Aware Magazine | Spring 2024

Planting Partnerships with India

A focus on mutual benefit can deepen scholarship, recruit students, and strengthen the global church. (page four)

AWARE

PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE

Reverend Dr. Javier Viera President of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Tragedies have a way of bringing people together unlike almost anything else. It is an irony of human life that it often takes human suffering and loss to help us see the humanity in others. One frequently sees this after natural disasters; neighbors who hadn’t known each other even though they have lived on the same block for years—who hadn’t bothered to exchange anything other than the occasional cordial wave or smile—are suddenly thrust into uncertainty and vulnerability as a result of shared loss. This dynamic is regularly on display when churches organize humanitarian relief efforts and send members across the world to aid disaster recovery, when Jewish charities respond to the global migrant crisis by helping to resettle families or staff feeding centers, when Sikhs set up a langar to feed earthquake survivors, or when school community service clubs organize a coat drive to help the homeless stay warm during the bitter winter months. Sadly, outside of tragedy, it’s rarer to see people of different faiths, different social classes, different national origins—and increasingly different political persuasions—engage in meaningfully constructive ways.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Going it alone or only with one’s tribe has significantly contributed to the fracturing of civic and religious life, as well as to the break down in civil discourse, all threatening democratic norms and values. More importantly, perhaps, it has also let ideological extremes take root within religious communities, contributing to their decline as well as to the hardening of their stances.

This is what happens when dialogue and engagement are not central to the religious impulse and experience. When we pray and speak only with those who think and believe like us, we’re unlikely to encounter God at work on the margins, in our neighbors, or in the lives of people who express their faith rooted in a different tradition. It allows for spiritual arrogance rather than spiritual humility, the posture that Jesus abhorred perhaps more than any other. Jesus embodied the highest values of respectful dialogue and engagement across difference. You see this time and time again as he converses, sometimes fiercely, with those who disagree with him or challenge him. You see it in his willingness to cross artificial borders and boundaries to engage with those whose religious observance differed from his. He broke gender engagement norms, class norms, political norms, religious norms, and ideological norms, choosing instead to see, hear, and engage with those he was supposed to avoid. This was as much a personal characteristic of Jesus as it is his style of leadership, how he practiced his faith and held to his beliefs, and modeled for his followers. More significantly, it revealed the very nature of God and God’s way in the world. In the incarnate Christ, we see that God is no respecter of human boundaries, partisan to the ideologies we champion, nor is blind to those we fail or refuse to see.

It is this kind of leadership that we are intent on fostering at Garrett-Evangelical. We are committed to training leaders who are deeply rooted in their faith and confident in their preparation. Their formation fosters spiritual humility and a genuine curiosity and interest in “the other.” And we send them into the world to build communities who understand their Christian identity and purpose through partnership and dialogue with their neighbors. This intent is expressed in our mission to “form courageous leaders in the way of Jesus to cultivate communities of justice, compassion, and hope for the thriving of the Church and the healing of the world.

At Garrett-Evangelical, we’re building key strategic partnerships around the world and in our neighborhoods, partnerships that clarify our mission and amplify our impact. I hope you see that reflected clearly in this issue of Aware, and you also get a sense of how your support enables the formation of Christian leaders who strengthen communal bonds, build bridges across our differences, and help to heal the rifts threatening to tear us apart. This is holy work. It is Jesus-centered work. We’re grateful for all the ways you make it possible.

PLANTING PARTNERSHIPS WITH INDIA

by Benjamin Perry

The history of the Methodist Church in India begins with a trip by American missionary William Butler in 1856. If you read Butler’s memoir about his work, however, you will swiftly notice the colonial theology that shaped 19th century global engagement. In From Boston to Bareilly and Back, Butler describes the native people as “humanity fallen so low in its rampant and shameless vice, as openly to debase itself even unto hell,” construing their religious practices as “groveling before idols as preposterous as a monkey-god.” You can tell Butler believes these words are compassionate. At one point he exclaims: “Poor, deluded, misguided souls! How much they need our Christian pity.” His goals for a relationship are clear: Butler dreams of “rugged wills and lives not only ‘bent,’ but sweetly pliant,” to Western desires.

While the ensuing centuries have softened some of this blunt paternalism, the underlying ethos has too often remained sadly unchanged. The Indian people have been treated, at best, as an object for charity, not as equals with whom we can partner. Even today, as decolonial theology becomes a fixture in many mainline classrooms, that shift doesn’t always translate to structural changes in seminary education. Amid this broader context, Garrett-Evangelical sent a delegation in January to explore how the seminary can build truly reciprocal partnerships with Indian institutions—to create exciting new education initiatives and strengthen the global church.

“There’s a trend within U.S. theological education: a decrease in U.S. applications and an increase in global applications,” Garrett-Evangelical President Javier Viera explains. “And many of these institutions are saying, ‘We’re just going to maximize our recruitment in these regions—specifically Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, without any thought about the extractive nature of that approach.’” This desire for global tuition dollars does not often correlate, however, to a commitment that ensures students have what they need to thrive. “I’m not comfortable recruiting without deep meaningful incountry relationships,” Viera says. “We must ask, ‘Is this the healthiest, most appropriate, holistically formative experience for these students?’”

So, after seeing a substantial increase in Indian students, Thehil Russelliah Singh, director of international student recruitment and engagement at Garrett-Evangelical, organized a trip to meet with Indian peer institutions and to think together about how we can work for mutual benefit and best serve Indian students’ needs. This approach is a distinct shift from how U.S. institutions have previously approached the country.

“Given my experiences in the past in India, where Americans were perceived as piggy banks,” says Russelliah Singh, “I was very proud of how this shifted toward, ‘How can we build mutually beneficial partnerships?’” In the past, American foreign aid often came with American expectations for how that money would be used—our outreach is trying to modify that understanding.

This was such a dramatic change, says Vice President for Enrollment Management Scott Ostlund, that at first it was sometimes difficult to move away from transactional modes of thinking. “Communities are not used to U.S. institutions coming with humility,” he says. “They would say, ‘Tell us what you want and then we’ll tell you if we can do that,’ and we would have to push back and tell them, ‘We’re not coming in with a menu of options but a desire to learn about the needs, gifts, talents, and scholarship that is already here.’” Once the group was able to push past this initial hurdle, however, it became clear that there are a multitude of opportunities.

