Windows | Winter 2023

President

José R. Irizarry

Board

of Trustees

Keatan A. King, Chair

James C. Allison

Lee Ardell

Janice L. Bryant (MDiv’01, DMin’11)

Kelley Cooper Cameron (CIM’21)

Gregory Cuéllar

Thomas Christian Currie

James A. DeMent Jr. (MDiv’17)

Jill Duffield (DMin’13)

Britta Martin Dukes (MDiv’05)

Peg Falls-Corbitt (CIM’20)

Jackson Farrow Jr.

Beth Blanton Flowers, MD

Archer Frierson

Jesús Juan González (MDiv’92)

Cyril Hollingsworth (CIM’16)

Ora Houston

Shawn Kang

John Kenney (CIM’20)

Steve LeBlanc

Sue B. McCoy

Matthew Miller (MDiv’03)

W. David Pardue

Lisa Juica Perkins (MDiv’11)

Denise Nance Pierce (MATS’11)

Mark B. Ramsey

Stephen Rhoades

Sharon Risher (MDiv’07)

Conrad M. Rocha

John L. Van Osdall

Michael Waschevski (DMin’03)

Sallie Watson (MDiv’87)

Elizabeth C. Williams

Michael G. Wright

Trustees Emeriti

Cassandra C. Carr

Bruce G. Herlin

Lyndon L. Olson Jr.

B.W. Payne

Max Sherman

Anne Vickery Stevenson

Austin Seminary Association (ASA) Board

Josh Kerr (MDiv’14), President

Paul Sink (MDiv’00), Vice-President

Sarah Hegar (MDiv’09), Secretary

Melinda Hunt (CIM’16), Past President

Candi Cubbage (MDiv’89)

Matt Edison (MDiv’18)

Kristin Galle (MDiv’01)

David Gambrell (MDiv’98)

John Guthrie (MDiv’06)

Amy Litzinger (MATS’15)

Joe MacDonald (DMin’19)

Carl McCormack (MDiv’95)

Jean Reardon (MDiv’05)

Devon Reynolds (MDiv’19)

Amy Sergent (MDiv’92)

Tony Spears (MDiv’15)

Marta Ukropina (MDiv’06)

Senior student Britt Hicks takes seriously the meaning and purpose behind the breaking of bread for communion, something they gained an appreciation for through their studies with Professor Jennifer Lord. Photograph by Jody Horton.

By Jennifer L. Lord

By Eric Wall

By Rachel Watson (MDiv’22)

Alex Pappas (MDiv’19) and Aiden Diaz

By Monica Hall (MDiv’08)

Editor

Randal Whittington

Contributors

Sylvia Greenway

Judy Matetzschk-Campbell

Gary Mathews

Usama Malik

Mikala McFerren

Alison Riemersma

Sharon Sandberg

Mona Santandrea

David Schmersal

Kristy Sorensen

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 | Printed on recycled paper

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President’s Schedule

January 8-10,

January 23-25 – Host, MidWinter Lectures, Austin, Texas

February 5 – Speaker, TheoEd, Paramount Theater, Austin, Texas

February 25 – Keynote Speaker, Hispanic / Latinx Leaders, Synod of the Southwest, Albuquerque, New Mexico

March 30-31 – Inauguration as President of Austin Seminary, Austin, Texas

The most memorable line in the Westminster Shorter Catechism comes as a response to its first question: “What is the chief end of man?” to which the faithful respond in earnest, “To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” The fact that the catechism introduces children and neophytes to Christian doctrine by establishing the primacy of divine adoration in defining humanity’s purpose places worship at the center, not only of church life, but also the constitution of our own being as creatures.

From the perspective of the Reformed tradition, we are created to be in worshipful relationship with God. In seeing ourselves—adopting the words of the African theologian St. Augustine—as “homo liturgicus,” we understand that our lives are defined by rituals that give us purpose and meaning. When these rituals are expressed in community in ways that make evident our shared beliefs, we find ourselves in a veritable space of worship.

This edition of Windows celebrates the many ways in which our “chief human end” is made manifest in the life of Austin Seminary. To be part of this community is to learn the patterns by which we come together in worship. These patterns are both extensions of familiar ways we worship at our home congregations, and unique, creative responses to the multiplicity of faith stories and the cultural diversity that shapes our understanding and experience of this place of sacred encounters.

In reading the articles and stories printed here, you will get to know more about our institutional identity, not through a well-articulated mission statement, but through a description of manners in which we pray, the way we sing, the way we navigate the rhythms of the liturgical year, the ways we hear the music, and listen to the Word, as well as to the sound of running water, the rupturing of a loaf, and the pouring of wine. In the stories of students, you will realize how they are mentored into worship leadership and participation.

While less remembered, the answer to the last question of the Shorter Catechism brings our worshipful obligation full circle. For in learning the Lord’s Prayer as the prime model for addressing the divine, we are taught “to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him; and, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.”

Faithfully yours,

José R. Irizarry President

For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the PresbyterianReformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip people for ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources for the nurture of the church; to practice and promote critical theological thought and research; to engage a range of voices and perspectives within and beyond the life of the Seminary; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God’s people.

2023 – Delegate, Latino ATS President’s Gathering, San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Entering Class for 2022 comprises forty-six master’s-level students based in Austin and Nashville: twenty-two MDiv students, one MAMP student, one MATS student, and twenty-one Master of Arts in Youth Ministry students. For the fall semester we also have an exchange student from The Netherlands.

{The fall Community Storytelling evening centered on the theme, “Letter to my Younger Self.” Above MAYM student Jeremy Demarest shares.

New for the Polity Bowl this year, the Austin Seminary Hawk mascot (with assistance getting around provided by student Ashley Brown). Cheering on with the Holy Spirit Squad is exchange student Rieke Brouwer.

Firsts: President Irizarry (above) preparing to preside over the 2022-23 Opening Convocation Service and (right) giving a presentation during his first meeting of the Seminary’s Board of Trustees.

There was much love in the air on “Ted Wardlaw Day” (according to the City of Austin) as friends gathered to celebrate our newly retired (but never retiring) president. He acknowledged with gratitude the $1.7 million raised for the Seminary’s endowment to honor his legacy.

| Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Photograph by Shawn Kang

Austin Seminary Board welcomes new members

The Austin Seminary Board of Trustees added five new members during its gathering November 7-8. Rotating off the board were The Reverend Katherine Bywaters Cummings (MDiv’05), Dr. William Greenway, and The Reverend Lana Russell; two additional vacancies resulted from resignations.

The Reverend Dr. Gregory Cuéllar serves on the faculty as associate professor of Old Testament. As an international and interdisciplinary biblical scholar, he has written on topics related to the US / Mexico borderlands, Latino/a immigration, race, and empire, including his most recent work, Resacralizing the Other at the US-Mexico Border: A Borderland Hermeneutic (2019). At the juxtaposition of his interest in art and immigrant advocacy, he is also currently working on an art-based social action project called “Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project.”

