Fall 2010 Winter/2011 Class Notes
Click on the class decade to read current InSpire Classnotes.
1940
1946
Alan Gripe (B) celebrated his ninetieth birthday in September. He hopes to finish writing an autobiography in 2011 that he wants to title “Around the World in Eighty Years—Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom.”
1948
Charlie Brackbill (B) writes, “At 89 my good wife and I agreed it was time that I give up something, so I resigned as president of the Old First Historic Trust, which I had formed to restore First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey’s oldest church (1664).”
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1950
1954
Houston Hodges (B)
has published a new book, The Lessons: A Half Century of Ministry—From
the Outside In, a retrospective. It is available from the publisher,
lulu.com, or from the author, hhodges1@hiwaay.net.
1956
Kenneth Cragg (B) has
completed a book, Jesus and Muhammad, Potential Partners for Peace,
related to Islam, the radical crisis, and the challenge to the Christian
community.
Rich Doerbaum (B), alias Dr. Dee, has written
and illustrated Saving Terros (Bethany Press), a book for middle grade
children and adults. It is a parable with more than 120 allusions to
biblical persons and places, events and ideas, sayings and principles.
1957
Adolph Kunen (B) has accepted a call to serve as designated pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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1960
1962
J. David Muyskens (M, ’78P) has
published Sacred Breath: Forty Days of Centering Prayer (Upper Room
Books, September 2010). The book follows a forty-day format, with
readings for each day and suggestions for prayer and scripture
meditation. It is written for those who want to continue a practice of
contemplative prayer. Muyskens has also written Forty Days to a Closer
Walk with God: The Practice of Centering Prayer, which introduces the
method called “centering prayer” and contains recommendations for group
use.
1963
Abd-el-Masih Istafanous (D)
has published Calvin’s Doctrine of Biblical Authority (Wipf &
Stock, 2010). The book suggests a new approach to the understanding of
the Institutes, with the duplex gratia dei as a key to the understanding
of the duplex Cognitio Domini.
1964
David G. Burke (M)
has edited Translation That Openeth the Window: Reflections on the
History and Legacy of the King James Bible (Society of Biblical
Literature, September 2009).
William R. Russell (B) writes
that Parson’s Porch Books in Cleveland, Tennessee, has published a
collection of his “trademark” soliloquy sermons and monologue
meditations titled If Only I Had Known…. He says, “The book contains
twenty-one first-person messages retelling familiar (and sometimes
not-so-familiar) Bible stories from the perspective of someone who was
there. Each message is preceded by an introduction to the
research-and-imagination process through which the character, and his
story, came alive for me—written in hope of encouraging younger
preachers to experiment with a preaching genre that has been very
successful for me, but has largely died out from North American
pulpits.”
1966
In October, Fortress Press published Ron Richardson’s (B) Couples in Conflict: A Family Systems Approach to Marriage Counseling.
1967
Terence Fretheim’s (D) new book, Creation Untamed: The Bible, God, and Natural Disasters, was published in August by Baker Academic.
Kent Ira Groff (B) wrote
a book of prayer poems, Facing East, Praying West: Poetic Reflections
on The Spiritual Exercises (Paulist Press, 2010), while on sabbatical in
India. He continues to serve as a spiritual companion for seekers and
ministers, to lead retreats and conferences, and to write.
Norm Nelson’s (M)
“Compassionate Radio” has doubled its number of program releases to
1,000 daily, Monday through Friday, across the United States. The
ministry, which works in thirty of the world’s toughest countries
including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan,
and Sudan (Khartoum and Darfur), is now engaged in a continuing
outreach to Haiti, supporting an effort that has supplied medical aid
and more than three million meals. Last spring he participated in a
group of scholars meeting with members of the Khartoum government at a
policy workshop concerning the future of United States/Sudan relations.
