Mission Yearbook: ‘Leading Theologically’ closes season with conversation on repair, reconciliation and radical commitment

“Leading Theologically” concluded its season with a new half-hour conversation between host the Rev. Bill Davis of the Presbyterian Foundation and the Rev. Dr. Bruce Grady, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of New Hope.

During their talk, which can be heard here, Davis reviewed the themes that stood out for him during the past six months’ worth of episodes. Davis, who’s been speaking with faith leaders about reconciliation, repair and reparations, asked Grady to comment on what he’d heard from those conversations.

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“There was a whole lot of truth-telling” during those broadcasts, Davis told Grady. “What are some things congregations can be pulling from this?”

“I would say local congregations can extract some practical insights on how our collective histories and our particular histories shape our understanding of our world, ourselves and our relationship to our world,” Grady said, noting that one guest discussed how reparations can be “both a theological and a pastoral activity. When we talk about reparations, sometimes people frame it as some sort of transaction,” a “check written for all the injustices of the past.”

But “it’s more of a radical transformational process,” Grady said. When we understand that, “we become aware — as members, as leaders, as lay people — that this work of reparations requires a radical commitment to God, to our neighbors and to self, a commitment that goes much deeper than the notion that one can be paid for the harms that have happened over time. That changes our view of our work.”

In the faith communities of the Presbytery of New Hope, “you will find not only a diversity of theological stripes, but political stripes,” Grady said. Churches “find there’s got to be a way to navigate these differences and to enter into what God’s vision of community is,” including reparations and “a radical shift, a commitment on all sides.”

The church, “the covenant community of faith in Christ Jesus, exists for the community and for the world,” Grady said. “When we look into our [faith] communities, there is a complex set of stories, of personal experiences and personalities. At the same time, we share in struggle, in pain and in a set of human experiences.”

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The Rev. Bill Davis

“There is something transformative that happens when we empty out our ego and we say, ‘I cannot become all that I am supposed to be and witness the debt load of my neighbor,’” he said. “The only way for that to happen is to engage in those relationships, which allows that transformation to take place, a transformation of our mindset and of our hearts.”

When we enter into the process of reparation, “we give up a sense of power and a sense of individuality and we say, ‘I am willing to put that aside so that I might be an agent of repair.’ There is a joy and a beauty in that form of surrender,” Grady said. “There is a beauty that we miss when we are unwilling to enter into that process.”

When Davis asked his usual final question — “What is the best thing you have heard lately?” — Grady said it “has to do with people coming together for the purpose of being in song.”

Gospel choir groups “just show up and invite all who love the music to join along,” Grady said. “They don’t necessarily know each other, but they have this common music that they share. Strangers show up anticipating they will make something beautiful together,” and “all that is necessary to do that is in the room.”

Grady called that “a beautiful metaphor for this process of repair. Everything we need to do the work has been provided. God has given each of us a unique voice in this song, and every voice comes together in such a way that makes this rich, rewarding and transformative masterpiece. You’re right,” he told Davis. “There is joy and beauty, and there are challenges and pain in this. But when we witness the final production of these gatherings, we’ll say it’s worth it.”

New episodes of “Leading Theologically” return in the fall. 

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Ahmad Ali, Vice President and Managing Director, Investments, The Board of Pensions    
Denise Anderson, Director, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, you offer peace to those who come from afar. May the church hear your voice calling us to build community among all people, so that in Jesus Christ we are no longer strangers but members of the household of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Rev. Dr. Justin Reed explores sibling struggles on ‘Leading Theologically’ podcast

The Book of Genesis has plenty to say about reconciliation and repair. Fortunately for listeners of the “Leading Theologically” podcast, the Rev. Dr. Justin Reed joined podcast host the Rev. Bill Davis recently to share his insights on some of those frayed and fraught relationships, as well as the reconciliation that sometimes followed the conflict. Listen to their 40-minute conversation here.

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Reed is associate professor of the Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. His teaching focuses on African American hermeneutics. His first book, “The Injustice of Noah’s Curse,” is forthcoming. Davis is senior director of Theological Education Funds Development at the Presbyterian Foundation.

“To me, the mixture of what’s in Genesis is fascinating and relatable as a human and across cultures,” Reed said. “I read a story in Genesis and I can compare it to the beautiful and inspiring stories I know through different cultures. … It’s really the stories that capture me.”

