Alumni News
Reverend Paul “Wayne” Trevathan (STH ’72)
"Rev. Paul "Wayne" Trevathan was born on February 7, 1946 and passed away on February 28, 2020 at home following a long battle with cancer.
Wayne was born and raised in Evansville, Indiana. While attending Bosse High School, Wayne became a reporter for the local Evansville newspaper and was the youngest reporter to cover the political and crime beat. As a reporter, he spent a summer traveling with the Dick Clark band. After graduating from Bosse High School, Wayne attended the University of Evansville, Boston University School of Theology ('72), Mansfield College at Oxford University and Loyola University of Rome.
Pursuing a career in theology, Wayne served as a pastor in the United Methodist church in various capacities until his retirement. His proudest service was helping Rev. Carver McGriff develop St. Luke United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana to one of the largest, most successful Methodist churches in Indiana. He used that talent to assist other churches throughout the United States to also develop viable ministries within their local communities. Upon leaving St. Luke's, Wayne served as the Director of the Methodist Hospital's transplant center, Director of the Gay/Lesbian Center in Long Beach, California and telecommunications project manager with various entities providing services throughout California and other states.
Wayne loved people and collected their stories throughout his life. His sense of humor, compassion, acceptance and love of life served him well in all his endeavors.
His greatest joy was spending time with his husband Michael traveling, attending concerts, plays, museums and any other adventure the two could find. He also loved hanging out with his friends, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
A private burial at sea is planned.
He is survived by his beloved husband Michael W Fung, his sons Timothy Trevathan and daughter-in-law of New Jersey, Jonathan Trevathan of Indiana and daughter Niceta Bradburn and son-in-law of Colorado, his very accepting and loving in-laws, John and Kammy Fung, three sister-in-laws, Betty Fung Posey, Patty Noonan and Kathy Arias and their husbands, (7) grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews and friends. He is predeceased by his parents, Paul and Mary (Eaves) Trevathan and sister.
Donations may be made to one of the following in his honor:
- Boston University School of Theology Please send your gifts to: ONLINE: https://trusted.bu.edu/s/1759/2-bu/giving/interior.aspx?sid=1759&gid=2&pgid=1333&cid=2638&appealcode=WEBSTH BY Mail: Boston University School of Theology Development and Alumni Relations Office 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 109 Boston, MA 02215
- Southern Poverty Law Center Tribute donation: https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=1367
- Habitat for Humanity Gift from the Heart In Honor of Friend or Loved One: https://www.habitat.org/donate/?link=628 "
This article was originally published here by Risher Mortuary & Cremation Service.
Dr. William Donald Bardwell (STH ’80)
"William Donald Bardwell B.A, B.D., D. Min. Died peacefully in his sleep early Tuesday morning, March 17th, 2020. Don was born Friday, September 13th, 1929 in Montreal. Predeceased by his loving wife of 62 years, Lois Bardwell. He will be deeply missed by son David (Akke) from Seeley's Bay, daughter Lesley (Jeff) from Windsor. Don's three grandchildren, Ryan Bardwell (Jacquline) from Baden, Keith Wilkinson (Kristine) from Windsor, and Leah Arvidsson (Max) from London. He also has two great-granddaughters, Alison and Olivia Bardwell.
Don was a highly respected minister, educator, and counsellor. He was a minister of the United Church in the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec. Don received his B.A. (1952), and his B.Div. (1955) from McGill University and his D.Min. from Boston University (1980). After Don's ordination in June 1955, his pastoral charges were Grace United Church in Chelsea Quebec (1955-1957), Rideau Park United Church in Ottawa (1957-1959), and Emmanuel United Church Ottawa (1959-1964). Don was Field Secretary of Montreal and Ottawa Conferences (1964-1973). He was head of Christian Education for the Maritime Conference Office (1973-1979). In Windsor, he was Minister at Chalmers United Church (1980-1988), and Glenwood United Church (19901994). Don was an Addiction Counsellor at Brentwood Recovery Home under Fr. Paul Charbonneau from 1988-1990. From 1990 until his retirement in 2011 Don remained involved in Essex Presbytery, with social issues in the Windsor community, and adjudicated Doctoral Ministry Candidate dissertations at Canterbury College. For many years, the family enjoyed summer vacations in Maine. The beach allowed Don to think about God's works and wonders. We had many good times and shared laughs and many lobsters. Thank you to the excellent staff at Oak Park Retirement Home Lasalle, Bayshore Home Health Care, the doctors and staff of Metropolitan Hospital, and the compassionate care of The Hospice of Windsor and Essex. A private funeral service has taken place. A celebration of Don's life will be announced at a later date.
In Lieu of flowers, donations to the Downtown Mission or Hospice of Windsor-Essex are appreciated. Funeral Arrangements entrusted to Families First 3260 Dougall Ave. South Windsor, 519-969-5841."
This article was originally published here by Windsor Star.
Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: Message from Dean Moore
Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters
10 May 2020
Dear Grieving Community,
In this week, our community has been overwhelmed with grief for Ahmaud Arbery, murdered in an act of hatred by two people who apparently identified themselves as above the law. Further, the wheels of legal action barely moved for 2½ months, seemingly jarred into an action when a video appeared. We do not know the details of this investigation or the way it will unfold, but we do know that something is badly wrong. A lynching took place in our country without any kind of due process, and with a reported lie about “several burglaries” in the area. Lord, have mercy!
The murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who did nothing more threatening than to jog on a residential street, is shocking. At the same time, it is a painful reminder of attacks and murders of young African American men across the United States and across decades and centuries of time. Then, on May 5, Sean Reed was killed by multiple gunshots (reportedly 15-18) by the Indianapolis Police at the end of a high-speed chase that could have had any number of non-violent outcomes, especially since Reed was unarmed. This young man, an Air Force veteran, did not deserve to die, to have his life taken at the age of 22. When you consider these two tragic deaths alongside those of hundreds of other young men and women – African American, Latinx, Asian, and Native American – you see a grim picture of violence in our society.
Some in our community are personally overwhelmed in ways that others of us cannot know as deeply in our bones. The letter from the Association Black Seminarians expresses this with penetrating clarity.[i] To be a person who is black or brown is to be vulnerable to murder by vigilantes in ways that are inconceivable to most of us who live in white skins. It is to be vulnerable to unjust health care systems and often to crowded housing conditions. It is to live in communities that are regularly denied emergency funding or delayed in receiving it. We live in a society where justice is sorely lacking and violence soars.
You cannot turn away from this violence because, with one small turn of your head, you see the statistics in health care access, housing, and immigration practices that reveal the grossly disproportionate percentages of coronavirus cases and deaths among people of color. Another turn of your head and you see acts of hatred against Asian peoples, who daily have to listen to the rhetoric of blame for COVID-19, are regularly turned away from grocery stores, and are called names and spat upon, simply for being Asian. Another turn of your head reveals the violence in anti-lockdown protests, often fraught with racist and white supremacist language, Nazi and Confederate symbols, rifles and guns, and shouted threats made by overwhelmingly white crowds. Violence is everywhere, and racism and hatred are destroying our society.
“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24, NRSV). Have you ever wondered about that language? Amos is not talking about a one-time “accomplishment” of justice and righteousness; he is talking about mighty rivers and flowing streams. Justice and righteousness are movements. They are movements of tears and protests, demands for accountability, and critical analysis of the underlying virus of violence. They are movements that call for a massive reshaping of our society and individual souls. Justice moments are never ends in themselves. Hopefully, they are moments that will catalyze other moments, and hundreds of thousands of moments, until we purge our world of injustice. May God’s loving justice and just love fill and guide us. Let justice roll down like waters!
With sadness and passion,
Mary Elizabeth
[i]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aU_J_JZUN3CdSvoBJ3Nl___zVhD7p1LAz3AteWgrmBk/edit?usp=sharing
BUSTH Announces New MDiv Degree Program Track
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kimberly Macdonald
Director, Office of Communications
617-358-1858
kmacd@bu.edu
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY ANNOUNCES NEW MASTER OF DIVINITY DEGREE PROGRAM TRACK
Boston, MA – May 7, 2020 – Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is pleased to announce a new Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) track in Organizational Management. The Master of Divinity degree at BUSTH allows students to specialize coursework toward their unique vocational callings, and this new track aims to prepare students for forms of religious leadership that require organizational and financial management skills.
“The Organizational Management track is appropriate for those pursuing vocations in contexts where creative new models of ministry are required both inside and outside traditional parish structures,” says Bryan Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. “For some, it may mean managing complex religious organizations or offering entrepreneurial leadership to faith-based nonprofits, community organizations, and social ministries.”
The new Organizational Management track of the MDiv degree requires the same core courses as all MDiv tracks, but the track also includes requirements in administration, finance, and management taken at the School of Hospitality Administration, and from among other options across Boston University in non-profit management, fundraising, and philanthropy. BUSTH Master of Theological Studies (MTS) students may also specialize in Organizational Management by following similar course requirements.
Interested students can find more information here, or by contacting Associate Dean Bryan Stone or BUSTH Registrar Sangwon Yang.
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Since 1839, Boston University School of Theology has been preparing leaders to do good. A seminary of the United Methodist Church, Boston University School of Theology is a robustly ecumenical institution that welcomes students from diverse faith traditions who are pursuing a wide range of vocations – parish ministry, conflict transformation, chaplaincy, campus ministry, administration, non-profit management, social work, teaching, justice advocacy, peacemaking, interfaith dialogue, and more. Our world-renowned faculty and strong heritage helps students nurture their academic goals and realize any ministry imaginable. For more information, please visit bu.edu/sth.
Federal Government CARES Act Emergency Funding
May 5, 2020 – The federal government has made special emergency grant funding available to Boston University for students affected by campus disruption due to COVID-19. You are strongly encouraged to apply here if you had expenses as a result of BU transitioning from on-campus in-person instruction to remote learning. The priority deadline is May 8, 2020.
- Qualifying expenses include but are not limited to: travel/transportation, technology (new computer, internet access, data plan, etc.) housing, healthcare, food, and supplies.
