Mosaic: The Magazine of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary / Summer/Fall 2019

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1 | SUMMER/FALL 2019

The magazine of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

WHOSOEVER: THE DIVINE INVITATION

WHOSOEVER: The magazine of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary SUMMER/FALL 2019 VOLUME 24, NUMBER 1

EDITOR

Chris Wooton

ART DIRECTION DESIGN/LAYOUT Bridget Couch

FINDING HOLY GROUND

FESTIVAL OF THEOLOGY & ALUM REUNION 2019

LOUISVILLE SEMINARY

November 7-8

PHOTOGRAPHY Ralph Homan Jonathan Roberts Chris Wooton Ted Webb

CONTENTS 9

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Mosaic is published two times a year by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Office of Communications. This magazine has a circulation of approximately 5,000 and is printed by Merrick Printing in Louisville, Ky. © Copyright 2019 by Louisville Seminary | www.lpts.edu | 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, Kentucky 40205 | 502.895.3411 | 800.264.1839

CALDWELL LECTURER Rev. Edwin C. Sanders, II Senior Servant and Founder

CLASSROOM IN THE COMMUNITY Prof. Justin Reed takes is class off campus and into the congregation.

A PLACE TO BE FREE

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ALL ABOARD THE HOPE BUSS

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A NEW VIEW TO RECOVERY

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AN ADVOCATE FOR HEALTHCARE

Metropolitan Interdenominational Church Nashville, Tennessee

The biannual magazine of Louisville Seminary is available online at www.lpts.edu.

Prof. Scott Williamson organizes a Circle of Support and Accountability group to help citizens transition from incarceration to community.

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EDITORIAL BOARD Carolyn Cardwell Marcus Hong Sandra Moon Dot Ridings

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE GETS REAL

Prof. Debra Mumford’s and the Louisville Youth Group provide positive role models for LGBTQIA+ youth.

M.Div. student Stachelle Bussey lends a hand (and some wheels) to support the community.

Alum Zach Crouch helps those on the road to recovery from addiction.

M.Div. student Angela Overton heads to Washington, D.C. as senior advisor to the Interfaith and Diversity Workgroup for the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care .

The mosaic representation of the Louisville Seminary seal is located in the entrance of Caldwell Chapel. Its symbols are captured in the motto: “Many Lamps, One Light.”

25 FESTIVAL PREACHER Rev. Chandra Irvin (MDiv ‘15) Executive Director

GOING FURTHER Tough topics, supportive community are part of Distinguished Alum Majid Abel’s “One Big Classroom.”

Center for Peace and Spiritual Renewal Spalding University

Registration goes live September 1.

See www.lpts.edu/FOT19 for more information.

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THE DIFFERENCE EDUCATION MAKES Seminary work led to an extraordinary calling for Distinguished Alum Nosheen Khan.

SUMMER/FALL 2019 Volume 24, Number 1

departments 4

Many Lamps, One Light: A Message from the President

16

Visually Speaking

20

Faculty Bedside Books

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Classnotes

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MANY LAMPS, ONE LIGHT Whosoever: The Divine Invitation John 3:16 Presidential Inauguration and Installation Address Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard, III President and Professor of Religion and Culture

want to share with you this evening a story that long predated my journey into theological education and that compels me still to reflect on what troubles our contemporary notions of human community and our indifference to the question of human dignity. Research has confirmed what we intuitively know, that the most formative experiences in our life usually take place when we are young. Still, it is hard for me to believe that well over half a century and more has passed since the occurrence of those constellation of events that would give substantive shape to the course of my life. Howard Thurman wonderfully describes the intimate trajectory of the individual life, the personal biography of our days, as the “miracle of the working paper,” or the “creative synthesis of what [a person] is in all [their] parts and how [they] react to the living process.”1 It was lunchtime when the fight broke out. I was new to the school, in the fifth grade, when a pack of six white boys descended on me with a torrent of fists and racial epithets.

No adult rushed to my aid. To this day I don’t know how I got the best of that fight. I only know that I did. School suspensions followed. Theirs, not mine. My mother, who had always told me that I would have to answer to her if I did not vigorously defend myself when confronted, was pleased. My father, not so much.

The school that I attended, and my siblings after me, was in a Norman Rockwell-type bedroom community, for whites only. The de jure discriminatory practices of the South, like redlining here in Louisville, were rivaled by de facto restrictive covenants in the North and West – twentieth century contractual markers designed by white homeowners, 4 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

real estate operators, bankers and developers to keep Black people and select other groups from moving into white communities. The segregation of the time somehow failed to prevent my parents’ purchase of our home in white Americana. Even so, racism – America’s original sin – reigned supreme. The neighborhood made it clear they did not want “our kind,” we did not belong there, we were not welcome.

Busing at our school was restricted to a small handful of Black children. I was the only one who lived close enough to walk.

The tendency of humans to separate and judge those not in our clan as lesser, deficient, subhuman, unrecognizable, taboo, alien, foreigner, stranger, an outsider, the enemy – those who are not like us – are designations based on race, gender, class, and a litany of disqualifiers with a long and sordid history. The 1950s and 1960s represented the height of the twentieth century Black-led movement for freedom in the United States. The pivotal events of that era were part of an ongoing legacy of Black freedom struggles challenging and redefining the life of the nation. The courage of young people from elementary school to graduate school – the Little Rock Nine, the Wichita Seven, the Greensboro sit-ins, the interstate Freedom Riders, James Meredith at the University of Mississippi, the school-age children in Birmingham met by water hoses and police dogs, John Lewis, Diane Nash, Ruby Doris Smith, Prathia Wynn Hall, Anne Moody, James Bevel, James Lawson and Bob Moses, and others – pressed their elders to assume an ever more militant activist stance.

I grew up far away from the creative centers of the Black Freedom Movement. It didn’t matter. By the time I was in high school, I found that with rare exception, with each

successive year and experience my anger as a young Black man grew. Our family attended a rather large Black Baptist church. The faithful were transplants from the Deep South, like my mother and father, mostly bluecollar workers, and a fair number in the professions. As a congregation, we worshipped together under the venerable refrain, “there are no big I’s or little U’s in the church.” My parents were well respected leaders in our church. As with most Black churches, educational and vocational expectations for young women and men ran high, and communal integrity, social identity, and personal dignity were regularly invoked as articles of faith. I taught Sunday school from an early age. In my turbulent youth, the twenty-second verse of the 139th Psalm became my mantra: “I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”

In the late sixties and early seventies, young Black people raised their fists and voices defiantly in the name of Black Power. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, the Black Liberation Army, the Republic of New Africa, the Black Women’s Liberation Committee, the Black Woman’s United Front, the

African Peoples Party, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the February 1st Movement, the Shrine of the Black Madonna, and countless grassroots organizations were the bearers of fire – young Black women and men who carried about in their hearts, minds and bodies the burning embers of justice and the relentless fires of liberation. They challenged the myth of egalitarianism so deeply embedded in the American national psyche and so blatantly contradicted

by Black America’s carceral reality.

Contemptuous of their cultural despisers, they rejected every notion of second-class status and turned to the critical task of unmasking American metanarratives of democratic freedoms and exceptionalism.

In those racially charged years, reading Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited in my first year of college was shocking. Suddenly, a cornucopia of imponderables about the evils of white supremacy, manifold systems of hierarchy and oppression, grotesque manifestations of empire and hegemony, and my growing estrangement from the

Glen Bell, Sarasota, FL Mary Gene Boteler, Westerville, OH Daniel Bradley, Terre Haute, IN Elizabeth Clay, Louisville, KY Lant B. Davis, Birmingham, AL Laurie Laidlaw Deacon, Cleveland, OH Amos J. Disasa, Dallas, TX Nancy M. Falls, Nashville, TN Lyle S. Hannah, Lexington, KY Bari S. Johnson, Spring Lake, MI Wayne Kramer, Knoxville, TN Kenneth T. McClellan, Nashville, TN Kathryn Minx, Tucson, AZ Joseph Nash, Greenville, MS Patrick O’Connor, Jamaica, NY Alton B. Pollard, III, Louisville, KY Donald J. Ridings, Jr., Chevy Chase, MD Betty Louis Sheppard, Memphis, TN Anne Steele, Gates Mills, OH Timothy A. Stoepker, Grand Haven, MI Lee Walthall, Birmingham, AL Polly Williams, Waxahachie, TX John Willingham, Doylestown, PA

Continued, next page.

Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 5

America that was, were realigned.

