SEMINARY IN THE CITY

While the Democratic Party rallied around its presidential nominee in Boston in July, Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. brought a prophetic word: he urged party leaders to not forget people on the margins.

Dr. Smith, ABSW’s Professor of Preaching and Church Ministries, addressed the Black Congressional Caucus at its prayer breakfast held during the Democratic Convention.

It was a busy summer for Dr. Smith. In June, at the 90th Hampton University Ministers Conference, he spoke on the A.C.D. Vaughn’s Senior Statesman Panel on the theme “The Church and Multicultural Ministry.”

In August, he preached at the Progressive National Baptist Convention in Houston and traveled to England to read a paper at the Oxford Round Table at St. Antony’s College. His topic was “The Faith-Based Ministry of the Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. Skills Center: Church and State Join to Liberate Ex-Prisoners.”

Dr. Marian Ronan, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Theology and Religion, published an article on “Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion’ and the Many Uses of Christ’s Suffering” in the February 2004 edition of the German theological magazine Junge Kirche.

Ronan also published a review of David Harrington Watt’s Bible-Carrying Christians: Conservative Protestants and Social Power (Oxford University Press, 2002) in the Winter 2003 edition of CrossCurrents.

Dr. James Chuck, Professor of Theology and Church Ministry, led three workshops on Asian spirituality at the 9th Plenary World Conference of the International Maritime Association in New Orleans in July.

Throughout the summer, Chuck preached at Bay Area churches, including Chinese Congregational Church and Chinese Presbyterian Church in San Francisco; Chinese Community Methodist Church in Oakland; and New Life Christian Fellowship in Castro Valley.

Dr. Tim Tseng, Associate Professor of American Religious History and Director of the Asian American Center, led a seminar in June on “Church History and the Globalization of Pastoral Leadership” at the Fund for Theological Education’s Partnership for Excellence Summer Conference at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

In August, Tseng presented a paper on “Trans-Pacific Transpositions: Continuities and Discontinuities in Chinese Protestantism in Mid-Twentieth-Century America” at the American Historical Association —Pacific Coast Branch Annual Meeting in San Jose, Calif.

Tseng preached this summer at Burmese Christian Community Church of Silicon Valley in San Jose and Chinese for Christ Church of Hayward, Calif.

Over the Labor Day weekend, Tseng participated in the 2004 Asian American Leaders Forum in Chicago sponsored by the L2 Foundation.

Dr. Nancy Hall, Director of Continuing Education and Associate Professor of Ministry, planned and led worship at “Claiming Our Baptist Heritage,” the annual spring conference of the Pacific Coast Baptist Association in May. Hall was re-elected to another one-year term on the PCBA board.

In June, Hall traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., to attend workshops related to ABSW’s Worship Renewal Grants, through the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Dr. LeAnn Snow Flesher, Associate Professor of Old Testament, will participate in a September workshop laying the groundwork for production of a documentary titled “Crying Shame: Traditional Lament and Modern Mourning.” Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the workshop team includes an anthropologist, a linguist, an expert in culture studies, an ethnomusicologist, a folklorist, and Flesher, who will contribute biblical and theological perspectives.

Dr. George C.L. Cummings, Academic Dean and Professor of Theology, will be the featured speaker at the Evergreen Baptist Association annual meeting October 14-17 in Seattle.