Alumni News
Challenges for Churches: A Season of Epiphany Message from Dean Moore
Challenges for Churches
We are in the Christian season of Epiphany – a season of special meaning for Christians but with a message at least partially apropos to persons in other faiths. The focus is on spreading light and doing the work of Jesus – the work of love – in the world. To quote Howard Thurman, this is the season when “the work of Christmas begins.” In such a season, churches are challenged to ponder their missions and spiritual-ethical life, even when the earth's family is reeling from tragedy after tragedy.
The World Is Hurting Too Much for Faith Communities to be Fainthearted
While the School of Theology has been in winter recess, our neighbors and the world have experienced devastation. Earthquakes and aftershocks in Puerto Rico have killed at least one person, injured many others, left thousands homeless, and strained the already strained infrastructures. In the Philippines, 30,000 people have fled their homes in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption with another expected. Fires have swept across much of Australia, destroying animals and habitats in heart-breaking numbers, fueled by the effects of global warming. The United States has walked to the precipice of war with Iran. Five faithful Jews were murdered during Hanukah celebrations in a rabbi’s home in New York City, and the West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth experienced the shooting of two members (one with family connections with one of our students) and the shooter. During the same days, the 2019 statistics are rolling in, marking a continued high rate of police shootings of people of color, with the proportion of African Americans shot being 2.5 times higher than that of whites and with high comparative percentages for Native American and Latinx peoples as well.
The Challenge Is to Live from the Center of Faith
These and other devastations challenge churches and all faith communities to find the center of their mission or purpose and to live courageously into it. This challenge calls for courageous searching of ourselves and reshaping of our visions for a future of genuine hope. This is true for all faith communities, but I will relate it below to the United Methodist Church (UMC) due to questions erupting in the public press. Before I proceed, I want to emphasize strongly that BU School of Theology is committed to support and include all people, to honor their dignity, and to stand unequivocally for justice and compassion. We are not perfect in our efforts, but we will not abandon our commitment. We are also committed to welcome persons in all varieties of Methodist and Wesleyan theological traditions and to welcome persons in the wide range of ecumenically Christian and interfaith traditions, as well as those who are searching or unaligned. These commitments run deep, and they will not change. Our Wesleyan Student Association, for example, has enacted these commitments by voting to be a Reconciling Organization. We do not know what future structures will bring, but our challenge is to live into our deep commitments with ever-increasing efforts to learn together and sow compassion and justice.
The UMC Challenge Is to Find its Best Possible Direction
Some of you have asked me to comment on the latest United Methodist effort to offer an alternative to the “Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation,” which is not yet a full proposal, but which is now being developed into proposed legislation. Only then can the conversation examine details, and only in General Conference will the decisions be made. Until then, the conversations and decisions, remain open. Now is the time for much more conversation in STH, local churches, and other venues.
The two major directions of the Protocol are to provide for a separation of churches that identify as “traditionalist” if those churches so choose and to provide for a United States regional conference within the structures of the UMC. The significance of the regional conference is that the UMC, as a body, would no longer require agreement on all matters in The Book of Discipline; instead, the UMC in the U.S. would have regional flexibility in decision-making, which central conferences outside the US already have. (See details on the Protocol on websites listed at the end of this letter.)
The Protocol was developed by the most representative group of plan-developers thus far, and it is grounded in sustained conversation and mediation. For these reasons, some have named this as the “best next step.” At the same time, some people express a wish that the planners would have represented even more diversity, with more representation from LGBTQIA, African, young, and more wide-ranging ethnic communities. Many also want to ensure that, if such a plan were to be implemented, it would be accompanied by removal of all restrictive language regarding human sexuality and would include other assurances that justice would prevail in the continuing United Methodist Church. The conversations continue.
What must we do?
In the BU School of Theology, our challenge is to keep praying and talking about movements in the UMC, the ecumenical church, the interfaith community, and the larger world. They all affect one another. The challenge further is to open ourselves to the deep conversations we have already begun and to conduct them with the greatest of honesty, compassion, and respect so we all may learn and live into our best selves.
