Windows Winter 2020 from Austin Seminary

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

winter 2020

In this Issue Global Alumni Leading Their Churches | 7

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AUSTIN

AUSTIN PRESBYTERIAN

PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGI C AL

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

SEMINARY

winter 2020

features

President Theodore J. Wardlaw

Global Church Leaders

Board of Trustees G. Archer Frierson II, Chair James C. Allison Janice L. Bryant (MDiv’01, DMin’11) Claudia D. Carroll Katherine B. Cummings (MDiv’05) Thomas Christian Currie James A. DeMent (MDiv’17) Jill Duffield (DMin’13) Britta Martin Dukes (MDiv’05) Jackson Farrow Jr. Beth Blanton Flowers, MD Stephen Giles Jesús Juan González (MDiv’92) Walter Harris Jr. John S. Hartman Keatan A. King Steve LeBlanc Sue B. McCoy Matthew Miller (MDiv’03) David Pardue Denise Nance Pierce (MATS’11) Mark B. Ramsey Stephen J. Rhoades Sharon Risher (MDiv’07) Conrad M. Rocha Lana E. Russell Lita Simpson John L. Van Osdall Teresa Welborn David F. White Elizabeth C. Williams Michael G. Wright

Volume 135 | Number 1

7 Today, three Austin Seminary graduates, Cindy Kohlmann, Chizason Chunda, and Manhong Melissa Lin, are serving at the top of their ecclesial structures.

7

Into Unknown Waters

By David Gambrell (MDiv’98)

10

Spiritual Father of his Church

12

The Church in China

Cindy Kohlmann (MDiv’99) leads the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Chizason Chunda (MATS’09) leads the CCAP Synod of Zambia

Manhong Melissa Lin (MA’00), leader for China’s 38 million Protestants

& departments

Cover and photographs on pages 7

4

and 8 are by Michael Whitman.

2

seminary & church

3

twenty-seventh & speedway

14 faculty news & notes 15 live & learn

Trustees Emeriti

14

Lyndon L. Olson Jr. B.W. Payne Max Sherman Anne Vickery Stevenson Louis Zbinden

16 alumni news & notes

Austin Seminary Association (ASA) Board Barrett Abernethy (MDiv’13), President Denise Odom (MDiv’99), Past President Sheila Sidberry-Thomas (MDiv’14), Vice President Josh Kerr (MDiv’14), Secretary Sarah Demerest Allen (MDiv’07, DMin’19) Kennetha Bigham-Tsai (MDiv’03) David Gambrell (MDiv’98) Paul Harris (MATS’10) Melinda Hunt (CIM’16) Carl McCormack (MDiv’95) Noemi Ortiz (MATS’15) Valerie Sansing (MDiv’00) Rita Sims (DMin’15) Ayana Teter (MDiv’06) Michael Ulasewich (MDiv’05)

Editor

Randal Whittington

Contributors

Selina Aguirre Jacqueline Hefley Gary Mathews Wilson Nicholson Alison Riemersma Sharon Sandberg Mona Santandrea Kristy Sorensen

Windows is published three times each year by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. To read prior issues, go here: AustinSeminary.edu/windows Austin Seminary Windows Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 E. 27th St. Austin, TX 78705-5711 phone: 512-404-4808 e-mail: windows@austinseminary.edu austinseminary.edu ISSN 2056-0556; Non-profit bulk mail permit no. 2473

seminary church

I

President’s Schedule 2020 March 5 – Coffee with the President, San Antonio, Texas April 27 – Preach, Austin College for the Dedication Service of the Clifford J. Grum Sanctuary and the Sallie Majors Small Chapel in Wynne Chapel, Sherman, Texas April 30 – Partner Luncheon, Austin, Texas May 3 – Preach, First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth, Texas May 14 – Evening with the President, Albuquerque, New Mexico

am particularly excited to see, in this issue of Windows, three inspiring stories about Austin Seminary alumni exercising denominational leadership on three different continents.

The Reverend Cindy Kohlmann (MDiv’99) is presently co-moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She and Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri (a person I’ve known as a friend ever since we worked together years ago on the PC[USA] Committee for Theological Education) were elected to this shared office at the 2018 General Assembly in St. Louis. Just weeks before the Baltimore Assembly, Cindy will return to her theological alma mater to preach at Austin Seminary’s 2020 Commencement service, and we are so looking forward to her time with us. We are so proud of her and so grateful for her inspiring ministry across the year-and-a-half (and counting) of this special ministry of leadership.

The Reverend Chizason Chunda (MATS’09) is currently serving his second term as moderator of the Synod of Zambia of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. This denomination was formed in the nineteenth century by missionaries arriving in southern Africa from the Free Church of Scotland. Chizason received his MDiv degree from the Justo Mwale Theological University in Lusaka, Zambia—a beloved seminary to so many of us here at Austin Seminary. A number of our faculty have taught at Justo Mwale, and many of its alumni have come to Austin Seminary across the years to enroll in our MATS. degree program. Pastor Chunda is respected deeply throughout his communion and in ecumenical circles.

The Reverend Manhong Melissa Lin (MA’00) serves as the associate general secretary of the China Christian Council, which is a coalition of all Protestant churches in China. Her story in the pages ahead also reflects the story of the growth of the Chinese Protestant Church. China, after all, has some 56,000 Protestant Christian churches and, depending on how you count, around thirty-eight million registered Christians. Nonetheless, there is much that we Americans don’t know about what it means to be a Christian in China. Read on, and prepare to be inspired!

