Vantage Winter 2023

In This Issue

In Every Issue

’23 AND JUST CREATION

Corie Cox

Courtney Henry, ’24

Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins CONTRIBUTORS

Chassidy Goggins ’23

Julie Bailey ’09

Valrie Thompson

Caitlin Reeves Greenamyre

Dr. Victor Aloyo

Courtney Henry ’24

Kristin Gaydos

Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins

Millie Snyder

Lucy Baum

Lisle Gwynn Garrity ’15

Amy Baer ’08

Letter from the President

Friends, as I am at the beginning of the second semester of my presidency, I remain in awe of this community and am so grateful to be here. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year as I settled into another year at Princeton Theological Seminary, I had no idea that God would lead me here before that school year ended. Still, I can say that I am thankful that God cleared the path for me to land here and to serve Christ and the Church with all of you.

As I reflected and discerned the call I heard from Columbia Theological Seminary, I knew there was much opportunity here. I can sum those reasons up in the phrase ‘Abundance & Grace.’ The opportunity afforded by a world-class faculty, staff, a great and diverse student body, and generous and committed people like you allows me to wake up each morning in gratitude. I knew that the foundation of this world-class seminary was strong and that we could continue to build a great institution that nurtures and educates pastoral leaders for today’s church and world, and tomorrow’s as well.

We have spent the first semester building community through conversation and dialogue together. We have held forums and commission meetings and celebrated convocation and my inauguration. I have had the honor and the privilege of traveling around the Southeast to preach in different churches and meet alums and friends of Columbia.

I look forward to the places I will go next and the alumni friends I will connect with in the weeks ahead. Getting out and meeting members of the Columbia community is one of the most rewarding things I do because each of you is

an important reason that we have been able not just to keep pace but to get ahead of the ebb and flow of the pandemic, to continue to build community, and to move towards our third century actively.

I leave you with these observations to carry us forward. Together, we will continue to bring to life the Seminary’s critical mission of inspiring and challenging every student to a life of leadership and purpose for the glory of God. Serving as educators, facilitators, motivators, and mentors, Columbia Seminary’s faculty, students, and staff will nurture and challenge and enhance our covenantal spirit of community. We will strive to embrace every story through our curriculum, policies, campus life, and virtual platforms because we belong to each other on this journey to become world changers, discoverers, explorers, curators, and stewards of God’s kin-dom. Our approach to change and innovation will be methodical, adhering to our lived experiences and data gathering. We will continue to honor the diversity of our stories by valuing the variety of calls to ministry in our midst, an essential tenet of the Reformed Tradition.

As I look ahead to the rest of this first year and the many more that we will share, I am reminded of our new Vision statement that says: We believe God is already doing a new thing among us for the sake of the church and the world; we yearn to join in that holy work, for WE BELONG AT COLUMBIA!

Victor Aloyo, President

Community Prayer and Blessing

from President Victor Aloyo’s Inauguration Service

BY REV. DR. MILLIE SNYDER ’03, TRUSTEE AND CHAIR, PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE

Almighty God, we are grateful for all that has brought us to this day and time. We are grateful for Columbia Theological Seminary, with an honest recognition of a human history of faithfulness and sinfulness interwoven into its legacy. We are grateful for professors and students who bring a commitment to scholarship and a willingness to ask difficult questions of you and of one another, who come from different traditions in the church universal and different places on the map.

We are grateful for the ten presidents who have served Columbia with courage and commitment. We are grateful for the support from congregations and donors who further the mission of this community. We are grateful for alumni who serve faithfully in all sorts of places and all sorts of ways. We are grateful for the seminary’s reach that stretches to include ministries beyond the campus – in Atlanta, in Georgia, and around the world.

We are grateful for The Reverend Doctor Victor Aloyo, baptized as a child of God and nurtured in faith by his family and his faith family, Loved and encouraged by his wife and his daughters, Educated and trained within the walls of academic institutions and outside those walls in the school of the world, Equipped as a pastor to proclaim the gospel, to teach the faith, and to care for the brokenhearted, Equipped as an educator to mentor students, to broaden the circle of inclusion, and to connect resources to vision.

We pray for the ongoing ministry of Columbia Theological Seminary and for Victor Aloyo’s ministry as president of this institution.

By the power of your Holy Spirit, open this community to Victor’s leadership. Weave a web of truth and trust in this community among staff, and administrators, and faculty, and Trustees, and students.

Deepen the commitment to living in the way of Jesus Christ as a community. Give courage for risk taking and truth telling. Humble the privileged and empower the marginalized in this community so that we might bear witness to the truth of your gospel.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on Victor for his work. May his life and work bear the fruit of your Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, generosity, and self-control.

Balance his life and work in this community with an outreach to partners beyond the campus.

Balance his life and work on behalf of the seminary with the personal rest that brings refreshment and renewal.

Give him abundant courage to say ‘no,’ courage to close the door, courage to go home, courage to have the hard conversations.

Give him abundant wisdom when to speak and when to listen, wisdom when to act and when to refrain from action, wisdom when to step forward and when to step to the side so that someone else can step up.

Open him to listen and learn, open him to the wisdom of unlikely mentors, open him to acknowledge mistakes and to ask for help.

Holy Spirit come upon him with your abundant power and empower him for the days and years ahead.

We do not know what the future holds but we trust that you hold the future – the future of Columbia Theological Seminary and the future of Victor Aloyo’s life and ministry.

Lead us into your future with grace. We pray all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Aisha Brooks-Johnson, Millie Snyder, and Howard Giraldo deliver the Declaration of Purpose, Vows, and the Community Prayer and Blessing for the inauguration.

Laying the Groundwork for Our Future

A Conversation with President Victor Aloyo About How Columbia Prepares for its Third Century

In December 2022, at the end of his first semester as the 11th President of Columbia Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo considers the grace and abundance that is Columbia and how pausing to reflect and learn more about who we are can help propel us into our third century of service to the Church and the world.

Q: From your first day as President of Columbia, you have communicated a message of abundance and grace. What are you referencing when you talk about abundance and grace?

A: At the time of my arrival at Columbia, we were entering an endemic time after multiple pandemics - a virus, wars, political unrest, and religious divisiveness to name a few –and scripture reminds us that in moments of despair, God is always present. Conflict, crisis, and uncertain times aren’t a reflection of God’s absence in our lives, because it is in these moments that we need to take stock of the blessings in our midst.

So, when I stepped onto Columbia’s campus, I saw God’s hand in the 57 beautiful acres with buildings dedicated to teaching and learning, and, even with a history that is at times troubling, I saw a rich history of theological education. I saw an opportunity to build upon those that have come before us.

That is the abundance – the faculty, their research capability, the discipline they bring to the formation of present and future leaders. There is abundance among our students. Their willingness and desire to serve and their experience as they come to us from locations both domestically and internationally because Columbia is where they want to be. They feel that Columbia is the place they belong.

I see an abundance of God’s presence in and through all of this.

And there is grace in that we have been called to serve in such a time as this – to serve as administrators, faculty, and staff. We have been given such a blessing to use our talents and gifts to serve Christ in such a place as Columbia.

Q: Why is it important for us to be conscious of and reflect on the abundance and grace that is Columbia?

A: We are living in a time of great division, even in the pulpit, where there are articulations of hatred due to the sense of “otherness” found in our society. We see that division play out in so many ways on a daily basis.

The pandemic itself changed so much and it also accelerated change that was already happening. Take the Church. It was in transition prior to COVID. We have watched as some churches have closed their doors for good, and yet, God still calls people to the ministry.

It would be so easy to take the negative and lift that up and maximize it because we are so engrossed and overwhelmed by what is happening around us and to us. But we can flip that message by remembering to look at what we have. Look at what stories, history, lives we represent. Look at the churches that are thriving, the servant leaders that are doing remarkable things in ministries all over the world and that are choosing to come to Columbia to deepen their commitment and further their theological education.

We need to focus and realize that God is creating this new thing and we are part of it – a big part of it – not because we merit it, but because of God’s grace and abundant presence God has given us the opportunity to be in his vineyard to serve and to be good stewards of the resources that abound.

We need to lift up the abundance and grace that is Columbia amidst a storyline of division, anger, hatred, and uncertainty.

Q: In this first year of your presidency, our community is taking time to pause and reflect. What does it mean to you to pause and to reflect?

A: As I mentioned in my State of the Seminary address, pausing does not necessarily mean stopping, but it does mean taking a moment to examine what we are doing and why we are doing it. It is a chance to explore if what we are doing is moving us forward. It gives us a chance to pivot if our actions are not moving us towards the future.

Reflection in some ways goes back to the conversation about abundance and grace – taking the time to appreciate what we have and what we are doing well. It is also an opportunity to think about what is not working and serving us well now and won’t in the near future given the demographic shifts, the pandemics of the last few years, the social, economic, and religious issues that we are confronting.

The point of pausing and reflecting is so we can understand how to better prepare ourselves so that we can prepare the future leaders of the church.

I don’t think that we have fully absorbed or engaged the consequences of the last few years. They have challenged our mental health. They have challenged our institutions. If we are going to be relevant going forward, we need this time to pause and reflect and then move ahead thoughtfully with the adjustments that need to be made.

