The Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN) remembered Rolland Pfile (1960) for his work at the Department of Church & Society, DHM, as part of their Legacy Week remembrances.

Stephanie Paulsell (1985) returned to Chicago to preach at the memorial service for the former dean of Rockefeller Chapel, Bernard "Bernie" O. Brown, on November 15. For Bernie, she observed, the great adventure of life was ministry, and that was the room into which he beckoned all of us who learned to be ministers under his care and the members of the ever-evolving congregations he served in this place.  So many people returned to their work with a renewed sense of vocation each week because Bernie’s sermon, or his prayer, or the loving attention he turned to them during coffee hour helped them over the threshold into an unexpected spaciousness, a room they hadn’t known was there.

Congratulations to Burton Guion (2016) and Ellie Leech (2019) who were married on October 21. Jack Veatch (2016) officiated and Victoria Wick (2017) participated in the ceremony.

Nate and Katherine Raley Alexander (2008), with big brothers Michael (2) and Parker (12), welcomed June Charlotte Alexander into the world on October 20. All are doing well at home.

Joan Bell-Haynes (1994) will conclude six and a half years as Executive Regional Minister of the Central Rocky Mountain Region in November to become Interim Regional Minister in Georgia.

Laird Thomason (1962) was honored as Minister Emeritus of North Chevy Chase Christian Church in the Capital Area.

Recent graduate Landon Wilcox (2019) has accepted a call as Senior Minister of Bethany Christian Church in Fort Washington, Maryland.

A new book by Ritch Savin-Williams (1971), Bi: Bisexual, Pansexual, Fluid, & Nonbinary Youth, was released in paperback on September 21, 2023, by New York University Press. He presented findings from the research for the book to a high school group in South Korea and, in a series of four talks sponsored in large part by the US Ambassador to Sweden, to an audience of researchers and community activists in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö.

On September 17, alumnus and 2022 PhD graduate Joel Brown (2014) was officially installed as President of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. The service took place at the historic Old Meetinghouse in Bethany, West Virginia—the church of one of the founders, Alexander Campbell.

Participating were representatives of the three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement and from congregations, regions, general ministries, and higher education. These included GMP Terri Hord Owens, who preached on "Reconstructing memory"; the presidents emeriti of DCHS, Peter Morgan and Rick Lowery; Lance Pape; Katie Hays; Erin James-Brown; and Joel's parents, Mara and Craig Brown. Kris Culp offered "A word from the academy," which incorporated comments from Joel's dissertation advisor, Curtis Evans.

Bonnie Miller-McLemore (1978), having retired from Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Graduate Dept of Religion in 2020 as E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Emerita after thirty-five years of teaching (twenty-five at Vanderbilt) and finished her two-year research faculty appointment in 2022, along with her husband Mark Miller-McLemore (1978) who also retired from teaching in 2020 and from his position as dean of DDH Vanderbilt in 2019, moved this past spring to Evergreen, Colorado to be closer to their three sons and their families.

Bonnie is still writing, she has a book coming out in early 2024 with Oxford University Press, "Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling." She loves having more time for hiking and grandparenting her three grandsons under three, with another grandchild on the way in 2024.