CRCDS Autumn 2015 BULLETIN by Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

B u l l e t i n o f t h e C o l g at e R o c h e s t e r C r o z e r D i v i n i t y S c h o o l

Autumn 2015

Faith. Critically engaged.

Inside:

✛ Jin Young Choi,

Ph.D.: “Mother Tongue is My Refuge”— Re-thinking Immigration and the "Other"

✛ Stephanie

Sauvé, D.Min: “Are You a Pilgrim or a Tourist?”

✛ 2016 Spring

P lu s : + CRCDS Fall Convocation + Alumni/ae Out in the World + Memorial and Appreciation Gifts

Lecture Preview: “Wisdom is found among the aged… Come seek WISDOM”

About this issue:

Immigration dominates much of today’s political, economic and social landscape both in the United States and around the world. Fifty years ago last month, the United States Congress passed the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, overturning strict immigration laws that favored mainly Northern and Western European whites. Although the passage of this law cleared the way for a more diverse America, the scourge of ethnic, racial, social, cultural, religious, gender and sexual discrimination is still alive and well today. While some politicians gain favor by proposing we build high walls, both literally and figuratively, as a solution to our problems, our Christian faith calls us to break down the walls among people by first breaking down the walls we each build in our own hearts. This edition of the Bulletin asks us to contemplate a few basic but complex issues: belonging, acceptance, inclusion and diversity. In doing so, we soon confront a series of vital questions: What defines us as human beings? What are the forces that separate us from one another and what are the forces that bring us together? What does it mean to be a people of God? What, exactly, does it mean to “love my neighbor” and who, exactly, is my neighbor anyway? Exploring these issues and questions leads to a realization that fear is a primary, underlying driver of our exclusion of “others.” Differences fuel our fear and our fear all too often results in discrimination and hatred. How many times do we judge someone based on differences in appearance, lifestyle, cultural norms, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, orientation, or ability? The categories we find and use to define differences are seemingly endless and we are all too eager to employ those categories as a means to identify, classify, and control.

Seeing others through the lens of God’s grace, understanding what defines us as individuals and as a society, discarding the habits of exclusion and healing the wounds that our perceived differences have created remains the hard work of CRCDS and all the people of God. Learning to see “others” as God sees them, learning to see ourselves as God sees us and learning to see ourselves in “others” creates leaders who not only speak truth to power, but are able to unite people while doing so. By rejecting the status quo of exclusion, we embrace “others” with God’s all encompassing, allinclusive love. Over the years, crucial relationships have been forged in the hallways, in the classrooms and on the campus of CRCDS. Our faith in God and each other has helped us to overcome differences in order to grow individually and collectively as a people of God.

CRCDS: Faith. Critically engaged. is a bi-annual publication of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School 1100 South Goodman Street, Rochester, New York, 14620. PUBLISHER: Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (CRCDS) EDITOR: Michele Kaider-Korol DESIGN: MillRace Design

Together, all of us are bringing in the Kingdom…one relationship at a time.

CRCDS

Aut um n 2015

Faith. Critically engaged.

“Mother Tongue is My Refuge”— Re-thinking Immigration and the “Other” by Jin Young Choi, Ph.D.

CRCDS Fall Convocation: “This is My Body, Broken…” by Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, Ph.D.

“Are You a Pilgrim or a Tourist?“ by Stephanie Sauvé, D.Min.

Memorial & Appreciation Gifts

In Memoriam

Horizon Society: H. Darrell Lance

Alumni/ae Out in the World

Spring 2016 Lecture Preview

oin the conversation!

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“Mother Tongue is My Refuge” J i n Yo u n g C h o i , P h . D .

A ssi sta n t Pro f esso r o f New Testa m en t a n d C h ri st i a n O ri gi n s

“When we attend to the voice of (the) voiceless and recognize that they have humanity and agency, we may be able to perceive the presence of mystery in the midst of our life together.” The following lecture, “Mother Tongue is My Refuge,” was delivered at The Chautauqua Institution on July 16, 2015 by Jin Young Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Dr. Choi, a native of Korea, shared her impressions related to the week’s theme, “For We Were Strangers in a Strange Land.”

Good afternoon. It is my honor to discuss the theme of immigration by sharing with you my experience as an Asian woman who is going to be an immigrant. I appreciate that Dr. Robert Franklin (a former Visiting Professor at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School) graciously invited me to this prestigious and welcoming place. As your ancestors were strangers in this land, I am a stranger. I have been here for 11 years and my present legal status is as resident alien in transition into a permanent resident. So, I am not an immigrant yet, but as a newcomer to this wonderful country and a member of the Asian immigrant community, I am grateful to the government and people for their welcoming spirit. And I sincerely wish to contribute what I could offer to my local communities, my academic guild, and the wider society.

Rather than providing information about Asian immigrants in general, I will tell you my personal story of being a Korean woman in the United States (US). This is mainly because my experience does not represent those of all Asian immigrants. Despite their immense diversity in terms of ethnicity, demography, language, generation, and class, as well as their relationships with the homeland and the American culture, they have been essentialized as a homogenous group by the dominant culture. Furthermore, the title “model minority” attached to Asian Americans reinforces racialization and ethnicization by controlling racial dynamics among minority groups. In such a context, I would like to share my experience of migrating from a margin of the world to the US—and my vision of this country making the better “Self” by embracing the “Other.“

I would like to start by introducing you to my country of origin. Before I came to the US to pursue advanced studies 11 years ago, I was active not only in the life of the church in which my new religious identity was found, but also in the struggles against socio-political oppression and injustice in South Korea. My family members, just like many Asian people, embody the suffering and pains of a nation whose history has been filled with colonization, wars, and dictatorships. Most representatively, the nation was colonized by the Japanese Empire from 1910 to 1945, and countless women in my grandmother’s generation were forced into sexual slavery at Japanese military stations. After the nation gained its independence and during the break of the Korean War in 1950, the US was viewed as a liberator and protector rather than another colonizer. Nationalism was assumed based on the ideology of anti-communism and the slogan of modernization. Riding on these dominant ideologies, the church compromised with power and prosperity. It was only in the 1990s that South Korea finally became a democratic society on the ground on which the blood of so many people was shed. Although South Korea is one of the fastest growing developed countries, military subordination to the US is still in operation, and the economy is under the control of neoliberal global capitalism. What does my migration have to do with these global forces?

Globalization is a largely economic force that has facilitated the integration of national economies by removing barriers to free trade. Yet, globalization causes not only exchanges in goods, products, and capital through multinational corporations, but also movements of information, knowledge, and culture. My migration can be understood in light of these global cultural flows. As migrating people transcend territorial boundaries, they invent their homelands, find new identities, and change their group loyalties.

