T. Gregory Turner, M.Div.

Class of 
1970
Denomination: 
United Church of Christ

Clearly the smartest thing I did at YDS was to find and marry Kathy Lantis, who was waiting at 409 when I arrived. Her outstanding career in clinical pastoral education began with Ed Dobihal at Yale-New Haven and has elevated student-centered training for ministry to this day. (Though "retired," she has had two consultation meetings this week.) Along they way she served terms as president of both national and international professional associations. A strong focus of hers has been the shaping of CPE to empower and learn from women...and to tailor curriculum accordingly.

She did most of this while following me around the northern hemisphere. First came a UCC seminary internship in Hong Kong and a return to New Haven and leadership of its long-demised Council of Churches. Following ordination in Marquand with Tom Campbell and Bill Coffin presiding, it was Brussels as my first ordained parish ministry and Paris as my last, both of these at the American Church.

In all, there were four called pastorates: after Brussels came Denver, then Corvallis, Oregon, then Concord, New Hampshire. Looking back, the most work went into preaching, community building, adult ed. and local social action. The final six years before retirement were spent in three "intentional interim" positions: Bath (Akron, Ohio), Ripon (Wisconsin) and Paris. Well, we called them "intentional," and I valued the training provided by the Interim Ministry Network, but the three years in Bath only became interim when the obvious mismatch was named as such and the remaining two years turned into an assessment of why that happened. (Too much "social action" was one factor.)

There were wonderfully tolerant and well committed parishioners in every setting. of course, and that has continued these past dozen years of official retirement. We have been well settled in Seattle with significant energy spent, in my case, on stewardship in my local congregation and the prevention of homeless in the wider community. Kathy has continued with clinical pastoral supervision until just last year. With our two sons well into middle age and our first of three granddaughters starting to think about college -- and all of them close -- family life remains a high priority.

Thanks to YDS, where it all started, and for the generations of faithful colleagues it has nurtured. We try to fly in for various events each year of late and hope to see you at a Convocation and Reunion not far off.