Donald O’Dell (B)
is “almost fully retired” in eastern Tennessee. He is still active in
environmental issues and with presentations about his book How the Bible
Became the Bible (Infinity Publishing), which won the Florida Writers
Association Royal Palm Literary Award for non-fiction. He writes that
“its open discussion of bibliolatry has been found to be very relevant
in today’s political climate.”
1969
Halford R. Ryan (b)
retired from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia,
where he had taught public speaking since 1970. He attended PTS for one
year on a Rockefeller Theological Fellowship (1966–1967), and sang in
Dr. David Hugh Jones’s chapel and traveling choirs.
Harry Boyce Wallace (M),
and his wife, Beth, were honored by Memphis Theological Seminary with
Doctor of Divinity degrees in recognition of their outstanding service
to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They have served as missionaries
in Colombia for the past forty-seven years and they still minister
there. Harry was also elected moderator of the General Assembly of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
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1970
1970
Peter Wernett (B) was
inducted in August into the Jim Thorpe Sports Hall of Fame. He was a
two-sport star at Jim Thorpe Area High School in Pennsylvania, lettering
in both baseball and football. In April 1955 he pitched the first
no-hitter in school history, was the leading hitter in 1956, and was
named that same year to the Tri-County American Legion Junior Baseball
League All-Star team. He also played tackle on the first football team
at the high school and was selected to the Panther Valley All-Star team.
1971
David Wiley (D) stepped
down in January 2009 from thirty-five years as director of the African
Centers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He continues to work at
Michigan State University as professor of sociology and African studies.
His research has concerned African environment and development
(religion and class, squatter housing, species change, urban pollution,
and global markets) in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa. He is
currently writing on the new U.S. military focus on Africa and
international education in the United States universities.
He
writes: “In May 2009, a number of PTS graduates and others celebrated
the ninety-fifth birthday of Margaret Flory at her residence in Brevard,
North Carolina. In the 1960s PTS Professors Richard Shaull and Charles
West, and Flory, founded the International Fellowship at PTS, and she
was instrumental in sending many PTS students abroad in the Presbyterian
COEMAR/WSCF Frontier Intern Program, helping found the University
Christian Movement, and many other student Christian movement and
ecumenical mission activities.”
1973
Greg Gibson (B) returned
to PTS this fall as a scholar-in-residence after thirty-six years as a
Presbyterian minister and thirty-two years as an attorney, during which
he was elected as an Ohio Super Lawyer and named among Best Lawyers in
America.
1974
Rogelio T. Pangilinan (M) retired
on September 1, 2010, after forty-eight-plus years serving the Northern
Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was given a
one-quarter-time appointment at Faith United Methodist Church in
Lombard, Illinois.
Philip L. Wickeri (B, ’85D) and his
wife, Janice (’75e), have moved to Hong Kong, where Philip has begun a
new position with the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican Church) as
advisor to the archbishop on theological and historical studies.
1975
In September, The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria elected E.M. Uka (M) as its new moderator. He will lead the church for the next six years.
1977
Mary Ebenhack’s (E) company,
AHEAD Energy, relocated its offices in August from the University of
Rochester in Rochester, New York, to the Bernard McDonough Center for
Leadership and Business at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. AHEAD is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that assists schools and medical
facilities in Africa in harnessing local energy resources to meet daily
needs in an economically sustainable, environmentally conscientious
manner.
Joyce R. Krajian (B) is the new director of The
Middleton Center for Pastoral Care and Counseling, a specialized
ministry of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
1978
Larry Scott (B) is the new minister of Kitimat United Church in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada.
After
retiring last summer from active duty chaplaincy, Jeff Young (B) made a
successful transition to working in the National Guard Chaplain’s
Office. He writes that there is “lots of ministry and life after hanging
up the uniform!”
1979
Bob Faser (B) has
recently become minister of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church in Bacchus
Marsh, Victoria, Australia (near Melbourne). He is a member of the
Uniting Church in Australia’s national dialogue group, with
representatives of the Australian Jewish community, along with being
convenor of his synod’s Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations. He
is also involved in Rotary, currently a member of one of Rotary’s new
“eclubs” meeting on the Internet.