Garrett-Evangelical delegation meets with the principal & faculty of Leonard Theological College in Jabalpur.

We’re coming with a desire to learn about the needs, gifts, talents, and scholarship that is already here.

One potential site for collaboration is Leonard Theological College, a Methodist seminary in Jabalpur. “They were really interested in faculty and student exchanges,” Russelliah Singh says, “where we can learn together and be in community with one another.” Ostlund adds that these partnerships could assume a variety of forms, from traditional models to short-term intensives. “A yearlong or three-year program is not always the most accessible model for students on either side,” he says. “How rich would it be if our students could take a class on Hinduism or Liberation and Dalit Theology for a three-week intensive in India? Or for their students to complete short courses in the United States?”

Joe Patro—a second-year master of arts student at Garrett-Evangelical and ambassador for Indian student recruitment, who traveled with the delegation— thinks we’ll continue to see a rise in traditional MDiv applicants. “A degree program in the United States holds high value for Indian students,” he says. “American theological education has a strong reputation.”

That said, in meeting with Indian students, Patro also heard practical questions about affordability for this kind of study. “Students expressed concern about the cost,” he explains, “asking about possibilities for employment during and after the program, as well as visa procedures.” Innovative thinking around new educational models that are based in partnership, could help students choose the program that’s best for them.

The Garrett Collective, a new initiative that will host virtual micro-courses and micro-credentials, offers even more possibilities. “We met with Bishop E.D. Yesuratnam, bishop of Chennai Episcopal Area, who oversees all the clergy development in India, and he described a deep need in resources for rural leaders who cannot attend traditional theological education,” Ostlund says. “We talked about co-creating some of that content, along with our faculty, to equip these leaders with tools to build the church—at a price they can afford.”

Whatever forms these collaborations take, what’s clear is that there is rich overlap in subject matter and chances for each geographic context to inform the other. “There’s much that the United States can learn from India about interreligious dialogue,” Russelliah Singh says. “India is so diverse religiously. Hinduism is, of course, the big religion, but there are so many gods, so many ways of being a Hindu. And Indian Christians, because they’re a religious minority, are forced to focus much more on building interreligious partnerships than Christians are in America.”

“We cannot be a global church without learning from how our global neighbors think.”

The son of Christian leaders in India, Patro concurs. “It changes your lens and how you think when you’re a religious minority,” he says. One particularly apparent manifestation of this is the response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government, which has birthed renewed solidarity between Indian Christians, Muslims, and progressive Hindus—a model we would be wise to emulate.

Likewise, Garrett-Evangelical’s emphasis on justice across sexuality and gender could offer a growing edge for Indian colleagues. LGBTQIA+ inclusivity is not as much a part of the conversation in Indian churches and institutions, where it’s often still swept under the carpet. Russelliah Singh says, “We could also be helpful thinking through questions about gender equality.” Patro remembers this as one of the differences he noticed on the tour. “In many seminaries, the women faculty were not as vocal as the men,” he notes. The vibrant explosion of Dalit theology is one place where we can already see the fruits of how Indian communities have embraced liberation theologies from the Americas. “After being told for centuries that you have no place on the deity’s body,” Russelliah Singh explains, “it’s such a redeeming theology to be told you are part of the body of Christ.”

While liberative learning across difference is an essential goal for any cultural exchange, Patro shares his admiration for how Garrett-Evangelical is focused on staying true to our values without violating other people’s religious and cultural autonomy—a delicate line to walk. “We are bringing a fresh perspective to Indian seminaries,” he says, “but the ethical challenge in this approach is to not repeat what our forefathers did.”

The persistent focus on reciprocal exchange is one way to push back against colonial ethos, keeping focus where it’s rightly deserved—the joys of learning in community. “You can read as much as you want,” Patro says, “but when you live with folks from different countries and listen to their cultural frame, it totally changes your perspective.” We cannot be a global church without learning from how our global neighbors think. “The way I read a text is different from how someone who’s from Kansas reads it,” he observes. “The beauty of an intercultural classroom is how lived experiences shape the ways we learn. You can’t buy that.”

Garrett-Evangelical’s responsibility moving forward, says Ostlund, is to transform institutional structures to match the ethics of our academic commitments. “How can the business model create benefits for both Indian institutions and ourselves?” he asks. “How can we invest money into services and support for international students? How can we think beyond building a tuition revenue stream from India to nurturing an integrated relationship with the rich scholarship that’s already happening there?” It’s incredible that GarrettEvangelical’s faculty has leading experts in decolonial theology, he says, “but a genuine decolonial commitment must change our financial aid policy. It has to change how we read applications, how we launch new programs, and how we build curricula.”

The hope, Viera explains, is that this trip will blossom—driven by our collective needs, gifts, and passions—into forms we cannot expect, as has already happened elsewhere in the world. “Whenever we see admissions energy in a new global context, our question is now, ‘How we can build investment there as much as they’re investing in us with students?’” Viera says. “We went to Africa University in Zimbabwe because of a similar trend and just received a co-authored grant that will launch a program that will allow for contextual theological formation with possible collaboration between our faculty and theirs.” It’s too early to say where our Indian partnerships are headed, but one thing we know for certain: that growth will be guided by deep mutuality and respect.

SMALL CLOSET, BIG IMPACT

When Thehil Russelliah Singh was growing up as the child of Indian international students, her family depended on a secondhand store that served Christian workers and seminary students. “My parents struggled, as many do, just to get basic clothes in winter,” Russelliah Singh remembers. “We really depended on Repeat Boutique for everything from household items to clothing. I don’t know if we would have survived without it.”

Now the director of international student recruitment and engagement at Garrett-Evangelical, Russelliah Singh wanted to pay that legacy forward so the seminary’s rapidly growing international student body would have the resources they need to flourish. When students travel to the United States, they’re only permitted to bring what

can fit inside two suitcases—hardly sufficient for what they’ll need once they arrive. For many, this creates an immediate crisis. “Last academic year, I took a couple of students to Walmart the day after they arrived,” Russelliah Singh says. “Just buying basics was like fouror five-hundred dollars!”

