Clark Gilpin (1970; former dean; trustee) will serve as Interim Director of the Martin E. Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the Divinity School for the 2014-15 academic year. He continues to teach the Disciples History and Thought Seminar for Disciples Divinity House Scholars.

Congratulations to Vy Nguyen (2004) and YenLinh Bui who were married on May 24 at Saint Joseph Basilica in Alameda, California. Sandhya Jha (2001) and Kyle Rader (former resident) were among the participants in the service. The service followed a traditional Vietnamese ceremony hosted by the bride's parents. Vy and Linh live in Oakland where Vy is the Associate Field Director for Church World Service in California and Linh is a pharmacist.

Congratulations to former resident Diana Ventura, who passed her PhD qualifying exams at Boston University in May.

McKinna Daugherty (2010) writes about preaching in the Christian Century blog, "Preaching with a broken heart," published in May http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2014-04/preaching-broken-heart She is Minister-in-Residence at Central Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky

We are saddened by the death of Mrs. Barnett Blakemore on May 10, 2014. She was 99. Read the In memoriam.

The youth of First Christian Church, Albany, Oregon, celebrated the ministry of Sara Anable Staton (2003) on April 19. Sara has served as the Associate Minister for six and a half years; her last day was Easter Sunday, April 20. She celebrated "a season of great partnership" with the congregation and with her senior colleague in ministry.

Congratulations to Garry Sparks (2001), who has been named Assistant Professor of Latin American Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He moves there from the University of Louisville. He recently published "Constructing Hyperlocal Theologies: Ethnohistorical Contextualization of 'Indian Theology' and jTatic Samuel's Legacy," in the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology 19 no. 1 (Fall 2013), a special issue in memory of the liberation theologian and former bishop Samuel Ruiz García of Chiapas, Mexico.

Laura Jennison Reed (2009) became the pastor of the Christian Church of Villa Park, Illinois, on March 10, 2014. She was installed on Sunday, May 4. Cynthia Lindner (1978) preached and House Scholars Andrew Packman and Allie Lundblad were among the participants. Congratulations and best wishes, Laura.

Sympathy to Cheryl Jackson (House Scholar) on the death of her father on April 2.

Frank Burch Brown (1974) has accepted a joint appointment for 2014-16 as the Dean of the Disciples Seminary Foundation in Northern California and the CARE/GTU Visiting Professor of Art and Religion with the Center for Arts, Religion and Education at the Graduate Theological Union. He has been the Kershner Professor of Religion and the Arts at Christian Theological Seminary. For three years, he also served as the Alexander Campbell Visiting Professor of Religion and the Arts at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Author of five books, including the award-winning Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste (OUP, 2000), he is editor of the Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts (Oxford UP, 2014) and Senior Editor in Religion and the Arts for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. A composer, he has written over 20 commissioned musical works.