Issuu

spring 2021

CONTENTS 4

a strategic vision

An exciting new direction has emerged, realized through four main areas of focus.

reinvention

Reflections from esteemed faculty members on our revolutionary degree programs.

remote connections Two journeys, one destination.

beyond degrees

20-21

faculty books and new staff

Meet our new editions and additions.

honor roll of donors Thank you to the donors who make our work possible.

30-31

board of trustees & statement of activities and much more...

Where we are and where we are going.

editor Susan Schoenberger 2

designer Steven Havira

President’s Message If you’re like me, you’re still wrapping your head around the year we have just survived. If you are one of the many families affected directly by the COVID-19 pandemic, our hearts are with you. As Hartford Seminary grapples with the parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, we are also undergoing a transformation that aims to make us more accessible, more agile, and more focused on meeting the challenges ahead. This issue of Praxis will give you a broad overview of the work we have been doing in the year since the Board of Trustees unanimously adopted our new Strategic Plan. I find it hard to believe how far we’ve come since that momentous vote on March 16, 2020. In the space of just nine months, our faculty not only adjusted to teaching all of their courses online; they also completely redesigned three new degree programs. This normally takes several years. That’s not all that’s happening. Our research arm, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, is at the forefront—truly the cutting edge—of the work being done to evaluate the pandemic’s impact on faith communities in the U.S. The footprint of their work is incalculable.

We’re also formally launching Global and Community Partnerships that will breathe new life into some areas the Seminary has long held dear, including Emerita Professor Miriam Therese Winter’s pioneering work in transformative leadership and spirituality and Bishop Dr. Benjamin K. Watt’s critically important and timely work in Black ministries, leadership, and justice. You’ll also read about an exciting and promising new venture in Executive and Professional Education. This will give us the opportunity to use our expertise in religious diversity and wellness with organizations, businesses, and individuals who hunger for understanding and balance, but may not need an academic degree. Much is changing. A project to rebrand the Seminary may lead us toward a name that better reflects the work we do and the priorities ahead. But at the core, we remain an institution that “serves God by preparing leaders, students, scholars and religious institutions to understand and live faithfully in today’s multi-faith and pluralistic world.” In your and God’s service, exploring differences, deepening faith.

Joel N. Lohr President

A NEW STRUCTURE A NEW VISION A NEW FUTURE

AS PRAXIS 2020 was hitting mailboxes a year ago, Hartford Seminary was locking down along with the rest of the world. With vaccines being distributed, we find ourselves looking to the future and breathing again. In addition to breathing, the Seminary’s heart is beating a little faster. We’re at the brink of a new era, one that should help us weather the prevailing changes in the world of religious education as well as the changes the pandemic has wrought worldwide. What can you expect to see at Hartford Seminary over the next year? 5

An extensive strategic planning process has led us to a point of inflection. This is the strategic vision that has emerged: By 2025, Hartford Seminary will be the nation’s leading resource for interreligious education, research, and peace studies, providing cutting-edge research and immersive learning opportunities that enable leaders and institutions to thrive in a religiously complex world. This ambitious goal will be realized through four main areas of focus, which you’ll learn more about in this issue of Praxis. Interreligious Peace Studies Religion Research Global and Strategic Partnerships Executive and Professional Education You’ll also learn about: New degree programs. You’ll hear from faculty who have devised a whole new slate of degree programs that answer the needs of today’s students under the umbrella of Interreligious Peace Studies. You’ll learn about our MA in International Peacebuilding (MAP), an outgrowth of our groundbreaking International Peacemaking Program; our MA in Chaplaincy (MAC), which is aligned with the standards set by the Association of Professional Chaplains; and our MA in Interreligious Studies (MAIRS), which builds on our particular area of expertise in religious and theological education. A new look. The Seminary has hired a firm to help us rebrand, which means a new logo, new design aesthetic, and new messaging. The consensus has been clear: that we’re ready for branding that better reflects what we do as a community dedicated to interreligious peace and understanding.

Potentially a new name. Our rebranding effort has focused a lot of time on whether the name “Hartford Seminary” accurately reflects what we’re trying to do and whether it’s sometimes a barrier for potential students who associate “seminary” only with studying for the ministry, rabbinate, or priesthood. Our partners in rebranding may recommend adding to or changing our name, but we’ve also been warned that a name doesn’t change overnight. These changes are daunting, but they’re also exciting. Hartford Seminary has always been in the vanguard of religious and theological education, and we’re more convinced than ever that our special brand of relationship-building among practitioners of different faiths is more needed than ever. As David Brooks said in a recent New York Times article about the failure of anti-bias training:

“People change when they are put in new environments, in permanent relationship with diverse groups of people. Their embodied minds adapt to the environments in a million different ways we will never understand or be able to plan. Decades ago, the social psychologist Gordon Allport wrote about the contact hypothesis, that doing life together with people of other groups can reduce prejudice and change minds. It’s how new emotional bonds are formed, how new conceptions of who is “us” and who is “them” come into being. “ This is what we’ve done for a long time and that mission hasn’t changed. We’re just finding some new and exciting ways to deliver this much-needed approach to building a better world for future generations. ■

