Alumni News
Reverend Herbert F. Hoskins (STH ’56)
Reverend Herbert F. Hoskins June 7, 2020 Reverend Herbert F. Hoskins, 95, of Minoa died peacefully on June 7th. He was a United Methodist Minister for many years, serving many locations throughout Central New York. He enjoyed playing cards and spending time with friends gathered throughout his ministry. He was predeceased by his wife, Marilyn; son, Stephen; and grandson, Dennis. He is survived by children, Carol Hoskins, Marley (Tom) Wylie and Charlie Hoskins; granddaughter, Janelle (John) Cole; best friend and companion, Jean Dena; and special nieces and nephews. Services will be private. Contributions may be made to a charity of your choice. For guest book, please visit: www.SCHEPPFAMILY.com
This obituary was originally posted here, by Legacy.com.
Reverend William M. Brown (STH ’56)
Rev. William Martin Brown, 92, of Shippensburg, passed away on Wednesday, October 7, 2020 at Green Ridge Village, Newville.
Born Sunday, February 12, 1928 in West Oneonta, New York, he was a son of the late William Martin and Marian Sterling Brown.
William graduated from Wyoming Seminary, Upper School, Kingston, PA in 1945, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, WV in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. There he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity and Playshop and Alpha Psi Omega Dramatic Fraternity. He went on to graduate from Boston University School of Theology in 1965 Master of Divinity. William taught English at Rowlesburg, West Virginia High School.
He received his Pastor’s License from Elm Park Methodist Church, Oneonta, New York. He was ordained in the Methodist Church of the Central Pennsylvania Conference by Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam. The Churches he served include: Avis (interim student pastor); Clearfield Circuit (student pastor); Fayetteville; Shrewsbury, Grace-New Freedom, Trinity Church; Altoona, 58th Street U.M.C.; York Bethlehem (merged Ridge Ave. Methodist and Bethlehem EUB Churches); Huntingdon, First U.M.C.; and Shippensburg, Messiah U.M.C. He retired July 1, 1993 as Visitation Pastor from the First Church in Chambersburg.
William’s Conference service includes: Camp Director for over 20 years; United Methodist Cluster Leader Huntingdon & Shippensburg, Board of Education (former Methodist Conference); Commission on Worship (former Methodist Conference); Conference Secretary for 23 years; Council on Ministries; Committee on Nominations; Committee on Conference Session; and Council on Finance and Administration. He also served as Board of Directors United Methodist Homes for the Aging (now Bethany Village); Board of Directors, Neighborhood Center (including Chairmanship); Bishop’s Management Team; Chair, Chambersburg District Committee on the Superintendency; Coordinator, Conference Pastoral Chaplaincy Program; Assistant Secretary, Northeastern Jurisdiction Conference, three quadrennial; Recipient of the Bishop D. Frederick Wertz Award for Outstanding Service to the Church; President (twice) Conference Retired Minister’s Fellowship; and First Chair of Summer of Service Ministry in the Conference.
Rev. Brown’s community service includes: Founder and Chair of Huntingdon Food Bank; Huntingdon County Block Grant Committee; Board of Directors, Huntingdon Head Start; Judge of Elections, Shippensburg East Ward; Member of Cumberland County Democratic Committee; Shippensburg East Ward Democratic Committeeman; Chair of Shippensburg Meals on Wheels; Chaplain-on-call, Chambersburg Hospital; and Board of Directors, Chambersburg Area Community Concert Association.
Organizations he was involved with include: JayCees, New Freedom; Kiwanis Club, Huntingdon (Past President); Rotary Club, Shippensburg; and Chambersburg Mallwalkers’ Club (President).