Q: As you noted, part of the purpose of pausing and reflecting is to be relevant as we move towards the beginning of our third century. We have commissions who are studying various aspects of our culture and practices and working on a strategic blueprint for our future. It feels like there could be a lot of action coming out of your first year. Will there be time reserved to pause and reflect as we implement that blueprint?

A: Absolutely. Our blueprint is going to be filled with lots of aspirations. For example, we need to examine our pedagogy, explore and identify the degree programs that we need to develop, and more. Those aspirations in our blueprint will guide the prioritizations we need to make in four different

areas – academic pedagogy, governance, administrative foci, and campus culture. These are the four areas of institutional life that we have selected to prioritize for the next three years.

Once that blueprint is complete, we are going to live into that plan, but it will be incremental, because there is one other important thing that is going on as well. We are engaging in a culture shift. A shift from where a few people have been part of the decision-making process to a place where everyone is part of the conversation. We are creating commissions that include our students, our staff, our alumni, our executives, and our trustees.

Bringing these different perspectives, hearing concerns and needs all throughout the development and implementation of our blueprint will ensure that we have regular opportunities to pause and reflect on what we are doing.

Q: What should our many constituents and stakeholders know about Columbia and how we are moving into our third century?

A: We are taking a very systematic approach to understanding the realities of the day. Our number one goal is not merely to restore what we had pre-pandemic. We want to gain an understanding of who we are in this moment through partnership and conversation with our alumni, our trustees, our students, faculty, and staff so that we can begin to see the opportunities that await us unfold.

We want students who are exploring their call to ministry to realize that Columbia Theological Seminary will be a village for their development and that they and their stories are integral to create a kaleidoscope of experiences within our institution. We may be working systematically towards our third century, but the path is not going to be a straight shot from where we are to where we need and want to be. There is going to be experimentation and with that experimentation there needs to be an understanding that experimenting and developing new initiatives does not mean that every initiative will succeed.

There also needs to be an understanding that the way we measure success may be different than how we have measured it before. There also needs to be an understanding that a new program or initiative might have a shorter shelf-life – maybe three to five years versus twenty years. But we’ll recognize that because we will regularly pause and reflect on where we are, where we are going, and what is serving us on that journey. It is all about renewal. After all, that is what the Reformed Tradition is all about.

Celebrating Abundance & Grace

Columbia marked the inauguration of its eleventh president, Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo with a dinner, symposium, and inaugural service at Decatur Presbyterian Church

On May 23, Columbia’s Board of Trustees announced that the Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo would become Columbia’s 11th president. Inaugural festivities began on Friday, November 11 with a morning chapel service and a dinner and symposium titled “Forming Christian Leaders for an Endemic Era” in the evening. A Service of Worship took place the following day with heartfelt prayer, moving music, and inspirational preaching.

This page, clockwise from top: Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo greets Drs. Justo and Catherine González before his celebration dinner; Dr. Aloyo leads worship during Friday morning chapel; communion during chapel service

Next page, clockwise from top: participants in the celebration dinner; Dr. Aloyo posing with friends from New Jersey; crowd gathering before the dinner; the symposium panel; Dr. Tribble; Dr. Aloyo greeting guests before dinner; Dr. Aloyo greeting Dr. Leanne Van Dyk

Previous page, clockwise from top: Dr. Watkins assists Dr. Nadella robe for the procession; Dr. Brown and Dr. Yoder; Drs. Nadella and Douglas greet emeritus Dr. Murchison; Dr. Van Dyk greets Rev Luly Hay; Dr. Aloyo offers the benediction; Khalfani Lawson greets Dr. Anna Carter Florence; Drs. Galindo and Myers wait

This page, clockwise from top: Kayla Cristen, Alyssa Nicole, and Suzette Aloyo offering a charge from his family; delegation, from right, Dr. Craig Soares (Stillman), Dr. Leocadia Zak (Agnes Scott), Dr. Ann Stewart (Princeton), Laura H. Jernigan (Union), [back row] Dr. Paul Roberts (Johnson C. Smith), Dr. José Irizarry (Austin), Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty (Presbyterian Foundation); Dr. Aloyo after community prayer and blessing

Seeing the Future of the Church

in the Rainbow: An Invitation to

the Margins

I went looking for the light. Sabbatical was a search for what God was doing in God’s church that revealed the future of God’s church. It wasn’t as much about church growth but rather where was God growing and expanding the definition of what it meant to be the church? Where was the lamp? Where was the light?

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DR. RALPH BASUI WATKINS, MFA, DMIN, PHD, PEACHTREE PROFESSOR OF EVANGELISM AND CHURCH GROWTH

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Watkins has returned from his sabbatical, and we are working on premiering his portrait exhibition and documentary on campus. Register for updates or find out more about Dr. Watkins’ work at the website: www.futureofblackchurch.org Dr. Watkins’ sabbatical work was funded by a sabbatical grant from the Louisville Institute and The Collegeville Institute.

Rev. Sonya Williams

21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Mk 4:21–22). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM) birthed under the leadership of Bishop Yvette Flunder in 2000 and Real Inspirations Ministries (RIM) Church of Atlanta, founded in 2008, is where I looked. Real Inspiration Ministries is pastored by Rev. Sonya Williams. I had a relationship with Rev. Williams as we had done work together on LGBTQ issues since my time in Atlanta. The first documentary I produced, She is the Pastor featured Rev. Williams and four other women pastors in Atlanta.

There was a light coming from TFAM and RIM that I couldn’t ignore. I was drawn to spend my year with RIM and TFAM. The project was not a traditional book project but rather a trans-media project. The work was about light, and the use of light was key to the work. Photography literally means writing with light. Photography, by way of portraits, a feature length documentary and a bible study were to be the three components of this body of work.

The use of light, to shine light on the hidden things God is doing that the mainline church needs to see, was the goal of the work. God is doing something in radically inclusive churches like RIM. Three of the twelve traits of racially inclusive churches, as defined by Bishop Flunder, are

• Radical inclusivity recognizes, values, loves, and celebrates people on the margin.

• Radical inclusivity recognizes harm done in the name of God.

• Radical inclusivity is intentional and creates ministry on the margin.

Over this past year, as I sat nearby with my cameras, I saw the harm that had been done by mainline churches to my LGBTQ siblings. The thirteen interviews conducted for the documentary became sessions of intense vulnerability and transparency. The portrait sessions that flashed before me looked of being alone in church because you weren’t allowed to bring your full self to church. The portraits bring the eyes to life of those God called me to see who are doing ministry on the margins. Ministry on the margins is not a place of exile. It is a place of unconditional love. My LGBTQ siblings found love on the margins, they found church, they found it in God and they reintroduced me to the God I thought I knew.

J. Keeshawn Ballard

I went in as a documentarian and came out a convert. I was converted to the reality that God is shining in TFAM. God is doing an awesome work in TFAM congregations. I saw God like I never seen God before. RIM and TFAM welcomed me, loved me and gave me free rein with my cameras, shooting on Sundays, church meetings, conferences, doing interviews and capturing moments behind the scenes. They trusted that I would see God at work and be faithful in showing others what I saw.

I heard stories that I thought I knew. I sat and listened for hours. This was truly the first time I sat and just listened to my LGBTQ siblings tell their story a stories I needed to hear. A story I have been entrusted to share. I was touched in every interview as I sat behind my cameras crying. My siblings told of their pain, their healing, restoration and liberation. I heard stories of freedom. I saw where Jesus and justice lived, moved and acted.

To be at the TFAM Annual Leadership Convention in Arizona was to see the leaders of the largest church planting movement in the African American Church in recent history. As a specialist in church growth I wasn’t there to teach, but rather to learn. I became the student and not the teacher. I learned how God was using those on the margins to redefine the center.

To look through the viewfinder of my camera made me focus. I saw and with this work I pray that others will see. I pray they will see the light I saw as I used light to shed light. I share a story to tell the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This sabbatical gave me new eyes to see, a heart to love and hope for the future of God’s church. The future of the church is on the margins. It is on the margins that God does new things. I invite you to the margins.

Bishop Yvette Flunder

Rev. JaRome Campbell

Rev. Troy Sanders

Shalom for Our Common Home

March 16, 2023 - March 18, 2023

Columbia Theological Seminary

Seeking to shape such conversations and stimulate a church powered by God to pursue tikkun olam, the repair of the world, Columbia Theological Seminary is delighted to host Just Creation: Shalom for our Common Home. This conference, open to all who register, brings together internationally known theologians, scientists, activists, and artists to fund conversations and feed conviction, to provide sustenance for body and soul and offer wisdom for mind and will, to hear honest assessments and shape hope-filled actions. We’d like to thank our sponsors and partners for helping us build the types of relationships that will not only nourish us to face the complexities of this environmental age but empower us to pursue the work God is calling all of us to do in caring for creation.

Learn more at www.ctsnet.edu/about-us/the-columbia-conference/

Finding Hope on the Bittersweet Path

Dr. Julia Moore works in the department of Religious Studies at UNC Charlotte. She is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Dr. Moore, along with Columbia Seminary’s archivist Caitlin Reeves Greenamyre, has spent time searching through and exploring Columbia Seminary’s extensive archives. The archives—specifically church records, Presbytery and session minutes, and other primary source records—used in conjunction with cemetery sextant records, family histories, and probate records have revealed information on the burial grounds of enslaved persons. Dr. Moore and her students have not only pieced together clues to tell unwritten histories, they’ve found the stories of families.

