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Endings Candler Empowers Real Possibilities. A Good Funeral | Church Planting | Seeing with New Eyes | New Degrees Beginnings Candler Connection Winter 2014

Laurel Hanna, Editor

Candler Connection is published by the Office of Communications of Candler School of Theology at Emory University and is distributed free as a service to all alumni and other friends of the school. Send correspondence regarding the magazine to: Laurel Hanna, Co-Director of in this issue Communications, Candler School of Theology, 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322 or email [email protected].

This magazine may be viewed online at www.candler.emory.edu/news/connection Community: Faculty: Unless otherwise noted, photography by 02 The Collect 16 Required Reading Emory Photo/Video. Design by Wages Design, The transformative spirit What faculty are reading now www.wagesdesign.com of endings and beginnings 22 New Books Copyright 2014, Candler School of Theology, 04 News by Candler Faculty Emory University. All rights reserved. The latest from Candler www.candler.emory.edu 34 Now & Then: 38 Giving Teresa Fry Brown and Gifts that are making a real Ted Smith talk teaching difference at Candler and preaching

44 Benediction Professor emeritus Don Saliers on endings and beginnings Alumni: 27 And A Little Child Shall Lead Them Corrections: The print edition of the Winter 2013 A trio of beginnings for issue of Candler Connection contained these errors: Nancy & Shelvis Smith- In “Return to Eden,” Sarah Gerwig-Moore’s name Mather in South Sudan was misspelled; in “From Hostility to Hospitality,” Sunlin Korean Methodist Church was incorrectly 40 Class Notes identified as Sunlin United Methodist Church. We apologize for these errors in the print edition. in this issue 10

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14 Features: 10 The Good Funeral and the Empty Tomb Thomas Lynch explores the link between death and eternal life

18 A Time to Sow A bumper crop of Candler church planters sows the seeds of faith

24 Cut Dead But Still Alive Greg Ellison’s quest to end the stigmatization of African American young men

30 Five Degrees of Integration 30 Candler’s new degrees expand the possibilities for making a difference

CINDY BROWN 2 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

The Collect

There’s a transformative spirit of both endings and beginnings that leads us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our call. The Collect 3

Woven through the endings and beginnings that punctuate our life’s story is a common thread: change. And the past year at Candler has seen much ofDear it. We’ve witnessed Friends, the demolition of long-standing Bishops Hall and the rise of a new building in its stead; celebrated the leave-taking of a graduating class and welcomed an assembly of new faces picking up the Candler mantle right behind them; and embraced the introduction of five new graduate degrees, created so that more real people can make a real

difference in the real world. FLIP CHALFANT

The stories in this issue of Connection spotlight the transformative spirit of endings and beginnings, exploring the eternal cycling between the two and how both lead us into a deeper understanding and renewal of our call. We consider a range of endings and beginnings, from rituals at the end of life to the birth of congregations in the neighborhoods that surround us; from stemming the tide of systemic injustice to forging new ministries. And of course, as we usher in 2014, we prepare to celebrate Candler’s beginning as we honor the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1914.

This summer, we mourned the passing of John Haralson Hayes, emeritus professor of Old Testament, who served on Candler’s faculty for 35 years and left behind a legacy of words, wisdom, and genuine friendship. His death brings deeper resonance to the final words of his 2010 book of wit and wisdom,If You Don’t Like the Possum, Enjoy the Sweet Potatoes: And when on our day the sun has set, let us pray that the darkness be not long delayed, that short will be that evening journey into night. And may that night kiss us softly on the cheek, and embrace us tenderly in its keep.

As Christians, our beliefs are rooted in the ultimate ending and beginning, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of this, we face the future with confidence, even when we do not know what the “evening journey into night” will entail. We stand poised at an exciting juncture here at Candler as we turn from our first to our second century. May we embrace the sacred tension of our endings and beginnings as we continue to do God’s work in the world, both now and in years to come.

Grace and peace,

Jan Love Dean and Professor of Christianity and World Politics

The opening strains of the great hymn “Be Thou My Vision” never fail to inspire Jan Love, a lifelong enthusiast of music and congregational singing. Candler News

Saying Goodbye to Bishops Hall

Sometimes, there must be an ending Before Bishops was demolished, Associate Professor state-of-the-art technology and will conform to before a new beginning can occur. That was the of Worship and Liturgical Theology Ed Phillips led LEED “green building” standards. case in spring of 2013 when Bishops Hall, Candler’s the community in “A Rite to Acknowledge the Raz- home for fifty years, was demolished in order to ing of Bishops Hall.” And then during spring break, As is fitting for a theology school building, many make way for Phase II of the school’s new building. the building was taken down by a process called of the materials from Bishops will be resurrected. “munching”—essentially, machines took bites out Red roof tiles were put aside for one of Emory’s new Built in 1957, Bishops Hall was synonymous with of the building. Within one week, Bishops was gone, residence halls. Most of the unused furniture was Candler for generations of students, but it was not leaving room for a greener, more technology-friendly donated to local charities. And debris from the synonymous with technological advances: It could building to rise from its ashes. demolition was sorted and loaded into appropriate not support the latest in classroom technology, bins for recycling. Of the 880 tons of waste removed and the cost to modernize it would almost equal That building is Phase II, which will house Pitts from the demolition site in March, 723 tons of the cost of a new building. So Candler officially Theology Library and the Wesley Teaching Chapel, concrete, 127 tons of metal, and 12 tons of wood were took its leave of Bishops in 2008, moving into and connect to the Rita Anne Rollins Building via a recycled or diverted—that’s a 97.95 percent recycle Phase I of its new building, now known as the Rita glass atrium. Like Phase I, the building will feature rate. Not a bad parting gift, Bishops Hall. Thank you. Anne Rollins Building. Candler News 5

Candler Celebrates 100 Years

If 1914 “was an altogether splendid time to start Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff to hear, and speak that word both clearly and a school of theology,” as Gary Hauk writes in his Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins compellingly,” he says. forthcoming book on the history of Candler, then and chair of the Centennial Celebration Committee, 2014 is certainly an altogether splendid time to points to two dominant modes in Scripture that Two phases mark the turn from our first to our rejoice in the school’s centennial. guide our celebration: narrative and prophecy. second century. In fall of 2014, we focus on “Story: Remembering the Past” in events that “The Candler Centennial in Story and Prophecy” “Story gives expression to the memory of a people: highlight Candler’s historic significance within is a yearlong celebration of the school’s 100th an- By faithfully and creatively remembering both the larger Atlanta community and beyond. In niversary, highlighting memories of the past and the good and bad in its experience, the Candler spring of 2015, we move to “Prophecy: Ad- visions for the future. It begins in August 2014 with community is prepared once more to move into dressing the Future,” as Candler hosts a major Fall Convocation and the dedication of the final the future,” he explains. scholarly conference on theology to engage the phase of our new building and continues through challenges of the next century. Candler faculty Spring Commencement 2015 with a slate of special Prophecy, says Johnson, is not so much about pre- will present papers proposing ways forward, guest lectures, musical performances, forums and dicting the future as it is about speaking a word to and distinguished theologians from outside conferences, room dedications, alumni reunions, the present and thus affecting the future. Candler will respond as panelists. exhibits in the new Pitts Theology Library, and the debut of Hauk’s book. “As a school of theology committed to the service A full calendar of Centennial Celebration of the church and the world, Candler must seek to events and related details will be available at discern the word that the church and world need candler.emory.edu later this spring. n 6 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

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Candler Welcomes A Bevy of Laurels Candler’s senior class in recognition of faithful and New Faculty for Reynolds, Lösel 01 dedicated service [01]. Reynolds was named a senior In the fall of 2013, Candler welcomed two new Aquinas Professor of Historical Theology Philip L. fellow at Emory’s Bill and Carol Fox Center for faces to the faculty. Thomas W. Elliott, Jr. 87T, 97G Reynolds and Associate Professor in the Practice of Humanistic Inquiry. is the director of Contextual Education II, assistant Systematic Theology Steffen R. Lösel have received professor in the practice of practical theology, abundant honors this year. First the Association Acing the Third Degree and director of the Teaching Parish program and of Theological Schools (ATS) and The Henry Luce Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has awarded ministry internships. An elder in the North Georgia Foundation named them as two of the six Henry Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament Conference of The United Methodist Church, Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2013-2014. As Luce Carol A. Newsom a Doctor in Divinity, honoris causa, he comes to Candler with 26 years of pastoral Fellows, they will conduct research for a year and her third honorary doctorate. “Scholar, mentor, experience in local parishes. His work focuses on then present their findings at a conference and for lecturer, teacher, visionary, and interpreter of texts Wesleyan studies, polity, evangelism and mission, publication in religious journals. Lösel’s project are a few of the terms that come to mind when and contextual education. Nichole Renée Phillips explores the faith of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart one thinks of you,” begins the citation from VTS. joins the school as assistant professor of religion through a musical and textual analysis of anthropo- “Where others have heard discord and contradic- and human difference. An ordained itinerant elder logical, Christological, ethical, and eschatological tions in the text, you have discerned dialogue—a in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), themes in his major operatic works. Reynolds will multiplicity of voices that opens up a world of Phillips focuses on the intersection of religion, explore Christian mystical theology in the western possibilities for meaning. Texts talk to one another psychology, and culture; African American history tradition. Additional honors for both were icing and so do disciplines: the way you use sociology, and cultural studies; practical theology; and cul- on the cake: Noted as “equal parts pastor, scholar, psychology, and literary criticism has given us a tural anthropology and ethnographic research. She and teacher,” Lösel received the 2013 “On Eagle’s new framework for interpreting Scripture. You have has served on ministerial staffs of churches in New Wings” Excellence in Teaching Award, given by inspired a new generation of biblical scholars.” England and in the South. Candler News 7

Living Out Love 02 YTI: 20 Years of Exploring faith communities, Candler’s YTI was the Nearly a hundred attended the Women, Theology, Questions that Shape Us 03 first of its kind. Now more than 50 summer and Ministry program’s Annual Women’s Forum In the two decades since its launch in 1993, more youth ministry programs modeled after it featuring author and women’s advocate The Rever- than 1,000 high schoolers have attended Candler’s are scattered around the country. end Becca Stevens on “Living Out Love: Advocacy groundbreaking Youth Theological Initiative (YTI) for Women as a Theological Practice.” Recently Summer Academy, exploring questions about “There is no doubt that YTI shapes leaders for named by the White House as one of 15 “Champi- faith, values, and culture that shape their young tomorrow,” says Elizabeth Corrie, the program’s ons of Change,” Stevens is founder of Magdalene minds. This past July, more than 100 YTI mentors, director and assistant professor of youth and Thistle Farms, a community and social enter- staff, and participants from years past gathered education and peacebuilding at Candler. prise near Nashville, Tenn., that supports women at Candler to celebrate the program’s 20th recovering from prostitution, tracking, addiction, anniversary with a slate of activities, including a “Many participants will become ordained clergy, and life on the streets. Magdalene, the residential panel discussion on 21st century youth ministry, and some will enter other fields. But no matter model, serves women for two years at no cost to worship, workshops, and a reunion banquet what their profession, they will have a sense that residents. Thistle Farms employs more than 40 keynoted by YTI co-founders Craig Dykstra and God has called them to work for the common residents and graduates who manufacture, market, Chuck Foster. good, drawing on their religious tradition as a and sell all-natural bath and beauty products in 200 formative resource.” retail stores across the globe. The forum included Originally designed as a forum where youth presentations by women of the Magdalene commu- could address theological questions and nity and a discussion session on action strategies for issues that weren’t discussed in their local women’s advocacy in Atlanta.

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Bishops Lead 1974, and they currently serve in churches, all who worship there. At the top of the list was Episcopal Studies 04 chaplaincies, and social service agencies from installing state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment to Candler has tapped two bishops from the Episcopal California to Maine. support enhanced presentations and live-streaming Church to lead its Episcopal Studies program. The worship services. Also important were attending to Rt. Reverend Keith B. Whitmore, assistant bishop Cannon Chapel Freshens Up 05 long-standing maintenance issues and adding ablu- of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, serves as direc- After more than three decades of almost daily use, tion stations for the ritual washing required by some tor of the program, and the Rt. Reverend Robert the iconic William R. Cannon Chapel underwent its faiths. Besides these larger changes, other nips and C. Wright [04], bishop of the diocese, chairs the first building-wide renovation this summer. Built in tucks included replacing carpeting and flooring, re- school’s Episcopal Studies Advisory Board. 1981, the chapel—which hosts regular classes and surfacing the ceiling, improving lighting, installing five worship services a week for Candler students, new furnishings, repainting pews, refinishing the “I am thrilled that this team of leaders will build on plus gatherings for other religious groups at Emo- original lectern and altar, ensuring compliance with an already strong foundation in Episcopal Studies at ry—was due for a makeover. Candler and Emory’s the Americans with Disabilities Act, and rearranging Candler to move us in new and creative directions for Office of Religious Life teamed up in the effort to meeting and teaching spaces, including the creation the future,” says Dean Love. breathe new life into the space. of a room dedicated to spiritual formation.

