Grace Elizabeth Lord Williams, widow of John Norton Williams (1947), died February 5, 2017, in Naples, Florida. She was 98. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, she was raised in New Castle, Indiana. From 1942 until his death in 1965, she was married to Kenneth Moystner. In 1971, she married John Norton Williams, a DDH alumnus then serving First Christian Church in Connersville, Indiana. (He also served congregations in Kentucky and Ohio, and with the Arkansas Council of Churches and the Christian Church in Indiana.) They enjoyed 25 years together until his death in 1996. She worked at the Chrysler Corporation in New Castle during WWII and later at the IRC&D Motor Freight Co. in New Castle and Muncie, Indiana, until her retirement. Together Grace Lord Williams and John Norton Williams strongly supported the mission of the Disciples Divinity House. A generous gift through her estate ensures that their support will continue for future generations. She is survived by stepsons Dr. John N. Williams Jr. (Lucy) and Greg (Marla) of Indianapolis. Funeral services were held on February 11 in Naples. More here.

Sightings published "The Acquittal of 'Patient Zero'" by House Scholar and PhD student Mark Lambert on February 2.

Daisy Machado (1989) will give the Divinity School Dean's Seminar in the Craft of Teaching on January 27 at noon. Her seminar, entitled Pedagogy and the Public Intellectual, will "explore one important role available to the scholar/teacher: as public intellectual who seeks to understand lived religion as a lens through which divine presence and activity are interpreted in the world." She will explore how research, teaching, and writing can be integrated as a form of public responsibility that examines the realities of people’s embodied faith, especially in the marginalized communities whose existence challenges but often remains unaccounted for by mainstream scholarly accounts. She is Professor of Church History and the former dean at Union Theological Seminary in New York City; she was the first U.S. Latina ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

William Wright (1995) will be installed as Minister and Theologian-in-Residence of the Church of Christ Congregational, UCC, in Grandby, Massachusetts, where he has been serving for the past year. The service of installation is planned for Sunday February, 6 at 3:00 pm. The congregation, which is near Amherst, Massachusetts, was founded in 1762.

An article by Joel Brown, House Scholar and PhD student in Religions in America, was published in Sightings on January 12 entitled "Dylan Roof, the Radicalization of the Alt-Right, and Ritualized Violence." Mr. Brown is also the new managing editor of the Religion and Culture Web Forum, the Martin Marty Center's other digital publication.

Joan Bell-Haynes (1996) will be honored with an inaugural "CCCA Bridge Builder Award," to be presented to two distinguished persons in the Christian Church Capital Area in conjunction with their Martin Luther King Day celebration on January 15. Joan is the former First Vice-Moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and currently Co-Pastor of United Christian Parish in Reston, Virginia. The other honoree is Chris Hobgood, former Regional Minister, General Minister and President, and currently pastor of Bethany Beach Christian Church in Bethany Beach, Maryland.

Sympathy to Lizy and Santiago Pinon (1998) on the death of Lizy's mother, Carmen D. Flores, in Chicago on January 3.

Laura Jennison Reed (2009) is now the permanent pastor of Villa Park Christian Church. She has been serving as the transitional minister since March 2014.

Sightings published "'We Don't Have Enough Proof': Pizzagate as Epistemological Panic" by Spencer Dew (1998), Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Centenary College of Louisiana, on December 15.

Bonnie Miller-McLemore (1978) has coedited Conundrums in Practical Theology (Brill) and co-authored Christian Practical Wisdom: What It Is, Why It Matters (Eerdmans).