Thurman’s slender volume, along with the galaxy of brilliant Black minds and hearts that I was being introduced to inside and outside of the classroom, stunned me with its searching analysis and summoned me with a harrowing faith. My re-education, or life-altering experience of metanoia in theological terms, as a person of African descent was underway. I was set free to interrogate my circumstance, to join the insurrection of subjugated minds, to challenge the normative gaze, to disrupt the violence and voyeurism that plagues our land, to finally and at last bridge the unbreachable distance between humans. Out of my grisly memories would emerge the phenomenal and ineffable gift of self and a dawning recognition that all manner of human atrocity and injustice notwithstanding, the divine invitation is to goodness, generosity, justice and joy.

It is a sacred truth. We are made for each other.

David Cassidy’s painting of “Whosoever,” ubiquitous on our campus and beyond this week, has long moved me. It speaks to my soul. The original hangs in Nashville’s Metropolitan Interdenominational Church where Edwin Sanders is the Senior Servant.

Look closely. It is distinctive for there being no facial recognition. The features recede into shadows that tell no demographic tale, that reveal not the faintest clue about hair texture or length, fullness of lips or nose, eye tint or shape. The face is everyone and no one and it is you and me. The body is draped in a brilliant rainbow garment of violet, orange, yellow, indigo, and green set against a bold chromatic backdrop, perhaps a stained glass window or prism of refracted light. The figure in the forefront stands out.

Larger than life itself. Watching.

Waiting. Expectant. Inviting us. Calling us. With arms outstretched. With hands held out. With heart open wide. With holes the size of nails visible in each palm. And writ large across the portrait in a spectrum of colors is that single word – “WHOSOEVER.” The word comes from that most famous and beloved of texts in the Christian New Testament. Many of us have memorized John 3:16 from the traditional King James Version: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Today, no critical biblical scholar would call this the best translation. No matter, the passage is so deeply engrained and familiar to us that we are recite it as if we are on default mode, we’re sure what it means before we ever read it or hear it. For some, John 3:16 has become Christian shorthand, religious cliché, a cultural catchphrase on display at sporting events. For others it is the essential distillation of the gospel, the Christian’s inheritance, and the believer’s creed.

I have long asked myself, what is it that I hope to accomplish as a student of religion and life,

as a theological educator and leader, and as a minister of the gospel. To plumb the depths of the divine and our humanity found in a single text and more, a single word, may be enough. It may be enough.

In the third chapter of the sixteenth verse of the Gospel of John there is such a word for me – it is altogether subversive, dangerous, disturbing, sublime and undistinguished in biblical scholarship.

The word receives little attention in a text that is a favorite of traditionalists but finds few post-modern takers. Yet if we have the courage to attend to the core of the heart of this well-known verse there is a word to fire the human imagination and leads us into the radical depths. Whosoever.

Whoever. Everyone. Everybody.

“Whosoever,” Jesus says it to Nicodemus, to us all.

In African American churches, for countless years, with cultural license, we too have said it: “Whosoever will let her or him come.” Without respect of person or denomination, our glad practice is to “open the doors of the church” after the sermon, to extend the divine invitation to whosoever to become part of the communion of saints. Jesus says there is no test of eligibility, no grandfather or grandmother clause here; there are no qualifications for fitness and no preexisting condition in health or life can possibly put you at risk. Everyone has equal access to the divine source; no one lies beyond the pale. In the words of the old Negro spiritual, “I’ve got a right, you’ve got a right, we’ve all got a right to the tree of life.”

Dan Aleshire famously likened graduate theological institutions to the solid, state of the art, rotary phone. We thought that we were built to last forever and if we are not careful, we will find that we have outlived our usefulness. Some of you will remember Ma Bell, the telephone conglomerate that kept us connected to family and friends, businesses, and organizations. Today, single-circuit wires and telephone poles are gone, or largely giving way, to fiber-optic cable and

wireless technology. Digital connectivity – internet, broadband, streaming – only blurs the lines further. So too, in theological education, our once sturdy networks of tradition, tribe, and thought are faltering and giving way.

Like information technologies, theological education has seen an increase in the scale and complexities of our human connectivity. The means of communication at our disposal have spectacularly increased, but our willingness to connect – to genuinely know and be known – seems as uncertain as ever. In a time of certain change, the magnificent invitation of “whosoever” awaits.

I invite you to strategically envision with me a learning and living community where people are at home in their own lives. No pretense is required in their self-presentation, and the sound of the genuine is a kindred experience to be shared without and within. Envisage a place that is filled with uncommon purpose and where thoughts, hearts, and lives seek to be whole, just, and of one piece. A theological institution that wrestles with inconvenient truths, wages peace, and practices anti-racism with unprecedented courage as the beginning of wisdom. A seminary community that invites, includes, and advocates for people of every background and description – age, race, class, wealth, ability, ethnicity, sexuality,

gender identity and/or expression, religious tradition or none – from every zip code, neighborhood, region, nation, and continent. A graduate theological school that cultivates belonging on campus and extends belonging beyond the campus walls and gates into surrounding and once disregarded communities. A learning network that is responsive to the sacred call to care for the earth, the biosphere, and eco-justice issues.

Envision with me further a theological setting that dares innovate its education, incorporates diverse learning platforms and lived experiences, and inspires an entire region. A community that is deeply principled and balanced in its stewardship of human and fiscal resources. An organization that patterns shared governance centered in bonds of trust for institutional viability.

A culture that is student-centered and student concerned. An institution that models in its hiring and personnel practices the very aims and values it espouses. A school that fosters a culture of generosity, generously giving and graciously receiving, a philanthropic environment where every individual is encouraged, affirmed, and embraced. A free-standing seminary that is proud to tell its story, bordering the north and the south, born of the distinctive Presbyterian and Reformed tradition, reformed and always being reformed, 1

6 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

giving honor where honor is due, building on covenantal relationships and re-forming the content of its education for the common good in the twenty-first century. A community of the faithful that recognizes the call of “whosoever” is never easy to follow, yet and still courageously prepares for a future not fully ours to inhabit.

The choices we make today will dictate the quality of life that our children and their children can enjoy and determine the long-term health of our planet. Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has a proud history of building bridges and engaging disparate and disconsolate worlds. By legacy, we are many lamps, one light. We are a beacon, a guidepost, a sign on the way to the One who calls us beloved and into community one with the other. Ours is an imperfect institution, filled with imperfect people, faith and thought leaders, ever seeking understanding, affirming like John Coltrane, “a love supreme.”

Jesus says “whosoever” is welcome here. We are all of us one. That means you are accepted. I am accepted. We are accepted. All are accepted. All women and all men, all generations and all genders, all ethnicities and all nations, all creeds and all cultures, all conditions and all communities – for all time.

Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, you are that place. By the grace of God, we are. Ashé. Amen. n

Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976), 110.

Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 7

Ron Brown begins to fill out a job application.

Bills, groceries, clothes, and gasoline for the car all demand a steady paycheck. Just as importantly, Ron likes to work. He is particularly adept at engaging other people, and he doesn’t believe in clocking out until all of the day’s priorities are addressed. Ron is confident that he will be a good fit for the job, and that would seem to be the truth until he reaches one critical section on the job application.

Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Yes.

If so, please give the details of the conviction.

Served 20 years in a federal prison for murder.

This is one of the many challenges that Ron and others face in life after prison. Restoration and reconciliation with society is difficult for both the returning citizen and the community. Even commonly used terms such as “former

inmate” and “formerly incarcerated” imply current guilt.

In addition to potential employers, apprehensions about welcoming one who has served jail time are felt by lending institutions, neighborhood associations, and even churches.

For those returning to society from prison, the internal challenges add to the isolation. For someone like Ron, whose movement was dictated by the prison’s schedule for 20 years, something as simple as ordering food at a restaurant can be overwhelming.

“Prison is small community,” said Brown. “In there I knew who I was and how to be among others. When I was released, I became a stranger to myself. The world was big, different.

I pay attention to everybody, and I always sit near exits. Big crowds bother me. I enjoy sports, but the thought of going to a stadium to watch a game is too much.”

In 2017 Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary participated in a project funded by the Association of Theological Schools to restore a returning citizen back to the Louisville Community. The project took the form of a Circle of Support and Accountability (CoSA) group, which,

over the course of a year, worked closely with Brown. CoSA volunteers establish relationships with core members (i.e., the person who was convicted of a crime) that are based on mutuality, equality, and an agreement to work toward building a lasting and responsible friendship.

