don’t know as I’m pretty transparent, but I’ll say this: I love to eat, but I hate to cook. And if you’re ever invited to my house for dinner, you’ll have a wonderful meal. And when you come to my house, all the food we place in pots on the stove and you will think that I or my wife prepared them. But our good friend, Mr. Joby Green, he does me a favor and prepares great meals for me and my friends. We have gatherings at my house.

That’s something most people don’t know about me. But they do know I love to eat, but I hate to cook, but I love to wash dishes. Anything else you would like to share? So some call me the scholar of the camera. But that’s really a misnomer, because I see myself as a pastor, a professor, a photographer, a documentarian, a storyteller. But in the end, I’m Ralph Watkins. I’m the one God’s created to do the work God’s uniquely crafted and created me to do in this present age. So these things really roll up into one, where some have said to me you have to choose. “You have to either be a pastor, or professor, or photographer.” I never bought that argument. I believe when God deposits gift in you, you are obligated to use those gifts for the glory of God. And I encourage you to not allow anybody to typecast you, to pigeonhole you, or to limit you. Honor what God has placed in you, and be the very unique YOU that God has called YOU to be.

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

THE HUMAN ORIGINS PROJECT B Y R A C H E L VA N K I R K M AT H E W S , M D I V ’ 18 BY DR. BILL BROWN, W I L L I A M M A R C E L L U S McP H E E T E R S P R O F E S S O R O F O L D T E S TA M E N T

“WHY ARE THERE NEANDERTHALS ON OUR CAMPUS?” That question was frequently asked by students, staff, and faculty, when a new exhibit was installed in the John Bulow Campbell library in late August. Why tell the story of human evolution at Columbia Theological Seminary of all places? Here’s the general answer: if theology is “faith seeking understanding” (à la Anselm), and science is a form of understanding seeking further understanding, then theology has nothing to fear and much to learn from science. Science has much to contribute in addressing the ancient psalmist’s question, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them?” (Ps 8:4). Here’s the more specific answer. The Smithsonian Institution’s “Exploring Human

/ CTSNET.EDU

Origins” Exhibit fits within a historical trajectory at Columbia Seminary that began over 150 years ago with the appointment James Woodrow as the “Perkins Professor of Natural Science in Connection with Revelation” in 1861. He was a chemist by training. With Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species being published in 1859, Professor Woodrow’s chair became a focal point of controversy. In 1883 he was formally asked to “set forth his views upon evolution in order that the church might have the benefit of his opinions,” specifically with regards to the creation of Adam in Genesis. Woodrow presented before the board and alumni his position that the Bible and science could never contradict each other, because the Bible does not concern itself with the “how” of creation. Thus, it could be said that Adam was a product of evolution as much as he was a creation of God, having been fashioned incrementally from the organic layer of the soil. Within two years Dr. Woodrow was dismissed from the seminary. Fast forward almost 150 years. Since 2013, when Columbia Seminary received a grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the school has been engaged in incorporating the best of science into its theological teaching and learning. The Smithsonian exhibit is the latest development in this ongoing educational venture. Remaining through December 13, 2019, the exhibit features arresting visuals, informative text, and interactive kiosks to tell the unfolding drama of human evolution, from between six and seven million years ago when two primate lineages began to branch out, one of them leading to the development of our species (Homo sapiens), and the other to our nearest contemporary great ape cousins (chimpanzees and bonobos). Our lineage successfully made the transition from the wooded environment to the arid savannah in Africa, eventually populating the entire planet. In the process, our ancestors became bipedal, shed fur, shared food, created social networks, and traded tools, all the while “our” brains tripled in size. For a time, our species shared the planet with others, including Homo neanderthalensis and Homo floresiensis. We are related to at least nineteen other hominin species (so far discovered), all of whom are our relatives, either ancestors or cousins. Although we are the last bipedal species standing, we nevertheless carry within our anatomy and our genome the legacies of our evolutionary relatives, including for many a percentage of genomic material from our Neanderthal cousins, the result of interbreeding. If anything, the story of our evolution is complicated, if not downright messy. The resulting picture of the human family tree is not a towering cedar but an expansive canopy (see http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-family-tree). As the dominant species on the planet, Homo sapiens was a relative latecomer from about 300,000 years ago. We have yet to surpass the longevity of our forbearer Homo erectus, who survived over 1.5 million years. We have a long ways to go, and the future will be even more challenging than the present. The question posed by the Smithsonian exhibit is “What does it mean to be

Dr. Bill Brown (right)

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

THE HUMAN ORIGINS PROJECT continued

human?” The exhibit provides no definitive answer, but it does set forth scientific data for pondering the question, from the dramatic increase in brain size to the development of art, compassion, and community, all beginning in Africa. Whatever one might think of “process theology,” we clearly have a case of “process anthropology.” Humanity is indeed a process, one of adaptation, innovation, artistic imagination, cooperation, and social networking. Our evolution was characterized by contingency, the most dramatic example being the near extinction of our own species around 70,000 years ago, down to a count of 600 The question posed by the individuals, according to some estimates. Survival was a matter of Smithsonian exhibit is adapting to new environments amid severe climate fluctuation. Sharing 99.9% genetic identity, we are all descended from this small number of early modern humans that were able to subsist as “What does it mean to be human?” hunter-gatherers for many millennia. For me, a biblical theologian, the takeaways of the exhibit include a profound sense of humility and gratitude, an indebtedness to our ancestors who lived and sacrificed, adapted and survived, flourished and went nearly extinct, who cared for the indigent, exercised artistic creativity, and extended cooperation with others. B Y R A Cand H E imagination, L VA N K I R K M AT H and EWS , M D I V ’ 18are “written” into our DNA Compassion resilience cooperation, because of them. Perhaps part of being human, then, is carrying on the tasks of living and leading in uncertain times of crisis with the willingness to unlearn the old and adapt to the new, and to do so with a sense of adventure! Church leaders take note. James Woodrow would be pleased.

/ CTSNET.EDU

LEARNING TO THRIVE THE HISPANIC SUMMER PROGRAM IN ITS 30TH YEAR B Y R A C H E L VA N K I R K M AT H E W S , M D I V ’ 18 B Y C H R I S T Ó P H E R A B R E U R O S A R I O ( M D I V/M A P T ’ 21) A N D D R . M I N D Y M C G A R R A H S H A R P, A S S O C I AT E P R O F E S S O R O F P R A C T I C A L T H E O L O G Y A N D PA S T O R A L C A R E

In June 2019, we attended the 30th offering of the Hispanic Summer Program. While Mr. Abreu Rosario attended the two-week summer program, Dr. McGarrah Sharp attended the three-day Through Hispanic Eyes program for faculty/staff. Here, we reflect on what we expected, why we went, what we learned during this powerful experience, and how we will share what we learned with the Columbia Seminary community.

CTS student Christópher Abreu Rosario with fellow HSP participants. Néstor Andrés Hernández Zambrana (left), Thiago Dantas (right).

What is HSP/THE?

Hispanic Summer Program (HSP) provides theological training to Hispanic and Latino/a1 seminarians across the United States and Puerto Rico. Founded in 1989 with Dr. Justo González’s leadership, HSP is co-sponsored by theological schools that recognize the need for dedicated curriculum to support future leaders of the Hispanic-American Church. Columbia Theological Seminary is a founding sponsor school and has supported HSP for decades. Today, with Dr. Daisy L. Machado’s leadership, HSP offers intensive twoweek three-credit elective courses during the summer in Bible, History, Interreligious Studies, Worship and Preaching, Practical Theology, and Theology. HSP faculty and students come from many different seminaries. HSP also rotates where it meets, this year meeting at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. This HSP, Mr. Abreu Rosario took a worship and preaching course from Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes (Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York), one of the six professors serving as HSP faculty this summer. 1 The words “Latina/o” and “Latinx” refer to persons of various gender identities whose cultural histories are broadly connected to Latin American countries and cultures but who reside in the United States. FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

LEARNING TO THRIVE continued

Through Hispanic Eyes (THE) brings non-Latino/a faculty, staff, deans, and presidents of theological schools together for a 3-day workshop during HSP. THE addresses theological education from a Latina/o perspective; hiring and retention of Latina/o faculty/ staff/students; curricular needs of Latina/o students; intersecting factors of race, gender, immigration; and U.S. Latino church realities. Through readings and homework, projects and presentations, lectures and rich conversation, faculty, deans, admissions officers, and financial aid officers from ten different schools wrestled with how our institutions can be more welcoming and how we might better see and respond to our own obstacles to inclusion. THE participants are invited into conversations with HSP faculty and students, to attend HSP daily worship, and into informal conversations over shared meals. This year, Dr. Luis R. Rivera-Rodríguez (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) served as the THE leader. For 2020, Candler School of Theology at Emory University will host the program here in Atlanta. With its proximity to Columbia Seminary, there is more opportunity for our other Latinx seminarians to attend the program this next summer. As members of the Columbia Seminary community, we are grateful for HSP and THE and look forward to seeing how the partnership between HSP and Columbia Seminary will flourish in the years to come.

/ CTSNET.EDU

Why did you want to go to HSP/THE?

