NETWORKThe Magazine of Union Theological Seminary | Fall 2015 NETWORK Vol. 1, No. 1 | Fall 2015 On the Cover Benjamin Perry ’15 (left) and Shawn Torres (right) at Published by a December 18, 2014 street demonstration (die-in) at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York Broadway and Reinhold Niebuhr Place (120th Street), New York. 3041 Broadway at 121st Street New York, NY 10027 A week after a New York City grand jury announced [email protected] that no charges would be filed against police officers 212-280-1590 involved in the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island, Union hosted a multifaith prayer breakfast on December 18 convened jointly by Union, Auburn Editors-in-Chief Graphic Design Seminary, The Riverside Church, Interfaith Center Marvin Ellison and Kevin McGee Ron Hester Design of NY, Milstein Center For Interreligious Dialogue, and the Drum Major Institute. At breakfast, speak- Editor Principal Photographers ers included Martin Luther King III and Rev. Traci Jason Wyman Ron Hester Blackmon along with organizers from Ferguson, Richard Madonna MO: Jelani Brown, Tara Thompson, and Johnetta Class Notes/In Memoriam Kevin McGee Elzie (who was named by Fortune magazine in March Leah Rousmaniere Rebecca Stevens 2015 to its World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list). Union Tom Zuback students Benjamin Perry ’15 and Shawn Torres also Writers Union Theological Seminary spoke about their starkly different experiences after Emily Brewer ’15 Photo Archive being arrested in November while participating Elizabeth Call in the same NYC street demonstration. The prayer Jamall Calloway Visit us online: breakfast concluded with participants holding a Todd Clayton ’14 utsnyc.edu die-in as pictured on the cover. Marvin Ellison ’81 Like us on Facebook: Karenna Gore ’13 facebook.com/unionseminary Cover Photo by Richard Madonna Kevin McGee Follow us on Twitter: Derrick McQueen ’09 twitter.com/unionseminary below left, l-r: Mary Foulke, Carol Ann Jenson, and Candace Simpson Watch us on YouTube: Catherine Bowers Class of 1989 at their 25th Reunion; youtube.com/unionseminary below right: Students at work in the “Love Hub.” Donate to Union: opposite page, left: Commencement Day 2015 hug between utsnyc.edu/donate Zachary Walter and Lindsey Nye; opposite page, right: Love in Action: NYC demonstration with Rashad Moore ’15 (left) and Itang Young ’12 (right). 2 union network | fall 2015 CONTENTS Feature Articles 3 #LoveInAction and the Love Hub 5 #LoveInAction: Archiving the History 18 The Center for Earth Ethics 19 Travels in Peru Departments 2 President’s Message ALUMNI/AE 6 Launching the Union Alumni/ae Network 7 Alumni/ae Profiles 24 Class Notes 29 Union Days FACULTY 10 Faculty Publications 12 Faculty Comings and Goings STUDENTS 23 Union at a Glance COMMENCEMENT 13 Photos of the 177th Commencement 17 Union Medal Recipients 2015 DEVELOPMENT 20 Annual Giving 21 Caritas Donors 27 In Memoriam union network | fall 2015 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Center for Earth Ethics and she reminded a packed James Chapel In September 2014 we hosted Religions that all people of faith and conscience for the Earth, a two-day international need to work together to affirm the dig- conference that gathered over 200 nity of every human life. religious leaders in advance of the UN Summit on Climate Change. Out of this Union on the Hill gathering was born the Center for Earth We continue our faithful public witness Ethics, whose mission is to articulate by launching our Union on the Hill series, a moral response to the threat that which explores the relationship between ecological destruction and climate faith, politics, and government. Our first change pose to vulnerable communities event in January focused on the dynamic and degraded ecosystems. In order to between faith and governing, attract- survive, we need a conversion of spirit ing over 200 participants, including four in our relationship with the earth. members of Congress and one senator, speaking to Union’s commitment to shape Scholars/Activists-in-Residence national conversations. In our long tradition of engaging preemi- Dear Alumni/ae and Friends, nent thinkers and activists, we hosted the A Growing Community Right Rev. Disani Christopher Senyonjo, Thanks to a generous grant from the welcome to Union Network! I am thrilled M.Div. ’66, S.T.M. ’67 and Rev. Dr. William Templeton Foundation, author and to share news from the Union commu- Barber II as pastor-activists in residence. scholar Robert Wright joined us last nity. Eight years into my tenure I am still Bishop Senyonjo has been a strong spring as Visiting Professor of Science amazed by the courage and diversity of advocate for LGBTQ safety in his home and Religion. This fall the Rev. Dr. Andrea our beloved Seminary. country of Uganda, as told in the docu- White and the Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper- In September 2014, our student senate mentary film God Loves Uganda, and he White will