“This Labor Day weekend, it’s important to stop and weep over the state of labor in our country,” wrote Rachel Malinowski ’15 M.Div. for the National Catholic Reporter. “We must bear the cross of the broken systems of which we are all a part—systems that deny workers their dignity.” Online, August 28.
Timothy C. Ahrens ‘95 M.Div. is in his 15th year of ministry as Senior Minister of First Congregational Church in Columbus, OH. Ahrens is the fifth consecutive senior minister from Yale Divinity School.
Andrew K. Barnett ‘12 M.Div. ‘12 M.E.M. has been named the inaugural Bishop’s Chair for Environmental Science & Food Justice at Campbell Hall Episcopal School in Hollywood, CA. Online, August 5.
“The passage from the Book of Isaiah – ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God’ – was the mantra for this ministry,” wrote David Briggs ’85 M.A.R. in a post about Solace Ministry, “which helped women take the first steps to escape from the depths of horror.” Online on the Association of Religion Data Archives, August 6.
Hannah Dreitcer ’14 M.Div. recently became Associate Pastor for Family Ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church of Springfield, IL.
>Read the announcement
Shelton resident Cheryl Jansen ‘97 M.A.R. has been approved as a petitioning candidate in the November race for the 122nd District House seat. The district includes sections of Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull, CT. Online, ctnews.com, August 25.
“We try to build a place that looks like home to people who are homeless, either spiritually or physically, so that they’ll come here and find home,” said Bill Lupfer ’87 M.Div., Rector-Elect of Trinity Wall Street in an interview. “That’s a key part of our stewardship: building a place that looks like home to people who are spiritually homeless.” Online, August 11.
Lauren Lyon ‘94 M.Div. has been appointed the first communications director of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. Online, August 20.
John Mogabgab died on August 8, 2014 at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as Henri Nouwen’s teaching and research assistant for five years in the 1970’s while earning his Yale doctorate in systematic theology.
Frederick Marquand Professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics Thomas W. Ogletree will be honored by Vanderbilt University on Oct. 3 during the Distinguished Alumni/ae Celebration Dinner at the University Club of Nashville. Online news.vanderbilt.edu, August 19.
On October 12 & 13 Daniel Orr ‘04 M.Div. will join the Ohio Interfaith Power and Light’s 2014 Earthkeeping Summit. He and an ecumenical coalition have begun a health initiative in Fremont, OH.
Kathryn Palen ‘02 M.Div. recently accepted a call to serve as minister of discipleship at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Des Moines, Iowa. Online, August 21.
Jefferson Parramore Rogers ’47 B.D., educator, pastor, civil rights leader, and former founder and director of Stetson University’s Howard Thurman Program, died Friday, Aug. 1, in Daytona Beach. Online, Beacon News (West Volusia, FL), August 13.
>Read his obituary
“The pain in that crowd following Jackson’s statement seemed to shout out the determination that this young man’s death would not go unavenged,” wrote Susan K. Smith ’86 M.Div. in a blog post on Fellowship of Reconciliation. “Not this time.”
“I’m sick and tired of the police killing our people off,” Nicole Tinson ‘17 M.Div. told the Los Angeles Times at a rally protesting the recent shooting of Ezell Ford in L.A. “A man who holds his hands up is surrendering himself. You can’t go shoot someone already down.” Online, August 17.
Lauren V. Walling ‘01 M.A.R. of Beacon, N.Y., has been named deputy executive director of The Women’s Studio Workshop, of Rosendale, N.Y. Online in Daily Freeman (NY), August 18.
“We, humans, seem to be afraid of uncertainty,” wrote Wendy Webber ’13 M.A.R. for Rutger’s Applied Sentience blog. “Or to put it another way, we yearn for complete certainty. But why?” Online, August 5.
Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology Miroslav Volf, Senior Lecturer in Religion and Literature Christian Wiman, Barbara Brown Taylor ‘76 M.Div., and Will Willimon ‘71 M.Div. are among the fifteen speakers selected to participate in the Buechner Institute 2014-2015 lecture series.