Candler features the oldest university-based Epis- Though not visually dramatic, the improvements copal Studies program in the nation. More than 200 address both the need for more current technology students have graduated since the program began in and the need to make the space hospitable for Candler News 9

A Semester with Barbara Lay Theology Institute The Professors Are IN Brown Taylor 06 Presents Pacini, Johnson 07 Sharpen your tools for ministry by joining us for a Best-selling author, Emory alumna, and Episcopal The Bill Mallard Lay Theology Institute at Candler free “Office Hours” webinar this spring semester. priest Barbara Brown Taylor 73C joined Candler will host two Disciple Scholars events this semester. The line-up includes Don E. Saliers on February 13, School of Theology for the fall semester as the On February 16, Professor of Historical Theology “The Psalms of Lament”; Gregory C. Ellison II on Alonzo L. McDonald Family Chair on the Life and David Pacini [07] will present “Four Bibles, Four March 18, “Cut Dead But Still Alive”; and Carol A. Teachings of Jesus and Their Impact on Culture. Christs” at Mulberry Street United Methodist Church Newsom and Jennifer Ayres on April 24: “Food and During her tenure as the McDonald Chair, Taylor in Macon. On March 29, Luke Timothy Johnson, Faith: Eating as a Spiritual Practice.” The one-hour gave three major public addresses: “At Home with R.W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and webinars use the GoToWebinar platform, enabling Uncertainty,” “Learning to Walk in the Dark,” and Christian Origins, will present “The Apostle Paul: you to view a live presentation, ask questions, and “The Virtuous Preacher.” Audio and video record- Oppressor or Liberator?” at Candler School of Theol- engage in conversation with your favorite faculty. ings of all three presentations are available in the ogy. To register, visit candler.emory.edu/calendar Register on the “Alumni & Friends” section of “Jesus & Culture” and “Special Events” albums on and navigate to the date of the event. Candler’s website, candler.emory.edu. Can’t make Emory’s iTunes U site, itunes.emory.edu. it to the live session? You can access any of the past “Office Hours” webinars from our website. In addition to these public lectures, Taylor ad- dressed smaller groups, engaged with student organizations, and taught a course that focused on examining the image of Jesus through the eyes of the world’s major faiths outside of Christianity.

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The Good Funeral and the Empty Tomb 11

The Good Funeral and the Empty Tomb

By Thomas Lynch An adaptation of a lecture given by poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch during his tenure as the McDonald Chair in spring 2013

“A good funeral.” I first heard that from my father, who was a funeral director. He used to come home from work when I was a kid, sit down at the dinner table, and talk about how he’d had “a couple of good funerals” that day—by which he meant, it got the dead where they needed to go and the living where they wanted to be. That became for me a sort of rule of thumb: A good funeral gets both the dead and the living where they need to be.

In my time as a visiting professor at Candler, I’ve because it affirms that every tribe and sect, religious to everyone except the actual corpse, which is often learned to provide a scriptural predicate for much and ethnic community is obliged to figure out what dismissed, disappeared without rubric or witness, of what I do and write and say. And so, this, from to do with their dead. And so when Joseph the out of sight, out of mind. So the visible presence of the Gospel of John: Arimathean, in league with Nicodemus, petitioned the Pope’s body at the Pope’s funeral struck many Pilate for the body of Christ, they were acting out as an oddity, a quaint relic of old customs. How 38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a primal office of their species and the particular “Catholic” some predictably said, or how “Ital- a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his dictates of their tribe. ian,” or “Polish,” or “traditional,” or “barbaric.” Or fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away “when in Rome…” the perpetually beleaguered cable the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; It was much the same eight years ago at the Vatican TV commentators would say. so he came and removed his body. 39 Nicodemus, when Pope John Paul II died. That first week of April who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, 2005 was dominated by images of the dead man’s In point of fact, what happened in Rome that week bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing body vested in red, mitered, and laid out among the followed a pattern as old as the species—it was about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body faithful with bells and books and candles, blessed “human,” this immediate focus on the dead and this of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen with water and incense, borne from one station to sense that the living must go the distance with them. cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. the next in what began to take shape as a final jour- Most of nature does not stop for death. But we do. 41 Now there was a garden in the place where he ney. The front pages of the world’s newspapers were Wherever our spirits go, or don’t, ours is a species was crucified, and in the garden there was a new uniform in their iconography: a corpse clothed in which has learned to process grief by processing the tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 And so, sumptuous vestments from head to toe, still as stone objects of our grief—the bodies of the dead—from because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and and horizontal. Such images flickering across their one place to the next. We bear mortality by bearing the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. ubiquitous screens no doubt gave pause to many mortals—the living and the dead—to the brink of —John 19:38-42, NRSV Americans for whom the presence of the dead at a uniquely changed reality: Heaven or Valhalla or their own funerals had gone strangely out of style. Whatever Is Next. We commit and commend them Of these verses surrounding the burial of Christ, into the nothingness or somethingness, into the what always impressed me is the one that reads For many bereaved Americans, the relatively new presence of God or God’s absence. Whatever after- “according to the burial customs of the Jews,” “celebration of life” funeral involves a guest list open life there is or isn’t, human beings have marked their CINDY BROWN

ceasing to be by going the distance with their the earth. The lexicon and language are full of such unresponsive and decomposing lump of matter next dead, getting them to the edge of a new reality—to wisdoms. Thus, our “humic density,” as the scholar to her should be removed. She drags him out by the the tomb or the fire or the grave, the holy tree or Robert Pogue Harrison calls it, the notion that ankles and begins her search for a cliff to push him deep sea, whatever sacred space of oblivion we everything human—our architecture and history, over or a ditch to push him into. Or maybe she digs consign them to. And we’ve been doing this since our monuments and cities—all rooted in and rising a pit in the earth to bury him because she doesn’t the beginning. from the humus, the earth, the ground in which our want wild animals attracted to his odor. Or maybe dead are buried, is what eventually defines us. she builds a fire, a large fire, around and atop his As Christians, our theology is shaped by our escha- rotting body and feeds it with fuel until the body is tology; our living faith informed by our best hopes Years ago I took to trying to imagine the first human consumed. Maybe she keeps one of the bones for a for the dead. Thus, the defining truth of our Christi- widow awakening to the dead lump of a fellow next totem or remembrance. Or let’s say she lives near a anity—the empty tomb—proceeds from the defining to her, stone still under the hides that covered and body of water and counts on the fish to cleanse his truth of our humanity: We fill tombs. The mystery warmed them against the elements. I always imag- remains. Maybe she enlists the assistance of others of the resurrection to eternal life is bound inextri- ine a cave and primitive tools and art and artifacts. of her kind in the performance of these duties, and cably to the certainty of the cross of suffering and They have fire and some form of language and they do their part, sensing that they may need exactly death. Indeed, the effort to make sense of it all, the social orders. This first human widow wakes up to this kind of help in the future. religious impulse, owes to our primeval questions find the man she’s been sleeping with and cooking about the nature of death. Save for these uniquely for and breeding with gone cold and quiet in a way Here is where the course of history is set. It has to human curiosities about last things and eschatolo- she had not formerly considered. Depending on the do with the momentary pause before she turns and gies and the liturgies we construct to answer them, weather, sooner or later she begins to sense that leaves the cave, or the ditch or the pit or the fire we would be so much road-kill and windfall, our something about him has changed quite utterly and or the pond or whatever oblivion she has chosen lives and deaths unmarked and unremarkable. Like irreversibly. Probably she smells the truth of this for him. In that pause she stares into the oblivion baptisms and nuptials, we do funerals to address within a matter of a day or two. And what makes her she has consigned him to and frames what are the the uniquely human questions—what is permanent, human is that she figures she’d better do something signature questions of our species: Is that all there is? what is passing, what is the meaning of life and love, about it. Let us, for a moment, consider her options. Why is he cold? Can this happen to me? What comes next? suffering and death. Gladioli and goldfish are not Of course, there are other questions, many more, but much troubled by these things. Only humans are. Perhaps she gathers her things together and follows all of them are uniquely human, because no other the nomadic herd of her group elsewhere, leaving species ponders such things. This is when the first Ours is the species bound to the dirt, fashioned the cave to him, in which case we could call it his glimpse of a life before or beyond this one begins to from it, according to the Book of Genesis (Gen 2:7). tomb. Or maybe she likes the decor of the place flicker into the species’ consciousness and questions Thus human and humus occupy the same page of our and has put some of herself into the improvements about where we come from and where we go take up dictionaries because we are beings “of the soil,” of so decides that she should stay and that the now more and more of the moments not spent on The Good Funeral and the Empty Tomb 13

“No form of human life,” writes the sociologist between the living and the dead that is unique in Zymunt Bauman in Mortality, Immortality and Other human history. Furthermore, this estrangement, this Life Strategies, “has been found that failed to pattern disconnect, this refusal to deal with our dead (their the treatment of deceased bodies and their posthu- corpses), could be reasonably expected to handicap mous presence in the memory of the descendants. our ability to deal with death (the concept, the idea Indeed, the patterning has been found so universal of it). And a failure to deal authentically with death that discovery of graves and cemeteries is generally may have something to do with an inability to deal accepted by the explorers of prehistory as proof that authentically with life. a humanoid strain whose life was never observed directly had passed the threshold of humanhood.” It bears mentioning that while this estrangement is rudimentary survival. Maybe the way the sun rises coincident with the increased use of cremation as a and sets or the seasons change or the tide ebbs and I want to emphasize that Bauman finds two elements method of disposing of the dead over the same half- flows begin to replicate her own existence. And to this “threshold of humanhood.” First, “to pattern century, and may be correlated to it, cremation is not maybe whatever made the larger and the smaller the treatment of deceased bodies,” and secondly, the cause of this estrangement. Indeed, cremation lights in the night sky and great yellow disk that “their (the dead’s) presence in the memory of is an ancient and honorable and effective method moves across the sky had something to do with her descendants.” And when we find evidence of ancient of body disposition, but in most cultures where it is and the man whose body she is disposing of. graves and cemeteries, crematories or other sites of practiced it is done publicly in ceremonial and com- final disposition, we can assume that they are venues memorative venues, whereas in North America very And here is the point I am trying to make: that the where humans sought to deal with death by dealing often it is consigned to an off-site, out-of-sight, in- contemplation of the existential mysteries, those with their dead—by treating their deceased bodies in dustrial venue where everything is handled privately around being and ceasing to be, is what separates ways that said they intended to keep “their posthu- and efficiently. Only in North America has cremation humans from the rest of creation; and that our hu- mous presence in (their) memory.” lost its ancient connection to fire, because it is so manity is, therefore, directly tied to how we respond rarely actually witnessed. Here, cremation has be- to mortality. In short, how we deal with our dead in And this formula—dealing with death by dealing come synonymous with disappearance, not so much their physical reality and how we deal with death as with the dead—defined and described and worked an alternative to burial or entombment, rather an an existential reality define and describe us in pri- for humans for forty or fifty thousand years all over alternative to having to bother with the dead body. mary ways. Furthermore, the physical reality of death the planet, across every culture until we come to the and the existential contemplation of the concept of most recent generations of North Americans who Ours is a species that deals with death (the idea, death are inextricably linked so that it can be said, in for the past forty or fifty years have begun to avoid the concept, the human condition) by dealing with trying to define what might be among the first prin- and outsource and ignore their obligations to deal the dead (the thing itself, in the flesh, the corpse). ciples of humanity, that ours is the species that deals with the dead. They are willing enough to keep Whatever our responses to death might be—intel- with death (the idea of the thing) by dealing with our “their presence in the memory of descendants” lectual, philosophical, religious, ritual, social, dead (the physical fact of the thing itself). (the idea of the thing), so long as they don’t have emotional, cultural, artistic, etc.—they are firstly to deal with “the treatment of deceased bodies” and undeniably connected to the embodied remnant Insofar as our first human widow is concerned, it (the thing itself). A picture on the piano is fine, of the person who was. And while the dead can be was by dealing with the corpse of her dead man that but public wakes, bearing the dead to open graves, pictured and imagined and conjured by symbol and she began to deal with the concept of death. This are strictly out of fashion. metaphor, photo and recording, our allegiance and intimate connection between the mortal corpse and our primary obligations ought to be to the real rather the concept of mortality, it goes without saying, is The bodiless obsequy, which has become a staple than the virtual dead. Inasmuch as a death in the at the core of our religious, artistic, scientific, and of available options for bereaved families in the family is primarily occasioned by the presence of a social impulses. past half-century, has created an estrangement corpse, the emergent, immediate, collective, and 14 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