While doing research on her second book about the history of Black Presbyterians in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, Dr. Moore began looking deep in the session records of colonial and antebellum era churches in the area. “Sometimes in the back of session books I would find the names of the enslaved persons. I would wonder where they were [buried]. The church historian would motion out to a side area of a cemetery or some shrubbery that was behind a wall and say, ‘Well our African American members are buried behind the wall or behind the shrub.’ That really fascinated me because I didn’t realize how segregation was still very much a part of church landscapes here in the South—some of the walls are still up, some of the shrubs are still up,” says Dr. Moore. “But the historic white churches still have enslaved persons’ burial grounds. They’re just hiding under periwinkle or fall leaves or bushes. They’re tucked away in cemeteries, and they look like nobody has attended to them since the colonial period, sometimes.”

Because enslaved persons’ gravesites were rarely marked with traditional tombstones, Dr. Moore has to look for other markers. “Enslaved human beings created their own markers. They have certain stones—sometimes they’re shaped in the figure of an eye which means that the ancestors are watching over that person—sometimes they’re plain stones. Every now and then you’ll see pieces of cut glass, or even shells around the grave sites and those will be markers as well, but those are few and far between. You

have to know how the stones look. And then there are trees, usually cedar, sometimes birch trees, planted. You have to know the trees. So in certain respects there were markers, but they were markers that were only accessible to the African Americans who were able to make use of them.”

When all the clues point to an enslaved person burial ground, Dr. Moore can confirm her findings with ground-penetrating radar. “If churches are willing to work with me, I will bring in the ground-penetrating radar team and they will provide scientific data on how many people are buried and the ways in which they are buried, in terms of how deep the graves are placed, the positions of those interred, which adds scientific authentication to the historical data noted in church archives

Many African Americans are unaware of where their enslaved and formally enslaved ancestors are buried. “When I preach at different Black Presbyterian churches around Mecklenburg County, I would ask parishioners, ‘Did you know that your ancestors are buried are on that church property?’ Many of them could recollect how their ancestors came from a particular white church, but they would have no idea that their ancestors may be buried in a segregated part of that church’s cemetery. Some Black Presbyterians have would attempt to go and honor their ancestors only to find that there were no burial markers for their loved ones or worse, the burial plot have been neglected and grown over with foliage. These reports from Black Presbyterians and my own inability to locate markers of Black Presbyterians sparked an initiative connected to my second book project to help both White and Black Presbyterians discover their ancestors and their shared connection to slavery. In this respect, I’m looking at the ways in Black and White Presbyterians churches still share burial grounds and a history that needs to be uncovered,” she says.

We asked her if she had any “Aha!” moments while researching in the C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections and Archives at Columbia.

Where most people might see a patch of periwinkle, Dr. Julia Moore sees a possible clue to hidden history.

Dr. Moore told the story of a Black Presbyterian, who had seen a marker with her family surname on it at the enslaved burial site. She was shocked to see her family name and had no idea that her ancestors were still buried, albeit in a segregated space in the White Presbyterian just a few miles from her own church. She wanted to know more and so Dr. Moore was allowed to have her students investigate the ancestry of the woman’s family. The discovery her students made regarding the ancestor of the woman’s family was transformative as the students were able to uncover the ancestry of her family well beyond the Civil War era as well as point her to the family to burial grounds that had not known.

“We all met on Zoom and the students were able to share some of the information they found on the family members with the family. Members of attended the Zoom session from all over the nation to hear more about their lost family members. The family was able to see pictures of a grave site unknown to them, a register of deed, and even a will that revealed how their family members were sold during slavery--it was a bittersweet moment for the family, but it was a very impactful time of discovery and connection to their ancestors.”

Dr. Moore has this advice for any church that wants to tell a fuller picture of their church history and acknowledge the Black members, though enslaved, that were a part of their worshiping community; “I think the first thing churches can do is look at their session records. Start reading those church minutes that date back to the antebellum period and see if there are enslaved human beings listed as “servants” or “congregants”. Take a second look at your church burial ground and notice the areas that have unfortunately been left to neglect. Find the overgrown shrubbery or the periwinkle that covers old stones. That’s probably where an enslaved burial ground exists which hold the remains of Black human beings that were once a part of the collected worshiping community. Then take a research trip to the John Bulow Campbell Library’s Special Collections. Cross reference the names of slave owners, of the plantations, and the names of enslaved persons listed in the session records. The wonderful thing about Presbyterians, they take notes and record almost everything. One place of investigation that may be especially fruitful are the sermon notes of White Presbyterian ministers who pastored slave-owning congregations during the antebellum period. It wasn’t

unusual for Presbyterian ministers to record marriages of enslaved people.” Finally consider contacting your local genealogical society for more information. This kind of research journey can help so many people discover family members lost to the legacies of slavery and it can help churches—White and Black—take substantive steps to heal the rifts of racism in our faith communities.

“When Dr. Moore was here over the summer, we wondered ‘What does it look like in the future for us to continue to collaborate?’ It’s almost like grief ministry that Dr. Moore is doing,” says Greenamyre. “I experience that a lot with donors who come to the archives. There is an emotional side to using the archives that catches people off guard. We’re just not practiced in using primary sources and don’t realize the emotional response people may have. But I believe primary sources can be a path to healing.”

“I think the biggest challenge for churches is to tell the fuller story of their church history, because many church histories don’t talk about the enslaved people that were part of their church membership rolls,” says Dr. Moore. “I think starting such a journey is not easy and it’s going to be full of challenges, especially if the descendants of those slave owners are still living and active in the church. But it is doing a great ministry of reconnecting, not just Black people to their ancestors, but Black and white people together and retelling the fuller story of the Body of Christ in America amid a history complicated by race. Such an endeavor requires the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to seek the truth and walk in forgiveness towards one another and our Christian ancestors. In this respect, the Body of Christ is turning to one of the most powerful imperatives of the Gospel—to love one’s neighbor as theirself.”

To learn more about Dr. Moore’s ministry, and the ways she helps churches on their journey of rediscovery, visit www.mooregraceministries.com/services.

You can learn more about the John Bulow Campbell Library’s C. Benton Kline Special Collections and Archives at www.ctsnet.edu/library/special-collections-and-archives/ or by contacting Caitlin Reeves Greenamyre at greenamyrec@ctsnet.edu.

Lamenting Together

Two more different instructors could not have been selected: a Black, womanist, New Testament scholar and a white, male, privileged, Old Testament scholar. Add to this unlikely pairing a diverse group of Black and white pastors and administrators, both women and men, as well as a pastor from Myanmar. The result? A most generative, challenging, community-building, spiritually transforming class!

By transformed lives, even our own. Lives that might tell the truth about your shalom justice at work in the world: Good Lord, deliver us.

—David Roth

Together we raised awareness about injustice in our world and explored how both justice and injustice are characterized in biblical texts, reading them through the lens of intersectionality to understand how systems of oppression overlap and converge in harming communities and individuals.

Together we critically and contextually explored texts from Genesis to Revelation, focusing particularly on those drawn from the prophets and the Synoptics, but not excluding passages about creation, Pauline letters, and the apocalypse. We traversed between the worlds of the ancient texts (and contexts) and of contemporary global neighborhoods, worlds and neighborhoods that reflect patriarchal norms, androcentrism, enslavement, and other forms of violence.

There’s blood on the leaves, there’s blood at the roots.

Why can’t we look away from its mysterious fruit?

The blood penetrates the soil, cries out in our silence. It cries out in the boldest act of Holy defiance

—Corey

Brown

We listened to voices that cry out for justice and peace, realizing that one is never possible without the other.

O God, Creator and Sustainer of life, we will keep their names ever before you, believing that you are just. We will say their names and many other names as we continue to believe that you will remain with us and beside us as we co-labor with you in the fight for justice.

—Maretta Arnold-Franklin

When I consider the heart of my tribulation, I despise what I’ve had to normalize to keep my head above water…

—Christine Mobley

This summer, Drs. Mitzi Smith and Bill Brown co-taught a new course “Biblical Perspectives of Justice” that officially launched the Justice track within the Doctor of Ministry degree program.

You have decided on silence, while the aqueducts of empire gush at all hours.

—Vernon Hill

We heard the cries for clean affordable water, for safety from police brutality, for bodily health and autonomy, for the preservation of life in settings of toxicity, both social and physical.

How long, Sustainer? Will daily and generational trauma be normalized? To what extent will suffering continue to follow me, will despair continue to be closer to me than my shadow, and will this human fabricated injustice accompany me til my last breath?

—Vincent Jones

And we shared our hopes for our communities.

With standing and on sitting Perhaps taking off or turning on Ups and downs of hardship Not always smiling comes....

—Hau Suan

Students wrote interpretation papers and developed video sermons to be preached and Bible studies to lead based on those papers.

We shared our laments. Trauma must be voiced and heard; our healing demands it. These are a few excerpts from the laments our current Doctor of Ministry students constructed.

Show up Lord!

Let me see the repentance of the “whiteness” in the land of the living. And the trauma induced blackness, released from the lynching tree imagination that says to them, “things will never change” and I will never be enough.

