PhD student Mark Lambert will present "Holy Host, Holy Sores: The Franciscan Connection between Leprosy and the Eucharist," at a conference at McGill University September 20-22, 2018. Leprosy and the ‘Leper’ Reconsidered is an interdisciplinary conference that aims to bring together historians working in many periods and many countries, social scientists, physicians and biomedical scientists to begin a conversation that will unify and broaden the discourse on leprosy sufferers and leprosy (Hansen's disease). Focusing on Francis and Angela of Foligno, Mr. Lambert argues that "the Franciscan tradition, with its emphasis on materiality, was host to a fertile linkage between leprosy and the Eucharist that centered on the potentiality of corruptible and decay-prone matter to reveal the divine. Likewise, the mingling of leprosy with Eucharistic language permitted a theological trafficking between the comfort and confusion afforded by the shared vulnerability and pliability of God’s physicality in the Incarnation and that of our own. I propose that leprosy, at least in the Franciscan tradition, was neither an episodic distraction nor a self-evident prop but rather a vehicle for sophisticated (and sometimes subversive) theological reflection."

Congratulations to Casey and Beau Underwood (2006) on the birth of Thomas Jesse Underwood on September 10! 

Colton Lott (2015) was installed as the Senior Minister of First Christian Church, El Reno, Oklahoma, on September 9.

In her Christian Century review of Faithful and Fractured: Responding to the Clergy Health Crisis (September 5), Cynthia Lindner (1978) commends the book’s research, but says greater attention is needed to discernment as theological work. She calls for “a theological model for what we must yet become: fearless and future-leaning.”

Ken Kline (1979) has returned to the Chicago area and will be installed as Senior Minister of St. John's UCC in Mokena on September 23rd.

Adam Frieberg (2006) is now a PhD candidate in the Northern Illinois University Department of Geographic and Atmospheric Sciences.  Frieberg's proposed dissertation, "Spatial Analysis of Historical Consolidation of U.S. Mainline Protestant Churches," develops a method of spatial analysis and dataset to account for congregational-level changes to the U.S. religious landscape. 

David Vargas (trustee; 1971) was honored with the Somos Uno award at the Obra Hispana assembly in July.

Brandon Cline (1999) will begin teaching as head Latinist at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, Texas next month. 

Joshua Menke (former resident) was among the 13 seminarians selected to travel to Berlin and Poland and participate in the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) program this year. 

Emilie M. Townes (former resident) has been reappointed for a second five-year term as dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society.