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Seminaries

An old story told with fresh insight

The Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney will soon be publishing the second volume of her landmark book “Womanist Midrash.” On Tuesday as part of the 111th Sprunt Lecture at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Gafney gave a crowd gathered at Watts Chapel a taste of what she has to say about 1 Samuel 1 and 2, the stories of Hannah and Peninnah, their children and their husband, Elkanah.

Firing up our sanctified imagination

Who translates God words and how? That’s the question the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney seeks to answer this week during three lectures she’s delivering this week at Union Presbyterian Seminary, the heart of the 111th Sprunt Lecture series. Watch the first lecture here.

Union Presbyterian Seminary President announces he will retire in June 2023

President Brian K. Blount announced to the board of trustees of Union Presbyterian Seminary at the board’s meeting Wednesday that he will retire as president of the seminary effective June 30, 2023. The board accepted his decision with deep appreciation for his 15 years of service and acknowledged his extraordinary leadership throughout his tenure.

‘I felt obliged to tell this story’

Does being non-white and non-Christian make one less American? Dr. Duncan Ryūken Williams answered that question in a book it took him 17 years to complete, “American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War,” his 2019 work that won him the 2022 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Williams delivered his Grawemeyer lecture Tuesday in Caldwell Chapel at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which along with the University of Louisville awarded Williams this year’s prize.

‘Scoot a little closer to the screen’

“Scoot a little closer to the screen,” the Rev. Nannette Banks, vice president for Community Engagement and Alumni Relations at McCormick Theological Seminary said to an online crowd Saturday, “and lean into the power of transforming theological education and the life of Howard Thurman. Lean in and enjoy.”

‘The whole country is rising to help these people’

The people of Poland, a nation well acquainted with the misery an invading country can inflict, has responded to the 500,000 or so displaced Ukrainians who have crossed the border into Poland in amazing and yet practical ways.

Passing the mic

Late last month, Sunspots, a podcast of the Synod of the Sun, turned the mic over to three women to talk about their identity as honest and authentic children of God through the lens of Christian education. Listen to their 55-minute conversation here.

Using a blacklight to point out and clean up our messes

Multiple pandemics over the last two years, including COVID-19 and efforts to bring about racial justice in U.S. communities — even among communities of faith — have benefitted from a blacklight that highlights and helps clean up the messes that justice-seeking activists are asking the church to work on.

‘We need to talk about voting’

“We need to talk about voting,” Dr. Rodney S. Sadler Jr. of Union Presbyterian Seminary said to kick off a 90-minute webinar Tuesday titled “Our Voices, Our Votes, Our Freedoms,” “making sure we are putting this front and center of any work we’re doing.”

Is being Black a preexisting condition?

The extent to which being Black is a preexisting condition that can foster poorer health outcomes was the among the topics addressed during a webinar put on Tuesday by Union Presbyterian Seminary.