purposeful response to that emergency is what a fu- the changed reality death occasions is part of the vaults and monuments, limousines and video trib- neral is. In short, a funeral responds to the signature essential response to mortality. Very often this is a utes—all of them accessories, non-essentials. They human concern of what to do about a dead human. religious narrative. Often it is written in a book, the may be a comfort, but they are non-essential. Same text of which is widely read. Or it might be philo- for funeral directors and rabbis, sextons and pastors, Thus, the presence of the dead is an essential, defini- sophical, artistic, intellectual—a poem in place of a priests and clerks, florists and lawyers and hearse tive element of a funeral. Funerals differ from all psalm, a song in place of prayer—either way there drivers—all of them accessories who may, nonethe- other commemorative events in that the presence must be some case to be made for what has hap- less, assist the essential purpose of a funeral. And of the dead and their subsequent disposition are pened to the dead and what the living might expect when we endeavor to serve the living by caring for primary concerns. Memorial services, celebrations because of it. “Behold, I show you a mystery,” or the dead, we are assisting in the essential, definitive of life, or variations on these commemorative events, words to that effect are often heard. work of the funeral and the species that devised this whether held sooner or later or at intervals or anni- deeply and uniquely human response to death. versaries, in a variety of locales, while useful socially A fourth and final essential, definitive element of for commemorating the dead and paying tribute to a funeral is that it must accomplish the disposi- So much of what I know of final things I have their memories, lack an essential manifest and func- tion of the dead. They are not welcome, we know learned from the reverend clergy: these men and tion: the disposition of the dead. In this sense, the intuitively, to remain among us in the way they were women of God who drop what they’re doing and option to dispose of the dead privately, through the while living. Furthermore, it is by getting the dead come on the run when there is trouble. These are agency of hirelings, however professional they might where they need to go that the living get where they the local heroes who show up, armed only with be, and however moving the memorial that follows need to be. And while this disposition often involves faith, who respond to calls in the middle of the may be, is an abdication of an essential undertaking the larger muscles and real work, it also enacts our night, the middle of dinner, the middle of already and fundamental humanity. essential narratives, assists in the process of our es- busy days to bedsides and roadsides, intensive care sential emotions, images, and intellection about the and emergency rooms, nursing homes and hospice A second essential, definitive element of a funeral is dead, and fixes their changed status in the landscape wards and family homes, to try and make some that there must be those to whom the death matters. of our future and daily lives. Whether the dead are sense of senseless things. They are on the front A death happens to both the one who dies and to buried, burned, entombed, enshrined or scattered, lines, holy corpsmen in the flesh-and-blood combat those who survive the death and are affected by it. If hoist into the air, cast into the sea, or left out for the between hope and fear. Their faith is contagious and no one cares, if there is no one to mark the change scavenging birds, our choice of their oblivion makes emboldening. Their presence is balm and anointing. that has happened, if there is no one to name and their disposition palatable, acceptable, maybe even The Lutheran pastor who always sang the common claim the loss and the memory of the dead, then the holy, and our participation in it remedial, honorable, doxology at graveside: “Praise God from Whom All dead assume the status of Bishop Berkeley’s tree maybe even holy. Blessings Flow,” his hymn sung into the open maw falling noiselessly in the forest: If no one hears it, it of unspeakable sadness, startling in its comfort and did not fall, it never was. It is the same with humans. These four essential, definitive elements, then: the assurance. The priest who would intone the Grego- And like Bishop Berkeley, it may become for us the corpse, the caring survivors, some brokered change rian chant and tribal Latin of the In Paradisum while case for a god who sees and hears and claims every- of status between them, and the disposition of the leading the pallbearers to the grave, counting on the thing in creation. dead make a human funeral what it is. raised voice and ancient language to invoke the heav- enly and earthly hosts. The young Baptist preacher A third essential, definitive element of a funeral Once we can separate the essential elements from who, at a loss for words, pulled out his harmonica is that there must be some narrative, some effort the accessories, the fundamental obligations from and played the mournful and familiar notes of “Just towards an answer, however provisional, of those fashionable options, we might be able to assign As I Am” over the coffin of one of our town’s most signature human questions about what death means relative measures of worth to what we do when one famous sinners. for both the one who has died and those to whom of our own kind dies. We might be able to figure not it matters. Thus, an effort to broker some peace only the costs, but the values. Thus, coffin and cas- My friend Jake Andrews, an Episcopal priest, now between the corpse and the mourners by describing ket, mum plants and carnations, candles and pall, dead for years but still remembered, apart from How we deal with our dead in their physical reality and how we deal with death as an existential reality define and describe us in primary ways.

serving his little local parish, was chaplain to the me that a living faith ought not be estranged from Or ought we ask, as more and more of our fellow fire and police departments and became the default death’s rudiments and duties. Faith claims based Americans are joining the Church of “none of the minister, the go-to guy for the churchless and lapsed upon redemptive suffering and meaningful death, a above” when it comes to religious identity, is there among our local citizenry. Father Andrews always risen corpse and an empty tomb lose something of any connection between the slow but steady decline rode in the hearse with me, whether the graveyard their power when the dead and the living become so in church attendance and pop culture’s seemingly was minutes or hours away, in clement and inclem- distant and estranged from the shoulder work and insatiable interest in True Blood and Twilight and The ent weather, and whether there were hundreds or shovel work the dead require. Walking Dead and the zombie apocalypse? Are the dozens or only the two of us to hear, he would stand erotically charged vamps and vampires served up by and read the holy script such as it had been given So the question presents itself: What harm if we Hollywood somehow connected to “the failure of him to do. When cremation became, as it did, the simply forget how to do a good funeral? What harm our eschatological nerve,” as Tom Long elegantly norm among his townspeople and congregants, he if we grow more distant from our dead? calls the slow but steady decline in the relevance of would leave the living to the tea and cakes and ices the Christian message in its current telling? in the parish hall and ride with me and the dead to 2013 marked the ten-year anniversary of the com- the crematory. There he would perform his priestly mencement of our nation’s long misadventure in These are queries beyond my scope or scholarship, offices with the sure faith and deep humanity that Iraq. To me one of the worst miscalculations was the but still it seems to me a simple thing, that we seems to me an imitation of Christ. one that prevented media coverage of the return of should restore to the funeral some aspect of our dead soldiers to Dover AFB where our military goodness, some gravity and purpose, some It was Jake Andrews’s belief that pastoral care operates its mortuary services, preparing the dead to shoulder and shovel work, some Christian witness included care of the saints he was called on to bury be sent back home to towns and cities across the na- at the very least. Perhaps if the dead are more and cremate. Baptisms and weddings were, he said, tion. Imposed during the first Gulf War, this ban— welcome in church, the living will find more “easy duties,” whereas funerals were “the deep end which was lifted in 2009—reversed an open media reason to be there. n of the pool.” I think he had, as we all do, his dark policy that had held from World War II through the nights of the soul, but still, he believed the dead to invasion of Panama in 1989. be alive in Christ. He met the mourners at the door Long accustomed to endings, Thomas Lynch is and pressed the heavens with their lamentations. Might we ask ourselves, would we have remained looking forward to the beginning of the West Clare It was Jake who taught me the power of presence, entrenched in that misadventure for more than Drama Festival in Doonbeg, Ireland, where shop- keepers and publicans turn into leading men and the work of mercy in the showing up, pitching in, eight years if every night the evening news included women, local police and farmers take up their roles, bearing our share of whatever burden, and going images of the coffins of our dead countrymen and and their fellow citizens watch in rapt amazement. the distance with the living and the dead. He taught women being carried from the cargo hold of trans- port planes? 16 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

Required Reading

Pull up an easy chair and immerse yourself in these recommended reads from a few of Candler’s well-read.

Luke Timothy Johnson, R.W. Woodruff Profes- Assistant Professor of Preaching and Ethics Ted A. sor of New Testament and Christian Origins, has been Smith reports that he “inhaled” Pulphead, a collection rereading the novels of Amy Tan and Louise Erdrich. of essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan, adding that Sul- Johnson says that for him, the appeal of these award- livan’s essays on reality TV and Christian rock are the winning authors stems from their “close attention to best he’s read on these subjects. “The essays read like specific cultures (Chinese-American and Indigenous short stories, and Sullivan himself flickers in and out of American) in transformation.” them,” Smith writes. “He’s a great companion. He no- tices every detail. He sympathizes without condescend- ing. And if he’s long past what he calls his ‘Jesus phase,’ Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum captured the he can’t quite not believe.” imagination of Assistant Professor of Old Testament Joel LeMon. Featuring Knights Templar, Kabbal- ists, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, and other “Hermetic Steve Tipton, Charles Howard Candler Professor of conspirators,” Eco’s thriller explores a group of bored Sociology of Religion, recommends Michael Sandel’s intellectuals who find the occult greatly entertaining 2012 bestseller, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits until they become entangled in it. The story raises enig- of Markets. In a society where everything is for sale, matic questions: Does the world make sense or not? Is Sandel posits, money regulates access to such basic there an order? Is there a special wisdom shared across goods as healthcare, education, safe neighborhoods, the ages and throughout the world? LeMon discovered and political influence, thereby eroding the idea of that like the intellectual protagonists, the more time public goods and a cohesive social fabric. Sandel forces you dedicate to these questions, the more tempting it is the reader to consider what matters most, which Tipton to see connections between things that may or may not says comes down to “true love, the priesthood of all be related. “Eco toys with the idea of this temptation— believers, and the self-government of all citizens.” and with us—along the way.”

Professor of Theology and Ethics Noel Erskine Rex Matthews, associate professor in the practice of journeyed through the pages of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s historical theology, recommends Hilary Mantel’s Bring Black In Latin America, which spans the 16th through Up the Bodies, a sequel to her 2009 Man Booker Prize 20th centuries and examines the nearly 12 million winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall. Both Africans whose forced sojourn across the sea took them historical novels—which Matthews says he’s reading not to the United States but to countries south of the for fun—delve into the life of Henry VIII through the border. Erskine recommends the informative read as a eyes of his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. historical discovery of the true beginnings of the “Afri- can American Experience.” Required Reading 17

Variety Show

Best-selling author Barbara Need something to clear your head before sleep? Brown Taylor shared these recent Anthony Briggmann, assistant professor of the history of early Christianity, reads C.S. Forester’s picks with us while she was in classic Horatio Hornblower series in order to “lose residence as the McDonald Chair himself” and wind down from serious thinking. What this fall. It’s a mixed bouquet would otherwise keep him awake? His other recent designed to stir the spirit, the reads, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern intellect, and the imagination. West by Mark Lilla, Rethinking the Trinity & Religious Pluralism by Keith Johnson, and The One, the Three, and the Many by Colin Gunton. Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours I have been reading Merton for so long that I do Maryse Condé’s 1984 novel, Segu, was “profoundly not know how I missed this volume—a breviary moving” to Emmanuel Lartey, the L. Bevel Jones III of prayers for Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Dark drawn Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling. from Merton’s writings in more than thirty of his Set in late 18th century city-state Segu (modern-day other books. It is edited by Kathleen Deignan, Mali) and following the story of a local tribe family, whose introduction is as lovely as what follows it. this work of historical fiction “transports the reader to a tremendously fascinating time in the history of Africa…and deepens one’s understanding of current conflicts in the region as well as the nature of the Mona Siddiqui, Christians, Muslims, and Jesus inter-religious, political, and cultural struggles played This book is for the class I taught at Candler fall out continually among peoples in many other parts of semester, “The Other Jesus: Seeing Jesus Through the world,” Lartey says. He plans to continue on with the Eyes of the World’s [Other] Great Faiths.” Condé’s sequel, The Children of Segu, and then dive into Siddiqui is professor of Islamic and interreligious Sundiata: An Epic Of Old Mali, which is retold in the studies at the University of Edinburgh, with long- oral tradition by famed national storytellers of African time interest in Christian-Muslim engagement. culture and history. Her book is the best introduction I know to the central figure of Jesus in Christianity and Islam.

Each January, Candler’s pastor/theologian-in-resi- dence, Don Harp, reads Leslie Weatherhead’s The Will of God, and he urges all pastors to do the same. Alice Munro, Runaway Calling the book “a classic,” Harp says it offers “the After a lifetime of writing luminous short stories, best help I know in dealing with difficult matters that Munro had just announced her retirement from occur among the church membership.” Also due publishing. Then she won the 2013 Nobel Prize for a repeat performance: Reach for the Summit by for Literature, which she said might cause her the legendary former coach of the Tennessee Lady to “reconsider.” Runaway is one of fourteen Vols, Pat Summitt, whom he says has long been a collections of her stories, each more revelatory hero of his. Memorable quote: “There is more in than the last. you than you know.” —Barbara Brown Taylor

A Time to Sow

A bumper crop of church-planting alumni is sowing the seeds of faith

By Valerie Loner 10T PHOTOS COURTESY OF EASTSIDE CHURCH & KIRKWOOD UCC. A Time To Sow 19

There’s a reason we call it “church planting.” Starting a new congregation and cultivating seeds have a lot in common. Tilling the soil, watering and fertilizing, and providing just the right light have their counterparts in learning the com- munity, meeting needs, and providing just the right atmosphere. And just as growing a lush garden takes a special touch, so does planting a new church.

A bumper crop of church-planting alumni is sowing the seeds of faith Timothy Lloyd 10T never knew he had a Church, where his role was to start a contemporary hymns played on the banjo, drink fair trade coffee, green thumb. service for young adults—an assignment that made or watch one of several artists in the church paint his call to be a church planter even clearer. during the service. Members help lead worship, and His latent talent became apparent only the last three there are a few songwriters in the congregation. years, as he’s tilled, watered, and fertilized Eastside In January 2011, he was appointed to start a new You’ll also find traditional elements: The church Church, the United Methodist church plant he pas- United Methodist church in Atlanta. The church ini- says the Apostles’ Creed after every baptism and tors in east Atlanta. Now averaging 145 in worship each tially took the name “Oakhurst” from the surround- celebrates Communion every Sunday. Sunday, Eastside is a thriving, growing congrega- ing neighborhood, but leaders soon discovered tion—and Lloyd is becoming a seasoned gardener. the name didn’t fully reflect the congregation. “We The casual and energetic mood is intentional, says realized that we were drawing people from a much Lloyd, who saw the need for an in-town congrega- Even before Candler, Lloyd and his wife, Elisabeth, broader spectrum,” Lloyd explains, so the congrega- tion that reached the unchurched. “The goal was to felt a call to start a church. The couple moved to tion changed its name to Eastside in January 2013. express the Methodist faith in a way that was indig- Atlanta from Indiana so that Tim could attend enous to metro Atlanta,” he says. “It’s an interesting seminary. While at Candler, he did his second year The Eastside vibe is lively, and the worship atmo- juxtaposition between holiness and down-to-earth.” of contextual education at Clairmont Presbyterian sphere eclectic. You might hear Charles Wesley Lloyd is in good company among a growing number of Candler alums who have heard the call to launch new communities of faith.