join us as professors in the adopted “Love in Action” as its theme for was recognized with the Clinton Global fields of theology and psychology & reli- the year. We’ve embraced it in this inau- Citizen Award. Dr. Barber is president gion, along with the Rev. Richard Landers gural issue, for it is our charge as people of the North Carolina NAACP, pastor of as Senior Director of Special Initiatives. of faith: to be agents of love in a world Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of After seventeen years at Nineteenth Street desperate for its revolutionary power. Our Christ) in Goldsboro, NC, and architect Baptist Church in Washington, the Rev. love cannot be passive. It must be a force of the Moral Monday–Forward Together Dr. Derrick Harkins ’87, former Director of that motivates us to better scholarship, Movement. He has catalyzed a new pro- Faith Outreach for the Democratic Party smarter activism, and a deeper commit- gressive movement that brought together and advisor to President Obama, joined ment to justice. This is the heart of Union. the largest demonstration in the South Union as our Senior Vice President for since the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. Innovations in Public Programming. And #BlackLivesMatter Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee just this July Martin Duus became our Weeks before our year began, Ferguson, will come to Union as Distinguished Vice President of Development. MO erupted in protests after the Scholar-Activist Fellow in 2015, and You can’t visit Union without encoun- murder of Michael Brown, and the Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz and tering the vibrancy of this community, #BlackLivesMatter movement was born. Geraldine Ann Patrick Encina will join and you can’t miss Union graduates Our students were involved, some going the Center for Earth Ethics as scholars- when you meet them in the world. Union to Ferguson, many organizing in New in-residence. These three join the Rev. leaders shine. They are rooted in the York, all of them wrestling with the evil Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, M.Div. ’83, Third resources of faith and equipped to guide of white supremacy. When news broke United States Ambassador-at-Large for in times of moral confusion. The world that the officer responsible for Eric International Religious Freedom under needs Union now more than ever. Garner’s murder had not been indicted, President Obama, who has already arrived the nation’s attention swiveled to our as a Distinguished Scholar-Activist Fellow. Peace, city. Instantly at the movement’s center, Michelle Alexander joined us in March Serene our students emerged as some of its as our Judith Davidson Moyers Women of leaders. They marched, Tweeted, sang, Spirit lecturer. Alexander wrote The New got arrested, and had their stories told in Jim Crow, which brought wide attention The New York Times. Our campus protest to the issue of mass incarceration and its The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones center, the Love Hub, made resources disproportionate effect on people of color. President and Johnston Family Professor available to people engaged in protest. Overflow crowds came to hear her speak, for Religion & Democracy 2 union network | fall 2015 #LoveInAction and the Love Hub: Demanding a Not-Yet World BY CANDACE SIMPSON During the fall 2014 semester, Dr. James H. Cone, Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, delivered the last lecture for his ST103/Foundations in Christian Theology I class at Union’s “Love Hub.” n September 2014 we learned that the Student Senate, We knew not everyone would be able to participate in street- with input from student caucuses, chose “Love in Action” based protest. We came to view this space as a means of practic- I as its guiding theme for the academic year. The commit- ing responsive pastoral presence. We needed to be present in ment we’ve shared is the process of love. How do we show love? spirit while our friends were protesting. On the evening of the What does love actually do? When do we feel loved? How do we first mass mobilization, I chose to stay in the Hub. My job was bring love to those who need it most? to relay messages about the location of protests to our teams. How does love respond to grief and trauma? And can we While doing so, I had the privilege of watching the community define love beyond that feel-good cotton candy fluff that lacks come together. Families brought pasta dishes. Students came substance and only leaves cavities? to pray and chant. Professors brought snacks and offered moral As the year progressed, the timeliness of this theme became support. There were laughs, tears, and yes, arguments. clearer and clearer. If anything is to be learned from the creation of the Love Hub, With humble responsibility to the #BlackLivesMatter move- it is that oppression is everywhere, even in the institutions where ment, and particularly in response to the non-indictment deci- we ground our work.