William was a United States Army Veteran serving in the Korean War with the 2nd Infantry Division, Korean Military Advisory Group (KMAG) and Commendation Ribbon for Meritorious Service.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Lorraine Bodkin Brown whom he married August 21, 1954 in Buckhannon, WV; three children, Ann Elise (Timothy) Baer, Carol Elaine (Steve) McKinley, and Peter Eric (Monica Wolfe) Brown; grandchildren, Joshua Baer, Sarah Baer, Emily (husband Alec) Young, Christopher (wife Rachel) McKlinley, David McKinley, Xavier Brown and Kirsten Brown; one great grandchild, Rowan
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one son, Paul Emery Brown, and all his siblings.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church, Chambersburg, with Ministry from the Susquehanna Conference. Burial will be private in Spring Hill Cemetery
with Military Honors conducted by the Oscar M. Hykes American legion Post # 223 Minutemen.
This obituary was originally posted here, by Fogelsanger Bricker Funeral Home and Crematorium, Inc.
Dr. Louis Bach Hoyer, Sr. (STH ’55, STH ’56, GRS ’62)
Dr. Louis Bach Hoyer Sr., age 90, of Worthington, passed away on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at the Claremont Retirement Village following an extended illness. The son of Ludolf Joseph Hoyer & Melanie Bach, he was born on August 8, 1930 in Morris, MN.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Doris Hoyer; five children, Wayne (Shirley) Hoyer, James (Kathy) Hoyer, Louis (Debra) Hoyer, John Hoyer, and Patricia (Peg) Hoyer; nine grandchildren, Alison, Kellie (Jerrod), Emily, Kaylea, Aaron, Devon, David, Stephanie, and Lindsey; great-grandchildren, Brayden, and Ava; brother, Duane (Karen) Hoyer; sister-in-law, Ruth Warner; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Louis married Doris Eleanor Nicoll on March 21, 1954, together they shared 66 years of marriage. Dr. Hoyer earned his master’s degree in Theology in 1955 and his PhD in Psychology in 1962 from Boston University. Louis later went on to work as a Pastor at Lakeside Methodist Church in Lynn, MA. He taught Clinical Pastoral Education at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, IL and eventually became the Director of Pastoral Counseling Services in Columbus, OH. Dr. Hoyer was a member of Linworth United Methodist Church and was also a member of the Golden Fleece Masonic Lodge.
A memorial service will take place at a later date. The family would like to thank the staff at the Claremont Retirement Village and Capital City Hospice for their kind and compassionate care.
The original obituary was published here, by Ohio Cremation and Memorial Society.
Event Recording featuring US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
October 2020 – The STH community is invited to watch the recording of the recent Lowell Lecture featuring Joy Harjo, US Poet Laureate 2019 - 2021. The event was hosted last week during Boston University’s Alumni Weekend 2020: Reimagined. The recording is on the STH Livestream page and will be available publicly for only two months and then upon request for research purposes through the STH Library.
A special thanks to Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore, Ms. Hazel Monae (STH’19), and Ms. Joy Harjo for their spirited participation in this thought-provoking, soul-enriching conversation.
A review of the event is also available through the Boston University student publication the Daily Free Press.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Lowell Institute.
Reverend Carl Victor Bretz (STH ’54)
The Rev. Carl Victor Bretz died on Oct. 4, 2020 while in rehab at Diversicare at Oak Ridge. He was a long time resident at Oak Ridge Commonwealth Senior Living.
Carl was the only child born to John H. and Miriam M. Bretz in Cumberland County, Pa. He was born on Dec. 6, 1925, passing away just short of his 95th birthday.
He graduated from Marysville, (Pa.) High School in 1943 and was drafted into the Army at the height of World War II. He proudly served in the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers from February 1944 until April 1946. His brigade was one of the earliest of U.S. troops to arrive in Nagasaki after Japan’s surrender. That experience has stayed with him forever.
He received his B.S. degree at Albright College, in Reading, Pa., in 1949. He then received a Master of Divinity Degree in 1952 from Evangelical School of Theology (now the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio), also in Reading. He received an MST in Psychology of Religion in 1954 from Boston University School of Theology.
