Nearly 300 members of the YDS community—graduates, friends, students, and members of the faculty and staff—attended Convocation & Reunions 2024, which over four days in October offered awards, panels, lectures, worship, reunions, and a first-ever pre-Convocation day of service.
Alumni Awards
A perennial highlight of Convocation, the Alumni Awards program celebrated graduates from the worlds of academia, church, racial justice education, and art. Held in the Old Refectory October 9, the awards event recognized the following alums:
- Distinction in Theological Education: Shelly Rambo ’99 S.T.M., Associate Professor of Theology, Boston University
- Distinction in Congregational Ministry (posthumous): David W. Good ’75 M.Div., the late Pastor of First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, Conn., and founder of the Tree of Life Educational Fund
- William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice: Melanie S. Morrison ’78 M.Div., author, racial justice educator and researcher
- Lux et Veritas: Horace Ballard ’10 M.A.R., Associate Curator of American Art at the Harvard Museums
Alumni Awards 2024: Watch the event video.
In conferring Ballard’s award, Alumni Board President Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes ’18 M.Div. said, “In a time of distraction and fragmentation, you remain focused on the humanizing power of art, the way it teaches us to pay attention … to the politics of our traditions and the potential of art to mend our society and ourselves.”
Ballard spoke gratefully in accepting the award. “There is not a day that goes by,” he said, “that do I do not reflect and take strength, courage, guidance, and joy from the concentric communities of the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale Divinity School and Yale University that formed me.”
Earlier in the week, two of the honorees, Rambo and Morrison, expounded on their careers and YDS experiences in a special panel moderated by Barbara Rossing ’81 M.Div. Watch the video.
Beecher lectures and other featured talks
One of the world’s longest running and most important lecture series on preaching, the Beecher Lectures this year were delivered by John McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt Divinity School. McClure’s three-part series was titled “Renewing Preaching Through a Critical Homiletics of Genre.”
Beecher Lectures 2024: Watch the videos.
Each year at Convocation, Berkeley Divinity School offers the Cheney Lecture. Speaking this year was William Lamb, Vicar of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford University. Lamb’s lecture, titled “Conscience and Character,” concentrated on ministry formation, drawing on the legacy of John Henry Newman. Watch the video.
Giving Andover Newton’s Simpson-Hewitt Lecture on Congregational History was Emmanuel Akyeampong, a Harvard University Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, and Minister for Worship and Formation at Harvard Memorial Church. Akyeampong, a 2014 graduate of Andover Newton Theological School (pre-YDS affiliation), focused his lecture on “The United Church of Christ, Race Relations, and Political Liberation in Southern Africa.” Watch the video.
The Institute of Sacred Music hosts its Kavanagh Lecture during YDS Convocation each year. The lecturer for 2024 was E. Byron Anderson, Professor of Worship and Associate Dean for Institutional and Educational Assessment at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Illinois. Anderson spoke on “”Hear, Listen, Attend: Liturgy in an Age of Distraction.” Watch the video.
Pre-Convocation Day of Service
A new twist, YDS began Convocation with a pre-Convocation day of events. Under the direction of Friends of East Rock Park, YDS alums and members of the administration and staff spent the afternoon performing clean-up work at the iconic New Haven park. After that was a chapel service at the YDS labyrinth featuring a sermon by Dean Greg Sterling and, finally, a pizza party on the back quad offering slices from several of New Haven’s most famous pizzerias.
Convocation 2024: View photos.
“Given how many of our alums work in fields of public and faithful service, I was surprised when I learned that YDS was one of the few schools and units at Yale without a day of service,” said Jake Joseph, who directs alumni/ae and donor relations for YDS. “Hopefully, by adding it to Convocation, we can jumpstart the effort.” Read our full Jake Joseph interview here.
All-alumni memorial at the labyrinth
Late afternoon on Convocation’s second day, attendees gathered at the labyrinth to remember and celebrate the lives and legacies of classmates who have died. While alums solemnly walked the newly landscaped labyrinth, Shoji Mizumoto ‘27 M.Div. played the Shakuhachi flute. Watch this brief video clip on Facebook.
“It was heartening and inspiring to be in the presence of so many YDS alums, as well as other members of our community, over the course of Convocation 2024,” Joseph said. “We thank them for their attendance and support of this School, but even more so for all they do in their communities and institutions. The lives and work of our alums are a major way that YDS delivers on our mission of service to church and world.”