In early 2009, Lizy and Santiago Piñón (House Scholar) welcomed Gabriel into their family as a foster child, and the DDH community welcomed Gabe to Monday dinners. On June 14, 2010, the court ruled on their adoption of Gabriel José Piñón. Congratulations to all!

On June 14, John Dungan (1987) concluded eight years of ministry with the First Christian Church of Kirksville, Missouri, to become the executive director of the United Way of Adair County and Northeast Missouri. He and spouse Jennifer Jesse (1987), who is a member of the faculty at Truman State University, will continue to reside in Kirksville.

Sympathy to G. Parker Rossman (1941) on the death of his wife, Jean, on June 16 in Columbia, Missouri. She was 90 years old.

Congratulations to Current House Scholar Brandon Cline, who passed his PhD examinations in June.

Laura Jean Torgerson (2002) and Tim Donaghy are now serving in Nicaragua through the Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Laura Jean works as a consultant to the Education and Theology Department of the National Board of the Christian Mission Church of Nicaragua and assists in the development of new congregations. Tim works in the social justice program of the Christian Mission Church and teaches physics at the Martin Luther King University in Managua. Read their blog.

We mourn the death of Don Browning (1956; trustee) on June 3, 2010, at his home in Hyde Park. He was 76. Our sympathy is extended to Carol Browning and family. Browning was the Alexander Campbell Professor Emeritus of Ethics and the Social Sciences in the Divinity School. He studied the influence of religion on American family life, as well as the intersection of psychology, the social sciences, moral theory, and religion. From 1977-83, he was the Dean of the Disciples Divinity House, and he served as a trustee until his death. More information here. 

Congratulations to Current House Scholar Tish Duncan: her dissertation proposal, "Novel Hermeneutics: Scriptural Exegesis in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies," was approved in June.

Congratulations to Tim Lee (1986): on April 22, the Board of Trustees of Brite Divinity School granted him tenure. He is Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity. He is the author of Born Again: Evangelicalism in Korea, and the moderator-elect of the North American Pacific-Asian Disciples (NAPAD).

Trustee Charles Watkins marked 41 years in ordained ministry and retired as Senior Minister of Central Christian Church, Decatur, Illinois, at the end of April. With his leadership at Central Christian, which began in 1992, the congregation expressed its life in vital worship, education, outreach to the community and, through strong support of the wider ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), mission around the world. (More here.) Charles and Jane Watkins will move to Bloomington, Indiana, in June.

Matt Rosen (2003) will be the speaker at the Divinity School's Ministry Alumni Reunion Dinner on April 23. He is the Director of Advocacy and Social Justice for So Others Might Eat (SOME), an interfaith, community-based organization in the District of Columbia that offers a comprehensive, holistic approach to caring for the homeless and poor.