The Rev. Bretz was ordained and fellowshipped into the Unitarian Universalist Ministry at Concord, N.H. in 1956. He worked as a chaplain in mental hospitals in Concord, N.H. and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He served as minister of the Harvard UU Church, in Harvard, Mass., from 1964 to 1972. He retired from the Alabama Dept of Mental Health, and lived in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He was Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Tuscaloosa, Ala.
He began a serious avocation as a weaver in 1971, his passion and great talent. He joined the Weaving Group at the Appalachian Arts Center in Norris, Tenn., when he arrived in Oak Ridge in 1994. He was a regular participant until March of this year. Many people throughout Eastern Tennessee have some of Carl’s special weavings.
He is predeceased by his first wife and the mother of his children, Janice Miller Bretz-Howe, and his last wife Rosemary Burns. Both Carl and Rosemary were trusted leaders at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, promoting small group ministry and religious education.
Carl is survived and will be very missed by his three children: Stephanie Cox (Craig) of Ramah, N.M., Jonathan Bretz (Linda) of Maynard, Mass., and Rima Michaud (Eric) of Eustis, Fla. His grandchildren: Molly Panos McDonald (Dan), Philip Panos Jr, Jamieson Bretz (Elizabeth), Barbara Michaud Bowers (Demetrius) and the late Rita Michaud. He leaves 11 great-grandchildren: Ayden and Mackenzie McDonald, Kennedy Panos, Jackson and Oliver Bretz, Allison, Evan and Lyla Bowers, Erin Michaud, Kaiden Hayes and Desmond Hayes.
Contributions may be made to the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church (ORUUC) for the Rosemary M. Burns Memorial Endowment fund at ORUUC, 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN, in lieu of flowers.
A Memorial Service will be held at a later date at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church in Oak Ridge. Interment will be in the ORUUC Memorial Garden. Please remember Carl with the special, kind and thoughtful ways he impacted others.
This obituary was originally published here, by the OAKRIDGER.
Ms. Betty J. Gray (CAS ’63, STH ’66)
Born July 20, 1934, to Ethel and Fletcher Gray in Worcester, Betty Jane Gray was a woman of substance. She went to glory to be with her beloved parents and two brothers, James and Robert, on September 25, 2020. She is survived by her sister Marjorie Ellen Ellsworth, her son Christopher, his fiancé Kristina, and her granddaughter Jenifer.
Betty obtained her high school diploma at South High School, Worcester, and her bachelor's degree and Master's degree in Christian Education at Boston University School of Theology. Betty worked at State Mutual Life Insurance Company and then for the City of Boston as an employment counselor.
Born with a big heart and a generous spirit, Betty always championed the causes of social justice. Determined to make a difference, she adopted her son Chris when he was five years old, rescuing him from a difficult situation. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Widely traveled, Betty spent time in the Middle East, visiting Israel, Egypt and Jordan.
After settling in Brookline, Betty lived her later years at Asbury Grove Methodist Campground in Hamilton, and was active on the Asbury Camp Meeting Corporation, as well as in the community.
Betty was active in her beloved church, The United Parish in Brookline, where she taught adult Bible study and served as an usher and an acolyte teacher. Betty was that devoted caretaker who was on the front row for every dance recital and show in which her granddaughter took part. Betty loved the theater and always took Jenifer to musicals and ballets, her favorites being The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol. She will be terribly missed by her family, loyal friends and church members.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, please direct any donations to The United Parish in Brookline, 210 Harvard St, Brookline MA 02446.
This obituary was originally published here, by The Salem News.
United States UMC Bishops Call for Full Participation in November Elections
This article was originally published on October 12 on the United Methodists Bishops website here. BU School of Theology Bishop-in-Residence Susan Hassinger has signed this statement.
Washington, D.C. – United Methodist bishops based in the United States today issued a statement on Faith and Democracy, calling on the people of The United Methodist Church to support voter registration and encourage people to vote in the November 3 elections.
Council of Bishops President Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey made it clear that the statement is not a statement of or from the Council of Bishops but is a conciliar statement by United Methodist Bishops living in the United States.