Elsewhere in this issue of Windows are highlights from our recent board meeting and pictures of our entering class. Take a moment and examine the faces carefully, because—who knows?—one or more of them may also bloom into global ecclesial leaders!

Faithfully yours,

Theodore J. Wardlaw President

You’re invited to visit our redesigned website:

AustinSeminary.edu News & Events | Sermons | Resources | Learning Opportunities 2 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

twenty-seventh speedway

Left: Professors Aymer and Lord; above: new MDiv and MATS students; below: new MAYM students

2019-20 academic year begins with convocation

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ustin Seminary was pleased to welcome the entering class of 2019 in an opening convocation service on September 3. Professor Margaret Aymer, the First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, D. Thomason Professor of New Testament Studies, delivered the convocation address, “Learning From the Exiles: Resilience and the General Epistles.”

The new class comprises twenty-nine Master of Divinity (MDiv) students—including three who are enrolling in the dual-degree program to earn concurrently the MSSW from The University of Texas at Austin’s Hicks School of Social Work—ten Master of Arts in Youth Ministry (MAYM) students, and four Master of Arts (Theological Studies) students, including two Global Partners. Ten of these students received merit fellowships (covering tuition and fees and a stipend for housing and expenses) or scholarships (covering full tuition).

The average age of the incoming class is thirty-five; 31% are persons of color; 67% are single; eleven denominations are represented including 37% Presbyterian, 29% United Methodist, and 24% non-denominational. They are coming from fourteen states and three countries outside the United States (Korea, the Philippines, and Zambia). Two new students lived on campus as part of the AYAVA House program last year, and two new students are the children of Austin Seminary alumni.

Austin Seminary welcomes to AYAVA House seven young adults who will be doing a year of service in the AmeriCorps program. Under the supervision of Austin Seminary staff, they will engage in simple communal living, theological and vocational discernment, and reflective spiritual practices during their time in Austin. v Winter 2020 | 3

twenty-seventh speedway

After thirty-two years, Jacqueline Hefley registers her last class

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f you’ve tried to get into a class at Austin Seminary at any time in the last sixty-two years, the person who made those dreams come true was either Jacqueline Hefley (1987-2020) or Cathy Sautter (1958-1989). That dynasty comes to an end on January 31 when Hefley retires as one of the longest serving employees in the Seminary’s history.

She arrived at Austin Seminary following graduation from Austin College and work at Southwestern University in Georgetown. She served briefly in the Seminary’s Financial Aid Office before becoming Registrar in 1990. Later she was given a second title, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.

A tour of Hefley’s office (above) offers insight into both the demands of the position and the particular skill with which she has met them. Once you get over the initial shock of the hundreds of toys and bobble heads on display (think Toy Joy, 27th Street edition), your eye is drawn to the enormous white board outlining the academic schedule for the semester, results of the semi-annual multi-dimensional puzzle of fitting together the desires and constraints of professors, students, and facility. Moving along, the file cabinets represent her

record-keeping responsibilities: if you were ever a student at Austin Seminary, your “permanent record” resides in those steely vaults. Finally, somewhere under that desk are the course descriptions, Program of Study minutes, and academic revisions for next year’s Catalogue.

Need to add or drop a course? Call the registrar. Who’s that alum who just stopped by to chat? Call Jacqueline. Want a transcript? Call the registrar. Oops! Per federal regulations you must submit that request in writing. Want to understand the finer points of academic arcana: Jacqueline’s your go-to!

“I have relied on Jacqueline’s wisdom and perspective nearly every day of my time in the Dean’s Office,” says Academic Dean David Jensen. “Her memory is unsurpassed; her attention to detail is remarkable; and, her concern for the fairness and integrity of our academic programs is a gift to the Seminary. What she doesn’t know, she’s quick to research and respond. And she does all of this while making me laugh!”

And will we miss all that?

The Magic 8 Ball says: “It is decidedly so.” v

Union Presbyterian Seminary in

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Charlotte dedicated the Thomas W. Currie III Academic Hall this September. The building was named to honor Tom Currie (MDiv’73), who retired in 2016 as professor of theology and academic dean of Union’s Charlotte campus. On hand to celebrate were several other family members with Austin Seminary connections: Liz Williams (trustee), Steve Plunkett (MDiv’80), and Chris Currie (trustee). Also pictured are Peggy Currie, David Williams, Anne Currie, Kate Currie Carey, and grandchildren Thomas Currie and Birdie and Evie Carey.

New leaders for Seminary Board

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ustin Presbyterian Theological Seminary welcomed five new trustees to its governing board on November 4, 2019. Additionally, two former board members, Lyndon L. Olson Jr. (2009-2019) and Anne V. Stevenson (2008-2019), were named Trustees Emeriti.

In his first call since graduating from Austin Seminary, The Reverend James A. DeMent (MDiv’17) has been interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Victoria, Texas, since January 2018. He spent his first career (19772014) with Baker Botts LLP in Houston; he retired in 2014 as a partner in the firm and came to seminary. A native of Oklahoma, he holds degrees from TCU and Cornell Law School in addition to Austin Seminary. He served in the US Air Force (JAG) from 1973-77.

The Reverend Britta Martin Dukes (MDiv’05) has served as associate pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin since graduating from Austin Seminary.

Before attending seminary, she served in various mission ministries: as a volunteer with homeless youth at Time Stop YMCA and as a field officer for Time For God, a Young Adult Volunteer international program, both in England.

Later she served as site coordinator of the Miami Cross Cultural Community Ministry through the Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer program.

Britta studied journalism at the University of Missouri– Columbia.