Led by Dr. Scott C. Williamson, Louisville Seminary’s Robert H. Walkup Professor of Theological Ethics, CoSA volunteers included Jamil Grimes (MDiv ‘17), Rev. David Snardon (MDiv ’11), and members of the men’s group in Snardon’s church, Joshua Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.

“Restorative justice is all about building community,” said Williamson.

“Bringing people together for a shared dialogue can be an effective vehicle for

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE GETS L A RE

8 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

building community.”

Williamson learned about the CoSA method of recovery through conversations he had with Dr. Ida Dickey who serves as director of forensic psychology at Spalding University. In Dickey’s work with clients who were returning to society from incarceration, she found that while there were services available to help facilitate re-entry, there were not relationships for support.

“Part of a successful transition back into society is rebuilding the trust that has been broken by the crime that was committed,” said Dickey. “The beauty of restorative justice and the CoSA method is found in building those relationships.”

Williamson and Dickey provided some necessary CoSA training to the volunteers before the group’s work with Brown began.

“I believe we had to work through a lot of bias before we met Ron,” said Snardon. “The training we went

through and the questions we were able to ask of ourselves not only prepared us to be aware of what was going on with Ron but what was going on with each of us internally. Now we need to take what we learned in our CoSA training and in our work with Ron and pass that along to other CoSA groups, other churches, other men’s groups, etc. to make this a holistic approach to ministry and discipleship.”

For Grimes, who was a Louisville Seminary student during his time with the CoSA group, the value of CoSA method goes beyond helping the retuning citizen. Grimes said that the circle creates a bond of trust and respect among all of the participants.

Strength is not just realized by the core member. The whole group feels renewed by one another’s presence and participation.

“Circle-keeping is not something that a single person does all by themselves,” said Grimes. “As much as the circle was trusting me to be prepared for discussion, I was also trusting them to be prepared, to show up for the meetings, and be ready to recommit ourselves to the goal of the circle.”

Williamson adds that for the CoSA volunteers, they learn something more about themselves. Meeting someone in Brown’s situation carries with it apprehensions. However, as the circle works together, they see a person who is trying to recover from the worst day

Top: Ron Brown (back row, red shirt) with the Circle of Support and Advocacy discussion group.

Left: Professor Scott Williamson (center) leads a Circle of Support and Advocacy discussion with core member Ron Brown (left).

of his life – a person who has life to give to his community.

The reality of Brown’s crime can neither be denied nor understated.

Brown took a man’s life. A man who had family and friends. Throughout Brown’s incarceration and to this day, the memory of his crime remains on his mind like a horrible, tragic, vivid, and painful scar.

“I’ll be doing ordinary things like taking a walk, making food, talking to people, and there he is. The man who suffered from my mistake.”

It’s difficult for Brown to talk about that terrible evening, when a confused and frustrated young man made a fateful decision. Yet, Brown feels that it is his responsibility to share his story with others.

“We need to hold ourselves accountable in our community,” said Brown. “I share my story because I want others who have fallen to know that there is still hope. As horrible as one’s past mistakes are, there is always an opportunity to create life and meaning.”

The bonds created in the CoSA circle remain strong. Brown often finds himself among his circle friends and their families and associates.

Williamson’s own children even call Brown “Uncle Ron.” “I am blessed and honored that these people (the CoSA volunteers) took a chance on my restoration, said Brown.

“They showed me that instead of taking something away from the world, I have something to give to the world.” n Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 9

CLASSROOM IN THE

COMMUNITY Each January, Louisville Seminary offers intensive courses, which give students the option to get three credit hours under their belts before the spring semester begins.

Referred to as “J-Term,” most of the courses offered are electives, although some required Marriage and Family Therapy and Doctor of Ministry program courses are also offered. J-Term courses often provide interesting twists on the learning experience.

For example, this past January, Louisville Seminary alums Mark (MDiv ’75, DMin ’85) and Cheryl (MDiv ’77) Goodman-Morris taught a class on creative worship.

Prof. Christopher Elwood offered a course that focused on the relationships between the Christian faith, other faith traditions, and human religiousness in general.

Prof. Cliff Kirkpatrick’s J-Term course focused on mission in the context of Cuba and the United States.

My 2019 J-Term course, “God of Our Weary Years,” explored the popular and academic practices of Black people interpreting the Hebrew Bible in the United States. I wanted to get students out of the classroom and into a context where they are likely to find themselves after graduation and also provide an appropriate setting for the subject itself. So, with great thanks to Pastor Angela Johnson, a Louisville Seminary alum (MDiv ’14) and current Doctor of Ministry student, we found a wonderful home for our class at Grace 10 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

Hope Presbyterian Church. Grace Hope is a historically Black church located in an urban, predominantly Black neighborhood. Since our class centers on the voices of Black biblical interpreters, it only seemed natural that our class occur in a space where it is normal to hear and affirm the testimony of Black people.

“It was a pleasure to host Prof. Reed’s J-Term class,” said Johnson. “Holding the class in an urban African-American church added a complimentary atmosphere to the readings and class discussions on the black interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The class also gave our church members and the broader community access to master’s-level theological study, which is always a plus!”

Our class included 15 Louisville Seminary students as well as members of the Grace Hope congregation and the community at large. In my anecdotal experience, I find that people from all walks of life and professional credentials find theological education to be fascinating and relevant.

Some of my most rewarding experiences involve wrestling with academic questions while engaging with people outside of the halls of academia. I feel an affinity toward the idea of inviting the community to join us and be a part of our learning experience.

Throughout the course, students displayed a remarkable ability to apply what they have been learning to real-life situations.

One very impressive example was an activity in which students were invited to work in groups while reflecting on the controversy surrounding President Obama’s 2008 election campaign and the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Obama’s home-church in Chicago.

This controversy occurred when soundbites of passionate rhetoric from two of Rev. Wright’s sermons were broadcast on various news networks, and these excerpts were characterized as irreverent, hateful, un-American, and worse.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama roundly condemned Rev. Wright’s comments as a “profoundly distorted view of this country” (“A More Perfect Union,” March 18, 2008).

Students in our class were challenged to take a more nuanced assessment of these soundbites in their broader sermonic context, theological context, cultural context, and historical context. In doing so, students were able to activate the potential from their research into the history of Black biblical interpretation in order to generate a robust discussion of the merits of Rev. Wright’s statements as valuable truths of the Black, Christian experience in this country.

“Professor Reed’s course taught me more than a basic understanding of black biblical interpretation in America,” said Master of Divinity student Rachel Lemke. “I learned about my own biases and perspectives, and I continue to find challenges and grace in learning to interpret the Bible beyond my own experience.”

Another example involved group-work in which students addressed how the trends in the history of Black biblical interpretation could be relevant to biblical interpreters seeking to advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people. After looking at three very different—and even contradictory—approaches within Black biblical interpretation (filtering the Bible through a particular theological lens, countering individual anti-Black interpretations, and treating the Bible as scripture while admitting and resisting some of its unethical norms), students explored the potential for applying each approach to the issue of how “Bible believing” Christians can accept all sexualities and gender identities as equal in God’s eyes.

“Professor Reed’s class challenges one’s truth concerning race,

ethnicity, and justice as it relates to Scripture in modern society,” said Master of Divinity student Jemicah Stevens.

“The course unveils a wonderful opportunity to enter discussions with scholars of color and how they have interpreted the Hebrew Bible to address the disparity fostered by social, economic, and moral ills. I have been tremendously empowered and forever impacted by this course!”

During multiple church services that I attended, the community at Grace Hope Presbyterian expressed gratitude for us having the class there. Similarly, our students and I are extremely grateful to Grace Hope and Angela Johnson for hosting us.

What we did with this course is part of a larger desire of mine to practice ways in which theological education can be made accessible to people in a diversity of contexts outside of the walls of our academic classrooms. I look forward to more such opportunities. n

Professor Reed’s class challenges one’s truth concerning race, ethnicity, and justice as it relates to Scripture in modern society”

Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 11

o t e c a A Pl Be

e e r F

ALL ABOARD THE HOPE BUSS

By Debra J. Mumford Frank H. Caldwell Professor of Homiletics and Director of the Money Matters for Ministry Program

When I was growing up in Eastern North Carolina, I did not have positive LGBTQIA+ role models. I did not know that people in general and African Americans in particular, could live healthy and productive lives while being proud of their sexual and gender identities.

Fortunately, LGBTQIA+ children and youth in Louisville have the Louisville Youth Group (LYG) as a resource during their formative years. I currently serve on the board of directors of the LYG and served as an adult mentor for eleven years because I believe in its mission: to serve as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ youth and provide them with leadership skills and tools to help them, not just survive, but to thrive as they live fully authentic lives.