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reflections on the

New Master of Arts in Interreligious Studies

David D. Grafton, Ph.D. Academic Dean & Chief Academic Officer

• Team-Taught Seminars • Can be completed online

• Specializations in Islamic Studies Ministerial Studies

When we began our strategic planning process in 2019, we asked ourselves, “What makes Hartford Seminary unique? What is special about us?” We have always prided ourselves on being at the cutting edge of interfaith education and establishing firsts: the first women to be admitted into full time study at a seminary, the first Muslim faculty member, the first accredited Islamic Chaplaincy program in the U.S. The working group assigned to redesign our Master of Arts in Religious Studies (MARS) pondered these questions. We finally realized that what makes our classrooms so special is the diversity of religious perspectives within each class. The multitude of religious viewpoints truly makes the educational experience so rich. Whether students are studying the Torah, developing skills in Preaching, exploring Spirituality, or examining the Qur’an, students do so with classmates of various religious traditions, or no tradition. Unlike a secular institution that teaches “about” religion or religious perspectives, students at HartSem learn together about how to examine their own and others’ faith traditions. This is one of the critical components of theological education, a critical examination of theory that is then reflected in practice. In this examination process, our group realized that as an interfaith institution we are not teaching “about” interfaith dialogue as a discipline but rather are “doing” education by investigating theology and religion in a multifaith context. We value the diversity of perspectives within the classroom. No one course will ever be the same, semester after semester, as the makeup of diverse students ensures that new questions are posed. This was especially true for the Scripture requirement of our previous MARS degree, where each student was required to take a course in their own scriptural tradition and that of another’s. We want students in our Cooperative M.Div. program who are preparing for Christian ministry to have engagement in the Qur’an or Hadith with Muslim students, and we want Muslim students in our Islamic Chaplaincy program to be able to learn about the Synoptic Gospels with Christians. And then it occurred to us, while we cherish the diversity of questions and perspectives among our students in the classroom, what about the diversity of questions and perspectives among our faculty within the classroom? If our religiously diverse classroom is an important part of our identity, then why not model that among our faculty, by putting diverse faculty together in the same classroom to teach collaboratively? This is the soul of our Master of Interreligious Studies (MAIRS) program.

The MAIRS program builds on our unique diversity by introducing students to the concepts of deep religious pluralism and interreligious engagement. We want to train religious leaders and academicians to be conscious of and sensitive to the religious sensibilities of others around them while being competent and confident in leading their own communities in a multifaith society. To do this, we have created three team-taught seminars that tackle the authenticities of our multifaith world. ‘American Religious Realities’ explores the intersections of religion, race, gender, and class in North America. ‘Scriptures as Living Documents’ provides opportunities to examine the roles and interpretation of sacred texts among traditions and communities. Finally, ‘Faiths as Formal Realities’ allows faculty and students to examine how religious traditions are framed and influence individual and communal life. By having faculty of different religious traditions or denominations co-teaching each of these courses, we anticipate that the classroom will not only become a laboratory for sensitive and yet critical engagement with the perspectives of others, but will ultimately assist students to reformulate and articulate their own tradition. It has often been assumed that interfaith education is something that takes place only after one has been trained in one’s own tradition. We believe that formation and understanding of one’s own tradition best takes place while one is engaged with members of other religious communities. After all, that is the reality of our multifaith world. The goal is not to create a watered-down version of religion where students and instructors can agree on some least common denominator that makes everyone happy. Rather, in the midst of diverse perspectives one learns to understand one’s own tradition in a more critical way, and to appreciate the views of others. This is what it means to study interreligiously. Within this core curriculum, students will be able to explore interreligious studies in ways that will prepare them for further advanced study. In addition, two specializations will be offered: one in Ministerial Studies and one in Islamic Studies. These options will allow students to pursue further professional degrees. Students in our renewed Cooperative M.Div. program can continue to a partner school that offers a Master’s of Divinity. Others will continue on to our Master of Arts in Chaplaincy, where students of any faith tradition will be trained in the professional arts of chaplaincy. This curriculum, more importantly, this educational experience, is unlike any other in America and is truly another first for Hartford Seminary. ■

reflections on the

New Master of Arts in Chaplaincy

• Open to all faiths Co-Directors

Bilal Ansari, D.Min

Lucinda Mosher, Th.D.

Islamic Chaplaincy

Chaplaincy and Interreligious Studies

• Learn in an interreligious context • Field Education • Clinical Pastoral Education

• Specialization offered in Islamic Chaplaincy • Aligned with professional standards • Can be completed online

“We speak a special language that connects us,” says Dr. Nisa Muhammad, ’17, Assistant Dean of Religious Life in the Office of the Dean of the Chapel at Howard University. “We bring our complete selves to this work of caring for the religious needs of those we serve.” Since the turn of the present century, Hartford Seminary has maintained an innovative and effective chaplaincy program especially for Muslims. Graduates of this program, like Dr. Muhammad, now provide spiritual care in universities, colleges, preparatory schools, state and federal prisons, and hospitals across the country, plus the U.S. military and the National Guard. “We are trained for this work,” she says. Our approach to such training has made quite a mark on the profession. We are immensely proud of the impact our alumni have on the field itself. Indeed, spiritual-caregiving is an expanding profession. For a decade or more prospective students from various other religious locations have come to us, looking for a chaplain-formation program. A few are working chaplains eager to improve their multireligious literacy. However, some want to prepare for their first career and others want to transition from some other helping profession—such as social work, teaching, psychological counseling, or nursing. They want to learn that special language of which Dr. Muhammad spoke. About a decade ago, HartSem experimented with a multifaith chaplaincy graduate certificate program. What became clear is that any such program must lead to a master’s degree. Recently, it has also become apparent that our Islamic Chaplaincy Program was due for a tune-up. How wonderful that the new strategic plan calls for addressing both needs at once! For five months, we met with colleagues Chaplain Aida Mansoor, the Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, and Academic Dean David D. Grafton regularly to imagine and define a 36-credit program, open to all (whatever their religion) and designed to cultivate the full range of competencies expected of spiritual caregiving in multireligious contexts. As a result: our new Master of Arts in Chaplaincy (MAC) with a specialization offered in Islamic Chaplaincy. The MAC curriculum builds on the strengths of our groundbreaking efforts. The program’s design enables students to solidify knowledge of their own tradition, then integrate it into a theory of professional practice of chaplaincy. It facilitates development of a self-reflective professional identity, ethic of conduct, and practice of compassionate care rooted in one’s own epistemological, theological, and spiritual tradition. By studying intersectional and social justice approaches to spiritual caregiving, students will learn to integrate interdisciplinary collaboration, understanding of institutional cultures and systems, and restorative practices for community healing. The MAC curriculum features four core courses (twelve credits), the learning outcomes for which are keyed