Ófe Abreu Rosario My first two years at Columbia Seminary were marked by a robust education, excellent professors, and an understanding that I needed more to prepare as a Latinx minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In my first semester Dr. John Azumah, my Ghanaian professor of World Christianity and Islam, explained that I would need to read everything listed on the syllabus for each of my classes while also needing additional reading lists that include the voices of Latinx authors. With no Latinx faculty and a handful of other Latinx seminarians present, my ministerial training and formation has been supplemented by uncredited independent study and being in intentional community with the international population of Columbia Seminary’s student body who know what it is like to exist in diaspora. I wanted to attend HSP this summer because I recognized it was an opportunity I could not pass up. HSP might be the only experience I have where I learn from Latinx professors not just about their scholarly work, but also from their wisdom and experience of theologizing Latinamente. It is an opportunity for focused practical study, being in a room where I am not an outsider, and developing relationships with my future colleagues in ministry and academia. Dr. McGarrah Sharp I wanted to attend THE for four reasons: accountability, scholarship, students, and hospitality. First and foremost, I applied to THE to help me be accountable to teaching, learning, and leading in ways that invite

Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes leads a procession of celebration. Dr. Daisy L. Machado, HSP Director (left), Alfredo Santiago, HSP participant (right). I need conversation partners all persons to flourish and thrive. I guest. As non-Hispanic faculty, it need conversation partners to help was incredible to join faculty, staff, to help me deepen my me deepen my awareness of and and administrator colleagues from awareness of and address address my complicities in exclusive nine other theological schools who my complicities in exclusive practices in which I participate and/ are also trying to put into practice practices in which I participate or have access. Second, THE aligns theological education that supports and/or have access. Second, with my research on empathy in thriving for all. THE aligns with my research postcolonial and intercultural pastoral on empathy in postcolonial care practices. Empathy, learning What did you learn at to understand each other, includes and intercultural pastoral HSP/THE? courageous reflection on what I care practices. Empathy, know, how I came to know what I Ófe Abreu Rosario Arriving at learning to understand each know, and what and how I still need HSP, I sighed a breath of relief. other, includes courageous to learn. When I reflect on my own “I made it,” I thought to myself education, I was never required to read reflection on what I know, as the journey to attend took two how I came to know what any Latina/o theology for a required years of negotiating presbytery I know, and what and how course. Even though I chose to do educational requirements, seminary some of this work on my own, it was I still need to learn. When I credit allocations, and internship optional, and I have learned enough reflect on my own education, dates. By the time I walked onto to know that I have a lot more to the Oblate School of Theology I was never required to read learn. Third, I want to better support campus, I had already completed any Latina/o theology for a Columbia Seminary’s Hispanic and a month’s worth of reading and Latinx students who trust me to serve required course. homework and quickly discovered them well as faculty advisor for the just how robust and intense this Hispanic and Latinx Association (HALA) while we wait “intensive” program was. I took Dr. Carvalhaes’ worship for Hispanic and Latinx representation on the faculty. and preaching course entitled “Extractivism – The (This has not always been the case in a place that Political, Emotional, Economic, and Religious Model of included Dr. Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi and Dr. Justo Our Times, A Liturgical Response.” Our texts included González in previous years.) Fourth, I was humbled to writings of indigenous Amazonians, post-colonial experience the hospitality of HSP by being an invited theorists, theological/economics analysts, creation-care

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

HSP students, faculty, and guests participate in a chapel service.

biblical scholars, and social commentary artists. Our main assignment was to translate what we were learning into worship experiences for our home contexts. We practiced by leading daily HSP chapel. With the luxury of a worship space that we could call our own for two weeks, we developed worship services that expanded on the day before, building a space and table that evolved as the days progressed. Towards the end of our time, the table contained the elements of soil, rocks, leaves, flowers, and water. With the social/political climate of our time and being in a majority Latinx space that HSP creates, my classmates and I quickly recognized the need to provide pastoral care and liturgy of hope for our siblings present and not present. We combined the teachings of creation care with the plight of our brothers and sisters facing seizure, deportation, and death along the US border. Added to our table were the names of those who perished this summer crossing the border or in US custody, and we held vigil in loud auditory tears, unafraid of crying out to God in pure lament. The last element added was oil, as our professors anointed HSP attendees to continue the good work and to seek Christ’s peace in the world. On the last day, we acknowledged that the chapel space contained our prayers, our tears, our shouts of joy, and 18

/ CTSNET.EDU

the rhythm of our feet, but that space would no longer be ours. Our mission was to extend that table to the places we came from, and to the places we were going to next. It was the best two weeks of my theological education and formation. Dr. McGarrah Sharp The day before THE, I got my first ever pair of glasses. Traveling through the airport, walking through Oblate’s campus, reading, learning, and worshipping with a new group of colleagues and some old friends was both disorienting and clearer than ever. I never realized that while new lenses help support clear vision, at the same time they also require many tiny adjustments and sensations, such as becoming dizzy, seeing the ground differently, relearning peripheral vision, discerning the invisible line in the progressive lenses between looking up close and focusing farther in the distance. I learned even more about contemporary pressures on Latinx communities here in the US that manifest in tensions and anxieties. I glimpsed a deep well of Latinamente theological resources that support bold collective dreaming, ongoing communal struggles for dignity and full inclusion as bearers of God’s image, and speaking into histories of marginalization. Within THE we practiced doing theology Latinamente

where the theological work arose from the group’s collective wisdom, experience, passions, and careful study. This work calls for respecting multiple voices, listening deeply to my own and others’ stories of lived experiences, honoring the unique gifts that only each person can contribute, and valuing diversity as a good that can help make possible the beloved community our faith calls us to help create. After the 3-day workshop, I was not quite used to my new glasses. While some things were easier to see, I was still needing to make tiny adjustments in negotiating my vision. Likewise, attending THE does not equip me to be able to see through Hispanic eyes — that is not something I can ever do in my non-Hispanic body. However, THE does inform me in being a more just and faithful partner in theological education. As a faculty member at Columbia Seminary, I vow with my colleagues every year at Fall convocation to rely on God’s grace, to seek peace and unity, to practice excellence in my teaching, scholarship, and service to the Columbia Seminary and broader communities. I am grateful to programs like Through Hispanic Eyes for supporting me in faithfulness to this work to which I am called.

HSP/THE Impact and Invitation to the COLUMBIA SEMINARY community

Ófe Abreu Rosario HSP provided me space where I could learn from Latinx professors, alongside Latinx seminarians, about God’s mission in the world in the languages and expressions that come most naturally to me and the people who make up Latinx identities. It was a space where I didn’t have to explain myself and could be fully present, surrounded by individuals who shared similar experiences in their home seminary contexts. The road to attend HSP was long and hard, and the coursework to complete while there was full, especially when juggling a full-time summer internship at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, NJ. It was all worth it, as I gained knowledge and insight that will sustain me as I continue in seminary education and serve the Church. I walked away from that experience with an affirmation that there is a place for me in ministry, that there are colleagues who will support me and I them. There is beauty in the ways I am Latinx and how that translates into worship. I am better equipped and empowered to face the challenges of being in a predominately Euro-American denomination while

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

LEARNING HOW TO THRIVE continued

being educated in how to serve Latinx and intercultural communities. HSP taught me the language and work ethic I need to not only survive as a person of color in ministry, but how to thrive and assist others in their thriving as well. Dr. McGarrah Sharp At THE, I saw HSP faculty and students thriving and I was invited into the thriving. I witnessed the importance of facilitating mentorships between students and scholars who believe in them. I saw examples of support when students or scholars are often the first or the only Hispanic or Latino/a in a field of study or school. I appreciate how HSP has affirmed and gotten the word out more widely about groundbreaking Latina/o scholarship. The specialized

networking that happens at HSP helps some of the least represented students and faculty thrive which in turn enlivens all of theological education and demands that we all invest more fully in practices that support thriving for all. My participation in THE is affirming to me that seeking robust representation at all levels of our life together at Columbia Seminary (students, faculty, staff, administration, board, community partners) will serve the whole community more faithfully as we strive to honor our diversities as a gift of God’s good creation. THE challenges me to work together in intercultural partnerships to create, inhabit, and promote practices of theological education that inspire all of us to do our best work that serves faith communities and the world well.