Stephen J. Rhoades retired in 2017 following an extensive law career specializing in real estate matters. He was vice president and New Mexico State Counsel for Fidelity National Title Group (2013-2017).

Previously he was underwriting counsel, claims counsel, and agency services manager for

New trustees Stephen Rhoades, Sharon Risher, Teresa Welborn, Britta Martin Dukes, and Jim DeMent

Stewart Title Guaranty Company for New Mexico (2004-2013). He is a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque.

A Distinguished Alumna (2017), The Reverend Sharon Risher (MDiv’07) is an activist and author from Charlotte, North Carolina, where she is associate minister of New Emmanuel Congregational United Church of Christ.

The author of For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre (with Sherri Emmons, Chalice Press, 2019), she speaks and writes about gun violence and the experience of losing her mother and other family members in the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in

Charleston. Prior to that event, Sharon was a trauma staff chaplain at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas (20122016).

The Reverend Teresa Welborn is district superintendent of the Capital District in the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, a position she has held since 2014. She was pastor to UMC congregations in Buda, Lakehills, Austin, and Smiley, Texas, following graduation from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

She was director of clergy development for the Rio Texas Conference from 2011-2014. She has served on the denomination’s Commission on the Status and Role of Women since 2016. v

New Trustees Emeriti Ambassador Lyndon Olson (left) and Anne Stevenson, with her family

Winter 2020 | 5

6 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Into Unknown Waters Alumna Cindy Kohlmann Leads the Way as PC(USA) Co-Moderator

T

Photograph by Michael Whitman

By David Gambrell (MDiv’98)

Those who are called to lead and serve the people of God often find themselves at the edge of unknown waters. Just ask Moses, standing at

the brink of the sea. Ask Peter, stepping out of the boat in a storm. Or ask Cindy Kohlmann (MDiv’99) on June 16, 2018, perched on the platform of the St. Louis convention center as an ocean of commissioners and observers rose to greet her and Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri as co-moderators of the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

David Gambrell (MDiv’98) is associate for worship in the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship and co-editor of the Book of Common Worship (WJKP, 2018). David first met Cindy Kohlmann at Austin Seminary in the fall of 1995, when they were junior seminarians and neighbors in Currie Hall.

Winter 2020 | 7

Photograph by Michael Whitman

Cindy Kohlmann has long heard God’s call “into unknown waters.” She came to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1995 with the sense that God was calling her to Navy chaplaincy. Pursuing this vocation as a chaplain candidate in the U.S. Naval Reserves, Kohlmann’s travels took her from San Diego to South Korea, among many other places. She says she “learned to go to where the sailors worked and gathered in order to do ministry,” working out with them in their physical training, visiting with them during shipboard maintenance, and accompanying them in other daily tasks on the boat or around the base.

The Spirit of God steered Kohlmann in a new direction, however, as she began to discern a call to parish ministry. In 1999 she accepted a call as pastor of the New Jersey Presbyterian Church in Carlisle, Ohio, and was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. After six years of service in that setting, Kohlmann’s next call took her to Clinton Presbyterian Church in Clinton, Massachusetts, a congregation she served for eight and a half years. She helped these people of God claim a new identity as a multicultural community of faith, welcoming immigrants from West Africa and Brazil into every aspect of the church’s mission and ministry.

During her later years as pastor in Clinton, she also began to accept responsibility for larger flocks. The first invitation, in 2010, was to a temporary position as a mid-council leader for the Presbytery of Northern New England. After accompanying the presbytery through a two-year process of discernment and restructuring, Kohlmann was asked to continue in the newly developed role of resource presbyter.

In 2015, she accepted a full-time position shared 8 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

between the Presbyteries of Boston and Northern New England, leaving the church in Clinton. As leader for the two presbyteries, Kohlmann describes her work as “facilitating conversations about vision and structure, designing opportunities for leadership training, planning programming during presbytery meetings, and connecting congregations and pastors with both local and denominational resources.” From this vantage point, she has had a clear view of the blessings and challenges of ministry at the congregational and mid-council levels.

But she heard God calling yet again, beckoning to more distant horizons, as she decided to stand for election as co-moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly.

The first task of a moderator is to preside over the business of the denomination’s biennial meeting. For the two-year period following, moderators have a critical role in promoting and interpreting the actions of the assembly and bearing witness to the mission of the church. This aspect of the work had a particular appeal to Kohlmann. As she explains, “The core of my sense of call to stand for co-moderator came from the desire to see the church in action all across the nation and the world. I wanted to see all of the ways the body of Christ is active in loving our neighbors.”

Indeed, this is what Kohlmann has observed in her travels as co-moderator of the PC(USA). Those travels have taken her to many places in the United States—New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Florida, California, Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas—and to international destinations as well—Kenya, Liberia, South Africa, and Greece. “From the smallest congregations to the largest, there are stories of lifechanging relationships and ministry, creative responses

to needs, and imaginative use of limited resources,” she reports. “Being able to first witness and then share the stories has been a source of deep joy for me.” Kohlmann’s co-moderator and companion in this joyful journey has been Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, a ruling elder from Miami, Florida, and former vice-moderator of the Synod of Boriquén (Puerto Rico). She also served as moderator for the Presbytery of Tropical Florida.

Kohlmann reflects on how her studies at Austin Seminary prepared her for these adventures. As a seminarian, she was immersed in a “deepened understanding of the word of God” that has equipped her well to proclaim the gospel wherever she goes.

“I’m often asked to preach,” she explains, “and feel that the sermon needs to speak to the people and the context where I am visiting. That means preaching on different passages and having different foci depending on what resonates most where I am.” Kohlmann says her theater and religion training at Whitworth College (BA, 1995) also helped to prepare her for this role— particularly her experience on the forensic speech and debate team.