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1980
1981
Keith Curran’s (B) church,
St. Andrew Presbyterian of Suffolk, Virginia, is celebrating its
thirtieth anniversary in 2011 with a Presbyterian Heritage trip to
Scotland July 6–15, 2011. Seats are open to others who would like to
join them. Visit www.standrewpres.net (church trips) for more
information.
Curran officiated at his son Todd’s wedding in
Charleston, South Carolina, on November 6, 2010. It was held in a park
and the bride and groom processed to accordion music.
Since June 1, 2010, John McFayden (B, ’96P)
has served as vice president of church relations for the Board of
Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and now resides in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1982
Carlos Wilton (B)
recently celebrated his twentieth anniversary as pastor of the Point
Pleasant (New Jersey) Presbyterian Church. CSS Publications has
published the third and final volume of his lectionary commentary,
Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Cycle A. He is founder and editor of what
may be the first-ever free sermon resources wiki, wikipreacher.org.
1983
Robert J. Cromwell (B) is a full-time chaplain with Odyssey Hospice of Kansas City, and does pulpit supply in Heartland Presbytery.
Brett Webb-Mitchell (B)
has published Beyond Accessibility: Toward Full Inclusion of People
with Disabilities in Faith Communities (Church Publishing Company,
2010).
1984
John Hoad (D)
has published Translating Jesus for Today (Xlibris). The book considers
the various lenses through which Jesus has been historically viewed and
focuses on the human Jesus. It can be ordered from xlibris.com, Barnes
and Noble, or amazon.com.
Hoad is a native of Barbados, who
served in the Methodist Church in Guyana and Jamaica before coming to
PTS. He was president of the United Theological College of the West
Indies in Jamaica. Now retired at the age of 83, he lives with his wife,
Karen, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Rebecca Price Janney (B) has
written Then Comes Marriage? A Cultural History of the American Family
(Moody Publishers, 2010). Janney traces “changing mores and practices
surrounding marriage and family life from colonial times until today,”
including often overlooked Native Americans, slaves, nineteenth-century
immigrants, and others.
Brian Schroeder (B), professor of
philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, has written Between
Nihilism and Politics: The Hermeneutics of Gianni Vattimo (SUNY Press,
October 2010). The book can be found at www.sunypress.edu.
In June, Diana M. Hagewood Smith (B),
a United Methodist elder, became a member in full connection of the
Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, by transfer
from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. She has served as the
pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Springfield, Missouri, for
two years. She also celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of her
ordination as a deacon on June 13, 1985, in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Sharon L. Vandegrift (B)
is executive director and coach with Bridge-the-Gap Life Coaching
Services, LLC. Bridge-the-Gap specializes in coaching support for clergy
and helping professionals. Find more information at
www.btglifecoaching.com.
1985
Ed Brandt (B) met Gary Ziccardi (’87B)
at a September conference for military chaplains in Germany. They were
part of a delegation of chaplains from African nations. He writes that
it was “great to catch up with a former classmate!” Brandt serves with
the Army National Guard and Ziccardi in the Air Force.
William Brown (B),
professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, has
published a new book, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science,
and the Ecology of Wonder (Oxford University Press).
Having served Presbyterian churches in Burlingame and Rancho Sante Fe, California, Dan Meyer (B)
has been pastoring a non-denominational church in the Chicago area for
the past thirteen years. He also hosts Life Focus, an Emmy award-winning
television news magazine that airs nationwide on PBS stations.
Karen R. Moritz (B)
serves as a PCUSA mission coworker in Prague, Czech Republic, as an
ecumenical relations facilitator with the Evangelical Church of the
Czech Brethren.
1986
Kenn Iskov (B) and
his wife, Leonie, serve as short-term volunteers at Arab Baptist
Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon, at the invitation of fellow PTS
graduate Perry Shaw (’85M). Kenn is documenting a new curriculum in
readiness for accreditation in November 2011. The curriculum was
designed by a team led by Shaw.