to the Common Qualifications and Competencies for Professional Chaplains established by the Board of Chaplaincy Certification, Inc. The gateway course, Chaplaincy Models and Methods, provides orientation to the role of the chaplain and the knowledge and skills necessary in the contexts in which chaplains characteristically serve. It ensures that enrollees are cognizant of the breadth of the spiritual caregiving profession and the importance of embodying the qualifications, competencies, and standards of practice embraced by the field’s major credentialing agencies. In the second course, Theology and Scriptures in Spiritual Care Practice: Engaging America’s Many Religions as Formal and Contextual Realities, students will learn how adherents of various lifeways engage in deliberative reflection on matters of ultimate concern, what answers they might give to “worldview questions,” what sacred sources they use to do so, and how they work with those sources. The third and fourth MAC core courses underscore the integration of theory and practice, thus expanding students’ ability to respond to theological claims about God, humans, and the nature and meaning of healing or suffering. Psychological and Sociological Disciplines of Faith Communities in America concentrates on the relation between the social sciences and professional spiritual caregiving in various American institutional settings, with attention to complex challenges confronting individuals and communities. Religious and Cultural Contemporary Ethics introduces and facilitates comparative exploration of ethical theories appropriate to professional contexts, spiritual and emotional dimensions of human development, organizational behavior, group dynamics, and various political and social drivers. The MAC program’s experiential learning requirement calls for one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education and two semesters of supervised field work. The remaining fifteen credits will be earned via elective courses. Students specializing in Islamic Chaplaincy will be guided into electives in which they can integrate chaplaincy theory and praxis in the disciplines of scripture, psychology, and ethics at an advanced level and within an Islamic frame. Students in need of a 72-credit M.Div. equivalent program may meet that requirement by earning both the new MAC with the new Master of Arts in Interreligious Studies. “We are chaplains!” Dr. Nisa Muhammad says. “We provide support in times of grief, loss, end-of-life, and everything in-between. We teach; we advocate for religious freedom and rights and for social justice issues; we advise institutions on religious and cultural accommodation.” Hartford Seminary’s new Master of Arts in Chaplaincy is designed to train professional spiritual caregivers, whatever their religion, who will be ready to do all of this and more and do it exceedingly well! ■

reflections on the

New Master of Arts in International Peacebuilding

Phoebe Milliken Director of the MA International Peacebuilding

• One year accelerated program

• Community engagement

• Live and learn with students from around the world

• Field education

• Full scholarships

• Experience-based learning

When I first started at Hartford Seminary in 2015, I hung a sign on my office door. It is a quote from Aboriginal Activists which says, “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” It has been a joy in the years since to see many students come through the International Peacemaking Program (IPP), and watch them grow in their understanding of how their liberation - as Christians, Muslims and Jews, as citizens of many countries, as men and women, as LGBTQ and straight, as people of many ethnicities - was bound up together. In evaluating IPP over several years, it was clear that students had loved their experience at the Seminary, had been profoundly affected by the learning they had done, and they needed more from us. They asked for more skill-building work and greater integration of that work into the curriculum. They asked for more community engagement and more opportunities to apply the skills they were learning. Students were telling us that they wanted to roll up their sleeves and work harder in practical, real-world ways. IPP was designed as a graduate certificate. However, it was notable that a large majority of IPP alumni sought ways to continue their education in order to return home with a master’s degree. The challenge before us was clear: the students who come to us are deeply committed to interreligious peacebuilding, and they need an MA that integrates interreligious literacy with practical approaches to building peace in their communities. The strategic planning process recognized that this was a challenge we could rise to meet by reformulating IPP as a professional master’s degree that could be completed in one year. Over the summer I convened a team of colleagues, Ben Watts, Deena Grant and Brian Clark, to work with me on this transformation. I papered my home office area with sticky notes which migrated from wall to wall and into different patterns and configurations. (There was definitely some frustration when a stiff breeze or slammed door would send a shower of notes to the floor!) Through conversations with my dedicated team, these notes coalesced into learning outcomes for the new program. These learning outcomes feature the need for students to build an understanding of the Abrahamic faiths, interreligious peace skills, relationship-building processes, and leadership capacity. Given the breadth of our learning outcomes and the tight timeframe of a oneyear degree, we decided on a set curriculum so we can be sure the coursework ties in tightly to those outcomes. There were several principles that guided us as we worked out the curriculum. The first of these is the nature of peacebuilding itself: Peacebuilding is justice-oriented and relationship-based. Just looking at our course titles you can see theses twinned emphases on justice and relationships, e.g. Building Peace after Collective

Trauma, Peace, Justice, and Violence in Sacred Texts, Identity and Otherness in Religious Communities. In formulating a professional degree, our work on the curriculum was also guided by the principle of transfer: the capacity for students’ life experience to enhance their learning, and for that new learning to influence their ongoing life experiences. We want students to bring what they learn in the classroom to their experiences in Hartford and to bring what they learn in Hartford back into the classroom. We want them to bring their perspectives from home, be that Nigeria or Nevada, to their work at Hartford Seminary, and when they go back to Nigeria and Nevada to have the confidence to apply what they have learned. Two curricular elements that promote transfer are experiential learning and authentic assessment. Experiential pedagogy stresses that preparation plus concrete experience plus reflection creates a depth of student engagement that influences not only thinking but also behavior. Rather than only read about collective trauma, students may attend a Maafa – a theatrical representation of the Middle Passage and enslavement – so they can connect with the emotional resonance of that trauma. They will use case studies to investigate the use of sacred texts to promote peace or violence around issues such as women’s reproductive health or migrants from the Middle East. They will use role plays to practice constructive conflict skills. They will meet with religious leaders involved in changing their communities. Students will participate in two semesters of Field Education, which combines service learning placements at organizations in Greater Hartford with the study of how change happens through projects and social movements. Authentic assessment asks students to perform tasks that relate to real-world activities. Students may be asked to initiate an email conversation with their pastor, imam, or rabbi at home about trauma-aware worship. Or reflect on their use of paraphrasing in a recent contentious conversation. Or do a stakeholder analysis for a project at their service placement organization. Students will complete their degree with capstone projects back in their home country, in a total of 12-16 months. The MAP program builds upon what Hartford Seminary has long done well: interreligious theological education, the skill-building work of the IPP graduate certificate, and the beloved community of the residential experience. On this foundation my team and I have crafted MAP to be immersive, experiential, and community-driven. Our vision is of students who learn and practice the ideas and skills of interreligious peacebuilding in our nurturing environment. Then we’ll send them back into the world ready to work in ways which are justice-oriented and relationship-based. “Peacebuilding” is, of course, just another way of saying that our liberation is bound up together. ■

