The Union Theological Seminary community gathered in James Chapel Wednesday evening for a two-hour vigil remembering transgender people from around the country lost to violence during 2024.
“This annual lecture continues Dr. Cone’s dynamic legacy of prophetic Black theological and religious thought that pushes hard against the conscience of America,” said the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, who held a moment of reverent pause as she asked the audience to consider the legacy of the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, who had been a professor at Union for 50 years. Cone died in 2018. The event on April 3, held at the seminary’s James Chapel and streamed online, was the fourth annual lecture to be held in his honor.
Over the course of four lectures entitled, “Seeking Interreligious Wisdom in a Post-Truth Era,” the Rev. Dr. John Thatamanil, professor of theology and world religions director at Union Theological Seminary, addressed an audience in person and online at the 113th Sprunt Lectures at Union Presbyterian Seminary.
“This annual lecture continues Dr. Cone’s dynamic legacy of prophetic Black theological and religious thought that pushes hard against the conscience of America,” said the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, who held a moment of reverent pause as she asked the audience to consider the legacy of the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, who had been a professor at Union for 50 years. Cone died in 2018. The event on April 3, held at the seminary’s James Chapel and streamed online, was the fourth annual lecture to be held in his honor.
Union Theological Seminary, which conferred three degrees on the late Rev. Dr. Gay Byron, recently held a hybrid event honoring the famed womanist scholar. Watch the 90-minute program, which included a choral music tribute, by clicking here.
R. Gustav Niebuhr, a pioneering Presbyterian journalist and scholar whose many awards included the 2000 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award from the Presbyterian Writers Guild, died Oct. 20 at age 68 from long-term complications from Parkinson’s Disease. His obituary is here, with a remembrance from Syracuse University, where he taught, found here.
Any self-respecting Christian seminary will teach its students that the Jesus sheep and goat story in Matthew 25 is a mandate to care for the less fortunate in society, including those in prison.
Union Theological Seminary in New York City recently added caste to its non-discrimination policy, making it the first independent seminary in the nation to do so. In doing so, Union takes a small step towards dismantling pervasive discrimination stemming from caste systems and furthers its commitment to justice, equity and inclusion.
“I didn’t know how to be where I was,” award-winning poet and essayist Tim Lilburn said in a public Zoom lecture held by Union Theological Seminary in New York City on Tuesday.
Union Theological Seminary in New York City honored one of its favorite sons Friday with an hour-long Zoom conversation attended by hundreds of friends and admirers of U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, who earned a Master of Divinity at Union in 1994 and his doctoral degree there 12 years later. Watch Warnock’s hour-long conversation with the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, Union’s president, here.