With appreciation for all of you,
Mary Elizabeth
Relevant Links:
- The Protocol
- Statement by Presidents and Deans of UMC Schools and Colleges (NASCUM)
- Responses from United Methodist Schools and Colleges
Christmas Message from Dean Moore
Dear Beloved Community,
On this Christmas Eve, I am thinking of all of you! The blessings of Christmas are not just for Christians, but also for peoples of all faiths and no faiths, and for all of God’s creation. The love of Christmas is a cosmic love and, for Christians, that love is revealed in the wonder of a baby’s birth. May love touch your life during this season in whatever form it comes to you. May the human family learn to live in a love that transcends violence and hurt.
Awaiting the birth of Jesus …
In a world filled with despair
Where children are separated from their parents
Where the climate warms with accelerating speed
Where people live in dire poverty.
Where we await the good news that a baby is born!
God is present in our midst
Hope is reborn
Love has come yet again to wipe away hate
throughout God’s creation!
Blessed Christmas and abundant Love to all of you!
Mary Elizabeth
STH Announces New Unitarian Universalist Learning Community
Photo credit: Ben Atherton-Zeman (MDiv’21)
BOSTON, MA | December 2019 – The School of Theology (STH) is pleased to announce that it has formed a new denominational learning community, in consultation with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and leaders in many aspects of UU ministry. The mission of the Unitarian Universalist Community of Learning (UUCL) is to form a community of students, faculty, and staff dedicated to nurturing and preparing Unitarian Universalist students for future leadership and service in and through the church. The UUCL is a specialized program that aims to provide the best possible education in an ecumenical community that values the unique histories and ministerial legacies of the denomination.
The Communities of Learning at the School of Theology seek to nurture the next generation of leaders for ministries in churches and in service to the larger world. The intention is to equip students in their own distinctive denominational traditions and in ecumenical and interfaith traditions, providing them with curricular and co-curricular opportunities to ground their academic, spiritual, ecclesial, professional, and social-global growth. At the same time, BUSTH seeks to enrich the spiritual and global life for all students at the School. The new UUCL joins the already-established Anglican/Episcopal Community of Learning and United Church of Christ Community of Learning, as well as the multiple supports for Wesleyan and Methodist community and learning.
“I was thrilled to learn that BUSTH was moving forward with a deeper commitment in the formation of Unitarian Universalist ministers,” said Rev. Dr. Wendy von Courter, STH alum and pastor of UU Congregation in Marblehead, MA, who will mentor the UUCL. “To have these learning communities within the context of this strong, Methodist seminary, bodes well for our collective future. Part of my own formation at BUSTH was in the creation of strong collegial relationships across diverse theologies. I treasure those relationships to this day and they've come into play throughout the years as we join together in justice work. To be part of this effort is exciting! I am looking forward to meeting with our UU students to listen to their experiences, share some perspectives, and talk about the many possibilities before us.”
The Communities of Learning share common features that respond to unique denominational traditions and needs, such as courses, co-curricular opportunities, contextual education, spiritual life offerings, mentors and consultants, and opportunities to connect with programs and projects of the denominations and the School of Theology. These projects may focus on theological and historical traditions, worship, social justice, sacred music, mission, and other important concerns. The rich collaborations and shared courses with other schools of the Boston Theological Institute will also be a part of the STH Communities of Learning experience. Students in the UU denomination will be eligible, as all of our students are, for generous scholarships to further their studies.
“I could not be happier to welcome the Unitarian Universalist Community of Learning, which will support our UU students and partner congregations and will stretch the horizons of our entire community,” says Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore, who expresses enthusiasm for the newest Community of Learning. “As we dive into our own traditions, we open ourselves to others; as we dive into others’ traditions, we discover more about our own and about ourselves. The UUCL is a wonderful gift for all of us.”
STH is grateful for the wise and generous leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association, as well as its alumni/ae and students. Many have offered direction and ideas for this new Community of Learning, which will continue to grow and change over time with the addition of certificates and adaptations that are required by an ever-changing church.
Dean Moore Quoted on Revised UMC Social Principles
The following article was originally published on December 12, 2019 by United Methodist News. Please read the full article here.
Revised Social Principles reflect worldwide church
by Kathy L. Gilbert
December 12, 2019 - The United Methodist Church has a long history of tackling complicated, controversial and contemporary topics such as polygamy, child marriage, abortion, violence and treatment of migrants.
While much attention currently is focused on the church’s stance on LGBTQ people, it is not the only human struggle the church prays about and addresses.
For the past eight years, a diverse group of writers and editors has been revising the denomination’s Social Principles, which since its founding has been an expression of the Wesleyan commitment to social holiness for The United Methodist Church.