@ThisPoint

Theological investigations in church and culture

DISPLACEMENT

AND TRAUMA

by Emilie Townes, Dean and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School Response articles by • M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas) • M. Jan Holton • Mark Adams Lesson Plans for Displacement and Trauma

www.ctsnet.edu/at-this-point 20

/ CTSNET.EDU

NEW @CTS MEDIA Columbia Theological Seminary uses videos to share information, tell student stories, and even provide minilectures on important topics. It’s one of the best ways to share with friends about our great programs. Check out our latest releases! EVENTS • Convocation Address—Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, Co-Moderator, 223rd General Assembly (2018), PC(USA) • Inaugural Address—Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins, The Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth

22:50

RECENT GRADUATES • Marben Bland ’19 • Laura Nile ’19 • Margo Richardson ’19 FACULTY • Marcia Riggs—A Radical Conversion • Christine Hong—Bearing Witness, Telling the Truth • Martha Moore-Keish—We Don’t Have to Be Afraid • Brennan Breed—A Lively Conversation

1:30

For these and other videos, please visit us on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/ctsmedia. 2:22

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

THORNWELL AND WILSON PAPERS RELEASED BY SEM I NA RY A RC HIV E S

B Y B R I A N D. H E C K E R , P U B L I C S E R V I C E S A R C H I V I S T

Since its founding in 1828, Columbia Theological Seminary has witnessed and supported the society changing within and around it. In anticipation of the release of Erskine Clarke’s history of the seminary, To Count Our Days: A History of Columbia Theological Seminary and CTS’s 200th anniversary in 2028, the C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives is utilizing its archival material to explore historical actors whose complexities have influenced Columbia’s culture and educational experience. The brief biographical accounts are intended to provide a historical context for archival material related to James Henley Thornwell and Joseph Ruggles Wilson. The C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives (CBKSCA) is pleased to announce the public release of two recently digitized 19th century collections: the James Henley Thornwell papers, 1836-1861, and the Joseph Ruggles Wilson papers, late 1800s. The significance of this material is that for several decades, these individuals reflected as much as inflected the religious and social imagination of Presbyterians throughout the southern United States. By making them available online through our Digital Collections, the CBKSCA hopes to enrich the study of Southern history, Presbyterian history, and beyond. James Henley Thornwell was one of the most influential Southern Presbyterian ministers in the 19th century. He was president of South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina), longtime board member at Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS), and professor of theology at CTS from 1856-1862. He also delivered a prominent address in December 1861 in Augusta, GA establishing the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. The James Henley Thornwell papers, 1836-1861, were digitized by the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, PA. The collection, totaling over 1,500 pages of manuscript documents, consists of unpublished essays, sermons, letters from over seventy individuals, lecture notes, and The full text of this article, with endnotes, are available on our blog version of this story at www.ctsnet.edu/columbia-connections. 22

/ CTSNET.EDU

numerous other notes and fragments. Topics range from Aristotle’s Metaphysics, General Assembly proceedings, Presbyterian polity, slavery, lectures on theology, Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, New School Presbyterianism, among several others. Correspondents include George Frederick Holmes (1820-1897), Thomas Smyth (1808-1873), John Bailey Adger (1810-1899), John Leighton Wilson (18091886), Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902), George Sharswood (1810-1883), and John Auchincloss Inglis (1813-1878). Like Thornwell, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, played a significant role in the development of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, later renamed the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). At Wilson’s summon, the first General Assembly convened at the First Presbyterian Church (Augusta, GA) The CBKSCA is pleased where Wilson was pastor. to announce an upcoming Wilson was the Stated Clerk of the denomination opportunity for you! Read through the first 11 from 1861-65 and served chapters of To Count Our as Permanent Clerk Days, covering the first from 1865-1898. For 100 years of CTS, with an multiple years he served eye towards placing these on the CTS Board of pages into a documented Trustees before joining and visual history. the faculty to serve as Professor of Pastoral and Evangelistic Theology from 1870-1874. He was also the brother-in-law of longtime CTS faculty member, James Woodrow, and father of a prominent American citizen, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States of America. The Joseph Ruggles Wilson papers, late 1800s, were digitized through the Digital Library of Georgia. The collection consists of fourteen sermons and sermon fragments, composed and delivered from 1870s-1890s in Wilmington, N.C. and Richmond, VA, including one delivered while serving as moderator of the 1879 General Assembly of the PCUS.

The C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and archives is grateful for the effort the Presbyterian Historical Society has taken to digitize the papers of James Henley Thornwell, and for the generous grant provided on behalf of the Digital Library of Georgia in digitizing the papers of Joseph Ruggles Wilson. For further questions regarding these collections, please email archives@ctsnet.edu.

ARCHIVES C R E AT E S N E W DISCUSSION ABOUT C O L U M B I A’ S H I S T O R Y With the recent release of Erskine Clarke’s To Count Our Days: A History of Columbia Theological Seminary, many are becoming acquainted with names, places, ideas, and events that shaped this institution for several generations. The C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives proudly supported Dr. Clarke’s work on his project by allowing access to numerous primary sources and digitizing several thousand pages of manuscript documents. To further support readers interested in Columbia’s history and development and promote the use of primary material related to it, the CBKSCA is pleased to announce an upcoming opportunity for you! This opportunity will allow you to read through the first eleven chapters of To Count Our Days, covering the first 100 years of CTS, with an eye towards placing these pages into a documented and visual history. If there are persons, ideas, letters, or events discussed within the book, you will be sent photographs and links to digitized documents or information about related collections.

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

THORNWELL AND WILSON PAPERS continued

The CBKSCA contains a multitude of personal letters, If you are interested in ephemera, lecture notes, photographs, diaries, church the history of Columbia records, presbytery records, and much more that speak Seminary and its relation to the history of Columbia Theological Seminary and the to the Southern States South. These range from the curious and fascinating to throughout 19th and early the mundane and painful. 20th centuries, you will want If you are interested in the history of Columbia to join this opportunity. The Seminary and its relation to the Southern States throughout 19th and early 20th centuries, you will want project will begin the week to join this opportunity. The project will begin the week of October 14 and will go of October 14 and will go through the end of March. through the end of March. Each chapter will be covered over a two-week period, excluding holidays, allowing you to follow the text closely and access related materials. If you skip weeks, start later than October 14, or decide to follow only for particular chapters, that will work just as well. Material will be made available chronologically over six months but will include searchable hashtags and stable links to documents and information about collections covered in each chapter. If you are interested in participating in this project, please start following @CTSarchives on Twitter and on Facebook, or if you are interested in receiving the information by emails from October through March, please send a request to archives@ctsnet.edu.

continued on page 36 24

/ CTSNET.EDU

REASONABLE

SERVICE

LOCKED OUT: A LESSON ON EMBODYING GRACE B Y R A C H E L VA N K I R K M AT H E W S , M D I V ’ 18 B Y T H E R E V. D R . K A R E N H . W E B S T E R ( D M I N ’ 16) A N D T H E R E V. T R AV I S W E B S T E R ( T hD ) H E A LT H Y S E M I N A R I A N S — H E A LT H Y C H U R C H N O N -P R O F I T C O -F O U N D E R S

t was just 32 minutes until the start of the 50k trail ultra-marathon race. It was hard to believe that all of the months of planning, training, and anticipation were past, and the run was about to begin… Over the last several years, we have gradually cultivated an intense interest in trail running, which was heavily influenced by Columbia Seminary Prof. Bill Harkins—first 8 miles, then a half marathon, a full marathon, and now an ultra-marathon. Six months ago, we decided to combine our passions for trail running and the nonprofit we co-founded, Healthy Seminarians-Healthy Church (HSHC), resulting in “Miles For Ministry,” HSHC’s first significant fundraiser. Three months ago, we started planning and training in earnest for this big day— learning fundraising and ultra-marathon best practices, following planning and training schedules, and learning how to endure increasingly longer runs (20, 22, 24, 26) each week as the heat and humidity increased throughout the summer in the South. One week before the race, we tightened up our nutritional choices, consuming extra fruits and vegetables, drinking plenty of water, and even putting up with twicedaily doses of beet juice, hoping that they would help to restore our fatigued muscles and perhaps give us that little extra boost we would need to accomplish the goal that we had set out for ourselves. The night before, we laid out our clothes, hats, pace bracelet (since Karen was hoping to be one of the top runners in her age group or perhaps among the women), nutrition schedules, shoes, and hydration vests packed full with the carefully selected foods that we had practiced consuming on our practice runs, so as to make sure our digestive systems did not go on strike on race day. We reviewed the course map and anticipated elevation changes one more time, turned off the lights, and went to sleep knowing that we had done everything we could in order to be completely prepared for our big day! FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

LOCKED OUT continued

/ CTSNET.EDU

REASONABLE

SERVICE

We had checked in and were headed back to the car to get our gear when Karen’s father, who had driven us, got a concerned look on his face. “Hmm, what’s going on?” he said, frantically clicking his car key fob multiple times. The car door would not open. The manual key proved to be useless, as well. There we stood, with no hydration vests, no food other than the few dates and handful of raisins Travis had in his shorts pocket (yes, biblical foods!), and Karen had only a few emergency Benadryl tucked away, since wasps had been a problem in prior year’s races. Race jitters immediately turned into race panic and crushed dreams of how the day was going to unfold. “What are we going to do? People are counting on us. We have trained and prepared for many months. We have to run, but how can we accomplish this? We have nothing,” we thought to ourselves. Nothing, that is, except everything that God was about to provide us. As the final minutes were ticking down and the race director was giving the trail briefing, we scrambled to purchase two small water bottles (so at least we would be able to carry fluids) and looked for someone who had a key fob similar to ours, hoping their battery would work in our fob to open the car (it didn’t). In the midst of these frantic moments, we stumbled upon— God directed us to—a young couple to whom we explained our situation, telling them we were running the race as a fundraiser for our non-profit. Without even exchanging names, one of them immediately said, “I have an extra hydration vest filled with some water and at least enough fuel for you to get to the first hydration station. Please take it. You need it more than I do.” Moments after making sure it fit, the race began. Off we went! We were running the race following God’s direction and plans, not our own. I, Karen, wish I could say that I took this all in stride, but after about a 45-minute pity party, frustrated that I would now have to run much slower than I had anticipated—since Travis and I would have to stick together and share our few resources—multiple biblical and theological reflections started unfolding