“ I AM CERTAIN THAT I AM NOT ALONE IN SAYING 2020 WAS NOT THE YEAR I HAD PLANNED FOR.” Having defended my dissertation in January, I emerged prepared to face an abysmal academic job market with an industrious spirit and willingness to create contingency plans. To my surprise, I had multiple interviews and seemed to be in a good position to weather my first round on the academic job market. Then the pandemic hit. Schools and positions that were once interested began evaporating and cancelling their job calls. From vocational anxiety to pandemic anxiety (to election anxiety), I could not catch a break. I became an unemployed, thirty-year-old living at home with his parents. To say that I am currently a Visiting Faculty Associate in American Religious History at Hartford Seminary is nothing short of miraculous.

Thanks to Zoom, I was able to begin working remotely in October and began meeting members of the Hartford community. As a historian of American theological education, I quickly learned how truly unique this school is within the wider ecosystem of American theological higher education. I also gained a new perspective with which to view and interrogate the pandemic as I joined Scott Thumma, Allison Norton, and the rest of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in their budding project on congregational responses to the Coronavirus pandemic. As someone who enjoys being busy, I was grateful to watch my schedule begin to fill. Arriving in Hartford about a month later as pandemic infection rates began to spike around the country has been challenging—emotionally, mentally and physically. I am grateful for loving parents who helped me make the move. Transitioning life in a new city as a household of one without the difficulties of a global pandemic is challenging in its own right. The added complications of COVID-19 further limit the ways in which one can explore and come to know new context. I have come to appreciate short conversations and small talk with students, faculty, and staff I see around campus when I go for walks. In the evenings I schedule virtual game nights and trivia nights with friends and family around the country. Situating myself within the Christian tradition, the experience has forced me to think about the importance of physical touch. I had never thought too much about Christian liturgical practices like the “passing of peace” through physical contact. Today I do. I’ve been reminded of the Gospel texts recounting the bleeding woman who knew that if she just touched Jesus’ cloak, she would be healed. Or the man with leprosy whom Jesus healed with simply his touch. I have never considered myself to be too much of a touchy or feely person but being in a situation where touch is discouraged for safety may have caused me to reevaluate how I think about describing myself. While, yes, the firm corporate handshake is riddled with problematic politics of masculinity, it also brings two people together—close enough to feel a heartbeat if you really tried. I do miss handshakes, fist bumps, pats of the back, and yes, of course, hugs.

Dr. Andrew Gardner (bottom left) Dr. Hans Harmakaputra (top right)

I hesitate to interpret some revelatory insight from the challenges either I or we as a society face through the coronavirus pandemic. I wonder sometimes whether our desire to learn something new obscures our need to remember something old. (I am, after all, a historian by training.) Throughout this past year I have had to consistently remind myself that God has not required any more or any less of me during this pandemic, but that I seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. It remains a challenging calling, but one that remains comfortingly stable in a world that seems anything but.

“I HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF ORGANIZING HARTFORD SEMINARY’S COMMUNITY PRAYER, WHICH TAKES PLACE EVERY WEDNESDAY VIA ZOOM.” From Fall 2020 until now, I have had the privilege of organizing Hartford Seminary’s Community Prayer, which takes place every Wednesday via Zoom. I consider it a privilege because I have connected with and gleaned insights from extraordinary people with deep spirituality, both the speakers and the participants. When I started my position at Hartford Seminary in July 2020 as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Louisville Institute postdoctoral fellow, Dean David D. Grafton asked me if I would be willing to facilitate the chapel service that had gone online since the pandemic started. There has been some skepticism about online worship’s effectiveness in past years, and I could not deny that I once had my own reservations. However, when the pandemic began, I was a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute in Minnesota, a place infused with the Benedictine rhythm of work and prayer. The resident scholars and staff decided to meet weekly for a virtual prayer, and surprisingly, I enjoyed it. There was a deep sense of connection with others and, for me, that was where I could find God. Spirituality is nurtured through relationships, so to seek the Divine, one must embrace the others. Without hesitation, I agreed to Dean Grafton’s request. Had it not been for my prior experience, I would not have accepted the role. Fortunately, I did not have to begin from scratch. Staff members David Figliuzzi, Aida Mansoor, and Tina Demo, the organizers of the prayer in Spring 2020, passed the baton to me along with their wisdom and willingness to support the program’s continuity. We decided to change the name to Community Prayer and made some plans for the semester. We kept our Holy Grounds Coffee Hour following Community Prayer to give room for people to talk more informally and to build connections with one another. HartSem is a unique institution for its diverse community, including the multifaith environment. It is a seminary where people of different faith traditions learn together. Yet, HartSem has more to offer than religious diversity. Its diversity results from constant nurturing for decades to be at the core of its being. With programs such as Black Ministries, International Peacemaking, Islamic Chaplaincy, the Women Leadership Institute, and others, the HartSem community consists of people from different backgrounds who bring the richness of their own identity.