The Revised Social Principles crisscrossed continents, was read and studied by thousands and will land in Minneapolis in May for final review and approval at the 2020 United Methodist General Conference.
Review Revised Social Principles
The 2012 General Conference commissioned the United Methodist Board of Church and Society to revise the Social Principles to enhance its theological foundations, global relevance and meaning, along with its focus and succinctness, said the Rev. Mary Elizabeth Moore, chair of the revision team and dean of Boston University School of Theology.
The revised document was broken down into four sections: creation, economic, social and political communities. Scriptural passages and excerpts from John Wesley’s writings introduce each section.
Moore said the toughest sections to revise were on violence and sexuality.
“People raised multiple concerns about violence, revealing our very diverse United Methodist contexts and perspectives,” she explained.
“For example, people living under the constant threat of violence often see the use of military force differently from those in which the military itself is a major threat to peace or those who are committed to nonviolent resistance.”
Please read the remainder of the article here.
Professor Wariboko quoted in Christianity Today article
Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics Nimi Wariboko was quoted in an article on the life and legacy of German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, who passed away last Saturday, and Bonnke's “deep sense of humility.” Read the full Christianity Today article here.
Dean Moore’s 2019 Appeal Letter
Dear Alumni/ae and Friends,
With autumn upon us and winter before us, I am reminded of the wondrous beauty of change. There are times when change brings disarray, anxiety, and grief to our personal and communal lives. Other times it gives birth to new beginnings, beginnings born out of hope, promise, and courage. This year, the School of Theology (STH) has celebrated a number of changes that I’d like to share with you because, without your continued support, none of this would be possible.
This fall, we celebrated the completion of the first-ever Boston University capital campaign. The School of Theology raised $29.4 million for its own “On a Mission” campaign, after the 2010 campaign goal of $15 million was revised to $25 million in 2015 and surpassed in 2018. The impact of your abundant generosity includes the following:
- 19 Endowed Scholarships
- Six Named Scholarships
- Two Endowed Centers
- Center for Practical Theology
- Tom Porter Religion and Conflict Transformation Program
- Two New Programs
- Theology and Latinx Studies
- Faith and Ecological Justice
- Two New Chairs
- Harrell F. Beck Chair of Hebrew Scripture
- Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity
- Two Endowed Housing Funds
- Earl and Millie Beane Housing Fund
- Charles and Elizabeth Kenosian Residence Fund
- One Endowed Community of Learning
- Anglican Episcopal Community of Learning
- One Named Faculty Scholar
- Bishops Scholar of Homiletics and Preaching
- One Named Lectureship
- Father Vincent Machozi Lecture on Building Justice and Peace
- LEED Gold certified renovation of the lower level into Community Center
These are not mere accolades, but tangible accomplishments that will result in an enhanced learning community and strengthened research environment. Just last month, the School of Theology installed Professor David Schnasa Jacobsen as the inaugural Bishops Scholar of Homiletics and Preaching, and you are part of the cloud of witnesses who made this a reality. About two months ago, we announced the formation of two new programs at the School of Theology: Theology and Latinx Studies and Faith and Ecological Justice. With these programs established, we remain on the cutting edge of theological education and will continue attracting brilliant minds and loving hearts.
Another change is on the horizon. At this time, you may have already received news of my retirement plans. I have loved serving this great school because of the amazing people who have traveled these halls. Please know that I plan to make this last year count, serving the community with my full self as we work together to build greater student and faculty support systems and to deepen the roots of our academic and co-curricular programs.
STH is moving in the right direction, and I ask that you consider making a gift to the STH Annual Fund as we strive to maximize our potential. Your support, with a gift of any amount, to the STH Annual Fund will help nurture our students and equip them to create boundary-free communities of love all over the world. We are so very grateful for your financial and moral support, and for the work you help us do. Gifts of all sizes are welcome and much appreciated, and your gift increases our alumni participation rate, which helps with foundation grants. Thank you again for your consideration.
With appreciation and blessings,
Mary Elizabeth Moore
Dean, School of Theology
www.bu.edu/sthfund | www.bu.edu/sth/alumni/giving
P.S. In this time of change I ask for your renewed support of the STH Annual Fund, funds which will help keep the school going while our recent campaign has allowed the school to grow. The Annual Fund supports students’ contextual education opportunities, community and spiritual life programs and outreach to our alumni and friends including the annual publication of focus. Thank you!
