MAY 31, 2022

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Thanks to everyone who donated on Giving Tuesday - A Day of "GRAD"-itude. We met our Match Challenge and will receive an additional $5,000 for Ministerial Education Fund scholarships!

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS FOR 2022

This summer, LTS will celebrate three commencements.

Students who have completed the Certificate in Hispanic Ministries/Certificado en Ministerios Hispanos (CHM) will graduate on June 10 at 10 a.m. The speaker for the CHM graduation is Dr. Pablo A. Jimenez. Dr. Jimenez was responsible for the founding of the CHM, along with Dean Richard Weis, Rev. Vilson Hurtado, Obra Hispana, and regional ministers.

Students who have completed the Certificate in African American Ministry (CAAM) will graduate on Friday, June 10 at 1:30 p.m. The speaker for this event is Rev. Dr. William Lee. Dr. Lee is a retired minister who served Loudon Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for nearly 40 years. He is the CEO/owner of Devised Visions, LLC and is currently President of the Board of LTS.

Dr. Emily Askew, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, will be the speaker for the 156th Commencement on Friday, June 17 at 10 a.m. Dr. Askew was a founding member of the LTS Green Task Force, a group of Seminary faculty, staff, and students committed to creating more environmentally just practices in the Seminary and the church. Dr. Askew, who joined the LTS faculty in 2007, is retiring in July.

All three commencements will be held at Crestwood Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lexington, Ky. You can watch the service live at this link: Graduation 2022.

PLEASE NOTE:

Strict COVID protocols will be followed. Ceremonies are NOT open to the public and anyone attending must RSVP to Windy Kidd no later than May 31. On the day of the ceremony, if your name is not on the list, you will not be allowed to enter. All guests will be asked to provide evidence they are fully vaccinated (this should be emailed to Windy when you RSVP) or a negative COVID test, taken within 48 hours of the service, will need to be shown at the door. Masks must be worn at all times when indoors. There will not be a reception after the ceremonies.

Fecha límite para solicitar es 1 de agosto de 2022. Para más información, haga clic.

Welcome, Stephanie!

Rev. Stephanie Moon begins her tenure as Interim Director of Admissions tomorrow, June 1. And on June 17, she will receive her Doctor of Ministry degree! Congratulations!

ECOTIP FOR MAY

In North America, May is a good time of year to recall the bountiful gifts of creation in our worship services.

Some strands of the Christian tradition observe an age-old tradition of “Rogation Day” to help the congregation give thanks for the gifts of Creation, strengthen its stewardship of resources, and seek God’s blessing of both livestock and crops. This may seem natural for rural congregations to do, yet it’s a good practice for all congregations. All of us benefit from recalling our place as creatures in a world beyond our understanding.

As part of the human community, we are dependent upon the way food is grown and shared through practices such as growing gardens, shopping in grocery stores, and eating from the bounty of the earth. It helps to recognize we all are:

• dependent upon the seasons of the year,

• in relationship with people who work in the fields, and

• participating in the larger food systems operating in our community and the world. 

All of these are good things to recall as we turn to our Holy Creator with prayers that may include thanksgiving, lament, and blessing in the context of worship.

~ Rev. Dr. Kris Bentley

Exciting things are happening at Lexington Theological Seminary!

Can you see yourself here?

DR. SCHADE RECEIVES WABASH GRANT

Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, LTS Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, and Dr. Richard Voelz, Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Union Presbyterian Seminary, have secured a grant from The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to study diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Academy of Homiletics.

“Our guild has been addressing the task of unmasking homiletical whiteness, and this grant will allow us to see what difference that effort is making in the teaching of preaching,” said Dr. Schade.

Through both qualitative and quantitative research methods, Dr. Schade and Dr. Voelz, along with four project consultants and four doctoral students in homiletics, will analyze and assess how AOH members have emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion in teaching since the Academy’s emphasis on “unmasking white preaching” began. In 2018, the AOH launched a multi-year effort to understand and act upon the ways whiteness has systematically impacted the research, practice, and teaching of preaching, especially since AOH’s leadership and membership has traditionally privileged white, mainline Protestant voices since its founding.

“The data we gather from this study will be useful across a wide cross-section of theological education as well as the Christian church in America,” Dr. Schade said. “For example, this grant will equip professors of preaching to either start or further their efforts to decenter whiteness and attend to the reconstruction of preaching that fully embraces diversity in all its forms.”

Dr. Voelz and Dr. Schade hope to use the $5,000 grant to cause a ripple effect on the wider church so preachers will be better equipped to serve their congregations and proclaim the liberating word of the gospel that seeks justice, restoration, and healing from systemic racism.

Dr. Schade also received a Wabash grant in 2019 for “Dialogue in the ‘Purple Zone’: Pedagogies for Civil Discourse in Online and On-site Settings.” This project explored the use of deliberative dialogue as a pedagogical tool for facilitating difficult conversations in online and on-site settings with seminary students, clergy, and laity for the purpose of encouraging civic engagement within theological education and the larger church. It focused on techniques of teaching civil discourse to create a “purple zone” within the red-blue divide.

The Wabash Center seeks to enhance and strengthen education in theology and religion in theological schools, colleges, and universities in the United States and Canada.

Rev. Dr. Loida I. Martell, LTS Dean,  shares a reflection, along with photos, at the Hispanic Theological Initiative’s Open Plaza. “The parable of the sower and the seed is found in three of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke),” she writes. “The Lucan version reminds me that the parable isn’t so much about the seed as much as it is about the sower.”

Clergy Peer Groups met for a retreat on campus in April as part of the Lilly Endowment-funded Thriving in Ministry Project. 

The facilitators for the retreat were Chelsey Hillyer and Winton Boyd.

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