Program for Austin Seminary's 2023 MidWinter Lectures

SCHEDULE

All Lectures take place in Wright Hall on the fourth floor of the Wright Learning and Information Center.

All Worship services are in Shelton Chapel.

Monday, January 23

2:00-6:00 Registration, Vickery Atrium in McCord

3:00-5:00 Guided and self-guided tours of the Wright Center and Places of Learning Open House

McCord Community Center

• SAV / HESED – queso (SAV Office, middle level Wright Learning & Information Center

• Library – tours begin at the Library Services Desk, ground floor

• MAYM/CYMT Innovation Lab (Digital Education Center, second floor)

Trull Administration Building

• EBW & OMFAS – hot cocoa bar (787 Collective Office, lower level)

McMillan Classroom Building

• Admissions – swag and snacks (Commuter Student Lounge on the top floor)

• Dean’s Office / Faculty – cookies, coffee, books! –(Faculty Suite, street level)

5:00 Welcome Reception (heavy hors d’oeuvres), Vickery Atrium, McCord

6:50 Chapel Bells

* 7:00 Worship with Rev. Natalie Webb, preaching, Shelton Chapel

8:00-9:00 Music and Conversation: Paulo Santo Quartet, Vickery Atrium

Tuesday, January 24

8:15 Coffee Fellowship, Wardlaw Commons (first floor of Wright Center

8:45 Gathering Music, Wright Hall (fourth floor of Wright Center)

*9:00 First Currie Lecture: Dr. Timothy Beal, “I: Reality, Grief, and Hope,” Wright Hall

9:40 Q&A with Dr. Beal, Wright Hall

10:00 Coffee Fellowship,Wardlaw Commons, Wright Hall, vending hall (first floor of Wright Center), Vickery Atrium

* 10:30 First Westervelt Lecture: Dr. Patrick Reyes, “Pedagogy of the Ancestors”

11:10 Q&A with Dr. Reyes, Wright Hall

11:30 “Piecing Together,” a creative moment with Dr. David White, Reading Room (first floor of Wright Center)

12:00 Fellowship Luncheon, Stotts Dining Hall, McCord

* 1:30 First Jones Lecture: Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, “Healing Our Broken Humanity”

2:10 Q&A with Dr. Kim

* 2:30 Second Currie Lecture: “II: Composting Christianity,” Wright Hall

3:10 Q&A with Dr. Beal, Wright Hall

3:30 Coffee Fellowship, Wright Hall

4:00 “Piecing Together,” a creative moment with Dr. David White, Reading Room

4:30 Conversation Circles, McMillan Classroom Building

5:30 Community Dinner (food truck), Stotts Hall

6:50 Chapel Bells Call to Worship

* 7:00 Word and Sacrament with Rev. Natalie Webb, preaching, Shelton Chapel

Wednesday, January 25

8:15 Gathering Music, Wright Hall

* 8:30 Second Westervelt Lecture: Dr. Patrick Reyes, “Remember the Future,” Wright Hall

9:10 Q&A with Dr. Reyes, Wright Hall

9:30 Coffee Fellowship, Wright Hall

* 10:00 Second Jones Lecture: Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, "Theology of Visibility," Wright Hall

10:40 Q&A with Dr. Kim, Wright Hall

* 11:00 Third Currie Lecture: Dr. Timothy Beal, "III: Creating Space," Wright Hall

11:40 Q&A with Dr. Beal, Wright Hall

12:00 Wrap up / Conclusion with President Irizarry, Wright Hall

12:30-2:00 Alumni Celebration Luncheon (reservations are required), Stotts Hall

NEED TO KNOW

All parking is open during MidWinters (including staff and faculty spaces). See the campus map on pages 10-11. Additional self-pay parking may be available at the UT Garage at 27th and Speedway (entrance on Speedway).

We are following Travis County guidelines regarding COVID restrictions. For the most up-to-the-minute information, scan this code for the county's updates:

Screens displaying lectures and worship are available for viewing in the following locations: McMillan 210, 211, and 214. If you feel safer away from others, you may use your laptop or phone to watch the livestream at www.austinseminary.edu/livestream

Please note, the Q&A following each lecture will not be part of the livestream.

Music! The Paulo Santos Quartet will be playing a selection of the Great American Songbook and jazz standards on Monday evening after worship.

Books! Lecturers and faculty will be on hand to sign copies of their recent books during the dinner hour on Tuesday (5:30-6:50). Books are for sale in the Vickery Atrium then and at breaks throughout the lectures Monday and Tuesday.

A Re-Charge Room with outlets to recharge your devices, and a comfortable place to relax and visit is open every day in the Student Commuter Lounge on the second floor of McMillan.

