Until the world is different
David struck Goliath down on his first try and was celebrated in victory. That’s a nice way for the story to end but it’s important to remember that he took five stones with him. He understood that sometimes your faith has to endure a failure. All his hope can’t go into one stone. He’s going to have to keep throwing them until the world is different.
Alexis Vaughan, 2024 Convocation Address
"Heal Thyself." Luther Young, former resident and Assistant Professor of Religion & Society at Boston University, will be speaking at the Monday Night Forum on Novembe 17 on "Lessons to the Church from Black LGBTQ People," drawing on data from in-depth interviews with thirty Black LGBTQ individuals. Dr. Young is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and Council Moderator of the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance. He is on staff at Lighthouse Church of Chicago.
Salvage Poetics. Sheila Jelen, Professor of Religion, Literature, and Visual Culture and the History of Judaism, and Director of MA Studies at the Divinity School, spoke on October 20 about ‘Gathering the Fragments’: A Variation on Salvage Poetics, on her recent research on Holocaust testimonies and artifacts and the differing methodologies used by museums to collect, archive, and display them.
A vocation in education. On October 13, Trustee Claudia Highbaugh, former Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at Connecticut College, presented Vocational Changes, Educational Challenges. She recounted a journey of her family's roots in the Disciples movement from Cane Ridge to Indianapolis.
Compassion and recovery. On October 6, Grace Dearhamer and Katie Varon reported on their summer internship in which they learned about long-term disaster recovery efforts alongside the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). Vy Nguyen, Executive Director of Week of Compassion, joined them.
First the desks, and then the students began to arrive as the renovation wrapped up. Entering students arrived in time for new Student Orientation beginning September 21. Returning Scholars and ecumenical residents moved back in time for classes.
Incoming Scholars, fall 2025. Clockwise from the top left, they are: Ella Johnson (MDiv), Brandon Roberts (MA), Annika Fuller (MDiv), Allison Nash (MDiv), Fiyori Kidane (MDiv), and Hayden Skaggs (MDiv). Learn more about them. They joined nine returning Scholars and twelve new or returning residents, all of whom study in the Divinity School's MDiv, MA, or PhD programs.