before me. Yes, with each step I took over the next 5+ hours, God provided me multiple life lessons/future sermon illustrations, while also bringing to light that which I had read just moments before being locked out of the car: “Sometimes Christians wonder whether it is right to be ambitious. They associate ambition with pride and think that humility means not being ambitious. However, Paul was fiercely ambitious. He describes himself (in Philippians 3:13-14) as being like an athlete desperate to win a race…[contrasting] his great ambition for Jesus with two wrong types of ambition… confidence in the flesh…and on earthly things.” The writer of the devotion goes on to say, that, yes, God wants us to be confident, but our confidence should be in God alone—God’s love and God’s provision. Preparing for the race, I knew that I was guilty of following both of those wrong types of ambition, but I wanted to win and, besides, it was for a good cause! Luckily, as the devotion concluded, and as we got to experience so intensely that day, “Our weakness keeps us dependent on God; leaning on him and on his love and grace.” Our weakness, and utter dependence on God’s love and grace, in the form of a generously and serendipitously lent running vest (complete with food) and several aid stations along the route, have never been more obvious to us than they were 31 miles later, as the Pacific Ocean suddenly leapt into view, the sounds of the finish line barely rising above the roar of the surf. Healthy Seminarians-Healthy Church is deeply committed to helping seminary communities, clergy, and church members connect their theology to their own health and that of their families, communities, and the world. We offer practical and scientifically-based opportunities for participants to engage their health theologically so that they can live into the abundant life God offers. Through education, research, and advocacy, we provide tools for achieving greater health, wholeness, and service. Learn more at www.healthyseminarianshealthychurch.org. FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

LEARN � EXPLORE � CONNECT LEARN � EXPLORE � CONNECT with the Center for Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary with the Center for Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary

Jan 6 – Feb 7, 2020 Christian Jan 6 – FebEducation 7, 2020 in the Smaller Church ONLINEEducation in the Smaller Church Christian with Dan Koger ONLINE

with Dan Koger Jan 13 – 17, 2020 TCI@CTS (The Coaching Institute at CTS) Jan 13 – 17, 2020 with Laurie(The J. Ferguson, C. Bergey, TCI@CTS CoachingPhilip Institute at CTS) Chris Holmes with Laurie J. Ferguson, Philip C. Bergey, Chris Jan 13Holmes – Feb 21, 2020 The13Forgotten Jan – Feb 21,Books 2020 of the Bible ONLINE The Forgotten Books of the Bible with Robert Williamson ONLINE

with Williamson Jan Robert 27 – March 6, 2020 Theological Reflections and Affirmations in Older Adulthood ONLINE with Skip Johnson Feb 24 – March 27, 2020 Readings in Spiritual Classics: Four Saints, Four Centuries ONLINE with Sharol Hayner Mar 9 – 13, 2020 Teaching Spiritual Formation in the Congregation with Jane Vennard 28

/ CTSNET.EDU

Mar 16 – 18, 2020 Leadership Ministry Atlanta II Mar 16 – 18,in 2020 with Israel Galindo, Michael Cook, Leadership in Ministry Atlanta II James Lamkin, Johnson, with IsraelRebecca Galindo,Maccini, MichaelSkip Cook, James Dan Koger, Vanessa Ellison Lamkin, Rebecca Maccini, Skip Johnson,

Dan Vanessa Ellison MarKoger, 30 – Apr 1, 2020 Leadership in 1,Ministry Mar 30 – Apr 2020 A I Lynchburg VA with Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, BillVA Pyle, Leadership in Ministry A I Lynchburg Carla Toenniessen with Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Bill Pyle, Carla Toenniessen Apr 13 – 15, 2020 Leadership Ministry II Kansas City I Apr 13 – 15, in 2020 with Joel Alvis, Israel Galindo, Meg Hess, Leadership in Ministry II Kansas City I Keith Harder with Joel Alvis, Israel Galindo, Meg Hess, Keith Harder Apr 13 – May 22, 2020 Storytelling a Tool for Change Apr 13 – Mayas22, 2020 with CynthiaasMcDonald Storytelling a Tool for Change

with Apr Cynthia 16 – 19, McDonald 2020 Between Nothing and Everything: The Gospel of Love according to Julian of Norwich with Mark Burrows location: Montreat Conference Center Apr 19 – 22, 2020 Invitation to a Deeper Spiritual Life with Jim Dant, Carl McColman, Debra Weir location: Montreat Conference Center

Apr 20 – 22, 2020 Apr 20 – 22, 2020 Leadership in Ministry B I Lynchburg VA Leadership in Ministry B I Lynchburg VA with Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Andrew with Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Andrew Archie, Carla Toeniessen Archie, Carla Toeniessen Apr 21 – 24, 2020 Apr 21 – 24, 2020 The Disciple-Making Church The Disciple-Making Church (Thompson Scholars) (Thompson Scholars) LEARN � EXPLORE � CONNECT with Ralph Watkins, Albert Tate, Lisa with the Center for Weaver Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary with Ralph Watkins, Albert Tate, Lisa Weaver Apr 27 – May 1, 2020 Apr 27 – May 1, 2020 CERTIFICATE IN SPIRITUAL DIRECTION Beside Still Waters – CERTIFICATE IN SPIRITUAL DIRECTION Beside Still Waters – Accepting Applications for the 2020 Cohort A Contemplative Retreat Accepting for the 2020 Cohort AJan Contemplative Retreat 6 – Feb 7, 2020 Mar 16 – 18,Applications 2020 through June 1, 2020 with Chris Glaser and Debra Weir June 1, 2020 with Chris Education Glaser andin Debra Weir Church Christian the Smaller Leadership inthrough Ministry Atlanta II ONLINE with Israel Galindo, Michael Cook, James The 2.5 year program includes four week-long Apr 29 – May 1, 2020 The 2.5 year program includes week-long Apr – May 1, 2020 with29 Dan Koger Lamkin, Rebecca Maccini, Skipfour Johnson, residencies on the CTS campus, online compoSpiritual Formation and Older Adults OAM residencies the CTS campus, online compoSpiritual Formation and Older Adults OAM Dan Koger,on Vanessa Ellison nents and 18-month supervised practice in the with Mary Anona Stoops nents and 18-month supervised practice in the with Mary Anona Jan 13 – 17, 2020Stoops art of30 spiritual Mar – Aprdirection. 1, 2020 art of spiritual direction. TCI@CTS (The Coaching Institute at CTS) May 4 – 6, 2020 May – 6, 2020 Leadership in Ministry A I Lynchburg VA with 4Laurie J. Ministry Ferguson,Portland Philip C.I Bergey, Leadership in 2020-21 Leadership in Ministry Portland I with IsraelResidencies Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Bill Pyle, 2020-21 Residencies ChrisIsrael Holmes with Galindo, Margaret Marcuson, Spiritual Direction in Context with Israel Galindo, Margaret Marcuson, Carla Toenniessen Spiritual Direction in Context Julie Juston September 27 – Ocober 2, 2020 Julie Juston Jan 13 – Feb 21, 2020 September 27 – Ocober 2, 2020 Apr Jane 13 – 15, 2020 with Vennard The Forgotten Books of the Bible May 11 – 13, 2020 with Jane Vennard May 11 – 13, 2020 Leadership in Ministry II Kansas City I ONLINE Leadership in Ministry Boston I Leadership inWilliamson Ministry Boston I with Joel Alvis, Israel Galindo, Meg Incarnation: Theology, Tradition andHess, withIsrael Robert with Galindo, Margaret Marcuson, Elaine Incarnation: Theology, Tradition and with Israel Galindo, Margaret Marcuson, Elaine Keith Harder Practice of Spiritual Direction Boomer, Rebecca Maccini, Meg Hess Practice of Spiritual Direction Boomer, Rebecca Maccini, Meg Hess April 25 – 30, 2021 April 25––May 30, 2021 Apr Jim 13 with Dant 22, 2020 Sept 23 – 25, 2020 with Jim Dantas a Tool for Change Sept 23 – 25, 2020 Storytelling Leadership in Ministry (A) Lynchburg II Leadership in Ministry (A) Lynchburg II with www.ctsnet.edu/lifelong-learning/certifiCynthia McDonald Visit with Israel Galindo, Bill Pyle, Elaine Boomer, Visit www.ctsnet.edu/lifelong-learning/certifiwith Israel Galindo, Bill Pyle, Elaine Boomer, cate-programs/certificate-spiritual-direction/ Carla Toenniessen cate-programs/certificate-spiritual-direction/ Carla Toenniessen for more information. for more information. KEEP UP WITH THE CLL’S LATEST NEWS, KEEP UP WITH THE CLL’S LATEST NEWS, COURSES AND PROGRAMS! COURSES AND PROGRAMS! Subscribe to the online Journeying Together Subscribe to the online Journeying Together newsletter today by visiting newsletter today by visiting www.ctsnet.edu/journeying-together/sign-up www.ctsnet.edu/journeying-together/sign-up FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

