Alumni News
Dean Emeritus Robert C. Neville Receives Morehouse Peace Award
This article was originally published in print by The Milton Times on May 13, 2021, with the headline “Neville Receives Morehouse Peace Award.” The author of this article is Elaine Cushman Carroll. The following is an excerpt only.
Neville Receives Morehouse Peace Award
A recent honor awarded to the Rev. Dr. Robert Cummings Neville brought back a reflection to a bond formed about 55 years ago when he and his wife Beth were accepted as "token white people" into a predominately Black congregation in New York City.
During the couple's second visit to St. Stephen's Methodist Church in the Bronx, Robert, a United Methodist deacon, offered to lead the services when the pastor suddenly fell ill.
The relationship soon deepened after Beth became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Gwendolyn, who was baptized with the congregation standing in as her godparents.
The baby was not healthy, however, and died four months later.
The love and care that the couple received in the next weeks and for the following 13 years in the congregation has never been forgotten as "the most significant religious experience in our lives," Beth said recently.
While Beth continued her work as an artist and the family grew, she worked with the youth group. Robert preached occasionally and sang in the choirs as he delved into teaching.
Last month, the story surfaced as Morehouse College, a traditionally Black college in Atlanta, honored Neville with the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize.
The award is named for giants of international peace Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Daisaku Ikeda.
Past receipients include Nelson Mandela; Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rosa Parks, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
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Neville, who retired in 2018, served as dean of the Boston University School of Theology, and at Marsh Chapel. He has written 35 books about philosophy and theology. Read more about Professor Emeritus Robert C. Neville on STH's website or from Morehouse College Virtual Event Program, on page 14.
BUSTH Selects Participating Congregations for Trauma-Responsive Congregations Project
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kimberly Macdonald
Communications Director
617-358-1858
kmacd@bu.edu
Boston, MA – November 3, 2021 – Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is pleased to announce the participating congregations for “Trauma-Responsive Congregations: Equipping Thriving Urban Congregations to Respond to Collective Trauma.” The four-year project is entering its second year. It is designed to help urban congregations respond to trauma from theologically-informed and spiritually-integrative perspectives, as their congregants are continually shaped by and are reacting to the compounding of domestic and global traumatic events.
The project is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Thriving Congregations Initiative, an effort that is supporting 115 organizations nationwide as they help congregations strengthen their ministries so they can better help people deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other and contribute to the flourishing of their communities and the world.
In November 2020, Lilly Endowment made a $990,196 grant to BUSTH to fund the Trauma-Responsive Congregations project. Each congregation selected for this project is represented by a task force of three leaders who will participate in a process of collaborative learning and will design a project that will support and bolster their congregation’s efforts to respond to trauma.
The participating congregations are as follows:
Boston
- Central Assembly of God Church
- Connexion
- MANNA Community
- Luke Christian AME Zion Church
San Diego
- Living Water Church of the Nazarene
- Normal Heights United Church
- Andrew’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church and Christ Lutheran Church (partnership)
“What most excites me is the ability to support leaders doing this work,” says BUSTH Associate Professor of Theology Shelly Rambo. “I am aware of the toll that this takes on them, which has only been multiplied by ministering during the pandemic.”
“Connexion and the Haus of Three are incredibly excited to join in this work,” said Jordan Harris, pastor of Connexion Church in Somerville, MA. “While trauma knows no gender identity or sexual orientation, we know that the LGBTQIA community continues to suffer and lacks resources to help us to process our perpetual trauma. We are excited to work to create safe and healing spaces for all.”
There are many organizations turning to trauma-informed programming, and this project focuses on integrating the best of trauma-informed models with the dynamic resources of faith, rooted in traditions of justice and care. The hope for this program is to build upon the strengths that these congregations already bring to caring for communities, and the strong ties to chaplaincy and spiritual care in the program will help achieve that goal. Many leaders engaged in the program are bi-vocational – working both as congregational leaders and as chaplains. The program’s partnership with Chaplaincy Innovation Lab provides a national network of spiritual care professionals that can support congregational efforts as the program progresses.