Sam Stanes is a first-year MDiv student, who was shocked when he discovered just how chilly Chicago can get. “In India, our seasons are hot, hotter, hottest,” he laughs. “This is my first time ever experiencing this level of cold.” At first it was exciting. “The first snowfall I saw, I was like a child again,” he says. “But I wasn’t ready for how the wind passes through your body.” Friends told him he needed a warmer coat than the light jacket he brought with him. “I was broke. I couldn’t afford a jacket!” he confesses. “I needed to spend money on groceries and medical insurance; it was a big challenge to get winter gear.”

Poverty is no one’s fault, but it is everyone’s responsibility.

To meet this pressing need, Russelliah Singh created Eliza’s Kitchen & Closet. Named for GarrettEvangelical’s founder, Eliza Garrett, the program is a community-sourced free-store operating out of the campus bookstore, where students can “shop” for the clothing and housewares they need. “There were people sitting in our classrooms who were skimping on food because they needed to buy a winter coat,” Russelliah Singh says. “But we have all these resources within the seminary! So now, we’ve got faculty, staff, and students who donate their household items and clothing. Our community is taking care of our community.” And it’s working: “After Eliza’s Kitchen & Closet, I was able to get five jackets!” Stanes says. “I’m so happy now.”

Russelliah Singh is quick to note that the precarity in which many international students find themselves has nothing to do with a lack of resourcefulness. “Why are they vulnerable?” Russelliah Singh asks. “They can’t work off campus. They can’t work for more than 20 hours. Our systems place them in those vulnerable positions.”

“It reminds me of Acts 4:32: ‘All the believers were one in heart … they shared everything they had.’”

Poverty is no one’s fault, but it is everyone’s responsibility. “We don’t have control over all of that, just like we don’t have control over U.S. visas,” Russelliah Singh says. “But what we do have control over is treating international students not as charitable projects, but as people who contribute so much to our learning community.”

Indeed, Eliza’s Kitchen & Closet is just a small part of a renewed emphasis on building global partnerships at Garrett-Evangelical. The seminary has seen international student enrollment increase to more than 20 percent of Garrett-Evangelical’s student population, and that number is only expected to rise. “We can’t just bring them over and not take care of them,” Russelliah Singh says.

Connecting international students with resources isn’t only meeting their physical needs; it’s strengthening the entire community. “A lot of staff and faculty showed up at the International Student Christmas Party,” Russelliah Singh shares, “because there’s an interest in what’s going on with international students and how they are doing.” Jesus’s call to be a global church cannot be separated from the need to develop personal relationships across national boundaries.

This locus of interpersonal kindness has created ripples throughout campus. “As an international student, it’s not always easy for us to interact with students from the United States or for them to walk up to us and start a conversation,” says South Korean first-year MDiv student Eui Jin Shin. “But when I’m here at Eliza’s, I’ve had lots of opportunities to talk and meet new people.”

According to Shin, what came through clearly was how deeply the community loves their international student neighbors. “Donors asked me, ‘What do you need?’ instead of giving whatever donations they thought we needed,” Shin says. “It made me feel like the people here really cared for us.”

While Eliza’s Kitchen & Closet was created with international students in mind, it is available to anyone in the community, and Russelliah Singh shares that she’s also noticed a number of domestic students using the services as well. And what’s best is, Garrett-Evangelical’s community is rising to the challenge by donating to meet those needs.

In time, Russelliah Singh hopes to expand the program to serve international students at Northwestern University, too. “The dream is for this to grow, for this to be an outward facing program, an initiative of Garrett-Evangelical to serve the Chicago area,” she says. For now, Russelliah Singh is thrilled to see people shopping. Shin agrees. “It reminds me of Acts 4:32: ‘All the believers were one in heart … they shared everything they had,’” she says. “It showed me a community that’s always looking out for each other—the practical actions of true Christianity.”

If you would like to make a donation to Eliza’s Kitchen & Closet, drop items in the receptacle provided. Shopping hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Dr. Jean Murphy surprises her husband, Garrett-Evangelical Professor Emeritus Larry Murphy, by establishing a scholarship in his name.

As Dr. Jean Murphy reflected on what she would give her husband, Dr. Larry Murphy, for their 56th Christmas together, she struggled. She knew she wanted to do something meaningful, something that would honor Larry’s dedication to the ministry, but she didn’t know what that might look like. “I didn’t want to buy him another shirt; I’ve given him trips before. He can only wear so many ties,” she remembers. “We’ve been married a long time. How many different gifts can you get?”

After much thought, she decided to establish the Dr. Larry G. Murphy Endowed Scholarship at GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary in recognition of Larry’s remarkable teaching and research, service, leadership, activism, and commitment to the seminary’s mission, vision, and the Center for the Church and the Black Experience.

“Larry is such a spiritual and giving person, and he loves Garrett-Evangelical, so I thought it would be a way for him to support the seminary and the growth and development of future ministers,” she says. With the help of Shane Nichols, assistant vice president of development at Garrett-Evangelical, Jean secretly set up the scholarship. Nichols created and framed a certificate announcing the scholarship, and Jean wrapped it and slipped it under their Christmas tree.

When it came time to open that particular package on Christmas morning, Larry says, he wondered what it could be. He says he tried to remember what he had

suggested as potential gifts, but nothing came to mind that fit the shape of the wrapped gift. He opened the framed certificate and looked up, speechless. “I was stunned because this was so completely outside of anything I had imagined and anything she suggested was in the works,” he says.

“I was stunned even more because of the honor of it. It is not a small thing to have someone name something enduring in your honor,” he continues. “That represents an elevated level of esteem and affection and respect and care. So, to receive this tribute from my wife was significant. It was deeply, deeply moving.”

The purpose of the scholarship is to provide financial assistance to students at the master’s or doctoral level who are aligned with the seminary’s and Larry’s understanding that being Christian means, “faith matters, truth matters, and justice matters.” In even years, the scholarship will be awarded to Black students, while in odd years, the scholarship will be awarded to any qualified student.

Jean says establishing the scholarship was a way to celebrate Larry’s legacy at Garrett-Evangelical, where he was professor of the history of Christianity for four decades. He also served a term as the director for the seminary’s Center for the Church and the Black Experience and as director of PhD studies. In addition to being a beloved professor, Larry is also a respected scholar, writing numerous articles and books.

