SEMINARY IN THE CITY

What do stressed out students at ABSW do in the midst of end-of-semester papers and exams? They reach out to others.

On Thanksgiving Day, students assisted Oakland’s Imani Community Church in serving a meal at People’s Park, a gathering spot for Berkeley’s homeless. In early December, they handed out blankets and Bibles in the park. For their annual Christmas project, students collected clothes, backpacks, and other items for Covenant House, a transitional shelter for homeless young adults. And they created an item exchange program to help fellow classmates.

“We wanted to do whatever we could to be a blessing,” says Joyce Whitfield, student body moderator and third-year seminarian.

Dr. Marian Ronan, assistant professor of contemporary theology and religion, is one of two keynote speakers in March for “Celebrating Women Called,” the 30th anniversary conference of the (Roman Catholic) Women’s Ordination Conference in Philadelphia.

Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., professor of preaching and church ministries, will be the guest speaker in April at the Ninth Episcopal District Spring Convocation in Los Angeles. Pastors from five regions will attend this gathering of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Smith was the speaker and preacher for the Mitchell Lecture at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in February. His lecture, “Ministry Beyond the Walls,” and the sermon, “On the Jericho Road,” were based on Luke 10:25-37.

Last October, he addressed The Ecumenical Council of Pasadena Area Churches and the 140th session of the California Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And in September, he was the guest preacher for the 2nd Black Preacher’s Conference at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

In early February, Dr. Timothy Tseng, associate professor of American religious history and director of the Asian American Center, participated in the Association of Theological Schools’ Asian American faculty consultation “Impact of Asians/Asian North Americans on Theological Education: Contributions, Challenges and Prospects.”

Tseng’s essay “The Evangelical Reconstruction of Chinese American Protestantism” will be published in the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals’ project titled “The Changing Face of American Evangelicalism.”

Dr. Judy Yates Siker, assistant professor of New Testament, will be the guest speaker in February at the National Religious Education Congress for the Catholic Church, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In recent months, she has addressed St. Monica’s Catholic Parish in Los Angeles, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the San Pedro Regional Congress for Los Angeles Archdiocese. In March, she will moderate the Early Jewish Christian Relations section of the Pacific Coast Regional meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Tempe, Ariz.

The October 2004 edition of the journal Interpretation carried Yates Siker’s essay “Between Text and Sermon,” an article on violence in Matthew 26:47-56.

Dr. Nancy Hall, director of continuing education and associate professor of ministry, will represent ABSW in May at the opening ceremonies for the Robert H. Mitchell Hymn Library at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Mitchell was professor of Christianity and the arts at ABSW for 32 years. He died in 2002.

Dr. LeAnn Snow Flesher, associate professor of Old Testament, read two papers at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in November. The first essay ­ “Zion: Disciplined Adulterous Wife or Endangered Virgin Daughter?” ­ is a study of the use of female imagery in the book of Lamentations set in contrast to the use of the same imagery by the prophets. The second paper is a study on how the psalms mean. Her essay, “Lyric Poetry: Poetic Structures, Stylistic Devices and Meaning,” focuses on poetic structures in the canonical psalms and how they contribute to the overall meaning of a psalm.

Also in November, Flesher attended the Association of Theological School’s “Character and Assessment of Learning for Religious Vocation” workshop in Pittsburgh, Penn. She joined colleagues from seminaries around the country to develop tools for evaluation and assessment of learning in theological education.

Dr. George C.L. Cummings, dean and professor of theology, was among 40 religious leaders who met with congressional leaders and the Bush Administration last November to press for a different sort of moral agenda ­ a commitment to affordable housing, public education, and accessible health care.

Cummings, pastor of Imani Community Church, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We’re here to highlight the issues that real families are concerned about. Housing, health care, education. These are moral issues. It’s about what justice demands.”