Archer Frierson is a retired cotton farmer and currently is a member manager of Frierson Brothers, LLC, in Shreveport, Louisiana. A graduate of Washington and Lee University, he serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Centenary College. A lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, he has been a deacon, elder, trustee, member of two pastor-nominating committees, a church school teacher for both children and adults, and served on his church’s steering committee for its “Fulfilling the Vision” capital campaign. Frierson also served on Austin Seminary’s recent campaign steering committee. Like his

Board Report

The Austin Seminary Board of Trustees took the following actions at its Fall meeting:

• Granted tenure to Professor Carolyn

father, Clarence Frierson, who was a long-time member and chair of the Seminary’s Board of Trustees, Archer has also served as board chair.

The Reverend Shawn Kang is pastor of Mosaic Village Church of Houston, his second church plant in the Houston area. He is also the central regional associate for the PC(USA) program 1001 New Worshiping Communities and serves as interim coordinator for evangelism and church growth for New Covenant Presbytery. Kang grew up in Michigan and studied at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

The Reverend Lisa Juica Perkins (MDiv’11) has been pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Sherman, Texas, since 2016. In that capacity she has grown the ministries of the church to include A Place at the Table, a community garden, Blessing Box, and the non-profit Family Promise

of Grayson County. Prior to being called to Covenant, she served as the associate for ecclesial partnerships in the Seminary’s Admissions Office. She serves on the board of Home Hospice of Grayson County and the Sherman Chamber of Commerce.

The Reverend Dr. Sallie Sampsell Watson (MDiv’87) is the general presbyter for Mission Presbytery and is a Distinguished Alumna of Austin Seminary (2019). She has served in leadership for three presbyteries as well leading congregations in Texas, California, and Utah. She also served previously on the boards of Austin Seminary and the Presbyterian Outlook and now serves on the Committee of the Office of General Assembly and the Board of Trustees for Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly. Sallie worships at Covenant Presbyterian Church in San Antonio. v

Browning Helsel

.

• Approved sabbaticals for Eric Wall (Fall 2023), Cynthia L. Rigby, and Phil Helsel (Spring 2024).

• Approved that the Seminary’s Purpose Statement be amended (see “Mission

Statement” on page 2 of this issue of Windows).

• Approved “A Widening Place: Austin Seminary Strategic Plan 2022-2025.”

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New board members Shawn Kang, Lisa Juica Perkins, Archer Frierson, Sallie Watson, and Gregory Cuéllar.

Perhaps you prayed the Commendation for the deceased and cast dirt on the casket as part of your funeral practicum for the introductory worship course.

Or maybe you decided to scoop and lift water from the font as you declared the Assurance of Pardon for the Lord’s Day practicum because you remembered the connection between baptism and the Confession of Sin. Maybe on baptism day you brought your toddler to help everyone practice, or on Holy Communion day you made a bread run to HEB before your practicum, or maybe you baked your own bread. As a student at Austin Seminary, you were taught not to look like a flying superhero while pronouncing the Charge and Benediction, not to anxiously shift side to side while reading scripture, and

Continued on page 8

Jennifer L. Lord is The Dorothy B. Vickery Professor of Homiletics and Liturgical Studies at Austin Seminary. Her work focuses on liturgical theology informing preaching, presiding/worship leadership, spirituality, and renewal of Sunday worship practices. In this photo she is helping student Devonté Harris be comfortable in the act of elevating the cup for Eucharist.

Making Us New

By Jennifer L. Lord

Echolocation

By Eric Wall

vocation, the Spirit’s nudging: all are Hearing, writ large—not to mention Seeing, Tasting, Feeling, Touching. These co-mingle, sometimes so much that we feel a Holy Absurdity, as if we are in Shakespeare’s  Midsummer: “the eye … hath not heard, the ear … hath not seen … the hand is not able to taste.”  First John 1:1-2 describes this sensory overflow: “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it.”

Continued on page 9

Wall is The Gene Alice Sherman Associate Professor of Sacred Music and dean of the chapel at Austin Seminary. This essay was adapted from the Opening Convocation Address he delivered in September of this year. In the photo he is conducting the choir during the Hopson Symposium at Austin Seminary in 2017.

Eric

Seminary is, among other things, a Hearing Place. Texts, languages, ideas, and community voices: all are chiming, echoing. Revelation, beauty,

to infuse all gestures and prayers with life.

You also, I hope, had some fun in liturgy classes! Maybe you were one of those practicing baptism at the three-acre spring-fed Barton Springs pool in downtown Austin, garnering a lot of strange looks in that public place (What are they doing?!). Were you one of the students who knew how to submerge a person in living water, showing your “asperging” (sprinkling) classmates how baptism by immersion is done? Some of you in nonsacramental traditions created rites of naming, sharing your wisdom with your peers. Perhaps you took courses on music, and you penned hymn texts, taught a song, or created your musical autobiography. Focusing on the church’s worship as a pastoral event, maybe you spent a semester marrying and burying people. Maybe you took the course requiring you to draw a “crisis” from a hat and, in less than one hour, prepare a liturgy in the wake of that crisis. At least one of you practiced the Declaration of Pardon on an attentive Austin Seminary campus squirrel.

You may have been a student during the Stan Hall Era, studying under that remarkable, rigorous, and irascible scholar of liturgics. He taught you about the sacraments and their inseparability from the Word. He inspired students who couldn’t even pronounce Triduum to create songs and banners for the Seminary’s Easter Vigil. He urged Seminary presidents to give chapel tours to incoming students and visitors. He loved to tell the story of Stuart Currie’s gift of the communion table for our chapel and how a previous president had to continuously move it out of a transept (where it was relegated on noncommunion days) and back to its place at the front of the center aisle until, finally, faculty colleagues gave up and let the table remain where it is to this day.

Maybe you helped make Stan Hall’s dream of a lab space come true. The Stanley R. Hall Liturgics Lab was dedicated in 2010 with the Class of 2009 commissioning the Reverend Derek Forbes (MDiv’08) to design and craft the communion table, baptismal font, and cross in memory of Dr. Hall. Professor Whit Bodman later hand built the casket used for funeral practica (and then someone—who, we don’t know—placed an inflatable figure inside which was declared to be Charles Robert). We’ve moved a piano into the space. One wall is lined with mirrors so we can check our orans gesture. I still have a favorite photo of a dozen of you raising your loaves of bread still in their wrappers, beaming at the camera before we began Holy Communion practica day.

I could go on and imagine you could, too. The fact

“Getting to lead worship helped me gain experience in a variety of settings and gave me confidence in my abilities as a worship leader. In class, I was introduced to resources that have given me tools with which to craft worship experiences for the congregation I serve.

– Rev. Karen Wright (MDiv’07)

When I stand at the font, I remember Stan Hall’s deep and authoritative voice saying, “Remember your baptism and be thankful.” And I always am.

– Rev. Dr. Robert Wm. Lowry (MDiv’01)

Encouraging young children to splash in the water in the font, I remember becoming reacquainted with baptism at Austin Seminary. My “dry ideas” got a good soaking in God’s joy and love, which are as real as water is wet.