“We are not speaking FOR the church, but TO the church, in this context. In our journey toward dismantling racism, a core practice is the history of voter suppression and the encouragement of the right to vote. We seek to ground this in our tradition and in the present moment,” said Bishop Harvey.
The statement noted that the U.S. was undergoing a national crisis precipitated by COVID-19 pandemic and racism, and the economic consequences of both.
“In these crises we are reminded that our religious faith and our nation’s principles support elections that faithfully reflect the will of the American people. Our faith in God who created all people in the divine image, and our hope that our nation can live into the aspirations of our founding ideals, lead us to pledge ourselves to the fullest expansion of this right to vote,” the statement said.
Click here to read the statement that was signed by more than 50 U.S. bishops.
Rev. Dr. Maidstone Mulenga
Director of Communications - Council of Bishops
mmulenga@umc-cob.org
(202) 748-5172
Spiritually Speaking: We lost a hero in RBG, by Alumnus Rev. John F. Hudson (STH ’89)
″...a hero is someone who is concerned about other people’s well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them ... That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.”
- Stan Lee, American comic book writer, editor and publisher
This article was originally published here, by Wicked Local, Sharon, a USA TODAY NETWORK.
Who was your very first hero? The man or the woman who thrilled and inspired you, by the life that they led, by the exploits that, in your childhood eyes, seemed somehow superhuman?
Mine was Carl Yastrzemski, who played left field for the Boston Red Sox through my childhood and well into my adult years. With one mighty swing of the bat, a swing so hard that it seemed to twist his body into a musclebound knot, Yaz, as he was known, thrilled me as a new baseball fan. His towering home runs would soar over the hard luck opposing team’s outfielder and seemingly always win the game. I thrilled at Yaz’ diving catches, his whole body outstretched in a perfect pose, the ball dropping into the webbing of his glove just so. I’d always copy Yaz’ famous batting stance as a kid in our Wiffle Ball tournaments in the backyard.
But eventually I outgrew my hero worship of Yaz. Moved onto new heroes.
My next hero, absolutely, became the Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., who attended the very same School of Theology that I did, at Boston University. While still studying for the ministry, the brave and trail blazing work he did as a pastor -- through nonviolence and love -- lit the flame of the civil rights revolution in our country. At the tender age of just 26, King led the Birmingham bus boycott. Oh, if only I as a minister, could even begin to approach the difference for the good that King made with his one amazing life.
And you? Do you still have heroes and heroines in your life?
We humans have always needed our heroes and our heroines, people who by the living of their lives, somehow shine brighter, live larger, have an outsized influence for the good upon the world we all live in. These women and men, mortal and yet somehow more than this too: they matter, both our fictional heroes in the comics and on the screen, and the real ones too. They embody for us the best of human virtues. Strength. Courage. Fearlessness. Wisdom. Compassion. Commitment. Love. They inspire us to try and live good lives, lives lived not for self alone but always for others too.
So, it was with such heroism in mind that I witnessed this past weekend -- along with millions of other Americans -- the unprecedented outpouring of grief at the death of a woman who was absolutely a hero to so many: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Especially for women, Ginsburg embodied the struggles and the triumphs of what it means to be a woman in our country. Ginsburg blazed a trail of equality and justice for so many: as first in her class of 1954 at Cornell University. As one of only eight females in a class of 500 men at Harvard Law School and the first female member of the Harvard Law Review. Again, first in her class in the 1959 graduating class at Columbia Law School, she also became that school’s first female tenured law professor. And, of course, Ginsburg was the second women appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1993, where she served with distinction, until her death just last week.
I think one the reasons that Ginsburg’s death resonated so deeply with so many Americans is that we seem to be living now, in 2020, in a time of anti-heroism if you will. We are living in strange days of great communal challenges when, even as the nation and world cries out for heroes and heroines to lead the way through to the other side of our upheavals, such folks can be very, very hard to find these days.