The Community Prayer should be a testament to the community’s unique identity. It should nurture spirituality in a holistic way, i.e., where one connects to the Divine, the others, and all creations. Moreover, it must represent things the community is passionate about and continually remind us of the common goals. Therefore, among the themes, some explicitly support the work of racial justice and equity, peacebuilding, and interreligious understanding. The idea of interreligious prayer is contested. Some are very open and supportive on one side, and others find it offensive and unacceptable on the other side. HartSem Community Prayer sessions are designed to accommodate both concerns. Each of the sessions is meant to be inclusive since all are welcome. Therefore, there are different types of sessions: some are based on one religious tradition while others are intentionally interreligious. Openness remains vital, so although a session may be based on one religious tradition, it should provide space for “guests,” i.e., people of different faith traditions or even those who identified as religious “nones.” I find the Community Prayer sessions to be gifts from God. With an extensive network of alumni, students, faculty, staff, Trustees, and friends who are working worldwide following their calling, the Community Prayer enables me to learn from various people’s perspectives on issues that matter and even listen to inspiring personal faith stories. If you have not had a chance to participate, please join us every Wednesday at noon Eastern Time. All are welcome!

Faculty Books A World of Inequalities: Christian and Muslim Perspectives Lucinda Mosher, Editor Lucinda Mosher, Faculty Associate in Interfaith Studies, has edited a new volume – the 8th – in the Building Bridges Seminar series. This one is called A World of Inequalities: Christian and Muslim Perspectives. In it, fifteen leading Christian and Muslim scholars respond to the global crisis of inequality by demanding and modeling interreligious dialogue.

Mitka’s Secret: A True Story of Child Slavery and Surviving the Holocaust

In the Spirit of Jesus Miriam Therese Winter

Steven W. Brallier, Joel N. Lohr, and Lynn G. Beck President Joel N. Lohr is a co-author of this moving book due out July 20. It is described as “the remarkable life story of Mitka Kalinski, who survived seven years of enslavement—while still a child—to a Nazi officer during and after World War II.” It’s a story that Mitka Kalinski kept secret until 1981, and finally revealed. The authors trace Mitka’s “account of facing the past, confronting his captors, connecting with lost relatives, and finding peace in the rediscovery of his origins.”

Miriam Therese Winter, Emerita Professor and Director of the Women’s Leadership Institute, has a new book about a “living, loving, inclusive Jesus.” Dr. Winter describes the book as a “new way to understand Jesus” that is “right for this moment.”

After-Mission, Beyond Evangelicalism: The Indigenous ‘Injīliyyūn’ in the Arab-Muslim Context of Syria-Lebanon (in Arabic) Najib George Awad Najib George Awad, Professor of Christian Theology & Eastern Christian Thought, has two new books out, one in Arabic and one in English. The Arabic language book is a monograph published by the Arab Institute for Research and Publication in Amman/Beirut. The second book is published by Brill.

New Staff And Faculty

Ramee Dixon

Jennifer E. Schimmel

Katy O’Leary

Our new Business Office Associate resides in Hamden, CT, and has previously worked at Southern Connecticut State University in multiple departments, including accounts payable, and at several other businesses in administrative roles.

Jennifer E. Schimmel, who worked in our Development Office from 2003 to 2006, has returned to the Seminary as Development Associate. Jennifer worked previously at Habitat for Humanity, serving as the organization’s Executive Director for the Greater Springfield area.

Katy O’Leary joins us as Director of Executive and Professional Education. Previously Katy led a Dementia Friendly America Community Initiative for LiveWell in Southington, CT and for 16 years served as a Senior Director at Leadership Greater Hartford.

Hans Harmakaputra

Andrew Gardner

Dr. Patricia Tevington

Dr. Hans Harmakaputra, who earned his MA at Hartford Seminary in 2013, has returned as Visiting Assistant Professor in Comparative Theology and Muslim-Christian Relations through The Louisville Institute’s post-doctoral program.

Dr. Andrew Gardner is also at Hartford Seminary courtesy of The Louisville Institute’s post-doctoral program. Dr. Gardner is Visiting Faculty Associate in American Religious History and a research fellow at the Hartford Institute of Religion Research.

Dr. Patricia Tevington is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow who will be leveraging her qualitative and quantitative skills as part of the new Hartford Institute for Religion Research project, Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations (EPIC): Innovation Amidst and Beyond COVID-19.

Executive and Professional Education Focus Area Leaders Lucinda Mosher, Th.D., Senior Scholar and Katy O’Leary, Director

Our programs will be informed by our scholarly depth coupled with our ability to make that scholarship accessible. Our delivery system will depend not on the faculty alone, but on a team of well-prepared specialists and trainers. What do you imagine this area will look like in 3-5 years?

How does this area of focus build on what the Seminary already does, and how does it change or expand what the Seminary does?

Where we are Having recognized the growing demand for professional competencies around religious diversity through trainings that reach audiences in corporate, government, education, healthcare, and religious settings, our task force has been meeting regularly for many months. While we have drafted a program description and a definition of our methodology, we are still very much in a preparatory stage, during which we are refining language and program content.

Until now, Hartford Seminary has been largely inward-facing. That is, its programs and curricula have been designed for students who spend substantial amounts of time with our faculty and with each other. By contrast, our Executive and Professional Education will turn the institution outward to engage clients (rather than students). We will be outward-facing in at least three directions: toward the corporate world; toward the not-for-profit world; and toward the world of religious leaders and activists. In essence, we will be taking our content vis-à-vis religious literacy, interreligious understanding, and spiritual wellness to new audiences. In doing so, we will employ formats very different from academic courses. Our Executive and Professional Education will assist our clients in adding a “religion” component to their existing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. In designing our programs, we will be taking advantage of our already acknowledged prowess in dialogical pedagogy, chaplain-formation, sociological research in religion, and peacebuilding methodologies.

