Ian Gerdon, a Roman Catholic M.Div. student, has thought a lot about community during his years as a resident of the Disciples Divinity House. Reflecting on the possibilities and frustrations of shared life, work, and worship at the House, he proposed to arrange a panel exploring patterns of and theological perspectives on community. Thanks to his organization and gracious hosting, that panel came to fruition on Monday, February 23. Assembled to share their perspectives were: Alexandra Conroy, Executive Director of L'Arche Community of Chicago; Elbert Lott, core member of L'Arche Community; DDH alumnus Ross Martinie Eiler, who is co-founder of Christian Radical/Catholic Worker House in Bloomington, Indiana; Edward Glanzmann, Novice Master of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Chicago; and Tom Roddy of Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois.

Jeffrey Stackert, who joined the Divinity School faculty this year as Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, spoke at a DDH Forum on Monday evening, February 2. His talk, "Seeking Asylum at the Altar: Conceptualizations in the Hebrew Bible," discussed the notion of altar asylum in the Hebrew Bible against the background of blood vengeance and in relation to later notions of city asylum. Prof. Stackert is the second faculty member to present a forum this year; Prof. Willemien Otten spoke in the fall quarter.

Robert G. Sulanke (1935), an esteemed congregational minister and church leader, died January 15 at Westminster Health Care in Muncie, Indiana. He was 95. A native of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Lynchburg College, Mr. Sulanke received his B.D. degree from the University of Chicago as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar in 1938. That same summer, he married Francis Abney of Chicago. The couple moved to Maryland where he served Beaver Creek Christian Church and, later, Govens Christian Church in Baltimore. In 1947 the Sulankes moved to Muncie to begin what became a thirty-five year ministry with Jackson Street Christian Church (later renamed Hazelwood Christian Church). Under his leadership, the church moved from a landlocked location in downtown Muncie to an eight acre estate near the Ball State campus. The new building was completed in 1954; when the congregation moved in, they were debt free. He served on the boards of the Pension Fund and of Church Extension. In 1962, Christian Theological Seminary awarded him the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

Mr. Sulanke retired in 1982 at age 70. He then served two interim ministries in Kokomo, Indiana, one for six years. He led an active life well into his nineties, walking over a mile each day and serving as the volunteer chaplain at Westminster Village where he and his wife lived. Frances Sulanke preceded him in death in 2007; they are survived by four children, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Mr. Sulanke explained that as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar, he was “taught to appreciate the past but to live in the present.” He provided for the education of today's House Scholars through an estate gift arranged through the Christian Church Foundation.

A spring conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to re-examine the role and value of culture in theological reflection and the role and value of theology in cultural reflection. Where and how do new theologies and theories of culture intersect? How do these emergent perspectives aid interpretation of and engagement within the ecumene, the whole encultured world? Entitled Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Cultures: Exploring the Worlds of Religion, the conference will be held April 22-23. Planned as the Divinity School’s Sharpe Lectures, it is co-sponsored by the Disciples Divinity House’s Hoover Lectures. Conference organizers are Garry Sparks and Chris Dorsey, both theology Ph.D. candidates and Disciples Divinity House Scholars.

University of Michigan anthroplogist Webb Keane, author of Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, will keynote the conference. Opening and closing lectures will be given by Divinity School professors Kathryn Tanner and William Schweiker, respectively. University of Virginia professor and DDH Board president Larry Bouchard will speak about art, secularism, and “spirituality.” Other speakers are Chicago anthropologists Jean Comaroff and Robin Shoaps, Morehouse College president Robert Franklin, and Columbia philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne. Two sets of panel presentations will explore theological worlds within contemporary Palestine, Southern India, and Senegal, and historic intersections of cultures and ideas including 16th-century Spanish scholastic humanism and land theology in the book of Leviticus. Panelists include Mr. Sparks, Mr. Dorsey, and Divinity House Scholars Kristel Clayville and Santiago Piñón, Jr.