Davis asked Reed to start with what’s often described as the first murder in history, the Cain and Abel story.

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The Rev. Bill Davis

What a person brings to the table makes “a big difference” in how we read such stories, Reed said. Cain brings God an offering of fruit, Abel brings an offering from his flock, “and people look at that difference with a high level of scrutiny and say, ‘Cain did it wrong from the beginning,’” Reed said, adding he’s “not bringing a desire to justify God’s response to Cain’s offering” when reading and teaching this text. “Instead, I’m looking at how is this true of the human experience I see in the world. It’s so relatable to see a story of two brothers and the divine favor that they receive is different.” Siblings can grow up in the same household, and one is a gifted athlete while another is more cerebral. That’s seen as divine favor.

“To me, what’s beautiful about this story is saying there is a difference in favor. That’s a fact of life in the world we live in, and it’s a fact of life in this story,” Reed said. “Cain chose the wrong response. It’s homicide, and that’s wrong.”

What’s beautiful in the story is that when Cain tells God the punishment is too much for him to bear and that he fears for his own safety, God gives Cain “a form of grace by saying, ‘Cain, I know you’re afraid somebody’s going to harm you the same way you did to your brother,’ and then God puts a sign of protection on Cain. … There is grace with the punishment. There’s a care from God about that person’s fears.”

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The Rev. Dr. Justin Reed

It's “difficult but important work as Christians to think about redemption for everybody, to think about the full humanity of people in spite of the worst that they’ve done,” and “how we can work toward a society that has space for their redemption, a society where everyone is safe and at the same time you haven’t abandoned, you haven’t given up on someone who has done an extreme harm,” Reed said.

Then Davis moved to the Genesis account of other brothers in conflict, Jacob and Esau. Even before the twins are born, God gives Rebekah an account of what is to be: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other; the elder shall serve the younger.”

The Hebrew here is a bit ambiguous, Reed said. “Is this a story about who’s great, or who’s older?” he asked. Here we’re “talking about a world that’s set up where humans justify differences based on our understanding, our interpretation, our claims of where God’s favor is.” Rebekah’s favorite is Jacob, and Isaac’s is Esau. “Now we have this transition,” Reed noted, “from God’s differential favor to humans’ differential favor.”

One thing Reed loves about Genesis is “it doesn’t say, ‘the lesson is this,’” he said. “Genesis doesn’t say, ‘these are the virtues that are important for you to follow because of your ancestor Jacob.’ … You listen to the story, you meditate on it, and it becomes part of the perspectives you have on the world around you.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Eileen Schuhmann, Associate, Global Engagement & Resources, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Interim Unified Agency
Michelle Schulz, Administrative Manager, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

God of grace and mercy, we give thanks for the opportunities you give us to join in your care of all who are in need. May your Spirit inspire us as we serve in the name of Christ. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: The Rev. Paul Timothy Roberts Sr. is the inaugural guest on a ‘Leading Theologically’ series on reconciliation

“Leading Theologically,” a show hosted by the Rev. Bill Davis of the Presbyterian Foundation, recently kicked off a series on reconciliation with a guest who’s thought deeply and taken actions to help bring that about — the Rev. Paul Timothy Roberts Sr., president of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary. Listen to their 35-minute conversation here.

Through grant funding and a willingness to hear from a range of Presbyterians, JCSTS has hosted a number of listening sessions across the country. “Our aspiration was to test the readiness of faith-based communities and congregations to mount up a national reparations effort,” Roberts said. “There are a lot of congregations in the country who are engaged in this work. We wanted to do our homework to see what kind of barometer we could use to determine who’s doing what and how widespread it is.”

The Rev. Paul Timothy Roberts Sr.

Among the surprising findings: “Faith communities are all over the map, especially on controversial topics like reparations,” Roberts reported. “We learned that there is not a consistent understanding of what reparations is” and “how it relates to our theology as Presbyterians.”

“We found there is not a readiness for a national effort,” Roberts told Davis. “Some groups are doing great work” but “many congregations around the country don’t even talk about reparations for fear of conflict and divisiveness.”

Asked by Davis for stories of “the good work people are doing at the local level,” Roberts mentioned congregations that are repurposing their buildings “in an effort to make their facilities more hospitable as an act of repair. There are congregations and presbyteries using the proceeds from the sale of buildings for faith-based repair work.”

“We also got wind of some faith communities raising money within their congregations and granting those funds to communities and individuals in need as an act of repair.”