Kohlmann identifies another gift she received Photograph by Edwin González from Austin Seminary as “an expanded vocabulary for who God is and how God is at work.” This is indeed an asset for one who is called to connect people from a range of cultural backgrounds, faith traditions, and political perspectives. “Being able to read theology from around the world and from experiences very different from my own has helped me deepen my own language about God and broaden my own sense of the movement of the Spirit,” she observes.

With this expanded worldview, Kohlmann continues to watch the horizons. She muses, “I feel we are at a fulcrum point in the Presbyterian Church, freed from decades of destructive battle with one another, yet not sure how to live into a future where the church needs to look different than it does today. We have some major shifts to make, including how we train people for pastoral leadership, how we understand discipleship and membership, and how we go from being primarily a corporate institution to becoming a movement.”

She uses a sailing metaphor to describe this process of change: “The Spirit is blowing us into the future,” and that will require us to “let go of some things that we’ve held on to tightly for generations.”

In the midst of changes and challenges, Kohlmann remains hopeful. “God is good, all the time, and if we follow even into uncharted territory and unknown waters, we know that we will be led faithfully by the One who has promised not to leave us. I believe it’s time to step out in faith,” she concludes, “confident that the One who has begun a good work in us will indeed bring it to completion.”

Cindy Kohlmann’s term as moderator will come to its completion at the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Baltimore, June 20–27, 2020. She looks forward to having more time with her husband, the Rev. Eric Markman, also a minister in the PC(USA), along with “two amazing adult step-daughters and two extremely opinionated cats.” Until then, she will continue on this journey that has been “so amazing, so humbling, so life-changing,” buoyed along by the breath of the Spirit. v

Facing page: the co-moderators are commissioned on June 16 in St. Louis; Cindy’s suitcase with a sampling of the places she has visited. Above: co-moderators “remembering their baptisms” at the 2018 Moderators’ Conference.

Winter 2020 | 9

Spiritual father of his church

Alumnus Chizason Chunda is moderator of Synod of Zambia

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hen Chizason Chunda (MATS’09) came to hone his leadership skills at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, he probably could not imagine that within a decade he would be guiding his country’s denomination. “Since graduating from Austin Seminary, God has been gracious with me,” he says. “I want to thank APTS for the knowledge and skills that have helped me to be a transformational leader.”

The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) comprises five synods in three countries: Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Chunda is now in his second 10 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

term as moderator of the Synod of Zambia. According to its website, when the CCAP Synod of Zambia was constituted in 1984, the church had only four ordained ministers and sixteen congregations with fewer than 10,000 members. As of 2016, the synod has seventy-eight ordained ministers serving eighty-three congregations and over 75,000 members. In 2007, the church opened a theological college, Chasefu Presbyterian Theological College in eastern Zambia, to provide CCAP congregations with the pastoral support they need.

According to Rev. Sevatt Kabaghe, general secretary of the CCAP, Chunda is the “spiritual father of our church and is there to make sure all ministers are sound with

their calling. He gives guidance to the are financially unable to send them. A church and he is also the man to make sustenance program would help to lessen right decisions on behalf of the church. The the burden. It is even worse for the pastors’ growth of the church is his responsibility, widows.” and he tasks constituents to work to God’s Chunda was serving as a pastor when glory in evangelism and church planting.” he was selected to attend Austin Seminary Mission, church growth, and during the 2008-09 academic year. Since theological education are among the top earning his master’s degree, he has served goals for Chunda’s administration. He explains that the four churches and taught at Justo Mwale Theological church has inaugurated agricultural training programs College and Chasefu College. He no longer works full time and “Village Savings Loans” to encourage self-sufficiency at Chasefu but continues to teach courses there in Greek, within communities. “The denomination has many preaching, and worship. He served as vice president programs that help us reach the vulnerable in society,” he (2010-2013) for the Council of Churches in Zambia, an says. “We are in the schools, we install wells for protected ecumenical Christian organization. He has also furthered water, we build clinics and teach people how to live his education with degrees from the University of Zambia healthy lives. The denomination is also planning to build a and Copperbelt University (with distinction). He and his skills center that will help children whose parents cannot wife, Mary Hara, are parents to six children and he serves afford to send them for tertiary education. Our prayer is a 200-member congregation in the eastern province of that we implement this idea as quickly as possible.”

Zambia.

As the nascent church grows, so do its challenges. Chizason Chunda uses his many gifts for the Chunda cites three main areas of concern. First, he betterment of his fellow pastors and those in his spiritual wants to build up the theological college associated with charge. He leans on his seminary training, particularly the denomination: housing for his time spent with Reverend faculty, computers, theological Louis Zbinden, the first holder books, and further training of the Louis H. and Katherine for the lecturers. A second S. Zbinden Distinguished challenge is the difficulty of Chair in Pastoral Ministry providing protected water; he and Leadership at Austin prays for partners to assist Seminary. He says, “Professor in this critical infrastructure Zbinden’s emphasis on need. Finally, Chunda worries working with teams to identify about the spouses of ministers, change then finding ways to “Since the pastors’ stipends are motivate committed members very low, spouses, especially to participate in the change is wives, have been requesting the helping me a lot. I thank God denomination find programs Facing page: Moderator Chizason Chunda, left, presents a prize that Austin Seminary helped that can help them provide for at the General Administration Committee meeting in August me to be a leader who should 2019. Above: he presents a motorcycle to a pastor: “Since their families. Most pastors’ transport is a problem, CCAP Zambia has partnered with well always accept and solve the children do not attend college wishers to donate motorcycles for use in bringing many to Christ. challenges that come with or university because families The project is appreciated by many.” leadership.” v

Enroll now in either the Leadership for Witness or Leadership for Wonder concentration.

