Alumni News
Rev. John Elliot (STH ’57 & ’59) Passes
Rev. John Elliott (age 88), who received both a Bachelors’ ('57) and Masters’ degree ('59) from Boston University School of Theology, passed away peacefully on May 9, 2019, at Franklin, Indiana. He is survived by his wife Joyce W. Elliott, two sons, Don Elliott of Denver, Colorado, and Dr. Steve Elliott of Fishers, Indiana, five grandchildren, Maya Elliott, Ethan Elliott, Aaron (Katie) Ketrow, Andrew Ketrow, and Erin Elliott, three great grandchildren, and a brother Robert (Jackie) Elliott of Cornelius, North Carolina. A memorial service will be held at Grace United Methodist Church, 1300 E. Adams Street, Franklin, IN with visitation at 1:30pm and service at 3:00pm on Saturday June 1.
Episcopal and United Methodist Churches Take Step Toward Full Communion
This is a repost of an original article on umc.org. To read the original article, please click here.
The Episcopal Church – United Methodist Dialogue Committee
For Immediate Release
May 1, 2019
AUSTIN, TEXAS – The Episcopal Church – United Methodist Dialogue Committee has agreed to send a resolution for full communion to be considered by the Council of Bishops and for possible consideration by the 2020 General Conference of The United Methodist Church. The members of the committee made the decision during their meeting April 29-30 at First United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas.
“We acknowledge that the decisions of the 2019 Special Session of the United Methodist General Conference have deepened divisions within The UMC and introduced sharp and as yet unanswered questions about the prospects for full communion between our churches,” the members said in a statement released today. “And yet, we believe that what we are experiencing in the various crises of our denominational life is the birth pangs of something remarkable, something new. We believe that the forces of polarization, mistrust, and animosity in our society and in our ecclesial life will not have the last word.”
Below is the full statement from the Committee:
The members of the Episcopal Church – United Methodist Dialogue Committee met together April 29-30, 2019, at First United Methodist Church, Austin in Austin, Texas. Since its beginning in 2002, this dialogue committee has been seeking to discern God’s will regarding how our churches might embody a new kind of public witness to the unity of Christ’s body.
These talks have continued for more than 80 years through many national and ecclesial challenges. By confronting serious matters of theological distinction as well as historical challenges related to race, class and the hardening of denominational identities, the members of this dialogue committee in its various rounds have held out hope that the people called Methodists and the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement might embrace one another in the fellowship of communion, publicly acknowledging our mutual sharing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and formally recognizing one another’s members, ordained ministries, and sacraments.
In Austin, we decided through deep and honest conversation to continue on this path toward full communion by submitting a resolution to that effect to be considered by The United Methodist Council of Bishops and potentially forwarded to The United Methodist General Conference in May 2020. We do not make this decision naively and are fully cognizant of the hard realities our churches face. We feel the pain and inexpressible weight of discrimination that is the burden of LGBTQ Christians whose lives are so often objectified, debated, dismissed. We acknowledge that the decisions of the 2019 Special Session of the United Methodist General Conference have deepened divisions within The UMC and introduced sharp and as yet unanswered questions about the prospects for full communion between our churches. The road map to unity between our denominations looks different now than it did two years ago when we first introduced “A Gift to the World” to our churches.
And yet, we believe that what we are experiencing in the various crises of our denominational life is the birth pangs of something remarkable, something new. We believe that the forces of polarization, mistrust, and animosity in our society and in our ecclesial life will not have the last word. There is a future with hope for unity in mission and ministry for the Body of Christ that has yet to be revealed. The work of this dialogue committee seeks to heal, in some small way, one division within the context of a whole world in need of healing and reconciliation. We desire as a dialogue committee to take the next faithful step in this journey, trusting in the God who alone holds the future and who may yet be calling us to something bigger and grander than we have imagined.
There are more decisions to come. The dialogue committee is not done discussing the possible futures for United Methodist-Episcopal unity. Yet in this moment we desire to stay on this road together, walking with one another in our joys and triumphs as well as our struggles and imperfections. We hope you will join us in this ongoing journey of discernment and hope.
| United Methodist Committee Members: | Episcopal Church Committee Members: |
| Bishop Gregory Palmer, co-chair | Dr. Deirdre Good, co-chair |
| Rev. Dr. James Howell | The Rt. Rev. David Rice |
| Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey | The Rev. Mariclair Partee Carlsen |
| Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli | The Rev. Dr. Thomas Ferguson |
| Rev. Dr. Robert Williams | The Rev. Dr. Karen Coleman |
| Rev. Dr. Kyle Tau (staff) | The Rev. Margaret Rose (staff) |
| Richard Mammana (Staff) |
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Media Contact: Rev. Dr. Maidstone Mulenga
Director of Communications – Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church
mmulenga@umc-cob.org
202-748-5172
Announcement from Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium
The following is an official press release from the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, shared with permission.