Davis asked: “What’s been the relationship between reparations and reconciliation for you?”

Reconciliation isn’t even a word Roberts uses very often these days.

“It’s loaded,” he said. “Many of us, although well-meaning when we use the word, are prone to skip over all the work that needs to be done in order to arrive at a place where a community, a group of people, a relationship can be reconciled.”

Acknowledgement is a starting place, he said. Then there are “those acts of healing that we call repair, which is the nature of reparations.”

“One of the things we have learned is when people are talking about reparations, they go right to the money,” Roberts said. “That’s not where it’s at. Reparations is about repair. It’s about implementing a healing process that leads to repair. Sometimes that involves money because we live in a capitalistic society.”

“Those who have been harmed have been harmed by deprivation of opportunity, education or access, and all that involves money,” Roberts said. “The heart of the matter is, how do we repair a breach, a wrong?”

The Rev. Bill Davis

“Are there things folk like me who are white can do to accompany the work you’re doing around this reparations study? I was about to ask you for advice to soothe my white soul,” Davis said, and Roberts laughed.

Davis shared this quote from the South African cleric Allan Boesak: “Reconciliation devoid of justice is under savage strain. Social cohesion remains elusive, and racism never conquered is resurgent.”

Then Davis wondered: “How are we partners in this work of reparations and repair?”

Roberts recalled meeting Boesak about eight years ago at a Samuel DeWtt Proctor Conference. “Allan Boesak helps people wrap their brain around the societal hurts that people experience, and even the hurts that happen within any faith-based community. Some of those hurts are part of the human experience, but some of them cut very deeply and run along racial lines, gender lines, orientation — you name it. They are deeply entrenched in our society. Allan Boesak helps people understand you are very much — even 400 years in as we are in the United States — what you were at your origin.”

Watch previous editions of “Leading Theologically” here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Stephen Keizer, Vice President Ministry Relations, Presbyterian Foundation 
• Jessica Kelley,   Acquisitions Editor, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray:

Lord, we are humbled that you gave us the life-changing message of the gospel to share with the world. May we wisely use the abundant resources you have given us in and through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Columbia Seminary preaching professor explores both Bible testaments from A through Z

The Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence is the guest on ‘Leading Theologically’

December 16, 2023

Dr. Anna Carter Florence

In the tradition of beloved writers including Frederick Buechner, the Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence has written “A is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scriptures,” recently published by Westminster John Knox Press. Carter Florence, the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary, appeared alongside the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation on his show, “Leading Theologically.”

Their 32-minute conversation is available here.

Seminary professors “have our own questions we want to ask,” Carter Florence told Hinson-Hasty, “but it’s the questions your students are asking and the things that are happening in the classroom that you really want to explore … reading biblical texts in ways that will make them come alive.”

“It’s amazing how weary preachers can get,” she added, “so creating this space to have the text be constantly new and fresh — and not just for preachers, but for anyone who picks up the Scripture. I feel like this is a pretty urgent need right now.”

Westminster John Knox Press published “A is for Alabaster” earlier this month.

Hinson-Hasty then turned to “A is for Alabaster,” in which Carter Florence writes brief and engaging pieces on Scriptures about 52 biblical characters — 26 from the Hebrew Bible, and 26 from the New Testament.

“I read Frederick Buechner’s lexicon books when I was young and I fell in love with this abecedary form,” she said. The Book of Lamentations includes that form, she noted.

“My aim is to speak to anyone who might read [the book] about just how bottomless these stories are, how much they have to say right now, and encourage people to get imaginative themselves,” Carter Florence said.

Selecting the biblical figures to write about “ended up being a really fun challenge, because it turns out everybody’s name begins with ‘J,’” she said with a laugh. “Jacob had to be ‘I is for Israel,’ and Jonah had to take ‘F is for fish.’ Jesus got to go rogue and go in and out of everybody else’s letters. I wanted a mix of texts I had never worked with and some that I really do love to work with.”

The book concludes with a discussion guide. Hinson-Hasty asked Carter Florence one of the questions she asks of readers: Did you detect recurring themes in the book?

“I thought a lot about how the Hebrew Bible stories, the Old Testament stories, were ones Jesus might have been told,” she replied. “I thought about all of the people with complicated lives, particularly women, whom he spent time with … and what it means for us that he entered into their stories so deeply.