– Rev. Ben Masters (MDiv’17)

Families of faith have blessed Austin Seminary with gifts that honor those they love while glorifying God and contributing to the ongoing education of the next generation of Christian leaders. One such family is that of the late Edward D. Vickery Sr. who served the Seminary with time, talent, and treasure on the Board of Trustees. Knowing the important role that worship played in the life of his family, Vickery and his children, Downy

Dot and Ed Vickery in the Vickery Atrium of the McCord Community Center.

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

We learned how the elements of worship can transform a community and individuals into people shaped by the Grace of God, the livingness of Jesus, and the creativity of the Holy Spirit. Leading worship isn’t just Sunday morning; it’s the effort, joy, research, prayer, imagination, and inspiration that a worship leader offers the whole week long. I am constantly thankful for the way I was taught to lead worship, from the physical leading, like one’s body presence, voice, chancel visuals, etc., to the metaphysical and the meaning behind each movement, word, and note for both the leaders and the worshiping community as a whole.

– Rev. Holly Clark-Porter (MDiv’12)

Two words: Stan Hall! What a gift he was in helping us understand the theological importance of liturgy and ritual while also making room for the creativity of the Spirit.

– Rev. Dr. Tricia Tedrow (MDiv’98)

Vickery and Anne V. Stevenson, established The Dorothy B. Vickery Chair of Homiletics and Liturgics in 2007, lovingly honoring his wife and their mother. Held by one of the nation’s most well-known Reformed liturgists, The Reverend Dr. Jennifer Lord, the position supports the traditionally strong role of worship in the life of Austin Seminary’s community. This gift is making a lasting impact on the quality of worship our graduates will share with future congregants. Vickery’s gift ensures that a highly qualified professor always fills this important role in the education of the preachers of tomorrow. This gift from a family of faith is a lasting legacy of the love they have for the church, Creator, and each other.

Asked recently about the impact his father’s choice to endow the chair in memory of their mother had on him, Downy said, “Influenced by Mom and Dad’s lifelong devotion to church and prayer, my sister and I have continued to make those blessings a priority in our lives and remain dedicated to sharing those blessings with those around us. Proverbs 22:6 comes to mind: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.’”

Austin Seminary is blessed to have the Vickery family as part of our Seminary community v

“What do you hear?” A pastor for whom I worked always asked us this single question after we had read, in worship preparation, whatever scripture text would be anchoring the liturgy. It’s a different question than “What is this about?” or “What does this mean?” The pastors in those meetings heard some things, the educator heard other things, and I, the musician, heard still other things. Musicians (as you may well know!) often seem oddly preoccupied. They tap rhythms, mouth words, sway in place. They may seem simultaneously present and far away, or pass you unseeing in the hall, or sit “alone in a crowd,” trance-like. It is because they are listening. Even in “silence,” sound is at work in an inner ear. Try proving it to yourself: take a moment and hear, to whatever degree you can, a heartsong of your faith: a church hymn, a children’s Bible song, a youth group song, something from a season or from a funeral or from wherever. Listen to it in your head. Songs mysteriously come and go within our inner worlds, as they do in community worship. Edward Said, twentieth century intellectual, postcolonial scholar, professor of literature, was also a pianist and a remarkable music critic. He said that music is the most silent of the arts. What he meant was that music is always pushing against silence, invading silence, and returning to silence—that the sound of music itself calls paradoxical attention to the reality of silence. Our songs emerge and recede, still present, whole or fragmentary, in our inner ear, in memory, in heart.

So while they last, while they sound, what happens? Because music is something that happens. I have often said to students here that I hope for them this postseminary takeway: choosing songs is not just a choice of words. Music comes along for the ride. My current analogy for this is the bicycle. A hymn has words and music—a text and a tune—and like the two wheels of a bike, one doesn’t move without the other. For the whole thing to go, both have to be in motion, and none of it will move without a rider—which, for hymns, means the singer: you and me. Just as those bike wheels travel with air inside them, so is singing set in motion by our breath. Sometimes we downshift and sing gently, slowly. Sometimes we need training wheels to learn new songs. Sometimes when life or faith makes it too hard for us to sing, the community sings, pedaling for us and buckling us up securely as passengers in prayer. Songs, after all, are both life-giving and complicated. They may give us joy; they may also make us mad, with words that push us or tunes that we haven’t heard. Like preaching, they are

is that Austin Seminary has a reputation for graduates knowing how to lead the people of God in the worship of God. This is because, in large degree, we have modeled and taught two things: to preside and to think theologically about worship.

At Austin Seminary you are up front right away, leading the actions of worship, learning to be a worship leader and a presider. You learn to do the things of worship and are taught to have oversight of the whole. Maybe you remember: the presider is symbolized by an eagle in some traditions. The presider is the eagle eye, the overseer for the entire worship service. You lead some components of worship, and you make sure that all the things that need to get done do get done: read and proclaim the word, celebrate the sacraments, pray for the whole world, gather with praise, confess sins, declare assuredness of pardon, bless to live as Christ’s own in the world.

And you plumb the depths of the theology of worship. Here you learn how every component of worship is an event where God promises to act and meet our real human needs: God’s word sustains (Is. 55:10), God hears our prayers and comforts us (Ps. 34:4), God rejoices at the repentant sinner (Luke 15:20), God feeds us (Matt. 14:19), God washes us into new life (Rom. 6:3-4), God makes us ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). This is when I start to rant in the classroom: worship is an encounter and we are being made new (Rev. 21:5)!

But we get caught up in our inventiveness and become focused on our efforts for good worship and forget there is more than us going on in the gathering. So I bring Annie Dillard’s words to class each year: “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? … It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

Worship is an encounter with the waking God, the holy triune God who draws us out to where we can never return. During worship, in worship, while we worship, God is transforming us, delivering us from our fragmentation and estrangement, making us, by God’s grace, more of what we were created to be: the new creation. Paradise restored. Us, and the whole cosmos. Come to worship, come expectant and vulnerable, ready to confess, ready to beg for the needs of the world, ready to hear the word addressing you, ready to be bonded with

Worship during Covid

by Rachel Watson (MDiv’22)

Isat

in front of a laptop with a second monitor plugged into it with a Zoom meeting open and ready to go. Beside the laptop was an iPad displaying a worship leader’s guide. On the other side, my phone was open to a beadle group chat. It was just a normal pandemic Tuesday morning. It was time for worship at Austin Seminary and the beadles were ready.

When I applied for the job of a chapel beadle, this is not exactly what I had had in mind. But the world had other plans. Beadles prepare worship spaces. They make sure that things are ready and hospitable. They make sure that people are ready and able to meet God in worship. The pandemic forced us to think about what worship spaces look like when they are confined to computer screens. How do we keep community? How do we keep the central things of worship, physical reminders of God’s love for us, when we are physically separated? How do we do church?