Several years from now, as a result of our Executive and Professional Education efforts, we will be a more networked institution. In addition to a traditional faculty, we will have developed a team of able leaders. Our goal is to be recognized as a premiere resource — the “go to” venue for information about and guidance in addressing religious diversity and spiritual wellness in the workplace. The resources we offer will be varied in style and format — and will be easily accessible. As an institution, we will be more nimble. Are there ways that alumni/ ae or donors can get involved in building these new areas? Given that these are sophisticated, multitiered programs, they will benefit from underwriters! In addition to providing financial support, alumni can be helpful in several ways. They can assist with our networking by putting us in touch with leaders (corporate, not-for-profit, and religious) who might become clients. They can assist with our development of workshops for use with clients — either by applying to become one of our trainers or by being “lab participants”: audiences in front of whom our trainers-in-training can rehearse. ■

Global and Community Partnerships Focus Area Leader Deena Grant, Ph.D.

Over these next 3 years we are working to: Where we are From its inception, Hartford Seminary has blazed a trail, serving as an agent of change in the world. As we continue to grow our footprint, we are placing resources toward building out our Global and Community Partnerships. In addition to maintaining and strengthening ties with our current collaborators and partners, we are developing new relationships and building new partnerships, which will advance our aim of becoming a central resource of interreligious education, research, and peace-making for an ever-widening circle. More specifically, we are embarking on joint academic, social-justice, peacebuilding, and spiritual initiatives, and we are doing so in collaboration with a diverse array of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish partners, as well as seekers and members of non-Abrahamic faiths.

1. Expand the range of our academic offerings through course exchanges with several key institutions whose areas of expertise complement our own. To give an example, our new Masters of International Peacebuilding offers the course ‘Restorative History: Building Peace after Collective Trauma.’ Through a new course exchange with a partner school, we aim to offer students the opportunity to pair this course with the course ‘Anti-Semitism and Racism Today.’ 2. Serve an ever-widening circle of spiritual seekers. Through the decades-long work of Emerita Professor Miriam Therese Winter (MT), Hartford Seminary has become a home for seekers to explore an embodied spirituality, grounded in the reality of living on this earth at this time. A center that houses Dr. Winter’s programming is now embarking on a new collaboration with West Hartford’s Spiritual Life Center (SLC) that will bring together kindred spirits and spiritual communities of different faiths, ethnicities, and nations from around the world.

3. Found a center for Leadership, Justice and Ministry. For nearly 39 years, and under the wise guidance of Rt. Rev. Dr. Benjamin K. Watts, Hartford Seminary’s Black Ministries Program (BMP) has been a national model for building the leadership, training, and preaching skills of laity and clergy in the urban church. Our successes have put us in a position to shepherd an independent center that will improve the social situation of at-risk communities by offering a variety of educational opportunities. The center aims to become a model for integrated, inter-generational, interracial, and interfaith learning that seamlessly brings together those with degrees with others working toward educational empowerment in a new innovative dialogical paradigm. 4. Collaborate with a diverse array educational, social-justice, and religious organizations to offer programming that combats racism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia. Are there ways that alumni/ae or donors can get involved? Help us connect to organizations that have similar goals. Support this work with your dollars so that we can grow our outreach to important, often underserved communities.

Religion Research Focus Area Leaders Allison Norton, Ph.D. & Scott Thumma, Ph.D.

Where we are Faculty and students in the Macdonald Center, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and across all facets of the Seminary are engaged in research that breathes life into our scholarly pursuits, teaching, and the religious communities to which we are accountable. With the renewed focus and intentional effort in strengthening religious research at Hartford Seminary, we will illuminate and speak to the most pressing questions arising from religious leaders and congregations and all those engaged in interreligious dialogue, peacebuilding, and chaplaincy. How does this area of focus build on what the Seminary already does, and how does it change or expand what the Seminary does? We will build on the strength of the imagination and robust scholarship of our faculty, students, and our wider network of scholar/practitioner colleagues. Alongside supporting the individual research initiatives of our faculty, we will draw on our unique identity as an institution committed to interreligious studies to identify an institutional strategy for

collaborative research that is aligned toward our strategic vision and integrated into the wider initiatives of the Seminary. To develop this expanded vision, we are creating the formal infrastructure to provide the needed support and coordination. We will more rigorously pursue research funding across a wide variety of sources. What do you imagine this area will look like in 3-5 years? Hartford Seminary will have identified several collaborative, institutionally driven areas of research and will focus sustained attention on these “boutique” areas of scholarship that are not otherwise accessible or attainable: for example, research on interfaith engagement practices or skills-based approaches to peacebuilding. The foci of these areas of scholarship will be co-created with the local, regional, national, and international publics that we serve, seeking to respond to the issues, questions, and concerns of those who live out religious pluralism and dialogue on the ground. Hartford Seminary will have a robust infrastructure underpinning this research, including grant writing support, regular postdoctoral research fellows, and opportunities for students to serve as research assistants.

The Seminary will have a robust culture of grant seeking and explicitly pursue additional funding streams in support of religion research. As faculty and research colleagues play a crucial role as bridges to the wider public, they will have enhanced opportunities to become public intellectuals and leading voices on interreligious issues through new media formats in the public sphere. Students, alumni, and new constituencies—including clients in the executive and professional education programs—will have access to the best religious scholarship available today. Hartford Seminary will widely disseminate research findings to our diverse and expansive constituencies, amplifying impact and building relationships with other research centers and scholars. Are there ways that alumni/ ae or donors can get involved in building these new areas? Be partners with us in identifying and co-creating the focus of our research efforts: What are your needs? What are your questions? What are your concerns? What do you hope to accomplish in the world? How may research help you to do what you do, only better? Help us imagine new audiences and new collaborators, responding to the issues, questions, and concerns of those in your communities. Support this work financially. Many areas of “boutique” research are not easily funded by an existing foundation. Help us identify those who can come alongside to financially support this work.