Louisville Youth Group was founded in 1990 when adults and youth came together to meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth ages 13 to 21. LYG continues to exist because despite social, political, and legal gains in recent years such as the national legalization of gay marriage and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the United States military, people who do not conform to hetero-normative behaviors, sexual and gender identities continue to be marginalized and discriminated against in our society. The stigma of being different can be especially traumatizing for LGBTQIA+ children and youth.

LGBTQIA+ youth are more than twice as likely as non-LGBTQAI+ youth to experience verbal harassment, physical assault, and exclusion by their peer groups. They are much more likely to report that they do not have an adult they can talk to about personal problems and are more than twice as likely to experiment with alcohol and drugs and to experience physical assault. They are much more likely to be rejected by their families, to be bullied in school for being different, and experience depression or thoughts of suicide. Forty-two percent of LGBTQIA+ youth say they are not accepted by the communities in which they live.

For these and many other reasons, children and youth need safe spaces in the world where they can be themselves. At LYG, the youth become part of a 12 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

community of youth, mentors, leaders, and volunteers who lift them up and affirm their sexual orientations and gender identities. At LYG, the youth can attend prom with whomever they want while wearing whatever they want. Trans youth are able to access clothing that matches their gender identities in an on-site trans-closet.

Youth gain leadership skills as they guide the vision and programming of LYG as members of the Youth Leadership Council. They design, execute, and plan an annual pasta dinner and talent show which are LYG fundraising events.

They socialize with other youth at LYG Leadership Camp while enjoying nature, spirited conversations, and the thrill of night hikes. The young people are encouraged to become social justice activists to help make the world a more just and inclusive place. Most importantly, more than three hundred LGBTQIA+ youth and allied young adults attend weekly programming throughout any given year in a safe space where they can just be -- be fully who they are. n

Louisville Seminary Professor and Louisville Youth Group board member Debra Mumford (center) with LYG board treasurer Bethany Olson and Jason Peno, executive director of LYG. Top: The buttons in the display are pronouns. Louisville Youth Group’s weekly gatherings always start with introductions in which each person present shares the pronouns by which they would like to be addressed. For example, my personal pronouns are “she, her, hers.”

rowing up in the projects of Louisville, Kentucky, Stachelle Bussey was often sent by her mother to borrow a cup of sugar or other cooking essentials from her neighbors. On many such occasions, the transaction did not stop there. The neighbor would ask Stachelle to deliver or ask for essentials from another neighbor, who, in turn, would ask Stachelle to acquire supplies from yet another neighbor.

For Bussey, living in that network of support taught her the value of strength in community.

“If everyone gives just a little of themselves – a cup of sugar here, some flour there – you have a nice cake for everyone to enjoy together,” said Bussey.

That spirit of giving has remained with Bussey throughout her former professional life as a social worker and her current life as a minister and Master of Divinity student at Louisville Seminary. Bussey’s latest expression of that spirit was created in 2018 with the establishment of The Hope Buss, a nonprofit organization, which provides free grocery store trips to those who do not have transportation.

“Milk at the corner store in poor neighborhoods can be as much as four times more expensive than what is offered at the larger stores,” said Bussey, who serves as Director of Worship at One Church in Louisville. “Lack of access to affordable means of living is an injustice. This is one way to provide relief, and I hope it catches on.”

The Hope Buss consists of Bussey and other volunteers in the community including Louisville Seminary Master of Divinity student Theresa Durham. Bussey’s long-term goal for The Hope Buss is to partner with neighborhood churches and community organizations to recruit more volunteers.

“These (churches and organizations) are anchors of hope in the neighborhoods,” said Bussey. “A Hope Buss ministry provides an opportunity for people in each congregation to become more involved in their churches and more engaged in the community. This, I think, will dissolve violence and restore trust in the community. It will also bridge the gap between churches and the neighborhoods they serve.”

In June, The Hope Buss partnered with Grace Hope Presbyterian Church in the Smoketown neighborhood to host a health fair and provide grocery trips. Similar events have and will continue to take place at One Church. In the meantime, The Hope Buss will continue to make its monthly runs from the City View apartments in the Russell neighborhood.

“Ministry is not just talking about Jesus from the pulpit,” said Bussey. “You have to become the hands and feet of Jesus to make that ministry come to life.” n See www.thehopebuss.org to learn more about The Hope Buss.

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A NEW VIEW

his wife. She was the first woman he dated, Crouch noted, who “I could take home, wanted to take home, or wanted to take me home.”

With January 2, 2007, as his “clean date,” Crouch is celebrating 12 years of sobriety. Before then, he recalled, “I

three-year-old center treats trauma, an approach not used by many other substance abuse treatment centers in the area, Crouch said. Landmark also offers art therapy, yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, and other tools along with the traditional Twelve Steps.

TO RECOVERY As an undergraduate psychology major, Zach Crouch (MAMFT ’09) earned decent grades. But his drug and alcohol use was increasing. Even his drinking buddies told him he might have a problem.

A couple of years out of college, having lost his job at a psychiatric facility due to substance abuse, the Louisville native came home and considered his next steps.

One of those steps turned out to be therapy with Jim Clines (MAMFT ’98), who both cared and challenged … and eventually told him about Louisville Seminary’s Marriage and Family Therapy program.

Crouch, who, like Clines, was raised Catholic, liked what he heard about the seminary program’s spiritual component and ecumenical approach.

“I wanted something that would challenge me to look at things differently,” he said. He applied and received a full tuition grant.

Crouch would go on to do clinical 14 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

work in individual, group, and hospital settings, and to co-found Louisville’s Landmark Recovery treatment center, where he now serves as national business development manager. He also hosts Landmark’s Recovery Radio podcast. Landmark is known for offering patients and their families a variety of pathways to recovery.

But first, he had to find his own.

The rigor of returning to school — and being at the very beginning of a recovery process that had already seen many stops and starts — led to relapse. Near the end of fall 2006, his first semester at Louisville Seminary, Professor Carol Cook very kindly pulled Crouch aside. If he didn’t bring up his grades pretty soon, he could lose his place in the program.

“That hit hard,” he said. “It also coincided with meeting Emily.”

Now known as the Rev. Emily Schwartz Crouch (MAMFT ’07), an Episcopal priest and therapist, she was the fellow student who would become

couldn’t pull together more than 30 days of sobriety.”

Seminary life let him take a deep, hard look at not only his own addiction, but the addiction patterns throughout his family. The quiet campus, along with the opportunities for solitude, reflection, and self-care, further allowed Crouch to process and integrate what he was learning.

Interning at The Morton Center in Louisville, which helps individuals and families recover from substance abuse, taught Crouch “to take the entire family into consideration, as though they actually have the disease … which they do,” he said.

Mentors including The Morton Center co-founder John Walsh and Louisville Seminary counseling center supervisor Kent Hicks also helped Crouch craft a life’s calling from a life-limiting disease.

“Kent just encouraged the hell out of me to go after addiction treatment and look at things differently,” he said.

Looking at things differently was what attracted him to Landmark. The

Even on the business side of the field, he still uses skills he learned at Louisville Seminary, especially when empathy is needed in situations that arise with employees.

All seminary graduates would do well to have a solid understanding of what drug and alcohol addiction might look like in their practices, parishes and other jobs, Crouch said, and to stay abreast of laws and treatment methods.

And be willing look at things in a new way, even if that feels scary.

“When you come out of seminary, don’t be afraid to take some risks. You’ve been trained well,” he said. “I think that’s what God calls us to do — to take some risks and be courageous, brave and vulnerable.” n

An ADVOCATE for Healthcare ngela Overton, a Master of Divinity student at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, has accepted a position as senior advisor to the Interfaith and Diversity Workgroup for the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) in Washington, D.C. C-TAC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, which conducts research and provides information and advocacy support on behalf of people living with advanced illness.

“As a cancer survivor, minister, and strong program manager, Angela will serve a critical role to advance the work of the faith community within C-TAC and with our partners,” said C-TAC executive director John Broyles.

