On March 6 & 7, Michael Karunas (1995) performed The Gospel of Mark at First Christian Church, Baton Rouge, where he is Senior Minister. He memorized the gospel and developed the nearly 90-minute presentation with director Tracy Stephenson Shaffer, who is a professor of performance and film at Louisiana State University.

On March 4, David Hall (1989) presented "A Collusion of Tropes: Analogy, Metaphor, Hyperbole, and Irony in Mark's Parable of the Mustard Seed," as a Martin Marty Center Senior Fellows Research Symposium. An Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Centre College, he is working on a project at the Marty Center this year tentatively titled "Rhetorical Theology: Analogy, Metaphor, Hyperbole, and Irony in Religious and Theological Discourse."

We are saddened to learn of the death of Winifred Mabee, widow of Frank Mabee (1948), on March 22, 2010, in Dallas, Texas.

Congratulations to Kristin Van Heyningen (1995) and Christine Isham who were married in Iowa on February 10, reconfirming earlier vows celebrated with their extended families. Both work for the State of Missouri and also have been serving a UCC congregation near Columbia, Missouri.

The University of Hawai'i Press has published Born Again: Evangelicalism in Korea by Timothy S. Lee (1986), who is a professor at Brite Divinity School. "Understanding the evangelicalism of South Korea is crucial to grasping the course of its modernization, the rise of nationalism and anticommunism, and the relationship between Christians and other religionists within the country."

Crista and Chad Martin (trustee) along with their daughter, Claire, welcomed Charles Heath Martin, who was born on February 12, 2010.

Wallace Bubar (former resident), wife Gabrielle, and daughter Magdalena, welcomed Sophie Elizabeth who was born February 9 at 12:38 p.m.

Congratulations to House Scholar Kristel Clayville who passed her PhD examinations on February 16. She studies Religious Ethics and is interested in the status of the land, especially as presented in Leviticus, in moral deliberation. This spring quarter she is teaching a ministry course at the Divinity School that examines "the land" in ethics and the Bible and in relation to environmentalism and nationalism.

Adam Frieberg (2006) is now the Regional Minister for Communications in the Christian Church in the Upper Midwest, serving part-time. He and his wife, Heidi Haverkamp, live in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

Diana Ventura (former resident) has authored Our Fractured Wholeness. Through autobiography and theological reflection, she reflects on "what it means to live with and overcome brokenness of all kinds - whether physical or psychological, the result of violence or the consequence of emotional pain." Her book had its genesis as a senior ministry project at the Divinity School. She is a doctoral student at the Boston University School of Theology.