About a year ago, Union Theological Seminary in New York City hired the Rev. Bertram Johnson as an interfaith minister. His call is to help students with their discernment process, including three students working as peer chaplains.
As dark December transitions into nearly-as-dark January and February, preachers in need of resources can serve both God and their hearers by preaching the psalms of lamentation.
After three experts on the topic of what’s known as the prison industrial complex had their say during a 90-minute webinar last week, Dr. Rodney Sadler summed up their critique and ideas with this sentence: “It’s almost like you’ve said we ought to take this faith we say we believe seriously.”
God’s mission clearly includes charity: a cup of cold water given in Jesus’ name; the Samaritan’s extraordinary care for the victim of highway robbery; the traditional “alms for the poor” that has characterized the institutional church through the millennia. Charity is clearly biblical and a hallmark of Christian faithfulness. After 35 years of working with Presbyterian congregations engaged in local and global mission, I have found that the overwhelming majority of congregations dedicate nearly 100% of their mission attention and budget to charity work. B
Union Presbyterian Seminary’s board of trustees has approved the creation of a $1 million endowment fund to recognize and repent the resourcing provided to the seminary through the labor of enslaved persons.
Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, has received a grant of $969,528 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the “reKindle: Congregational Development in a Post COVID-19 Era” program through its Center for Lifelong Learning.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is pleased to announce Ruth Boykin as associate director of its Metro-Urban Institute. She will begin at the Seminary Dec. 1.
Thanks in part to Union Presbyterian Seminary, Cooperative Baptists in Virginia will have new options for advanced theological study because of partnerships developed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia and CBF Global.