AustinSeminary.edu/dmin Winter 2020 | 11

Leading the Church in China Alumna Manhong Melissa Lin is Associate General Secretary of one of the largest Protestant churches on earth

Nearly twenty years ago, Melissa Lin—one of five visiting international students that year—asked me to snap some pictures of her in cap and gown on the steps of the chapel. We chatted about what it had been like to be so far from her young family all year. With a master’s degree from Austin Seminary, she later went on to earn a PhD from the Graduate Theological Union, and she joined the faculty of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary in her homeland in 2007. Now the Reverend Dr. Manhong Melissa Lin (MA’00) also serves as the Associate General Secretary of the China Christian Council, the official organization over all Protestant churches in the People’s Republic of China. Windows is pleased for the opportunity to catch up with her.

—the Editor

12 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

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rotestant Christianity, as introduced by missionaries in the 19th century, struggled to gain a foothold in China. Dr. Lin explained (International Review of Mission, 1998), “After a very difficult period of mission involvement, these missionaries had made about 700,000 disciples of Jesus Christ in China by the year 1949, when China gained its independence from its semi-colonial status. While the Protestant missionaries had somehow made some achievements in the more than 180 years of their mission, their relation to imperialism and colonialism and their failure to root Christianity in Chinese culture and society caused Christianity to be regarded as a tool used by Western powers for aggression and cultural invasion.”

The idea of establishing an indigenous Chinese church was proposed in 1922 at the National Christian Council and the suggested means was the Three-Self Movement, that is, self-governing (rather than government by foreign missionary societies or personnel), self-supporting (rather than reliance on foreign resources), and selfpropagating (rather than being a dot on the missionary map), which was not fully realized until after 1949. In 1954, the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) was formed, and in 1980 the China Christian Council (CCC) was established. Today CCC and TSPM work closely as two hands of one body to aim at

running the Protestant churches in China well. According to the official released statistics, the Protestant population in mainland China is 38 million.

Lin was sent to Austin Seminary by the CCC&TSPM for which she started to work in 1992. She is now CCC’s Associate General Secretary of theological education.

She is also a member of the executive committee of the World Council of Churches, representing the CCC. For three decades before the reform and opening in China in 1979, especially during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Christianity in China, along with other religions, went through a difficult time, because, according to Lin, “the understanding of and attitude toward religion among the Chinese people and of the government were influenced by Leninism which considered religion a tool of modern capitalist countries to confuse the working class.”

However, the years following the Cultural Revolution brought a more open period for practicing religions, including Christianity, in the country.

She wrote, “By firmly embarking on a journey of inculturation in the period since 1980, the church in China has grown rapidly and become an ecumenical church with its own identity.”

The Reverend Nancy Fox, chair of The Outreach Foundation Board of Trustees, visited China in October of 2018 and met with Melissa. Reflecting Photograph by Juan Sarmiento on that meeting, Nancy noted in her blog: Rev. Dr. Manhong (Melissa) Lin, Associate General Secretary, headed the TSPM delegation with which we met. She introduced us to their seven departments and their work and shared that they continue to work toward contextualization of church and theology in their unique Chinese societal and cultural context … Associate Secretary Lin shared with us the four principles of healthy partnerships of the CCC&TSPM: sincerity, openness, legality, and equality. She shared their desire for continued support in theological education (especially teachers of theological English) and training for social services if people have expertise in specific areas such as health care ministry and senior care homes …

[She] shared that the 38 million Protestants in China are still a small percentage of the 1.4 billion people in

China, so there is much room for growth of the church which is still on the margins of society.

Sit with that thought for a moment: 38 million as a marginal group. In her Cato Lecture in Perth, Australia, in 2015, Lin said, “The Chinese Protestant church has been small and marginal since its beginnings … The goal of the church is not to develop into a powerful or influential force at the center of society or to grow into a social majority, but to witness to Jesus Christ by following Christ’s example in a land whose major population remains non-Christian. In the process of reaching this goal, being willing to suffer and eager to love are important virtues of the Chinese Christians …

[When] Chinese pastors and church workers were able to meet for the first time in public after the Cultural Revolution, it was presumed to be a time for them to pour out the difficulties and sufferings they had gone through during the Cultural Revolution. During that chaotic period of time, the gospel was accused of being a poisonous weed, no church or seminary remained open, the Bible and hymnals, along with many theological books, were burnt, and pastors and church workers were sent to factory, farm, or even worse places to labor … However, at the first church meeting in February 1980, none of the pastors mentioned the hardship they had endured during the Cultural Revolution, rather they rejoiced in tears at being able to meet again as Christians and discuss how to reopen the church and the seminary and how to begin printing the Bible and hymnals.”

She continued, “It is with such confidence in relying on God’s loving wisdom and the work of the Holy Spirit that the Chinese church has developed so much … Furthermore, being post-denominational is a form of ‘spiritual and ecclesiological poverty,’ which reflects Chinese Christians’ willingness and readiness to give up confessional pride and to see good in Christian traditions outside their own, in order to promote the unity of the church. This kind of humble attitude is definitely a witness to the Holy Spirit at work in Chinese Christians’ hearts.” v

Above: Manhong Melissa Lin meets with the Outreach Foundation representing the China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

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faculty news notes

faculty notes | Gregory Cuéllar (Old Testament) gave a talk, “Christian Teaching and Stories of Migration from the Border,” at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Dallas, on November 10. He presented a paper on “Migrant Desire as an Ethic of Chosenness” at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) annual meeting in San Diego.

