N.A.D. Fellow ('00)
Associate Professor of Doctrinal Theology and Dir. of the MATS Program at Moravian Theological Seminary
May 02, 2012
Sexism is present in our churches as well as in our society. However,
it may be even more prominent in our Korean American churches due to
Korea’s cultural history, religious background and societal values. As a
result, churches will give every excuse not to call a woman as their
pastor. Rev. Unzu Lee states that “churches have to stop blaming
culture” for how the Korean American Churches treat their women.
Churches continue to blame Korean cultural, historical and religious
heritages as excuses and reasons for how women are treated in the
church. However, Korean American churches need to stop blaming culture
and more correctly name this systematic subordination and subjugation of
women as sexism.
Korean American churches cannot continue to blame their history,
their Confucian roots and their cultural practices for the way they
perceive and treat women. Korean American churches need to reimagine the
way we speak, preach and teach about who God is.
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FTE Ministry Fellow ('01)
Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches
April 16, 2012
Sometimes, the front pew is the hardest place to figure out what is going on at church. At 10:30pm on Saturday night, the Parish Council President greeted me at the front door of Taxiarchae/Archangels Greek Orthodox Church in Watertown. She saved me a seat of honor in the front pew. The only other people I know in the entire church of 300 people are the Priest and his wife, the Presbytera. A Protestant clergywoman at the holiest of Orthodox Christian feasts, I already feel a bit out of sorts. Quickly, I discover the problem with the first pew: you can’t follow the cues of the people ahead of you. By the tenth time we sang the Resurrection Hymn “Christos Anesti,” I think I had figured out both the tune and the proper movements of the lit Paschal candle. But there was a lot of page turning and fumbling in-between. This is the spiritual discipline of Ecumenical Awkwardness.
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Scholar-in-Residence
April 02, 2012
Sometimes, when we open our meaning-making to a trusted circle of
friends, we see things we cannot see alone. We see images and hear
whispers of connection that elude us in solo quests. If we carefully
prepare our hearts and minds, we might even sense one another's "shy
souls" coming out of hiding to bask for awhile in the mysterious
presence of God among us.
People of all ages can step onto this holy ground, and I believe
congregations are places where that sometimes happens. What if we found a
way to allow that to happen more frequently? What if we got serious
about creating spaces for intergenerational meaning-making?
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Ministry Fellow ('02)
Senior Pastor, Joy Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church
Dallas, TX
March 27, 2012
Symbols have long been important for religious and spiritual reflection. These symbols have been employed to provide greater understanding to transcendent truths, to provide comfort amid chaos, and to inspire the faithful to put their faith to action towards the common good. Many times, these symbols have emerged from rather mundane objects closely associated with a historical event.
Prior to the beginning of his passion, Christ blessed and broke bread as a symbol of his soon to be battered and bruised body. He blessed and poured wine as a symbol of his blood which was soon to pour from open wounds. These rather ordinary...
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March 17, 2012
Several times during the engaging and enriching two-day conversation FTE
organized around mentoring young ministers, the ambiguity around formal
and informal mentoring relationships emerged, as well as the
remembrance of a bygone era in our culture when mentoring was more
organic, when it was woven into the fabric and people didn’t have to be
so intentional about setting up mentoring relationships. As we told
stories of our mentoring experiences and tried to come up with language
to define what we mean by the word "mentoring," a passage from Lao Tzu’s
Tao te Ching came to mind. "When the Great Tao ceased to be observed,
then virtues came into vogue." Could it be that as our Great Way ceased
to be organically observed, virtuous words like "mentoring" and
"vocation" came into vogue?
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February 28, 2012
Lent has begun, the penitential season of the Christian church
calendar. With the imposition of ashes we begin the forty days
of fasting for deeper reflection, confessing one’s transgressions –
that which causes us to move backwards instead of towards God, and for
seeking God’s ongoing forgiveness and pardon. In the past whenever I
have heard some variation of the word “penitent” I immediately related
it to divinely ordered punishment, meting out justice, and necessary
guilt. I can’t blame that on my Catholic upbringing. I think in large
part such associations with the word penitent comes from a wider
cultural and religious imagination. The same imagination that associates
Confession with the “big sins” like adultery, stealing, etc.…despite
the fact that sin, regardless of its details, has one weight on the
scale of growing in neighborly and holy love and affection. The weight
of sin always tips the scales down. But lately, as I have started
practicing the sacrament of Confession my thoughts on penitent and
penance are shifting.
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FTE Director of Alumni Relations and Development
February 20, 2012
Earlier this month, Frank Yamada was inaugurated as tenth president of McCormick Theological Seminary,
and the first Asian American president of a Presbyterian Church (USA)
seminary. I was able to attend, along with other FTE staff, at the tail
end of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.
First, a moment of full disclosure: I am an alumna of McCormick. I
was part of Frank’s ordination commission. We have worked together when I
was in Chicago. Now I know Dr. Yamada as one of many important partners
in the work FTE does with leaders in theological education.
This inauguration? It was cool..
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