In her role at C-TAC, Overton is responsible for the implementation of the C-TAC Interfaith & Diversity Workgroup programs; strategic planning for the workgroup; enhancement of C-TAC Interfaith & Diversity Workgroup image by being active and visible in the community and by working closely with other professional, civic, and private organizations; and planning roles and sessions of the workgroup at the 2019 C-TAC summit. She will oversee/work with approximately 75 individuals that work within clinical, educational, and spiritual organizations throughout the United States. “[Louisville Seminary Dean of Student Engagement] Dr. Kilen Gray has been instrumental to me in the process,” said Overton, who has served as a C-TAC volunteer for several years. “The guidance and mentorship that he has extended to me has been invaluable. In addition, Louisville Seminary has made a wonderful contribution to my academic understanding of who God is and how that is to be worked out in the world we live in today.” n

For more information, see www.thectac.org

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VISUALLY SPEAKING

INAUGURATION OF REV. DR. ALTON B. POLLARD, III

Photos by Jonathan Roberts and Ralph Homan

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3 On April 26, 2019, the Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard, III was formally installed as Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s tenth president.

In the days leading up to the installation ceremony, Louisville Seminary hosted a series of events that celebrate the unconditional and everlasting love that God has for all people of every creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, and

circumstance.

See www.lpts.edu/president/ inauguration for more photos, videos, and other highlights from this very special occasion.

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5 1 Pollard’s son, A. Brooks Pollard, IV, leads the Inaugural Prayer 2 Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II (MDiv ’02), stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (pictured), along with Sadiqa N. Reynolds, Esq., president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, and Dr. Carol J. Cook, Louisville Seminary’s Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Pastoral Theology, delivered the Charge to the Louisville Seminary Community.

3 On April 24, 2019, the Louisville Seminary Alum Association and

seminary student body hosted a gala celebration. Food and fellowship were enjoyed by all with special mementos of welcome given to Pollard presented by the Louisville Seminary community. Pictured, from left: Amanda Davis, spouse of board chair Lant B. Davis; seminary trustee Bari Johnson; seminary trustee and event co-chair Polly Williams (MDiv ’97); and President’s Roundtable member and event co-chair Amariah McIntosh (MDiv ’01, DMin ’14).

4 Pollard steals a moment of quiet before the inauguration service.

5 On April 23, a special screening of “Backs

Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story” was held at Spalding University. The documentary, produced by Journey Films and Martin Doblmeier, features Alton B. Pollard, III and other Howard Thurman scholars who explore the extraordinary life and legacy of one of the most important religious figures of the 20th century.

Pictured, from left: Doblmeier; Pollard; event committee chair Judy Stubbs (MDiv/ MAMFT ’97); Luther E. Smith, Jr., Thurman scholar and professor emeritus of church and community at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia); and Chandra Irvin (MDiv ’15), executive director of the Center for Peace and Spiritual Renewal at Spalding University.

6 Pollard with former trustee Tyler Allen (left) and former Louisville Seminary President Dean Thompson.

7 Inauguration events continued on April 23, 2019, as Joshua Tabernacle Missionary Church hosted “Building Bridges; Engaging Community.” The event featured faith and community leaders who offered their insights on how Louisville Seminary can accept God’s divine invitation of “Whosoever” to reach out to our broken world.

Pictured, from left: Rev. Dr. Kevin W. Cosby, president of Simmons College and senior pastor of St. Stephen Church; Rev. Dr. Kilen Gray (MDiv ’02, DMin ’16),

Louisville Seminary dean of student engagement and pastor of New Mount Zion Church of Shelbyville; and Rev. David L. Snardon (MDiv ’11), pastor of Joshua Tabernacle Missionary Church.

8 Rev. Edwin C. Sanders, II, founder and senior servant of the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church (Nashville, Tennessee) delivered the Charge to the President. Sanders is a longtime friend and mentor of Pollard.

9 Pollard takes a swing with his new Louisville Slugger baseball bat.

Continued, next page.

Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 17

INAUGURATION OF REV. DR. ALTON B. POLLARD, III 10

Photos by Jonathan Roberts and Ralph Homan

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5 10 Viisha P. Souza, student body president and event co-chair, presents Pollard with a scrap book of his first year as Louisville Seminary’s president.

11 Pollard’s grandson, Alton Brooks Pollard, V, was all smiles at the community lunch.

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12 Prior to the inauguration service, a thankyou dinner was held in Gardencourt for the many people who contributed their time, talent, and treasure to the planning and support of the week’s inauguration events.

Pictured: Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer offers words of support and welcome to Alton and Jessica Pollard.

13 Seminary Board Chair Lant B. Davis presides over the Act of Installation.

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14 The Peace Presbyterian Mass Choir sings “We Offer Praise” before the Call to Worship.

15 On April 26, 2019, the Louisville Seminary community joined Pollard’s family and friends for a community luncheon. Pictured: Pollard’s spouse, Jessica Pollard (standing); with, from left, seminary students Jenny Hockenberry, Kate Trigger Duffert, and Ardath Curtis.

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16 On April 25, 2019, Louisville Seminary hosted an event which highlighted the work the Louisville Seminary faculty does outside of the classroom.

17 Professors Christopher Elwood, Loren Townsend, J. Bradley Wigger, and Amy Plantinga Pauw prepare for the inauguration service.

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FACULTYbedside books While Louisville Seminary’s faculty keep their students busy with reading assignments, it’s always interesting (and fun) to see what they assign themselves.

Here is a look at the volumes that sit on some of their bedside tables.

ANGELA COWSER Associate Dean of Black Church Studies and Doctor of Ministry Programs Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of mental Illness Alisa Roth (Basic Books, 2018)

Journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Cal Newport (Grand Central Publishing, 2016)

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite.

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TYLER MAYFIELD A.B. Rhodes Professor of Old Testament and Faculty Director for the Grawemeyer Award in Religion Mindfulness in Plain English Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (Wisdon Publications, 1996)

Gunaratana takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. We already have the foundation we need to live a more productive and peaceful life — Gunaratana simply points to each tool of meditation, tells us what it does, and how to make it work.

Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1998)

Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead.

ASHLEY HICKS WHITE Assistant Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy

J. BRADLEY WIGGER Second Presbyterian Church Professor of Christian Education

Goatwalking: A Guide to Wildland Living. A Quest for the Peaceable Kingdom

The Art of Memoir

Jim Corbett (Viking Adult, 1991)

Karr synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovering alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.

Jim Corbett, a rancher, goatherd, teacher, social activist, and Quaker writes about how to take care of goats and advocates “goatwalking” as a means of practicing survival in desert wastelands.

In the second half of this book, Corbett relates his experiences in the political sanctuary movement. He discusses civil disobedience and civil initiative, church-state relations, morality and formal religion.

The Salt Eaters Toni Cade Bambara (Vintage, 1980)

The Salt Eaters is a novel about a small Southern community of Claybourne who are searching for the healing properties of salt while also preparing for a carnival. The book centers on two characters, Minnie Ransom, the community healer and leader of a group of healers, and Velma Henry, who has suffered a nervous breakdown and near suicide, undergoes a healing session.

Mary Karr (Harper Perennial, 2016)

The Gardener and the Carpenter Alison Gopnik (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)

Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong--it’s not just based on bad science, it’s bad for kids and parents, too.

The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences Jason Josephson-Storm (University of Chicago Press, 2017)

A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic.

Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded.

Robert Jones and the End of White Christian America ow does religion influence American politics and culture? For most of America’s history, white Protestantism, has been a dominant cultural force, but a combination of demographic change and an abandonment of churches by younger generations may bring this era to an end.

On April 9, 2019, Public Religion Research Institute CEO Dr. Robert P. Jones delivered his Grawemeyer Lecture “Why Religion is at the Heart of America’s Identity Crisis” in Caldwell Chapel at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Jones won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book, The End of White Christian America (Simon & Schuster, 2016), which offers insight into the meaning of faith and the proper place of faith in defining our civic values at a time when evangelical Christianity seems to have become a political rather than a spiritual movement.

How does Jones explain the election results of 2016 with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the White House?

“The 2016 election results are better understood as the death rattle of white Christian America, said Jones, who is also a columnist for The Atlantic. “Down the home stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign, one of Donald Trump’s most consistent talking points was a claim that America’s changing demographics and culture had brought the country to a precipice. He repeatedly cast himself as the ‘last chance’ for Republicans and conservative white Christians to step back from the cliff, to preserve their power and way of life.”

Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, jointly with the University of Louisville, awards the $100,000 prize to honor and publicize creative and significant insights into the relationship between human beings and the divine. The

award also recognizes ways in which this relationship may inspire or empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity, or meaning, either individually or in community.

“Jones’ book well explains the decline of mainline Protestantism that many of us see in our churches and theological institutions,” said Tyler Mayfield, Faculty Director of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and A.B. Rhodes Professor of Old Testament at Louisville Seminary.

He offers appropriate critique of the ways in which mainline Protestants have been a public voice for racial justice yet have failed to address systemic racism, and he outlines the shift in the discourse of evangelicals from dominance to ‘religious liberty’.”