—Rhonda Johnson

May they embolden us “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” May we know and model, in tangible and transformative ways, love of God, of self, and of the global neighborhood, near and far.

Champion my sisters and me!

Tell men and women of our worth, the justice you seek for us! Cause your people to deal equitably with us— teach them to love what they had once devalued.

Blot out the shame of our unwantedness, redeem us and bring us into the light:

—Susan Balfour

How long oh Lord?

We were promised acres and mules. We were promised vengeance will come from you! I’m waiting Lord but someone else will die tonight. Someone else will die tomorrow, but we may never know!

—Jonathan Moore

For more information on Columbia Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry or Doctor of Educational Ministry programs, visit admissions.ctsnet.edu/degrees/

Tree of Life Artist’s Statement

TREE OF LIFE BANNERS INSPIRED BY REVELATION 22 INK-DYED SILK BANNERS CREATED BY REV. LISLE GWYNN GARRITY, MDIV, MAPT ’15 COMMISSIONED BY DR. ALOYO’S INAUGURATION COMMITTEE, 2023

It was a deep honor to be commissioned to create the art for this inauguration service, inspired by Dr. Aloyo’s vision that Columbia Seminary be led by the values of abundance and grace. I created the banners using gold resist and ink dyes painted on silk. In my initial conversation with Dr. Aloyo, he told me that his vision was partly shaped by the passage in Revelation 22 of the tree and river of life.

As I was revisiting this prophetic vision by John the revelator, I was immediately struck by one detail in particular: the river of the water of life flows from the throne of God, and on either side of the river is the tree of life. On either side of the river? How does a tree exist on both sides of a river?

As I was sketching out possibilities for this composition, I realized that my own narrow imagination was limiting my perspective. What if the tree of life isn’t singular? What if the tree of life is instead a species of tree, of which there are many? Or, what if the tree has a different type of physical presence altogether in which it exists anywhere and everywhere, its roots and branches reaching like a kaleidoscope that mirrors itself and expands?

And then I thought about the river. In the Garden of Eden, the river divides. But in this vision, the river simply flows.

Who am I to decide where it begins or ends? What if the river itself is boundless?

And so, I created a composition in which the details of the landscape are not discernible. However, the roots reach deep and wide, sustained by the waters that flow through and around them. There is no water’s edge and the trunk of the tree—or trees—are out of sight, inviting you to imagine where they are in physical space.

However, what matters in this vision is that the trees are plentiful. The fruit provides in every month of the year; the leaves are like a healing balm—medicine—for every nation. I don’t understand the physics or geography of this vision, but I don’t need to. Because abundance is here, and that is what matters.

And so my hope for this art is that when you look at it, you will be reminded to perceive the world through the lens of abundance. When your imagination gets too narrow, when you are confronted with limitations and obstacles, when all you can see is impossibility, I pray that God will grant you a revelation of abundance. A revelation that there is more, and it is plentiful. May it be so. Amen.

Addressing Clergy Mental Health

BY DR. ISRAEL GALINDO, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR LIFELONG LEARNING

There are approximately 243,900 clergy employed in the USA.1

They are the spiritual and administrative leaders of faith-based organizations: congregations, churches, non-profits, denominations, and more.

They oversee funerals and weddings, visit ill and homebound congregants, provide spiritual direction and pastoral counseling to their congregants, engage in social action, supervise staff, provide education, and, according to the Pew Research Center (2018), lead worship services for one-third of the US population.2

These obligations result in most clergy working 40-60 hours per week, with up to 25% of clergy working more than 60 hrs. per week.3

The importance of maintaining and improving the health of this essential workforce is self-evident, yet the research indicates that clergy health is less than optimal.

This has detrimental implications for clergy and the entire ecologies in which they are situated, including their families, ministry contexts, denominations, and the constituents they serve.

Mental Health

Mental health includes emotional, psychological, spiritual, and social well-being.

It affects how we think and feel, and how we experience the experience of our lives. It is a major factor in our capacity to experience joy in life, work, and relationships.

Our mental health determines how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

Positive mental health allows us to realize our full potential, cope effectively with the stresses of life, work productively, and make meaningful contributions to our communities and relationships.

Detrimental challenges to mental health affect our thinking, mood, and behavior.

Factors contributing to mental health problems include biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry, life experiences, such as trauma or abuse; and family history of mental health problems.

Clergy Mental Health

Challenges to the mental health of clergy commonly involve stress and burnout, marriage and family adjustment, and emotional and functional impairment.

Work-related stress and burnout among clergy have been the focus of many studies.

Some research suggests that burnout results from systemic factors including bureaucracy, poor administrative support, and difficult work conditions—ministry is hard, and getting harder. Other intrapersonal-related factors include religious idealism, Type-A personality factors, narcissism, and perfectionism.4

In addition, one research found that clergy experience excessive guilt and issues with their families of origin more frequently than other groups.5

As a group, pastors also experience social isolation, often extending even to their professional peers.

One study revealed that ministers have higher levels of occupational distress and depression when compared to national averages.

“Ministers in this study show higher levels of occupational distress and depression when compared to national averages. These findings should raise a general concern about the mental health of and support for clergy.”6

Another study of clergy in North Carolina found that the percentage of clergy with depression was significantly higher than in the general public in the state, 8.7% vs. 5.5%, respectively.7

In another study, the percentage of clergy reporting a diagnosis of depression was 12.7% far exceeding the most recent estimate of 6.7% of US adults with depression.8

Regardless of the contributing causes of burnout, it is clear that there is a substantial demand upon a clergyperson’s time and energy as he or she is expected to be the administrator, teacher, preacher, counselor, staff supervisor, facilities manager, and fundraiser all at once. There is rarely a time when clergy are not on call.9

It is not a surprise, then, that clergy are prime targets for experiencing stress, depression, and burnout.

Warning Signs

As with others in the helping professions, clergy often ignore the warning signs of mental health issues even as they attend to the needs of others. Experiencing one or more of the following can be an early warning sign of a problem:

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little

• Pulling away from people and usual activities

• Having low or no energy

• Feeling numb or like nothing matters

• Having unexplained aches and pains

• Feeling helpless or hopeless

• Smoking, drinking or using drugs more than usual

• Feeling confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared

• Yelling or fighting with family and friends

• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships

• Having persistent thoughts and memories, you can’t get out of your head

• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true

• Thinking of harming yourself or others

• Inability to perform daily tasks or complete routine work-related tasks.

The first step in being able to seek and get help with mental health issues is to be aware of one’s own emotional and psychological experience of stress and anxiety and of one’s symptomatic behaviors. For clergy, especially as those impact their relationships in family and work.

Obstacles for Getting Help

However, even when clergy become aware that they need help, there are often obstacles to getting the help they need.

According to ministers, these are the top obstacles to accessing mental health services and support: financial limitations that make getting help unaffordable, difficulty in taking time off work, concerns about confidentiality, lack of awareness of available mental health services, fear of reprisal by denominational leaders, lack of denominational support for the mental health needs of pastors, feeling shamed by congregational members and peers a lack of denominational knowledge of the mental health issues affecting clergy, being perceived as dysfunctional among others.

Other surveys confirm and agree with earlier research in which clergy reported a lack of lay leaders (volunteers), lack of financial resources, and lack of interest from congregants among the barriers to providing health resources for their congregations.10

What Clergy Say is Helpful

A survey by Trihub and others identified what clergy said was most helpful for their mental health.

In rank order of most helpful, here is what they said:

• Sabbaticals

• Prayer/support groups

• Individual counseling

• Referrals for counseling

• Clergy retreats

• Family Counseling

• Educational mental health seminars.11

Ministering to Ministers Offers Help and Support

The Ministering to Ministers program (MTM), part of the Pastoral Excellence Programs at Columbia Theological Seminary’s Center for Lifelong Learning seeks to address the mental health challenges of clergy.

The program focuses primarily on providing support to clergy, and their spouses, who have experienced a forced termination due to conflict in their ministry settings.

This is a traumatic hidden epidemic, recently exacerbated by the long COVID-19 impact on congregations and clergy.

The trauma experienced by clergy, and their families, due to a forced termination has no shelf life.

The effects of the trauma can linger for years.

One pastor said, “I had been in ministry for 19 years. When I left I reached out to local pastors for encouragement and help. In the past three years, I’ve spiraled into bitterness, hatred and even rage. This is against the church, me, and even God.”

Through MTM clergy are provided support and resources that help address mental health challenges during the crisis of congregational conflict and its aftermath.

The program offers two Wounded Ministers Retreats for clergy and theory spouses twice a year, paid therapy sessions, consultations with attorneys to deal with severance and employment issues, and a Friends for the Journey relationship for those wanting a conversation partner.

Gifts and donations support the services and resources of Ministering to Ministers.

Donations to support the Ministering to Ministers program can be sent to Columbia Theological Seminary. Designate gifts to “Ministering to Ministers,” or visit the Columbia seminary website at www.CTSnet.edu/give

To learn more about the Ministering to Ministers Program, visit www. ctsnet.edu/lifelong-learning/ postgraduate-programs/ministeringto-ministers/.

Sources:

1 Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017.