Assistant Professor Shively Smith Awarded Vital Worship Grant for 2020
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship announced it will fund 15 grants to Teacher-Scholars for 2020-2021 as part of its Vital Worship Grants Program. Assistant Professor of New Testament Shively T. J. Smith has been awarded one of these prestigious grants for her project entitled “Visual Explorations of Interpretative Practice with Howard Thurman.” She will focus on the relations among congregational public witness, scriptural engagement, and visual hermeneutics, seeking to explore Thurman’s exhortation to do “what makes you come alive.”
Please read the original announcement here.
By Faith Magazine Honors Gil Caldwell (’58)
Congratulations to Gil Caldwell (’58) for being named a Super Elder in the September/October issue of By Faith Magazine! By Faith is a publication celebrating the gifts and ministry of Black United Methodist Churches.
School of Theology Hosts RVS Conference
Boston, MA – On November 19 and 20, the Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) hosted the Religion, Values, and Social Practices Conference here in Boston. Conference participants included faculty, staff, and students from partner institutions of The Research School (RVS). The conference is a collaborative effort of BUSTH and RVS, which was established in 2009. RVS is a supplement to the PhD programs at member institutions, which include eight universities and colleges in Norway and two universities in Sweden, with BUSTH as an international partner. The main mission of RVS is to help PhD students complete their dissertations and degrees in the estimated time and contribute to their research so that the dissertations have high international quality. An interdisciplinary school, members from a variety of academic disciplines study psychology of religion, religious studies, education, religious education, sociology of religion, and theology.
The two-day conference kicked off on Tuesday with a welcome from Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Bryan Stone, and the first plenary session given by Assistant Professor of Religion and Society Nicolette Manglos-Weber, Cultivating Analytic Empathy in the Study of Religion: Four Framing Concepts.
Participants then selected among several paper presentations for late morning and afternoon sessions, including paper presentations given by Judith Oleson, Executive Director of the Tom Porter Religion and Conflict Transformation Program, and Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology Steven Sandage. The afternoon sessions were followed by a tour of BU's campus and student fellowship at a nearby pub.
Wednesday's opening plenary session, Religious Conversion and Ethnic Identity Among Latino Evangelicals, was presented to a full STH Community Center by Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion Jonathan Calvillo. One of the following morning sessions included a paper presentation given by STH PhD student Dan Hauge. The conference concluded on Wednesday afternoon, and from STH, many participants will be traveling to San Diego, CA for the annual meeting of AAR/SBL.
"The Norwegian partnership with Boston University School of Theology is a rich one that traces back to 2010, when we first gathered to share research on religious knowing in congregations and other social contexts", Dean of STH, Mary Elizabeth Moore remarked. "The conference and sustained partnership provide a huge opportunity for our faculty and students, who have been meeting regularly in Norway, Greece, and Boston to build significant research projects and relationships."
Deans’ Message: With Thanks for the Voice of the People
With Thanks for the Voice of the People
Dear Community,
We write with gratitude for the strong and important letter that you wrote to the three deans. Such a thoughtful letter deserves a response, which we offer here, but we want to begin with our genuine appreciation for your willingness to write this. We are listening carefully, albeit imperfectly, to the pain, anger, hurt, sadness, and harm that you express, both in your letter and in other recent moments in our community life. We honor you for being your honest selves, and we lament the enormous harm that you have experienced, some caused by the violent deaths in our society in the past two months, some by the decades and centuries of US and global violence, some by the appearance of Ben Shapiro, and some by the responses or non-responses of your deans. We deeply regret that harm and hurt, and we are actively planning opportunities for the community to share their responses and reflect together in what you have aptly described as a “community dialogue in which our community can process, grieve and respond.”
The most immediate hurt has been caused by the presence of Ben Shapiro on the BU campus, but we are surrounded by other examples of racist legacies, violence run rampant, and the destruction of lives that do not fit white heterosexual norms. We recently mourned the police shootings of Bennie Branch and Atatiana Jefferson, and their deaths are tragic reminders of the vulnerability of black and brown bodies. Of the 783 police shootings in the US thus far in 2019, the numbers of African American and Latino/a deaths continue to be out of proportion to the population of the country, 158 Black and 127 Hispanic or Latino/a. Our society violates children and young people every day, whether in direct shootings or in cultivating a sense that violence is a cure for personal and social ills. Today we have witnessed yet another school shooting in which a young man shot his classmates and then turned the gun on himself. Police shootings and school shootings – all shootings – need to stop.
