Learn more about Summer Study and register for classes online here.
ON A DRIZZLY June afternoon, long after the regular semester ended, the YDS Common Room buzzed with lunchtime conversation.
At one table a group of clergywomen shared tips for preaching from the book of Job; two tables over, students deliberated over biblical values with Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation John J. Collins.
Across the Quad, preparations were underway for a field trip to Stockbridge, Massachusetts to visit the mission post where Jonathan Edwards once ministered to Mohawks, Mahicans, and Tuscaroras.
And over in the Institute of Sacred Music, the Great Hall had been transformed into a Russian icon-writing workshop.
Each June—when many members of the YDS community leave New Haven for far-flung ministry internships, off-site research, and summer jobs—more than 250 alumni, pastors, and theologically-curious folks from across the country gather on the Sterling Divinity Quad for two sessions of week-long Summer Study courses.
“Greatness with humility”
What draws these students to the Quad is the opportunity to work with renowned YDS faculty in a relaxed setting. Courses are equal parts intellectual engagement and practical application, and have included everything from Augustine’s Confessions and the history of Pauline interpretation to pastoral responses to trauma and strategies for church growth.
Laurie Krooss, who is pastor of Second Congregational Church in Londonderry, Vermont and a third-year veteran of YDS’s Summer Study, described the program as “a period of time where you can get a shot in the arm of the life of the mind.”
This summer Krooss was enrolled in “Preaching from the Lectionary: Year B,” a one-week Summer Study course co-taught by J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor Emeritus of Christian Communication David Bartlett and Hoober Professor of Religious Studies Robert Wilson.
Together with classmate and New Canaan Congregational Minister Chris Delmar ’06 M.Div., Krooss admired Bartlett and Wilsons’ ability to read scripture in its original Greek and Hebrew, while still making plenty of space for practical questions about how to preach texts to a congregation.
“It just oozes from them,” said Krooss of her instructors’ talents. “Its such a gift. As a clergyperson, I feel like I’m in the presence of greatness.”
“Greatness with humility,” added Delmar with a smile.
Sustaining urban ministry
The Summer Study program began in June 2004 under the deanship of Harold Attridge. Since then the program has grown, but its goal remains unchanged: to provide a meaningful way for clergy to fulfill their continuing education requirements.
As part of this mission, Dean Gregory Sterling has emphasized that YDS’s Summer Study program should support local clergy and lay leaders.
“The summer session is an opportunity for us to serve all churches, including local churches that have often felt excluded,” said Sterling. “We are committed to assisting in the revitalization of churches, beginning in New Haven.”
This year, Summer Study engaged local church leaders by partnering with the Youth Ministry Initiative through the Yale Center for Faith and Culture to offer a full week of free lectures and workshops about building and sustaining urban youth ministries.
In the mornings, the Youth Ministry Initiative offered a lecture series entitled “God Power! Youth Power! Transforming the City,” featuring five different presentations on by scholars and youth leaders from across the country. Topics included “Faith Formation in the Black Church” by Anne E. Streaty Wimberly; “The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls” by Evelyn L. Parker; “World Christianity, Immigration, and Faith” by Mark Gornik, Janice A. McClean Farrell, and Maria Liu Wong; “Ministering with Latino and Latina Youth” by Rebecca and George Gonzalez, and “Caring for African American Young Men” by Gregory C. Ellison II.
All of the lectures were webcast live and are available to watch online in their entirety on the YDS Livestream channel.
In the afternoon, participants could stay for “My Faith, My Way: Youth Spirituality, and Christian Practices,” a workshop co-taught by two YDS professors: Assistant Professor of Christian Education Almeda Wright and Research Scholar and Lecturer in Christian Education Yolanda Smith.
“My hope was that pastors and youth ministers would get a sabbath,” explained Wright. “A chance to take a break from the trenches doing ministry and think theologically, theoretically, and also practically about what goes into heartfelt and mindful youth ministry.”
According to participants, who Wright noted were predominately African American and Latino/a pastors and lay leaders, the week was successful. One participant told Wright: “I feared that taking a week to study would mean that I would have to rush on Thursday or Friday night to put my sermon together, but the conversation was so rich that preaching was actually easier.”
Lively atmosphere, small classes
Two hundred and fifty-five people participated in Summer Study this year—a 36 percent increase from 2013. Jan Hagens, who has directed the Summer Study program for three of the past four years, partly credits this increase to the partnership with the Youth Ministry Initiative, which brought many first-time participants to the YDS campus.
In the future, Hagens hopes Summer Study will continue expanding. “I would like to see it grow to be livelier,” said Hagens who is assistant to the dean for continuing education and a research scholar with the Center for Faith and Culture as well as a university lecturer in arts and sciences. “If you really want to have a lively atmosphere you need more students.”
Hagens clarified that this growth will mean expanded course offerings, not bigger classes. “The classes shouldn’t get larger,” explained Hagens. “Students like that size of 12 to 18 students. Instead, I’d like to see more classes offered.”
Small classes are a key ingredient of summer study because it allows participants to get to know each other and informally continue discussions outside of class. For example, after teaching a morning class on alternative styles of worship, Associate Dean for Marquand Chapel and Professor of Theology and Literature Maggi Dawn led the members of “Worship: Ancient and Postmodern” to a nearby restaurant where they continued their conversation about over lunch.
“We’re learning from each other too, through sharing our own struggles and points of view,” explained Presbyterian minister Candace Whitman, who was enrolled in Dawn’s course. Moments earlier, Whitman had collaborated with a classmate across the table about an idea for a children’s book while nearby classmates discussed the challenges of planning creative worship in small churches with inflexible seating. “It’s just kind of nice in the summer when you have all these people from different backgrounds to have a chance to hear from people.”
Permission to explore
A small class size also plays an important role in “Getting a Word In: Writing About Faith,” a Summer Study course that Reflections Editor Ray Waddle has taught for the past six years. The course is limited to nine or ten participants who complete and revise a 400-word assignment every day the course meets. During class each morning, participants share their previous day’s work, discussing the challenges of writing about belief as well as offering friendly feedback to each other before beginning the next assignment.
Waddle admits the course is “an intense week of writing” for the group, but it gives participants “some permission to write in ways they don’t necessarily attempt professionally, within the church or outside it.” The results are compelling: alumni of the course have published pieces they wrote for the class in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and NPR’s This I Believe.
“They often become more ambitious about their writing because of what they’ve learned about themselves in the class,” explains Waddle, whose own work includes a new book, Undistorted God (Abingdon Press, 2014), released later this summer. “They realize they can do this, they’re more creative than they thought, and it’s more fun than they thought—and more important.”
Whether it’s a sermon, a book, a ministry, or a new kind of worship, Summer Study courses tend to stir up new ideas. For many students—YDS alumni—Summer Study also has a way of stirring up memories of their own years on the Quad.
“I was so happy here,” reflects Martha Peck ’81 M.Div., a part-time UCC pastor in Vermont. Peck has been attending summer study for the past seven years. “I had wonderful teachers and wonderful friends. I just feel a lot of gratitude when I come back.”