That happened to me in the process of dislocation and relocation, as well. While in Korea, I had never conceived of my whole personality—the Self—in terms of race. It was only after I came here that I learned my skin has color, which functions as a major identity marker in the US. I have been forced to experience myself collectively, as one who obtained a new group identity as an Asian woman. No matter how I identified myself, my skin color and the way I speak tell people who I am.

When people ask me where I am from, I answer that I’m from Georgia. I feel like Atlanta is my hometown because that city was the first place where my family lived in the US. Then, they ask me again, “Where are you from originally?” It sounds like they are saying, “You don’t look like you belong here.” In this way, my attempts to feel at home in this new place often meet frustration.

After living in Atlanta, our family moved to Nashville due to my Ph.D. study at Vanderbilt University. When we went to the DMV to change our drivers’ licenses, we realized that Nashville issued a different kind of license for a non-citizen, which is vertical, not horizontal. It indicates, “This license does not function as an ID.” It meant that we had to bring our passport to a bank, and even to a grocery store. It hurt most when we went out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary with our son and ordered a glass of wine. The waiter asked me to show my ID and took a look at it. He denied me a glass of wine because my license was not an ID. I had to swallow tears instead of drinking wine.

Anticipating such things, we had asked an officer at the DMV if we could keep our Atlanta licenses. After some arguments took place, it was bitter to hear these words from the officer: “Go back home.” I was not sure where he meant we should go home to—Atlanta or Korea. We sent a letter of complaint to the governor, but heard nothing in response. A couple of years later, we finally received the same licenses as citizens receive. We thought it was because the Nissan Corporation had recently moved into the area, bringing not only many foreign workers but also a booming economy. While this change occurred on a local scale, Asian immigration policies have also changed. These policy changes occur in relation to the extent to which Asians are considered to be advantageous to the dominant white society and how they fit into that group’s assigned roles.

Although the Chinese were used for cheap labor in the 19th century mining industry and in building the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited them from immigrating to the US and also prevented foreign-born Chinese already living in the US from obtaining citizenship. Japanese, along with Koreans, were recruited to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations in Hawaii, but later, during World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in internment camps, even though two- thirds of them were American citizens by birth. Filipinos were recruited to replace both Koreans and Chinese on the Hawaii plantations and later immigrated directly to California and the Northwest Coast, where they were used as farm workers in place of the declining numbers of Japanese and Chinese laborers.

Although Asian immigrants had worked harder than any other ethnic people to make this country more prosperous, when they looked successful in their own right, they became the object of oppression or removal. In 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was killed by two white autoworkers in Detroit, who mistakenly believed him to be Japanese. These men shouted to Chin, “It’s because of you, we’re out of work.” They blamed him for the success of Japan’s auto industry and beat Vincent Chin with a baseball bat until his head cracked open. At the time of his murder, Chin was 27 years old and enjoying his bachelor party with friends at a local bar.

This tragic event implies that when an ethnic community is perceived as no longer advantageous, but as a threat, it can be excluded or extinguished. The control of Asian immigration is based upon the dominant logic that the descendants of white Europeans are the legitimate residents of the land and Asian Americans, lumped together, are perpetual strangers in this land.

“…when an ethnic community is perceived as no longer advantageous, but as a threat, it can be excluded or extinguished. The control of Asian immigration is based upon the dominant logic that the descendants of white Europeans are the legitimate residents of the land and Asian Americans, lumped together, are perpetual strangers in this land.”

With such personal and collective experiences, I have also struggled as a minority scholar in my own guild. As a woman outsider to, and in, the West, I have received theological education in Korea and the US for 15 years, almost exclusively studying the works of the great white Western theological fathers. While the Anglo-European and North American males’ work on the Bible is regarded as “the” interpretation, the word “contextual” is attached to interpretations of African, Asian, Latino/Latina, indigenous or Third World scholars. The theological truth for Koreans and Asians was and is assumed to be found only in these socalled authoritative texts. I rarely had a woman teacher, and I never met a woman professor of color, during my theological education in the US.

When I prepared for my Ph.D. application, I asked a renowned New Testament professor for advice. He said, “Korean students are good at exegetical skills, but they lack something. But you are okay.” When I told him that I would like to study hermeneutics in my Ph.D. program, his answer was bluntly short, “I am not sure about that.” When I started my Ph.D. study, a female professor complained to me, “You can interpret the Bible and you are still a Korean woman. Why do you need theories and hermeneutics? Do not force your ideas into the text.” They seemed to say, “You are allowed to repeat and imitate us, but you cannot produce your own theological knowledge and text. What is true for us should be true for you.”

This situation has been a dilemma for me as an Asian woman biblical scholar. If I do the same thing as white male scholars do, I don’t look qualified to do so because I lack something, or maybe several things. According to a Chinese American biblical critic, Tat-siong Benny Liew, gatekeepers of both geographical and intellectual space emphasize "origins" and "purity" and insist that "trespassers" will lead only to pollution, confusion, and destruction. I cannot be considered pure enough to be an insider in this Western guild. Instead, the pressure to be “exotic purity” is overwhelming: If you want to stay with us, show us that you are an authentic Asian woman, not pretending to be a Westerner. Then, if my interpretation relates to my own social location, it is treated as partial and thus still lacks something. My presence often signifies imperfection and impurity, and also invisibility. Thus, getting a job was a daunting task especially with my status as a foreign woman who is not even an Asian “American.” It was almost like a miracle to have landed in my present faculty position at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. While one can count on one hand the number of foreign-born Asian professors in theology, my employment was possible because my institution is unique. (I don’t say this because there are members of our board of trustees in the audience). Their primary interest in me was my qualification as a scholar, not my ethnicity, race, nationality, or gender. Additionally, they looked for someone who could

provide the school with global perspectives on the bible in particular and theological education in general. Thanks to my institution’s support, I’ve just received my labor certification a few weeks ago. It took almost two years to prove that my high level of competency was not something they found in any American applicant.

How have these experiences and new challenges in both the academy and society influenced my scholarship? The title of my new book, coming out in just two weeks, is Postcolonial Discipleship of Embodiment: An Asian and Asian American Feminist Reading of the Gospel of Mark. In this book, I developed an Asian feminist hermeneutics of phronesis, which means embodied or practiced wisdom. Yes, I’ve done what my professor had not been sure about. Yes, I brought my Asian female perspective to reading biblical texts, not to exoticize my work, but to engage with Western biblical interpretation and expand its horizon by adding a new voice from the margin.

Reading the Gospel of Mark, the second book of Christian Scripture, I was interested in Jesus’ question to the disciples, ”Do you not yet understand?” For many interpreters, this question has been interpreted as indicating the disciples’ failure to understand who Jesus is. For me, however, “understanding” in this text embodies the notion of the mystery of Jesus’ broken and absent body, rather than actual knowledge of Jesus' identity.

