A panel of New Testament scholars convened by Union Presbyterian Seminary late last month took on the uncomfortable reality that “contrary to popular opinion, the Bible has not always been an ally in the struggle for antiracist work. Though replete with Scriptures that convey God’s vision for a world of equality and justice where every human being is created in the common image of God and viewed as equally valuable, the Bible has also been used for more nefarious ends,” including, as a webinar promotion put it, “theologically justified supremacist thought.”
Whenever they step into their pulpits to preach, the Rev. Erika Rembert Smith, pastor of Washington Shores Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida; the Rev. Dr. Alice Ridgill, previously the pastor of New Faith Presbyterian Church, the first and only African American Presbyterian Church in Greenwood, South Carolina, and now the associate general presbyter for the Presbytery of Charlotte in North Carolina; and the Rev. Amantha Barbee, formerly pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, and now the pastor of Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church in Charlotte are challenging calcified notions about women in ministry.
Gone now more than four years, the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, one of the foremost educators in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the first Black woman ever ordained by a forebear denomination, lives on in the lives of the scholars whose work relies in no small part on what they learned from her.
The Bible has not always been an ally in the struggle for anti-racist work, organizers of a Union Presbyterian Seminary webinar noted in publicity for their Tuesday event, “Double-Edged Sword: Paradigms of (Anti)Racism in Old Testament Scripture.”
The Board of Trustees has named Dr. Jacqueline E. Lapsley to be the eighth president of Union Presbyterian Seminary.
As the first woman to lead the seminary in its 211-year history, Lapsley is used to being a trailblazer. She was the first woman to serve as dean and vice president for Academic Affairs at Princeton Theological Seminary, a position she has held since 2018.
Last week’s webinar hosted by the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation at Union Presbyterian Seminary looked at real-world examples of how faith communities are working to house some of the unhoused people in their community.
A “singular voice for social justice,” the Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, got the nod Monday from the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation at Union Presbyterian Seminary to preach as part of the Just Preach/Just Act series.