May 2, 2019
At its April 30th Annual Meeting, the Board of Trustees of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium responded to the changing theological landscape by approving the recommendation of its Executive Director, Dr. Ann B. McClenahan, to develop a slimmer program that will nevertheless continue to create a collaborative center for theological schools in the Boston region. The BTI Consortium remains committed to live into its mission “to cultivate visionary religious leadership for our pluralistic world,” connecting students, sharing resources, and building community (http://www.bostontheological.org/mission). Founded in 1968, the BTI Consortium is in its 51st year and is still building to the future. Unfortunately, the financial pressures on theological schools has created a new reality. Rather than be crushed by this reality, the Consortium will continue to build but with reductions in BTI programs and budget.
The BTI, with its nine theological schools, will continue robust cross-registration to encourage students to take courses in other member schools, with an average of 500 cross-registered classes per year. It will also support the continued sharing of library resources, which represent approximately 4 million books. BTI-sponsored programs will be fewer, but the BTI-wide programs developed by member schools, often in collaboration with one another, will continue with support from BTI communications.
Under Dr. McClenahan’s leadership, the new shape of the Consortium has been developed over the past eight months to include a strategic plan that provides a transition with maximal creativity and budgetary care. The new shape represents a downsizing that will require a change in leadership patterns from a two-person office to a one-person office. Dr. McClenahan, who has provided stellar leadership in helping the Board imagine a slimmer future and structure, will step down from her current position. She has invested a vast amount of time over the past five years to bring the BTI Consortium to its present creative state and to stir the Board’s imagination amid challenging realities. We are greatly indebted to her and will be very sorry to lose her. Ann will continue in her position until June 30, 2020, and will be a leader in the changes that have been adopted.
We are also grateful for Alix Brandon, who has developed BTI’s cross-registration and communications to new levels of excellence, supporting and enhancing the program and services of the Consortium. Alix will continue in her vital roles through December 2019.
For more information on the changes, we invite you to contact:
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean of the Boston University School of Theology and Chair of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium Board at memoore@bu.edu
or
Dr. Ann B. McClenahan, Executive Director of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium at mcclenahan@bostontheological.org.
Student Leadership Society Class of 2019 Announced
Wednesday, May 1, 2019 – During the last Community Lunch of the academic year, Deans Mary Elizabeth Moore, Bryan Stone, and Teddy Hickman-Maynard presented this year's Student Leadership Society Class of 2019. The Student Leadership Society honors graduating STH students who have made extraordinary contributions to the community life of STH. Founded in 1994, this society honors students who carry on the legacy of service of STH. Candidates are nominated by faculty and staff, and the Associate Dean for Students and Community Life selects the honorees based on the preponderance of the nominations.
The Society, developed by the Office of Student Affairs, was created to honor students, who in the opinion of the staff and faculty, have contributed to the well-being of their peers and the development of the community within Boston University School of Theology. Persons inducted into the society are those who, in their two or three years of academic study, have provided outstanding leadership to students, faculty and staff, or have provided innumerable hours of service to maintain the prophetic and communal nature of the School of Theology.
Our inductees are pictured below after their recognition on Wednesday. They all held a variety of leadership positions throughout STH and outside of the walls of the school. Thank you all for your hard work, and congratulations!
Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill (STH ’00) named next Executive Director of Bangor Theological Seminary Center
The BTS Center Board of Trustees announces the selection of The Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill (STH '00) as our new Executive Director, following a national search. He will begin his work with the Center on July 1, succeeding The Rev. Dr. Robert Grove-Markwood who will retire at the end of June. Read the full article about Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill here.
Fifth and Final Volume of Howard Thurman Papers Project Complete
This article was originally published on the University of South Carolina Press website. Please click here for the original article.