Our shared political life has been stripped of idealism in the name of victory at all costs. So many leaders lead now, not through goodness or moral character, but instead through cynicism and dishonesty and egotism and thus bring out the worst in the citizenry, not the best. And any hero that might emerge from the scrum of daily life in 2020: give those in the media and social media the chance and they will tear down that hero in a heartbeat.
But still, I need my heroes. We need our cultural and communal heroines. I need to be able to look to others as role models. I need to aspire to be so much more than I might think I am at any given moment. I need to believe and remember that yes, there are still those among us -- like Ginsburg -- who put country above self and shared prosperity above personal gain.
Heroes. Heroines.
Thank you, RBG, for reminding us that there are still those in this life who shine bright as a beacon for the many. I suppose now many of us will have to find new heroes and heroines to emulate, with your death.
Yes, even in 2020: I still need my heroes. We all do.
The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea you’d like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org or in care of The Press (Dover-Sherborn@wickedlocal.com).
For New England evangelical leaders, Maine sermon reflects deepening rifts in the faith community
In the wake of a now-infamous sermon denying COVID-19′s threat, faith leaders contend with a divided evangelical movement.
This article was originally published here, by The Boston Globe.
When Maine pastor Todd Bell used a recent Sunday sermon to decry COVID-19 restrictions and dismiss the virus’s threat, just weeks after he officiated at a Millinocket wedding that led to a deadly coronavirus outbreak, he joined a handful of evangelical preachers drawing notice — and notoriety — for their views on the pandemic.
But even as such episodes of defiance and denial of COVID-19 make the rounds online, pastors and theologians in New England say such stances represent a fringe view within evangelical Christianity, one that serves to heighten the distance many faithful already feel from the politically fraught term “evangelical.”
“I think the aggressive stance of the guy in Maine is an outlier, and it makes me kind of cringe,” said Jeffrey Bass, executive director of Emmanuel Gospel Center, a group that works closely with evangelical churches in the Boston area.
Ryan Burge, an assistant professor at Eastern Illinois University who researches religion and political behavior, said evangelicals who reject public health guidance in the name of religious freedom are not representative of the movement as a whole.
Although there is no universally accepted definition of what it means to be an evangelical Christian, it’s generally understood to mean a commitment to the Christian gospel’s message of spiritual salvation through Jesus Christ, and a dedication to spreading that gospel to others. Self-identified evangelicals and born-again Christians make up 41 percent of Americans. Polls suggest the majority take COVID-19 precautions seriously, Burge and other experts said.
Bell, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, drew international attention after the Millinocket wedding seeded the state’s largest coronavirus outbreak, with three deaths and more than 130 infections tied to the event.
“I’ll tell you what the world wants all the churches to do,” he said in his sermon, which was posted on YouTube but later made private. “They want us to shut down, go home, and let people get used to that just long enough until we can finally stop the advancing of the Gospel.”
A number of pastors elsewhere in the country have hit on similar themes; some have cast COVID-19 as a conspiracy, insisted that faith alone can protect congregants from the disease, or defied public health mandates by preaching to large, unmasked crowds indoors. Several pastors fell ill or died from COVID-19 even as they adamantly denied its existence, reporting by The Independent found this spring. Others have challenged social distancing restrictions, including a coalition in California and Minnesota suing to fight limits on in-person church attendance.
Burge said some strains of evangelical Christianity see persecution as proof of their unapologetic faith. So, he said, they provoke secular authorities by protesting restrictions on church gatherings or mask mandates.
Jim Singleton (STH '96), an associate professor of evangelism at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, a prominent training ground for evangelical ministers, said welcoming persecution is one facet of a broader religious view that sees Christ and the church as countercultural, rather than part of the mainstream or a force for transforming it.
“There is a wing of evangelicalism, that may be better to call fundamentalism, that does highly value one version of religious freedom,” he said.
But generally speaking, experts said, white evangelicals, the country’s largest religious conservative voting block, remain worried about the pandemic.