1987
After twenty-two years as the pastor of St. Johns Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, Ronald R. Smith (M) has recently taken a call as the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Maitland.
Steve Weber (B)
served last summer as Navy Reserve chaplain with the United States
Coast Guard on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana as part of the response team
following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
1988
Ron Cobb (B) was
recently promoted to core faculty by the Massachusetts School of
Professional Psychology. He teaches and advises students in the Psy.D.
program in clinical psychology.
Lance Hickerson (B, ’93M) writes
that after some years of working in operations supervision for UPS, he
was called in January 2010 by the Forest Home Church of Franklin,
Tennessee, to serve as senior minister.
Michael Rayner (M) is
dean of research at the University of the Highlands and Islands
Millennium Institute in Inverness, Scotland. He writes: “I am the first
such dean of research in what is soon to become the United Kingdom’s
newest university. One of the academic partner organizations is Highland
Theological College, which has a near-to-unique mission and approach in
higher education terms, and covers academic partner organizations that
span the breadth and depth of the Scottish Highlands.”
Peter de Vries (B) received
a Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh in May.
His dissertation was titled “Appropriating Apocalyptic: The Hermeneutics
of Paul Ricoeur and the Olivet Discourse of Mark 13.” He is pastor of
Old Union Presbyterian Church in Mars, Pennsylvania.
David K. Yoo (B)
has been named director of the Asian American Studies Center and
professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at the University
of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). The center is regarded as the leading
Asian American studies program in the country. Yoo joined UCLA as a
visiting professor and acting director in January.
1989
Robert Gamble (M)
has contributed to How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth, a book of 101
essays by some well-known people like Barack Obama, George Bush, Al
Gore, Tony Blair, Ted Turner, Walter Wink, and Thomas Friedman, and some
unknown people like himself. He writes that it is for the most part
about good people trying to do a good thing.
Kevin R. Henson (B)
received his D.Min. from Memphis Theological Seminary. His dissertation
was titled “Children of the Living God: A Faith-Informed Response to
the Epidemic of Childhood Obesity.” He serves as executive director of
the Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home in Denton, Texas.
Olive Elaine Hinnant (B) and David Wiseman (’73B) marched with Bishop Gene Robinson in the 2010 Santa Fe Pride Parade. Robinson was the honored host/guest speaker.
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Babette Davis Reeves (E) is
“still having a blast” as children and youth librarian at the library in
Alamosa, Colorado, where her focus is on providing early literacy
education and services to the San Luis Valley. She is also an adjunct
professor at Emporia State University, teaching the children’s services
class for their MLIS program. She and her husband, Brian, celebrated
their twenty-third anniversary in June. While she and her family do not
live in “typical” Colorado, she would love to hear from alums that
venture out to visit Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is nearby.
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1990
1992
Donovan Drake (B) has recently been called to be the pastor and head of staff of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
Trace Haythorn (B)
is the new executive director of the Frazer Center in Atlanta, Georgia,
an organization that offers programs to more than 200 children and more
than 100 adults with disabilities. Haythorn says, “Having spent the
last several years thinking, writing, and nuturing young leaders around
the questions of vocation, mine found me along the way.”
1993
Mark Douglas (B, ’94M),
associate professor of Christian ethics at Columbia Theological
Seminary, was one of eleven participants in the Caux Round Table, which
convened last summer in Caux, Switzerland, to address moral and ethical
issues related to the current global economic crisis. The group included
religious leaders, scholars, and legal and business professionals
representing the Abrahamic faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam. They collaborated in writing The Mountain Statement, a set of
practical lessons for the conduct of finance and business, coinciding
with the second anniversary of the failure of private credit markets,
which triggered a global economic crisis. Read The Mountain Statement at
http://www.ctsnet.edu/files/documents/MountainHouseStatement2010.pdf.
Lisa Bobb Hair (B)
serves as Protestant chaplain of York College in York, Pennsylvania.
She is also pastor of St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church in York New Salem, and
lives with her husband, Richard, and daughter Madeline (eight), in
York.