For Susannah Davis 95T, that call came over cups of coffee—thousands of them. When she bought a cof- fee shop in the Kirkwood community of Atlanta in 2006, Davis wasn’t sure what was going to grow out of the shop, but soon it was the epicenter of a devel- oping faith community formed by those who came in seeking more than just a good cup of joe. The first worship service was held on Christmas Eve of 2006, with monthly services beginning in 2007 and weekly Timothy Lloyd services in 2008. Susannah Davis

New things keep brewing at Kirkwood United church-planting process. Just ask Wade Langer 09T. “It was a frustrating time. I kept thinking, ‘I’m doing Church of Christ, which has moved several times to Two weeks after the United Methodist pastor a lot of things, but I’m not doing the one thing I was accommodate the growing congregation. Whether received a call saying he was being appointed to sent here to do,’” he adds. they’ve met in the coffee shop, a community center, start a new church in Tuscaloosa, Ala., tornadoes or their present location in a rented storefront, Davis devastated the city and surrounding area, leaving an Toward the end of those nine months, Langer saw a has learned that new churches are in a constant state 80-mile path of destruction and killing more than Facebook post about an upcoming trip to Israel led of change. 60 people. He spent nine months trying to figure by The United Methodist Church of the Resurrec- out what Tuscaloosa was pre- and post-tornado. tion, a 20,000-member congregation that began as “With a new church start, God is always doing a a church plant in 1990. Langer went on the trip with new thing, and so are we,” she says, adding that the “I didn’t know either one,” he says. “It wasn’t a time more than 80 people from Church of the Resurrec- church is still forming its identity. “We are, and we to start a church. It was a time to rebuild. It was a tion, including some who were original members. are becoming. The community is becoming.” time to learn.” While on the trip, Langer was in a literal and meta- Right now, the congregation is becoming too large His education came through an exhausting period phorical desert and found himself praying, “God, I for its current worship space, and success is leading of relentless investigation and study. He remem- have no idea what you’re doing in my life.” On Ash to some tough decisions. They are considering add- bers going to Starbucks at 6:30 a.m. to talk with Wednesday he went to bed in a hotel by the Sea of ing another worship service, but there is a fear that a residents before visiting the chamber of commerce Galilee, and woke up at 3:00 a.m. knowing that he second service will tear them apart. While Davis isn’t and area businesses to get to know as many people had to start a church on the Sunday following the clear on what the congregation will do, she is certain as possible. first anniversary of the tornadoes. that God has a plan for them. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out together. We’re trusting that.” “Those nine months were the hardest I ever had in That’s when things became clearer: “Maybe God ministry, maybe the hardest in my life,” he recalls. wants to start this church as a path to resurrection Trusting God’s plan—particularly when it’s still a He went to school principals, fire stations, and and revival after the biggest devastation this city mystery—is an integral but nerve-wracking part of the other places and offered to be their chaplain. has ever seen.” A Time To Sow 21

On the first Sunday, 120 people came to what The group that began with 10 or 11 participants before Eastside,” says Lloyd, who is excited about became known as The Capstone United Methodist swelled to between 35 and 40. So in September of the eight small groups that have formed. “They don’t Church. Langer led monthly services that summer 2010, Jones began leading a worship service, also at know how to be church. You have to teach them.” and began weekly worship in September 2012. He’s his parents’ home. since created a partnership with the nearby Wesley Then there’s the fatigue that comes from trying to do Fellowship at the University of Alabama that allows The church, which now meets in commercial space, it all and do it right the first time. Everything is new, the church to use Wesley’s sound equipment and averages 70 in worship each week. But Jones doesn’t says Davis, and it can be exhausting when every- also helps them reach students. focus on weekly attendance. “My main mission and thing is being done for the first time. There are no my goal is to help as many people as I can spiritually routines, except perhaps setting up and taking down Telling college students about Christ is part of and physically,” he says. “I’m not really concerned the worship space each week. Carlos Jones’s 10T story as well, but he didn’t plan about how many members we bring in. Our main to make the church his career. As a strong safety at focus is helping people.” “You don’t have a staff in the beginning,” Lloyd Tennessee State University, Jones had the potential points out. “You wear every hat.” to play in the National Football League (NFL), but The challenges of starting a new congregation while serving as the president of the school’s Fellow- are as varied as those who start them, but some And, of course, finances are notoriously tight. ship of Christian Athletes, he heard a lecture by a vis- seem universal. Church planters often have to teach people about the iting Candler professor and decided to apply to the theology of giving. school and see what happened. He got his Candler One is loneliness. “Early on, it’s you and your acceptance letter two days before an NFL scouting family,” Lloyd shares. “There’s nobody. Trying to The challenges in church planting seem so daunting event, and he opted for Candler. explain your vision for a church, sometimes people that one almost wonders why anyone would under- roll their eyes.” take it. But those who have thrived in the experience Now Jones leads The Way Interdenominational say the rewards are found in seeing lives trans- Church in Sugar Land, Tex., which is surprising to Davis agrees. “Those first three years, I would formed. Some of these transformations are dramatic him since he didn’t intend to be a church planter. get there and think, ‘I’m going to be the only one and some are subtle, but the impact on lives is still After graduating from Candler, Jones returned here today.’” very deep, Lloyd notes. home to Texas and started having a Bible study with some of his friends on the Gospel of Luke. Each Another challenge is discipling people. “The major- And some of the deepest transformations happen in week, the group gathered at Jones’s parents’ house. ity of our folks hadn’t been involved in a church the church planter’s own life.

“My faith in God has grown tremendously,” says Da- vis. “My trust in God has grown tremendously. My love for God has grown tremendously. It’s nothing that we can accomplish on our own. It’s the power and presence of God in this place.” n

Valerie Loner 10T is senior pastor of Rush Chapel UMC, which recently celebrated the 175th anniver- sary of its founding, complete with dinner on the

Eastside Church grounds and an article in the local paper. 22 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

New Books by Candler Faculty

Jennifer R. Ayres Gregory C. Ellison II Carl R. Holladay, editor with Luke Timothy Johnson Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for John T. Fitzgerald, Gregory E. Contested Issues in Christian Origins and Sterling, and James W. Thompson. [Baylor University Press, 2013] African American Young Men the New Testament: Collected Essays Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic [Abingdon Press, 2013] [Brill, 2013] Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays, 1959–2012, by Abraham J. Malherbe. 2 vols. [Brill, 2014]

Bernard LaFayette Jr. and Thomas G. Long and L. Edward Phillips Brent A. Strawn, editor with Kathryn Lee Johnson Thomas Lynch with Sarah Webb Phillips, edited Patrick D. Miller, by John Barton In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, by Taylor Burton-Edwards and The Theology of the Book of Amos [University Press of Kentucky, 2013] and the Community of Care Melanie Gordon (Old Testament Theology) [Westminster John Knox Baptism: Understanding God’s Gift [Cambridge University Press, 2013] [Discipleship Resources, 2012] Press, 2012] New Books by Candler Faculty 23

A New Creation: Wright’s King David is First of its Kind Jacob L. Wright, editor with Brad E. Kelle and Frank R. Ames Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible Jacob L. Wright has ushered us further into the internet age with the Interpreting Exile: Displacement publication of King David and His Reign Revisited (2013), an enhanced e-book on Apple iBooks that includes and Deportation in Biblical and hundreds of full-color images, multimedia links, a new system for footnotes, texts that are cited at length in Modern Contexts scrollable windows, and a host of other special features to engage your senses and your intellect. [Society of Biblical Literature, 2011; Leiden: Brill, 2012] Billed as the first publication of its kind in the humanities,King David was a “labor of love” for Wright, who was inspired by his own frustrating experiences with academic e-books, and a conviction that scholars must rethink the ways they make their research available to the public.

“Most of us learn and recall information in relation to space and place. When it comes to books, if we know where to find a passage after many years, it’s because we remember its approximate place in the volume and its position on the page,” he explains. “Because our activities of learning are so spatially determined, the shifting pagination and reflowing text of conventional e-books can be very frustrating. We used a fixed- page format in King David to solve that problem.”

But that’s only the beginning of the innovation. Each page has been designed as a unique folio, a visual for- mat suited to our innate need for orientation. Wright likens it to the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, with rich visuals that pique the reader’s interest, making it easier to recall the book’s contents.

Other “enhanced” features? You can scroll through sources and pull up lengthy footnotes right next to the Jacob L. Wright, editor with body of the text; follow links directly to articles, books, websites, and videos; highlight lines with a palette David J.A. Clines and Kent of colors, and share them via email and social media. Harold Richards Making a Difference: Essays on “These features make for a richer and more dynamic reading experience, which should promote more the Bible and Judaism in Honor engaged learning,” says Wright. “That’s the goal.” of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi [Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012] And if you prefer to do your reading the old-fashioned way, King David and His Reign Revisited will be published in a traditional print format by Cambridge University Press this spring. Cut Dead But Still Alive

Seeing the invisible with new eyes

By Laurel Hanna

With additional reporting by Elaine Justice of Emory Communications and Fran Davis-Harris of The Fund for Theological Education Cut Dead But Still Alive 25

Assistant Professor of Pastoral and fiendish punishment,” Ellison explains. “He recognized that people would rather be tortured Care and Counseling Gregory C. than be ‘cut dead’—deliberately ignored or snubbed Ellison II is a humble, gentle man, completely.”

yet that doesn’t stop him from ask- So what does it mean when a whole population ing tough questions that challenge is “cut dead,” silenced and dismissed by the prevailing society? the way we see, hear, and act.

His debut book, Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for While researching his doctorate in pastoral theology, Seeing the invisible with new eyes African American Men (Abingdon Press, 2013) spot- Ellison saw firsthand the havoc wrought by being lights the ways society stigmatizes African American “cut dead” as he counseled young men in church young men by rendering them mute and invisible. and school settings, and at programs for youths But Cut Dead doesn’t just point out the damage; it transitioning from prison. In his book he chronicles shows caregivers real-world approaches that can the lives of five such young African American men lead to healing. In the words of one reviewer, the who journey from despairing places of invisibility book is “a call to action and a blueprint for change.” and muteness to more hopeful realities of visibility and voice. Evidently, it’s a message people are ready to hear: The first printing of Cut Dead sold out less than two “In following the lives of these five individuals, I re- months after its release in June of 2013. alized that many of them feel invisible and cut dead. They are living but cut dead at the same time; like and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, Ellison wasn’t Ellison borrowed part of the book’s compelling walking phantoms, desperately seeking to be seen spared from being “cut dead.” title from nineteenth century philosopher and and heard,” he shares. psychologist William James, who writes in his book “I know what it feels like to be in a classroom and to The Principles of Psychology (1890): “If no one turned And while the individuals in the book are real, have your hand up in the air and people ignore you, around when we entered, answered when we spoke, Ellison points out that they represent many more or to have someone change the conversation as if you or minded what we did, but if every person we met youth who have limited access to education, have never uttered a word. I know what it means to get on ‘cut us dead,’ and acted as if we were non-existent been in prison, or have been pushed to the margins an elevator and have someone clutch their purse,” things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would of society. In fact, they could even represent him. says Ellison. “Those are demeaning and dehuman- before long well up in us, from which the cruelest izing feelings that over time take a toll on one’s self bodily torture would be a relief.” Though he excelled in school at Emory and at Princ- and how you see your future.” eton Theological Seminary, and was mentored from “James asserts that human beings are social crea- an early age by such luminaries as distinguished Ellison’s own experiences of being stereotyped, plus tures, and remaining unnoticed or unseen is a cruel educator Johnnetta Cole, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, encounters with numerous “cut dead” youth, led 26 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

Fearless Dialogues The next chapter of Ellison’s work is Fearless Dialogues, a grassroots initiative that takes him to develop a mantra: “Once you see, you cannot to the streets the message of not see.” That mantra is the guiding refrain of the “seeing with new eyes.” The book and the next chapter of Ellison’s work, the project brings together thought Fearless Dialogues project. [See sidebar.] leaders from the church, healthcare, politics, education, “Once you begin to see a person as one who is made community organizing, and the in the image of God, once you begin to see a home- arts to educate and mobilize less person as someone’s uncle or brother or aunt or communities invested in sister or mother, you can’t just step over them like changing the outlook for African American men and others who a piece of trash because you have seen them fully,” go unseen and unheard. says Ellison. MICHAEL K. JONES OF MICHAEL K. PHOTOS.

