April 26, 2021 (LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – On Saturday, May 15, 2021, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary will celebrate its 167th Commencement. Due to COVID-19 precautions the Commencement exercises will take place virtually and will broadcast on Louisville Seminary’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LPTSNow/) and YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/lptsnow). The broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. Viewers do not need a Facebook or YouTube account to watch the Commencement exercises.

This year’s Commencement speaker is Rev. Dr. Doris Garcia-Rivera, Interim Director of Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz), a nonprofit international network of peacemakers from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States, with connections to South America, Africa, and Europe. BPFNA resources, advocates, and shares practical tools for peace with justice to build a culture of peace among churches and partners organizations. 

As part of the Hispanic international biblical scholars active in higher education, Christian missions, ecumenism, human development, and social justice, Garcia-Rivera spent 23 years of missionary service in Central America, the Caribbean, and the United States serving diverse communities through the International Ministries of American Baptist Churches. After this transformational time, Garcia-Rivera became the first Hispanic woman to preside the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico bringing the seminary back to life after hurricane Maria with the collaboration of multiple reliefs organizations, partner churches, seminaries, and volunteers.

Garcia-Rivera’s commitments have taken her throughout the United States and Central America as missionary, teacher, international speaker, workshop leader, board member of higher education-related organizations, and founder of theological schools and programs. Since 1982 she has collaborated with a variety of journals and digital spaces sharing valuable educational, theological, and biblical materials with ministers and lay leaders.

An ordained minister of the American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico since 1990, Garcia-Rivera holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University Theological School, an MAR in Cross-cultural Evangelism from Andover Newton Seminary at Yale, an MSc in Microbiology and Medical Zoology from the University of Puerto Rico Medical School, and a BS in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico. Doris Garcia-Rivera’s interests are in interculturality, Ancient Near East cultural background, and prophetic literature.

Prior to Louisville Seminary’s Commencement exercises, the seminary will play host to a virtual Baccalaureate service on Friday, May 14, at 4 p.m. The Baccalaureate service will broadcast on Louisville Seminary’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LPTSNow/).

This year’s baccalaureate preachers are Rev. Dr. Shannon Craigo-Snell and Rev. Stachelle Bussey. Their sermon, “The Residue of Exile,” will draw on messages form Jeremiah 29:1-15 and Psalm 126.

Shannon Craigo-Snell is a systematic and constructive Christian theologian who has served as Louisville Seminary’s Professor of Theology since 2011. Before arriving in Louisville, she was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University.

In all of her work, Craigo-Snell brings the wisdom of theology into conversation with contemporary issues so that each might teach and learn from the other. Her areas of interest focus on feminist and Reformed theologies, anti-racism, theology and theater, and formation for religious experience. Her writing spans a broad scope of interdisciplinary diversity. In addition to several articles for journals such as The Ecumenist, Quaker Religious Thought, Jump Cut, Christian Century, and Modern Theology, she has written several books including Disciplined Hope: Prayer, Politics, and Resistance, No Innocent Bystanders: Becoming an Ally in the Struggle for Justice (co-authored with Christopher Doucot), The Empty Church: Theater, Theology, and Bodily Hope, Living Christianity: A Pastoral Theology for Today (co-authored with Shawnthea Monroe), and Silence, Love, and Death: Saying ‘Yes” to God in the Theology of Karl Rahner.

Stachelle Bussey is the founder and Executive Director of The Hope Buss, a nonprofit organization that intersects the church with the community in various forms such as providing rides to the polls on election day, hosting conversations on mental health and the church, and providing free food and gospel music in the community after the murders of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee in West Louisville.

Bussey also serves as the Worship Director for One Church Louisville, a multi-cultural worship community formed in 2016. In 2020 Bussey earned her Master of Divinity degree from Louisville Seminary and her chaplaincy certification through Norton Healthcare. She has also been accepted to the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies program at the Ecumenical Institute at Chateau de Bossey in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2021, Bussey was elected to the Louisville Metro Police Department Civilian Review Board, which provides a monitor for police conduct alongside an appointed inspector general.