Carolyn Helsel (homiletics) led a webinar for The Presbyterian Outlook on October 29 (access on their website). On November 4, she spoke to the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, and on November 13 she led an anti-racism training event for the Disciples of Christ Home Missions. She will be the panel moderator for the Academy of Homiletics on December 7. On January 18, she leads a workshop at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Myers, Florida.

Timothy Lincoln (research professor in theological education) published “Theological educators and what it is like to be a

minister: A qualitative study of five Protestant settings” in The International Journal of Christianity & Education. The article reports findings of his four-year study funded by The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning.

Jennifer Lord (liturgy and homiletics) preached at St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, New Orleans, for Theological Education Sunday.

She lectured on Reformed worship for St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton, Texas, and led an EBW worship leadership event “Bodies at Worship” in November. She is working with Rev. Elijah Mwandila (MATS’18) as he prepares a position paper on deliverance and healing in scripture and Reformed theology for the Reformed Church in Zambia.

Suzie Park (Old Testament) served as interim academic dean for the fall semester. She presented a paper, “Nature as David’s Sacred Ally in the Death of Absalom,” at the SBL conference.

Cynthia Rigby (theology) gave the keynote lecture, “What We Have to Offer in a Time of Division and Fear,” at Princeton Seminary’s Women in Ministry Conference 2019 in October. She responded to David Fergusson’s book on divine providence at the SBL conference in November.

On January 25 she will deliver the keynote for the Reformed Institute in Washington, D.C. She will lecture at Campbell College, February 4-5, based on her book, Holding Faith, and will lead a pastors’ retreat for Los Alamos Presbytery February 11-12. She will speak about the Connections project at Grace Presbytery on February 23.

Her father, the Reverend Charles Sheldon Rigby, died on September 21.

Eric Wall (sacred music) was one of three conference music leaders for CoInspire: Eviscerating Racism, Oct 7-9, at Montreat Conference Center, North Carolina.

COL L ABOR AT IV E Eric Wall and Paul Hooker were co-preachers on September 29 at University Presbyterian

Church, Austin.

The Just Worship Conference, September 30 - October 2, co-sponsored by Austin Seminary, Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, and the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, included leadership from four Seminary faculty members: Eric Wall was plenary leader, workshop leader, and accompanist for the “Manos Indocumentadas” cantata; Jennifer Lord was a keynote speaker; Carolyn Helsel led a workshop on preaching about racism; and Margaret Aymer was the preacher.

At the Society of Biblical Literature’s Annual Meeting, Carolyn Helsel and Suzie Park presented a paper, “Resourcing ‘Thematic Preaching’ through Accessible and Collaborative Scholarship,” drawing on research for a book they are cowriting.

On March 6-7, Carolyn Helsel and Margaret Aymer (New Testament) will be the Meneilly Visiting Scholars at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas. v

Who writes the history?

New book by Professor Cuéllar focuses on archives Gregory Cuéllar, associate professor of Old Testament, spent his sabbatical at the University of Oxford followed by summers in residence at the British Museum.

His research has produced a new Professor Cuéllar, center, enjoys the celebration by his faculty colleagues following the scholarly book, Empire, the British publication of Empire.

Museum, and the Making of the Biblical Scholar in the Nineteenth Century (Palgrave Press, 2019).

Written especially for museum curators, biblical scholars, and liberation. He has written on topics related to the U.S. Mexico graduate students, Cuéllar hopes to expose how collecting borderlands, Latino/a immigration, race, and empire. practices in national museums often work to reproduce the

Cuéllar serves on the editorial board of Connections: privilege of those in power. The book strives to help the reader A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship and understand how the description of biblical artifacts can often Horizons in Biblical Theology. He received a 2019 Project reinforce racist ideas about ancient people groups.

Grant for Researchers from the Louisville Institute which

In his research, Professor Cuéllar seeks alternative ways will enable him to research and write a book on the current of reading the biblical text, in particular those rooted in immigrant detention crisis along the southern U.S. border. v 14 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

live learn

Education Beyond the Walls

Learn more at AustinSeminary.edu/EBW

transformative theological learning experiences for the life of ministry

HMMN meeting

New resource on immigration

The Hispanic Ministries Mission Network (HMMN) provides a center point for Hispanic pastors and church leaders across the Synod of the Sun to come together for mutual support, for professional development, and for taking action to strengthen Hispanic congregations and leaders. They will hold their annual meeting at Austin Seminary, March 20-21, 2020.

Undocumented Stories is an outreach education project through Education Beyond the Walls designed to help people learn about immigration through storytelling events and a traveling gallery. It features a collection of personal, handwritten stories from members of the immigrant Latino community. These powerful testimonies were collected in immigration clinics and at events throughout Austin, Texas. It has evolved over time to become a project that gives voice to the men, women, and children who daily suffer under current U.S. immigration policies.

Here are the ways that you or your congregation can explore the plight of the undocumented: • Host our traveling gallery, displaying handwritten stories and photographs of immigrants.

• Host a storytelling event, in which a group of immigrants share their stories in front of a live audience.

• Attend a workshop to learn more about immigration and develop a plan of action.

For more information, contact Monica Tornoe, project associate for Education Beyond the Walls, mtornoe@austinseminary.edu

What do you need?