Ellison developed Fearless Dialogues to create spaces for hard, heartfelt conversations When caregivers, clergy, and community leaders be- between these sometimes disparate community thought leaders—including pastors, gin “seeing with new eyes,” they can begin nurturing elected officials, teachers, students, factory workers, and even gang leaders—to help young men and women with guidance, admonition, them see gifts in each other, hear value in each other’s stories, and work toward transfor- training, and support to help create a community of mation and change in themselves and others. reliable others to serve as an extended family. “The aim is to have candid conversations about how we can see, hear, and change the Cut Dead is Ellison’s first step in what he plans as a way we interact with those who are cut dead in our communities,” he says. “Through this comprehensive and ongoing effort to help people work, we can transcend stereotypes and open up greater possibilities for young black see those around them, “to see the beauty, to see males and others who are marginalized in our society.” the divinity, to see the humanity fully and not just to objectify them or to dismiss them by saying ‘Oh, this Fearless Dialogues is composed of two distinct programs: person is just a future statistic.’” Fearless Dialogues Community Conversations assemble a diverse group of community stakeholders to engage in guided discussion on the untapped gifts and primary concerns While the book focuses on African American men, facing African American young men. They feature live music, visual arts, spoken word, Ellison says that four fundamental needs—having a context-sensitive workshops, and informational exhibits. These are half-day events sense of belonging, control, self-esteem, and mean- accommodating up to 400 people. In the second half of 2013, nearly two thousand people ingful existence—shape all humanity, regardless of in five different cities participated in the Fearless Dialogues Community Conversations. race, nationality, or faith background. Fearless Dialogues Community Empowerment Initiative is a strategic approach to long- term change. Local leaders and consultants highlight overlooked and underutilized “It is my hope that this book will help us to see all resources, strengthen existing community partnerships, and develop a strategic plan people in a more human and even a more divine way: that addresses three of the most pertinent issues affecting African American young That we are all worthy of respect. That we are all men in that community. The Fearless worthy of an opportunity to succeed.” n Dialogues team then commits to the community for eighteen months to assist in implementing specific goals. Laurel Hanna’s favorite way to end the day is by listening to her two-year-old “read” bedtime stories. For more information, visit www.fearlessdialogues.com. And A Little Child Shall Lead

Them by Rachel Reiff Ellis

Shelvis 06T and Nancy 06T Smith-Mather are no strangers to challenging beginnings. In the last two years, the couple has experienced a trio of tender firsts, from joining a young ministry in a new nation to the premature birth of their son. But in the end, this story is less about rocky starts and more about God’s intricately interconnected work in the world.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SMITH-MATHER FAMILY The birth of a child us they may not have the equipment they would need the Republic of South Sudan’s split from Sudan had A thousand things raced through Shelvis Smith- based on his condition,” recalls Nancy. Miraculously, created deep schisms between ethnic groups in the Mather’s mind on October 20, 2012, as he sat in the through the use of a “homemade” CPAP machine poverty-stricken region, yet the Smith-Mathers saw tiny hospital just outside the village of Yei, South and the town’s only incubator, Jordan was stabilized glimmers of hope and felt a pull toward a deeper Sudan. Despite plans to board a plane three days and successfully transferred via plane to a hospital in engagement with the people in this new nation, later in order to deliver their first child in the United Kenya, where he was admitted to a neo-natal ICU. formed in July of 2011. States, his wife, Nancy, just over 7 months pregnant, was instead lying on a bed gripped in the unmistak- As Jordan improved over the next weeks, many people “In the areas where I worked in South Sudan, able throes of labor. wondered: Would they stay in Africa? Jordan’s churches are some of the strongest local institutions dramatic arrival cast new light on life in an impov- present,” Nancy says. “The leadership and member- “On top of my concern for Nancy, I couldn’t stop erished region with few resources. Says Nancy, “I ship of congregations possess a great ability to orga- thinking about the statistics and figures I knew to knew the daily difficulties of living in South Sudan. nize and bring about peace and holistic development be true about South Sudan,” says Shelvis—statistics I was keenly aware, however, that I did not know life in their communities.” such as women in South Sudan are more likely to die as a parent to a young child in South Sudan.” in labor than to graduate from high school. Personal encounters with survivors of Rwandan But the couple agreed that the decision to stay was genocide who taught forgiveness despite their ex- Shelvis also knew that the rural hospital was ill- clear. “Between the deep desire for loving, human perience with atrocities inspired the Smith-Mathers equipped to handle a baby so premature. And he relationships and the reality of the great inequity in to help bring an end to the suffering in a lasting and realized they would need access to more advanced our world, we felt God’s Spirit pushing us forward, sustainable way. transportation than they had in order to get to a allowing us to follow the hope of making a differ- hospital with the level of care they needed. ence,” Nancy shares. The birth of a mission Their interest in peacebuilding led the Smith- But despite a dearth of technology and transportation, The birth of a nation Mathers to the Resource Centre for Civil Leadership the baby’s time had come: Jordan Eman Smith- The seed of the Smith-Mathers’ call to the Sudan (RECONCILE), an indigenous ecumenical Christian Mather was born seven weeks early in a country had been planted in 2008 during their service year in organization founded in 2003 to promote peace recently labeled “the worst place in the world to give Kenya as Young Adult Volunteers with the Presby- by providing training in trauma recovery, conflict birth.” Within minutes, he was in distress, and the terian Church (USA). After their initial term was transformation, and civic education. In 2011, South Smith-Mathers began praying in earnest. over, they signed up for an additional year, during Sudan’s National Council of Churches invited the which Nancy worked for an interdenominational Smith-Mathers to serve as peace educators in col- “For me, that was the most challenging point, community development organization in South laboration with RECONCILE. because the medical staff was very honest and told Sudan. The decades-long civil war that preceded And A Little Child Shall Lead Them 29

The Smith-Mathers began their ministry in Decem- allow real dialogue; and second, to relay their com- together to be a reminder that the living God was ber 2011, moving to Yei, South Sudan, where they munity’s problems to those with the resources to help. with us in the midst of that struggle,” says Shelvis. participate in RECONCILE training events address- “We feel like Jordan will always be that reminder to ing inter-ethnic conflict, and where Shelvis is the The birth of a family us that God was indeed with us.” principal of the Peace Institute, which offers three- With the arrival of Jordan came an opportunity they month courses in community-based trauma healing, had not foreseen. “Jordan’s birth was this tremen- But the story doesn’t end there. As their work con- peace studies, and conflict transformation. dous bringing together,” explains Nancy. “The tinues in South Sudan, the Smith-Mathers maintain excitement and energy around him and the fact that hope that their experience will serve as a call to ac- As they began their work in the war-torn area, a side he was born in South Sudan meant that—at least to tion for the Christian community and beyond. effect of years of conflict quickly became apparent, our colleagues at RECONCILE—Jordan was South foreshadowing Jordan’s birth story. “In the presence Sudanese.” “Ultimately, this isn’t a story about us. This is a story of conflict and violent clashes, there is an inability about how God is at work and how God is calling for development to happen,” Shelvis notes. “That In fact, an elder of Yei gave Jordan his own Sudanese us to be at work in the world,” Shelvis says. “When means there is an inability to gain access to medical name: Yopay, which means “one who comes before we tell the story, we’re also offering an invitation for care—which means there’s not just a death that his time.” Jordan has become “their” baby—everyone others to be involved in it.” comes by guns, but there is a death that comes by a considers themselves an uncle, an aunt, a grandfa- community’s lack of resources.” ther. “There’s this connection that Jordan has with “This story allows us to share the miracle of our son the people here and this place that is different than and at the same time talk about how there are thou- Compounding that was a lack of trust between for- what Shelvis and I can have,” says Nancy. sands upon thousands of women who have babies in eign aid workers and the southern Sudanese. “There impoverished areas who don’t have this happy end- is a history of well-intentioned Americans coming in Jordan, whose first name is a reference to the cross- ing, who don’t have this opportunity,” he adds. with an agenda and ignoring the voice and concerns ing of the Jordan River, and whose middle name, of the people who are indigenous to that land,” ex- Eman, is Arabic for “faith” and “hope,” keeps them “This story is beyond us. We have a responsibility to plains Shelvis. The Smith-Mathers wanted to remove grounded in the larger message of hoping for and share it in a way that says, ‘Now what?’ It happened. this “lens of suspicion” and build trust. believing in something better, that with God all Praise the Lord. Now what?” things are possible. So they began with a two-pronged approach: First, Rachel Reiff Ellis was born when both her parents they sought to enter into authentic community “Through his birth we were able to cross through were students at Candler. She took some of her very engagement with the Sudanese in a way that would that ‘Jordan river moment’ and then place the stones first steps on the Emory campus. REAL Possibilities: Five Degrees of Integration

by Eric Rangus BOTTOM IMAGE: FLIP CHALFANT / TOP: CINDY BROWN Five Degrees of Integration 31

The early 21st century hasn’t been kind to theology schools. Nationwide, seminary enrollment is declining. Fewer people attend church, and the number of “nones” —those unaffiliated with any religious institution—is rising.

Is this a problem? Many would say yes. But is this Doctor of Ministry: Fall 2014 challenges. The degree is a valuable addition to the also an opportunity? Candler School of Theology “I’m thrilled to see the DMin back,” says Alice Rog- repertoire of an experienced minister, says Brent A. says definitely. ers 98T, senior pastor at Glenn Memorial United Strawn, professor of Old Testament and director of Methodist Church and associate professor in the the DMin program. Already blessed with strong degree programs, practice of practical theology at Candler. She earned Candler is seeking ways to address the varied issues her Doctor of Ministry from Candler during the pro- “The DMin is designed for ministers who graduated facing modern theological education. For more than gram’s first go-round some 15 years ago, served on with a Master of Divinity, got out in the real world, a year, Candler’s leadership has been building new the design committee for the retooled version, and and began to know what they didn’t know,” he says. programs designed to expand the possibilities of will serve on the program’s core teaching faculty. “It has real-world, practical applications.” reaching more people who want to make a real dif- “It’s going to play a significant role in the education ference in the real world. The results are five new de- of effective pastors.” Many theology schools offer DMins (including three gree programs that are rolling out over the next two in the metro Atlanta area), but Candler’s program, semesters: two new master’s degrees, two new dual Parish leadership is ever more challenging in an by design, is distinctive from any other in the nation. degrees, and a new iteration of a doctoral degree increasingly global—and an increasingly secular- whose name may be familiar to some, but whose ized—society, and Candler’s DMin is designed “A lot of our thinking was forward, not backward,” implementation will be the definition of innovation. to help pastors find practical ways to meet those says Strawn. “We designed a new DMin from the ground up, one that’s ideal for the 21st century.”

Four elements set Candler’s new DMin apart. One “The DMin is designed decidedly 21st century aspect is that 90 percent of the for ministers who gradu- three-year program takes place entirely online. Apart from four key on-campus experiences, DMin stu- ated with a Master of dents will complete their courses from the comfort of their churches and homes. Candler offers the only Divinity, got out in the DMin program of its kind where distance learning real world, and began plays this significant of a role. to know what they didn’t “An online approach means that ministers can stay deeply rooted in their congregations while pursuing know. It has real-world, the degree, applying what they’ve learned right away, practical applications.” every day,” says Strawn. Plus, there is an inherent added value of the online format in that students will —Brent Strawn acquire enhanced digital communication skills, 32 Candler Connection | Winter 2014 CINDY BROWN

giving them new, more effective ways of The fourth unique aspect is the approach to the they most want and need help, and the reason they connecting with their parishioners in this age final project. Rather than requiring its completion pursued the DMin in the first place,” he says. “It’s of the smart phone. at some point after the three years of course work— designed to make a difference.” potentially delaying graduation—Candler’s final The second distinctive element is that Candler’s project is “scaffolded” into the curriculum so that it Master’s and Dual Degrees full-time faculty—not adjuncts—are teaching the is completed at the end of year three. But even more It’s a given that landing a “dream job” in this day and DMin, and they are doing it as part of their regular importantly, Strawn notes, the final project is ger- age may require landing a master’s degree first. But semester course load, not as an add-on program mane to each student’s particular ministry setting. what makes job-seekers even more desirable is the during off-periods. ability to navigate the issues created by today’s multi- “The final project emerges from and engages with cultural, multi-religious global workplace. Candler “That faculty access is important to participants— students’ ministerial contexts—the exact place has seized the opportunity to prepare students for getting a Candler DMin means spending quality this real world experience by offering four new time and exchanging ideas with some of the nation’s master’s degrees. most esteemed theologians,” says Strawn. Master of Religious Leadership: Spring 2014 The third difference is the DMin’s two-track The Master of Religious Leadership (MRL) is a system, which Strawn describes as “hyper-focused” two-year degree designed for people who want to on the strengths of Candler’s faculty. Track one, enhance their leadership potential for Christian Church Leadership and Community Witness, is geared service. It offers five concentrations: Mission, toward students interested in models of ministerial Evangelism and World Christianity; Justice, Peace- leadership inside the church and out. Track two, building and Conflict Transformation; Pastoral Care; Biblical Interpretation and Proclamation, focuses on the Ministries with Youth; and Worship and Music. theology of Christian Scripture. In addition to allow- ing students to focus on what interests them most, “We designed the MRL program for people who the tracks also enable them to form a cohort and aspire to hold a leadership role in a church but aren’t collaborate throughout their three years together. necessarily interested in being ordained,” says Ian CINDY BROWN Five Degrees of Integration 33

“These new degrees are wonderful examples of how we can creatively respond to the changing McFarland, Candler’s associate dean of faculty and needs of the world around academic affairs and the Bishop Mack B. and Rose Stokes Professor of Theology. us in a way that’s unique

The MRL includes participation in Candler’s Contex- to Candler.” —Dean Jan Love tual Education Program, a national model for blend- ing service with learning. Con Ed provides practical CINDY BROWN experience in social ministry or ecclesial settings aligned with the MRL concentrations. of our divinity students, giving them further op- program divided between Candler and UGA’s cam- portunities to engage with professionals from other pus in Athens and/or satellite location in Gwinnett Students can complete the MRL on a full- or part- disciplines.” County, and includes Contextual Education, which time basis, and they have access to Candler’s online can be completed in Atlanta. and hybrid courses. Dual Degrees: Fall 2014 For Candler’s new dual degrees, the school is tap- Integration and Innovation Master of Religion and Public Life: Fall 2014 ping into a strong existing partnership with Emory’s To Candler’s Dean Jan Love, these five new degrees The Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) is Laney Graduate School for the Master of Divinity/ are all about helping more real people make a real Candler’s own creation—no other seminary offers it. Master of Development Practice (MDiv/MDP), and difference in the real world. The latest proof points A one-year degree for professionals in nonreligious forging a new bond with The University of Georgia underscoring Candler’s commitment to the church, fields—lawyers, doctors, nurses, social workers, and (UGA) for the Master of Divinity/Master of Science in they demonstrate that the school can innovate to even accountants—the MRPL is geared toward those Social Work (MDiv/MSW). ensure it stays relevant for years to come. who serve a socially engaged clientele and could benefit from a greater appreciation of the role of The MDiv/MDP is designed for those in sustainable “These new degrees are wonderful examples of how religion in people’s lives. development work who want to learn how to apply we can creatively respond to the changing needs of their theological convictions or engage religious the world around us in a way that’s unique to Can- The MRPL’s genesis sprung in part from the results communities with greater openness, and for reli- dler,” she says. of a survey given to alumni of the Emory College gious leaders from developing countries who want of Arts and Sciences. Respondents did not work in to address social and economic issues as part of a “As the world around us continues to shift, we religious professions, yet many were interested in holistic approach to ministry. It includes four years look forward to finding other opportunities that understanding more about the intersection of reli- of residential instruction and two summer interna- will allow us to live into our mission of educating gion and their vocation. Outreach efforts for MRPL tional field practicums. faithful and creative leaders for the church’s students will focus on professional associations—an ministries in the world.” n audience brand new to seminary education. The MDiv/MSW is available for those interested in considering the role of faith and religious institu- “This is the kind of degree that can be a great service tions in community health and development, the Lifelong baseball fan and Braves season ticket to the Atlanta area,” says McFarland, adding that care of individuals in poverty and crisis, responses holder Eric Rangus eagerly anticipates the first students can mix it in with their career responsibili- to systemic and institutional injustice, and issues of pitch of opening day each spring. Play ball! ties. “It can also tremendously enrich the experience social transformation. It is a four-year residential 34 Candler Connection | Winter 2014 Now & Now & Then: A Faculty Dialogue