The thing I appreciated most about pandemic worship at Austin Seminary is that no decision was

Austin Seminary has long taught that worship is at the heart of the Christian believer’s expression of faith, and music is at the heart of worship. As St. Augustine wrote, “When one sings, one prays twice.” Placing music at the heart of the liturgy provides a reflective space in worship for many cultures and spiritual practices, honoring God in ever more creative ways. Austin Seminary leads the nation in the teaching of sacred music because of the generosity of an Austin couple, Max and Gene Alice Sherman. To honor his wife’s life and love of music (they met as teens when Gene Alice played the organ for a jail-house worship service that Max led), they endowed the Gene Alice Sherman Chair in Sacred Music, a tenure-track faculty position established in 2014. With this chair, Austin Seminary became the only Presbyterian seminary in the nation to employ a full-time faculty member

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

ever made lightly. We met for hours, walking through every decision, thinking about every implication of our choices, thinking through the theology of worship, figuring out how to make the virtual real, pondering how to respect the traditions when life had thrown us a curve ball. Sitting with my peers and with our fearless leader, Eric Wall, I learned more about what worship means and how worship works, practically and theologically, because of this experience. I wish we had never had to leave our physical churches, but I appreciate the perspective it gave me.

If you had told me five years ago that I would be the one sitting in a staff meeting imagining worship through a camera lens or be the one standing before session defending the need for hybrid worship or actually have a theological reason for choosing Zoom over YouTube, I would have laughed. But here we are. At Shelton Chapel, I learned how to really think about worship, both in the physical and virtual sanctuaries, how to tend relationships and how to witness to the world where it is, no matter what the world throws at us. v

Rachel Watson was a chapel beadle and president of the student body. Upon graduation in May she was ordained as stated supply associate pastor at University Presbyterian Church, Austin

sometimes an assurance and sometimes a challenge. Like the other parts of liturgy, they rehearse the life of faith. As prayer, they invite our whole being to be with God.

Biking and singing share one other thing: they won’t happen unless you keep going. The more you keep pedaling, the easier the ride is. The more we sing, the surer we are, the further we go, the more we discover. Where and how do we make those discoveries about songs in worship? One way is through textbooks: the very specific textbooks that often sit right in front of us, books that we may not call textbooks. We usually call them hymnals or songbooks or song collections. Yet books of texts they are: texts of words, texts of music. They are pedagogical resources. They are anthologies, with centuries’ worth of authors and composers. Church history? It’s in there. Theology? It’s in there. Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal has 853 mini-lectures. The African American Heritage Hymnal has 686 prayers. Santo Santo Santo has 723 devotions. The United Methodist Hymnal has 678 readings and commentaries.

What do we find on the page of a hymnbook? Multiple languages, for one thing: the languages of words (sometimes more than one, in the case of multilingual songs), but also the language of music. Some of that language is on paper, but those symbols and lines are a small part of music—its real utterance is in sound, and whether you “read music” or not, you “speak music” whenever you sing.

dedicated to teaching sacred music. With this very special gift to Austin Seminary, Max Sherman made it possible to ensure that the resources are always available to have a faculty member who incorporates music into the curriculum, teaching these courses in all of the Seminary’s degree programs. His gift of love is a living celebration of Gene Alice and enriches the education of countless church leaders of the future. v

We find names: authors and composers. On page 79 of Glory to God, we discover that the hymn “Light Dawns on a Weary World” began with music composed by William P. Rowan; the words, by Mary Louise Bringle, followed, arising out of author’s absorption of the music. This tells us that authors and composers, words and music, are in relationship, and that songs come to be in certain times and places and by certain people. We learn age, gender, countries of origin. We see notes about publishers and copyrights, which remind us that matters of economic justice and fairness are connected to what we sing. These may kick up other questions: What and who are present before us? What is hidden? What needs research? What is problematic? Songs are flesh-and-blood; they have particularity; they are among us.

We may find the weave of theology, history, politics. On page 382 of Glory to God, we find “El cielo canta alegría/Heaven Is Singing for Joy,” by Pablo Sosa. We find three languages on the page: Spanish, English, and the Argentinian folk song-dance called carnavalito. We also

Max Sherman (right) gives a check to then Seminary President Ted Wardlaw toward funding of The Gene Alice Sherman Chair in Sacred Music, named to honor his wife (center.)

those around you, ready to be crowned again beloved of God—the waking God draws us out to make us new.

Many of you know that worship service that stretches over three days (the Triduum) where we get to the heart of it all: God drawing us into who we are meant to be by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have especially strong memories of so many of you as we prepared for these days, creating the book-length bulletin, learning about dryer lint for the great fire, almost mastering the candles. The Triduum means the great Three Days. On Maundy Thursday we are commanded to love one another, we wash feet and share Christ’s covenant meal. On Good Friday we go to the foot of the cross and are honest about our death-dealing ways; we sit in our sorrows. At nightfall before Easter dawn, we begin the great annual proclamation of resurrection and, in a quite long Vigil, are drawn out again, through story and symbol and ritual enactment, into who we are: bearers of the light of Christ, storied in salvation, baptized from death to life, feasted in the kingdom-come. At this apex of the church’s year, through full-force symbol and song, we rejoice in the One who has trampled down death and are refashioned again as Christ’s body sent forth for the life of the world.

Thank God that our school invests in these matters of worship. The chapel sits at the center of our campus and the Ethel Lance Memorial Circle, also a place for community worship and a sign of the ever memorable Saints, is tucked right up to that center. Our resident artist made sure we have a font. Our faculty bring a fresh word in preaching and they preside each week at Holy Communion, our students and staff volunteer for worship leadership, seniors preach their “senior sermons,” student groups lead special services that have become traditions, too, like Día de Los Muertos and the Blessing of the Animals. Friends of the Seminary have endowed worship and music funds for lectures and events and for five different hymnals, ensuring a range of song and styles for our intercultural community. We have chaired faculty positions in liturgy and in music and in preaching. And we have beadles (!) who support community worship. And we keep the Feast of feasts, the Great Vigil of Easter.

Austin Seminary students practice and learn the relevance of the acts of worship, and graduates continue them, giving them fresh shape in their contexts. What a ministry: bringing all things before the waking God, being re-formed as God’s own for the life of the world, that all things will be made new! Glory to God. v

“Perhaps the most lasting impact worship at Austin Seminary had on my own ministry was Dr. Lord’s transcendent presence as a worship leader. I remember experiencing Jennifer’s leadership during Triduum services and I was deeply moved and uplifted by her fully embodied enthusiasm (en theos).

– Mark Horner (MDiv’15)

Courses in worship taught me the history, the structure, the words, movements, the symbols, and more importantly the why behind it all. Moving from class into chapel made it possible to experience and experiment. Years as a beadle taught me to listen and observe and prepare. God is present and the Spirit is willing and the gifts of lacing liturgy and breathing the music make it possible for me to plan and lead worship as a solo pastor straight out of seminary.