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Since 1839, Boston University School of Theology has been preparing leaders to do good. A seminary of the United Methodist Church, Boston University School of Theology is a robustly ecumenical institution that welcomes students from diverse faith traditions who are pursuing a wide range of vocations – parish ministry, conflict transformation, chaplaincy, campus ministry, administration, non-profit management, social work, teaching, justice advocacy, peacemaking, interfaith dialogue, and more. Our world-renowned faculty and strong heritage help students nurture their academic goals and realize any ministry imaginable. For more information, please visit www.bu.edu/sth.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a national private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family – J. K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr and Eli – through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Co. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s grantmaking in religion is to deepen and enrich the lives of American Christians, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.
BUSTH Announces First Fully Online Master’s Degree Program
November 2021 – Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) announces its first fully online master’s degree program, the Master of Arts in Religion and Public Leadership (MARPL). The MARPL’s inaugural academic semester will be Fall 2022, and the program is designed for students who seek to enhance their capacity for serving religious communities and/or other forms of leadership that engage the challenges of public life.
This 32-credit master’s degree program is “ideal for persons in any profession who wish to gain a more robust appreciation for the ways in which religious traditions, including their own, shape and creatively engage public life,” says Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Bryan Stone. “We are thrilled to be able to take this new step in expanding our academic reach.”
The School of Theology faculty and administration have learned how to effectively teach in an online format over the past decade, given both the success of the hybrid Doctor of Ministry program and remote learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information about all BUSTH academic degree program offerings are available online. New MARPL information will be published in the coming weeks.
BUSTH Announces New Associate Dean for Students and Community Life
October 2021 – The Boston University School of Theology (STH) is pleased to announce the appointment of new Associate Dean for Students and Community Life Cristian De La Rosa. Dean De La Rosa took the helm of the Office of Students and Community Life prior to the beginning of the 2021-22 academic year in September, and has enjoyed supporting students and directing new initiatives in that office over the past several weeks. A member of the STH faculty for the past ten years, Dean De La Rosa previously worked closely with students while she served as Co-Director of the Office of Contextual Education. In that role, she supported the contextual education program of the School of Theology, with a focus on community partnerships and placements.
“Dr. De La Rosa has been exemplary in finding creative solutions, cultivating networks, and fostering fruitful collaboration within the School of Theology and with external partners and communities,” says Dean Sujin Pak. “She is a gifted administrator committed to fostering beloved community that honors and celebrates differences while actively seeking intersections of shared advocacy and mutual well-being. I am honored and thrilled to have her join Dean Stone and me in leading this extraordinary school.”
Dean De La Rosa is the first dean of Latinx heritage at the School of Theology, which also boasts one of the largest Latinx faculties among theological schools in the United States.
The new role has been an exciting change for Dean De La Rosa. “I look forward to my new role in the STH community,” she says. “It is my hope that I can accompany our students in meaningful and relevant ways during these complex and uncertain times of a global pandemic.”
Unlikely Friends: Honoring Dana Robert’s Scholarship
On Friday, October 1, 2021, Professor Dana L. Robert was stunned to learn that the dinner she thought she was attending with her graduate students turned out to be a surprise honoring her own lifelong scholarship and contributions to mission studies and world Christianity. A festschrift was presented to her over dinner, titled “Unlikely Friends: How God Uses Boundary-Crossing Friendships to Transform the World,” and many former students presented gifts and offered tributes in her honor.