When the early Christians heard Mark’s story ending with the empty tomb and not with the resurrected Jesus, how would they have responded to the absence of Jesus in the context of Roman imperial rule? I argue that Jesus is present in absence through the mystery of his body as it is touched by the sick and consumed as bread by the hungry. This form of presence disrupts the imperial presence. It also conveys the agency of othered bodies that are invisible, voiceless, and placeless in both ancient and contemporary postcolonial contexts.

Here is an example of such a reading of Mark’s Gospel. Some of you may know the story in 7:31-37 in which Jesus heals a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment.

The setting of the event is on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, near the Decapolis, a Gentile region in Mark’s narrative world. Some people brought a man to Jesus and begged Jesus to place his hands on him. Yet Jesus heals him by putting his fingers in the man’s ears, and spitting and touching the man’s tongue. Then, Jesus looks up to heaven, deeply groaning, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” Then, the man is healed and begins to speak rightly. While Jesus ordered people not to speak about the event, they exclaimed what Jesus had done.

While the attention of the interpreters has centered primarily on Jesus’ miraculous healing, I am concerned with the deaf and mute man, particularly his physical condition. Mark

describes that Jesus heals him by releasing “the shackle of his tongue.” The word “shackle” is clear only in the Greek text, not in English translations. As some scholars argue, the fetter binding one’s tongue may symbolize demonic possession. And Jesus’ actions could be understood in light of magical or medical treatment broadly exercised in the GrecoRoman world. Yet, we see the same word “shackle” used in another story in Mark 5 in which Jesus exorcizes the demoniac of Gerasene. In that story, the demoniac, who dwells in tombs, breaks the shackles binding his body into pieces, bruises himself with stones, and cries out without ceasing.

“...the pressure to be “exotic purity” is overwhelming: If you want to stay with us, show us that you are an authentic Asian woman, not pretending to be a Westerner.”

Some observations can be made. First, the Gerasene demoniac is identified using the term ”Legion,” which is a division of Roman soldiers, calling to mind the Roman military occupation of the territory. The status of the demoniac may be related to mental disorders like schizophrenia or insanity in situations of political oppression under the Empire. However, the same oppression can cause repressed silence, as in the case of the deaf and mute man.

Secondly, both the deaf and mute man and the Gerasene demoniac are male characters, but differently sexualized. Whereas the Gerasene man is hyper-masculine, screaming at the top of his voice with vigorous action, the deaf-mute man is outside the gender stereotype and is instead feminized. What we hear is the narrator’s report to the effect that he spoke plainly or rightly. The healed man does not speak in his own voice but is just spoken of by others. Thus, while the deaf and mute man is the one who is expected to proclaim the marvelous thing that Jesus has done for him, he does not do so, but appears to be without words even after the healing of his muteness.

The deaf and mute man emerges as marginalized in multiple ways in the colonized territory, a setting in which the dominant forms of culture and language are imposed: he is a male, but not an elite; he is expected to be masculine, but appears to be passive; he is not only physically disabled, but also regarded as ritually unclean and socially abnormal; he inhabits a Greek city, but one which has been colonized; and, finally, Greek culture grants him privilege, but he cannot speak Greek. He is a subjected person in the system of power.

The society views these subjects, who are either mad or mute, as unclean, feminine, or irrational. In turn, their abnormality indicates what is normal in the societal order. Language is not neutral, but a means to implant the dominant values and order on the individual and social bodies. These subjects are linguistic “others.” However, I argue that the female, feminine, or repressed body resists the inscription of the societal law on the body. The deaf and mute man is silent and passive. Then, how can I find agency in this passive and repressed body? It is through Jesus’ bodily or somatic engagement with the man that the agency of the body operates.

Jesus heals the deaf and mute man, who might be affected by unclean spirits, by touching more than the surface of his body. He puts his fingers into the man’s ears and spits and touches his tongue. By these acts, Jesus is defiled to the extent that he is and becomes an Other with this man.

Additionally, Jesus looks up to heaven and sighs, saying, “Ephphatha.” This action highlights his yearning for God’s intervention. Furthermore, speaking this foreign word not only creates a sense of otherness but also expresses solidarity with the linguistic other.

Later in the Gospel, Jesus is also passive and “othered” in the Passion. He is bound by shackles, passively delivered, and penetrated in many ways: by people’s gazes and mockeries; by being scourged; by being forced to wear the purple cloak and a crown of thorns; by being struck on the head with a reed. Jesus, who used his spit for curing, becomes the object upon which people spit. Finally, his body is crucified. He is transgressed, along with “others” who are outside of the law, order and the system. Thus, Jesus stands as a passive agent in solidarity with both the man and the “others.”

Through the somatic engagement of Jesus, in spite of his silence and passivity, the deaf and mute man enunciates, understands, and embodies the mystery. Now his ears are opened and the shackle of his tongue is removed. In Mark’s narrative, the opening of hearing is a symbolic expression for “understanding.” Such an understanding stands apart from the pursuit of rational reasoning or the mastery of

knowledge. Instead it is equivalent to faith that is given by God. The nature of this understanding or “being opened” corresponds to Jesus’ saying in Mark 4:11, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God.”

In this sense, “mystery” is coded language. It is the coded language of the subjected people, who share unspeakable trauma inscribed in their social body. Yet, despite this trauma, they experience the silent dismantling of shackles by Jesus, who has himself been transgressed.

One might say that discipleship is to know and proclaim who Jesus is and what he has done. Not for everyone, however. The passive and silent man does not meet this definition of discipleship. He is one of those who experiences the mystery of Jesus and “understands” it. Without making his voice heard and his speech known, he speaks “rightly.” What does this speaking “rightly” imply? I think that by speaking “rightly” without any words, he resists the distinction between normal and abnormal.

After being healed, the man speaks rightly now, but only in silence. Silence does not mean ignorance or anomaly. The absence of a record in history does not indicate that there was no event. Although the healed man is not involved in making the Tradition, he lives tradition. A clear recognition of Jesus’ identity is not necessary for him, because he knows and understands, in his own way—in his body.

For me, the character of this man overlaps with Asian Americans’ experience regarding body, language and (inter)subjectivity. As the man in our story is presented as silent and passive, so have Asians in the United States been silenced and feminized.

The West has conquered not only physical territories in the form of colonial-militaristic imperialism, but also minds, selves and cultures in the form of modernist, rationalist, and liberal “civilization.” To affirm the Self, the West needed the Other. To argue for the West’s economic and political superiority over Asia, the West used the traditional conceptualization of gender to create the Asian as the feminine Other. In this way, Asian men and women have been collectively feminized.