HONOR ROLL OF DONORS PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE ($10,000+) Martin and Aviva Budd David E. A. and Sara Carson Francis Asbury Palmer Fund Prior Family Foundation Philip Susag*

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE ($2,500 - $9,999) C. Richard and Olive J. Brose Hie Hill Foundation Ruth Sanger Conant Trust John and Lynn Fulkerson Joel and Teresa Lohr Hugh and Kate McLean James K. and JoAnn Robertson Ted and Ellen See Ali Shakibai, M.D. Beverly and Travis Tatum Eliot and Susan Williams Roberta Witty

JULY 1, 2019 - JUNE 30, 2020

VISIONARY ($1,000 - $2,499)

Ralph and Beverly Ahlberg Shakeeb Alam Ali and Fatma Antar Mohammad and Kaneez Bajwa Linda K. Beher and Vito Salvato Noora G. Brown and Khamis Abu-Hasaballah Harold and Joyce Buckingham Sanford and Diane Cloud William and Ann Cronin Edward and Lynne Duffy Imran Eba Clare and Barry Feldman First Church of Christ, Congregational First Congregational Church of Litchfield Donald and Karen Helm Thomas C. Hofstetter Ruth B. Howe Islamic Council of New England Roseann Lezak Janow and Marvin Janow Peter and Susan Kelly Lynne S. Kramer Ann Marino Bill and Linda McKinney National Philanthropic Trust Michael and Nancy Rion Nancy and Stephen Roberts

Evelyn Sealand Linda M. Spiers Margaret and Kenneth Thomas Tull Charitable Foundation

PACESETTER ($500 - $999)

Dean and Jennifer Ahlberg Bilal Ansari and Colleen Keyes Thomas and Marilyn Breckenridge Allison Chisolm and Peter Hansen The Congregational Church of South Glastonbury John Cordani Ann Crawford First Church in Windsor First Congregational Church David D. Grafton Rashid Hamid and Ester Sanches-Naek Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts Charles M. Kuchenbrod and Rebecca A. Sielman Ilona W. Kwiecien Louise Loomis Joyce B. Myers-Brown National Association of Congregational Christian Churches Rose and Daniel Petronella Sherie Roberts Christine N. Seethaler and George C. Tobis Naseem Shaikh Joanne T. White Don and Ellen Williams

INVESTOR ($250 - $499) Margaret Capen Ann Carlson Howard L. Carver Bobbie Chapman* Richard and Thelma Chun Raymond Clothier Shirley S. Dudley Linda and John Eaton Robert Ertl Fidelity Charitable Timothy Fisher Harriet and Phillip Gardner Arnold and Beverly Greenberg Donald and Debbie Hamer David Hill

Robert and Karen Hoffman Richard M. Howe Molly and William Louden Samsiah Abdul Majid Evan and Leah Odden Steven J. Peterson Justin L. Peyton Ojas Sampat Alison Scherer Susan Schoenberger and Kevin Wyman Guat Kwee See Somers Congregational Church Abigail Turner Kaaren Van Dyke Charles West Edward Whittemore

PARTNER ($100 - $249)

Muhammad Afdillah Jonathan and Nancy Albright Alexion Pharmaceuticals Dina Alhussayni Elizabeth and Kenneth Allen Andrews Oil and Gas Shawnee C. Baldwin Thomas and Melanie Barnes David and Jill Barrett E. Gwen Bartok John and Laura Berman Karen A. Bing Laurie Bompart Auburn and Ruth Boyers Shirlee M. Bromley Dorothy L. Buckley Parvez Bukhari Hazel A. Burnett M. Dosia Carlson Anne and Jackson Carroll Mark Caruana and Paula Baggaley Carolyn H. Cary Cantrell Cheeks City Pizzeria LLC Brian Clark Shannon Clarkson Ruth Courtnell Richard and Judith Crocker Lillian F. Daniel Linda Demikat Maribel and Nafi Donat Michael and Deborah Drake DZEN Commercial Roofing

Jack Ellovich Mary B. Espinosa Catherine Field Sandra Fischer and William Madsen Karl A. Fransson Richard and Ann Gallion Chantel Gardner Sidney L. Gardner Walter and May-Wo Giger Peter and Jeanne Grandy Deena Grant Wadi and Yvonne Haddad Anne Hardy Ernest and Millie Harris The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving Mary N. Hawkes Alyce and David Hild Emily G. Holcombe Georgette Huie Molly and Reade James Renee Janow Loreli and George Jenkins Edward and Michael Jeter James R. Johnson and Marlene S. Quinlan David Joseph Hossein Kamaly Faroque A. Khan Daniel R. Kingman Robert C. Knox III Jay Krusell Mary K. Lahaj Mary and David Larson James H. Latimer Janice Lautier Jackie Lee Gary and Elizabeth Lewis Gwendolyn and Sherwood Lewis Margaret Lezak Robert K. Loesch Sidney Lovett Adair Lummis Jean A. Lys Ronald H. Malcolm Lady Mandalika Stephen and Lynn Marino Daniel and Ruth Martin Robert and Joanne McWaid Tracy Mehr-Muska Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. Henry Millan, Jr. Gary and Lori Mongillo

Monitor Controls, Inc. Pamela Morrison-Wolf Deborah F. Moyer Nisa Muhammad Victoria T. Murphy Henrietta J. Near James and Sharon Nelson Ann Gail B. Nichols Noank Baptist Church John and Darlene Oblak Joseph L. Pace Carmen and Harry Pak Anna S. Pearson Susan Pokorny John E. Post Winona Lotz Ramsay Frank and Judith Resnick Robert and Susan Rock Elaine Sandler Michael Sandner Phyllis Shikora Jean Simpson Shanell T. and Clinton Smith Christopher Solimene E.B. Stanley Michael Sullivan Robert and Elizabeth Sweet Andrew and Mary Elizabeth Taylor Allan and Sally Taylor Jo Anne Y. Taylor Alvin W. Thompson and Lesley A. Morgan-Thompson Scott L. Thumma Tortora Maintenance Ann Van Cleef Betsy and Peter Van Loon Richard and Shirley Waddell Jon and Marilyn Webber Gregory and Amy Welin Terri L. Young Martha and Sidney Yules Timur and Nadya Yuskaev Andrew and Joyce Zeman Barbara and Joseph Zikmund William and Janet Zito Daniel Zuckerman * Deceased Gift levels reflect all donations, matching gifts and soft credits. Every effort has been made to list names and amounts correctly. If yours is in error, please contact Steven Havira at shavira@hartsem.edu, and we will make corrections on our website.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Dean Ahlberg

Pastor, First Church of Christ Congregational, Redding Center, CT

Shakeeb Alam Co-Founder and President of East Bridge Capital Management, L.P.