LIFELONG LEARNING

ABUELO, MY FAVORITE NAME GRANDPARENTS IN MINISTRY: ABUELO, GRANDDADDY, GRANDFATHER

BY DR. WILLIAM (BILL) HARKINS, S E N I O R L E C T U R E R O F PA S T O R A L T H E O L O G Y A N D C A R E

Original Post https://www.ctsnet.edu/grandparents-in-ministry-abuelo-granddaddygrandfather/ Abuelo, my favorite name As the congregation moved from Mikell Chapel to the postquinceañera reception, the young woman whose service we had just celebrated said to me, “Padre Bill, estás entre mis abuelos,” or, “Father Bill, now you are among my grandfathers.” Each week I can be found on the Cathedral Close of the Cathedral of St. Philip, where I have been an Associate Priest for the past 18 years. Some days I am seeing patients at the counseling center, and on Sunday I am serving in one of the many services offered throughout the day in this wonderful, sacred space. Among those services is Catedral de San Felipe, our Hispanic ministry held in Mikell Chapel each Sunday. My learning curve is rapidly ascending both in terms of my language skills and my role in relation to the congregation. They have several names for me, including “Padre Guillermo,” and more recently, “Abuelo,” meaning “Grandfather.” The latter is perhaps my favorite name. Working in ministry as an un abuelo multiplicado por tres As of Christmas Eve 2018 when our granddaughter Sophia was born, joining our twin grandchildren Jack and Alice, who call me “Granddaddy,” I am now un abuelo multiplicado por tres or, a grandfather times three. 30

/ CTSNET.EDU

LIFELONG LEARNING

Our grandchildren Alice and Jack, now 2 ½ live in Billings, Montana, and we visit as often as we can. So, how am I living into this new normal of being a grandfather, and how has it changed my ministry, my perspectives on life—and perhaps my sense of self and being in the world, or dasein, as Heideggar called it? Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development included “generativity versus stagnation.” Typically, this stage takes place during middle adulthood between the ages of approximately 40 and 65, so becoming un abuelo is, in this sense, right on time for me. During this developmental stage—if one reaches it at all, the alternative is “stagnation”—adults strive to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by parenting grandchildren, and contributing to positive, “generative” changes that benefit the common good. Vicky and I spent much of our married life raising our two sons, and now, to see them have careers and children of their own gives us a deep sense of joy. We’ve had deeply satisfying careers, but these cannot compare to the delight in bearing witness to the unfolding of the lives of our sons, and, now, to see our grandchildren being born, grow and develop their own wonderfully distinctive lives. And this is not all. A subtext in Erikson’s developmental narrative is that we become more connected to those aspects of our world that allow for transcendence of self. We become more deeply aware that we are part of something larger than ourselves, a kind of operational theology of abundance.

Wendell Berry hints at this when he says: “Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest.”

As the Abuelo comes alive I recently returned from northern Colorado and a week of trail running, hiking, and fellowship with friends of some 35 years. Each year we reconnect with one another, laugh, hike, and read and write. And we do all of this deep in a sub-alpine forest, engaging in what the Japanese call “shinrin-yoku,” or “forest bathing,” determined to increase levels of serotonin, dopamine, healthy cellular development, and an awareness of connection to God’s Creation—giving birth to empathy and compassion. And speaking of empathy, perhaps we can learn something from trees about being in community during what some are calling an “epidemic of polarization and loneliness” in our culture. Trees live communally in ways we are only beginning to understand. In his remarkable novel The Overstory Richard Powers writes about what we might call “grandparent trees”: “Before it dies, a Douglas fir, half a millennium old, will send its storehouse of chemicals back down into its roots and out through its fungal partners, donating its riches to the community pool in a last will and testament. We might well call these ancient benefactors giving trees…Trees communicate, over the air and through their roots…they take care of each other. Link enough trees together, and a forest grows aware. ”

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

“Trees communicate, over the air and through their roots…they take care of each other. Link enough trees together, and a forest grows aware. ”

In his recent book The Second Mountain, David Brooks says this about the cultivation of generative moments of transcendence: “The universe is alive and connected, these moments tell us. There are dimensions of existence you never could have imagined before. Quantum particles inexplicably flip together, even though they are separated by vast differences of time and space. Somehow the world is alive and communicating with itself. There is some interconnecting animating force, and we are awash in that force, which we with our paltry vocabulary call love.” Becoming a grandfather has indeed made me more aware of the beauty of non-binary, liminal spaces, where we greet the other with dignity and respect, and where, as Emmanuel Levinas said, we welcome the infinite mystery of the Face of the other. In becoming un abuelo, I see artificial borders become diffuse and disappear. As one of my Hispanic parishioners said to me, “Padre, quiero sentirme vivo,” or, “Father, I want to feel alive.”

/ CTSNET.EDU

As the abuelo in me comes alive, my connection to all of Creation comes alive as well, with more clarity, urgency and meaning. In addition to his grandfather duties, Dr. Bill (William) Harkins is interested in practical applications of pastoral theology and counseling in parish and clinical settings. Other interests include the dialogue between philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religious studies, especially the work of Donald Winnicott and Emmanuel Levinas; narrative and family systems theory in conversation with pastoral theology; issues of difference/diversity in pastoral theology; men’s studies in religion; and congregational consultation in times of conflict and transition. Dr. Harkins is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist, an approved supervisor in AAMFT, and a Diplomat in AAPC. He serves as a psychological health faculty member for CREDO, a wellness program for ECUSA and PCUSA clergy. He is an ordained Episcopal priest, and serves as Canon Associate at the Cathedral of St. Philip.

T A U T A P A N T A

FA L L AT C T S : T O C O U N T O U R D AY S

Top, Erskine Clarke reads passages from his history of Columbia Seminary, To Count Our Days, on October 20 at the Robert Mills House in Columbia, SC. Left, Columbia Seminary president emerita Laura Mendenhall; current president Leanne Van Dyk; and Sharol Hayner, wife of late president Steve Hayner. At right, CTS Board Chair, Tom Walker. FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

WE ARE ALL PART OF A LIVING TRADITION that reaches back to the earliest days of God’s people reflecting on their world, their experience of God, and their sense of God’s calling. Tauta Panta refers to “all these things,” as in “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33). These are notes from our journey as alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Columbia Theological Seminary.

FALL PHOTOS

NEWS FROM CAMPUS Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, Co-Moderator of the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) spoke at the Opening Convocation for Columbia Theological Seminary this year. David Huffine, CFRE was appointed by The Board of Trustees to be the seminary’s Vice President for Advancement. An advancement professional of more than 30 years, Huffine has provided leadership for the past 12 years at St. Joseph’s Villa in Richmond, VA, the longest operating nonprofit for children in the U.S. Previously, he served Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Introduction of the CTS Archives Historical Timeline You can explore and see more here: https://www.ctsnet.edu/cts-archiveshistorical-timelines/ 34

/ CTSNET.EDU

NEWS FROM THE CAMPBELL LIBRARY

AUGUST 13: Exhibit Exploring Human Origins To Open at Columbia Theological Seminary

The John Bulow Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary will be one of the first seminary libraries to host the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History traveling exhibit— Exploring Human Origins: What Does It Mean To Be Human? Located at 701 S. Columbia Drive, Decatur, GA, there will be an opening reception on September 13, 2019. The exhibit will be open to the public through December 13, 2019, but small groups are asked to schedule a tour in advance by email at humanorigins@ ctsnet.edu. The Exploring Human Origins traveling exhibit was designed to inspire people to contemplate their place in the natural world and reflect on how human ancestors evolved to adapt in a variety of climates and locations over millions of years. The exhibition and its associated public events are designed to engage audiences to explore the wonder of the scientific discoveries concerning human evolution and how these findings connect to diverse personal and societal perspectives about who we are as a species.

T A U T A P A N T A

AUGUST 17: John Bulow Campbell Library Receives Competitive Digitization Service Grant The John Bulow Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary is one of six institutions to receive the fifth set of service grants awarded in a program intended to broaden partner participation in the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG). The DLG solicited proposals for historic digitization projects in a statewide call, and applicants submitted proposals for projects with a cost of up to $7,500.00. The projects will be administered by DLG staff who will perform digitization and descriptive services on textual (not including newspapers), graphic, and audio-visual materials. This subgranting program was presented the 2018 Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development by a State Institution by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC). Columbia Theological Seminary will digitize the following from its C. Benton Kline Special Collections and Archives: The Joseph R. Wilson papers, late 1800s (containing the sermons of Joseph Ruggles Wilson, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Augusta from 1858-1870 and father of President Woodrow Wilson); John Newton Waddel papers, 1821-1881 (materials belonging to John Newton Waddel (18121885) and his father Moses Waddel (1770-1840), both Georgia Presbyterian ministers and educators); and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Presbytery of Hopewell minutes, 1797-1866 (minutes from Georgia’s first Presbytery belonging to the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) and Confederate States of America (PCCSA) from the period following the Revolutionary War through the Civil War).