A three-part forum during the 2008-09 academic year will bring together Disciples leaders, especially young adult and emerging leaders, to discuss "the arts of leading across diversity." The series is planned and hosted by Ayanna Johnson, DDH's Minister-in-Residence, the current First Vice Moderator of the Christian Church in the U.S. and Canada, and a new church pastor. Sandhya Jha was the first guest on November 17. She has recently completed Room at the Table: Struggle for Unity and Equality in Disciples History (Chalice Press, forthcoming), which surveys the history of Disciples of nonwhite ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Ms. Jha is the Minister of the First Christian Church of Oakland, California, and the Minister of Transformation for the Northern California-Nevada region. The next session in the series is scheduled for Monday, February 9.

As of this fall, the University of Chicago’s $55 million graduate aid initiative includes entering Ph.D. students in the Divinity School. Future Disciples House Ph.D. students will be included in this initiative. The initiative provides entering Ph.D. students with a five-year financial aid package of full tuition, a $20,000 stipend, health benefits, plus funding for two summers of research. “This is good news for the Disciples Divinity House,” Dean Kris Culp commented. “It will extend generous support to new Ph.D. students, while allowing limited House resources to be focused on M.Div. students, on a select number of A.M. students, and on advanced Ph.D. students who are completing their dissertations." Previously, DDH awarded its entering Ph.D. Scholars 60% tuition or $21,300 at 2008-09 rates, a modest stipend ($3,300), and housing assistance. (The Divinity School provided the remaining 40% of tuition and sometimes an additional stipend.) “We are committed to continuing a program of shared intellectual, theological, and vocational inquiry that includes all Disciples Scholars—M.Div., A.M., and Ph.D. students,” Culp added. The Scholarship Committee of the Board of Trustees has been studying the implications of the funding initiative for the DDH’s entire scholarship program.

Alumna April Lewton, current Ph.D. student Garry Sparks, and Disciples colleague Jessica Vazquez Torres worked to document the concerns of immigrants by helping to conduct exit polls in the November election. Their efforts were reported by DisciplesWorld magazine. Read the story.

The 114th academic year of the Disciples Divinity House opened on September 29. Teresa Hord Owens, alumna and Dean of Students of the University of Chicago Divinity School, preached the opening chapel service. Taking Psalm 1.1-3 as her text, she reflected on the beginning of her own studies as a House Scholar and the many streams that nourish study. This fall, three new Disciples Divinity House Scholars have joined nineteen returning Scholars. They are: Anna Liv Gibbons, a 2008 Religious Studies graduate of Grinnell College who is a member of First Christian Church, Eugene, Oregon; Katherine Raley, a 2007 cum laude graduate of Furman University and member of First Christian Church, Columbia, South Carolina; and Jonathan Wallace, a 2008 graduate of the University of Memphis and member of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, where he also served as a youth minister.

Dan B. Genung (1938), recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1993 for his remarkable ministry, died August 12 at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California. He was 93. In 1942, after Mr. Genung received his A.M. and B.D. degrees from the University of Chicago as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar, newlyweds Dan and Frances Genung were called by the Christian Missionary Society of the Disciples of Christ to South Central Los Angeles. They established a new church and community center in facilities vacated when its previous congregants, citizens of Japanese descent, were confined in WWII detention camps. Against a backdrop of racial intolerance and high tension, the Genungs created the racially integrated All Peoples Christian Church and the All Peoples Community Center, whose multi-ethnic community and service in the inner city continue to this day. Dan Genung’s fifty year ministry later included service in three other congregations. Also distinguished by his journalistic skill, he was the author of A Street Called Love, about his experience at All Peoples, and of Death in His Saddlebags, a history of Arizona territory from 1863-1916, based on his grandfather’s memoirs. He is survived by Francis, and by their four children. A memorial service is planned at Pilgrim Place on September 20. For his Distinguished Alumnus address, click here.

The engineering firm of Jacobs Carter Burgess is conducting a study of the DDH building this summer. Working in consultation with long-time DDH architect Paul Steinbrecher, they are assessing what is needed to air condition the kitchen and dining areas, the environmental and energy effects of the building, and what is needed to prepare for accessibility. Initial observations suggest that the 1928 building is already more energy efficient than might be supposed. However, its sturdy construction poses challenges for air-conditioning and accessibility needs.