The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman
Volume 5: The Wider Ministry, January 1963-April 1981
Edited by Walter Earl Fluker
The twentieth-century writings of a pioneering voice for social justice
The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman is a five-volume, chronologically arranged documentary edition spanning the long and productive career of the Reverend Howard Thurman, one of the most significant leaders in the history of intellectual and religious life in the mid-twentieth-century United States. The first to lead a delegation of African Americans to meet personally with Mahatma Gandhi, in 1936, Thurman later became one of the principal architects of the modern, nonviolent civil rights movement and a key mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1953 Life magazine named Thurman as one of the twelve greatest preachers of the century.
This fifth and final volume covers the last seventeen years of his life, from the end of his ministry as Boston University’s dean of chapel in 1963 through his passing in April 1981. Thurman referred to these years as his “wider ministry,” one untethered to a specific congregation or institution, spreading his spiritual gifts and insights as widely as possible from his base in San Francisco. A resonant theme is Thurman’s interaction with the black freedom struggle, from its heyday in the early 1960s through the turn to black power and nationalism. This includes Thurman’s correspondence with many of the movement’s leading figures and thinkers, among them Martin Luther King, Jr.; Whitney Young, Jr.; Jesse Jackson; Vincent Harding; and Lerone Bennett.
Thurman’s final years saw the culmination of his expansive religious vision, in his attempt to fashion a conception of spirituality that was at once deeply personal and truly inclusive. These final documents refer to many aspects of this, including his work with the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, his seminars with young African American divinity students, his outreach to Judaism and other religions, his efforts to come to terms with the cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s, and his endeavors to pass on his legacy to another generation.
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is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership, editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Initiative for the Development of Ethical Leadership at Boston University School of Theology. He is the author of The Ground Has Shifted: The Future of the Black Church in Post-Racial America and Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community.
Church and Society Board Recommends Major Revision of United Methodist Social Principles
Please note this is a press release from Church & Society of The United Methodist Church. The original release can be found here. Dean Moore is quoted.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Church and Society board recommends major revision of United Methodist Social Principles
Seeks to make Social Principles more succinct, theological rooted, globally relevant
April 26, 2019
Contact: Warren Gill (202) 770-1332
wgill@umcjustice.org
WASHINGTON — The board of directors of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church recommended Friday a new version of the Social Principles to the 2020 General Conference.
This vote was the culmination of seven years of work.
General Secretary Susan Henry-Crowe said, “I am incredibly pleased that the culmination of two quadrennia of work is finally accomplished. We, as Christians, believe that Christ calls us to live out our faith in the world by seeking justice and pursuing peace. The Social Principles have long been a part of how we as United Methodists express that deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ.”
The 2012 General Conference requested Church and Society research how the Social Principles are used throughout the denomination. Drawing from that research, the 2016 General Conference called on Church and Society to rewrite the Social Principles.
Three of the main goals of the revision were to craft a version of the Social Principles that is more deeply theologically rooted, more succinct and more globally relevant.
To that end, nearly 100 people have served on the Social Principles Task Force, six writing teams and an editorial team. Each of these people brought unique and diverse perspectives. Members of the writing teams were selected to ensure geographic, theological, political, and life experience diversity.
The Rev. Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore, dean of the Boston University School of Theology and the chair of the editorial team, said, “This is the most comprehensive effort to listen to the church across the globe and to wrestle with challenging, prophetic issues that I have ever witnessed. All of the teams engaged in an impressive amount of holy conferencing. Each of us shared experiences in our lives and contexts to explain our diverse views. We listened deeply, and we laughed and cried with one another. We struggled to discern how God is calling us to be in the world today, to witness and work toward compassion, justice and peace. God was present, and it is was a truly holy experience.”
In addition to the nearly 100 people who helped to write and edit the new draft, listening sessions were held in annual conferences, theological schools and regional gatherings throughout The United Methodist Church. More than 1,500 people participated in these public conversations. Church and society also conducted an open online survey to collect responses to an earlier draft. More than 3,000 people responded to that survey.
Dr. Randal Miller, vice president of Church and Society’s board, chaired the task force. He said, “With 12 million members around the world, it would be impossible to write a document with which every single member of the denomination agreed. One of the great joys of this process, however, was working through our differences and finding common ground. We waded through the comments and the responses and tried our best to find language that truly reflected the diversity of belief and experience within The United Methodist Church.”
The task force’s role was to oversee the writing and editorial process and to make final edits before presenting the draft to Church and Society’s board.