Outside of the seminary, Larry has served as the minister of Education at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Evanston. He has also engaged in public history projects that center around African American life and religiosity, as when he was a script and historical consultant for the recent PBS documentary The Black Church, and has been historiographer for the national Samuel DeWitt Proctor Clergy and Lay conference, since 2003, among many other things.

Jean, a retired professor of early childhood education, was on the faculties of Chicago State University, National-Louis University, and Kendall College. She is a published author, a trainer of primary and pre-primary school teachers, a reading specialist, and a respected consultant in her field.

“We are at the age where we are thinking, how can we continue to make a difference in people’s lives,” Jean says. “We hope that access to this scholarship will encourage and support those who have committed their lives to ministry.”

If you would like to contribute to the Dr. Larry G. Murphy Endowed Scholarship, please go to give.garrett.edu/Murphy or contact Shane Nichols at Shane.Nichols@Garrett.edu or 847.866.3866.

Pastor Todd Krost

Celebrated at Ministry Sunday

When Todd Krost, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Mattoon, Illinois, first heard he had been nominated for a Ministry Sunday celebration, he felt honored. He was also pleased to hear that, as a part of the celebration, Garrett-Evangelical would be starting a scholarship in his name – a scholarship that could ultimately help second-career students like himself attend seminary.

“There was no way I would have been able to go to seminary, let alone Garrett-Evangelical, without having the financial support that I did from the seminary,” said Krost (G-ETS 2014), who was called to ministry when he was in his 30’s. At the time, he had a wife and two daughters. “It simply would not have been an option for me.”

Each year, Garrett-Evangelical seeks to recognize pastors who have been nominated for a Ministry Sunday celebration. Ministry Sunday lifts up the importance of ministry as a calling, recognizes and thanks people engaged in effective ministry, and makes it possible for others to follow in their footsteps by starting a scholarship in the pastor’s name.

Krost, grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois, and attended church at Northwest United Methodist Church in Peoria, where his parents were founding members. “Supposedly, I was the first baby baptized at Northwest,” he joked. Throughout his teen years, Krost was active at church and in high school as a three-sport athlete.

When it came time for college, Krost knew he wanted to go to a small liberal arts college. He chose Albion College in Albion, Michigan, where he majored in political science. After graduation in 2000, Krost spent five years working for the Illinois House of Representatives as a policy analyst.

In 2005, he and his wife, Christina, were expecting the first of three daughters, and they decided they wanted to be near family – either his family in Illinois or hers in Michigan. “I got a job quicker in Detroit, so that’s where we moved,” he said. For the next several years, Krost held a series of sales jobs until the recession hit in the fall of 2008. He lost his job right before Christmas and later he lost his house in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

During this year of hardship, Krost said he remained faithful to Warren First United Methodist Church, where he and his family worshipped weekly. On December 20, 2009, his life changed. “I had been unemployed for about a year, and I was the liturgist on the Sunday before Christmas,” he remembered. “I looked over and saw that the pastor had passed out.”

“Later, the pastor left in an ambulance, and the church members were looking around and wondering who was going to lead the service,” he continued. “That’s when realized I needed to finish the service.” In the months after that Sunday, Krost began to wonder if he were being called to ministry.

He started taking classes part time at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit because it had a partnership with Garrett-Evangelical. After two years, he came to Garrett-Evangelical to finish his seminary education. While at the seminary, Krost received a twopoint charge and served churches in Tiskilwa and Sheffield, Illinois.

After graduation in 2014, Krost became the pastor at Neoga Grace United Methodist and Etna United Methodist Churches and served there for four years. He then spent two years at Carrier Mills United Methodist Church. In July 2020, he was appointed pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Mattoon.

Krost said he has enjoyed his time at the First United Methodist Church of Mattoon for many reasons, but one of the main ones is the church has an endowment fund. This means that he is able to create much-needed ministries. “I have been able to start some projects and keep others going that the general fund couldn’t quite fund,” he said. “But since we have an endowment fund that we are able to rely on, we are able to do some really meaningful programing and outreach.”

This year, Krost is celebrating his 10th year in the ministry. Having a scholarship in his name – a scholarship that will help others pay for school and realize their call –is an added blessing.

If you would like to nominate someone for a Ministry Sunday celebration, contact David Heetland, senior vice president for planned giving, at 847.866.3970.

UNMASKING

WHITE PREACHING

WITH DR. ANDREW WYMER

Professor Andrew Wymer (G-ETS 2016) is GarrettEvangelical’s recently promoted and tenured associate professor of preaching and worship. To celebrate his appointment, I sat down with him to talk about the book he co-edited: Unmasking White Preaching: Racial Hegemony, Resistance, and Possibilities in Homiletics, now available to pre-order in paperback. He shared how he’s excited to see his scholarship “align with community advocacy work and tangible efforts to pursue equity in Evanston and beyond.” One initiative for which he’s particularly excited is research with Reverend Dr. Michael Woolf, senior minister at Lake Street Church in Evanston. They are investigating the role of faith communities in reparations efforts. “By better understanding the role of faith,” he explains, “hopefully we can bolster other municipal efforts for reparations and eventual statewide or national reparations.” That same focus on disrupting unjust systems sits at the heart of his book.

Benjamin Perry (BP):

In your book Unmasking White Preaching, you describe how whiteness sets the norm for how we evaluate homiletics. How is what we consider “good preaching” racialized?

Andrew Wymer (AW):

We all have so many implicit assumptions about preaching that we don’t think about critically. They’re always operating. We trust our thinking, “Oh, we’ll recognize good preaching when we see it.” But the reality is, our evaluations of both others and us are formed by centuries-old systems of power. The book invites us to look anew and ask: “How do we move forward now recognizing this? How do we start to disrupt it in the preaching moment and throughout our communities?”

BP: So, what are some ways that whiteness shapes our normativities?

AW: One of the first things I ask some of my introductory preaching classes to do is: Close your eyes and imagine the voice of God. God is speaking to you. Who just spoke? What voice did they use? Too frequently, it’s a male, very deep voice of European descent. So, instantly we know that our perceptions of God are often formed along lines of patriarchy and race, and the assumptions we have about who God is are too often shaped by whiteness.