Along with the imposition of the feminine gender stereotype upon Asian Americans, I maintain that language is also used against that feminized Other. Asian silence in the US context characterizes the passivity of Asians and earns for them a collective attribute as the feminine. While the monolingualism of the US has fostered a homogenous national identity, the imposition of English on “foreign” bodies and tongues affects their sense of identity as unstable, because only a mastery of language attests to authentic American identity. Language constructs and

secures the Self by perpetrating violence on the Other’s body, identity, and history.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was a South Korean-born American producer, director, performance artist, and writer. She wrote a novel titled Dictee, in which she demonstrates how the cultural colonialism of language imposition and acquisition had an impact upon her identity and body. Cha, a one- and-a-half generation Korean who immigrated to the United States at age 11, sensed that she belonged to neither America nor Korea. Language plays a significant role in the disruption of identity that multilayered cultural colonization causes. This disjunction is not only accompanied by psychological symptoms but is also illustrated as having physical effects, as the course of her language acquisition manifests a “cracked tongue,” and a “broken tongue.” She wrote:

To bite the tongue.

Swallow. Deep. Deeper.

Swallow. Again even more.

Just until there would be no more of organ. Organ no more. Cries.

This is not only her experience, but also that of her mother, who was born in Manchuria to first-generation Korean exiles during the Japanese occupation of the country. Cha recalls her mother’s childhood:

The tongue that is forbidden is your own mother tongue. You speak in the dark. In the secret.

The one that is yours. Your own.

You speak very softly, you speak in a whisper. In the dark, in secret.

Mother tongue is your refuge.

It is being home.

Being who you are.

Truly.

To speak makes you sad. Yearning.

The daughter is united with her mother in broken tongues, dislocated hearts, and fragmented memories. Calling her mother and yearning for the refuge of her mother tongue, she cries, “I speak another tongue, a second tongue.”

Connecting with other women’s stories of suffering and struggles, Cha argued, “To the other nations who are not witnesses, who are not subject to the same oppressions, they cannot know.” The words of violence and oppression written upon the bodies of subjected people are “unfathomable” for the colonizer, whose official History takes for granted the dehumanization of another nation or race. Cha implied that knowledge is not formed from the official history but from the experiences of subjects, which are incomprehensible and indescribable.

In 1982, Cha was raped and killed in New York City at age 31, a week after the publication of Dictee. In her writing, she presents the act of speaking with broken, foreign tongues, which is a visible reminder of oppression and fragmentation. However, this speech act not only represents the split identity of the linguistic and feminine Other but also bears testimony to the agency, resistance, and connectivity of Asian American women’s bodies or feminized Asian bodies in the US.

Such Asian American experience is interrelated with other bodies, memories, and histories through fragmentation, suffering, migration, and resistance.

I find Cha’s Dictee, the writing based on her colonial and minority immigrant experience, helpful for illuminating my reading of the story of the deaf and mute man as a linguistic and feminized Other. As Cha speaks in a foreign tongue and broken tongue, the man speaks or is forced to speak rightly the language that is still strange to him. For both Cha and the man, speaking is an act of crying. Their enunciations are an act of resistance. Such an act demonstrates that they “make speech in such tongues.” Through silence or broken tongues they resist transmitting “the” truth and thus making their body their text.

The Western Self has created language and the system of knowledge and has thereby constructed the Other. The “othered” subjects are forced to know and speak, but only within the dominant system. Accordingly, they are represented as incompetent, inferior, or abnormal. However, the law is not always successful in making itself inscribed on the “othered” body. The body imitates the law, but the law is not fully incarnated because the body resists its rule. Outsiders often disrupt the language system and change the meaning, making meaning for only themselves while using the master’s language. They still speak, even though what they speak is hardly heard. The event of enunciation remains, though what they say is not reported. The speech act continues. What is spoken is still open. What are the implications of my readings of Mark’s story and Cha’s autobiographical writing? I am going to share what I envision for this land of former and recent immigrants, including Asian Americans.

“eloquently” is acclaimed, there are linguistic “others” such as first generation Asian immigrants and many other immigrants. Yet, this is not just the matter of language. It is related to the stereotyping of Asian Americans as silent or passive, regardless of ethnicities and generations. Further, such a representation may also signify their impotence or submissiveness. Asian Americans often function as the feminine Other within the American masculine Self. In

“The words of violence and oppression written upon the bodies of subjected people are “unfathomable” for the colonizer, whose official History takes for granted the dehumanization of another nation or race.” addition, the US needs this feminine Other as the model minority to suppress those cast as hyper-masculine Others like African or Latino/Latina Americans. These Others as constructed by the dominant white society, however, seek to find their agency in their otherness.

Many Asian immigrants came to the US seeking the American dream. There are other Asians who arrived in this country through different paths, as refugees or temporary workers. Whether their names are Chin or Choi, whether their faces are yellow or brown, and whether they are fluent in English or not, we are designated “Asian Americans.” Although our voice and experience are not properly recorded in the official US history and appropriately reported and represented in the media, we believe that we still seek to contribute to the US in the making of the Self that embraces Others within and without. I’m here because you are open to hearing the voice of an Asian woman who is often silenced in public. I can be here because of my teachers who patiently listened to me, affirmed my presence and my work, and let me speak out. When we attend to the voice of the voiceless and recognize that they have humanity and agency, we may be able to perceive the presence of mystery in the midst of our life together. This mystery is not to be known, but when we invite those strangers in, that mystery shows its face. Only then will we embody the mystery of life.

As in the biblical world, in our contemporary society, where one is constrained to speak “normally” and where speaking

This is My Body, Broken. . . Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, Ph.D.

Presi d en t , C o lg at e R o ch est er C ro zer D i v i n i t y Sch o o l

— I Corinthians 11: 23-26

C R C D S Fa l l C o n v o c a t i o n August 24, 2015

The following address was given by CRCDS President Marvin A. McMickle at the Fall Convocation opening the 2015-16 academic year.

s we launch into a new academic year, it is important to start out with a renewed focus on the precise mission of CRCDS.

We are primarily in the business of empowering people to provide leadership to the church, the community and the global village. We do that with the expectation that such leadership will be informed and influenced by what students learn here. What will you do with what you learn in Old and New Testament classes? What use will you make of introductions to various eras of church history or various approaches to Christian theology? How will ethics and philosophy inform your thinking and your actions? How will courses in preaching, pastoral care, or church polity be put to work?

As you ponder those questions, I want to share an experience with you that I had only last week that has required that I fall back on everything I have learned of the Bible and history and theology over the last 40 years of my professional life. I tell you this not only so you can know what happened to me, but so you can see the ways in which biblical and theological studies can serve you in real-world situations.