“Called! A Longshot’s Story” by Rev. Dr. Gordon Douglas Postill, D.Min., (STH’92)
This delayed coming-of-age story intimately recounts Gordon Postill’s life from 1970-1980, a decade that pivotally shapes how the rest of his life will unfold. Initially a story of failure, self-loathing, addiction, and deceit, it’s ultimately a story of grace, faith, hope, and transformation. Much of the book involves his 3-year seminary experience (call to ministry, academics, a summer mission field internship in Saskatchewan, Clinical Pastoral Education, a student internship at an inner-city Toronto church, and ordination). Gordon graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Emmanuel College, Toronto in May 1980 and later that month was ordained by the Toronto Conference of the United Church of Canada. He later graduated with a Doctor of Ministry degree from Boston University in January 1992. Gordon served congregations in Nova Scotia and Ontario before spending the last twenty-four years of his ministry providing spiritual care to hospice patients and their families in Florida and Massachusetts. He retired in November 2015 to care for his beloved wife, Robin, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Please visit www.gordonpostill.com to learn more and to buy the book.
In Memoriam: Professor J. Paul Sampley (1935 – 2021)
The obituary is provided by courtesy of Sally Sampley.
John Paul Sampley
3-5-1935 - 9-25-2021
Born in Georgie (March 5, 1935), reared in Florida, formally educated in North Carolina, Texas and Connecticut, I was blessed to teach in good institutions (Drew University 1965-70, Indiana University, 1970-80, and Boston University 1980-2001) where I had fine colleagues whom I counted as life-long friends. And the students, they were the big reason I was on those faculties. Another highlight was when Sally and I took part-time leadership in the Charlemont Federated Church (1980-85); that church patiently taught me what it meant to be a pastor.
I was always intrigued by and curious about honeybees, birds, indeed about all of nature and its creatures, and how things work. Like my namesake, the Apostle Paul, I have been amazed not only at the grandeur and generosity of spirit we humans sometime manifest but also about our persistent proclivities to shoot ourselves in the foot. The most awesome gift I ever received was Sally, my love and my partner across all these years in which we danced and tiptoed our way through this awesome, marvelous and broken world.
Though we decided not to have biological children, Sally and I embraced and welcomed into our hearts and lives an enlarged family populated by some literal relatives, some friends, the offspring of friends and colleagues, students and others who simply crossed our paths.
I like to think my teaching, books and articles helped open access to the Apostle Paul.
I am survived by my brother, Roy C. Sampley, his daughters Carollene Moon and Laurinda Conlon, Walter Houk, son of my deceased sister Annelle Houk, and all those people who expanded the borders of our family. Among, but not diminishing the rest of them, I have to name those who expressly took on even the traditional nomenclature of family: our godson Stephen Webber, our goddaughter Suzanne Webber and her husband Al Miller, our grandchildren Elizabeth Marne Kossnar and Nathan Paul Kossnar; our daughter Ana Sabatino, and her two offspring who became our granddaughter Marie Elena Amaya, and our grandson Enrique Amaya.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Howard University in Washington D.C. for scholarships, the Audubon Society or the American Heart Association.
A celebration service will be held at Mary Lyon Church in Buckland, MA, October 16 at 2:00 P.M. To access the zoom of this service please email info@Mary Lyon Church.org.
Reverend Alfred H. Tracy (STH’58)
This obituary was originally published on Forever Miss, and can be found here.
Alfred Tracy (know as Rev / Al / Dad / Poppie) was born on November 5, 1927 in Concord, MA to Gladys (Schnair) and Alfred Henry Tracy Sr. He passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Ocala, FL on August 22, 2019 surrounded by his wife & loving family.
Al is now reunited with his father (known as Al Sr / Dad / Pop), mother (known as Gladys / Mom / Nana), sister Gerry (Locke), brothers Howie and Dick, son in laws John Trifiletti and Jerry Coughlin and other family members and friends who have gotten his heavenly resting place ready for him.
Al is survived by his wife of 69 years (known as Helen / Mom / Nana) and his 4 children: Sandy Hoyt (husband Colby, children Shane, Melanie, Robin, Cathy and their families), Diane Trifiletti (children John Christopher & Rachel and spouses), Pam Coughlin (children Grace, Jay, Leah, Kathleen and their families), Alfred Tracy III - Tra (wife Kristine, children Erin & Adam). He has been blessed with 12 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Al grew up in New England (Connecticut) playing sports, hunting and hanging out with his brothers and their friends. He was a veteran of WWII, serving in the Merchant Marines in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean theaters. After he came back home, he met Helen when she came to New England from Florida to work for the summer. It was love at first sight! They dated and were married shortly thereafter in the Chapel by the Sea in Captiva, FL. After they were married, they move to Connecticut to start their family.