Teresa L. Fry Brown, professor Ted Smith: I’d like to start out by recognizing that rigor can take them places societal norms say they of homiletics and director of you are the first African American woman to obtain cannot go. What I say to all of my advisees is: You Black Church Studies, has been the rank of full professor at Candler School of The- understand what your call is about. No one else can ology. [Applause.] I’d love to invite you to reflect on answer the call but you. Try not to let anyone put you on Candler’s faculty for 19 years. that milestone. It’s a personal achievement, but it’s in a box to say, “This is who you’re supposed to be.” Ted A. Smith, assistant professor also a milestone in the life of the school. What ad- Regardless of your ethnicity, gender, or sexuality, of preaching and ethics, joined vice would you give African American women who being in the academy is hard work. It’s a ministry, the faculty in 2012. They recently are entering academic careers or the church and to and it means you don’t turn off when you go home. sat down with Candler’s Alumni all of us who are at earlier stages of our careers? One of my sister colleagues in ministry says that Board to talk about teaching, when she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writ- preaching, and the future Teresa Fry Brown: Being here is a milestone, ing. When we’re not teaching, we’re thinking about particularly as we’re looking toward the 100-year teaching. This is a life calling. When people ask me of homiletics. anniversary of the school. It speaks a lot about the about my call, I say, “My call is to teach, preach, history of Candler. But it also speaks about how and write—in that order.” The church didn’t always one’s academic rigor can trump race and racism. understand that. Neither does the academy at times, My mother always taught me to make sure when but I know that’s my call, and one has to live into you achieve something, you leave the door open for one’s call. I cannot imagine my life not teaching. I someone else. I would love for whatever I do here— cannot imagine my life not writing or preaching. whether it’s being tenured or becoming full profes- And so that’s why I’m here. sor—to help other women and people in other racial or ethnic groups understand that their academic TS: Your vocation seems to be playing out right now through multiple roles—professor of homiletics, & Then

director of Black Church Studies, and elected to study and to produce. When I die, I want some- level of politics has happened especially through historiographer for the African Methodist Episcopal thing left behind other than my clothing. I think it’s preaching. So it’s really interesting to bore into [AME] denomination. How do those roles come critically important for people to know what came those rhetorical forms and the tropes that have together for you? Or do they not? before them—and to work in the present, but also defined American preaching and ask what they tell leave something for the people coming next. Some- us about our social imaginaries. For example, when TFB: I love learning. My grandparents taught me times students think they’re the first ones who have every sermon ends with something for you to do, that the way to get anywhere in the world is to learn ever pastored a church, or written a sermon, but it constructs people as agents who can make their as much as you can, and then to share that. So in my there’s a wonderful homiletical history to look at. Be own worlds. To take another example: What does it head, everything I do feeds the same place. It ema- aware of the trends. A lot of the trends are recycled mean if, in your vision of the moral, there is some nates from the same source, and then it intertwines. historical models. That’s how I think all of my roles kind of standard—God’s law—that stands above In order to be a professor of homiletics, I have to come together. the earthly laws we know? Looking at sermons with know what’s going on in the church. I don’t think those kinds of questions in mind opens them up to that the academy and the church are isolated enti- What about your work, Ted? Your bio says that you conversation with the most basic issues in politics. ties. What I learn, what I teach in the classroom, I work “at the intersection of practical and political also live that out as a preacher. I’m involved in Black theologies.” What do you mean by that? TFB: Interesting. My doctoral work is in social Church Studies because my denomination is a his- transformation, so I’m intrigued by how we as torically black denomination in the African Ameri- TS: Policies matter for politics. But that’s not the preachers are aware of the imperatives in the can church. I think it’s critically important for all kind of “politics” I mean. The dimension of politics biblical text that talk about not bothering anyone, students to know the origins, theology, and ethics I’m most interested in is what Charles Taylor calls those that talk about liberative practices of God. of their denomination because that feeds into their a “social imaginary”—that sense of what we think I’m interested in how we are able to listen to the preaching. Being the AME’s historiographer and is possible; the ways things make sense or don’t voice that no one else wants to hear, and how we are executive director of research and scholarship brings make sense; the ways ideas and practices connect responsible for what we preach—not just what the me back to teaching, researching, and writing, but us to one another. That level of politics happens biblical text is, but what is surrounding the biblical also back to encouraging people on the ground and especially through repeated activities—ritual and text that is killing people on Sunday morning. And in the church—outside of the academy—to continue liturgical acts of various kinds. And in America, that conversely, what is it that surrounds a biblical text 36 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

that’s life-giving? When do we move from performing ending preaching—and yet, preaching is one of the and she said, “But you’ll see everyone else talking a sermon to living a sermon while we’re preaching great cultural forms of this country, so I can’t really about the service on Twitter.” They’re tweeting the it? How do we embody faith? That’s what’s exciting see it going away. I think there’s always going to whole time the service is going on, and they’re get- to me about approaching the political from a differ- be a place for this old kind of witness, this focused ting responses. That works there. I’m not good at ent standpoint, because I’m very clear that whether witness. There has to be a separate voice for at least that, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. There’s always it’s Candler’s campus or a pulpit, I’m political when a little bit of the time. It could be in community, it been some other way of enhancing sermons, and if I show up because I don’t meet the standard. could be in dialogue, but there’s going to have to be people process an entire sermon in 140 characters, that kind of voice that can only happen in preach- I’m okay with that. I think we have to be open and There’s a “death of preaching” movement going on ing. It’s a different kind of speech. flexible to a variety of ways of preaching. that believes there’s no reason to have a sermon, and we don’t need to have face-to-face communica- TFB: I don’t think it’s the content that they see as TS: There’s a way in which preaching is always tion. What are your thoughts on that? the death of preaching so much as it is the distribu- dying and being reborn. I think it always needs new tion of the Word. I come from a dialogical tradition, cultural forms, it needs to adapt. But I may be a little TS: There are a couple of deep impulses in and what I’m talking about is monologue preach- more ambivalent about technology. I’m thinking American religion. One of them is egalitarian: Why ing. I think when one person has all the power, it’s especially of social media, which is what people doesn’t anybody else get to stand up there and like they’re standing on Mount Sinai and preach- tend to mean right now when they are thinking preach? Why should any of us listen to this person? ing down. I think it’s important to understand about preaching and technology. Absolutely, I think Another related impulse stresses that we have direct that we’re in a community conversation, and not there’s a place for critical and thoughtful use of it. access to God. And if we have direct access to God, only one person knows everything and can dictate I worry, though, about the kind of consciousness why do we need somebody else to talk to us about everyone’s behavior. I also think that preaching can that can be sustained in 140 characters. And I worry God? Thus when cynicism kicks in, it’s often about be enhanced by technology. I preach a Good Friday about the kind of consciousness that can manage leadership and the faces of an institution. It’s easy to service at Trinity United Church of Christ every year, that stream. It’s an old-fashioned worry, maybe, focus our cynicism on preachers and the preaching and last year a young lady who was with me said, but I worry about the possibility for rumination, the act. I think there have been these impulses in U.S. “Where is your phone? You need it for tweeting,” possibility for the kinds of depth of consciousness religion for a long time. They would point towards and I said, “But I’m paying attention to the service,” that get closed off.

“I think the task for homiletics right now is to help preachers break open a fully, robustly theological imagination.” “I have to know what’s going on in the church. I don’t think that the academy and the church are isolated entities.”

TFB: At the end of my intro to preaching class, I ask to what Charles Taylor calls the “immanent frame” talk about being genuine. We are not preaching students to tell me their projections for preaching in which we are the authors of whatever things because the light is on and it’s star time, we’re in the 21st century—what’s good about it, what’s are going to happen in this universe. Whether preaching because we want to recover souls. Many horrible about it, and how they would re-imagine that happens in a prosperity gospel, or in saying a of our students come already stamped with an idea preaching from their standpoint. So what would you “here’s how you can be a good person and have a what preaching is, and you can’t tell them anything say is good about homiletics? And how would you great relationship with your kids” kind of thing, or different, and so the struggle is to broaden their modify it? What do you see as a trend at that would even in the key of social justice, that’s shrinking the ideas about what preaching is, where preaching work for you going forward? theological imagination of preachers. That’s what takes place, and which voices are preaching. In I really worry about, and I think the task for homi- reality, we’re still in a culture that doesn’t allow TS: One of the things that’s really good about it is letics right now is to help preachers break open a some people to preach. What does that say about that increasingly diverse students are coming to fully, robustly theological imagination. the persons who are managing pulpits? What does seminary. They’re coming here, to Candler. I find that say about the possibilities of expression, of your that more of our students have experience across TFB: Cheryl Thompson Gilkes says that an un- belief and faith? Whether this is the first century or cultural boundaries, inhabit multiple cultural forgivable sin in African American culture is bad the twenty-first century, it’s recovering the vitality worlds. And I find they are ready—more ready, preaching, and I think that’s true. I think since of proclamations, recovering the totality of the story I think, than even maybe 10 or 15 years ago—to we’re all imagining what the biblical text is really and not the ten stories that people always want to put pieces together for a deep collage of hybrid about, we are all imagining ourselves as part of a tell. How do we prepare preacher and congrega- preaching. That’s my great hope—that this will be people’s history. It’s essential that we continue to tion and world for a variety of voices and variety of a renewing force. This is not to say that the kind of understand this is a people’s history. There’s not styles? That would be my hope going forward: that deep, institutionalized inequalities and injustices one way everybody has to preach in order to be we move out of the 1950s and 1960s lockstep “this that mark our society have been overcome. But accepted as a preacher. There’s no separation of is preaching” and look at how marvelous and broad there is an easier transfer across cultural lines sacred and secular. Everything is preaching if we this endeavor can be. This is my prayer going than there has been in the past, and I think that are people of faith. Preaching doesn’t take place forward. This is my social justice thing—that can be mutually enriching. only on Sunday morning during the hours of nobody would be barred from ever proclaiming your service. Our engagement with humanity is the Word of God. n To me, the biggest challenge for preaching right a proclamation of the Lord, and so when I think now is the way in which it too often gets locked in about preaching going forward, I would love to 38 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

The generosity of Candler’s Hitting a Candler High Note Thanks to a gift in honor of Day Miller, the Candler alumni and friends continues to Those who have had the pleasure of hearing the Singers’ tours will be underwritten for the next five Candler Singers know that they are some of the years, giving more people the chance to experience energize the school. Philanthropy best ambassadors our school has. The choir leads the ensemble’s special brand of worship in song. helps students finance their worship at Candler and has performed at a wide Look for them at a church near you! education, enables the best in- range of churches, regional events, and denomina- tional gatherings, including the last three General Paying it Forward structional technology, supports Conferences of The United Methodist Church. The Candler is committed to making theological educa- faculty teaching and research, Singers, all students at Candler, are led by the Rev. tion affordable. At a time when other schools may be promotes lifelong learning, Barbara Day Miller, associate dean of worship trimming their aid budgets, we offer one of the most and music and a nationally recognized teacher strengthens relationships with robust financial aid programs in seminary educa- and consultant in worship practices. tion, providing more than 80 percent of eligible Christian churches, and opens students with scholarship support each year. GivingCandler’s doors wide to the A careful worship planner, Day Miller says that when The Singers perform in concert she often hears world. Read on about a few gifts Donors who establish endowments that fund from audience members that the performance was a scholarships and stipends make this possible. that are helping Candler make a spiritual experience. “I think one of the reasons the real difference in the real world. choir is so compelling is because it’s obvious they That’s where Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor 75T and believe what they’re singing—and that comes across the Rev. Rusty Taylor 75T, of Knoxville, Tenn., come to the audience,” she says. “It’s a time of deep and in. No strangers to supporting their alma mater, the meaningful worship.” couple has most recently established The Bishop Giving 39

Mary Virginia Taylor and Reverend Rusty Taylor important nod to those who prepared the way Endowment for Pastoral Ministry, which helps for future black scholars. “The first purpose support Candler students who are preparing for in establishing the endowment was to honor parish ministry. the presence, work, and scholarship of those who paved the way for both black faculty and “We made this gift to Candler because we know students,” she says. that the future of The United Methodist Church will depend upon young clergy who will lead the church Dean Jan Love notes how fitting it is that the into the 21st century and beyond,” Bishop Taylor school has established an endowment that says. “We are committed to the mission of Candler simultaneously honors the past and looks in preparing these leaders.” toward the future. “Candler has a rich tradi- tion of raising a prophetic voice in issues Honoring a Legacy of race relations, and this scholarship fund Candler School of Theology has established the provides another avenue for the development Erskine-Smith-Moseley Scholarship Endowment of that legacy,” she says. in honor of three of the school’s first African Ameri- can faculty. The endowment will provide students Learning from a Legend of the school’s Black Church Studies Program with Born in 1882, Clovis Gillham Chappell had scholarships and stipends to support their theologi- a ministerial career that spanned sixty-two years, Chappell, has donated his renowned great-uncle’s cal education. beginning during the presidency of William H. Taft papers to Pitts Theology Library. The collection and concluding during the presidency of Richard M. includes the typed sermons and book manuscripts of Named for Noel Erskine, Luther Smith, and Romney Nixon. Officially, he served the Methodist Church for Clovis Chappell—some with handwritten notes on Moseley, three pioneer black scholars at Candler, 41 years, pastoring fourteen churches and circuits. them—dating from the early to mid-twentieth cen- the endowment reached the $100,000 mark this After retiring in 1949 at the age of 67, he continued tury. Fully digitized, the collection is accessible via summer, and its income will begin underwriting to preach as a guest lecturer, speaking approximately the Pitts Theology Library website, pitts.emory.edu, scholarships in fall 2014. 5,000 times during his retirement years. opening these significant works to a wider audience.