Jin S. Kim (B), pastor of the Church of All Nations
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has joined the General Assembly Mission
Council as field staff for Korean English Ministries in the Office of
Korean Congregational Support. He helps develop vision and strategies to
strengthen Korean English Ministries in the PCUSA, and assists in
providing leadership development and networking opportunities for 1.5
and second generation clergy and leaders, including clergywomen and
women leaders.
Joseph Pagano (B) serves as rector of
Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. His wife, Amy Richter
(B), is rector of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis. She received
her Ph.D. in New Testament from Marquette University in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, last May.
Don Schweitzer (D) has published
his second book, Contemporary Christologies (Fortress Press, 2010). The
book is an introduction to the work of fifteen leading international
Protestant and Catholic theologians of our day, including Dorothy
Soelle, Jon Sobrino, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Douglas John Hall.
The chapters explore the social context of each thinker and the thought
and voice of each on the person and work of Jesus Christ in the
environment of our contemporary world. Schweitzer is professor of
theology at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
1994
Michael Church (B), along with his wife, Terri Luper Church (’95B), has begun his second year of mission development in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Allan Cole Jr. (B, ’01D) is the new academic dean of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Michael Stephens (B) is now senior editor of Bible and Reference at the United Methodist Publishing House.
1995
Dustin Ellington (B)
and his family moved from Cairo, Egypt, to Lusaka, Zambia, in August.
Ellington is lecturer in New Testament at Justo Mwale Theological
University College. He and his wife, Sherri, have been PCUSA mission
coworkers since 2005.
Margot Starbuck Hausmann’s (B) new
book was released this past summer. Unsqueezed: Springing Free from
Skinny Jeans, Nose Jobs, Highlights, and Stilettos is available on
amazon.com.
1996
James Metzger (B)
recently published two articles: “Disability and the Marginalization of
God in the Parable of the Snubbed Host” (Luke 14:15–24), in The Bible
and Critical Theory 6.2 (2010), and “God as F(r)iend? Reading Luke
11:5–13 and 18:1–8 with a Hermeneutic of Suffering,” in Horizons in
Biblical Theology 32.1 (2010). He is currently enrolled in an M.A.
program in English studies at East Carolina University.
1997
Kathryn Blanchard (B) has published The Protestant Ethic or the Spirt of Capitalism: Christians, Freedom, and Free Markets (Cascade, 2010).
Linda Pollock (M, ’99M)
is parish minister for the Ross of Mull and the island of Iona. She
writes that most people know the island of Iona, where 250,000 people
make a pilgrimage between Easter and All Saints Day, while Mull is “as
beautiful, and recent archaeological digs have uncovered several monk’s
schools where men trained and were sent out to preach the Good News of
Christ all over Scotland and further afield.”
Matthew L. Skinner (B, ’02D) has written The Trial Narratives: Conflict, Power, and Identity in the New Testament (Westminster John Knox Press).
1998
Bryan Bass-Riley (B) recently
graduated from Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania, with a
masters in pastoral counseling. He continues his work as the director of
pastoral care and CPE supervisor at the AI duPont Hospital for Children
in Wilmington, Delaware, and he also has a small pastoral counseling
practice in Gibbstown, New Jersey.
Shang-Jen Chen (M, ’04D) has been appointed acting president of Taiwan Theological Seminary.
John Kaiser (B)
has returned to the United States after serving as an infantry brigade
combat team chaplain in Germany. He was recently selected for chaplain
lieutenant colonel, and has moved with his family to San Antonio, Texas,
to serve at the army medical command headquarters.
1999
Starting on the steps of Miller Chapel, Darrell Armstrong (B)
ran the twelve-mile stretch from Princeton to Trenton, New Jersey, on
November 28, 2010, for Adoption Awareness Month. Armstrong wanted to
raise awareness about the need for more adoptive families in general,
but especially for more black adoptive families. He is the founder of
the National Association of Foster Children, Inc., and board chair of
the Shiloh Community Development Corporation, both of which are 501(c)3
nonprofits working to prevent child abuse by strengthening families.