In addition to his work with Public Religion Research Institute, Jones serves as the co-chair of the national steering committee for the Religion and Politics Section at the American Academy of Religion and is a past member of the editorial boards for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and Politics and Religion, a journal of the American Political Science Association. He holds a doctorate in religion from Emory University, a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science degree in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College.

The University of Louisville presents the Grawemeyer Award annually for outstanding works in music composition, ideas improving world order, psychology and education, and presents a religion prize jointly with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. See www.grawemeyer.org for more information. n See www.lpts.edu/grawemeyer for more information about the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

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LOUISVILLE SEMINARY th C E L E B R AT E S

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Commencement

Jack Wilmore, second from right, accepts an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters on behalf of his father, Presbyterian theologian, author, ethicist, historian, educator, and civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. Gayraud S. Wilmore.

Also pictured are, from left, Louisville Seminary President Alton B. Pollard, III, Seminary Trustee Mary Gene Boteler, and Acting Dean Steve Cook.

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS IVA E. CARRUTHERS Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, professor emeritus and former chairperson of the Sociology Department at Northeastern Illinois University, delivered the commencement address.

Carruthers was founding president of Nexus Unlimited, an information and educational technology firm, and she was appointed to the White House Advisory Council on the internet. The educational software she developed was awarded a Computer World Smithsonian Award. She is also founder of Lois House, an urban retreat center in Chicago, Illinois.

“We have entered into a new world that demands the spiritual and intellectual discernment of people like yourselves to guide a new theo-ethical course in the world,” said Carruthers in her address. “To be a force of moral agency in Jesus’ justice, not by what you say, but by what you do.

In your lifetime, when many of you reach the apex of your ministry, you will have been at unforeseen crossroads yet to be determined - crossroads in which your calling, your discernment, and your voices of God’s way will significantly determine the future of the world.”

Carruthers is co-editor of Blow the Trumpet in Zion: Global Vision and Action for the 21st Century Black Church and was a delegate to the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Louisville Seminary Class of 2019

On Sunday, May 19, 2019, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary held its Commencement exercises for the 165th graduating class. This year the seminary conferred Master of Divinity degrees on 17 students, Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy degrees on six students, Master of Arts (Religion) degrees on two students, and Doctor of Ministry degrees on ten students. Additionally, six students received a Certificate in Black Church Studies, three students received a Diploma in Pastoral Studies, and one student received a Certificate in Educational Ministry.

Iva E. Carruthers delivers the 2019 commencement address.

HONORARY DEGREE: GAYRAUD S. WILMORE Louisville Seminary also conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on Presbyterian theologian, author, ethicist, historian, educator, and civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. Gayraud S. Wilmore. Wilmore’s son, Jack, accepted the degree on Wilmore’s behalf. This is the first honorary doctoral degree given

by Louisville Seminary in its 165-year history.

“He (Wilmore) had a calling to help black people realize they should not discard Christianity because the Black Church was their sole sources of empowerment,” said Jack Wilmore of his father.

One of the most important Presbyterian civil rights activists in the 1960s, Wilmore was the first executive director of the United Presbyterian Church Commission on Religion and Race. From 1963 to 1971, Wilmore and the commission undertook several civil rights initiatives including the lobbying for the passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, promoting voter registration in Mississippi, and supporting civil rights demonstrations such as those in Selma, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. In 1966, Wilmore and Benjamin Payton of the National Council of Churches founded the National Conference of Black Churchmen, which would become the largest ecumenical organization of pro-black power clergy.

Wilmore’s influence in the African-American religious experience and black theology is significant. He, along with his close friend James H. Cone (winner of the 2018 Grawemeyer Award in Religion), co-edited Black Theology: A Documentary History Volumes I and II (1979). Among Wilmore’s other books are Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans (1979), Black and Presbyterian: The Heritage and the Hope (1983), Pragmatic Spirituality (2004), and several others.

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A CHARGE TO GRADUATES Capping off his first year as Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s 10th president, the Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard, III issued a charge to the graduating class of 2019. In his remarks, Pollard encouraged the graduates to embrace a life and ministry that embraces all of humanity regardless of creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, and circumstance.

Seminary faculty in 2007. Her scholarly interests include African American prophetic preaching, prosperity preaching, eschatology and the reign of God, and preaching and health.

“Always remember and never forget that what you learned during your matriculation here has no meaning, no authenticity, and no integrity without a transformation in your interior life as well as the walls beyond this place into the world,” said Pollard in his charge.

“Acknowledge the richness of the human family across religions, ethnicities, and world views to genuinely accept other people for who they are. Representation without responsiveness from those in power is still oppression by any other name. Dare to transgress. Speak truth to power and in love.”

BLESSINGS AT BACCALAUREATE Prior to Commencement, Louisville Seminary’s Baccalaureate worship service was held in Caldwell Chapel at Louisville Seminary. Rev. Dr. Debra J. Mumford, Louisville Seminary’s Frank H. Caldwell Professor of Homiletics and Director of the Money Matters for Ministry Program, delivered the Baccalaureate sermon, “Living the Faith”, and referenced scripture from Amos 5:21-24.

“You will know when worship in the church makes its way outside of the church when the people in worship are so transformed by what happened in worship that they live the faith they sing about … that they live the faith that you preach about,” said Mumford in her sermon.

Mumford is ordained minister in American Baptist Churches, USA and affiliate minister with the Alliance of Baptists. She joined the Louisville 24 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

Top: President Alton B. Pollard, III, at Commencement Debra Mumford, Louisville Seminary’s Frank H. Caldwell Professor of Homiletics and Director of the Money Matters for Ministry Program, delivered the 2019 baccalaureate sermon.

GOING FURTHER t’s the stuff seminarians’ dreams are made of: The day after receiving his Master of Divinity from Pakistan’s Gujranwala Theological Seminary in 1993, Majid Abel (ThM ’97, DMin ’01) was invited to preach at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Lahore. He was hired as pastor, and the congregation grew.

Abel, a 2019 Louisville Seminary Distinguished Alum, wanted to keep growing, too.

Among his friends was Presbyterian Church (USA) official David Stoner, who was in Pakistan to advance higher education and the return of Presbyterian schools to the church after being nationalized for 25 years in the predominantly Muslim country. Stoner and his wife, Jenny, who had a home in Louisville, noted Abel’s desire and aptitude for further study and helped him apply to Louisville Seminary’s Master of Theology program.

He arrived in 1996. “It was a new place, new environment, everything new — but thankfully, a very, very friendly place,” Abel recalled. Professor Trisha Tull soon tasked him with helping some of the other students with Hebrew.

“I found it pleasantly strange that professors were not keen to use their well-earned, well-deserved titles. Even in the classroom, they were not eager to prove how much they knew. They were more interested in how much we were learning,” Abel said.

Abel describes his seminary experience — from the lecture halls to the dining hall, study trips to Nicaragua and Guatemala and more — as “one big classroom.” He learned to cook and shared Pakistani dinners with faculty and fellow students.

“In one year, I felt I had been living there forever.”

Then-president John Mulder offered to recommend Abel to any Ph.D. program in America. But his study leave was only for one year, and Abel had to return to his congregation in Pakistan. So when Professor Kathryn Johnson told him he could earn a doctorate at Louisville Seminary without living

there full-time, “I could not say no to this opportunity.”

Abel brought his new wife, Hina, to Louisville in 1999. A little over a year later, when they were expecting their first child, the seminary community organized a baby shower and childcare schedules. Even years later, on a visit to the United States, the two had tears in their eyes as they drove into Louisville. “We were overwhelmed with the memory of the wealth of love that we cherished during our stay at Louisville Seminary,” Abel said.

Yet there was more he’d taken back to Pakistan.

“When I first came to Louisville Seminary, I had pretty clear views about things,” Abel said. Discussions about the ordination of women, salvation of people from other faith traditions, homosexuality, racism and other topics were uncomfortable until he learned to see more colors than black and white. “I heard women preach better than men.

I attended More Light meetings,” he said. “It is not right to travel so far away from home and not open your mind to learning new things.”

As senior pastor of Naulakha Presbyterian Church, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan and in many other leadership positions, Abel has retained those lessons.

“It is important to understand that we can get rid of our fears by coming close to each other,” he said — and learning about the faith and culture of others is even more helpful when we know our own well.

“We do not need to protect or defend God,” he said, “but we need to be passionate about God.” n

It is not right to travel so far away from home and not open your mind to learning new things.