Not many days ago I found myself sitting in a religious service sponsored by one of the major denominational bodies in the world. The service began as you might expect with a grand processional that included clergy wearing bright and colorful vestments. There was absolutely beautiful music, there were passages read from the Bible, and there was a sermon offered on a central doctrine of the denomination in which we were gathered. Up to that point, nothing occurred that would have made that experience memorable. Despite the special occasion that brought everybody to the church that evening, it was really just another church service! However, following the sermon there was to be the observance of the Lord’s Supper, also referred to as Holy Communion, the Eucharist—a central part of the Mass. This may be your first theological inquiry; why do Christians refer to the same event by so many different names and why do Christians who profess faith in the same Lord Jesus Christ observe this sacrament/ordinance in so many different ways? More importantly, at least for me, was why I was not permitted to share in that observance of the supper that Jesus commanded his disciples to observe?

Inside the bulletin for that worship service there was a statement called “Guidelines for the Reception of Communion.” It began by saying, “We welcome our fellow Christians to this celebration of the Eucharist as our brothers and sisters.” After what seemed to me to be a welcome and an invitation to participate in communion, I discovered this language a few lines later: “Members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion.” So there I sat in a church where I heard that all fellow Christians are welcome to share in communion, but that I was not permitted to do so, leaving me with the very clear impression that at least within the confines of that congregation and perhaps in the minds of those who were leading that service, I am not a real Christian.

What made that moment all the more interesting were the lyrics of the song that was sung while the real Christians were going forward to receive communion. The lyrics said in part: One Bread—One Body

One Lord of All.

One cup of Blessing Which we Bless.

We are one Body in this One Lord.

Gentile—Jew

Servant—Free

Woman—Man no more

We are one Body.

I must confess that I found the whole experience in need of immediate and continuing theological reflection. I was seated next to a friend of mine who was a member of that denomination but not a member of that particular local congregation. I whispered to him that the lyrics of the song and the instructions in the bulletin seemed to send out contradictory messages. I did not feel as if I was a member of that One Body, though I am quite sure that I am in good standing with that One Lord! When I asked him if I should stand up so he could walk past me into the aisle and go up to receive communion he said no. He said to me, “I am sitting here in solidarity with you.” That was the only moment in that service when I felt like I was a part of the One Body. I will always be thankful for that bold and intentional moment of solidarity.

The questions I want to raise today within the context of this theological school, and especially in the presence of this entering class, have to do with what is at the core of our curriculum and what I hope will be at the center of the ministries in which each of us will engage. Those questions are:

“We are primarily in the business of empowering people to provide leadership to the church, the community and the global village. We do that with the expectation that such leadership will be informed and influenced by what students learn here. What will you do with what you learn in Old and New Testament classes? What use will you make of introductions to various eras of church history or various approaches to Christian theology? How will ethics and philosophy inform your thinking and your actions? How will courses in preaching, pastoral care, or church polity be put to work?” 11

What is communion and how should it be observed? What is atonement and why is that term important?

Why is the broken body of Christ more about the church than it is about the bread?

It is very likely that most of you students either already have or may some day soon be called upon to lead a communion service. You will have to learn about how that sacrament or ordinance is regularly observed in your denominational setting. There is another lesson to be learned: why do some people refer to communion as a sacrament while others refer to it as an ordinance? What words must be spoken? What rituals must be observed? I once belonged to the Disciples of Christ denomination where communion is observed every Sunday. I have belonged to local churches where male deacons wearing white gloves served the communion, while female deaconesses removed the cloth from over the elements and proceeded to fold that cloth with the precision of a military honor guard folding the American flag at the funeral of a veteran.

My wife in her youth belonged to a church in Georgia where the deacons placed white towels over their shoulders while serving communion. The towels were a reminder of when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples during his last supper. Of course, there was no foot washing at those services. However, I have participated in communion among Primitive and Freewill Baptists where foot washing is a regular part of the communion ritual.

I have been present where communion was served with unleavened bread and a sweet red wine. I have shared in communion with potato chips and Coke. Increasingly, I have observed communion with those little cups that are covered in a plastic wrap that many cannot uncover. If you are able to uncover it, you may wish you had not, since the contents have the taste and texture of leftovers from the Passover meal in 12th century BC Egypt. Today, communion regularly involves a choice of what to eat and what to drink: gluten-free, wine or juice, common cup or intinction, coming forward or passing the plate from person to person. Whatever the case may be, part of what you need to know involves the when, where, why, how, and who, insofar as the communion service is concerned. The second thing you will need to understand is why we take communion at all. No matter what the form or formulas may be, you need to have a clear grasp of the

underlying rationale for this most central part of the Christian faith. That is where the doctrine of atonement comes into play. I recognize that in this age of prosperity theology and “end time predictions” that atonement may be a word that has fallen out of use in many pulpits across the country. Nevertheless, the very language of our text for today points directly to this doctrine. “This is my body given for you.” Communion is a reminder of the separation that existed between God and humanity due to human sin. Communion is a reminder that no action on our part would ever have been sufficient to repair or restore the relationship with God that sin had caused. Communion in my church tradition becomes an occasion to sing this familiar song: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” You will learn this and other church doctrines from CRCDS faculty Drs. Melanie Duguid-May and James Evans, Jr.

There had been an earlier method for dealing with sin in the biblical narrative. Once a year on the Day of Atonement faithful adherents to the Jewish law would come to the Temple in Jerusalem and offer an animal sacrifice, believing that the blood of that dead animal could cover or atone for the sins they had committed the previous year. The problem with that approach was two-fold. First, the same ritual had to be observed every year, and second as God repeatedly told the people through the prophets, God was far more interested in people living lives marked by justice and mercy than by continuing to sin and atoning for those sins over and over, year after year.

Communion is our reminder that we have no need for animal sacrifices. We have no requirement to engage in any form of works righteousness that might result in an improved relationship with God by anything we have done to account for our past sins. All we can do is repent of our sins, trust wholly and fully in the grace of God, and understand that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins by his death on the cross. Here are two terms you will learn and should never forget: vicarious suffering and substitutionary atonement. Borrowing from the language of Isaiah 53, Jesus was, “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.” You will learn about the doctrine of atonement and its related themes in scripture from CRCDS faculty Drs. Mark Brummitt and Jin Young Choi.

What you will discover as you move through life is that there are an increasing number of people who reject entirely any notion of sin or the need for any atonement with God. They either do not believe in God at all, do not embrace the divinity of Jesus, or are Trinitarian Christians who, like Joel Osteen, choose never to discuss human sin because “it makes people feel so unhappy.” I am always intrigued by those persons in American society who want to insist that this is a Christian country just as the founders of this nation intended. Such persons have obviously spent very little time reading or studying the religious views of the founders of the nation, especially the views of Washington, Adams and Jefferson. Jefferson essentially redesigned the Bible to suit his own theological views. He removed the miracles, the parables, and the resurrection of Jesus. This founder was an avid deist who believed that God created the world and then left it to run its own affairs.