The book collects many different perspectives and insights from people from different social locations and invites us to consider a number of ways that whiteness has restricted our awareness of how we can interact with God in preaching and liturgical moments, as well as strategies to begin to disrupt that.

BP: When those forces aren’t checked, how does this affect non-white people who enter the pulpit?

AW: It starts with who gets to go in the pulpit. There’s significant racially minoritized scholarship naming how whiteness and maleness limit and shape access to the pulpit itself. That’s literal and metaphorical—it can include access to ordination and to non-pulpit preaching spaces. Who is and who is not given a church? Who has to do pulpit supply to be able to live out their preaching vocation? Who has to preach outside of the pulpit because the pulpit itself is restricted by gender, sexuality, and race?

BP: Once folks get into the pulpit, how do normativities of whiteness limit non-white preachers?

AW: To give one example: There’s an array of Black homileticians over the past decades who name how Black students desiring a theological degree have often had to go to historically white institutions where they learn from professors who likely have had no formation in and little critical awareness of Black preaching traditions. So, there’s a double consciousness that is necessary to survive. To succeed, they must learn to preach white, but to be who they are with integrity and to go back to their faith community and preach in their own tradition, they must cultivate authenticity. That double consciousness is in itself an expression of violence.

BP: What are some of the things that you hope people who read the book will take away?

AW: I hope people first critically attend to white racial formations and identities and recognize how those are operative in our world—particularly for those of us who are formed into white racial identities and privileges. But I hope people also realize that there’s so much in homiletics that’s more interesting and captivating than whiteness. People should take whiteness seriously but move beyond a focus on whiteness to the brilliance and possibility that’s brought to us through non-dominant perspectives—the brilliant scholars in this book who invite us into a different way of thinking about preaching and being in the world.

BP: Thank you for saying that because it struck me that even centering conversation around deconstructing whiteness is still, in some ways, a function of centering whiteness. What are some of the more pressing questions in your mind as it relates to preaching?

AW: One of the pressing questions that emerges for me is how to attend to racism and race in ways that grapple with the diversity and fluidity with which these things change. Racialization is so complex, and it’s easy to slip into binaries. Not just a Black/white binary that’s exclusive of others, but it’s also easy to slip into a focus that doesn’t account for the variety of racialization beyond the United States.

Another question interrogates the form and structure of preaching—one manifestation of which is in sermon styles. A lot of our traditions are profoundly shaped by European, dominant, theological, and ecclesial traditions. Are the accompanying homiletical forms themselves corrupted because they emerge out of a tradition that was complicit in colonialism? Can those structures, in any way, be retrieved and reapplied in liberative ways? And am I willing to learn new structures, to experiment in ways that my culture and theological traditions have shaped me to be uncomfortable with?

BP: I love that you name comfort here as a salient factor. What is the relationship between discomfort and faith formation?

AW: For those of us from privileged social locations, the systems that shape our society are situated to try and make us more comfortable–not just comfortable in an emotional sense, but comfortable economically, politically, and culturally. The pathway to equity and to justice is going to require discomfort on the part of the privileged. A liberating faith is going to be a faith that constantly requires us folk of privilege to navigate discomfort.

For people called to be ministers, there’s a level of savviness needed to help people and communities of privilege navigate discomfort, leading them on a liberating path that will disrupt these very selectively applied social comforts that have caused sustained violence to racially minoritized persons and communities for centuries.

BP: Last question: To normalize white preaching circumscribes God inside of a small, particular place. If we can disrupt that, what does the diverse ways that people talk about God in the preaching moment say about God?

AW: I’m very deeply impacted by liberation theology, by images of a non-dominant God who is present with marginalized communities and persons. The artwork on the front of the book is actually a deeply troubling image emerging from a liberation perspective. It is a Black Christ being choked by a white hand. This book seeks to disrupt that violence and to recognize God’s presence in and preferential care for racially minoritized persons and communities. The book considers how preachers can disrupt that violence in a number of different ways. Even the use of sermon structures from a different context can help us see more of God’s fullness. The authors in this book try to help us reckon with ways of preaching that invite the possibility of a God who is beyond our knowing and control. Ultimately, white Jesus is idolatrous and demonic—an attempt to capture and elevate a very particular image of Christ that reflects and supports a brutal system of power. I believe in a God who can’t be accurately captured in one image and who can be encountered at the margins of society. Hopefully, this book will help create space to encounter that God.

BY BENJAMIN PERRY

On Thursday, February 15, the Very Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas delivered the inaugural James H. Cone and Emilie M. Townes lecture, “Shades of Black: Doing Theology and Ethics in a World on Fire,” to rapturous applause. As the title suggests, the lecture series features the nation’s foremost religious scholars, reflecting on the scholarship and legacy of two of Garrett-Evangelical’s most influential alumni: Reverend Dr. James H. Cone and Reverend Dr. Emilie Townes. It’s only fitting that the first address was delivered by Douglas, who studied under Cone for her master’s degree and PhD and has enjoyed decades-long friendship and collaboration with Townes. Delivering this address amid rising white Christian nationalism, she offered a vision of hope that can lead us from this violence toward God’s future.

concern for justice and liberation grounded in the realities of the cross.”

A central theme of the speech was how historic understanding of Jesus’s crucifixion contributed to the rise of death-dealing theologies. From the early church onward, she argued, characterizing Jesus’s execution as salvific misunderstands the significance of the cross. “Contrary to the emphasis of the Nicene Creed, the cross signifies not to Jesus’s death but to his life,” she said. “Put another way, it points us not to the importance of the way he died but to the importance of the way he lived. In doing so, it shifts the salvific emphasis from being about pietistic, individual salvation secured by a sacrificed savior to being about the human and social transformation found in the ministry of Jesus.”