Key to the endowment’s development was the Educated at Trinity College (Duke University) and These and other recent gifts sustain us and guide us director of Candler’s Black Church Studies Program, at Harvard, Chappell went on to become one of the on to new endeavors that strengthen our ability to Teresa L. Fry Brown, who considers the fund an most notable preachers in America, particularly gift- educate faithful and creative leaders for the church’s ed in selecting sermon ministries in the world. Together, we are making a topics that were both real difference in the real world. timely and timeless. In addition to being a master preacher, he —Mathew A. Pinson, Assistant Dean of was a prolific writer, Development and Alumni Relations penning 35 books of sermons and one book on homiletical theory. The recent birth of his daughter is one of the most meaningful and joyous beginnings Mathew Pinson Davis Chappell 85T, has experienced. great-nephew of Clovis Class Notes Submit Your Class Notes! Share what’s new and notable in your life with the rest of the Candler community. We report class notes in Connection and in our monthly e-newsletters. Send us your class notes and associated photographs via our online form: http://candler.emory.edu/alumni/stay-connected/update-information.cfm. 50s–70s

Roy Howard 54T received the Ministry of retired July 1, 2013 after 41 years of service in more time for teaching and writing. Michael Memory Award from the Historical Society the Florida Conference—23 years as pastor, W. McNulty 82T has published his first novel, of The United Methodist Church at their an- six years as district superintendent, and 12 Forgotten Memories: A Story of Love and Forgive- nual meeting in May 2012. He is the Holston years as executive director of new church ness. More information at www.thenutlypress. Conference historian and the first person development. George Odle 72T of Johnson com. Richard Hunter 83T (North Georgia), from the Southeast to receive this award. City, Tenn., retired in June 2011 after 44 years Jeremy Mount 99T (Alabama West-Florida), Roy Ryan 54T coauthored a book with Joe as a United Methodist pastor, GBGM field and David Graves 03T (Holston) are recipi- Edd Morris 68T titled Old Testament Stories: representative, and stewardship consultant. ents of the 2013 Harry Denman Evangelism What Do They Say Today? Ryan also recently On December 25, 2012, he was married to Award, presented each year at UMC annual authored Older Americans and the Economic Janice Raymer. Perry R. Newbury 74T conferences. The award, sponsored by The Pie. Paul Sims 54T celebrated in October 70 retired from United Church of Canada Foundation for Evangelism, honors United years of active ministry, including 51 years ministry in September 2013 and now lives in Methodist clergy, lay persons, and youth in with The United Methodist Church as pastor, Chicago, near his children and grandchildren. each annual conference who exhibit unusual district superintendent, and administrative George H. Donigian, Sr. 77T published a book and outstanding efforts in Christian evange- assistant to the bishop. J. Benton White 56T through Upper Room Books titled A World lism. Jackie Jenkins 83T retired in June 2011. and his wife of 55 years, Mary Lou, are re- Worth Saving: Lenten Spiritual Practices for Action. Lee McKinzie 83T retired in July 2013 from tired and living in San Jose, Calif. His career Robert Garry Pryor 77T spent fall 2013 the Louisiana Annual Conference. Dennis spanned ministry as an Air Force Chaplain, on sabbatical in Israel. Fairy L. Caroland 78T Stalvey 84T earned his Doctor of Ministry campus minister, professor, and author. is working as an addictions consultant for degree from Union Theological Seminary. Bishop Robert C. Morgan 58T preached at Renewal House, a residential alcohol and His dissertation focused on spirituality and Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church in drug treatment center for mothers with young aging. George Grant 85T was recently named Birmingham, Ala., on September 15, 2013, children. Charles W. Anderson 80T was the Executive Director for Pastoral Services his 80th birthday. Larry D. Mosley, USAF 60T, named the 2012 Distinguished Evangelist of for Emory Healthcare. Since 2007, he has who retired from the USAF chaplaincy in The United Methodist Church by the Founda- served as the Director of Research and 1992, recently retired from the chaplaincy tion for Evangelism. Timothy L. Bias 80T has Innovation at the Emory Center for Pastoral of Azalea Trace Retirement Community in been named General Secretary for the General Services, conducting spiritual health Pensacola, Fla. Mosley retired from Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist research across Emory Healthcare and all the North Alabama Conference of The Church. He was formerly senior pastor of Hyde health science academic divisions. United Methodist Church in 2001. John L. Park Community United Methodist Church in Sheila L. Hunter 85T is the interim minister Cromartie, Jr. 64C 88T retired from ministry Cincinnati, Ohio. Joe Kimbell Dunagan 80T at First Christian (Disciples of Christ) in at Cumming First United Methodist Church. and Kathy Kelly Dunagan have moved to Sandersville, Ga. Carroll K. Miller 85T is a James E. Dukes 65T retired from his posi- Roanoke, Virginia, where they serve on part-time pastor at Concord UMC. tions as a Lutheran pastor and a professor the staff of St. John’s Episcopal Church. James Higgins, Sr. 86T is now pastoring of philosophy at the University of South [02] Gina Campbell 81T is the canon Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Carolina. He is now enjoying salt water precentor at the National Cathedral in Augusta, Ga. Lee FerDon 87T retired from the fishing for sea trout, and traveling far and Washington, D.C. Her responsibilities include Florida Conference of The United Methodist often. K. Edward Tomlinson 69T retired providing leadership and direction for a num- Church, and has discovered a second calling from The United Methodist Church. ber of worship groups, including communion as an adjunct instructor at Saint Leo Univer- ministers, nave chaplains, and lectors, and sity. He teaches Christian ethics and morality 70s–80s serving as chaplain to the various Cathedral at campuses in Madison, Trenton, and Lake choirs. Daniel Thompson 81T is the Pastor City, Fla. Leslie Jones 87T is pastor at St. Robert E. May 70T published a book titled at Forest Grove United Methodist in Forest Lewis Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. How to Fix a Broken Church. William L. Self 71T Grove, Ore. William R. Burch 82T has been Lance W. Moore 87T 95T just released his retired from John’s Creek Baptist Church in appointed to First United Methodist Church sixth nationally published book: Killing JFK: Alpharetta, Ga. [01] Jim Baskett 72T was of Lawrenceville, Ga. Thomas McRee II 82T 50 Years, 50 Lies—From the Warren Commission elected in 2013 as mayor of the City of Decatur, is the new chaplain for Village on the Green, to Bill O’Reilly, A History of Deceit in the Kennedy Ga. Gene Cochran 72T retired from active a continuing care retirement community in Assassination, from Sky-Fy Publishing. ministry in June 2013 after 43 years as a mem- Longwood, Fla. After 18 years as a full-time Martha Porter 87T of Highlands, N.C., ber of the South Georgia Conference of The hospice chaplain, he is looking forward to retired pastoral counselor, is the author of United Methodist Church. Mont Duncan 72T serving this active community and having The Nicene Creed: Ancient Words In The Light Of Class Notes 41

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Modern Faith, from St. Johann’s Press. Beth A. Estock 88T works as a coach and consultant at Epicenter Group, focusing on new start pastors, as well as churches in the 01 process of revitalization. She is also starting a network of house churches in Portland, Oregon, called Zacc’s House. She blogs at www.sacreddirt.com. Martha P. Sterne 88T Beeson Divinity School in December 2012 from Asbury Theological Seminary in is Writer-in-Residence at Holy Innocents’ and is now serving as pastor of First United May. He has been the senior pastor of Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Glenda Methodist Church in Eufaula, Ala. Harry E. North Fayette United Methodist Church in Whitehead 88T and her congregation, Mann 95T published two new e-books, Molly Fayetteville, Ga., since 2010. Mary Beth Journey of Faith UMC, won the Voices in the and Brothers, on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Pub- Packard 99T retired from the Florida Annual Wilderness Award for being the first and only lishing. The third and last book in the series, Conference. Jeremy Squires 99T is senior Reconciling Congregation in the Central Generations, is scheduled for publication in pastor at Good Shepherd United Methodist Texas Conference at the Reconciling Minis- 2014. Myron McGhee 95T and Juana Clem in Hendersonville, Tenn. tries Network Convocation last September in McGhee 95T collaborated to produce “The Chevy Chase, Md. Mind’s Eye” photographic exhibit, on display 00s in Brooks Commons in Cannon Chapel 90s from September–November of 2013. Juana Matthew Berryman 01T is the new executive curated the exhibit from Myron’s vast col- director of Reconciling Ministries Network. Doreen Duley 90T retired as director of pas- lection of photos of Tibetan monks painting Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) is a toral care at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, sand mandalas, taken over a period span- growing movement of United Methodist in- where she had served for 15 years. John S. ning more than 10 years. William Bentley dividuals, congregations, campus ministries, Eley 90T is the executive director of Asbury Brunson 96T is senior pastor at Vestavia Hills and other groups working for the full partici- Towers Retirement Community in Green- UMC, in Birmingham, Ala. Charles Patrick pation of all people in The United Method- castle, Ind. David Newton 90T is pastor at Gray 97T 02G received the Dean’s Award for ist Church. Susan Allen Grady 98C 01T is Dantzler First United Methodist Church in Outstanding Research and Creative Activity now associate pastor at Oak Grove United Moss Point, Miss. Steven Wolff 90T is lead from Rhodes College. He published Opening Methodist Church in Decatur, Ga. Robert pastor at North East Oregon Cooperative Paul’s Letters: A Reader’s Guide to Genre and Harrell 01T completed a Doctor of Ministry Circuit of The United Methodist Church. Interpretation in 2012. Thomas Houston in Christian Spirituality from Columbia Ronald VanLente 92T transferred from the Ward 97T was recently appointed to the Theological Seminary in May 2013. His final Western North Carolina Conference to the Extended Cabinet of the Tennessee Confer- project focused on how Myers-Briggs Type West Michigan Conference in June 2013. Ron ence of The United Methodist Church as influenced prayer practices. He is pastor at has been serving Coloma United Methodist director of the Office of Ministerial Services. St. Luke Lutheran Church in McDonough, Church in Coloma, Mich., since July 2011. David Lay 98T is senior pastor at First Ga. Melinda Holloway 01T is manager of CPE Kerry Purselle 92T retired from Brevard First Church in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. F. Douglas at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, United Methodist Church in Brevard, N.C. Powe, Jr. 98T 04G is professor of evangelism Wash. Patricia McKee 02T is a third-year Sheldon J. Harr 93T retired after 40 years in and urban ministries and associate director Ph.D. student in art and religion at Graduate the Rabbinate. He founded the Temple Kol of the Center for the Missional Church at Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif. She lives Ami Emanu-El in Plantation, Fla., where he Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, in Los Angeles with her husband, Jim. She is served for the past 37 years. Rabbi Harr was D.C. Shelley Young 98T is learning manager interested in connecting with other Candler named “Founding Senior Rabbi Emeritus” of at Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group. folks in L.A. Phillip Pace 02T and his wife Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El on June 1, 2013. Lilliet Council 99T achieved tenure as a welcomed a son, Samuel Isaac Pace, on Kevin H. Orr 94T has begun the pursuit school library media specialist in the November 28, 2012. Leslee Samuelson 02T of a MTS degree at Methodist Theological Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system. is pastor at Manchester First United School in Ohio (MTSO). Jack Stanley 94T She is the proud mother of 7-year-old Methodist Church in Manchester, Ga. is a chaplain in the USAF in Oxford, UK. He twins. Shannon Davis 99T is senior pastor William E. Flippin, Jr. 03T was installed as has also published a book on spiritual resil- at First UMC in Woodward, Okla. Young Joe pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in iency entitled Stand Strong. Scott Hohn 95T Harrington III 99T received his Doctor of southwest Atlanta on April 27. Karen M. completed his Doctor of Ministry degree at Ministry in spiritual formation and direction Lyons 03T 06T was appointed to St. James 42 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