2 Pew Research Center 2018.

3 Carroll, Jackson W. 2006. God’s potters: Pastoral leadership and the shaping of congregations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

4 Grosch, W. N., & Olson, D. C. (2000). “Clergy burnout: An integrative approach.” Journal of Clinical Psychology. 56(5), 619–632.

5 Rickner, R. G., & Tan, S.-Y. (1994). “Psychopathology, guilt, perfectionism, and family of origin functioning among Protestant clergy.” Journal of Psychology and Theology 22(1), 29–38.

6 Martin Shaw, Roy Lukman, Linda Wright, Ramona Reynolds. “Clergy Wholeness Study: How Occupational Distress, Depression, and Social Support Inform the Health of Clergy.” Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling. 2021, Vol. 75(1) 23–32.).

7 Proeschold-Bell, R. J., Miles, A., Toth, M., Adams, C., Smith, B. W., & Toole, D. (2013). “Using effort–reward imbalance theory to understand high rates of depression and anxiety among clergy.” Journal of Primary Prevention 34(6), 439–453.

8 National Institute of Mental Health 2016. Webb BL, Chase K. “Occupational Distress and Health among a Sample of Christian Clergy.” Pastoral Psychology. 2019; 68(3): 331-343.

9 Weaver, Andrew J., Kevin J. Flannelly, David B. Larson, Carolyn L. Stapleton, and Harold G. Koenig. 2002. “Mental health issues among clergy and other religious professionals: A review of research.” Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling. 56(4): 393-403.

10 Benjamin L. Webb and Scherezade K. Mama. “The Provision of Clergy Health Resources by Faith-Based Organizations in the USA.” Journal of Religion and Health January 1, 2020.

11 Trihub B. L., McMinn M. R., Buhrow W. C. Jr, Johnson TF. “Denominational support for clergy mental health.” Journal of Psychology & Theology. 2010; 38 (2): 101-110.

@ the Center for Lifelong Learning

March 6–8

Leadership in Ministry Atlanta

With: Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Andrew Archie, Carla Toenniessen, Lance King, and Bill Pyle

March 6–April 14

Spiritual Formation and Older Adults

ONLINE

With: Mary Anona Stoops

March 20–22

Leadership in Ministry Lynchburg

With: Israel Galindo, Elaine Boomer, Andrew Archie, Carla Toenniessen, Lance King, and Bill Pyle

April 13–16

Meister Eckhart as a Guide for the Perplexed in Our Times

With: Mark Burrows

April 17–May 12

Grieving Well when the List of Losses is So Long

ONLINE

With: Mindy McGarrah Sharp

April 25–28

Seeing the Future of the African American Church in the Rainbow: The Birth of a Movement (Thompson Scholars 2023)

With: Yvette Flunder, Horace Griffin, Sonya Williams and Ralph Basui Watkins

See article on page 10 about Dr. Watkins recent sabbatical work and how it informs this session of Thompson Scholars

May 1–5

Contemplative Retreat

Location: Sacred Heart Monastery, Cullman, AL

With: Denis and Michael Moore

re-engage

your

congregation

May 8–10

Leadership in Ministry Boston

With: Israel Galindo, Margaret Marcuson, Elaine Boomer, Rebecca Maccini, and Meg Hess

July 10–14

Wounded Ministers Retreat

Location: Samford University, Birmingham, AL

With: Michael Wilson, Cindy Barnes, et al

August 7–9

Sacred Encounters: The Power and Presence of Jesus Christ in Luke-Acts

PW/Horizons Bible Study Leader seminar

With: Olive Mahabir

APPLY FOR A MINISTRY GRANT APPLICATIONS OPEN JANUARY 1

Seminary News

Columbia Receives Nurturing Children Planning Grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Columbia Theological Seminary has received a planning grant of $50,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Nurturing Children through Worship and Prayer Initiative. The aim of this initiative is to help children come to know and love God and grow in faith. With this planning cycle grant, Columbia will initiate planning for the Wonder of Worship project by partnering with church leaders and parents to imagine new ways of encouraging corporate worship and prayer for children that welcome all as participants.

“Columbia is excited to partner with the Lilly Endowment in this new initiative that is so important in these times,” says Dr. Victor Aloyo, President, Columbia Theological Seminary. “We commend the Lilly Endowment for its interest in the youngest worship participants in our church life. Columbia shares their desire to train leaders for the church and world who are attentive to all ages and create an inclusive worship experience accessible to all.”

With this planning grant, Columbia will continue cultivating a planning team that includes children’s ministers, parents, Columbia faculty, staff, students, and alums from around the country and in various sizes of churches. We will also convene focus groups of ministry professionals and parents to learn more about the successes and barriers to the inclusion of children in corporate worship and prayer. Following the focus groups, the planning team will meet to assess the information gathered by the focus groups and to craft their vision for putting together a request for a project implementation grant.

“Focusing on the nurture of children in worship and prayer is a natural fit for Columbia,” says Dr. Christine Roy Yoder, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. “Our faculty is gifted in the areas of worship and the arts, developmental psychology and family systems theory, and children’s ministry. We are one of a handful of theological schools that provides a children’s library and curriculum lab

September 9, 2022 — President Aloyo preached at Columbia Seminary’s Convocation, and participated in the tradition, along with other faculty members, of greeting students after the service. See more Convocation photos on pg. 29.

in our library. Finally, worship that welcomes and engages everyone is central to our commitment to foster a community of belonging.”

“As we move from pandemic to an endemic time and regather in intergenerational worship, it is time to reclaim the hospitality and welcome of the gospel,” says Dr. Kathy Dawson, Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education. “Worship is the one space in a congregation’s life where the generations are together focused on God. There is much potential to make this act more inclusive of all ages and abilities by incorporating the arts and interactive activities that draw all closer to God.”

Vice Presidents for Enrollment Management and Vocational Outreach

In October 2022, the Board of Trustees appointed the Rev. Ann-Henley Nicholson to be the Vice President, Enrollment Management and Vocational Outreach and the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Kim SongAe Threadgill as Vice President and Dean, Student Formation and Campus Culture

Columbia Theological Seminary has shifted its operations for enrollment and student affairs to better support both prospective and enrolled students. “As such, we have reimagined our structure so that we will have one department to oversee enrollment and vocational outreach and another to oversee student formation and campus culture,” said Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, President, Columbia Theological Seminary. “Both are vital to the health of the seminary and our mission of forming pastoral leaders for the church and the world.”

Strategic Blueprinting

This past fall President Aloyo kicked off the process of developing a new strategic blueprint for Columbia Theological Seminary by forming a commission made up of Board of Trustee members, faculty, students, and staff and holding a series of forums where all students, faculty, and staff were invited to consider four focus areas: campus culture, administration and stewardship, academic pedagogy, and governance.

Through feedback received at the forums and the work of commission members, the strategic blueprinting process is seeking to identify the challenges Columbia faces as well as articulating its aspirations for the future with regards to the four key areas noted above. The commission is looking to map how we will respond to future challenges, develop goals and tactics to meet those challenges as well as metrics for evaluation so we can track how we are meeting our aspirations.

The goal is to have the strategic blueprint approved and ready for rollout in the summer of 2023.

President Aloyo addresses faculty, staff, students and trustees for the “State of the Seminary” address in the Harrington Center Auditorium on Dec. 8, 2022. The speech was well-attended by in-person participants as well as livestreamed.

Dr. Riggs’ Honored with Portrait, and Proclamation

Columbia Theological Seminary commissioned Charmaine Minniefield to paint this portrait of Dr. Riggs in 2022. Firmly rooted in womanist social theory and ancestral veneration, Minniefield’s work draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora, to explore African and African-American history, memory, and ritual. The use of indigo pigments in this portrait and many of her other works is inspired by her time in the Gambia, West Africa, and builds on her ongoing exploration of art as cultural preservation across time and the Middle Passage.

Dr. Riggs was honored by the Seminary community with a portrait unveiling and a proclamation by the Board of Trustees.

Columbia Friendship Circle Scholarship Recipients Announced

BY REV. AMY BAER, MDIV ’08, COLUMBIA FRIENDSHIP

That’s why for the past 74 years, the Presbyterian Women of the Synod of Living Waters (Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky) and the Synod of South Atlantic (Georgia, Florida, South Carolina) have supported students at Columbia Theological Seminary through the Columbia Friendship Circle Scholarship Program. Every year, CFC Scholarships are awarded to PCUSA students who have matriculated to the seminary with their families and who demonstrate academic ability, financial need, and a commitment to serve the church upon graduation.

It is with great joy and hope for the future of the Church that the Columbia Friendship Circle announces this year’s scholarship recipients!

Dana Abu Ghazaleh, her husband, and her three daughters Teya (15), Tara (12) and Talia (10) emigrated to the United States from Dubai in 2018. In her early years, Dana began a career as an electrical engineer, but after arriving in the United States, Dana experienced a deep struggle for meaning in her professional life. After a night when she cried herself to sleep, she says she awoke with a clear call to enter the ministry. However, since women in her home country of Jordan are not allowed to serve as ministers, she was uncertain of the path she might follow. Yet since that awakening, God has continued to clear the way for Dana and her family. Upon receiving the news of her scholarship award, Dana wrote, “I am truly and

genuinely humbled by this scholarship. Just when you feel that things are getting tough and challenging, just when you feel doors are closing and paths are tighter, our gracious God opens a door so wide that I am left speechless and humbled. Words can’t express how happy, excited, and overwhelmed I am by this news. God is so good, and his grace is abundant.”

