By Simran Jeet Singh Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A Zen Buddhist priest and a Muslima scholar of Islam walk into a seminary and propose new M.Div. programs not tied to Christian ministry. To those unfamiliar with Union Theological Seminary, this might sound like the setup to a bad punchline for religion
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Bobbie Hart has lived in or near LaGrange, Ga., for her entire life; before 2015, she had never heard about Austin Callaway’s lynching. Like so many other acts of terror, Callaway’s abduction and murder in 1940 had been shrouded in suffocating silence, erased by the fear such despicable acts were designed to engender in LaGrange’s
Read MoreBy Rev. Dr. Serene Jones President, Union Theological Seminary Dear Friends, Many of you have written to me about my interview with Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times on April 21, Easter Sunday. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt responses to the piece. As a Christian theologian who has devoted her life to exploring the intricacies
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By The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas Union Chapel Service: Thursday, May 2, 2019 Her name was Sandra Parks. When she was in the sixth grade she wrote an award-winning essay in her school’s districts Martin Luther King, Jr. essay contest. She wrote of the traumatic wounds she endured in her Milwaukee neighborhood as
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Katilau Mbindyo MDiv ’19 graduates this spring and will go on to study African Traditional Religion under the mentorship of Dr. Jacob Olupona at Harvard University’s African and African American Studies Program. Could you tell me about the journey that led you to choose this program? I came to Union in search of a way
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We reel, again, in the wake of yet another horrifying act of violence. We grieve with the Congregation Chabad in Poway, CA, and all our Jewish siblings. It is an all-too-painful reminder of how Anti-Semitism continues to corrupt our communities, the deadly fruits of bigotry. Today, we weep with those who weep, and pray this
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By The Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas Easter morning makes clear that God will not tolerate crucifying realities that deny the sacred dignity and life of any human being. Laquan McDonald, by three years old, was a ward of the state. Passed around through various foster and relative’s homes, he was emotionally and physically
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The Very Rev. Kellly Brown Douglas is visiting Virginia Theological Seminary to observe the Feast of Dr. King on the 51st anniversary of his death. As the guest preacher, below is the sermon she will deliver on Thursday, April 4th at the Seminary’s community Eucharist. By The Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas Good Evening Virginia
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What do you do? I have lived and ministered up and down the East Coast and retired in 1996, moving back home to enjoy my retirement in the metro Atlanta area. I now live outside the Perimeter but happily close enough to visit Decatur, including Decatur Presbyterian, where I grew up and where I was
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By Miguel Escobar, Director of Anglican Studies Several months ago, I received an email asking me to serve on the Taskforce on Communion Across Difference. Truthfully, my initial reaction was to say “absolutely not.” Growing up as an effeminate Latino gay kid in a small, mostly white town in rural Texas, the wounds are still
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