Kenyatta Gilbert (B, ’07D),
assistant professor of homiletics at Howard University School of
Divinity, was interviewed in April for National Public Radio’s
Interfaith Voices about the state of the black church. Listen to the
interview at http://interfaithradio.org/node/1299.
Robert P. Hoch (M, ’06D),
assistant professor of homiletics and worship at the University of
Dubuque Theological Seminary, recently published a collection of sermons
and essays titled Breathing Patterns: A Teacher’s Reflections on
Calling, Equipping, and Sending (Wipf and Stock, 2010); he is also a
contributing author to New Proclamation (Fortress Press, 2010).
James A. Lee (P) has
been involved with missionary work in China since 2000. He is the
founder of a missions agency, Strategic Leadership Alliance. While on
sabbatical he wrote a book on his experiences in China, Running with
Reckless Abandon: Living a Life Led by the Voice of God.
Tony Tian-Ren Lin (B, ’00M)
received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia. His
research was featured in the cover article of the December 2009 issue of
The Atlantic Monthly. Lin is pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church
in Gum Spring, Virginia.
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2000
2000
Rachel Frey (B)
serves as staff chaplain at the Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre
in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her ministry specializes in care for
residents with dementia and support for their families. She writes that
it is not the ministry that she would have imagined for herself when
graduating from seminary ten years ago, “but I find it incredibly
rewarding to honor the human dignity of persons, to seek justice on
their behalf, to connect them to the resources that provide them with
strength and meaning, and to support families. I feel extremely grateful
to be serving where I am and to be doing the ministry that I do.”
James McCullough (B, ’01M)
is currently in the M.Litt. program in the Institute for Theology,
Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews. He has been
accepted at the school for doctoral study.
Hyung Jin Park (M, ’09D)
is a full-time lecturer in mission and intercultural studies at Torch
Trinity Graduate School of Theology in Seoul, Korea. He writes that he
is “doing well, busy preparing for my classes and other administrative
duties.”
2001
As of July 1, 2010, Arun Jones (D)
is the Dan and Lillian Hankey Associate Professor of World Evangelism
at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches in the
area of evangelism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. His current
research projects are historical studies of Christianity in North India
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Matt Meinke (B)
received his D.Min. from Drew University in May. His dissertation was
on pastors and musicians in dialogue, using the psalms as a metaphor for
togetherness in a postmodern church context. He continues to serve at
the First Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
2002
LeQuita Hopgood Porter (B)
has been called to serve as senior pastor of the East Preston United
Baptist Church of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the first
female pastor in the church’s 167-year history and was selected by the
congregation during Women’s History Month of 2010. She writes that she
and her family are “excited about this new opportunity and look forward
to all that God has planned in Nova Scotia.” Porter began this
assignment in June, leaving behind “a vibrant and firmly planted
ministry”—the Kingdom Bible Christian Church of Tampa, Florida—which she
planted in 2003.
John R.A. Simeon (M) is district superintendent of the Madras Central District of the Madras Regional Conference of the Methodist Church in India.
2003
Glenn Chestnutt (B, ’04M),
minister of St. John’s Church of Scotland in Gourock, has written
Challenging the Stereotype: The Theology of Karl Barth as a Resource for
Inter-religious Encounter in a European Context (Peter Lang Publishing,
2010). He has also written “The Theological and Political Ramifications
of a Theology of Israel” in New Perspectives for Evangelical Theology:
Engaging with God, Scripture, and the World (Routledge, 2010).
James Hong (B)
is the civic participation coordinator at the MinKwon Center for
Community Action, a nonprofit community advocacy and services
organization that serves the Korean American and broader immigrant
community in Flushing, New York.