This change in understanding, she noted, helps to avoid the kind of unmoored theologies that talk about God outside of suffering people’s lived experience. “Any theology grounded in the pretensions of abstract, universal thinking betrays the very God of Jesus Christ,” she said, “who meets us not somewhere up there but down here in the messy particularities of human living.” Academic work that engages the question of what freedom demands cannot be divorced from the everyday realities of communities suffering injustice, she elaborated. “It must come together in this confluence of

In an interview before the address, Douglas made it clear that her passion in this lecture wasn’t purely academic; it’s also deeply personal. “Dr. Cone reconnected me to my grandmother’s faith—helped me to understand that I could be both Black and Christian at a time when I was more than willing to give up my Christian identity to live more fully into my Black identity,” she remembered. “I read A Black Theology of Liberation and couldn’t believe that someone was saying God was Black, Jesus was Black.” After reading, she resolved to study under Cone. “But you always worry if the person of their books is the person in reality,” she confessed, “and the first thing that I discovered when I began studying with Dr. Cone was that the man of that book was also the man in reality, not only his passion and uncompromising attitude toward justice but also his uncompromising commitment to the Black struggle for freedom and to Black people.”

That lived integrity is also an essential part of her deep respect for Townes. “Emilie, with her poetic, literary sensibility opens up our moral imaginary—artists help us to see things that others can’t,” Douglas explained. “I can never remember a time when Emilie didn’t push me to see the complex other side, to see even a perspective that I might not want to deal with.” This relentless pursuit for truth pushes back against the easy answers that too often pass for cultural analysis. “Emilie always complicates narratives and reminds me. ‘It ain’t that easy,’” Douglas said, laughing. “She complexifies what you thought was

“Any theology grounded in the pretensions of abstract, universal thinking betrays the very God of Jesus Christ.”

Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas delivers her lecture.

going to be your easy ethical answer.”

It’s this combination of nuance and radical integrity that Douglas feels our world needs so badly. “They continue to speak of Christian faith in the face of white Christian nationalism,” she said, “reminding us that when we understand Christianity through this lens, it never accommodates subjugating, dominating oppression,” even when those forces proudly wear the cross.

And the grim reality of this cultural moment, she said, is part of why she’s so impressed by GarrettEvangelical’s choice to found this lecture series. “When even academic institutions are running away from their histories, running away from things like DEI or anything that smells of ‘wokeness,’ GarrettEvangelical isn’t running away,” she observed. “It has the unmitigated gall to name a lecture series after these two people who carved the way, these radical voices in the theological/ethical dialogue that center the struggle for Black freedom, for Black women’s freedom, without compromise. I’m the incidental part of this,” she noted. “The real story here is that this religious institution, in the context in which we find ourselves living, is going out boldly to say, ‘No. This is what it means to be an academic institution, to be committed to a more just future.’”

But perhaps it’s not surprising, she mused. After all, it’s also the institution that nurtured these two revolutionaries. “Garrett-Evangelical didn’t mold these two persons into whatever their image of GarrettEvangelical might be; it gave them space to grow into their voices,” she said, “Dr. Cone writes about it—even with the tensions and antagonism. But still, without Garrett-Evangelical, he wouldn’t be Dr. Cone.” And, studying at a different period, Townes received the same gift. “There weren’t spaces for Black women to do anything—particularly for Black women to do their work from the vantage point of what is meant to be Black and female,” Douglas explained. “It says something that Garrett-Evangelical provided a space for Cone in one era and Townes in another era to begin to do their work.”

In the end, it’s authentic commitment to helping people become fully who they are that nurtures hope. Institutions don’t have to be perfect and will never be, but they can call us to collectively embrace God’s future. “Hope and protest signal, ‘No, this is not the way it is supposed to be, and this is not the way it is going to be,’” Douglas said. As she concluded her speech, she said that true faith “must be on the move toward a divine justice that is freedom from all that prevents us from becoming a community, society, and world where the humanity of each and every human being without exception is honored and respected.”

Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes in conversation with her partner Dr. Laurel Schneider.

Womanist theologian Rev. Dr. JoAnne Marie Terrell offers remarks.

In the end, it’s authentic commitment to helping people become fully who they are that nurtures hope. Institutions don’t have to be perfect and will never be, but they can call us to collectively embrace God’s future.

Rev. Dr. Reginald Blount, professor and director of GarrettEvangelical’s Center for the Church and the Black Experience.

From left: Revs. Drs. Jennifer Harvey, Angela Simms, Joanne Marie Terell, Emilie Townes, Reginald Blount, & Kelly Brown Douglas.

Garrett-Evangelical President Rev. Dr. Javier Viera opens the evening.

Rev. Dr. Angela Simms, president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, speaks.

A packed house gathers in the Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful.

The gathering also featured stunning music by La’Quentin Jenkins (G-ETS 2020), food for the collective soul.

By Aaron Dorsey

A commitment to life precedes, directs, and extends beyond efforts toward liberation. This is at the core of Reverend Dr. Kenneth N. Ngwa’s argument in Let My People Live: An Africana Reading of Exodus. Ngwa, professor of Hebrew Bible and African Biblical Hermeneutics at Garrett-Evangelical, demonstrates how the book of Exodus responds to imperial violence and domination—both in the biblical text and in contemporary imperial projects.

Ngwa examines how Exodus, as a story, shows how oppressed people move toward a reinstituted communal life. Ngwa invites the reader to see how the midwives, Jochebed, Miriam, and the Egyptian princess respond to erasure and policies of death in Egypt. He also shows how in the Wilderness, the Israelites must respond to displacement by creating renewed relationships with the earth and how at the Mountain, Moses is confronted with the temptation of singularity in the form of becoming the strongman or the single father of the people. For Ngwa, each of these liberative responses flows from commitments to human and non-human life and community that exist prior to struggle and are expressed anew within struggle. Ngwa writes: “The urgent depiction of Exodus as departure from an oppressive nation-state house and machinery is formulated and encapsulated in Moses’s divinely inspired clarion call: ‘let my people go.’ But that call is more than an episodic manifestation of negotiation between Yahweh and Pharaoh. The call signifies an equally perennial and persistent call, ushered through voices from below, a call better represented by the words, ‘let my people live.’”

of the Earth. Both realize that there is a possibility, which has become reality, that the postcolony can push out the colonizer while maintaining the structure of colonization. Ngwa reads this phenomenon through the story of Moses, who is adopted into the elite culture of the Egyptians. For Ngwa, Moses models an anticolonial leader who resists the lure to become a strongman— rather than accepting the ability to father the nation after the Israelites worship the golden calf, Moses pleads for the continuation of Israelite multiplicity. Since colonial administrations developed African colonies to extract resources, another critical task of the postcolony is to reengage the natural environment. After retelling the story of Wangari Maathai and other Africana women involved in Afroecology, Ngwa offers an analysis of Miriam as the prophetess who listens to nature, who gives voice to the water, and who endeavors to make the Wilderness hospitable for the people. In this way, Miriam demonstrates how a commitment to the earth can resist alienation that (neo)colonial systems produce between the earth and human communities.