What shall we learn about the atonement? Just because you believe in it does not mean that others will choose to believe in it as well. The direction of religious and doctrinal adherence is like the current stock markets around the world: in free fall. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of persons in this country that describe themselves as Christian or followers of any other religion has declined by one percent every year for the last ten years. While we Christians are debating who we will and will not allow to share with us in communion, people in the broader society are flocking to the category of “Nones.” In fact, the infighting and denominational haggling they have experienced in the church may be among the reasons why they want to have nothing to do with organized religion. You will learn about these debates and disagreements both past and present from CRCDS faculty member Dr. David Kim.

“In the 21st century, the faith cannot simply be passed along as if a whole generation is just waiting to receive it from our trustworthy hands. Instead, we will have to invoke the language of Jude verse three that says, ‘I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.’” Adams was a Unitarian with a hint of universalism tossed in, acknowledging that while Christianity was the greatest religion, “all true adherents to any religion that teaches about love of one’s neighbor will result in eternal life.” However, insofar as today’s point of focus is concerned and according to Gary Scott Smith in his new book, Religion in the Oval Office, Adams held the notion of the atonement in total and complete disdain. He once said, “An incarnate God!!! An eternal, self-existent, omnipotent author of this stupendous universe, suffering on a cross!!!1 It has stupefied the Christian world and been the source of almost all the corruptions of Christianity.” Neither of these founders of the nation were Christians in the sense in which 21st century evangelicals might define the term, and neither believed in or saw the need for an atonement for sin. Was Jesus a great teacher who set forth many wonderful moral principles? Yes. Was Jesus, as some of you might confess, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?” No!

In the 21st century, the faith cannot simply be passed along as if a whole generation is just waiting to receive it from our trustworthy hands. Instead, we will have to invoke the language of Jude verse three that says, “I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” That is part of what we hope you are all being equipped to do, to contend for the faith at a time when more and more people may be walking away from God, or at the very least, walking away from the church. That communion service last week with its attendees whose average age appeared to be about 55-60 years old is a reminder that the service of bread and wine that we hold so sacred is becoming irrelevant in the lives of the next generation. You will need to learn how to do ministry in times like these. You will learn that from CRCDS faculty Drs. Gail Ricciuti, Barbara Moore, Winifred Collin and Stephanie Sauvé. Gary Scott Smith, Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents, New York City: Oxford Press, 2015, p. 19.

Finally, last week’s service caused me to think about the broken body of Christ not as the bread or the wafer or the non-descript object in those pre-packaged cups, but rather as the broken body of Christ—a way to think about the divisions and disagreements within the church itself. I can almost see Jesus looking out on the American church today and saying “This is my body? BROKEN!” The reasons for my exclusion from that communion service are long standing. They are not limited to that one local church in which I was seated. My experience last week points to the long and sometime tortured history of the church from the Council of Nicaea where they debated the nature of Christ, to Luther’s 95 theses which challenged the authority of the Pope, to the Reformation which gave birth to the various and sometimes unending streams of Protestant denominations and independent movements. You will learn about these and other aspects of the sometimes torturous history of Christianity from CRCDS faculty member Dr. John Tyson.

worshippers, led by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, from praying on the main floor of the sanctuary because it was a sacred space reserved for whites only? That pattern of racial segregation in the American church resulted in the phrase from Liston Pope: “11 AM on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in American society.” That you will learn from me.

This is my body, broken. This phrase points to one of the fundamental challenges facing the church today. How can we ever say with integrity the words of the hymn I heard last week?

“I invite you to consider the sin of humanity, and then think about the atonement; the suffering and the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins that stand at the center of Christian faith. I invite you to look not simply at the divisions in the world, but at the divisions within the church.”

From all of us you will be urged to think critically about the broken nature of the church. Why should any Christian be excluded from communion in any church? Why should the voices of women be silenced and kept out of the pulpits of so many churches? Why do black church denominations even exist? Is it because in May of 1787, while one group of white men in Philadelphia, PA was drafting the U.S. Constitution—a document that defended slavery and defined slaves as 3/5ths of a person—another group of white men in the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church, in the very same city and at the very same time, were prohibiting a group of black

One Bread—One Body, One Lord of All.

One Cup of Blessing that we Bless. We are One Body in this One Lord. Gentile—Jew

Servant—Free

Woman—Man No More We are One Body.

In a few moments we as a community united by our common faith in Jesus Christ will share in a communion service. I invite you to take note of the words that will be spoken by those who will be leading in that service. I invite you to consider the sin of humanity, and then think about the atonement; the suffering and the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins that stand at the center of Christian faith. I invite you to look not simply at the divisions in the world, but at the divisions within the church. Hear our suffering savior say to us today, “This is my body, broken!” It is my prayer that what you will learn and what we will teach and what each one of us will embody every day will serve to speed up the healing of the broken body of Christ.

“Are You a Pilgrim or a Tourist?” F “Textbooks are written to impart knowledge; likewise, the world was created to impart wisdom (Psalm104:24). Perhaps that is another way of understanding the difference between the attitude of a tourist and that attitude of a pilgrim. On one journey we set out to gain knowledge; on another we set out to gain wisdom.”

Stephanie Sauvé, D.Min.

Vi ce Presi d en t o f A c a d em i c Li f e a n d D ea n o f t h e Fa cult y; A sso ci at e Pro f esso r o f Pra ct i c a l Th eo lo gy

or the past ten years, CRCDS students, lifelong learners, alumni/ae and faculty, ranging in age from 25 to 85, have traveled to the remote island of Iona, in the inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. Christians from all over the world meet at this sacred space, founded in 563 AD, to live in community in a restored 12th century abbey. There they share in ecumenical worship and in their common commitment to social justice and reconciliation. These pilgrimages result in the growth of deep spiritual awareness, sparking new and invaluable insights into the human condition and the relationship between the physical and the spiritual.

Following the trip to Iona this past June, Dr. Stephanie Sauvé, CRCDS Dean of Faculty and Associate Professor of Practical Theology, inspired by Tracy Belzer’s book, Thin Places, composed and delivered a sermon entitled, “Are You a Pilgrim or a Tourist?” In this sermon, Dr. Sauvé discusses sacred spaces purposely left open for God, whether halfway across the world or within the context of our own hearts.

—Tracy Belzer, Thin Places

The full text of Dr. Sauvé’s sermon is included on the CRCDS website. Please visit: www.crcds.edu/are-you-apilgrim-or-a-tourist/

If you would like to learn more

about travel opportunities with

CRCDS, please call (585) 340-9500 or email: admissions@crcds.edu

Dr. Stephanie Sauvé with fellow CRCDS pilgrims.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Every day, CRCDS graduates are changing the world, making it a more caring, more loving, more just place for all God’s people.

