News

The Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney is an Associate Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She is ordained as an Episcopal priest and served as a US Army Reserve Chaplain. Dr. Gafney wrote “Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel”, contributed to “Biblia Africana, Abingdon Pastor’s Bible Study, Volume III” and co-edited the “Peoples’ Bible from Fortress Press”. She gave McCormick’s annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Heritage and History Lecture on March 14 and led a Community Bible Study on March 15.

Preaching and Public Leadership: News We Can Use!

In a world of twenty-four hour newscasts, we receive constant reports of incivility and hostility.  Many of our leaders seem unwilling or unable to transcend the gravitational pull that drags public conversation and conduct to its lowest levels.

In her book "Faithful Disagreement: Wrestling with Scripture in the Midst of Church Conflict", Dr. Frances Taylor Gench describes her five-year involvement with the task force reporting on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which was commissioned by the denomination’s 213th General Assembly. She describes this time as a challenging exercise in the art of listening.

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Campbell, President of McCormick Theological Seminary, is the author of God’s Abundant Table, the 2011 Moderator’s Lenten study published by Witherspoon Press, an imprint of Congregational Ministries Publishing of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The following is a personal assessment of the historic events unfolding now in Egypt from Mafik Wahba, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Tyndale University and Seminary in Canada. Professor Wahba received his M.A. in Theological Studies from McCormick in 1985.

The Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Pastor of Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco, will be leading worship and a pair of workshops here at LEAD 2011, March 5, at First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn, west of Chicago. In preparing a primer for the event, I spent a few minutes talking to Bruce about the subject of his morning workshop, “Institutional Fluidity and the Nature of Church Leadership for the Future.”

At its annual alumni/ae luncheon on October 26, McCormick presented the Reverend Michael McConnell with the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of his "creative witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ for all people through peacemaking efforts illustrating the human cost of war, advocacy for under-served urban communities, and campaigns to engage congregations in the plight of refugees." The following is the text from his acceptance speech before a gathering of faculty, staff, students and alumni/ae at Hyde Park Union Church on Chicago's South Side.

Can theological education in the city really speak to the needs and experiences of a rural church community?

Hispanic Heritage Month again finds McCormick Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of Latin@ Theology and Ministry partnering with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Catholic Theological Union to offer a multidisciplinary series of educational events around the theme of “Manos Sanadoras” (or “Healing Hands”), which celebrates the theological, cultural and civic contributions Latin@s are making to our contemporary society.

McCormick Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointment of The Rev. Dr. David D. Daniels III to the Henry Winters Luce Chair of World Christianity. Daniels succeeds the late Dr. Ogbu U. Kalu, who held this distinguished position until his death in December of 2008.