The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty

“There’s a reason these stories are in scripture,” Carter Florence said. “There is no human experience that is off-limits or that disqualifies anyone from a life of faith. To be human is to live in and among and with everything that’s possible under the sun.”

Hinson-Hasty called the vignettes Carter Florence included “stories I want to sit with and think about.”

“It feels like a Christian formation tool, and for preachers, it’s a nice spark,” he said. Then he invited Carter Florence to leave listeners with a benediction, and she offered words from the Iona tradition that she often uses after leading worship:

“May God’s goodness be yours and well, and seven times well may you live your life. May you be an isle in the sea. May you be a hill on the shore. May you be a star in the night. May you be a staff to the weak. May the love Christ Jesus gave fill every heart for you and may the love Christ Jesus gave fill you for everyone. Amen.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence, guest on ‘Leading Theologically’ podcast

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Angie Stevens, Manager, Communication Specialist, Office of the General Assembly
Cameron Stevens, Mission Associate II, Constituency Relations, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Almighty God, make us bold daughters and sons of those who have gone before, that continuing in faith and joy we may bring the good news of Jesus Christ to those you love. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - PC(USA) pastor helps shepherd Latine doctoral students through their studies on their way to serving God

The Rev. Joanne Rodríguez of the Hispanic Theological Initiative is a guest on ‘Leading Theologically’

July 16, 2023

The Rev. Joanne Rodríguez

For the Rev. Joanne Rodríguez, executive director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary, “en conjunto,” or “on the whole” describes the way HTI helps Latine scholars through their doctoral studies and into the academy or wherever it is that God is calling them.

That holistic approach is clearly working: 92% of HTI’s doctoral students complete their studies, and they spend an average of 5½ years crossing the finish line. “We’ve helped 165 Latinos and Latinas finish their degrees, and now they’re serving in many different ways,” Rodríguez said during “Leading Theologically,” which is hosted by the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation. Hear their 31-minute conversation here or here.

The Hispanic Theological Initiative is a consortium of 23 doctoral degree-granting institutions that supports Latine students of religion and theology with programming, fellowship and networking funds. “One thing HTI prides itself on is we are ecumenical, multi-ethnic and interdisciplinary,” Rodríguez said. “We serve in all these contexts, and we’ve been able to do it without a lot of conflict because we respect and honor all this diversity. It’s complex, and it’s not easy for us to manage all of that.”

“I think [HTI’s model] has a lot to teach the church academy, the nonprofit world and other places people are engaging in ministry and life and leadership,” Hinson-Hasty said.

Photo by Baim Hanif via Unsplash

“There are cultural understandings that only people who have lived them can bring to the larger body,” Rodríguez said. “If you’re going to go into ministry and you get called to a church where some of the members are Latine and you have no idea how to serve that community, how well did your seminary education serve you? HTI supports those scholars who would have the knowledge and the pedigree to be able to serve those institutions and bring knowledge of our very diverse cultures to those contexts.”

“You want that Latine educator,” Rodríguez said, “because that person can educate your whole student body and the people you work with. The more diverse education we can provide individuals, the better off they are to serve a more diverse world.”

The 23 institutions that comprise the HTI consortium pay a membership fee that allows HTI to help them navigate their coursework. With that 92% completion rate, “it’s an investment the school makes and they’re almost guaranteed that students are going to finish,” Rodríguez said.

In addition, HTI gathers blogs and podcasts for the public square on its Open Plaza webpage, which offers theologians, other scholars and poets in six different fields and avenue to reach a wide audience. Most of the material is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

“You have been at this for decades, and you embody the cultivation of theological leaders and the bringing together of these networks to do that,” Hinson-Hasty told Rodríguez. “You’re such a gift to so many. We’re grateful for who you are and what you’re about.”

Asked to send viewers on their way with a blessing, Rodríguez offered these words: “Love what you do, learn from what you do and listen to what you do. God will bless it, so be blessed and be the light you have been called to be.”

View previous episodes of “Leading Theologically” here or here.

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: ‘Leading Theologically’ podcast

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ian Hall, Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer, Finance & Accounting, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Mark Hare and Jenny Bent, Mission co-workers serving in Costa Rica, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, you call us to serve one another with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. Bless us with your creative Spirit so that small acts of courage and kindness can become bold outpourings of your love. Connect us with our neighbors near and far so that all of us may rejoice together in your good news. Amen.