Nicole Jiskoot is a third year dual-degree student who is also a wife and mother to two children, Layfe (7) and Lovinia (2). She knew from early childhood that God wanted her to be a teacher and she spent her early professional career as a middle school history and English teacher. For years, she encouraged and supported her husband Bjorn as he pursued his degree and certification to teach Special Education. One year after he completed his program, Nicole received a clear call from God to vocational ministry. Nicole began attending Columbia classes via Zoom, and shortly after their daughter Lovinia’s first birthday, they sold their home, packed up and moved to Decatur. Nicole says, “The CFC Scholarship gave us a chance to rely once again on God for support since we do not have enough to cover what we will need for my fourth year at Columbia. I cannot describe the feelings I felt when I read the news that you had thought of me for this scholarship. Besides feeling honored for even being recognized, this is further confirmation that I am where God intended me to be and that, as always, God continues to provide in mind-blowing ways!”

CIRCLE PRESIDENT

Theological education is a rigorous academic challenge, but for students who come to Columbia Seminary with young families, there are extra demands on their time, energy, and resources.

Convocation 2022

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 checkout privileges for the main library collections

Contact Bob Craigmile at CraigmileB@ctsnet.edu for login credentials or help!

Students, faculty, staff, and trustees gathered on September 9 at Columbia Presbyterian Church for the annual Convocation service. President Aloyo delivered the convocation sermon.

‘When we know better, we do better’

A Conversation with What Kind of Christianity author William Yoo about the history of anti-Black racism in the Presbyterian church

BY KRISTEN GAYDOS, PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED AT PCUSA.ORG

On Nov. 10 a crowd gathered at Harrington Center Chapel on the campus of Columbia Theological Seminary to hear Dr. William Yoo share about his new book, What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church. The event was co-hosted by Columbis Seminary and the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS).

Yoo’s book, published this summer, has become popular throughout the denomination, with the educator and author making appearances at congregations and presbyteries across the country to ask the question posited by the title, a quotation by Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon: “What kind of Christianity allowed white Christians to deny basic human rights and simple dignity to Blacks, these same rights which had been given to others without question?”

The talk began with a presentation by Yoo examining the Presbyterian refusal to produce any concrete actions toward Black liberation during the 1800s, even though an estimated 77,000 to 80,000 Presbyterians enslaved people during that time. (According to Yoo, that would mean half of the Presbyterians in the United States owned slaves.) From there Yoo discussed related questions he asked himself while researching and writing: What were Black Presbyterians experiencing during those years? What were the experiences of enslaved persons who were “owned” by white Presbyterians?

Yoo looked at the lives of Elizabeth Keckley and James W.C. Pennington. Keckley, widely known as the seamstress of Mary Todd Lincoln, experienced gruesome pain and cruelty at the hands of her Presbyterian enslavers. Pennington, a famous abolitionist and the first Black student at Yale Divinity School, was prevented

FACULTY AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Elizabeth Keckley, around 1870

from officially enrolling in the school or speaking in class. Only outside the denomination did he gain respect from some and notoriety from others.

Yoo suggested that the contemporary celebration of Presbyterian abolitionists like Pennington and white abolitionists like John Rankin create a “heavy imbalance of how we remember the past [and] leaves us with the wrong impression. These Black and white Presbyterian abolitionists were deeply unpopular and received scant support in the larger church. They were not elected to positions of ecclesial authority and their voices carried little if no weight among other white [non-abolitionist] Presbyterians.”

Following the presentation, historian and minister Dr. Perzavia Praylow offered her thoughts on Yoo’s work and led a Q&A with the audience.

“We’ve lived longer with the institution of slavery than we have with the experiment of integration,” Praylow reminded the audience. To assess the type of Christianity that denied the basic human rights to Black people in the United States, “we have to understand and reconcile with the past,” she said.

The venue and hosts of the evening were not unremarked on by Yoo, who is Associate Professor of American Religious and Cultural History at Columbia Seminary. He criticized the seminary’s participation in the slave trade system and suggested that the institution provide reparations for the descendants of enslaved persons from whom the school had benefited or has owned.

As for the institutions that preserve the history of the church, including Presbyterian Historical Society?

“I do think there is a good legacy and witness of Black and white Presbyterian abolitionists that we can affirm, that we can celebrate, that we can learn from, lift up, and even imitate in our ministry today ... It’s not as helpful if we receive partial or sanitized legacies, memories, [and] remembrances of them.”

PHS Executive Director Nancy J. Taylor said that Yoo’s book is “powerfully based in history. At this moment in our society and culture, having that really well-researched background of history that people can share and relate to and frame their thoughts and discussion is so important.”

Taylor continued, “this book shows how libraries and archives are really important at this moment. Without that preservation of those sources, without making sure they are accessible, you do not get all of the evidence that Dr. Yoo presents to us in this book.”

For Praylow, the lesson of the evening was simple: “When we know better, we do better.”

Watch the event recording on the Columbia Seminary Facebook page at

https://fb.watch/ip17jg3r7X/ or scan the QR code below:

This article is reprinted with permission from the Presbyterian Historical Society, and can be found here: https://www. presbyterianmission.org/story/drwilliam-yoo-a-seminary-professor-andauthor-helps-the-pma-board-take-anhonest-look-at-presbyterian-complicityin-slavery-and-anti-black-racism/

Dr. William Yoo presented to a full house in Harrington Center Chapel

Beyond the Classroom: Faculty

News and Updates

Dr. Bill Brown

• Published “From Rebuke to Testimony to Proverb: Wisdom’s Many Pedagogies,” in The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature. Edited by Katharine J. Dell and Suzanna R. Millar and Arthur Jan Keefer (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

• Published “Creation in the Old Testament,” in St. Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology (SAET) Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. 2022.

• Preached at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church: “God and the Politics of ‘Fear’”

• Published “Astrobiology and the Future of Faith,” campus-wide lecture at Manchester University, October 31

Dr. Kelly Campbell

• Published as Co-author with Kris Veldheer, “The Dramatic Shifts in Theological Education: A Grounded Theory Approach,” in Borderlands of Theological Education. Eds. Joshua Davis and Deirdre Good; Lexington Books, 2022.

Dr. Kathy Dawson

• Awarded a planning grant of $50,000 by the Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children through Worship and Prayer Initiative—“Wonder of Worship”

Dr. Marcia Riggs

• Co-led a hybrid 8-session Wabash Workshop for Faculty of the African Diaspora

• Was honored on campus with portrait unveiling, painted by artist Charmaine Minniefield. See page 26 for story.

Dr. Mark Douglas

• Published “Science, Religion, and SCOTUS,” in SciTech (October), newsletter of the Presbyterian Association for Science, Technology, and the Christian Faith

• Preached at Druid Hills PC

• Preached at Green Valley PC in Henderson, NV

• Presented as a panelist at President Aloyo’s Inauguration Symposium

• Elected to the Board of the Niebuhr Society

• Featured in “Theology Matters” podcast on How to Deal with War in a Warming World by the Center for Theological Inquiry

Dr. Tim Hartman

• Selected to participate in the 2023 Online Teaching and Learning Workshop for “On Becoming a White Antiracist,” Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

Dr. Christine Hong

• Keynote Speaker at Faith Forum hosted by Ebenezer Baptist and St Luke’s Episcopal called, “How can we be the village in raising our children?”

• Keynoter Speaker at NCCC Christian Unity Gathering, “The Challenge of Change: Serving a Never Changing Christ in An Ever-Changing World”

• Serves as the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer for the Religious Education Association

• Spoke with the Mercer Faculty about anti-colonial pedagogy and her book, Decolonial Futures: Intercultural and Interreligious Intelligence for Theological Education (Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in Religion and Theology)

Dr. Martha Moore-Keish

• Published “Confessing Church: Why do we keep doing these prayers of confession?” Call to Worship 55.4 (spring 2022).

• Taught and preached at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, NE in celebration of pastor Chris Peters’ (MDiv ’14) service

• Participated in Lauren Scott’s ordination at her home church, Trinity Presbyterian in Pensacola, FL

• Preached for Michael Sanchez’s installation at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church, Dunwoody

• Taught (with Brennan Breed)

the “Biblical and Theological Foundations” class for Compass Points certification program

• Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Tallahassee, FL

• Participated in the first Wabash Center Blog Writers Workshop

Dr. Jake Myers

• Published Stand-Up Preaching: Homiletical Insights from Contemporary Comedians (Cascade, 2022)

• Presented at the Academy of Homiletics in Louisville, KY

• Awarded a $20,000 scholar-researcher grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to develop preaching resources for multivocational pastors

• Published “Eclipsing Mimesis: A Theological Case for Hans Frei’s ‘Special Hermeneutics,’” in Westminster Theological Journal

• Preached for CreatureKind

Dr. Raj Nadella

• Published an article in Black Scholars Matter: Visions, Struggles, and Hopes in Africana Biblical Studies (Eds. Gay Byron and Hugh Page). The volume builds upon an SBL symposium with the same title that Raj co-organized in 2020, along with Tat-Siong Benny Liew and Kimberly Russaw.