What Ngwa brings adds to Fanon’s anticolonial analysis, and to de/postcolonial discourse, is a suggestion for how to move beyond these diagnoses. Ngwa hopes to offer Exodus as a story upon which people can model their own exodus motifs, stories that will imagine a liberation that is more than just escape from an oppressive power. Rather, liberation, as Ngwa repeatedly states, will not be achieved until systems based on erasure, alienation, and singularization are replaced with ways of living that foster connection and community between humans, between humans and nonhumans, and between creatures and the earth itself.

Ngwa’s commitments to Africana life, both on the continent and in diaspora, guide his reading throughout Let My People Live. Particularly helpful are Ngwa’s observations on how the challenges that anticolonial wars and efforts faced have translated into the challenges now confronting postcolonial African nations. Though Ngwa does not cite Frantz Fanon, many of his concerns match those expressed in Wretched

Aaron Dorsey is a Garrett-Evangelical PhD student studying the Hebrew Bible and the recipient of a doctoral fellowship grant from the Forum for Theological Exploration.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Ewes of Ghana edited by Melanie Baffes and K. K. Yeo. Pickwick Publications, 2023.

Let Your Light Shine, Mobilizing for Justice with Children and Youth edited by Reginald Blount and Virginia A. Lee. Friendship Press, 2019.

Worship and Power: Liturgical Authority in Free Church Traditions, Worship and Witness Series of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, edited by Sarah Kathleen Johnson and Andrew Wymer. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2023.

Reading Scripture Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Understand the Bible by James L. Papandrea. Sophia Institute Press, 2022.

Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him? Korean Edition, by Nancy Elizabeth Bedford and translated by Yoojin Choi. Dong Yeon Press, Seoul, 2024.

Praying the Psalms: The Divine Gateway to Lectio Divina and Contemplative Prayer by James L. Papandrea. Sophia Institute Press, 2023.

alumni news

Carrie Lynn Kreps (G-ETS 2004) began a new role as chaplain supervisor with Tyson Foods.

Tina Itson (G-ETS 2005) started a new position as development director at ACLU of Wisconsin.

Adrienne Stricker (G-ETS 2009) started a new position as research assistant with the Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative at Rio Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church and ministry and office administrator for the Transforming Center in Wheaton, IL.

Ju Yeon Jeon (G-ETS 2011) was selected as the vice president and secretary of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women’s Board of Directors.

Emily Heitzman (G-ETS 2012) was named the campus minister for faith and justice at Loyola University Chicago.

Tiggs Washington (G-ETS 2015) was appointed presiding elder of the Milwaukee District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and pastor of Bray Temple in Chicago.

Carla Mitchell (G-ETS 2016) was appointed pastor of Bradford Memorial AME Church in Milwaukee, WI.

Argrow Kitnequa (Kit) Evans-Ford (G-ETS 2017) was named an Invest Faith Fellow by Invested Faith. Fellows receive a $5,000 unrestricted grant and an invitation to tell their story through the Invested Faith community and website.

1940

1950

in memoriam

Neichelle Guidry (G-ETS 2017) launched Black Girl Black Coffee, brewing a new community of Black girls and women who love coffee (www.blackgirlblackcoffee.com).

Brooke Petersen (G-ETS 2017) recently published Religious Trauma: Queer Stories in Estrangement and Return (Lexington Books 2022). Using selfpsychology to understand the depth of trauma experienced in non-accepting communities, the book explores the experience of God and sexual identity within non-accepting communities.

Laura Kraybill (G-ETS 2018) started as co-pastor at Reba Place Church in Evanston, IL.

Gloria Feliciano Feltman (G-ETS 2019) started a new position as social worker at Loyola University Chicago Wellness Center and launched a private practice called Heartfelt Counseling Chicago.

Kate Hanch (G-ETS 2020) recently published Storied Witness: The Theology of Black Women Preachers in 19th-Century America (Fortress Press 2022). The book conducts a careful reading of the narratives of 19th-century Black women preachers Zilpha Elaw, Julia Foote, and Sojourner Truth and their texts, both written and spoken, to make explicit their theology.

Debi VanDenBoom (G-ETS 2020) is serving as a therapist at Center(ed) On Wellness in Benton Harbor, MI.

Sara Miller (G-ETS 2022) started a new position as associate pastor of youth at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, NC.

Patrick (P.J.) Prewit (G-ETS 2022) started a new position as therapist at Cathedral Counseling Center in Chicago.

Lowell A. Gess, ETS 1945, Alexandria, MN, died June 21, 2022.

Marshall Maitland Ketchum, GBI 1949, Upland, CA, died April 9, 2017.

Alta Mae Hessert, GBI 1950, Springville, PA, died November 20, 2021.

Helen Marsh, GBI 1951, Denton, NE, died March 25, 2021.

Betty Eis, GBI 1953, Des Moines, IA, died August 6, 2022.

Royal Synwolt, GBI 1953, Port Saint Lucie, FL, died June 29, 2022.

Victor Eberhart, ETS 1954, Bismarck, ND, died May 7, 2022.

Charles E. Ferrell, GBI 1954, Mesa, AZ, died August 11, 2022.

Virgil L. Holmes, GBI 1954, Janesville, WI, died December 3, 2023.

Eugene Carter, GBI 1955, Peoria, IL, died October 31, 2023.

Leon Hayen, ETS 1956, Manhattan, KS, died May 9, 2023.

Richard Unkenholz, GBI 1956, Prescott, AZ, died January 6, 2024.

Norman Lawson, GBI 1957, Des Moines, WA, died July 8, 2022.

Frank M. New, GBI 1957, Tempe, AZ, died March 24, 2022.

Robert L. Walker, GBI 1957, Olympia, WA, died January 6, 2022.

Ronald R. Hamilton, GBI 1958, Sun City, AZ, died February 25, 2022.

Marlin Jeschke, GBI 1958 & 1965, Goshen, IN, died September 16, 2023.