–Rev. Kallie Pitcock (MDiv’20)

In an effort to foster creative yet authentic ways to breathe new life into worship, The Reverend Dr. Carol A. Tate (DMin’14) established The K.C. Ptomey Jr. Memorial Fund to provide for an annual occasion or event which advances issues surrounding liturgical arts such as visual art, music, or poetry and their intersection with worship and pursuit of the Holy. The fund was designed for the use of the faculty holder of the Dorothy B. Vickery Chair of Homiletics and Liturgical Studies. The Reverend Dr. Jennifer Lord writes, “The funds from the Ptomey Fund are vital for my work in service to the broader Austin Seminary community because they extend the remarkable impact K.C. Ptomey had on his Austin Seminary colleagues and on the lives and ministries of so many of our graduates. These additional learning events, attending to the expansive reach of liturgical arts, are an exceptional way to further his teaching

Whenever I plan worship for my congregation, I can hear Jen Lord’s encouragement to find the “red thread” that links Scripture, song, and prayer, helping me emphasize the ways grace weaves through my people’s lives.

– Rev. Hierald Osorto (MDiv’18)

Professor Stan Hall offered me a real love and feel for liturgical space in the sanctuary. I readily and gratefully accepted his offer. I have used this knowledge to modify some “misinformed” locations of liturgical items, so they were in their “proper place.” Stan’s grasp of the importance and meaning of space, and passing that on to his students, enhanced our understanding of why we locate things where we do. The impact of the shared atmosphere of our service of worship is visible and palpable once the modifications become evident.

– Rev. Dan Walker (MDiv’96)

Carol Tate and K.C. Ptomey as K.C. was about to become Austin Seminary’s second Louis H. and Katherine S. Zbinden Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Leadership.

and modeling for ministry. The inaugural use of these funds supported the JustWorship Conference of the PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, hosted on our campus in 2017. Subsequent events have explored what it means to make worship fully accessible and how liturgical time influences meaning and hope in worship, always bending toward a new creation in Jesus Christ. Students and graduates are overwhelmingly grateful for these events focused on the worship of the church and our life in the Holy Triune God.” Carol Tate’s loving memorial for her husband, K.C., provides for creative worship now and in decades to come. v

discover that this song, written for a picnic of theological students in 1958, was the first 20th-century Christian hymn to make use of Latin American folk music. So we know that this hymn is not just text-and-tune: it is a political act and a theological claim.

Sometimes we need more than one book. Page 399 of Glory to God is Richard Smallwood’s hymn, “I Love the Lord, Who Heard My Cry.” The single page tells us to sing the two stanzas and stop. But page 395 in The African American Heritage Hymnal tells us more: an additional page, with a coda designed for repeated, open-ended singing. It isn’t the same song—it’s bigger, open-ended, fluid, more complete and yet unfinished. We don’t know exactly how the song will unfold. We become caught up in it, and holy surprises may await.

We can be grateful that Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a place Pablo Sosa and Richard Smallwood and Mary Louise Bringle and William Rowan and innumerable other creators are all heard and sung and at home. Recently, the student beadles and I were up in the chapel balcony for some AV training. As we looked down from the balcony, one of them made the comment that it was a beautiful thing to see the variety of hymnals. In the seminary journey, those books and those texts wait for us. In all of them, texts and music and ideas are echoing. Sometimes (in seminary and in any faith journey) we may want to put on the noise-cancelling headphones and shut the echoes out; other times, we’ll need to put a hand to ear and find those echoes. Sometimes they won’t be echoes at all, but instead things that we hear freshly, for the first time, or the things we speak and sing in this place, setting up more echoes.

If you know Austin, you probably know about the bats: thousands and thousands and thousands of bats who, at dusk, erupt from beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge downtown. Bats, of course, navigate by sound: it’s called echolocation. They make sounds and wait for the echoes to come back; it’s how they know where they are: sounds enable them to locate themselves. And these bats make their home under a bridge.

Until a new analogy occurs to me, I can’t think of a better metaphor (except bicycles) for songs and music in church and in the life of faith. Songs and texts are bridges and bridge builders, and the echoes of word and art and prayer help us discover where we are, who the whole people of God are, what bridges we have to cross, what bridges we have to build. So let’s keep pedaling the song-bikes: the church needs those wheels to spin on the Spirit’s breath, for the sake of the world. v

Beadles and big ideas: a conversation about formation

ALEX: Coming to Austin Seminary and doing the “Intro to Worship” class with [Professor] Jen Lord really built a foundation to understand why we do what we do. We also spent time considering, Why does that matter? Why do we do the Confession at the beginning versus at the end? That first part of the education was about getting the groundwork to build out and explore creativity.

Jen would tell us, “You have to know it in your bones,” so that class gave me three different pieces of liturgy that I just know I can do. I came into my [pastoral] residency with confidence; it affected my presence in worship. It makes a difference, say, in the Pardon to Confession, to be able to look around the congregation, speak it confidently,

and not have the running script in your head of What am I gonna say next?

I also took the “Sunday and Sacraments” class with Jen, an elective where you get to practice baptism and communion. And that’s fun and also such a gift to be able to focus on the two sacraments of our Presbyterian denomination.

AIDEN: I also took the worship class and I’m considering auditing it again this spring, because I was part of the class that got sent online at the start of the pandemic before we really got heavily into doing our practicums. So I know how to do communion online …

ALEX: [Professor] Eric [Wall]’s “Music in the Church” class is one of the most underrated classes offered at the Seminary. Everyone should take it! It is delightful. As someone with no music background—I can’t read music, I can look up hymns by theme, but even now in our worship meetings, I’m asking our music director, “Do you mind humming a bar?” But that class really helped build my comfort with how to use a hymnal, how to communicate with your music director, how to have a collaborative relationship instead of a top-down relationship.

AIDEN: I’m actually currently in the “Music in the Church” class and I agree with you—I wish that more of my classmates were taking it with us. I am a musician, but I don’t play often in churches anymore, so understanding how this kind of this partnership works has been really enlightening for me as well. I serve a church as their technology person so I get to sit in our roundtable for worship planning. My senior pastor tries to make it collaborative, but every now and again she does have a specific preference for the music. So I’m experiencing that as I hear Eric explaining it. So many things are making sense because I’m hearing Eric talk about how people navigate the conversations in that space.

ALEX: I took Eric’s class the first semester of my senior

Alex Pappas (MDiv’19), associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, Louisiana, and student Aiden Diaz, a Chapel beadle who serves on the Seminary’s Worship Committee, chat about learning and leading worship.

Alex Pappas shares the ceramic communion set she made that was used at the Association of Partners in Christian Education annual conference in 2020.

year. The final for that class was to come up with some kind of church event that wasn’t a worship service but had worship elements to it. Basically he asked us, What is the soundtrack for this event? We had to use music from different places around the world, different time periods; we really had to dig into the hymnals, and Eric is so generous with his time and his ideas. That kind of got me started, and I actually ended up writing the words for the song for my senior service, and Eric helped me figure out the tune.

I also did a directed study about art and worship with Jen Lord, and that was a really wonderful experience incorporating my interest in pottery. She was so enthusiastic and I ended up making a communion set for the Seminary. It’s wonderful to have professors who recognize how your gifts can add to the worship experience and who are willing to help you develop those.

AIDEN: As a beadle and working with Eric on technology in the chapel, I appreciate that he always encourages me to remain in that creative space and kind of dream about how we can expand worship without losing worship.