• Spoke at a event organized by the Westar Institute as part of its Christ Seminar. The Christ Seminar is a collaborative of theologians, biblical scholars, activists, and artists engaging Christologies of the People.

Dr. Lisa Weaver

• Published “Songs of Labour and Prayers of Freedom,” Comment: Public Theology for the Common Good 40/4 (2022): 66-74.

• Preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church

Dr. Mindy McGarrah Sharp

• Presented in a session on Decolonizing Listening in Pastoral Care at the “Post-Imperial Futures” conference, Meadville Lombard Theological School

• Published “Mapping with Care: Constructing a Christian Theology of Pastoral Care in a Postcolonial, Interfaith World,” Journal of Pastoral Theology

Dr. Mitzi Smith

• Published “If Rachel Does Not Weep, Who Will?: A Pro-Choice Quality of Life Womanist Reading of Matthew 2,” Currents in Theology and Mission 49 (2022).

• Launched “Beyond the Womanist Classroom” podcast (Wabash small grant): prerecorded 7 episodes and counting.

Dr. Jeffery Tribble

• Served as preacher for Christian Education Sunday at Faith A.M.E. Zion Church, Atlanta

• Served as instructor for AME Zion Church Course of Studies and presented report of the Committee on Conference Studies to the 155th Session of the Georgia Annual Conference

Dr. William Yoo

See story on Dr. Yoo’s book presentation on campus on pg. 30

• Led a workshop on the history and legacy of slavery within American Presbyterianism for the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board of Directors, Stony Point Conference Center, NY

• His book, American Missionaries, Korean Protestants, and the Changing Shape of World Christianity, 1884-1965 (Routledge, 2017) was published again and is now available in paperback

Drs. Mitzi Smith, Marcia Riggs, and Lisa Weaver

• Awarded a $10,000 Wabash Small Project Grant for their project “Considering and Constructing African Rituals to Enhance Africana Pedagogical Goals: A Collaboration Toward Justice and Transformation”

Korean Lay Leadership Seminar

The Korean Lay Leadership Seminar was held at Columbia in November 2022. The conference was organized by Dr. Sue Kim Park, Associate Dean for Contextual Education and International Partnerships; Assistant Professor of Contextual Theology. Those attending the seminar had the opportunity to hear from Columbia faculty members Dr. Christine Hong, Dr. Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Dr. Raj Nadella, Dr. Martha Moore-Keish, and Dr. William Yoo.

American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting

In November 2022, the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL) met in Denver, CO. Eight of Columbia’s faculty were played an active role in that meeting:

Bill Brown, respondent to the SBL A.R. Pete Diamond Award for Integrative Scholarship; and panel review of his book, Deep Calls to Deep: The Psalms in Dialogue amid Disruption (Abingdon, 2021), on Mon, 9-11:30am

Christine Hong, panelist, Korean Biblical Colloquium

Raj Nadella served as a panelist for the SBL Womanist Interpretation Section

Mindy McGarrah Sharp, panelist, Women and Religion Unit

Mitzi Smith, presiding SBL Womanist Interpretation Section, panelist, SBL Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible Section, presenter, SBL Womanist Interpretation Section

Rebecca Spurrier, presiding, Ecclesial Practices Unit; and panel review of her book, The Disabled Church (Fordham University Press, 2019)

Jeffery Tribble, panelist, Theology and Ethnography Workshop

Chanequa Walker-Barnes, respondent, Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit

Common Table Community Gatherings featured good food and even better conversations. Throughout the last year, students, faculty, and staff gathered regularly to share themed meals and discover the things we all have in common. Meals were supplied by the Office of Enrollment Management and Vocational Outreach.

Remembering Michael Morgan

BY LUCY BAUM MDIV ’13, EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT; DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT

I first met Michael Morgan during orientation as a first-year MDiv student at Columbia in the Fall of 2010—he was rehearsing a piece on the organ in Campbell Hall Chapel when our campus tour interrupted him. I remember he greeted us warmly, showed us around, told us a bit about the history of the chapel and the organ, and made a joke that I can’t recall, but it left me feeling like we had all just made a friend. In the week that followed, as I slowly got my bearings and learned the rhythms of campus life, I saw Michael periodically, and I was struck by the fact that he already remembered my name. I barely knew anybody’s name yet, but Michael somehow seemed to know everybody’s.

Over the decade and more that followed, Michael remained remarkably true to those first impressions. We had all just made a friend—one who was warm and cheerful and loyal, with an unexpectedly wicked sense of humor and a deep and abiding love for the church and church music.

In 2011, my husband and I became members at Central Presbyterian Church and joined the choir. On our first Sunday there, we learned that, in addition to being the Seminary Musician at Columbia, Michael was the longtime organist at Central. In fact, Michael had been the organist at Central since before either of us had even been born, which he once twinklingly pointed out to me when I said something about getting old. Later, when we met Michael’s husband Richard and began to learn a bit more about his life’s story, I wondered what it must have been like to grow up gay in Georgia, and what it must have been like to dedicate his professional life to churches in the south. He became the organist at Central in 1973, a full 38 years before the PC(USA) finally ratified LGBTQ ordination. I believe he felt welcomed, loved, and affirmed at Central, but I am sure that was not always the case. And yet, through all those years, Michael had faithfully accompanied the choir and congregation through countless seasons of life together. It was Michael who nearly lifted the roof off on Easter Sundays with the soaring exhilaration of the Toccata from Widor’s Fifth Organ Symphony, Michael whose music amplified the joy at weddings and baptisms, Michael who accompanied loved ones to their rest with medleys of beloved hymns at the beginning of every

funeral and memorial service. To my knowledge, Michael never explored the idea of ordination, and for most of his life he would not have been permitted to, but I have no doubt that God ordained him. To paraphrase the Book of Order, when he served as musician and organist, he played and taught the faith of the church, so that the people were shaped by the pattern of the gospel and strengthened for witness and service. When he served as composer and hymn writer, he interpreted and ‘showed forth’ the mysteries of grace in word and music, lifting the people’s hearts and voices toward the hope of God’s new creation. When he served as friend and accompanist, he supported the people in the disciplines of the faith amid the struggles of daily life. When he served as colleague and worship planner, he participated in the responsibilities of leadership, seeking always to discern the mind of Christ and to build up Christ’s body.

There’s so much more to say about Michael—about how he regularly invited students and church groups to his home to see his incredible collection of rare editions of the Bible in English. About how he and Richard took in a stateless ex-convict and gave him a home and a family. About how he encouraged countless Columbia students nervous about preaching their first chapel sermons. About how his paraphrase of the Psalms set to well-known hymn tunes sits right next to the hymnal on church pews across the country. About his little dog named Teddy whom he adored. About how, even when his cancer had advanced so far that he needed a walker to get around, he still came to church whenever he could. About how members of the choir at Central gathered in his hospice room a few days before he died to sing Christmas carols to him, and when they asked what he’d like to hear, he requested Wagner’s infamous Der Ring des Nibelungen with a straight face. But even if we filled a hundred pages, it wouldn’t quite do him justice—words never can. You’d need something like music to really tell about a life and a love like his.

John Michael Morgan passed peacefully on Christmas Day from cancer at the age of 74. Michael was predeceased by his parents, John Hopson and Virginia Forsyth Morgan; and spouse, Richard Dale Ezell.

Alum Updates

1980s

Joey T. Byrd ’87, has retired from the Army after 32 years of military service as a US Army Chaplain. He and Carol ‘88 reside in Columbia, SC. Chaplain (Colonel) Joey T. Byrd is retiring from the U.S. Army after 32 years of military service to our nation as an Army chaplain. His most notable senior leadership accomplishments were serving as the command chaplain for the United States Army Central Command, Third Army headquartered in Sumter, SC from January 2018 until June 2020 followed by serving as the command chaplain for United States Central Command, headquartered in Tampa, FL from July 2020 until April 2022. Chaplain Byrd has extensive experience throughout the Middle East. His military awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal. The Rev. Dr. Carol J. Byrd serves as Parish Associate for Congregational Care at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. The Byrds plan to reside in Columbia, SC upon his retirement.

Chip Hatcher, MDiv ’88, is pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Hot Springs, AR.

1990s

Deborah Conner MDiv ’91, First Presbyterian Greensboro NC, 9/22/2022 17:58

Andy Walton MDiv ’92, Retired on December 31, having served Forsyth Presbyterian Church, Forsyth GA 1992-2003, Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, Washington DC 2003-2015

Trinity Presbyterian Church, Clearwater, FL 2015-2022. He has been married to Peg Walton for 47 years!

Marvin, Lindsay, MDiv ’94, has been called as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Haddonfield, NJ.

2000s

Andrew Permenter DMin’01, Retired as Vice President of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at Southeastern University, Lakeland, FL, in December 2021. He is currently consulting with CFO Colleague as Practice Leader, Accreditation. He attends Grace Presbyterian Church in Dawsonville, GA, and fills in preaching when the pastor is away!

Anne H.K. Apple MDiv ’01 is the Interim Transitional Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Tallahassee, FL.

Lisa Eye, MDiv ’02, was Called as Interim Pastor of Walnut Hill Church, Lexington, KY, effective August 1, 2022, following 8 years as Pastor of Corbin Presbyterian Church, Corbin, KY.