Al loved to learn and spent nearly 13 years obtaining degrees in Engineering and Theology. He began working for the Methodist Church in the New England Conference and worked at several churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1967, after their 4 children were born, they transferred to the Florida Conference of the Methodist Church in Dunedin, FL. For those of you who know the workings of the Methodist Church, ministers were not allowed to stay at a parish for more than 5 years so they began their trek around Florida through Jacksonville, Immokalee, Lake City, and Ellenton where Al retired from the ministry. Al and Helen retired to Ocala in a neighborhood with many family members and attended the Belleview United Methodist Church where Al was a guest preacher from time to time. His sermons were filled with love and always invoked thought and he always loved to tell stories... :)
Al and Helen loved to travel and get together with family and friends. It was not uncommon to have close to 100 people gathered for Thanksgiving every year. Their daily devotions filled the hearts of not only them but all of their many visitors as well. He graced his family and many other people with the blessings of marriages, baptisms, and other ceremonies that he has presided over. His messages were always uplifting and will never be forgotten.
Al had a deep love for God, country, family and friends. He would always start a conversation with whomever he met and his front door was always open. On several occasions, he offered his home to students from other countries so they could have greater opportunities. He would give you the shirt off his back. Al could fix anything. With his family by his side, he built multiple houses and made repairs to many others. He went on many missions with Red Bird Mission to build houses for those in need in the Appalacian Mountains. He would always offer his services to friends and sometimes strangers who needed things fixed. He was the ultimate handyman, fixing not only physical things, but emotional and spiritual things as well.
Al's smile would always light up a room as he told a joke or just looked at you with a twinkle in his eye while he told a story. Sharing bible stories or war stories, he was always entertaining with his tales! He could sit around and play the spoons or bones and sing his favorite ditties at the piano. Al will be missed very much by his family and many friends.
The funeral will be held on Sunday, August 25, 2019 at 4:00 at the Bellevue United Methodist Church, 5640 SE Brown Rd, Belleview, FL 34420. Here is a link to the live broadcast of the service for those of you who can't attend: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=belleview%2.... Look under the "Video" section on their page. In addition to the live streaming, the video will be saved on the FaceBook page under the "Video" section so you are able to view the service at your convenience. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Alzheimer's Fondation of America (https://alzfdn.org), Wounded Warrior Project (https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org) or Heifer International (https://www.heifer.org). Please leave a tribute below or share a memory in the Stories section above. Send your donation acknowledgement cards to Helen Tracy, 5 Spruce Drive, Ocala, FL 34472 or email to atracy@digiusa.net. This will bring comfort to Helen and the family members.
And as Al would say at the end every service - "May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mankind, guide you, bless you, and lead you in His way which is life everlasting. Amen."
Mrs. Dorothy Wilber Peers (STH’51, CAS’49)
Mrs. Dorothy Wilber Peers (STH'51, CAS'49) passed away on July 29, 2016. Mrs. Peers graduated from the School of Theology in 1951 with a degree in Master of Religious Education.
Prof. Courtney Goto presented with Metcalf Award for Teaching
Sunday, October 3, 2021 – At the Boston University Commencement ceremony celebrating the Class of 2020, President Robert Brown presented the Metcalf Award for Teaching to Associate Professor of Religious Education Courtney Goto. President Brown said “she cultivates a welcoming spiritual environment in her classrooms, while challenging students to know themselves, learn from each other, develop empathy, and examine assumptions and biases.”
Watch the Commencement ceremony and the presentation of the Metcalf Award to Prof. Goto, which begins at 1:28:07.