Designed to reinvigorate the vocation of those who minister to others, the College of Pastoral Leaders makes two-year, $10,000 grants to small groups of pastors to pursue a self-designed program for renewal, vitality, and pastoral excellence. Grant applications for the next class of CPL cohorts will be available on January 15, 2020 (www.AustinSeminary.edu/ CPL). Completed applications are due on May 15, 2020. For more information, please contact Erica Knisely at eknisely@ austinseminary.edu.

Joy Collective The Joy Collective, a project of EBW, was launched earlier this year to help youth ministries explore joy as a core theological practice. Each participating congregation receives a $1,000 grant and implements a yearlong Joy curriculum, which was created by scholars through the Yale Project on Faith Formation for Adolescents.

Periodically, youth ministers in the collective gather together as a learning community with Professor David White, editor of a forthcoming book on joy and adolescence. If your congregation is interested in a future Collective in or beyond Austin, contact EBW.

New Pastoral Leaders for Public Life colleagues gather During this learning intensive, November 17-19, PLPL Fellows explored the archives at the LBJ Library, researching specifically LBJ’s use of religious language and invocation of faith in public and private discourse. Joining and guiding them on this journey was Dr. Rick Elgendy, professor of public theology from Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC. Winter 2020 | 15

alumni news notes

Hurray! Alumni class notes | surpass DEC 1960s fundraising goal Nona Cobden, wife of Charles

A

ustin Seminary alumni, you did it! In 2012 the ASA Board pledged to raise $500,000 from alumni toward the Digital Education Center (DEC) as part of the overall library renovation. It is by far the most ambitious fundraising goal ever asked of alumni. In October you met that goal!

Most of the last $50,000 raised came from families making gifts in memory of deceased alumni. Two gifts in particular helped us “get over the top”—both from daughters remembering their fathers. Anne Smith and her husband, Brien, remembered her dad, Henry Quinius Jr. (MDiv’43), and Diane Stafford pledged a gift in memory of her father, Henry Stafford Jr. (MDiv’53).

We thank all 231 alumni who donated to support this project along with forty families who gave in memory of alumni. Gifts to the DEC ranged from $10 to $37,000.

Twenty-three alumni gave $5,000 or more. The median gift was $250.

When built, the DEC will be dedicated in memory of alumnus James Lee (MDiv’00). ASA Board President Barrett Abernethy (MDiv’13) said, “We did this together!

It was done faithfully and patiently, and it is a privilege to celebrate with those who guide the institution we all love. To God be the Glory.”

—Gary Mathews

A. Cobden (MDiv’68), died April 19, 2018.

1970s Bob Lively (MDiv’73, DMin’79) has published a new book: On Earth as it is in Heaven—A New Take On Grace.

1980s Steve Musick (MDiv’86) is now honorably retired.

Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, PhD (MDiv’87) is the visiting Black Religious Scholar and Crump Professor at the Seminary of the Southwest for 2019-20.

On October 13, 2019, Karen Akin (DMin’88) was honorably retired by Arkansas Presbytery.

1990s Felicia Hopkins (MDiv’96) has retired from the army and now serves as the Amarillo District Superintendent of the Northwest Texas Conference of the UMC. She has written a book, Halfway Home, a collection of stories from her time as a trauma chaplain in the Iraq war.

Rebecca Fox Nuelle (MDiv’97), became pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Lubbock, Texas, on October 1, 2019.

Gini Norris-Lane (MDiv’99) has been called to serve as executive director and campus ministry advocate for UKirk.

Matt Miles (MDiv’99) has been called as Vision and Outreach Presbyter for Tres Rios Presbytery. He continues to serve as pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Ft. Davis, Texas.

2000s Dixie Anders (MDiv’01) retired in February and moved to Missouri. She is stated supply for St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Kimberling City.

16 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

2010s

Church, Bastrop, Texas.

melea white (MDiv’10) is now college chaplain at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Becky Branton (MDiv’18), ordained by Presbytery of Pueblo and installed as pastor for First Presbyterian Church of Las Animas, Colorado, on September 15, 2019.

Kaci Clark-Porter (MDiv’10) and Holly Clark-Porter (MDiv’12) have been called as co-pastors of Grace Presbyterian Church, El Paso, Texas. Their first day was the day after the Cielo Vista Wal-Mart shootings.

They report it was a “tense, painful, yet beautiful and strong start” for their ministry there.

Hailey Malcolm (MDiv’15) has been called to be pastoral presbyter for Tres Rio Presbytery. She married David York on Nov. 2, 2019.

Emily Béghin (MDiv’15) has been called as associate pastor for First Presbyterian Church, Bryan, Texas.

Chris Reyes (MATS’15) has been hired at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, to help marginalized and atrisk students with on-campus internships.

Matthew Aldas (MDiv’16) has been installed as the pastor of Buchanan Presbyterian Church in Buchanan, Virginia.

Jessie Light-Wells (MDiv’17) has been called as campus minister at UKirk SMU in Dallas.

Janine Zabriskie (MDiv’17) serves as a chaplain at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.