ALEX: Right? Being in seminary, you can really try different things, different spaces—and space is such a cool aspect of worship! Having the freedom to try different things was just really fun, and Eric is so game to try things as long as you’re thoughtful about them. If you’re like, I don’t know, it’d just be cool to shoot off fireworks, he’s like, But why? Why the fireworks?

AIDEN: My main coursework in worship was limited because the pandemic took some of that away, but I feel my role as a chapel beadle has helped fill in those gaps. As beadles we work alongside Eric on every worship service to make sure that everything gets from point A to point B. For Tuesday worship we reach out to the professor who is preaching to make sure they have what they need. We start with the Scripture in that first meeting, and we kind of expand on what we’re hearing, throwing out ideas of what the liturgy could be, and that begins to blossom organically as a collaborative experience.

ALEX: That reminds me of the times after a service in my church people will say to me, Wow, this was so seamless, and I’m like, Yeah, because there were six people that had multiple meetings to try to figure things out!

AIDEN: Exactly! Beadles also serve on the Worship

Committee where faculty and other students take the expansive view of worship for the entire semester. We field ideas from the community on what kind of worship services to integrate into our calendar.

ALEX: Working on worship services was really cool because you get that planning experience and learn all that goes into preparing for worship. I remember [Professor] Cindy [Rigby] initially coming in with this big idea for her service and then working with her as she focused it. That helped us figure out how the liturgy was going to go. How great to work with someone who’s such a gifted preacher. It was nice to learn the whole process: how she worked with us, how much give or take you can allow your liturgist, how to convey the idea without being too controlling and giving your liturgist space to write the liturgy that God is calling them to write within the context of what the Bible passages are.

Learning at Austin Seminary was truly a gift—to be with people who feel deeply called to share why worship and music matter. I’m really thankful that even after graduation these are relationships you can continue to cultivate and carry with you throughout your ministry. v

As part of his role as a chapel beadle, Aiden Diaz assists with worship planning, communion, and liturgy.

Taking Triduum to the people

by Monica Hall (MDiv’08)

“Best.

Service. Ever.” Said with her mouth full of a white buttercream-frosted sugar cookie as she walked out the door after the Vigil on Holy Saturday. She had no idea it took over 100 hours of intentional preparation for the service that night. A 74-year-old Midwestern woman just experienced the heavens and earth collide in the best worship service of her life—in the hours of the women running to the empty tomb.

Until 2005, I did not know The Great Three Days even existed. Like a tree falling in the woods, and no one hearing it—is it real? It’s a grave reflection for the church that the greatest three days of good news is missing. (Maybe we need to staple a “Have You Seen Triduum? –Call this number if seen; Good News is worried” poster on telephone poles.)

Admittedly, if Jen Lord would not have brought me alongside the planning, the intention, the preparation, the meaning of it all—I would have passed the stapled missing sign on the telephone pole without flinching, unaware of heavenly worry.

The meaning of Triduum and its intention for the church is more than ritual. The Book of Common Worship has

WebXtra

The Austin Seminary Worship Podcast

the entire service print-ready, so there is little reason for ignoring it. The toil of preparation for it all is grueling— much like The Great Three Days. It is emotionally draining, physically demanding, and pastors, perpetually living in the exhausted mode, are ill equipped to prepare 20-30 church members for spiritual vulnerability.

Nevertheless, in 2010, in Woodward, Oklahoma, a small and energetic church decided to trust the planning for The Great Three Days and promised to go all in. So many questions, so many “why’s,” so many “my Catholic friends say we are going to be here past midnight …” But here was the result: “The experience of our church this past week has never been like this ... it makes me wonder how the practices of this week will flourish in our lives.”

The teaching and preparation of leadership is a crucial part of leading others to experience a church that dies and rises again. Good News no longer missing—but lived. v

Monica Hall is interim general presbyter for the Presbytery of Wyoming and a current Doctor of Ministry student at Austin Seminary.

Worship & Music @ AustinSeminary.edu

In our newest venture into podcasting, you can listen to faculty and student conversations about the process of worship preparation. Faculty preachers and leaders from Tuesday chapel services talk with Eric Wall, dean of the chapel, along with the chapel beadles and student worship assistants. We explore preaching texts, music choices, and the collaborative, diverse nature of worship on the Seminary campus. The podcast is available on the Austin Seminary website under “Resources” or scan the QR code at right:

Episode 1: President José Irizarry and Academic Dean Margaret Aymer Episode 2: Professor Bobbi Kaye Jones

Hymn and Prayer Videos

This is our second year of offering short video explorations of hymns from the hymnals in the Seminary’s Shelton Chapel. Members of the Seminary Choir sing, explain, and offer prayers. Both seasons are available here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8987611

Faculty Sermon Archives

One of the ways our Seminary faculty help shape community life is by their preaching at Tuesday chapel services. These sermons are recorded and archived, and you can find them here: AustinSeminary.edu/about/meet-the-faculty

The children of Hal H. and Martha S. Hopson chose to memorialize their parents’ musical gifts with a fund designed to provide additional resources for the faculty member who holds The Gene Alice Sherman Chair in Sacred Music. Knowing that musical experiences outside of the classroom would enrich the training of future church leaders, they designated their gift

so that symposium funds can create learning opportunities for students such as conferences, guest speakers and musicians, residencies, hymn song festivals, commissioning of hymns and songs, and partnership opportunities with other organizations. So far, the Seminary has supplied the chapel, as well as each MDiv student, with three new hymnals, Psalms for All Seasons, Santo Santo Santo, and The African American Heritage Hymnal. The Seminary has also invited special guests to campus—John L. Bell, Tony McNeill, the Reverend Aisha Brooks-Johnson, and Chi Yi Chen Wolbrink—who helped lead campus worship, offered special music programs, and guest lectured for classes. These deep resources create exceptional possibilities for Austin Seminary students to explore music and grow their concept of worship and their abilities to lead congregations in new, meaningful ways. This loving gesture by the children of two formidable church musicians (Hal Hopson is author of thirteen hymns in the Presbyterian hymnal Glory to God) fosters creative collaboration that enriches worship for the congregations who will be served by the students who participate in these events. v

Eric Wall is first holder of faculty chair in sacred music

Eric Wall was installed on November 10, 2022, as The Gene Alice Sherman Associate Professor of Sacred Music at Austin Seminary. Wall has served on the faculty since 2016 and is also the dean of the chapel. As the Seminary musician, he helps oversee the worship life of the campus and teaches courses in church music and worship. He earned a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in organ performance and the master’s degree in choral conducting from Florida State University.

Professor Wall is also the staff musician at Montreat Conference Center, a national conference center of the PC(USA) in Montreat, North Carolina, where he spends the summer season overseeing the music for worship, directing the Summer Staff choir, offering concerts and lectures, being available as a resource musician for summer events, and engaging in the life of the conference center as a music and worship consultant. He was previously director of music at First Presbyterian Church, Asheville, North Carolina, from 1998 to 2015.

Eric just completed a term as president of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) and continues as co-chair of PAM’s DEI Committee. He has been a contributor to the

PC(USA)’s Call to Worship journal and to the Hymn Society journal, The Hymn. He has taught at Columbia Theological Seminary and served as a music and worship consultant in various congregational settings. His new book Awake and Sing: Introductions and Accompaniments, a volume of his hymn introductions and accompaniments for organ, was published in June 2022 by Augsburg Fortress.