Karen Bailey-Francois

Noora Brown

Martin L. Budd

Debra Cantor

Minister, Second Congregational Church, Cohasset, MA

Rabbi, Congregation B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom, Bloomfield, CT

Retired Partner, Day Pitney, Stamford, CT

Allison Chisolm

John Cordani

Imran Eba

Clare Feldman

Julie Grace

Deena Grant

Yahya Hendi

Thomas C. Hofstetter

Peter Kelly

Joel N. Lohr

Jean Amos Lys

Frank Resnick

Managing Director, Wells Fargo Advisors

Senior Principal, Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, PC

James K. Robertson

Edmund (Ted) See

Naseem Shaikh

Ali Shakibai

Timur Yuskaev

Principal, Choice Words/Chisolm & Co.

Muslim Chaplain, Georgetown University

Nancy P. Roberts Former President, Connecticut Council for Philanthropy

Attorney, Robinson & Cole

Senior Partner, Carmody & Torrance, Waterbury, CT; Chair, Board Of Trustees

Partner, Action Potential Venture Capital

Former Partner, Day Pitney LLP

CORPORATORS Samsiah Abdul-Majid Kamal Ali Saud Anwar LeRoy Bailey Jr. Donna Berman John A. Berman Shelley D. Best Judith Borus James M. Boucher Courtney Bourns Harold C. Buckingham Jr. G. Scott Cady

Officer, Farmington Valley American Muslim Center

Thomas G. Carr Ed A. Charlebois Sajjad B. Chowdhry Joseph Colletti Mally B. Cox-Chapman Carole C. Fay Bridget Fidler Shawn Fisher James T. Fleming Jerry Franklin Karl A. Fransson James P. Friedman

Retired SVP of Citizens Bank

President

Former Vice President & CFO at UTAS, a division of UTC

Harriet H. Gardner Arnold C. Greenberg Jay-Seth Guberman Rashid Hamid Walter L. Harrison Katherine Heichler Alyce F. Hild Robert B. Hoffman Molly F. James S. Edward Jeter Christine Joyner Kay W. Kellogg

Alumni Council Vice Chair

Alumni Council Chair

Associate Professor of Jewish Studies

Former CFO, Mandell Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center

Cardiologist

Colleen M. Keyes Kimat G. Khatak Molly O. Louden B. Patrick Madden Merritt McDonough Jr. Hugh McLean Kate McLean Nitza M. Nieves Sulayman S. Nyang Erline M. Patrick Judith Perkins Craig Phillips

Associate Professor of Contemporary Islam

Syed Raza Marc A. Reich Ezra H. Ripple Jonathan Rosenbaum Pilar Schmidt John L. Selders Mark S. Steiner Sohaib N. Sultan Joe M. Tobin Jr. Ritu Zazzaro

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES OPERATING REVENUE Student Revenues

Investment Return Utilized for Operations Private Gifts, Bequests, and Grants

2020

2019

1,137,621

993,220

2,582,726

2,665,343

100,003

1,077,855

329,939

Research and Grants Auxiliary Activities

83,995

Other Revenue

138,166

Investment Income, Beneficial Interest in Perpetual Trusts

Total Operating Revenue

402,833 115,013

143,748

495,250

590,033

$4,867,700

$5,988,045

OPERATING EXPENSES 2,669,022

Educational & Institutional Support

1,865,947

$4,809,172

$4,835,433

350,768

Fundraising

Total Operating Expenses

2,621,468

1,789,382

Management & General

$58,528

Change in Net Assets, Operations

348,018

$1,152,612

OTHER CHANGES Private Gifts and Pledges

18,035

Investment Return, Net

1,579,789

Investment Return Utilized for Operations

Change in Value of Split Interest Agreement

(2,665,343)

(173,117)

(165,185)

(275,634)

Other Expenses (Income)

(23,628)

(1,457,281)

Change in Net Assets

$(1,398,753)

Net Assets, Beginning of Year

$61,626,796

Net Assets, End of Year

2,935,162

(2,582,726)

Depreciation

Total Other Changes

10,895

$60,228,043

(146,808) (7,597)

(38,876) $1,113,736 $60,513,060 $61,626,796

2020 OPERATING REVENUE 23.37% STUDENT REVENUES

2.84% OTHER INCOME

10.17%

53.06% ENDOWMENT DRAW

1.73% AUXILIARY INCOME

TRUST INCOME

2.05% RESEARCH/PROGRAM GRANT INCOME

6.78% CONTRIBUTED INCOME

77 Sherman Street Hartford, CT USA 06105-2260 www.hartsem.edu Address Service Required

Cranes 2.0 In 2014, Hartford Seminary’s lobby came alive with a display of 1,000 colorful origami cranes made for World Peace Day. In 2020, we started making cranes again, this time for our friends at nearby Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford. Saint Francis, our longtime partner in training chaplains, is planning a beautiful display in its rotunda as soon as the cranes are finished. The display will serve as a tribute to the heartbreaking sacrifices that health care workers have made during the pandemic and to their tireless efforts to help keep us safe.