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 Freedom Vs. Order: The Evolution Controversy at Columbia Theological Seminary, 1857-1901 While touring the Smithsonian Institution’s Exploring Human Origins exhibit featured on the first and second floors of the library, take a moment to visit the reading room to see Freedom vs. Order: The Evolution Controversy at Columbia Theological Seminary, 1857-1901. The documents on display reflect a series of turning points in the life of the institution, points that set a trajectory for how the seminary addressed questions on the relationship between natural science and theology for years to come. In 1859, the year Charles Darwin published, The Origin of Species, Judge John Perkins—a wealthy slave plantation owner from Mississippi—donated funds to Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS) for the purpose of endowing a chair that would focus on the relationship between science and divine revelation. Conspicuously titled, the Perkins Professor of Natural Science in Connection with Revelation was established. The Board of Trustees called James Woodrow to fill the chair and he began teaching at Columbia in 1861. Prior to entering the classroom at CTS, Woodrow brought with him a distinguished education and renown as a chemist. He studied at Jefferson College and Harvard before completing his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg in 1856. Having declined a full professorship offer at Heidelberg, Woodrow returned to teach chemistry at Oglethorpe where he had taught before studying abroad. Upon his return he was the first educator in the state of Georgia to hold a Ph.D. The combination of his background in contemporary natural science and his ordination within the Hopewell Presbytery, solidified him as the obvious choice to fill the Perkins professorship.

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

NOVEMBER 2, 2019: Presbyterian Women’s Histories at Columbia Seminary Since 2007, this collection has been entrusted to the C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives at Columbia Theological Seminary. There are over 5,800 PC(USA) congregations represented from 42 states. This enormous collection occupies close to 1,200 cubic feet and continues to grow every year. As an archivist at the C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives, Brian Hecker frequently refers visitors seeking the history of individual congregations to these histories. Without fail, visitors walk away utterly impressed with the details and delight provided by these Presbyterian women historians. These histories are important, telling the story of God’s people beyond ways intended by the individual historians. The value of these records does not stem from the sheer volume magnitude — which in and of itself does absolutely set them apart. In terms of primary source material for a given period of church history, this is the largest collection anywhere in the world. The value of these records stems from the volume of collected years of care, overflowing joy, and commitment which has been poured into them. For the full stories and more, please visit www.CTSnet. edu/columbiaconnections. Pictures to the left are from the “Baseball Card Book” story about Caroline Leach (’72) on page 47.

/ CTSNET.EDU

T A U T A P A N T A

COLUMBIA IN THE NEWS JULY 12, 2019, Presbyterian News Service (www.presbyterianmission.org) — Peacemaker has seen and experienced religious persecution firsthand by Rich Copley Growing up in Myanmar, Thang Van Lian has seen religious persecution up close. Most recently, it has been persecution of Rohingya Muslims by the military in actions that the United Nations called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” The people, concentrated in the northern part of the country, have faced violence, destruction of their homes and persecution such as denial of citizenship and not being counted in the most recent census. It has led many to make perilous journeys to neighboring Bangladesh. Christians in the majority Buddhist nation face persecution themselves, which Lian has experienced and will discuss this fall as one of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s 14 International Peacemakers. The Peacemakers will be traveling around the country to visit with churches and other groups from Sept. 13 to Oct. 7. Mid-Councils (synods and presbyteries), clusters of congregations, and educational institutions may apply to host a peacemaker. “I have been in the ministry as a Presbyterian pastor in Myanmar for almost 20 years now,” Lian wrote in response to questions submitted to him by the Peacemaking Program. “Growing up in a poor and rural village, I have come across various hard times and lifethreatening situations. Being an ethnic Christian and serving as a pastor in Myanmar have taught me many lessons.”

JULY 31, 2019 Presbyterian News Service (www.presbyterianmission.org) — Ray Jones named director of Theology, Formation and Evangelism The Presbyterian Mission Agency announced today that it has named the Rev. Dr. Ray Jones III as the new director of Theology, Formation & Evangelism (TFE). “Ray has a heart for evangelism and all that encompasses. The foundation of his faith is built on the person and work of Jesus Christ,” said the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, the executive director and president of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. “I believe he will continue to lead this vital ministry area with the same dedication and energy that has blessed him and the Mission Agency thus far.” Jones has been serving as the interim director since Fall 2017, and associate director for evangelism at the Mission Agency for eight years prior. With a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary, he has also served the church as a pastor in congregations in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. AUGUST 2, 2019 Presbyterian Outlook (pres-outlook.org) — Mystery and metamorphosis: Brown leads the Big Tent in Bible study on Romans 12:2 By Jill Duffield Mystery and metamorphosis: What does wonder have to do with transformation? William Brown, professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, invited Big Tent attendees to ponder that question based on the text of Romans 12:2, “Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so you can discern what is the will of God – what is good and pleasing and complete.” (Brown’s translation) During Big Tent Bible study August 2, Brown emphasized our call to be different from this age, this time in which we live. Projecting a series of images

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

from recent events on the screens, Brown invited participants to call out adjectives describing our current age. Words like “tragic,” “sad,” “violent” and “broken” resounded through the ballroom, making the need to somehow be different for our current time period abundantly clear. Noting that the Greek word for “transformed” is the same as that for “transfigured,” Brown pointed to texts like that from 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” He urged listeners to remember that transformation is never done alone, but only in community and through the power of God. Such transformation truly is a mystery, one we are called to steward. “We are managers of mystery,” Brown said.

IN MEMORIAM

The Rev. Dr. Joyce Cummings Tucker (MDiv ’75), a Presbyterian pastor, author, and prominent leader in theological education, died July 12, 2019, in New York City following a short illness. She lived in Princeton, N.J. Tucker, 77, is credited with bringing together the seminary systems of the two denominations that formed the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States. She served as Director of the Theological Education for the PC(USA) from 1986 to 1999, after working as Assistant Stated Clerk. She then became Dean of Continuing Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, retiring in 2005. Born July 31, 1941, in Chattanooga, Tenn., Tucker was a member of Monmouth Presbytery. She was ordained in 1975 by Cherokee Presbytery and served as Assistant Pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church October 23, 2019 in Marietta, GA making her among the first women PC(USA) News (pcusa.org/news) – ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Ecumenism at Work (PCUS). Her pastoral experience was the basis for her By Rick Jones, Office of the General Assembly understanding of church polity and her approach to Two recent Presbyterian seminary graduates theological education. are being given an opportunity to study ecumenism Tucker was co-author of Presbyterian Polity for from one of the top institutes in the world. Margo Church Officers, now in its fourth edition, with the Richardson and Quantisha Mason are the newest Rev. Dr. Joan S. Gray, moderator of the 217th General Eugene Carson Blake Scholars, who are now enrolled at Assembly (2006). The book was published in 1986, just the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Institute in after Reunion, and served as a guide for church officers Bossey, Switzerland. who needed to know how the new denomination would The international centre is one of the leading operate. institutes that brings together diverse cultures, In 1977, Tucker edited the Book of Church Order for backgrounds, and churches for study and personal the PCUS, finding many instances of male pronouns exchange. used to refer to ministers. She made notes in pencil “This truly feels like the most generous, once-in-athroughout the book, sending those changes to James lifetime opportunity,” said Richardson. “Even though I Andrews, Stated Clerk of the PCUS. Her goal was to may not know what the future holds, I know that God create a more inclusive Book of Order that encouraged was calling me to this place, and I am so grateful that and allowed women to serve the church fully. Tucker’s the PC(USA) gave me the opportunity.” papers were donated to the Presbyterian Historical Richardson graduated in May with a Master of Society, which has scanned the pages she annotated. Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary.

/ CTSNET.EDU

T A U T A P A N T A

Tucker graduated from Duke University, majoring in mathematics. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Master’s Degree in Religious Education from Yale Divinity School and later a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary. The University of Dubuque Theological Seminary awarded her an honorary doctorate for her lifetime of accomplishments serving the Presbyterian Church. Augustus Cecil Moore, Jr. passed away October 18, 2019, at the age of 87 surrounded by family. A native of Marion Junction, Alabama, Cecil was born January 13, 1932 to Augustus Cecil Moore and Beatrice Callen Gilmer Moore. He graduated from Orville High School in 1950. He graduated from Auburn University in 1954 with a B.S. in Agriculture. He was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho social fraternity and the Alpha Zeta and Gamma Sigma Delta honorary societies. After college graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He completed basic officer training at Fort Sill, OK in 1955 finishing second in his class. He began his service in Germany in the

second armored division in May 1955. He was awarded the Commendation Ribbon and Metal Pendant. He left active duty in the Fall of 1956 and returned to Marion Junction to work for his father and uncle in the family cattle business. He and Sadera were married on September 5, 1959. He entered Columbia Theological Seminary in the Fall of 1959 and graduated in the Spring of 1962. His first church was Tallassee Presbyterian Church in Tallassee, AL where he served as Moderator of East Alabama. In the Fall of 1967, he and his family moved to Collins, MS where he served as pastor to the Collins Presbyterian Church and the MacDonald Presbyterian Church and served as Moderator of South Mississippi. He also served as a volunteer firefighter in Collins. In March of 1973, Cecil was called back to Columbia Theological Seminary to serve as the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds. He faithfully worked at the Seminary for 28 years. He built a number of new buildings and renovated many more. He retired in December of 2001 but continued to work on several special projects for Columbia Seminary and Decatur Presbyterian Church after retirement.

REFRESH, RESEARCH, AND REDISCOVER re:source is a unique gift for all CTS Alumni

• The 24/7 online access to a collection of religious and theological books and articles specially designed for theological alumni • Lifetime access to resources sent directly to you Contact Erica Durham at DurhamE@ctsnet.edu for login credentials or help!