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classnotes 1950s Tom Jones (BD ’55, ThM ’59, DMin ’77, former Louisville Seminary vice president and faculty member): For 34 years Jones lived in Washington, D.C., where he served for 12 years as pastor of Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, and then, approved for specialized ministry by National Capital Presbytery, he managed the Washington Office of Habitat for Humanity International, working with the U.S. Congress, the White House, and national organizations located in the area. Now he lives with his family in Gainesville, Georgia, where he serves as ambassador-atlarge in the office of the CEO and on the Senior Leadership Team of Habitat for Humanity International. For the past nine years, Jones has chaired the global “God @ the Center” (G@C) Leadership Team of Habitat. As a volunteer in his community he has been named Community Volunteer of the Year by United Way and as Martin Luther King Drum Major of the Year.

1960s Philip Weiler (BD ’61) and his spouse, Barbara, live at White Sands La Jolla (California), a continuing care facility located in San Diego, where, for the past decade he has been leading two groups of residents studying issues in 21st century religion.

1970s Bob Bowles (MDiv ’71) has been fully retired from ministry

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since 2012, having served all his ministry in the Presbytery of San Jose. He is still active in the Presbytery, but most of his retirement is involved volunteering as a docent at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, where he just finished six years of service as the president of their Board of Directors. The center recruits, trains, and deploys about 10,000 people per year who do $12 million annually in volunteer work for 123 schools, nonprofits, and government agencies in our county. Bob and his spouse, Margie, are celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary.

Linda D. Chase (MDiv ’76) retired in October 2018 as associate pastor of the Point Pleasant Presbyterian Church in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Her husband, Douglas G. Chase (MDiv ’77) retired as pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in Brick, New Jersey after serving that congregation for 27 years. He is currently chaplain to the Brick Township Police Department in Brick and is involved in a number of community organizations in retirement. They celebrated the birth of their first grandson, Chase Perry Whitham, born November 18, 2018, to their daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Joshua Whitham.

Doug and Linda have two granddaughters, Faythe, age 11, and Paityn, age 5, born to their daughter, Rebecca.

Robert Ensign (MDiv ’77) is the executive director of

grandson, Deen, celebrated his first birthday with Kate and McClain at Louisville Seminary in March 2019. accreditation at American University in the Emirates in Dubai, UAE. Richard O. Wyatt (MDiv/JD ’77) retired as executive presbyter of the Homestead Presbytery in September 2018.

Shelley Cochran (MDiv ’79) has served churches in Ohio, Illinois, and Louisville, Kentucky, mostly as an interim minister.

She received her Ph.D. from Drew University and has done a multitude of pastoring jobs as well as volunteer service for congressional candidates in Rochester, New York.

Stephen W. Scott (MDiv ’79), having served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Statesville, North Carolina, for twenty years, is now transitional general presbyter of Salem Presbytery.

1980s John Pehrson (MDiv ’80) retired in 2015 and lives in Rapid City, South Dakota, with his spouse, Judy. This past June finished his term as moderator of the South Dakota Presbytery Committee on Ministry. He has also served as a part-time interim pastor at The United Churches of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and last summer as the supply pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Rapid City, while their pastor was on a Sabbatical. John and Judy have now traveled to all 50 states in their 47 years of marriage.

Evie Macway (DMin ’83) retired as pastor as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Santa Cruz, California,

after almost 10 years of service. She now serves as the transitional pastor for the Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California.

She and her spouse, Dave, have a grandson born to their first daughter and a granddaughter born to their second daughter.

1900s John P. Leggett (MDiv ’90) is the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

Robert Waworuntu (MAR ’91) is serving the Imanuel Indonesian Fellowship in Los Alamitos, California.

Michelle (Kollhoff) James (MDiv ‘95) works part-time for Rise Against Hunger and also serves the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Southfield, Michigan as parttime pastor. In September 2018, her spouse, Tom James (MDiv ‘97), began serving the Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Toledo.

Nancy Crowe (MAR ’96) is working as an independent writer and editor, and as an animal Reiki practitioner and animal communicator in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Sue and Mitch Trigger (MDivs ’96) have returned to their Midwestern roots to serve Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas. This year they celebrated the graduation of their daughter, Kate Trigger Duffert MDiv (’19), from Louisville Seminary. Their

2000s Donna Aros (MDiv ’03) retired from full-time ministry in the United Methodist Church effective in July. Donna and her spouse, George, have purchased a home in Frankfort, Kentucky, and look forward to staying involved in social justice work.

Jerald E. Turner (MDiv ’06) is a full elder in the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church and is lead pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Washington, Indiana.

Terrence Walsh (MDiv ’00) is pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church (ELCA), Bath, Pennsylvania.

2010s Darcy Metcalfe (MDiv ’10) is a third-year Ph.D. student studying ethics/bioethics in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Iowa. She is also am serving as pastor at Zion Presbyterian Church in Coggon, Iowa.

Elana Keppel Levy (MDiv ’14) and Lucus Levy Keppel (MDiv ’12) who co-authored the book Vulnerable Embrace, which celebrates the worship of God through a unique collection of their sermons.

Emily Miller (MDiv ’14) is the director of spirituality and religious life at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

Rebecca Church (DMin ’15) was a contributing professional to a three-part article entitled “Dementia and Religion: ‘What if I Forget About God?’”, which

was featured in the January 2019 issue of Religion News Service.

Megan McCarty (MDiv/ MAMFT ’17) was ordained as minister of word and sacrament January 27, 2019, at Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where she serves as associate pastor for mission and membership.

Austin Wicks (MDiv ‘17) was ordained January 6, 2019, at his home church of First Presbyterian Church of Sturgis, Michigan. Austin is the associate pastor of youth and mission at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Munster, Indiana.

Melanie Hardison (MDiv/ MAMFT ’18) was ordained minister of word and sacrament at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2019.

Melanie is a hospital chaplain in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ainsley Herrick (MDiv ’18) was ordained minister of word and sacrament on January 13, 2019, at her home church, First Presbyterian, in Jackson, Michigan. Ainsley is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Morrilton, Arkansas.

Lindsay Ross-Hunt (MDiv ’18) was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church by the Diocese of Oregon on January 5, 2019.

David Annett (MDiv ’18) was ordained minister of word and sacrament at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 14, 2019.

in memoriam: Patricia A. Allen Mother of former trustee Tyler Allen 4/25/2019 Benjamin E. Blumel (BD ’54) 1/1/2019 Warren L. Bock (MDiv ’63) 2/3/2019 Coreen B. Finley Widower of alum Rev. N. Woodward Finley (’62) 1/22/2019 Phyllis S. Hanna Widower of alum Rev. Dr. Charles M. Hanna, Jr. (’51) and mother of trustee Lyle Hanna 5/9/2019

Roosevelt Haynes (MDiv ’62) and past Alum Board member 12/14/2018

Mildred S. McIver Caldwell Society member 4/24/2019

Carol A. Hyatt Caldwell Society Member 12/6/2018

Elwin L. Melton Father of former VP of Seminary Relations (Development) Dale Melton 4/25/2019

Gayden R. Jones Past trustee 4/13/2019 Virginia A. Keeney Caldwell Society member 5/29/2019 James E. Marvin (MDiv ’56) Caldwell Society member 12/26/2018

Joseph B. Mullin (BD ’52; ThM ’57): Distinguished Alum and Caldwell Society member 12/19/2018 Jane Penick Widow of former VP of Development Rev. Frank Penick 4/28/2019

Barbara A. Sloop (MDiv ’93) Past Alum Board member and Caldwell Society member 2/28/2019 Glaucia Vasconcelos Wilkey (DMin ’93) 1/10/2019 James B. Wilbanks (BD ’53; ThM ’62) Past Alum Board member and Distinguished Alum 5/3/2019 Carol J. Wolph Advisor to the Board of Trustees 4/9/2019

Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 27

The Difference Education Makes: Seminary Work Led To Extraordinary Calling As the 20th century drew to a close, the Rev. Nosheen Khan (ThM ’01) had plenty to do. After graduating from Gujranwala Theological Seminary in Pakistan, she taught at United Bible Training Center in Gujranwala, led the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan’s Women’s Desk, and was a women’s educator for Gujranwala Presbytery.

It was important work, particularly in a nation where the female literacy rate trails that of men. The Presbyterian presence is part of a tiny Christian minority, and the advances of women have been significant, but slow.

“However, my passion and calling was teaching, preaching, and training women for ministry,” said Khan, a 2019 Louisville Seminary Distinguished Alum. “To pursue a teaching career, I was required to have higher theological education.”