- Stabilization funds are paid directly to the student regardless of any balance owed on a BU student account.
- Individual award amounts will vary from $500 to $6,000 and may be taxable.
Please do not hesitate to request emergency funds through the application link or, if other questions arise, please contact one of the deans.
- Bryan Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Prof. Courtney Goto Wins BU Metcalf Award
This announcement first appeared in BU Today on May 1, 2020, in an article about the Boston University senior breakfast. Please read the full article here.
May 1, 2020 – [President Robert] Brown revealed the winners of the University’s highest teaching honors. This year the top honor, the Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching, goes to Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a School of Law lecturer, who is credited with helping to transform LAW’s Immigrants’ Rights & Human Trafficking Program into a nationally recognized one. Seth Blumenthal (GRS’13), a College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program senior lecturer, and Courtney Goto, a School of Theology associate professor of religious education, are the recipients of the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching. The three faculty members will be honored at the 2020 Commencement ceremony.
Please read the full article here.
New Scholarships Honor Two Consequential Women at School of Theology
This article was originally published by BU Today on April 30, 2020. Please see the full article here.
Mary Elizabeth Moore, retiring as dean, and Nancy Ammerman, sociology of religion professor emerita, retired in 2018
By Rich Barlow
April 30, 2020 – Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore, retiring as School of Theology dean this spring, made institutional history as STH’s first woman leader. Nancy Ammerman, who retired as an STH and a College of Arts & Sciences professor two years ago, is a renowned sociologist of religious congregations and one of the scholars recruited to review the deadly 1993 federal assault on the Branch Davidian religious group in Waco, Tex.
Having inspired and mentored women and others traditionally underrepresented in their area of study or chosen vocation, the two will continue that legacy. STH is honoring them with two new scholarships targeted to students pursuing gender equity.
Continue to read the full article here.
Dean Moore Addresses the BUSTH Community via Zoom
May 3, 2020 – Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore gives heartfelt words of thanks to the School of Theology community directly through Zoom video recording. The transcript is posted below for those needing to follow along.
Thank you!
Beloved community, I want to say a huge thank you for being such a remarkable community through this pandemic-filled semester. Some of you have been ill with the virus, even dangerously ill; some have lost loved ones whom you were not even able to see; some have continued your work with food pantries, shelters, and chaplaincy sites; some are caring for family members who are fragile; and some are teaching school with your children while also teaching and taking classes in the School of Theology. The demands on you are huge, and I wish I could lift them. I realize, however, that no matter what you and I do, the pressures and hurts will continue.
Just in the last three weeks, I have talked with students who had just passed the brink of death with the virus; students and faculty who are exhausted from their efforts to give their best to the current situation; and graduates who are greatly saddened by their delayed graduation and their loss of a whole festival of celebrations with their friends. We have tried to respond at every turn, and you have helpfully communicated what we could do better. You have also given your best in your varied roles and developed new healthy habits for this moment in time.
This is a time when gratitude is needed more than ever, both as a spiritual discipline and as a psychological path toward wellbeing. Psalm 139 sings it well to God:
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence? …
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. (NRSV)
These are words for hard times. You ARE wonderfully made. Do you know it?
So, thanks to you wonderfully-made people! Thank you to our faculty who converted to remote teaching almost overnight, and to students who have brought their best to classes, even as all of us keep learning from our mistakes. Thank you to the STHSA that has given their program money to support students in need, and thanks to those administrators who have been responding to requests that have provided more than $16,000 in extra support thus far, not to mention extra job opportunities and stipends. Thank you to the STH Librarians who have provided extravagant library services, and to the Contextual Education office that has “made a way out of no way” so students could complete their contextual experiences remotely. Thanks to Admissions for creative and personal gatherings with prospective students, and to all of our leaders in communications, community life, academic life, finance, registration, and international student life. You have listened closely to the community and have responded again and again. Most of all, thanks to our students who have brought your best attitudes, along with honest words of concern and brilliant suggestions. You people are beloved community because you ARE beloved.
I thank God for you every day!
Celebratory Renaming of BUSTH Community Center
Tuesday, April 28 – Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore’s retirement celebration was featured in today’s “Close-Up,” BU Today’s weekly photography feature. The moment captured via Zoom on April 22 features an elated Dean Moore, reacting to the news delivered by Boston University President Robert Brown that the BUSTH Community Center was renamed to the Mary Elizabeth and Allen Moore Community Center. Dean Moore has always put the community of the School first in her decision making, and the surprise announcement was a great addition to her retirement celebration.
Rev. Dr. Greg Gray (STH ’15, ’18) called to the Enfield Congregational, United Church of Christ
"The Rev. Dr. Greg Gray began his new job as pastor of the Enfield Congregational, United Church of Christ on March 2, and got in just one live Sunday service before social distancing guidelines.
"But, the virus so far has been nothing but a small speed bump in his plans to make the congregation stronger and connect it to the community at-large."
We admire your resilience, Rev. Dr. Gray (STH '15, '18)!
Continue reading here: https://www.courant.com/community/enfield/hc-en-east-windsor-pastor-greg-0423-20200417-zw2n3do5mfb7znolfoekqlaiha-story.html