In September, on the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s journey from Erfut, Germany, to Rome in 1510, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson (B, ’08D), and her husband, Andrew Lars Wilson (’04M, ’09D),
walked the 1,000 miles as Luther did, allowing themselves seventy days
to walk from Germany to Switzerland to Italy. For more about their
pilgrimage, visit http://www.hereiwalk.org/.
Jonathan Zondag (M)
was installed on October 31, 2010, as senior pastor in the villages
Middenmeer en Slootdorp in the Amsterdam area of the Netherlands. His
wife, Karen, was installed as a junior pastor for youth work and
pastoral care. He is currently working on a thesis on religion and
politics as a research fellow at the Protestant Theological University
in the Netherlands.
2004
Eric Barreto (B) defended
his dissertation (“Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and
Ethnicity in Acts 16”) at Emory University in Atlanta. In July 2009, he
was appointed assistant professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary.
Carolyn Browning Helsel (B) began a doctoral program in homiletics this fall at Emory University. She was chosen to be a Bandy Fellow.
Josh McPaul (B)
is leading a group from the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley,
California, where he was a college pastor for six years, to plant a
church in Oakland. The group is seeking to plant in a boundary area of
Oakland, between “the hills and the flats,” where the city is divided
economically and ethnically. They hope to launch the church before
Easter 2011.
Darren Pollock (B) has begun a Ph.D. program
in historical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, after spending more than six years as the director of student
ministries at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church in Southern California.
Joni Sancken (B) was
ordained by Central District Conference of the Mennonite Church USA at
Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship on January 17, 2010. She completed a
postdoctoral fellowship in practical theology and religious practices at
Emory University in May 2010, and has accepted a faculty position as
assistant professor of preaching and practical theology at Eastern
Mennonite Seminary, Eastern Mennonite University, in Harrisonburg,
Virginia. In the spring of 2009, Sancken completed a Ph.D. in homiletics
at the Toronto School of Theology.
Dennis Solon (M) is in a doctoral program in New Testament at Heidelberg University.
2005
Ruth-Aimée Belonni-Rosario (B) is the new associate director of admissions at PTS. She remains a member-at-large of the Presbytery of New York City.
Jessica Bratt (B) is a chaplain at Children’s Hospital Boston in Boston, Massachusetts.
Nathan Carlin (B)
published his first book, Living in Limbo: Life in the Midst of
Uncertainty, coauthored with Donald Capps, PTS’s William Harte Felmeth
Professor of Pastoral Theology Emeritus.
Eun-hyey Park Lok (B) and
Johnny Lok celebrated their one-year anniversary at Disneyland. On
January 31, 2009, they were joined by alums Aram Bae (’05B), Christine
Hong (’05B, ’08M), Yvonne Chang (’07B), Joanne Lee (’07B), Kyunghee Lim
(’07B), Neah Lee (’07B), Yuki Shimada (Ph.D. candidate), and brother of
the bride, Benjamin Park (’06B), for a beautiful wedding in Pasadena.
The Loks live in Los Angeles, where they met three years ago. Johnny
works in IT at a financial firm, and Eun-hyey is pursuing training in
spiritual direction and counseling to add to her skills as a pastor.
2006
David Clarke Carlson (B) has been called as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Independence, Missouri.
Juan Cruz (M)
is a postgraduate research student in the Old Testament at the
University of Aberdeen. Upon completion of his research project in 2013,
Cruz will return to the Philippines, his home country, to serve as a
full-time faculty member at Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Jason Ingalls (B) was
ordained to the diaconate in the Episcopal Church at Christ Church
Cathedral in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 5, 2010. During this academic
year, he will finish his Th.M. thesis at Wycliffe College, University
of Toronto, and serve as parish assistant at St. Matthew’s Anglician
Church in Riverdale, Toronto.
Joseph M. Kramp (B) has
completed his comprehensive exams with distinction for the Ph.D. in
psychology and religion from Drew University. He has earned the M.Phil.
as well as a graduate certificate in gender and sexuality. Kramp is
married to Angel C. Duncan and they live in Maplewood, New Jersey.