UMC in Alpharetta in June 2013. Lee May 03T Mexico Conference of The United Methodist in Waterloo, Ontario. He works full-time as was appointed interim CEO of DeKalb County Church. Erin Cash 06T is the director of ad- a peace and justice educator with the M.K. in July 2013. Holley H. Ulbrich 03T has recently missions at Lexington Theological Seminary. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Roches- published Economics Takes a Holiday: Celebra- Kirkland Reynolds 06T began a new appoint- ter, NY., and teaches philosophy of religion tions from the Dismal Science with Abbott Press. ment this summer as senior pastor at Chevy at Finger Lakes Community College. Gregory Pimlott 04T is pastor at Greensburg Chase United Methodist Church in Chevy United Methodist Church in Greensburg, Ind. Chase, Md. James R. Aycock 07T recently William Pearce 04T 07T is an associate joined the Memphis Grizzlies Prepara- 10s at Goodwin Procter in San Francisco, Calif. tory Charter School as director of student Walter Marcus Snipes 00C 04T welcomed a support. Nate Berneking 07T was elected Alison Amyx 10T is senior editor at Believe son, Wylie Ethan Snipes, born July 31, 2013. and appointed to serve as the treasurer and Out Loud in Washington, D.C. Believe Out Mike Brinkman 05T is pastor at Weaver director of finance and administrative minis- Loud is an online network that empowers First UMC in Weaver, Ala. Charles E. Good- tries of The Missouri Annual Conference of Christians to work for LGBT equality. Laura man, Jr. 05T is the senior pastor and teacher The United Methodist Church. He now Arnold 10T has been ordained in the United of the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church serves the annual conference and local Church of Christ. W. Jeffrey Cook 10T, pastor in Augusta, Ga. He can be seen weekly on churches in Missouri as a legal, financial, of Tennille United Methodist Church, is the Kingdom Living television broadcast and stewardship, and administrative consultant. featured in an article that describes the heard daily via WTHB Praise 96.9 FM, [04] Lane Cotton Winn 07T and Ben Hart- work of Tennille UMC serving their commu- providing encouragement via the “Spiritual man celebrated the birth of their daughter, nity. The full article can be found at: Vitamin.” He also released a book titled Julian Grace Hartman, on January 23, 2013. http://www.sgaumc.org/news/detail/9602. Road to Recovery, in June 2013. John Hill 05T, Julian is named after Julian of Norwich. Amos P. Davis 10L 10T is working as food Nancy Speas Hill 06T, and their daughter, Michelle Hall 08T is managing partner of the law counsel for The Coca-Cola Company. Becca (5), welcomed baby James Douglas software consulting firm Hallway Technolo- Karl Kroger 10T of Grace United Method- Hill on August 27, 2013. John is the associate gies. Jill Moffett Howard 08T is the pastor at ist Church in Piedmont, S.D., traveled to pastor and Nancy is the children’s minister Morgantown United Methodist Church in Mafraq, Jordan, to partner with a church at Christ UMC in Franklin, Tenn. Morgantown, Ind. Stacey Rushing 08T is a facilitating humanitarian efforts toward [03] Carlton Mackey 05T was one of 12 pastor at University Heights United Methodist Syrian refugees. Jasmine Martin 10T is a recipients of Emory’s 2013 Award of Distinc- Church in Decatur, Ga. Dalton Rushing 08T plannogrammer at Pivotal Retail Group. tion, which recognizes members of the is a pastor at North Decatur United Methodist Sarah Beth-Ann Miller 10T is pastor at Reeves Emory community who have demonstrated Church in Decatur, Ga. Wanda Scott 08T United Methodist Church in Orlando, Fla. exceptional dedication to their jobs. Mackey is the assistant director of community rela- Melissa Self Patrick 10T was ordained an is the assistant director of the Ethics and tionships and adjunct faculty at John elder in the The United Methodist Church at Servant Leadership program at Emory’s Carroll University in University Heights, the June 2013 meeting of the North Alabama Center for Ethics, where he also serves as the Ohio. Avis E. Williams 78OX 98C 08T was Annual Conference. She is in her third year director for the Ethics and the Arts program, presented the Gresham Geter Award for as executive director of Urban Ministry, the only program of its kind in the country. Outstanding Community Service in Greene Inc. and pastors one of the house churches In 2013, he published “50 Shades of Black,” County by the Greene County NAACP. of Community Church Without Walls, a a multi-disciplinary art project that inves- Paul Appleby 09T is the senior minister at United Methodist mission congregation tigates the intersection of skin tone and Central Christian Church in Columbus, Ga. in Birmingham’s West End Community. sexuality in shaping identity through a book, [05] Elizabeth Lobello Edwards 09T, Barbara Pendergrast 10T is a commissioned a website and traveling art exhibit. More daughter of Kevin Lobello 84T, married lay chaplain in the Episcopal Church and is a information at www.50shadesofblack.com. Adam Edwards at Griffin First UMC on board certified member of the Association of Narcie McClendon Jeter 05T is director of the December 1, 2012. All officiants were Candler Professional Chaplains. She offers spiritual Gator Wesley Foundation in Gainesville, Fla. alums: Drew Dancey 09T, Lauren Dunkle direction and also teaches pastoral care Carolynn Miller 05T has moved to Indianapo- Dancey 08T, and Jordan Thrasher 08T. classes to the laity in various churches and lis, Ind., where she works at the Ministry Amanda Mountain 09T is a missionary rela- denominations in the Atlanta area. Caitlin Service Center at Ascension Health. tions manager within the development and Foley Phillips 10T and her husband, Jeff, Katharine Meacham Nintcheu 05T married communications office of the General Board welcomed a son, Asher Gray Phillips, on Sylvain Nintcheu on September 29, 2012 in of Global Ministries. Bennie K. Napier 09T is December 18, 2012. Ingrid Rasmussen 10T is Loudon, Tenn. Robert L. Roberts 05T was pastor of The United Methodist Lake Charge now associate pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran appointed to Felicity United Methodist in Mississippi. George Payne 09T presented Church in Minneapolis. Silas Allard 11L 11T Church in Felicity, Ohio, in July 2013. Jane G. a talk titled “Principled Nonviolence and has been named associate director of the Vaughan 05T recently finished her first year the Interfaith Movement” at the 2013 Peace Center for the Study of Law and Religion as Clovis District Superintendent in the New and Justice Studies Association Conference (CSLR) at Emory University. Rachel DeLaune 11T Class Notes 43

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and Ryan DeLaune 11T enjoyed their first year was ordained as an Episcopal priest in June and Phillip Kuntz 14T were featured in the in ministry together at Grace at Fort Clarke 2013 and began serving as the associate rec- Georgia United Methodist Foundation video United Methodist Church in Gainesville, tor of youth and children’s ministry at Christ at the North Georgia Annual Conference. Fla., where they are both associate pastors. Church Episcopal Church in Norcross, Ga. You can view the video at www.youtube.com/ Cassandra Rapko 11T and Christopher in July. Jonathan D. Harris 13T is associate watch?v=M600az8IPqs. Darryl Tookes 13T Rapko 11T were married on October 6, 2012. pastor at First UMC in Myrtle Beach, S.C. is now a physician at Kaiser Permanente. Jenna Faith Strizak 11T works at Holy Trinity Mica Koli 13T is an endorsed candidate for Ralph Thompson 13T is senior pastor at Parish in pastoral care and children’s forma- ordination in the ELCA. Currently he is com- Keeney Memorial United Methodist Church tion. Mary Sweet 11T served as co-grand pleting CPE and began a yearlong internship in West Point, Ga. James Vertrees 13T is marshall of the Little Traverse Bay Area CROP in August at Epiphany Lutheran Church in serving as the pastor of a two-point charge in Walk for Hunger on June 29, 2013. Brandon Suwannee, Ga. Duse Lee 13T has moved to Muhlenberg County, Ky. Tyreke L. Wesley 13T White 11T is a professional tutor at Construc- Canton, Mass. Kyle Nolan 13T is studying joined the staff at The Atlanta Area Council tive Learning Tutors. Randall Wright 11T was theology and ethics at Ludwig Maximilian Uni- as the district executive, serving youth and ordained as a UMC elder during the 2013 versity in Munich, Germany, from September volunteers in the Southwest Atlanta District. Holston Annual Conference on June 12. 2013 to July 2014. Kristie Roberts 13T is a Jalena Wilson 13T is a youth minister at Break- Whitney Bexley 12T is the community rela- professor at Troy University. Jaeyong Song 13T through Fellowship in Smyrna, Ga. tions assistant at Street Grace, an alliance of Christian church partners, community organizations, and individual volunteers who In Memoriam are working together to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Metro Atlanta. Aaron Garner 12T is director of W. Aubrey Alsobrook 38C 40T Wesley B. Clifford 57T Clifford J. Furness 71T youth and children at Seminole Heights Benson C. Barrett 35OX 38C 40T Donald Comer 57T Jack P. Atkinson, Jr. 65OX 67C 72T United Methodist Church in Tampa, Fla. William T. Holroyd 50T Earl Black 58T Gene E. Cole 72T Maryann Piccioni 12T is a family engagement Hubert E. Floyd 51T C. Richard Blount 58T Thomas Watson 72T specialist at United Methodist Cooperative E.S. Furr 51T Sam McRaney, Jr. 58T Lonnie E. Dunbar, Jr. 74T Ministries, a social services agency of the William F. Appleby, Sr. 52T Michael M. Pszyk, Jr. 58T William Eslick 77T Gulf Central District of the United Methodist Robert E. Hughes 52T Carol Hunt Pierce 59T William R. McLaughlin 77T Church in Florida. Chris Terrell 12T is a pro- James H. Klink 52T Adele Townsend 59T Scott R. Neil 87T visional elder serving a small, rural United William R. Garrard, Sr. 42C 53T Frank Thomas Hyles, Jr. 60T 81T Jerry C. Johnson 89T Methodist congregation in the panhandle Wade H. Watson, Jr. 54T Donald Van Dreser 61T John H. Capers, Jr. 91T of Florida. He sends blessings and well- Charles A. Graves 55T M. Wayne Langford 57OX 62T Jicelyn Thomas 91T wishes to other alumni. Alyce M. Yorde 12T Dan R. Robinson 55T Clarence Albert Hollingsworth Sr. 62T Holly Rhodes 98T accepted a teaching position within the reli- William Jarvis Ellis, Jr. 56T William O. Powell 56OX 62T Gary L. Naylor 05T 07T gion department of the Upper School at Holy Hubert L Flanagan, Jr. 56T William Slife 66T 80T Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta. L. Gleason Lagow 56T Gerald Smith 66T Former Faculty: Kathy Brockman 13T is the assistant to Edward Mainous 56T James T. Walker, Jr. 66T Bishop Mack B. Stokes the pastor at Oak Grove United Methodist Riley Shirley, Jr. 56T Marcelino Casuco 67T John H. Hayes Church in Decatur, Ga. Jody Greenwood 13T Roger Solomon 56T Thomas E. Betts 71T Robert Kysar 44 Candler Connection | Winter 2014

On Endings and Beginnings

By Don E. Saliers, William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship, Emeritus

I remember my first reading of the lines from “Little negative reactions to life changes. EveryBenediction time a new wanting, to paraphrase Gerard Manley Hopkins. So Gidding” in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: appointment or change of job interrupts a settled we need benedictions that reconnect our origins and pattern—sometimes unexpectedly—we have to face our endings. What we call the beginning is often the end an ending. Often our biggest challenge is regret over And to make an end is to make a beginning. things unfinished and left undone. In the concluding scenes of the film Babette’s Feast The end is where we start from… the old general, now wise from battle and lost love, It is not simply that things change and good things stands at the great unexpected banquet prepared by At the time this didn’t make much sense to a high- (or bad) come to an end. That is obvious enough. the mysterious Babette, and says to those gathered, school junior. But it doesn’t take too many years of The issue is how to live wisely in the midst of our “All that was lost has been restored to us in this human experience to reveal the depth of these lines. negotiations with time and change. This is more feast.” He speaks what the feast makes manifest… Later still in life we may come to know more of the than “letting things happen.” This wisdom comes that the true grace of that occasion was to receive lines that follow them: “We shall not cease from with the sense of not having done or become what all that has transpired—the good and the unpleas- exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be we had hoped for in our various beginnings. How do ant, the tarnished hopes and the lifetimes at the to arrive where we started,/And know the place for we gain wisdom instead of regret? How do we grace- table—as the whole feast of life, now reconciled the first time.” fully acknowledge endings? The “what might have and made clear. been” can haunt us. This is where we need a sense I’m thinking now of our distracted lives as we go of benediction, of “blessing,” of being able to re- True benediction is like that, for it is an ending through changes, whether personal, institutional, or ceive all that has been given when we reach the end. that is a new beginning. It is a gathering in of all cultural. Most of the time we are unaware of the con- I remember it being said of someone’s life that he the mystery of what God has given and not fully nection between endings and beginnings. Perhaps always sought a blessing from his parents that never recognized—the quality of Eternity that pervades we don’t want to know. Endings can so easily bring came. This is a form of suffering, a disconnection. every finite moment. This is the power that makes sadness or nostalgia or the stab of grief for what is all things new. over. New beginnings seem to bring excitement and A true benediction is more than a closing rite, a final hope until we lose that first enthusiasm when the word. It can contain the mystery of having been sus- On feast days, Don Saliers loves the preparation and task or the journey proves more complicated than tained through time. If someone says, “well done, anticipation, the first taste and final dessert, with we first thought. Pastors and chaplains face endings good and faithful servant” it opens the possibility of lingering conversation and long goodbyes that seal and beginnings in the flow of ministry. Pastoral care seeing what was there all the while, through thick the sharing with love. is often focused on alleviating grief or coping with and thin. The beauty was there, but the beholder “What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning.” Emory University Candler School of Theology 1531 Dickey Drive Atlanta, GA 30322

This year Candler School of Theol- ogy introduces five new degrees to help more real people make a real difference in the real world: Master of Religious Leadership, Master of Religion and Public Life, Doctor of Ministry, and dual degrees with social work and development practice. With these additions to our already stel- lar offerings, Candler graduates are truly ready to serve wherever God leads. Candler Empowers Real Possibilities. CINDY BROWN