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

1970s | William Jokela

MDiv ’78, Retired Army Chaplain, MAJ, serving as a Parish Associate at First Presbyterian Church, Annandale, VA.

1980s | Mark Diehl

MDiv ’80, completed his interim work as Head of Staff at Unity Presbyterian Church in Fort Mill, SC, and begins as Interim Head of Staff at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI (in Detroit Presbytery) on November 17. His book God of Deliverance and Transformation: The Ten Commandments for the Twenty-First Century was published August 2019 through Amazon. Ray Jones MDiv ’84, was appointed Director of Theology, Formation & Evangelism (TFE) at The Presbyterian Mission Agency.

1990s

| Todd Jenkins MDiv ’90, is Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Greeneville, TN. Keith Riddle MDiv ’91, is Vice President for Mission Integration at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, part of the University of Maryland Medical System in Towson, MD. He recently received the National Certificate in Catholic Health Care Ethics. Susan Moorefield MDiv ’92, is Interim Senior Pastor, Unity Presbyterian Church, Fort Mill, SC. Michael Poulos MDiv ’92, is Director of Mission Immersion for Asheville Youth Mission, working with fellow alumnus, Bill Buchanan. John White MDiv ’93, graduated in April 2019, with honors, from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, with a PhD in Practical Theology. Dissertation title: The Trinity, the Incarnation and Practical Theology—An Inquiry into Ministry for a Lack of Assurance, Anxiety,

/ CTSNET.EDU

and Shame — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REV. JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL, D.D. Mary (Becky) Stewart MDiv ’97, Retired in 2018 from active ministry, and moved to former hometown of Ocala, FL, and remarried. Sarah Diehl, MDiv ’98, is a psychotherapist, who recently opened a full-time private practice in Baltimore, MD. Csongor Kovacs MDiv ’98, is Pastor, First Hungarian Reformed Church, New York City, NY.

2000s

| John Brown DMin ’01, was appointed Senior Pastor at Tuckston UMC in Athens, GA. David “Oats” Dault MATS ’02, teaches full time at the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Loyola University, Chicago, IL. He continues to produce and host his weekly radio show, Things Not Seen, and produces a regular podcast for Commonweal magazine. He writes a monthly column for St. Anthony

Messenger magazine. He and his family have recently bought their first home, in their long-time neighborhood of Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago. Michael Williams MDiv ’02, is honorably retired by New Castle Presbytery after serving as Pastor at Georgetown Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, DE, for 17 years. He also served 13 years as a Church Educator prior to earning his MDiv in the class of 2002. George A. Ashford Jr. DMin ’03, has a new book: Lose to Win: A Journey of Risking It All to Gain It All, is available for purchase on Amazon or https://www.georgeashford. org/. Wes Brandon MDiv ’03, is Minister at Buckie South & West Parish Church, United Kingdom. Susan Takis MDiv ’03, serves as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wildwood, FL. In addition, Susan currently serves as Moderator of the “Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examination of Candidates” (PCC) which has the responsibility to write and administer ordination exams for the denomination. Kate Roscoe MDiv ’03, is serving as Transitional Pastor, Woodstock Presbyterian Church, Woodstock, VA. William Gafkjen DMin ’04, Bishop of the IndianaKentucky Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was featured as the speaker at the Annual Festival Choral Eucharist for Reformation service at Wittenburg University. Stuart Higginbotham MDiv ’05, Rector of Grace Church in Gainesville, is a co-editor and contributor to the forthcoming volume Contemplation and Community: A Gathering of Fresh Voices for a Living Tradition. The book is being published by the Crossroad Publishing Company. Melissa Archer ThM ’06, presented the 2019 Bible Lectures November 10-11, Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. Melissa is chair and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biblical Studies at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL.

Daviceto Swaby DMin ’06, is Lead Pastor, Apple Creek Seventh Day Adventist Church, Markham, Canada. Hana Elliot MDiv ’07, is Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Bloomfield, IN. Karen Ware Jackson MDiv ’08 and Rob Jackson MDiv ’08, are Senior Co-Pastors at First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, NC, as of September 2019. Karen, Rob, Grace (8), Jake (6) and Abby the dog have bought a new house in Greenville and are loving life with their whole family in one congregation. Karen continues her studies at Columbia Seminary in the Doctor of Ministry program and Rob is working on a Masters of Business Administration through LSU Shreveport’s online program. Karen co-edited a book When Kids Ask Hard Questions: Faith Filled Responses for Tough Topics published by Chalice Press.

2010s | T.J. Shirley MDiv ’10, is the

Contemporary Worship Leader and Communications Director at First United Methodist Church, Rocky Mount, NC. Marcel van Bulck MDiv ’10, is Associate Pastor for Family and Campus Ministries at Oxford Presbyterian Church, Oxford, OH. Matthew Ruffner MDiv ’10, Pastor of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas, was the featured preacher October 13 on “Day 1” radio program accessible at Day1. org.

IN MEMORIAM

Richard G. Laurens, Sr. BD ’52 . Roy W. Hicks, BD ’53 . . . . . . Maxine Hicks . . . . . . . . . . . Cecil Moore BD ’62 . . . . . . . Dorothy D. Smith BRE ’63 . . . Jerry Glenn Robinson BD ’60 . Michael Murdock ’90 . . . . . . Margaret Fowler DMin ’09 . . . Mary Howson DMin ’03. . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . October 19, 2019 . November 14, 2019 November 20, 2019 . . October 18, 2019 . . . August 21, 2019 . . . . .July 15, 2019 . . . August 2, 2019 . . August 26, 2019 . . October 13, 2019

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES continued

Kyle Walker DMin ’11, is the Transitional Minister at Midway Hills Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Dallas, TX.

the Pastoral Honeymoon Period. Mike is serving as the Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church of Laurens, SC.

Nathaniel “J.R.” Dunlap MATS ’12, began serving as Administrative Pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, Phenix City, AL, in April 2019.

Katherine Blankenship MDiv ’14, married Mr. David Johnson on July 13, 2019 at the Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville, NC.

Travis Allen MDiv ’11, accepted a call to First Presbyterian Church, Kinston, NC as Solo Pastor in July 2019. Sydne Allen MDiv ’10, (also a Minister of the Word & Sacrament) is now Transitional Director of Christian Education & Formation at First Presbyterian Church, Kinston, NC. Together, they are raising 3 sons: Barrett (5), Henry (4), and Eli (14 months). Mike McCracken MDiv ’13, received his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from McCormick Theological Seminary in May. His course of study was completed as a part of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS) DMin in Preaching program. His thesis was: Preaching in Transition, Making the Most of 42

/ CTSNET.EDU

Kelly Couch MAPT ’15, was accepted as an Artist in Residence with the New Orleans non-profit Kid SMART for the 2019-2020 school year. She will work with students and teachers in selfcontained special education classrooms integrating art into the curriculum. Allison Wehrung MDiv ’15, moved to Oxford, MS, two years ago. She is the convener of UKirk, a student ministry by Presbyterians. Laura Morrison MDiv ’16, was installed as Pastor at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, NC on March 3, 2019. Chad Wright Pittman MDiv ’16, is Associate Pastor for Care and Outreach at First Presbyterian Church of Anderson, SC.

Dominique Robinson DMin ’17, is Dean of Chapel at Wiley College, Marshall, TX. Lauren Patrus-Betzel MDiv ’17, Associate Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of San Leandro, CA. Sarah Smith MAPT ’17, is a Member at Large, PCUSA, living in Atlanta, GA, after serving as a pastor in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. Michelle Mehan MAPT ’17, is serving as a Palliative Care Chaplain for BayCare Health Systems in Clearwater, FL. Katherine Saxbury MDiv ’17, accepted the call of Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Onida, SD. Ross Boone, MATS ’18, is a freelance artist and writer who gives talks to help people find their calling. He owns a small business selling prints of his art work and books. Ross partners with churches to help them engage their congregation through art and story. (www.rawspoon.com)

T A U T A P A N T A

FACULTY & STAFF P U B L I C AT I O N S A N D A C T I V I T Y

RECENT ENGAGEMENTS

2019 October 31–November 3, Sarah Erickson Attended Religious Education Association/Association of Leaders of Lifelong Learning for Ministry (ALLLM) Annual Conference, and moderated an ALLLMsponsored workshop and the ALLLLM Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada. November, Rebecca Spurrier Presented paper on “Fit Bodies, Abled Minds, and (Inaccessible) Routes to Religious Leadership” for the Religion and Disability Studies Unit at the North American Academy of Liturgy, San Diego. She also serves on the steering committee for the Ecclesial Practices Unit. November, Stan Saunders Led a six-week class at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta into December, focusing on the creation story in the New Testament. November 1–3, Christine Hong REA Conference and Board Meeting, presided over “Disrupting the Consequences of Difficult Histories Through Education” plenary.