Donor and Trustee Emeritus Max Sherman (below with Eric) was present for the service and shared remarks. v

Hal and Martha Hopson joined the Austin Seminary community in November to celebrate Professor Eric Wall’s installation.

Beginning with Richard H. Niehbuhr’s book Christ and Culture (Harper & Row, 1956), Austin Seminary’s MidWinter Lectures have been the catalyst for many important books. Our 2021 Currie Lecturer, The Reverend Dr. Scott Black Johnston, has just published his book Elusive Grace, that grew from his lectures, “Good News for the Great Awakening: Gospel Truths for the Frightened, the Angry, and the Hyper-Aware.” Learn more about our 2023 MidWinters on the back cover.

good reads

Iremember when Professor Scott Black Johnston would come to my office to chat. I’d hear the squeak to the door of the building, then a wide-spaced, determined, and happy clomping as he walked from the front door to my hallway (about three Scott steps), turned right at the water fountain (usually after taking a drink) and three doors down (five more clomps) to my office, where he always paused (maybe looking to see if I had any new comics on my door), and then knock hard, three times in rhythm, every time.

“Come in, Scott!” I would say. And he would answer, “How did you know it was me?”

He would plop down in a chair with a mess of papers in one hand, pull a pen out of his pocket, lean forward and look me in eye, smile, and ask me a theological question, like: Why does it mean to say Jesus is human now? What do you know about heaven and hell? Do you think something changes in a person when they are ordained?

When I read Elusive Grace, I knew it was Scott. It was like he had clomped into my office again, looked me in the eye and asked, “Jesus said ‘love your enemy.’ Now—how exactly are we supposed to do this while we are simultaneously trying to do justice in the world?” Scott has a way of asking a question that invites his interlocutor to get caught up in the passion of the question with him, in a way that they wind up working together on answering it.

Dr. Johnston’s goal is to change the world, and he wants to do it by way of love. Not an unusual project. But his book, like his knock, is sharper than the usual “What the world needs now” approach. He suggests we give the Holy Spirit a leg up by striving to live the holy lives to

which we are called, by reclaiming virtue, retraining our hearts, and working on a more expansive understanding of church. I resonate with, but am indicted by, a section near the end, “Called to a Larger Vision,” where he imagines what Jeremiah would say to people in the US if he were standing on a street corner today:

You have no interest in the truth … Your energy is spent on shameless selfpromotion and scoring cheap political points … Meanwhile, the real issues fester … poverty … addiction … people’s sense of purpose and worth … [And] what are we doing about it? Nothing … you aren’t thinking of changing your behavior … confessing your sins, or getting everyone together to forge a vision that is bigger, grander, and holier than this” (123).

These words that Johnston puts in the mouth of Jeremiah are his words to us through the book. A prophet for our time, Johnston is with and for the people whom he serves and to whom he preaches. But, fair warning to those who read his book to find out how to fix our world: It is you that Johnston is positioning to be changed. v

faculty notes

Sarah Allen (OMFAS) will lead a workshop on intergenerational worship at the Association of Partners in Christian Education (APCE) annual conference in Birmingham, Alabama, and will serve as the keynote speaker at Mission Presbytery’s Youth Midwinter Retreat at Mo Ranch, both in January.

Reviewed by Cynthia L. Rigby, The W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Seminary

Margaret Aymer was installed as academic dean during a worship service on October 11 (photo above). She will be the Bible study leader for the 2023 DART Clergy Conference in Orlando (Feb. 8-10, 2023).

João Chaves (mission and evangelism) received the 2022 Book Prize from the Hispanic Theological Initiative for his new work, Migrational Religion (Baylor University Press, 2022).

Bobbi Kaye Jones (pastoral ministry and leadership) participated in the iACT Thanksgiving Service. She will preach at Saint John’s United Methodist Church (Austin) in April.v

Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Scott Black Johnston, Elusive Grace: Loving Your Enemies While Striving for God’s Justice Nashville: Westminster John Knox Press (2022)

Dean Aymer contributes to update of NRSV

Dr. Margaret Aymer, academic dean and The First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, D. Thomason Professor of New Testament Studies, was the editor for the book of James in The New Revised Standard Version-Updated Edition (NRSVue) of the Bible that made its print debut in November. Drawing a direct line in English-language translations from the King James Version (1611), the Revised Standard Version (RSV) was authorized in 1952 followed by the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) in 1989. Under the authority of the National Council of Churches, which holds the copyright, The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) formed a committee of scholars in 2017 to initiate a new update of the NRSV.

SBL’s mandate to was to “ensure the currency and integrity of the NRSVue as the most up-to-date and reliable Bible for use and study in English-language religious communities and educational institutions” with the intention that this translation “be produced by a diverse team for diverse readers.”

The SBL editorial team included fifty-six book editors who worked over the course of two years (2018–2019) comparing the 1989 NRSV text with recent developments in manuscript dating and accuracy.

“Where a translation was unclear or did not

fully capture the text,” says Aymer, “we were asked to make suggestions for a clearer and more precise text. Our work then went through two other editorial lenses, one group of biblical scholars and a second group of both scholars and pastors representing the National Council of Churches. The editors of this volume represent the most culturally diverse and gender-balanced group of editors ever to work on an English translation of the Bible.” According to editors, over 10,000 substantial revisions (alongside 20,000 minor revisions) mark this updated edition.

According to publisher, “The NRSV Updated Edition Bible is intended to be the world’s most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate modern English-language Bible translation available to date. The NRSVue is informed by the results of discovery and study of hundreds of ancient manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the more than thirty years since the first publication of the NRSV … With modern scholarship applied to ancient texts, the NRSV Updated Edition is designed to help readers explore the meanings of ancient texts in light of the cultures that produced them with unprecedented readability, accessibility, and inclusivity.” v

Professor White shares scholarship on beauty in new book

Dr. David White, The C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Professor of Christian Education, published his latest book, Tending the Fire that Burns at the Center of the World: Beauty and the Art of Christian Formation (Wipf and Stock, 2022), this summer.

One reviewer notes: “At first glance, someone might think beauty is a nice but peripheral topic in Christian discipleship. Indeed, it seems that this under-appreciation of the topic is the norm for individual Christians, churches, denominations, and movements. Until recently, I would have held a similar view. Dr. White provides a thorough, biblical, historical, and theological case for us to

return the appreciation of beauty to its rightful place in our lives of discipleship ... I am now much more attentive to the beauty in my life—sunsets, mountains, music, ocean, good food, faces, acts of kindness, and holy moments—and I allow them to call me to worship the Creator.”