In such a fraught world, any speaker who feeds divisiveness and speaks without honest recognition of the legacies of slavery, racism, able-ism, poverty, sexism, and heteronormativity will perpetuate the legacies. We disagree with Shapiro’s message and believe that America was indeed founded on slavery, and on genocide, and that continues to shape racist attitudes and ideologies. To claim that America was founded on freedom as a way of denying these realities is not only misleading and distorting, it is immoral.
You have offered two critiques that we think deserve attention: 1) STH administration should have taken some form of public action against Shapiro’s visit, and 2) our ‘failure’ to do so represents a hypocritical and cowardly (“head in the sand”) abandonment of our school’s professed identity and mission as a school of the prophets. We would like to share with you why we made the choices we did, but with full awareness that we might have been wrong.
In response to the first critique, we have two thoughts. First, Shapiro was invited to campus as a part of a student-organized event. As university faculty and staff, our relationship to students is not one of equal power. We think it highly inappropriate for us to utilize the power of our positions to condemn students or engage them in a confrontational manner. We have no problem with their peers doing so. But, we think it is unfair for faculty and administrators to “punch down” by issuing a statement against the decisions of a student group. Second, we did not speak publicly about the event because we did not want to give Shapiro any more recognition than he was already getting. We don’t think that ignoring what we identify as “hate speech” is always the right strategy for working toward racial justice. To the contrary, we think that confronting and rejecting such speech can be the most powerful action that one can take in the cause of justice. However, in the case of Shapiro, we do not see him as an influential thought leader whose ideas must be denounced lest he win the day. We think he works through insults and seeks influence through his ability to elicit visible and vociferous dissent, which he can then portray as a sign of his stature. Thus, we really believe that the most effective way to counter his hate speech is to ignore him, while continuing our work of telling a different story more loudly and more forcefully than he is telling his.
This leads us to the second critique – that we retreated from our legacy in some way. The student letter invokes King’s witness as a part of their critique of our actions, but one of the critiques levied at King was his insistence on choosing his antagonists carefully. Other activists, especially students, often thought him weak or too gradualist because he didn’t respond or react to every indignity or mobilize in the face of every injustice. The SCLC received countless requests to get involved in local fights over various forms of segregation. But, they carefully refused the fights that would unnecessarily elevate antagonists whose stature was too low to make a significant structural impact. Prior to any nonviolent direct action, they conducted power analyses and identified the key centers of power that they wanted to target and topple for maximum impact. If an antagonist was not deemed worthy of the effort, they ignored them so as not to magnify that person’s impact. They may not have always been right in their determinations about what to fight and what to ignore, but making the determination was itself a mandatory part of the ongoing fight for justice.
Leaders in the Civil Rights movement also knew that different people occupied different roles within the fight. We think the very existence of differences touches on the theological question of what “prophetic” means. We think people often reduce that concept to confrontational protest and dismiss the constructive work of community-building and cultural transformation that is actually at the heart of the biblical witness of prophetic ministry. Along with the theological question of what prophetic ministry is, we would add the practical question of how to achieve your aims. We three do not think that the best way to combat hate speech is to prohibit it; because it just goes underground and festers. We think that you combat lies and distortions with truth, and you need to hear truths from every direction. You can’t restrict hate into non-existence. You have to overwhelm it under the preponderance of love.
We are expressing our perspectives here, but we do not think that our answer will suffice as a response to your letter. It did not satisfy King’s detractors either. But, it’s what we believe, even as we know that we may be wrong.
We close again with appreciation. Your letter not only levied a strong critique, but you suggested a constructive way forward. We will be having the community gatherings that you have wisely requested, and we expect and hope that people will express their honest and diverse views there. Students who wrote and signed the letter have already expressed themselves with power. We have also shared ourselves honestly in this letter, not to ask you to agree but to invite you to ponder your own concerns and views. Our STH community is on a journey to deeper understanding, not just to listen to the sounds of our many voices, but to hear as deeply as possible the hurts and passions that people carry. To do this is to journey with Howard Thurman in the “search for common ground,” where agreement will never be found but where dignity, mutuality, and genuine transformation abound.
With appreciation and hope for important conversations ahead,
Teddy Hickman-Maynard
Bryan P. Stone
Mary Elizabeth Moore