Columbia Void Fantasy Football League

Robert Hay

Kevin Hay ’08

James Goodlet ’07

Nick Reed ’07

Tom Bryson ’07

Daniel Loffredo ’07

Andy Acton ’05

Ben Acton ’05

Michael McLaughlin ’08

Davis Bailey ’08

Daren Hofmann ’07

Ryan Baer ’07

Keith Jones ’07, 2022 Champion

MaryAnn McKibben Dana MDiv ’03 wrote her third book, Hope: A User’s Manual, which was released in September 2022. It was described by the Presbyterian Outlook as “spiritually grounded and inspiring as well as practical.” The book is a collection of short reflections of different ways to understand and access hope. In addition to her ongoing writing, speaking, and leadership coaching work, she is currently serving as part-time parish associate and temporary stated supply at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, VA.

Leah Hrachovec, MDiv ’05, has been called as Pastor/Head of Staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Chester, PA.

Kate McGregor Mosley MDiv ’06 has been named Executive Director of the International Enneagram Association.

Sarah Hooker MDiv ’08, started new call August 1, 2022 as the Julia Thompson Smith Chaplain and Director of Religious & Spiritual Life at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA.

Libby Shannon MDiv ’08, was called to serve as the Transitional Executive Presbyter of the Twin Cities Area Presbytery beginning in August 2022.

Davis Bailey MDiv ’08 received a DMin. degree from the University of the South School of Theology in Sewanee, TN in May 2022, and now serves as Designated Pastor at McDonough Presbyterian Church in McDonough, GA.

Amy Baer MDiv ’08 is now the Coordinator of Outreach at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Athens, GA. 2010s

2010s

Neill McKay, MDiv ’11, has been called as Pastor at Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church, Laurinburg, NC, after completing his call in Fairbanks, AK, where he served University Community Presbyterian Church. Neill is currently pursuing a Master’s Certificate Program in Strategic Leadership at University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Beth Daniel MDiv ’14 is now serving as the Facilitator Curator for The Ministry Collaborative, a Project of the Macedonian Ministry Foundation.

Lauren (MDiv/MAPT) and Chris Peters MDiv ’14 welcomed their first child, Wilder Bates Peters, who was born October 21, 2022.

Glory Cumbow MDiv ’18, has released their debut poetry collection Fertile Decay available from Parson’s Porch and Amazon. Glory works as a writing strategist in Charlotte, NC. Glory has published over 40 poems in literary journals since 2020, and shares their writing at glorythepoet.wordpress. com.

Jocelyn Wildhack MDiv/MAPT ’19 and Grant Wright MDiv ’20 were married on October 7, 2022. Jocelyn serves at Ferncliff Camp & Conference Center; Grant serves at Second Presbyterian Church, Little Rock AR.

Laura Nile Tuell MDiv ’19 and her husband, David, welcomed their first child, Jack Lawrence, on September 7, 2022. Their family lives in Mount Shasta, CA.

2020s

Seth Clark DMin ’20, Released two books this year: CHURCH AT THE

WALL is a revision of his DMin thesis and GOD LOVES YOU ALL THE WAY is a children’s book. He has served five years at First Baptist Church, National City, CA, and is now Lead Pastor of the Border Church.

Natalie Wolf MDiv/MAPT ’21, was called to serve as Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, in Starkville, MS

Ashley M. Lewis MDiv ’22, is serving as the Coordinator of Congregational Vitality at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Tucker, GA. In this position, Ashley works across the ministries of the church to enhance member engagement and facilitate the aims of the Vital Congregations Initiative.

John Daniel MDiv. ’22 and Eliza Smith ’20 were married January 7, 2023. They reside in Spartanburg, where Eliza serves as the University Chaplain at Converse College, and John Daniel serves as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Campus Ministries.

Stewardship Kaleidoscope in Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 25-27, 2023, where our very own Dr. Victor Aloyo will be a keynote speaker!

Front Row, from left: Stephen Williams ’01, Ron Nelson ’93, Dawn Hyde ’12, Cader Howard ’05, Jason Hammersley ’11, Todd Speed ’93, Tom Dendy ’93, Nick Reed ’07

Back Row, from left: Katelyn Gordon Cooke ’09, Sam McGregor ’92, Kendal Land ’04, Nick Setzer ’11 , Marilyn McKelvey Tucker-Marek ’14, Daniel Vanek ’13, Josh Woodsmith ’21, Brian Coulter ’09, Andrew Stephens ’06, James Goodlet ’07, Joseph Taber ’14, Morgan Hay ’07, Tom Bryson ’07, Andy Casto-Waters ’01, Brandi Casto-Waters ’00

Columbia was well represented at the 2022 Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference in Savannah, Georgia. Save the date for 2023

2023 Alum Awards

The Rev. Caroline Leach Distinguished Alumni Award

Caroline was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Upon graduating from the Univ. of Chattanooga in 1969, she came to Columbia Theological Seminary as one of 5 women enrolled! She graduated in 1972. She was ordained as a campus minister at Georgia Tech in 1973, the 21st woman to be ordained as a pastor in the PCUS (Southern Presbyterian Church).

In 1974, she and The Rev. Nibs Stroupe were married. In 1983, Caroline and Nibs, along with 2 young children David and Susan, moved to Decatur, Ga. when Nibs was called as pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church. During their 34 years there, Caroline was responsible for Christian Education and Community Ministry, focused on advocacy for under-served families. The church initiated many outreach programs.

Caroline helped facilitate the growth of the church and family ministries that would build this multicultural church from 80 members to 400 in membership. Most importantly to her were the number of children and youth she nurtured and encouraged to be ‘a Child of God’ in their best selves.

Another very important part of these ministries was the push for multicultural curriculum with an emphasis on the arts. Believing every child should see themselves reflected in all of the curriculum published, Caroline wrote much of the curriculum pieces that would reflect the many cultures that were a part of Oakhurst.

Caroline and Nibs were honored to receive the Martin Luther King award from the School of Public Health, Emory University in 2001 and the Peace Making and Justice Award from The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta in 2008. They also were honored to receive the The Church Women United, United Nations Office Award as Advocates for Peace and Justice, 2018.

In 1996, Caroline and Nibs wrote O Lord, Hold our Hands: How a Church Thrives in a Multicultural World. It is still in print! Caroline retired in August, 2012 from Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, Decatur, GA.

Holly Reimer Pioneer in Ministry Award

Holly Reimer graduated in 2018 with a dual MDiv/MAPT. She grew up in a Presbyterian Church in Ocala Florida where, early on, she fell in love with ministry. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Psychology, she found job stability and financially sustainable opportunities scarce. A call from a previous member of her home church led to a position in youth ministry.

After serving in that position for six years, she became restless—feeling further called to ministry. She eventually came to Columbia Seminary, where she found a great sense of discovery and growth. When it was time for her supervised ministry she met with the program director and told her she had just come from working in a church context, and knew the inner workings of typical church ministry. As part of her vow to be stretched, she wanted something “different.”

Mercy Community Church was one of three churches the program director listed. She can remember, her first day at Mercy Church. She sat next to someone who was likely struggling with mental health and addiction and her doe-eyed self asked, “What am I doing here?” Again, God in all God’s goodness brought her back again and again. For Holly, Mercy became one of those places that never leave her soul. She let it change her forever.

She loved her time at seminary so much, she changed her degree program from three to four years. The extra time allowed her to pursue a second internship in South Africa and a CPE at Grady Hospital, eventually leading to a position as staff chaplain at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. During this time, Mercy continued to be her church home. It was the place where she found peace within herself— especially the broken pieces. She finished her residency and was called to serve as co-pastor at Mercy Community Church. She experienced what it looked like to be a part of a team that strived to find health and wellness, living out the Gospel faithfully. From 2019-2022 she served on staff, at Mercy Community Church while also working at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Although she is no longer on staff at Mercy Community Church, it is still the place she calls “home.” She is living out her calling of being with God’s beloved creation.

Final Word with Dr. Martha Moore

Keish

This issue, we turn our attention to Columbia’s J.B. Green Professor of Theology, the sacrament expert extraordinaire, the commander of R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Dr. Martha Moore Keish. We asked her a few fun questions so we could get to know her better.

If you had to choose another job, what would your dream job be?

I would like to be a night club singer and program director of a retreat center. Maybe it could be a spiritual retreat center with a jazz club...

If you had to choose a theme song to play every time you walked into the room, what would it be?

“Respect” by Aretha Franklin.

What is a dream destination for your next vacation?

A Rhine river cruise from Provence to Amsterdam. I like the idea of being able to explore all those beautiful old European cities and only have to unpack once.

If you could take a class on anything, what would you want to learn?

Spanish! Mostly because I would like to be able to speak another language besides English. I have always enjoyed learning to read languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc.), but I’ve never spent enough time learning another spoken language to be truly useful.

When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?

A classics professor and Broadway star.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

You don’t have to know what you are going to do for the rest of your life. You just have to discern the most faithful next step for today.

What is your favorite place to go in Atlanta or Decatur?

My family loves the Shakespeare Tavern. It’s an intimate space where you can eat and drink and enjoy live performances of Shakespeare from “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to “Macbeth.” Plus, the actors love to heckle the audience.