Through a friend, Christian education instructor Sue Hudson, she was led to Louisville Seminary’s Master of Theology program in 2000.

Khan had never been to the United States and wasn’t sure how she would cope with a very different culture and educational system. Her apprehensions were short-lived once 28 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

By Nancy Crowe

she became part of the seminary community, and, while a student, she served as a Sunday school teacher.

A family member died when Khan was in Louisville. “I didn’t know how to cope with the situation, being so far away from my family,” she recalled. Donna Melloan, then dean of students, “not only consoled me but surprised me by arranging a visit to my family during that dark time.

I cannot forget that graciousness.”

After graduation, Khan returned to Pakistan and was immediately taken on by Gujranwala Seminary as a part-time lecturer, which led to a full-time faculty position. That’s when her vision and calling “became so real to me,” Khan said. “My involvement in training church leaders, including women, at the national level further inspired me to remain faithful to the calling God had laid on my life.”

Khan served as a ruling elder for nine years (not allowed to serve the elements) and as a General Secretary of Presbyterian Church of Pakistan for six years. In 2015, Khan became the first woman ordained in Pakistan. Later that year, Gujranwala Seminary’s principal had to step down because of illness. When the board of directors asked Khan to lead the school — which was in the midst of a financial crisis — she took

on the challenge, becoming the seminary’s first female principal.

Though women can be ordained, teach, and preach, they still cannot serve as church pastors. So being an ordained woman guiding other women toward leadership is neither easy nor expected in a patriarchal culture.

“Women are expected to manage household affairs while men lead the way in other areas,” Khan said. “I hasten to add that, over the years, a steady change in attitudes is very encouraging. My engagement in the public life of the church continues to motivate more women to be part of Christian ministry.”

Gujranwala Seminary, founded in 1877 by United Presbyterian missionaries, continues to work to improve its financial outlook through outreach to local congregations and other efforts. Khan knows, both up close and across the world, the impact of theological education.

“When I see the difference seminary training is making in the life of individuals and the church at large, it inspires me to strive for higher goals for the seminary in particular and the Pakistani church in general,” Khan said.

“The compassion and the cooperation I experienced during my stay in Louisville are ingrained in my mind,” she said. “It has shaped my ministry and continues to inform my theology and public life.” n

Gujranwala Theological Seminary in Pakistan

Khan served as a ruling elder for nine years (not allowed to serve the elements) and as a General Secretary of Presbyterian Church of Pakistan for six years. In 2015, Khan became the first woman ordained in Pakistan Mosaic | SUMMER/ FALL 2019 29

institutional advancement Louisville Seminary’s Office of Institutional Advancement welcomed two new members to its team. Please join us in welcoming them!

ANNE E. MONELL Anne E. Monell, a Certified Fund Raising Executive, began her service as vice president of institutional advancement in January. She previously served as director of major gifts for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Serving as a member of the senior administration, Monell is responsible for all aspects of Louisville Seminary’s advancement program, including stewardship, fundraising, constituent relations, and communications. She will work closely with the Office of the President on ongoing strategic planning and ensure that all fundraising and external relations programs align with Louisville Seminary’s mission, vision, core values, and established priorities.

Monell brings twenty-five years of experience in stewardship, leadership, fundraising, marketing, data analysis, and strategic planning.

During her tenure with the Children’s Hospital Foundation, she successfully facilitated individual gifts, multi-year pledges, planned gifts, and donations of appreciated assets of more than $3.9 million.

Professionally, she is a board member for the Charitable Gift Planners of Kentuckiana, co-chair of the Integrating Women Leaders Foundation’s annual Louisville conference, a board member with the St. Patrick School Foundation, and is a recipient of multiple Landmarks of Excellence Awards from her earlier work at the Community Foundation of Louisville.

ANDREA STEVENS In July Louisville Seminary welcome Andrea Stevens as the new director of annual giving and alum relations.

In her role, Andrea is responsible for organizing and managing all aspects of annual giving to the seminary. She also coordinates and conducts both personal and direct marketing solicitations of alums, friends of the seminary, and congregations to ensure the continued growth of the Annual Fund in both dollars and donors. Further, Andrea will develop and manage a comprehensive alum relations program to encourage continued long-term engagement with the Seminary community.

Andrea brings more than 11 years of fundraising experience to Louisville Seminary. Most recently she served as the director of development at YMCA Safe Place Services. Previously she was a major gifts officer for the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana, and was also the first executive director of the New Albany/Floyd County Habitat for Humanity, Inc. 30 Mosaic SUMMER/ FALL 2019

WAYS TO

GIVE ANNUAL FUND

The Annual Fund builds a strong foundation of philanthropic support for Louisville Seminary.

Every dollar given is put to work immediately.

Your gift supports our mission by providing funding for student financial aid, outstanding faculty instruction, field education, library resources, and chapel ministry. Every gift, regardless of size, makes an impact and helps us achieve our long-term goals.

CALDWELL SOCIETY The Frank H. and Fannie W. Caldwell Society at Louisville Seminary was established in 1995 to recognize those who have supported the mission of Louisville Seminary with a planned gift or bequest.

STOCK AND APPRECIATED SECURITIES Contributions of long-term appreciated securities eliminate paying a capital gains tax on securities and entitle you to an income tax charitable deduction equal to the fair market value of the securities at the time of the gift. You may make gifts of securities by electronic transfer, by mail, or liquidate the stock and send the proceeds to the Seminary.

ONLINE Make a gift to Louisville Seminary using your Visa, Discover, American Express, or MasterCard with our easy and secure online donation form at https://community.lpts.edu/donate.

PHONE Make a gift to Louisville Seminary using your Visa, Discover, American Express, or MasterCard by calling the Office for Institutional Advancement, 800.264.1839, x353.

PERSONAL CHECK Make a gift by sending a personal check or money order payable to “Louisville Seminary.”

Checks can be mailed to: Louisville Seminary Office for Institutional Advancement 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, KY 40205-1798

BLACK CHURCH STUDIES CONSULTATION What does African American ministry look line in rural contexts? What issues must ministers and congregants address to effectively provide spiritual, social, and personal guidance to the rural communities they serve?

These are some of the questions that were raised at the 2019 Louisville Seminary Black Church Studies Consultation. African American ministers, statewide moderators, lay leaders and students attended the event. Topics as community organizing, lay pastor relationships, rural community politics, rural race and gender relations, and bi-vocational ministers.

All of the presentations are available online at www.lpts. edu/bcsc19.

Further research into rural ministry in the African American context is now underway. Representatives from Louisville Seminary faculty and administrators as well as seminary alums and ministers from rural congregations who attended the consultation spent the summer conducting field research in Bardstown, Kentucky, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Brownsville, Tennessee.

According to Rev. Dr. Angela Cowser, Louisville Seminary’s associate dean of Black Church Studies and Doctor of Ministry programs, research in this area is critical to both Louisville Seminary, which is preparing students to serve in ministry and service, and the rural communities in which many of them will serve.

“The majority of churches in America are in rural communities,” said Cowser. “Ministry in rural spaces is understudied and under-resourced. We want to build

relationships with rural clergy, learn from them, and provide resources that will enrich their ministries and communities.”

Results from the summer 2019 field research will be presented at the 2020 Black Church Studies Consultation, which will take place February 19-21, 2020.

Watch Louisville Seminary’s website for more information and details.

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Louisville, KY Permit No. 224

LOUISVILLE SEMINARY

1044 Alta Vista Road | Louisville, KY 40205-1798

DATES October 3-4

Exploratory Days

October 24-26

Board of Trustees Meeting

November 7-8

Festival of Theology and Alum Reunion

December 4

Lessons and Carols

January 15

Nomination deadline for the 2021 Grawemeyer Award in Religion

February 1

Application deadline for fall admission to the Master of Marriage and family Therapy program.

Application deadline for international students for all degree programs.

Application deadline for probationary consideration for fall admission to the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts (Religion) degree programs.

Nomination deadline for Scholarships for Excellence consideration.

February 6

Spring Convocation

February 19-21

Black Church Studies Consultation

April 13-17

Grawemeyer Week

Jieun Kim Han (MA ’94, MDiv ’12) along with several other Louisville Seminary alums, students, and faculty joined more than 100 people in the Rally to End Cash Bail in Louisville on June 12, 2019. The rally was organized by the National Offices of the Presbyterian Church joined the Louisville chapter of the Bail Project. Participants marched from the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville to the Louisville City Hall.

For more information visit: LPTS.EDU