The revised Social Principles now contain four main sections:
— The Community of All Creation
— The Economic Community
— The Social Community
— The Political Community
Church and Society will release the proposed Social Principles in the coming weeks after it has been translated into multiple languages. The proposal then goes to the 2020 General Conference for consideration.
Church and Society is the social justice public policy agency of The United Methodist Church. Its main office is located across from the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Rooted in our faith, we seek to implement the statements of the denomination as contained within the Social Principles and Book of Resolutions.
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Terror and Aftermath: A Meditation from Dean Moore on the Sri Lanka Easter Terror Attacks
April 27, 2019 – Terror and Aftermath: A Meditation
In the horrible aftermath of bombings in three Christian churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Day, and the bombings of four nearby hotels, we continue to mourn the lost lives of more than 250 people. Compounding the shock, the bombings took place on the Holy Day of Resurrection, the day of greatest hope in the Christian year. As Sri Lanka continues to mourn with mass funerals, we mourn with them, and we also mourn for the three recently burned African-American churches in Louisiana, and now today the shooting in a synagogue in Poway, California, that took one life and injured at least three others on the last day of Passover.
Less than a week has passed since the bombings in Sri Lanka, and the aftermath magnifies the tragedy – traumatic experiences of family and friends who lost loved ones, the revelation of suspects in the bombings, fear in Christian communities that they will never feel safe, and fear in Muslim communities that people will seek retaliation. Yet people representing many faiths across the world have expressed heartfelt concern.
Can Easter possibly speak into this tragedy? The grief grows over time, and the terror during Easter worship was a strike at the heart of Christian faith. Yet Easter will not die. In the rising of Jesus, we witness redemption and the promise of new life in the aftermath of crucifixion and the imperial abuse of power that it represented. We witness Jesus’ faithfulness even on the cross, and His rising with the promise of Life for the world. The world into which Jesus rose was still damaged by violence, oppression, injustice, and hurt, and yet his resurrection, however understood, decried the power of those destructive forces over life.
The world into which Jesus rose was and is filled with destruction. Yet we remember the lives that changed radically as people encountered the risen Christ. We remember the transformations that early Christians birthed into the world and the transformations that Christians have continued to birth for centuries, even as they (we) have fallen severely short and have contributed to destruction ourselves. Violence permeates the world we live in today, yet love continues to transform people. The promise has not died.
In the aftermath of terrorism and tragedy, Easter faith is sober but it is very much alive. It is the promise of life in the midst of death. The Easter message is stronger than ever.
- Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore
School of Theology Welcomes New Assistant Professor of New Testament
Boston, MA – April 23, 2019 – Boston University School of Theology is pleased to announce the appointment of new full-time faculty member Luis Menéndez-Antuña, who will begin on July 1, 2019, for the 2019-2020 academic year. Professor Menéndez-Antuña will join the faculty as Assistant Professor of New Testament.
Dr. Luis Menéndez-Antuña is a New Testament scholar specializing in hermeneutics, queer theory, postcolonial criticism, cultural studies, and biblical languages, especially as they illuminate biblical texts and contemporary cultural realities. He is a prolific writer and researcher, as he has contributed many articles and book chapters into the public discourse. His book, Thinking Sex with the Great Whore: Deviant Sexualities and Empire in the Book of Revelation, reveals his deep engagement with the Book of Revelation, drawing upon cultural and existential questions of the present, careful reading of the texts themselves, and cultural-critical theories and tools to open new interpretations. Professor Menéndez-Antuña loves teaching and has taught a range of courses in New Testament, including courses that engage biblical texts with cultural questions, gender and sexuality studies, and ministry.
About this new appointment, Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore said: "[Professor Menéndez-Antuña] has expressed to me that he is overjoyed about joining our faculty, having been very impressed and grateful for all of you during the search and his visit here."
Professor Nancy Ammerman Selected for Greeley Lifetime Achievement Award
April 22, 2019 – Professor Nancy Ammerman has been selected for the Andrew M. Greeley Lifetime Achievement Award in the Sociology of Religion. As part of the award ceremony at the University of Notre Dame, she will give a plenary talk before being celebrated with a ceremony at a dinner on Friday, April 26.
Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore commented that Professor Ammerman is very deserving of this "very high honor."
For more information about the event and the award ceremony, please visit the University of Notre Dame Center for the Study of Religion and Society website here.