Upcoming Events

The following classes will take place online.

Grief: Loss and Resilience in a Pandemic World

With Dr. Melissa Kelley and Amy DeGurian, Sept. 29, Oct. 27, Nov. 17, 2021

Transitional Ministry: Part 2

With the Rev. Dr. Jan Nolting Carter, the Rev. Dr. Paul Rhebergen and the Rev. Hart Edmonds, Oct. 7, 14, 21, 28, Nov. 4, 11, 18, 2021

Hearing History, Seeing Activism

Join Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in the month of October 2021, for a series of events that consider the unheard narratives in our congregations and communities. As we welcome our new president Dr. Asa Lee to PTS, we invite you to add your voice to conversations that will focus on the local, national, and international stories that shape who we are.

Oct. 6, 2021 W. Don McClure Lectures in World Mission and Evangelism Christian Justice, Exploitation, and Racial Violence from ‘Red Rubber’ to ‘Bloody Sunday’ with Kimberly Hill / 7:30 p.m. (ET) / online

Oct. 7, 2021 Appreciating Untold Stories of Local Congregations in East Liberty, Pa. / 10:00 a.m. (ET) / in-person

Oct. 13, 2021 W. Don McClure Lectures in World Mission and Evangelism Panel Discussion Reckoning with Invisibility: African American Missionaries and Their Hidden Legacies with Kimberly Hill and Asa Lee / 7:30 p.m. (ET) / online

Oct. 21, 2021 Urban Artistry, Aesthetics, and Social Ministry / 1:00 p.m. (ET) / online

Oct. 21, 2021 Wise Women 2.0 / Caretaking with Jeanelle Austin / 7:30 p.m. (ET) / online

Oct. 27, 2021 The Risks and Rewards of Archaeology as Activism: A Decade of Research in Turkey with Mustafa Aksel Casson / 7:30 p.m. (ET) online

Becoming People of One Book

An Albright-Deering Event

Nov. 3, 2021, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Join us for a day of presentation, reflection, and conversation with the Rev. Dr. Steve Tuell, James A. Kelso Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Old Testament. He will be joined by the Rev. Chenda Innis Lee, Virginia Conference, The United Methodist Church, for a conversation that bridges pulpit and pew and explores the ways in which our shared sacred texts can unite rather than divide.

“God, the Master Artist, is constantly at work in all our lives, bringing hope out of brokenness, in love. All will be well.”
~ Melissa Kelley, Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry

As this lands in your inbox, friends, our Jewish siblings are observing Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. It is the day when the Jewish community attends to cleft between what is and what God intends—the places where our world and communities are broken—and to atone for their complicity. How can we accompany them in this reflective, penitent pause—one that seems all the more poignant in these fractious times?

For me, it begins in my garden, where we have officially entered the unruly season.

My carefully nurtured seedlings and plotted beds have gone and done what they wanted to, despite my best efforts. They had help from crazy summer weather and a host of invasive pests, four-, six-, and no-legged. Tomatoes, the crown jewel of every gardener’s efforts, are on hiatus, thanks to a brutal hot spell. The cukes all died. It is kind of a mess, really.

Then, there is a ridiculous butternut vine climbing up the apple tree and into the boxwood; it is churning out squash as if my family’s future depends on it. Did I mention that it is a volunteer? It was never part of the plan; yet, there it is—promising a winter’s worth of comforting and nourishing soup. And, I haven’t even mentioned the sunflowers planted by an enterprising bird—spectacular!

I look at the chaos, the chasm between what I intended and hoped and what actually is, and I thought, "Well, that’ll preach." (Can I get an Amen?) It is not what was "supposed to be" (whatever that means), but there is still this (somewhat humorous) reminder of God’s provision in the midst of it all—sustenance and beauty both. My Spring self might have seen the vine as unwelcome; my Fall self sees it as delightful bounty.

Where are the volunteer squash vines and wild sunflowers in your life and ministry these days? How do you cultivate the capaciousness of spirit and curiosity to see them?

Our upcoming programs all intend to support you in these practices, so essential for ministry! The focus is on resilience and creativity – those tools in our toolboxes most needed these days. Our exploration of grief will underscore hope and resilience; the Wise Women we have gathered know the landscape of this work well. There is more: you can dive deep into how to do ministry in transitional times, and our McClure guest lecturer will help us learn how to mine history for present practice as we work to become more antiracist.

Here is the promise that we have been given: we have been given the grace and the means to begin again, to pivot, to live more fully into the vision of flourishing that is God’s preferred future for us. Beauty and sustenance abide! And all will be well.

Helen Blier
Director, Continuing Education