November 4–7, Kelly Campbell Was part of an ATS accreditation team visiting McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. November 6, Anna Carter Florence Lectured and taught at “The Initiative,” an event for Church of Christ pastors, in Dallas, TX. November 7, Bill Harkins Guest Speaker, Arbor Society Luncheon, Cathedral of St. Philip. November 11–13, Israel Galindo Leadership in Ministry, Atlanta. November 17, Martha Moore-Keish Preached at installation service for Dana Waters V at McDonough Presbyterian Church, McDonough, GA. November 19–25, Bill Harkins Psychological Health Faculty, Episcopal CREDO, Trinity Conference Center, Pine Knoll Shores, NC. November 20–22, Christine Hong FTE Doctoral Fellowship Gathering Mentor. November 22, Bill Harkins Experiential Psychotherapy: A Fierce Commitment to Growing, The Link Counseling Center, Atlanta.

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

FACULTY & STAFF P U B L I C AT I O N S A N D A C T I V I T Y

NOVEMBER 22–25: AAR/SBL November 23, Martha Moore-Keish Presided at panel at AAR on Karl Barth and Comparative Theology. November 23, Wonchul Shin Presented a paper entitled “Salimi in Action: South Korea Mothers’ Transformative Protest Against Political and Cultural Violence, 1970-1986” in the Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Unit. November 24–25, Mitzi Smith Participated in the SBL Korean Biblical Colloquium (KBC) session devoted to reviewing Landscapes of Korean and Korean American Biblical Interpretations (SBL Press, 2019) in San Diego, CA. Also, Mitzi Smith responded to papers presented in Women in Biblical World Section Panel on the theme of Race, Gender, and the Politics of “Sass”: Reading Biblical Women through the Lens of Womanist Resistance. She was also on a panel entitled “Best Practices for Succeeding in Academic Publishing at All Stages of Your Career” at SBL Status of Women in the Profession Committee.

/ CTSNET.EDU

November 25, Mindy McGarrah Sharp Respondent for papers presented in a panel entitled “Scholarly Workers in Public Spaces: The Long Road Toward De-Colonizing Psychology, Culture, and Religion,” AAR Others in attendance: Bill Brown, Kelly Campbell, Christine Hong, Christine Roy Yoder December 6–7, Anna Carter Florence Preached at the December meeting of Grace Presbytery, Dallas, TX, and leading a workshop day for preachers. December 7, Christine Roy Yoder Co-taught with Raj Nadella a course on biblical interpretation for the Commissioned Ruling Elder Program, Greater Atlanta Presbytery. December 29, Sarah Erickson Led worship and preached at Forsyth Presbyterian Church, Forsyth, GA

2020 January, Christine Roy Yoder Teaching a 3-week series at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church, Alpharetta. January 6–10, Anna Carter Florence: Will serve as Scholar in Residence for the Moveable Feast Lectionary Group. January 7, Israel Galindo, ELCA Natural Systems Academy in Chicago, IL. January 11, Wonchul Shin, the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) Annual Meeting, convening a season “Gender, Violence, Inequity, and Resistance: Asian Context” by Christina A. Astorga January 12, 19 and 26, Martha Moore-Keish Teaching feminist theology at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA. January 22, Anna Carter Florence Leading a “Preaching Day” event at the Philadelphia Theological Institute in Philadelphia, PA. January 23–25, Leanne Van Dyk Hosting PCUSA Presidents Board at Columbia Seminary campus.

January 25, Wonchul Shin The Southeastern Korean School Association Winter Seminar, leading a seminar on theology and migration.

March 20–21, Sarah Erickson Attending Presbytery of S. Alabama meeting, Mobile, AL.

Sundays in February, Leanne Van Dyk Teaching adult Sunday School at Peachtree Presbyterian Church.

March 24, Martha Moore-Keish Preaching and teaching at National Capital Presbytery in Washington DC.

February 6–7, Israel Galindo Lilly Gathering, Indianapolis, IN.

March 25, Israel Galindo CTS Center for Academic Literacy

February 25–26, Christine Hong Lecturing at Furman University, Office of Spiritual Life.

March 29, Sarah Erickson Preaching at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, Dothan, AL.

February 29–March 1, Martha Moore-Keish Preaching and teaching at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church in Tarboro, NC.

March 30–April 1: Israel Galindo Leadership in Ministry A, Lynchburg VA.

March, Stan Saunders Leading the Men’s Retreat for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at Christmount, near Montreat, NC, focusing on the Parables of Jesus. March, Christine Roy Yoder Teaching a 3-week series at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Atlanta. March 9–10, Anna Carter Florence Delivering the James C. Cammack Institute of Preaching Lectures at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, NC. March 16–18, Israel Galindo Leadership in Ministry, Atlanta GA

R E C E N T P U B L I C AT I O N S Tim Hartman, Assistant Professor of Theology, Theology after Colonization: Bediako Barth and the Future of Theological Reflection (University of Notre Dame Press), November 2019. Robert H. Ramey, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Ministry, published his 17th book, The Eternal Why: More FaithBuilding Sermons (amazon.com). Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, published the book Creating Resistances: Pastoral Care in a Postcolonial World (Leiden: Brill), 2019. Mindy McGarrah Sharp also published a chapter entitled

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

T A U T A P A N T A

FACULTY & STAFF P U B L I C AT I O N S A N D A C T I V I T Y

“Moral Imagination and More” in the book Teaching Health Humanities (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2019. Mitzi Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testatment, 4 commentaries during September at www.workingpreacher.org. Rebecca Spurrier, Assistant Professor of Worship, The Disabled Church: Human Difference and the Art of Communal Worship (Fordham University Press), October 2019.

/ CTSNET.EDU

AWA R D S A N D HONORS Kelly Campbell, Associate Dean for Information Services and Director of John Bulow Campbell Library, is on the ATS Global Awareness and Engagement Initiative working group. Heidi Gleason, Director of Annual Giving: Completed the Executive Certificate of Religious Fundraising through the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, a part of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. This four-day intensive course took place in Durham, North Carolina from November 4-7, 2019. The course provides the research, tools, and customized training to meet the needs of leaders in religious communities and fundraisers of faith-based organizations.

Christine Hong, Assistant Professor of Educational Ministry, received the Wabash Early Career Faculty in Religion and Theology fellowship grant for the project, “Humanizing Difference.” Mitzi Smith, J. Davison Phillips Professor of NT was voted into the Society for New Testament Studies, an international society of biblical scholars. She will participate in SNTS beginning in 2020 and has been asked to present a paper on some aspect of missions and expansion in early Christianity for the 2020 meeting of the SNTS meeting in Rome. The organizers hope to arrange a meeting with the Pope. Christine Roy Yoder, J. McDowell Richards Professor of Biblical Interpretation, will co-chair the ATS Council on Theological Scholarship and Research, beginning its work this fall.

BEST OF THE BLOG

JULY 22, 2019 EVERYTHING TAKES FIVE YEARS

BY ISRAEL GALINDO

I am often reminded of what my friend Margaret Marcuson, author of Leaders Who Last, says about bringing about change in congregations, which is, “Everything takes five years.” While that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, it’s not far from the truth. Over the past four weeks I’ve had casual conversations with many church leaders related to how long it takes to get things done in congregations. Each highlighted a different aspect of the dynamic. Gaining trust takes time. A conversation with a local priest highlighted how long it takes for folks to learn to trust a new leader. Trust is not something that is given totally by virtue of position or office. And if we’ve followed a leader who has not left well, then gaining trust can be even more difficult. Gaining people’s trust takes about five years.

OCTOBER 9, 2019 “BASEBALL CARD BOOK” DOCUMENTS FIRST WOMEN ORDAINED IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BY MICHAEL K. THOMPSON

As a woman in seminary, Caroline Leach (’72) only wanted the same respect accorded to other students. Here, she shares about the challenges of being a student at Columbia Theological Seminary at a time when women were just starting to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.). After working as a college chaplain, she teamed up with Diane Tennis who came from the North to work at the PC(US) offices in Atlanta, GA. They created the “Baseball Card Book” in an effort to network with other women who were ordained in the Presbyterian Church. Listen as she tells her story on video, and feel free to share your own story! For the full stories and more, please visit www.CTSnet.edu/ columbia-connections.

Flushing the system takes time. One recent seminary graduate, only two years out of seminary, is leaving her first church position. She’s feeling frustrated that people on her primary ministry committees don’t seem to listen to her ideas, don’t seem to take her seriously and don’t follow her leadership. I shared with her my own perspective that in order to begin to get things done you sometimes have to “flush the system” first. That is, you have to transition out the people on committees that you inherited and start putting in the people you need. Getting all the people you need in the right places takes about five years.

FALL 2019 / VANTAGE /

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 40 Decatur, GA

PO BOX 520 Decatur, GA 30031

VANTAGE

FALL

201 9



VISIT US ONLINE CTSnet.edu

    CONNECT WITH US



404-378-8821

Homecoming ‘20 Feb. 3-5, 2020

Don’t miss these learning opportunities. • Erskine Clarke—lectures from his new book • Response panels from CTS History Professors and from African American Faculty • Anna Carter Florence & Christine Roy Yoder— Preaching Lent • Marci Glass—Enneagram Track • Kathleen O’Connor—Genesis • Martha Moore Keish and George Stroup—Theology • Stan Saunders (catch him before he retires in May!) — New Testament • David Huffine—Capital Campaigns • Robert Hay—Generosity • Renita Weems—O’Connor Lecture • Alumni Awards! Check for more announcements and REGISTER today!