April 2008 E-Newsletter 

Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
3401 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Glenn Birch
Phone: 804.278.4306
FAX: 804.355.5648
E-mail: gbirch@union-psce.edu

African American Theologians Gather
Calling for the Order of the Day Conference

More than 19 African American Presbyterian scholars from theological seminaries, colleges, universities, and the church will make presentations at a national conference in Richmond, VA, May 5 – 7.

The conference, "Calling for the Order of the Day: Pedagogies of African American Presbyterians – Implications for Theological Education," offers opportunities for black Presbyterian faculty to engage in rigorous conversation about the church, race, and the ministries of teaching and scholarship. The conference will highlight the ongoing significance of the issues of race, gender, and class as analytical categories for Reformed Christianity.

The event is sponsored by grants from the Presbyterian Church Committee on Theological Education, the Black Congregational Enhancement Office, and the Office of Congregational and African American Leadership. The conference is the first of a four-year cycle of study aimed at developing strategies for identifying, recruiting, and training the next generation of effective and informed ministers to serve the Black church community.

Held in Richmond this year, the conference will coincide with the inauguration of Brian K. Blount as president of Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE). Blount is the first African American president of either Union Seminary or PSCE and among the first African American leaders of mainline theological schools.

After two and a half days of networking and workshops, conference attendees will attend the presidential inauguration at 4 p.m. on May 7.

The conference is being organized by Katie Geneva Cannon, the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union-PSCE. Erica Kierulf, a master of theology student at Union-PSCE, is a co-organizer.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Richmond West Hotel, 6624 West Broad Street. Reservations for the conference are by calling the hotel at 1-800-325-3535 or by visiting www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/unionpsce. Callers should mention the Order of the Day conference.

The conference begins on the afternoon of Monday, May 5. The theme for the opening plenary dinner is "Celebrating the Import of Being Both Black and Presbyterian in the 21st Century."

Conference Presenters and their topics include:
Dr. Esther Acolatse
Duke Divinity School
The Significance of Pastoral Care in Ministerial
Formation: Converting Reactions to Emergency Issues
into Abiding Pastoral Practices

Dr. Margaret Aymer
Interdenominational Theological Center –
Johnson C. Smith Seminary
Teaching Seminarians to Read: Effective Ways to
Address the Relative Rise in Biblical Illiteracy

Dr. Gay Byron
Colgate-Rochester Divinity School
Manuscripts, Meanings, and (Re)Membering:
Ethiopian Women in Early Christianity

Dr. Melva W. Costen
Interdenominational Theological Center –
Johnson C. Smith Seminary
In Spirit and in Truth: African American Christian
Worship

Rev. Nathan Dell
Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology,
Virginia Union University
Lessons in Homiletics for Contemporary Preachers

Dr. Warren Dennis
New Brunswick Theological Seminary
“How Can You Say That?” Race Conversations
Complicated by Diversity of Ecclesial Formation:
A Proposal for Change

Dr. Nancy Fairley
Davidson College
Expressive Anthropology: “I Got Shoes, You Got Shoes,
All God’s Children Got Shoes”

Rev. Leon E. Fanniel
Racial Ethnic Pastoral Leadership Program
Synod of Southern California and Hawaii
Equipping the Saints for Ministry:
A 21st Century Imperative for Black Seminarians and Clergy

Dr. Marsha Snulligan Haney
Interdenominational Theological Center –
Johnson C. Smith Seminary
Evangelism among African American Presbyterians

Dr. Geddis Hanson
Princeton Theological Seminary
Actualizing Inherited Wisdom from the Life and
Ministry of Edler G. Hawkins

Dr. Kerry L. Haynie
Duke University
Engaging Politics, Race and Religion:
Civic Challenges for African American Christians

Dr. Gloria Johnson
Berea College
Trading Inside Information about Travel Study
Seminars to Ghana

Dr. David N.A. Kpobi
Trinity College Accra, Ghana
Mission in Chains: The Life, Theology and Ministry of
the Ex-Slave Jacobus E.J. Capitein (1717-1747)

Dr. Charles Marks
San Francisco Theological Seminary
A Delicate Balance: Faithfulness to Our
Denominational Traditional Strengths While Preparing
Seminarians for Ministry in Black Congregations

Dr. Joan M. Martin
Episcopal Divinity School
The Significance of the Christian Work Ethics of
Enslaved Women for the 21st Century: More Chains
and Toils

Dr. Eleanor Moody Shepherd
New York Theological Seminary
Crafting Vocational Honesty

Dr. James Noel
San Francisco Theological Seminary
The Black Experience in Poetry, Sermon and Song:
A Festival of African American Rhetorical and
Performative Arts Banquet

Dr. Ronald Peters
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
HIV/AIDS: A Love and Justice Challenge to
Theological Education

Dr. Darius L. Swann and Ms. Vera Swann
Interdenominational Theological Center –
Johnson C. Smith Seminary
Living Wisely and Thinking Deeply the Priesthood of
All Believers at Home and Abroad

Scholarly presentations also given by:
Dr. Deborah F. Mullen
McCormick Theological Seminary

Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II
Memphis Liberation Community Presbyterian Church

Dr. James Foster Reese
Former Director of the Racial Ethnic Ministry Unit