White’s other books focus on the lives of youth in the church, including Joy: A Guide for Youth Ministry with Sarah F. Farmer and Miroslav Volf (2020), Dreamcare: A Theology of Youth, Spirit, and Vocation (2003), Practicing Discernment with Youth (2005), and Awakening Youth Discipleship: Christian Resistance in a Consumer Culture with Brian J. Mahan and Michael Warren (2008).v

“Talking the Times”

We have witnessed the extraordinary and unique stress that pastors and other leaders have faced over the last several years of multiple pandemics. We have listened to how the “things we didn’t learn in seminary” often become pain points in the field. We have learned that flourishing in ministry includes the ability to have regular conversations with similarly situated others—colleagues in the work.

We hear you and we want to support you. This spring, we are seeding small communities of faith leaders to gather around a pressing question or area of ministry practice. Each community will meet online and be guided by a facilitator who is not there as an expert but as a catalyst. While this facilitator will bring practical experience, the community itself will form the seedbed of knowledge, wisdom, and support for the group. Each community will meet every two weeks for a total of six meetings.

People: management, support, and supervision with Rev. Bobbi Kaye Jones

Return: coming back together in divisive times with Rev. Tracey Beadle

Spring Cleaning: what is essential to the life of the church and what can be let go? with Rev. Dr. Sarah Allen More Groups to Come! Most small groups begin in February.

“Soul Shop”

Soul Shop™ equips faith community leaders to minister to people affected by suicide as a regular aspect of their ministries. This one-day workshop includes practical exercises that help us to overcome the obstacles to dealing with suicide such as stigma, fear, and shame; give statistics/facts about suicide; and demonstrate how ministries can create a supportive environment while shifting the culture around how people deal with this subject. This workshop is for faith leaders and benefits counselors, lay ministry leaders, first responders, and essentially anyone interested in learning how to minister effectively to those impacted by suicide.

Date and Time: March 2, 2023, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Austin Seminary; Cost: $50, includes lunch and refreshments.

AustinSeminary.edu/EBW/workshops

Pastors Needing Renewal & Refreshment–Grants Available

Applications for College of Pastoral Leaders (CPL) grants open in January 2023, with applications due in May. Six small groups of pastors will receive $10,000 for self-designed programs of renewal and refreshment. We want to support you!

AustinSeminary.edu/CPL

EBW receives grants

Education Beyond the Walls (EBW) has been awarded three $5,000 Innovating Forward seed grants to initiate projects at the intersection of faith and mental health. The grants are provided through the Spiritual Mind Body Institute at Columbia University Teachers College with generous funding from The John Templeton Foundation. The grant period is September 2022 through August 2023, and the three projects are: Responding to Black and African American Women in Ministry; Connecting for Clergy Well-Being; and Tools for Trauma: Responding to Immigrant and Asylum-seeking Latinas. For details on these grants, read the full release here: AustinSeminary.edu/about/news

Festival of Sacred Stories

On the weekend of World Communion Sunday, Hope Presbyterian Church (Austin), hosted its first Festival of Sacred Stories, inviting the community to listen for the sacred in the lives of people who are often marginalized and ignored. The focus of the inaugural year was listening to stories told by undocumented immigrants.

Rev. Josh Robinson, Pastoral Leadership for Public Life alumnus and current DMin student, collaborated with Mónica Tornoé, EBW’s director of Latino/a programs, to gather storytellers and erect a gallery of written testimonies. Robinson shared, “Too often, we allow dehumanizing partisan and prejudicial factors to distort the imago dei rooted inside the ‘other.’” The festival was the culmination of work Robinson did for his DMin project on Resacralizing the Other and followed his sabbatical trip along the US-Mexico border.

Sarah Chancellor-Watson (MDiv’16), Meghan Vail (MDiv’17), Meghan Findeiss (MDiv’18), and Kathy Lee Cornell (MDiv’16) received a grant from the College of Pastoral Leaders and gathered in Austin this October to consider what improv has to offer the life of the church. While on campus for a workshop with Erica Knisely, they visited the new Wright Learning & Information Center and had ice-cream with Professor Cynthia Rigby.

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

class notes |

1970s

Deacon Eddie Ensley (19691971) recently recalled how his years at Austin Seminary formulated his call to ordained ministry. Although he finished his master’s in theology at Loyola University, he notes, “Austin holds a dear and deeply important part of my past. What I learned there is used in my ministry every day.” Eddie also received a doctorate in clinical pastoral counseling. In addition to writing more than a dozen books, he is currently on the clergy staff at St. Anne Catholic Church in Columbus, Georgia, where he preaches often at Sunday Masses and maintains a practice of pastoral counseling.

Bob Lively (MDiv’73, DMin’79) shares that his fifteenth “and final” book, Why Pray?, was published in August.

1980s

Jennifer McDowell, wife of Bryan McDowell (MDiv’81), died April 3, 2022.

2000s

Chris Harrison (MDiv’00) and Hannah Hooks (MDiv’05) serve as president and vice president of the Lee County Youth Center in Giddings, Texas. Recently they celebrated

the opening of the Donna Orsag Center for Excellence for which they worked to secure funding. On hand to cheer this accomplishment were former Seminary professor Andy Dearman and alumnus Bill Pederson (MDiv’88).

In August, Laura Hudson (MDiv’09) co-facilitated a free online workshop, “Crossing into Courage” that offered tips and information on holding neighborhood “Climate Vigils.”

2010s

Rachael McConnell (MDiv’17) has been called as pastor for Rolling Hills Community Church, Lago Vista, Texas.

Tyler Henderson (MDiv’18) was installed as the pastor at Grand Lakes Presbyterian Church in Katy, Texas, on August 15; he has been their associate pastor for four years.

2020s

Lex Allum (MDiv’20) has been called as pastor for First Presbyterian Church, Paducah, Kentucky.

ordinations

Jeannie Corbitt Cardona (MDiv’20) was ordained into the PC(USA) by Grace Presbytery on May 8, 2022. She serves Austin Seminary as director of church relations.

Jonathan Freeman (MDiv’21) was ordained into the PC(USA) by Mission Presbytery, July 3, 2022.

Rachel Watson (MDiv’22) was ordained into the PC(USA) by Mission Presbytery, August 7, 2022. She serves as stated supply associate pastor at University Presbyterian Church, Austin.

A number of Austin Seminary alumni took part in a research project on clergy and the pandemic. Rev. Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed published a report on her study #PandemicPastoring: What It Was/How It Changed Us/ Where Do We Go From Here. You can download the report at: https://3mmm.us/pandemicpastoring.

milestones

ordained 60 years

Harold Clark, July 10, 1962

Fred Tulloch, July 29, 1962 ordained 50 years

Harry Horne, July 2, 1972

Mike Smith, July 9, 1972

Walt Westcott, September 1, 1972

John Mikow, September 24, 1972

in memoriam

Jack C. Hunnicutt (MDiv’54), October 10, 2022, Cleburne, Texas

Don E. Moore (MDiv’68), May 3, 2020, Houston, Texas

Van Vanderland (DMin’84) July 26, 2022, Temple, Texas

Kathleen T. Hignight (MDiv’95), September 28, 2022, Shreveport, Louisiana

Paul Bitter (MDiv’75), October 13, 2022, Whitehouse, Texas

Chris Harrison, Hannah Hooks, Andy Dearman, and Bill Pederson in Giddings, Texas, this fall.

Photograph by Usama Malik