Conversation Circles on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 will all be held on the second floor (across the skywalk) of McMillan. There will be signs just inside the door directing you to the Conversation of your choice. The choices are: Conversations on Vocation with Dr. Patrick Reyes

Conversation on Scholarship with Dr. Timothy Beal and Dr. Grace Kim

Conversation on Community Life among current and former Austin Seminary students

Conversation on Theological Education and Ministerial Formation in which Austin Seminary faculty share with pastors what's new in their fields and discuss how it applies to their ministry context.

We’re Green! As a member of the Green Seminary Initiative, Austin Seminary invites all residents and guests to recycle and compost. We encourage your use of reusable water bottles with our water-filling stations in each of the main administrative buildings on campus.

The restrooms on the top floor of the Wright Center feature individual stalls and a communal (all gender) wash room. Some other restrooms on campus are gender neutral. Also, please note the new accessible sidewalk between Shelton Chapel and the McCord Center.

Still have questions? Staff and students wearing Austin Seminary shirts and nametags can explain anything!

THE THOMAS WHITE CURRIE LECTURES

Timothy Beal is Distinguished University Professor, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, and Director of h.lab at Case Western Reserve University. He has published sixteen books, including When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene (Beacon, 2022) and The Book of Revelation: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2018), for which he won a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Thomas White Currie Lectures were first held in 1952. For many years the Tom Currie Bible Class of Highland Park Presbyterian Church of Dallas, Texas, sponsored this annual lectureship. In 2008 a generous gift from the Currie family established the Thomas White Currie Lectureship Endowed Fund which will underwrite them in perpetuity.

THE ROBERT F. JONES LECTURES

Racism, Sexism, and a Theology of Visibility"

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion and host of the "Madang" podcast from The Christian Century. The author of Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women (Fortress 2021) and Hope in Disarray: Piecing our Lives Together in Faith (Pilgrim Press, 2020), Kim is a prolific and collaborative author of more than twenty books. Her latest, Christianity in North America, co-edited with Kenneth Ross and Todd Johnson, will be out in June.

The Robert F. Jones Lectures were established in 1949 by the Women of the Church of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, Texas. They continue to fund the lecture in memory of their pastor of thirty-five years.

“The Church of the Anthropocene: Creating Space for Grief and Hope”

"Invisible:

THE E.C. WESTERVELT LECTURES

“Pedagogy of the Ancestors”

Patrick Reyes is Senior Director for Learning Design at the Forum for Theological Exploration and author of The Purpose Gap and his theological memoir, Nobody Cries When We Die (Chalice Press, 2016), which was named a Hispanic Theological Initiative Book of the Year and the first selection for the Children's Defense Fund Book Club (2019). He is the host of the Sound of the Genuine, the FTE’s podcast exploring meaning and purpose through the vocational journeys of spiritual and religious leaders.

The E. C. Westervelt Lectures were established in 1949 by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Flato of Corpus Christi, Texas, in honor of the parents of Mrs. Flato.

MIDWINTERS PREACHER

The Reverend Natalie Webb is the Pastor/Head of Staff at University Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. Natalie is passionate about working for justice in the community and being a compassionate pastoral presence in the lives of her congregants. She is a fierce advocate for reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, welcoming refugees and asylum-seekers, public education, and the separation of church and state. During the week, you may find her sermon-writing at a local coffee shop, visiting congregants in crisis, serving meals at God’s Family Dinner, or protesting at the Texas state capitol.

ON THE HORIZON

February 5 | "The World We Can See: On Discerning God’s Vision" at TheoEd

Paramount Theater, Austin Speaker: President José R. Irizarry https://www.theoed.com/attend#Austin2023

February 6 | “Talking the Times: Spring Cleaning ” 6-week online series Discussion leader: Professor Sarah Allen (MDiv’07, DMin’19)

February 7 | Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Worship

Shelton Chapel Preacher: Pam Rivera, Presiding Elder for the Austin Capital District of the AME Church in Austin, preaching

February 7 | “Talking the Times: Return” 6-week online series Discussion leader: Tracey Beadle (MDiv’11)

February 16 | “Talking the Times: People!” 6-week online series Discussion leader: Professor Bobbi Kaye Jones (MDiv’80)

February 7, 14, 21 | Una Mujer de Integridad y Honor Leader: Maria Guadalupe Castañeda

February 23 | Virtual Lunch & Learn Online; Noon (CT); Office of Admissions

February 24-26 | Discovery Weekend for prospective students

March 3-4 | Hesed Lecture "Cages"

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Stephen Ray Jr. On campus and online

March 23 | Virtual Lunch & Learn Online; Noon (CT); Office of Admissions

March 30-31 | Inauguration of President Irizarry

Austin Seminary Campus University Presbyterian Church, Austin

April 20-21 | Settles Lecture

McMillan 210 and AustinSeminary.edu/livestream Presenter: Dr. Elias Bongmba, The Harry & Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology; Professor of Religion and Faculty Associate, Wiess College, Rice University Lecture: April 20, Noon – 1:00 p.m. Panel discussion: April 21, 11:00 a.m. – noon

April

(CT); Office of Admissions