Stephen Douglas Leffler, GBI 1958, Saginaw, MI, died June 28, 2023.

IN MEMORIAM

1960

John L. Dodson, GBI 1959, Felton, CA, died October 8, 2023.

Anthony J. Farina, ETS 1959 & 1967, Fond du Lac, WI, died June 2, 2021.

Donald Carpenter, GBI 1960, Elkhart, IN, died August 28, 2022.

Martin McEntarfer, GBI 1960, Angola, IN, died September 21, 2023.

Mac McLeland, GBI 1960, Marengo, IL, died December 2, 2023.

Roy K. Sasaki, GBI 1960, Lihue, HI, died October 3, 2021.

Waldo B. Asp, GTS 1962, Stone Lake, WI, died March 21, 2023.

Wayne Bondurant, ETS 1962, Loveland, CO, died July 28, 2022.

David B. Finley, ETS 1962, Granville, IA, died January 2, 2021.

William J. Marx, GTS 1962, Santa Rosa, CA, died March 21, 2022.

Robert E. Townsend, GTS 1962, Park Forest, IL, died May 27, 2022.

John T. Tredway, GTS 1962, Hampton, IL, died April 10, 2022.

Ted G. Colescott, GTS 1963, Rochester, MN, died January 1, 2024.

Gerald V. Goodrich, GTS 1963, Hartland, WI, died September 1, 2023.

James M. Kerr, GTS 1963, Fairmont, WV, died August 11, 2023.

Carol J. Smith, GTS 1963, Wauwatosa, WI, died August 13, 2023.

Mary Lou Cobb Moore, GTS 1964, Tucson, AZ, died May 2020.

Richard Larry Smith, ETS 1964, New Palestine, IN, died July 7, 2022.

Philip L. Carlson, GTS 1965, Scottsdale, AZ, died September 4, 2023.

James W. Cosner, GTS 1965, Akron, OH, died December 12, 2021.

Paul J. Reinhold, GTS 1965, Appleton, WI, died April 16, 2022.

DarEll Weist, ETS 1965, Claremont, CA, died December 10, 2021.

Harry K. Deffley, GTS 1966, Gambrills, MD, died March 27, 2022.

Robert H. Merritt, GTS 1966, Carver, MA, died May 26, 2023.

Charles Sommers, GTS 1966, Newburgh, IN, died March 21, 2022.

Mary Joyce Horton Waltz, GTS 1966, Lombard, IL, died April 4, 2023.

Wesley C. Falk, ETS 1967, West Bend, WI, died June 11, 2022.

Mary Schilling, GTS 1967, Williamsburg, VA, died February 24, 2021.

James E. Fox, GTS 1968, Hastings, MI, died February 19, 2023.

Robert L. Lawry, GTS 1968, Peoria, IL, died March 2, 2022.

Jerry L. Richards, GTS 1968, Eau Claire, WI, died April 22, 2022.

Evelyn M. Weaver, GTS 1968, Canton, OH, died September 27, 2021.

1970

James A. Rivers, GTS 1970, Janesville, WI, died June 11, 2022.

Gessel Berry Jr., GTS 1971, Deerfield, IL, died November 24, 2023.

Douglas Pedersen, GTS 1971, Battle Creek, MI, died December 5, 2023.

Jerry K. Hill, GTS 1972, Cincinnati, OH, died March 22, 2023.

Kenneth D. Suetterlin, GTS 1972, Marshalltown, IA, died November 28, 2023.

Elliott George, ETS 1973, Bettendorf, IA, died June 28, 2022.

Katherine S. Horn, GTS 1974, Villard, MN, died May 25, 2023.

Thomas E. Long, GTS 1974, Palm Desert, CA, died April 8, 2023.

Thomas Potenza, GTS 1974, Port Royal, SC, died May 25, 2023.

Randall R. Sailors, ETS 1974 & G-ETS 1979, Bellevue, NE, died August 10, 2023.

Gene R. Johnson, G-ETS 1975, Cathedral City, CA, died July 28, 2021.

Rodger N. McKinney, G-ETS 1975, West Des Moines, IA, died January 20, 2024.

William P. McBride, G-ETS 1978, Port Huron, MI, died December 17, 2023.

Anne Schaal Sutherland, G-ETS 1978, Oconto Falls, WI, died October 9, 2023.

1980

1990

2000

Clifford Vincent Melvin, G-ETS 1983, Vero Beach, FL, died December 15, 2023.

Donna Dudley, G-ETS 1984, Chicago, IL, died December 8, 2023.

Clinton McKinven-Copus, G-ETS 1985, Ludington, MI, died June 8, 2023.

Daniel Herlein, G-ETS 1985, Bradenton, FL, died March 5, 2023.

Martha S. Scaff, G-ETS 1987, Mackinaw, IL, died May 23, 2022.

Jeanette H. Baker, G-ETS 1990, Evanston, IL, died August 4, 2021.

Sylvester Hunter, G-ETS 1991, Fort Wayne, IN, died August 29, 2021.

Isidro M. Carrera, G-ETS 1994, Milwaukee, WI, died June 4, 2023.

Patience Kisakye, G-ETS 1995, Newark, NJ, died December 9, 2021.

Frederick Surrett, G-ETS 1997, Menomonee Falls, WI, died August 15, 2021.

Kathryn Rust, G-ETS 2000, Milwaukee, WI, died February 13, 2020.

Debra Mubashshir Majeed, G-ETS 2002, Beloit, WI, died March 20, 2022.

Juli Reinholz, G-ETS 2010, Walla Walla, WA, died September 17, 2023.

Arnold C. Cavazos, COS 2012, Brownsville, TX, died April 17, 2021.

Allen Schweizer, COS, Houghton Lake, MI, died November 28, 2023.

PLANNING YOUR LEGACY

Is the thought of estate and financial planning overwhelming? If so, we have the answer! Our Planning Your Legacy booklet is packed with tips on how to help you plan for a secure and satisfying future.

Scan the QR Code with your smart phone or device to request a free copy of Planning Your Legacy. You can also visit PlannedGiving. Garrett.edu, where you will find additional estate and personal planning information.

Still have questions? We are here to help! Contact David Heetland, senior vice president for planned giving, at 847.866.3970 or by email at David.Heetland@Garrett.edu. We look forward to helping you plan your future!