On August 26, 2019, April Long (MDiv’19) and husband, James Fidlon, welcomed daughter Cecelia to the world.

in memoriam | Earl M. Clary (MDiv’49), October 26, 2019, Horseshoe Bay, Texas David T. Moore (MDiv’51), July 11, 2019, Davis, California Duncan Campbell (MDiv’56), September 9, 2019, Redlands, California Richard O. Knott Sr. (MDiv’56), July 2019, Dallas, Texas Jim Sheppard (MDiv’56), September 10, 2019, Mesquite, Texas George J. Fischer Jr. (MDiv’59), July 27, 2016, Luling, Louisiana George R. Stewart (MDiv’60), October 22, 2019, Fredericksburg, Texas G. Thomas Huser (MDiv’62, DMin’90), August 13, 2019, Kerrville, Texas Pat McClurg (MDiv’67), August 25, 2019, Black Mountain, North Carolina Joe S. McClure (ThM’70), June 7, 2017, Knoxville, Tennessee Leon K. Rathbun (MDiv’98), November 14, 2017, Terry, Montana v

Angela Williams (MDiv’19) is the Outreach and Faith Organizer for Texas Freedom Network in Austin.

ordinations | Travis P. (Gould) Fitzgold (MDiv’16), ordained on September 21, 2019, by the Southwest Texas Synod of the ELCA and installed as pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran

Erica Knisely (MDiv’14) is one of three alumnae who contributed to the Year A, Volume 1 of Connections, our lectionary commentary series with WJK.

Trailblazer Pat McClurg remembered

P

atricia Ann McClurg (MDiv’67) holds the distinction of being Austin Seminary’s first alumna to be ordained and the first woman to be ordained to pastoral ministry in the PCUS. She was named a Distinguished Alumna of Austin Seminary in 1986. She died on August 25.

McClurg served two churches before expanding into national and international realms. She served nine years on the denomination’s General Assembly Mission Board, ultimately as its director. During her term there, the northern and southern Presbyterian churches merged, and in the 1970s, she was the one female on a committee of ten that worked for seven years writing A Declaration of Faith, which continues to be a transforming document for worship and faith in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

She served at the National Council of Churches (1982 and 1991), and was unanimously voted to serve as its president from 1988-1989—the first clergywoman ever to serve in this capacity (noted in the New York Times). She also served on the World Council of Churches. Protesting the apartheid policies in South Africa, she spoke at a press conference with Ted Kennedy on the Capitol steps and was arrested in front of the South African embassy. Nelson Mandela met with McClurg on his first visit to the U.S. after being released from prison.

Former classmates and those who followed in her wake expressed deep gratitude for her ministry. Three of the six pioneering women students in the 1960s recently reminisced about their friend:

Elizabeth Johnson (Betsy) Pense (MDiv’69) remembered exam day in Greek class when the first two students to turn in their papers and leave were women. “Pat had finished her exam as well but thought it would not do for the third person, and only other woman, to leave the room next. She decided to go over the paper one more time, waited

“Almost every week I find a relevant article. Thanks for keeping up the subscription for alumni!”

Deadline: New login for Atla Dear Grateful Alumni, Your old login credential for Atla won’t work after December 31, 2019. For details and instructions about your new password and login, visit:

AustinSeminary.edu/Atla “Atla’s a real lifeline for me.”

one more minute, and then said to heck with it, turned in her exam, and left the room.”

Patricia (Trish) Gladney Holland (MDiv’68) remembered an incident familiar to women pastors.

“During Pat’s first year in ministry as assistant pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Beaumont, Texas, when one of the men learned that Pat would be preaching that day, he made preparations to leave and drive home.

Bystanders recall his saying, ‘I’m not coming to worship to hear a woman preach; I get preached at six days a week at home by a woman, and I’m not going to take it on Sunday, too.’”

Judy Record Fletcher (MDiv’69) remembered that when she declared her fear of Professor Stuart Currie, Pat taught her a valuable lesson: “When he calls on you and asks you a question, look at him and ponder the question, squint or twinkle your eyes and stay silent. After a minute or so he will answer the question for you sometimes adding, ‘Yes, it is something to think about, isn’t it?’”

Each remembers Pat McClurg as a faithful friend, a creative servant of Christ, and a lot of fun! “She brought the best gifts of her mind to the tasks of theology and ministry,” they said. “Consequently she challenged the rest of us to bring our best gifts as well … We are better ministers through her ministry to us and others. And, we are grateful that ‘In life and in death, we belong to God.’” v

Make plans for MidWinters 2020 when we will honor Distinguished Service Award recipients CAROL HOWARD MERRITT (MDiv’98)

& DICK POWELL (MDiv’07) Plus you won’t want to miss our

Make Some Noise in the Library Soiree mischief-making reunion gathering!

Non Profit Org U.S. Postage PAID Austin, TX Permit No. 2473

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MidWinters 2020, February 3-5 The Reverend Dr. Luke Powery is Associate Professor of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School and Dean of the Duke University Chapel CURRIE LECTURES: “Searching for Common Ground”

Throughout the history of the church and world, there have been divisions across racial and ethnic lines and, of course, other forms of human difference. These lectures will attempt to provide a constructive theological perspective on human racial and ethnic difference as a pathway toward proclaiming the mosaic future of God for all of human creation.

The Reverend Dana Hughes is a poet and Transitional Presbytery Pastor for Denver Presbytery

JONES LECTURES: “A Net of Words: Pursuing the Sacred by Human Means” In this conversation, we will explore the human attempt to capture the depth and breadth of yearning for the divine through words woven into poems. Verbs, nouns, tea strainers, cast nets, purse seines, and trawls will be applied.

Bishop Robert Schnase is an author and leader of the Rio Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church

WESTERVELT LECTURES: “Border Crossing: The Power of Narrative to Open Hearts and Change Conversations” My collection of stories, Border Crossing, provides the personal, intimate perspective of a pastor working in the intermingling, sometimes clashing, cultures of the border.

After each story, we will reflect on the power of narrative to create the liminal space for transformation and social change within communities, especially in contentious times.

MidWinters Preacher

The Reverend Keatan King Associate Pastor of St. Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas

Monday @ 3:00 p.m.

a special showing of the new film Emanuel

Register @ AustinSeminary.edu/midwinters