Encourage someone you know to discover God’s call by exploring opportunities at CRCDS. You can make a difference in the lives of so many by referring just one person to CRCDS!

Call us today! 1-888-937-3732

Memorial & Appreciation Gifts

June 2 - October 30, 2015

T h e Fu n d f o r CRCDS

Mr. Robert Rowsam Rev. Richard Grant

Dr. Glenn H. Asquith, Sr. Rev. Dr. Glenn Asquith, Jr.

Rev. R. V. Santee Ms. Lorena M. Ritter

In Memory of:

Ms. Jean Kenyon Bartlett Rev. Rachel McGuire, Ph.D. Rev. Michael D. Scott

Dr. J. Rodney Branton Rev. Willis J. Merriman

Mr. Gary Carlin Rev. Bruce E. Billman

Dr. Austin B. Creel Ms. Nancy Harrison

Rev. Dr. Andrew C. Davison Mr. Gene Dewey Rev. Donald L. Lawrence and Ms. Kathleen Lawrence Dr.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kenneth and Sally Dodgson

Ms. Jeanette Dolk Ms. Loretta J. Bigger

Pastor William S. Ellis Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee Cynthia A. Weaver, Ph.D.

Ms. Dorothy A. Ellmore Anonymous

Rev. E. Robert Ferris, Jr. Ms. Susanna Ferris

Dr. Calvin S. Garber Mr. Donald A. Forsyth Mr. and Mrs. James E. Koller Mr. William Nickel Ms. Virginia S. Pacala Ms. Marie Roth

Ms. Hilda Hill Stewart Rev. Alexander Stewart Rev. Claremont Hoyt Ms. Mary E. Griffes

Rev. Carl A. Jones, Jr. Rev. David Jones

Rev. Archie D. LeMone Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. LeeMs. Nancy E. Krody Rev. Dr. F. W. McDermott Ms. Lorena M. Ritter

Rev. John Neubert and Ms. Marcia S. Neubert Dr. Richard Myers and Ms. Elizabeth Myers

OTHER FUNDS

Ms. Erma Sanders Rev. Robert V. Sanders, Jr.

Crozer Theological School Endowment Fund

Rev. Kenneth Smith Rev. David Jones

Rev. Archie LeMone Dr. Dennis Norris Rev. Dr. Britt A. Starghill Rev. Frank D. Tyson

Ms. Marion D. Strand Jeanne H. McKown Bruce and Andrea B. Siebold Nestor and Cynthia Villena

Rev. Paul F. Thompson Ms. Sybrnee J. Thompson Dr. Charles Thurman Ms. Mattie Thurman In Honor of:

Baptist Missionary Training School Ms. Virginia Quiring Rev. Marvin Chandler Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

In Memory of:

In Honor of:

Dr. Amos Brown Dr. Robert Burns Rev. Larry Dobson Rev. Frank D. Tyson

Gene E. Bartlett and Jean Kenyon Bartlett Memorial Scholarship Fund In Memory of:

Jean Kenyon Bartlett Ms. Patricia C. Ashbrook Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee Rev. Keith R. Haverkamp Rev. and Mrs. Alan Newton

Rev. James. L. Cherry, Sr. and Ms. Eunice Cherry Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Chair for Social Justice and Black Church Studies

Rev. Dr. Robert and Charlotte Harrison Minister Winterbourne La Pucelle Jones

In Honor of:

Rev. Lawrence Hargrave Rev. Karen S. Sundland

Rev. Richard Henshaw, Ph.D. Mr. Scott W. Anderson and Ms. Sue A. Anderson

Ms. Marcia Kilpatrick Dr. David M. Kilpatrick

Rev. Dr. Vera E. Miller Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

Dr. James Sanders Rev. Dr. David C. Marx Dr. Bobby Joe Saucer Rev. Glenn Loafmann

Rev. Susan S. Shafer Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

In Memory of:

Mr. Forrest Cummings, Jr. Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda Lee Rev. Dr. John S. Walker Ms. Barbara Zelter, MSW In Honor of:

Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda Lee William F. Davison Family Scholarship In Memory of:

Rev. Dr. Andrew C. Davison Ms. Margaret A. Nead Mr. and Mrs. E. Marshall Tucker

Helen Barrett Montgomery Endowment Fund for the Study of Women and Gender in Church and Society Fund In Honor of:

Rev. James M. Dick Dr. Emma J. Justes

The Reverend Dr. Britt A. Starghill Memorial Scholarship Fund In Memory of:

The Reverend Dr. Britt A. Starghill Carol Anderson Elsie M. Allen, M.D. Gerald Cantley Hugh S. Caufield Kalyn J. Chandler Chandler Family Kristi Q. Connors Camden Country One-Step Labor and Workforce Development Thomas J. Dalton Suzanne Davies Barbara Eiskowitz Deanna Emerson (Girl Friends, Inc., Trenton Chapter) Brandon Everitt Brian and Karen Fitzgibbons Rev. Patrick Halfpenny Royce and Lenice Harris Carlton E. Henry, Sr.

Garden State Employment and Training Association Darwin and Tangee Gibson Tracie Hill (Cincinnati-Tuskegee Alumni Club) Sarah Howard Alice Hunnicutt Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated (South Jersey Chapter) Geraldine W. Johnson Willie Johnson Zanita Keaton Dr. Lewis Leitner Irene T. Mason Paul McClellan (Pleasantville One-Stop Career Center) April Miller Boise New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Mr. and Mrs. David Oberlander Portia Roberson Erica Roberts Dr. Frances E. Penick (Penick Chiropratic) Constance L. Shepard Dr. Phillis Sheppard Gale T. Spak Caitlyn Weiss Gwendolyn Wiggins Elaine Williams Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Williams Paula Willis (New Jersey Department of Labor) Raymond Vaccari

In Memoriam Baptist Missionary Training School

Rev. Ardis Tiedt Corey

Colgate Rochester Divinity School

Rev. Dr. Andrew C. Davison Dr. Austin B. Creel

Rev. William R. Cuthbert Rev. Everett Fitts

‘45

‘49

‘54

‘55

‘56

Rev. Kenneth Simpson

‘57

Rev. Cherlyn E. Rumph

‘95

Ms. Laura Elliott-Engel

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

Ms. Marion D. Strand

‘94

‘10

Friends of CRCDS

Mr. William B. Hale

Horizon Society or 28 years, Darrell Lance taught CRCDS students how to understand and interpret critically the Old Testament, guiding them in how to apply its lessons responsibly and effectively in our present age. Now retired, Darrell is still providing for CRCDS students by including the school in his estate plans.