Polling Burge conducted throughout the spring and summer found that although white evangelicals are more likely than Americans overall to say they are “not at all” concerned about experiencing coronavirus, they are equally likely to be “very” or “somewhat” concerned.
And the vast majority are taking public health precautions seriously. Though polling earlier in the summer found that white evangelicals were less likely to wear masks than others, as the pandemic’s center shifted, mask compliance among that group — concentrated in the South and Midwest — increased dramatically. Burge’s September polling showed that 93 to 94 percent of white evangelicals in each of the country’s four regions reported wearing masks in public.
At a small church in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, it is these poll numbers — not defiant sermons like Bell’s — that resonate.
“I have not found any of the divisiveness or lack of unity or real struggle in [handling COVID-19],” said Roger Ferrell, a missionary and pastor of The Anchor, a church that describes itself as “gospel-based” and is politically and demographically diverse.
“For us, it’s been pretty simple. It’s loving to wear masks. It’s loving to take precautions. It’s loving to not endanger people,” Ferrell said.
Simple does not always mean easy. Ferrell said a young couple in his congregation made the difficult decision to wed without their families present. A couple in their 80s bought a new house so that they could attend services without risking the health of people in their nursing and retirement community. The congregation of about 50 meets outdoors and practices social distancing, a solution that will become more difficult once the weather turns cold.
“I have no question that God has brought us this far and will bring us through it,” Ferrell said.
Most churches have turned to creativity rather than defiance to navigate new restrictions, said Bass, of the Emmanuel Gospel Center. Faith leaders pointed to pastors who preach over the phone, and to one who delivers sermons over WhatsApp.
“We are a belief system that is grounded in love and grounded in equity,” said Emmett Price, pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston and professor at Gordon Conwell. Price said pastors have a responsibility to keep their congregants healthy, and that those who neglect that role have been led astray by politicization of the virus.
There is political diversity among evangelicals. Though the majority are conservative, with white evangelicals in particular showing strong support for President Trump and Republicans overall, a significant number feel their faith directs them to support liberal causes.
“I don’t know a lot of Trump supporters in the church in Boston,” Bass said. “That word ’evangelical’ means things for people in the country that don’t really fit New England.”
Price said the political schism within evangelicalism often mirrors a racial divide. “In terms of the church of the United States of America, when the term evangelical is used, in air quotes is ‘white’ evangelicals,” he said.
And racial divisions within the faith community have only deepened during the pandemic, as Black and Latino congregations disproportionately face infection, death, and financial instability, said Virginia Ward, associate pastor of Abundant Life Church in Cambridge and dean of Gordon Conwell’s Boston campus.
Ward said no one in her Christian circles in Boston has questioned the importance of COVID-19 guidelines, though some have struggled to afford and operate the technology needed to make virtual church services work.
Still, she said, they have pressed on.
“We’re adaptive,” Ward said. “Our faith requires us to comply also with the laws of the land. And our faith requires us as leaders . . . to shepherd the people in our care in such a way that looks out for their holistic well-being.”
For Ward and most pastors, that means keeping services online or outdoors, even though some fear their congregations will struggle to recover from broken churchgoing routines and a dispersed sense of community.
For encouragement on evangelicals’ ability to face present challenges, Singleton turns to New England’s past. US evangelicalism began with the Great Awakening in the 1730s, when crowds flocked to outdoor revivals throughout the region, barred from worshiping inside churches.
“Being outside didn’t hurt us in the first Great Awakening,” Singleton said. “It shouldn’t hurt us now.”
BUSTH Announces Faculty Publications for September 2020
The School of Theology is pleased to announce the following faculty publications for the month of September 2020:
- Nicolette Manglos-Weber
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“Congregants and Citizens: Religion and Naturalization among US Immigrants,” International Migration Review 54:3 (2000), 674–706.
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- Dana Robert
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“Sacred Music and Christian Transnationalism in 1920s–1930s China and Japan,” in Alexander Chow and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. Ecumenism and Independency in World Christianity: Historical Studies in Honour of Brian Stanley. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
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