In October, Eleanor Norman (B, E)
gave the invocation at the eleventh annual State of the Region Address
in Norfolk and in Newport News, Virginia. The address is an opportunity
for business, community, and government leaders from the seventeen
communities of greater Hampton Roads to explore the answers to critical
questions facing their region.
2007
In January 2011, Rachel G. Hackenberg (B),
pastor of Grace United Church of Christ in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
published Writing to God: 40 Days of Praying with My Pen (Paraclete
Press). The book offers daily prayers and invites readers to write their
own prayers based on a scriptural prompt.
Frances Wattman Rosenau (B) is associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, New York.
After three years of teaching in Lebanon, Deanna Womack (B, ’08M) began her doctoral program at Princeton Seminary this fall in the area of mission, ecumenics, and history of religions.
2008
Alexander R. Bearden (B)
married Meredith M. Herbert (’10b) on July 4, 2010. PTS alums in the
wedding party included Wesley Allen (’08B), Rachel Achtemeier Rhodes
(’10B), Laura Powell (’10B), Caroline Jinkins (’10B), and Zachary
Shaeffer (’08B).
Mansour Khajehpour (B) was called as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Scott, Kansas, in May.
Jordan May (B)
published his first book, Trajectories in the Book of Acts: Essays in
Honor of John Wesley Wyckoff, last January. He is a federal prison
chaplain in Raleigh, North Carolina.
2009
In July, Kathryn Lester (B) became the director of youth ministries at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina.
Paranee Sun (B)
has written The True Face of Health Care: A Physician and Patient’s
Perspective (forthcoming 2011). She asks that fellow alums look for the
book and tell their congregations to discuss the important issue of
healthcare reform.
Alice Barnes Tewell (B) was ordained
in August and installed as associate pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church of Ithaca, New York, on December 5, 2010.
David Wright (B),
known to classmates as “Purple Dave,” is pastor of the Panther Valley
Ecumenical Church in Allamuchy, New Jersey. He welcomes classmates and
students to visit him, “share your preaching gifts with the
congregation, or just watch baseball together.”
2010
Victoria Allen (B) is the new pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania.
Michael Chen (B)
has joined the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO), a nonprofit
campus ministry organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that partners
with churches, colleges, and organizations to develop men and women who
live out their Christian faith in every area of life. Chen is pioneering
a new CCO partnership working with students at the University of
Pennsylvania and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
Joanne Fong (B)
is a Lilly Pastoral Resident at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn
Mawr, Pennsylvania. In the two-year position (begun July 2010), she
engages in various ministries like mission and outreach, organizational
life, congregational life, stewardship, pastoral care, seniors, and
youth and young adult ministries, as well as worship liturgy, preaching,
and occasional baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
On May 29, 2010, Emma Hayes (B) and Matthew Nickel (’09B) were
married in Blacksburg, Virginia. The wedding party included PTS alums
Melinda Hall (’10B), Crawford Brubaker (’09B, ’10M), and Eric Barnes
(’10B). Nathan Royster (’09B) was one of the officiants. Emma has been
called as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Warren, Michigan,
and Matthew is serving as a resident minister at the First Presbyterian
Church of Ann Arbor. The couple are living in Ann Arbor.
Caroline Jinkins (B) was ordained on August 29, 2010, at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Laura Lovell Mitchell (B) is parish associate at Bay Road Presbyterian Church in Lake George, New York.
Liliana Pastas (E)
is a commissioned lay pastor for kids and adults in Latino Christian
education and Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church in
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.
Jason Rea (B) is associate
pastor with a major emphasis on youth ministries at Elfinwild
Presbyterian Church in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania. He writes that his wife,
Kara, and their three children (Maggie, William, and Anderson) are all
doing well and enjoying their new home right across the street from the
church. “We are very excited to be here and are looking forward to all
God has in store for us.”
Rachel Achtemeier Rhodes (B) is associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Haddonfield, New Jersey.
Nicole Noteboom Rienstra (B) is the coordinator of study programs at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
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