Darrell established two planned gifts with CRCDS: first, he established a charitable gift annuity that provides library resources for CRCDS to ensure that future students have the necessary exegetical and ministry tools to become pastoral, prophetic and learned leaders. Second, Darrell has included the school in his will, insuring CRCDS has the necessary

Faculty Emeritus Rev. Dr. H. Darrell Lance, CRDS ‘61

resources for providing theological education of the highest order for many years to come.

Join Darrell in providing for the future of CRCDS by becoming a member of the Horizon Society and including the school in your estate planning. It is easy to do and there are many different options to fit your unique circumstances.

What is your legacy? Help support the future of CRCDS by including CRCDS in your estate planning.

For more information, please contact Tom McDade Clay, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at (585) 340-9648 or tmcdadeclay@crcds.edu.

Out in the World

U p d at e s , N e w s and Notes from CRCDS, CTS and B M T S A lu m n i / a e

Rev. Dr. James A. Braker

(CRDS ’59) Jim and his wife, Flo, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this past August. Jim also traveled to Europe with his granddaughter.

Rev. Donald L. Lawrence

(CRDS ’65) Don and his wife, Kathie, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July, by spending a week with their sons and their families in Great Barrington, MA.

Rev. Dr. Glenn H. Asquith, Jr.

(CRDS ’71) Dr. Asquith received the 14th Helen Flanders Dunbar Award for Significant Contributions to Clinical Pastoral Training in Chicago during the 2015 conference of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP). Dr. Asquith received the award from Dr. Aidsand F. WrightRiggins III., CRCDS Trustee and Executive Director of American Baptist Home Mission Societies. Dr. Wright-Riggins stated, “Dr. Asquith’s passion for pastoral and spiritual care was evident in the care he provided to his clients, colleagues, students and American Baptist endorsees. We can think of no better recipient for this year's Helen Flanders Dunbar Award. We thank CPSP for recognizing and celebrating Dr. Asquith's years of dedicated service and ministry. We are grateful to God for his gifts of care and compassion.”

Dr. Asquith is Director of Congregational Care at Asbury United Methodist Church, Allentown, PA, and will retire from a pastoral counsel practice in Bethlehem, PA, in March 2016.

Dr. Asquith has written or edited a number of pastoral care and counseling-related books, chapters and journal articles. He is author of Family Passages: The Bible and Personal Crisis (Broadman Press,1990) and most recently edited The Concise Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling (Abingdon Press, 2010). He and his wife, Connie, a retired United Methodist pastor, have four adult children and seven grandchildren.

Rev. Dr. Joseph R. Kutter

(CTS ’71) Joe is working part-time with the American Baptist Churches Central Region coordinating the Interim Ministries Program. He preaches occasionally and enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.

Rev. Dr. Edward L. Wheeler

(CRDS ’72) The Board of Trustees of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, GA elected Dr. Wheeler to serve as the school’s 10th President in January of this year. Dr. Wheeler assumed full time duties on April 7. He and his wife, Mary Susan, were enjoying retirement in Fleming Island for 2½ years before being called to the presidency of ITC. Dr. Wheeler also served as President of Christian Theological Seminary.

Rev. William L. Frederickson

(CRDS ’73) Bill retired after 41 years of ministry in three churches and one academic setting. He is currently serving on the board of General Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, USA and the Board of Managers of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board.

Rev. David B. Hermann

(CRDS ’95) David is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Spiritual Formation at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, OR.

Rev. Allen P. Weaver, III

(CRCDS ’00) Rev. Weaver celebrated his 34th anniversary at Bethesda Baptist Church (New Rochelle, NY) and his 50th ordination this September.

Rev. Debra Thomas

(CRCDS ’02) Rev. Thomas is currently the pastor of the First United Church of East Syracuse, NY, a congregation of the PCUSA and UMC. She continues to be active in the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse, where she serves on the Committee of Ministry. Rev. Thomas is happy to be a new “Nana” to her six month old grandson.

Rev. Rachel McGuire, Ph.D.

(CRCDS ’04) Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School has hired Rachel to oversee the plans for the school's distance learning initiatives. Rachel is developing a plan for online learning through The Gene Bennett Program for Life Long Learning. The plan will focus on meeting the spiritual, theological and educational needs of congregations, communities and individuals.

Rev. Angel L. Sullivan

(CRCDS ’04) Angel was elected President of American Baptist Women Ministries (American Baptist Churches USA) during the annual meeting of American Baptist Women’s Ministries in June, at Women’s Day in Overland Park, KS.

Rev. Maidstone Mulenga

(CRCDS ’10) Maidstone is the Director of Connectional Ministries for the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Churches where he also serves as Assistant to the Bishop. Maidstone is believed to be the first African-born person to hold either of these positions in any of the United Methodist Conferences in the United States.

Rev. Denise L. Bell

(CRCDS ’12) Denise was installed as Pastor at the Parma Baptist Church (Spencerport, NY).

Rev. Elizabeth Gobeli

(CRCDS ’14) Beth was ordained in August at the Community Christian Church (Rochester, NY).

Rev. Jacquelyn R. Brown

(CRCDS ’15) Jacquelyn is pastor at New Covenant Church of Christ (Buffalo, NY).

Save the Date

Spring Lectures and Reunion March 28-31, 2016

“Wisdom is found among the aged” —Job 12:12

Come seek WISDOM

Monday, March 28 4:00 pm Class of 1966 50th Reunion Dinner

7:00 pm Stanley I. Stuber Lecture Dr. Leonard Sweet (CRDS ‘72) Tuesday, March 29

9:00 am Class of 1991, 2006 & 2011 Reunion Breakfast

10:30 am Stanley I. Stuber Worship Service Dr. Leonard Sweet (CRDS ‘72), preaching 12:00 noon Community and Alumni/ae Luncheon 1:30 pm

Early registration and more information available at www.crcds.edu/spring-lecture-week Stanley I. Stuber Lecture Dr. Leonard Sweet (CRDS ‘72)

5:30 pm Distinguished Alumni/ae Banquet CRCDS Refectory Wednesday, March 30

10:30 am J.C. Wynn Worship Service Dr. Amy Hanson, preaching 12:00 noon Community Luncheon

1:30 pm J.C. Wynn Lecture Dr. Amy Hanson

7:00 pm Christian Faith & LGBT Experience Film and Discussion Showing the documentary “Gen Silent—the LGBT Aging Film” Thursday, March 31

10:30 am African-American Legacy Worship Service 12:00 Noon Community Luncheon

1:30 pm African-American Legacy Lecture Dr. Dorothy Smith-Ruiz

Non-Profit Org. US Postage

PAID

Rochester, NY Permit No. 1588

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

1100 South Goodman Street

Rochester, NY 14620

(585) 271-1320 www.crcds.edu

B u l l e t i n o f t h e C o l g at e R o c h e s t e r C r o z e r D i v i n i t y S c h o o l

Faith. Critically engaged.

Autumn 2015