Stan Wood, professor of evangelism and mission, was the keynote speaker for Congregational Renewal weekend and preacher at First Presbyterian Church of Bozeman, Mont. He also taught a New Church Development course in SFTS’s Southern California Latino Lay Leadership Program and at Columbia Theological Seminary’s Spanish track Lay Leader Program in Decatur, Ga. Wood attended the National Prayer Covenant Group in Wilmington, N.C., and attended the Society of Missiology annual meeting in Chicago. He lead a Christianity in Context course to Ghana, Africa. In Colorado, Wood conducted a Mountain Resorts Ministries Conference in Snowmass and lead a spirituality retreat to a 10th Mountain Division Hut near Leadville.

Philip L. Wickeri has been serving as Acting Dean while Jana Childers is on sabbatical during the spring semester. She returns in the summer and resumes her work then.

In June and July, Wickeri will be one of two faculty mentors for the Institute for the Advanced Study of Asian Cultures and Theologies, a program co-sponsored by the Graduate Theological Union and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Now in its fifth year, IASACT meets for six weeks at Chung Chi College in the Chinese University of Hong Kong and brings together 20 young theologians and religious scholars from around Asia, and also three from the GTU.

The scholars and mentors work together on writing projects and in-depth research on projects related to Asian theologies and religions.

In June, Wickeri will deliver the 2008 Peter K K Kwong lecture on The Hong Kong Anglican Church and China. The lecture series, in its second year, is named after the archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong.

R. Scott Sullender, associate professor of pastoral counseling and director of The Lloyd Center, will be leading an in-service for the chaplaincy staff of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital May 7 entitled, “The Loss of Hope: Can a Life be Rebuilt.” Also in May, his article “Fear as a Dynamic in Supervision” will appear in Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry. Sullender, along with SFTS faculty Laurie Garrett-Cobbina and Elizabeth Liebert, serve on the editorial board of Reflective Practice.

In the fall, Sullender will be leading a workshop at the Western National Leadership Training event Oct. 8-10 entitled, “Pastoral Care for Communities in Crisis.”

Christopher Ocker delivered a plenary lecture called “Spiritual Loss in the Religious Controversy” to the Fruehe Neuzeit Interdiziplinaer, a triennial meeting at Duke University of American and European scholars from various disciplines who work on early modern Germany. He was also a visiting scholar in the faculty of history at Cambridge University for January 2008.

James A. Noel, the H. Eugene Farlough Chair in African American Christianity. During this spring semester, Noel taught the GTU doctoral seminar in Modern Christianity and the required M.Div. course on Modern World Christianity. He has also served as Moderator of the Session of New Liberation Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, where Rev. Dante Quick, Noel’s advisee in the GTU’s doctoral program in theology, is pastor. In May, Noel attended Dr. Brian Blount’s inauguration as President of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., and led a pre-inauguration gathering of African-American Presbyterian scholars in an African-American history celebration through his “Black Experience in Poetry, Sermon, and Song.”

Noel attended a colloquium at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School April 8 as the respondent to Dr. Charles H. Long’s paper on “The Study of African- American Religion.” Noel presented a paper on African Caribbean music and at the Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference in March at the University of Washington. During Black History Month in February Noel preached in chapel at the Pacific School of Religion where his art was also on display. He also preached at New Liberation Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland and Faith Presbyterian Church in Oakland. On Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday, Noel preached at Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church. Noel attended a consultation “Abolished but Not Destroyed” in Jamaica, Wisc., in December, sponsored by the World Council of Churches on the anniversary of the British abolition of the slave trade. Noel wrote a paper that was included in the packet of materials that examined the relationship between slavery, capitalism, Christianity and colonialism. He was on the writing team that produced the document that challenges the ecumenical church to repentance through reparations.

Noel contributed a chapter, “Africa-American Art and Biblical Interpretation,” to “True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary” (Fortress Press 2007) edited by Dr. Brian Blount, Cain Hope Felder and Clarise Martin.

Among Noel’s current writing projects is the book “Onesimus Our Brother: Religion, Race, and Culture in the Interpretation of Philemon” with editors: Matthew V. Johnson, James A. Noel, and Demetrius K. Williams. Noel also wrote two short articles for the New interpreter’s Bible Handbook of Preaching: “Politics, Ethics, and Preaching” and “Revivalism.”

Laurie Garrett- Cobbina, the Shaw Family Chair for Clinical Pastoral Education, will lead a workshop entitled “The Hidden Rules of Class” during the National Network of Presbyterian College Women Annual Leadership Event at San Francisco Theological Seminary Aug. 6-10. Garrett- Cobbina will explore class-related skills to help better understand the secret rules of class. The session will begin a dialogue in order to teach how to build bridges across economic classes, better understand our own class privileges and empower those living in poverty.

NNPCW comprises young women in college connected by their faith in God and a desire to understand what it means to claim a Christian faith that empowers women. NNPCW seeks to nurture young women’s spiritual development through study, discussion, prayer and action. NNPCW is a ministry of the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), lodged in the Racal Ethnic and Women’s Ministries/Presbyterian Women ministry area.

The keynote speaker for this event that will be held on the San Anselmo campus will be the Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon, Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary & PSCE. Dr. Cannon, the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), focuses her work in the areas of Christian ethics, Womanist theology, and women in religion and society. She lectures widely on theological and ethical topics and is the author or editor of numerous articles and seven books including “Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community” and “The Womanist Theology Primer—Remember What We Never Knew: The Epistemology of Womanist Theology.”

Elizabeth Liebert As part of her role as the holder of the Joseph Veale Chair in Ignatian Spirituality at Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin, Ireland, Elizabeth Liebert taught in the Masters in Christian Spirituality program and presented a faculty colloquium entitled, “Thinking Developmentally as an Educator: Exploring How Developmental Theory Can Help the Learning and Teaching Process.” In April she also presented the annual Veale Lecture, “Discernment for Our Times: A Practice with Postmodern Implications,” exploring the crucial role that discernment can play in the postmodern context. Her sabbatical travels this semester also include Spain and Ukraine.

Phil Butin, president of SFTS, is going to Korea June 13 - 19 to participate in a continuing education event with more than 500 Korean pastors. This is sponsored by the Han Shin Church, and Jana Childers and Eugene Eung Chun Park will also be faculty for this event. For other events where the president is preaching or teaching, please consult the Seminary calendar.




	Home \| Faculty \| News & Events \| Contact Us \| Employment \| Media \| Webmaster