About, People

“For many years, Cuba was an atheist country, but slowly they had begun to lighten up on religion. It occurred to me then that it was a good time to establish a partnership between Presbyterians in Cuba and Santa Fe. By 1995, I was able to open up a dialogue with Cuba, and a group of us from Northern New Mexico began to travel there to work on restoring old buildings. We also created a program to aid the elderly…Being able to help with little things, like having their clothes washed, was really appreciated by the elderly who lived in Cuba’s small villages.”  Dean Lewis ‘53 B.D., July 7, 2012, The New Mexican, in the article “A Wonderful Life: Belief in a better world.”

 ”Our faith calls us to engage in the world around us and to be a prophetic witness and to speak out about pressing issues. But that never should be done in a way that violates core principles of church-state separation and should never be done in a way that is overtly partisan and allows the Gospel to become captive to any political agenda. And over recent years, we feel representatives from the Southern Baptist Convention have allowed partisanship to dominate their prophetic witness.”   Rachel Johnson ‘08 M.A.R., chair of the diaconate at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC, in The Washington Examiner, Aug. 18, 2012, explaining why her congregation decided to leave the Southern Baptist Convention.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2505247#.UEIATFRUPL8

The 2010 Bartlett Lecture, delivered at YDS by Ping-cheun Lo, director of the Centre for Applied Ethics at Hong Kong Baptist University, has been published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Religious Ethics.  According to Lo, the modern Chinese discussion of just war grapples with the concepts of just cause and right intention but neglects to deal with important components of just war theory dealing with principles of discrimination and of proportionality of means.  It is desirable to revive discussion of these principles, contends Lo, “so that China’s future use of military force can be restrained by native Chinese military ethics.”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2012.00530.x/abstract

“ ‘In African-American churches, movement has always been a part of our history, a part of our heritage,’ Smith said. She cited the ring shout, a form of expression that started during slavery and is rooted in Africa. Mime is one of several ways of expression in black churches that have developed in recent years; they include liturgical dance, stepping routines, cheerleading and drill teams, Smith said. The practices are ‘a way of engaging young people’ amid concerns that they are leaving the church.”  Yolanda Smith, lecturer in Christian education, Aug. 19, 2012, Detroit Free Press, as quoted in the article “Black churches combine pantomime and Christian message.” http://www.freep.com/article/20120819/FEATURES01/308190067/Black-churches-combine-pantomime-and-Christian-message?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

“The Prout School’s commitment to the Catholic faith and to the International Baccalaureate program creates a singular opportunity for educational advancement in Rhode Island and all New England.  I am humbled and glad to have been chosen to lead The Prout School as it moves to the next levels of academic excellence.”  David Carradini ‘86, Aug. 9, 2012, Rhode Island Catholic, recently appointed principal of The Prout School in Wakefield, RI.  Previously he worked at the HUD Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in Washington, D.C.

Agnes Scott College has named Jake Schrum ‘73 M.Div. as one of five new members of its Board of Trustees.  Schrum is a native Texan who is an alum of Southwestern University and now serves as its president. He is widely recognized as an author and speaker in the field of educational advancement and moral leadership in higher education.

http://www.agnesscott.edu/news/newsDetails.aspx?Channel=%2fChannels%2fAdmissions%2fAdmissions+Content&WorkflowItemID=22514cbb-c5bb-4eed-b576-83306f2b77f1

Hon. Ronnie A. Yoder ‘64 M.Div. (Rockefeller fellow) spoke to the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington on the subject “The Need for Civility in American Life,” at the American University School for International Service, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2012.  Judge Yoder urged the 11 faith communities represented to recognize a common philosophical center for all world religions, noting his scholarship for students at Virginia Theological Seminary “to advance the study of love as an appropriate center of Christian theology, life, preaching and practice, and an ecumenical theme unifying all of humankind’s religions,” as he urged in his commencement address at Goshen College in 2010. In July Yoder was named to the Board of Directors of the IFCMW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxUZUYK2Qg8&feature=youtu.be.  

Frederick Streets, associate professor (adjunct) of pastoral theology, will be the featured speaker at a commemoration of the publication of the historic Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, September 22, 1862.  The event will include an appearance of the Freedom Schooner, Amistad, at the Long Wharf Pier in New Haven.  Sept. 22 marks the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation.  Streets is former chaplain of Yale University and acting pastor of Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, UCC, in New Haven. The event is sponsored by the Amistad Committee, Inc., the State of Connecticut Freedom Trail Committee, and Amistad America, Inc.  The program will start at 10:00 am.  Visits to the Amistad will be free and commence at the end of the program at 11:00 a.m.  Further Information is available at 203 387-0370.

James M. Phillips ‘55 B.D. died on Aug. 2, 2012 at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital in Westborough, MA, from complications of a fall in June.  Phillips, who was living in Hamden, CT at the time of his death, graduated from Princeton University with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, then taught history, politics and Bible at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea 1949-1950, until the start of the Korean War, when he worked with Korean refugees fleeing from the communist regime in the North.  After graduating from YDS, he returned to Princeton, where he completed his doctoral studies in Christian Ethics in 1958. He married Ruth Henning in 1957 and shortly after moved to Japan, where he was a professor of church history at Tokyo Union Theological Seminary from 1959-1975 and also served as a Presbyterian pastor. From 1975-1982, he was a professor of church history at San Francisco Theological Seminary, and then from 1982 until his retirement in 1997, he served as the associate director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center, initially in Ventnor, NJ, then in New Haven.  His book, From the Rising of the Sun: Christians and Society in Contemporary Japan, (1981), described the history of Japan’s Christian community from 1945 to 1975.

http://hamden.patch.com/articles/james-m-phillips-83#photo-10944120

Erin Lyn McGrath ‘04 M.A.R. died unexpectedly at her home in Woburn, MA on Nov. 21, 2011.  She earned a bachelor’s degree at Regis College before receiving her M.A.R. at Yale Divinity School.  She had served as a legislative aide to Carol Donovan during part of Donovan’s tenure as a Massachusetts state representative. She had also worked as a faculty assistant at Harvard Divinity School and had taught school in New York City and Lincoln Sudbury High School in Massachusetts.

September 1, 2012
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