Community Programming

The mission of Community Programming at United Theological Seminary is to serve as a sustaining resource for religious leaders and a resource of theological inquiry, spiritual formation, and ethical development for the wider community.

We offer exciting courses, workshops, lectures, exhibits, and more throughout the year that include educational opportunities for congregational leaders (both ordained and lay), as well as opportunities for spiritual enrichment and theological exploration. The newly established Academy for Vital Christianity offers longer-term courses designed for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Christian tradition. Please join us for a program that meets your needs and interests.

Spring 2010

Academy for Vital Christianity

• Christianity’s Enduring Life: Contemporary Stories of Diversity, Renewal, and Global Growth, Mary Farrell Bednarowski
• Eco-Injustice: Responding as Artistic, Theological, and Spiritual Leaders, Christine M. Smith (Duluth)
• Interpreting the Older Testament with Integrity, Carolyn Pressler
• Our Neighbors of Other Faiths, Gail Anderson
• Reading the Gospels Today, Marilyn Salmon
• Reading the Gospels Today, Neil Elliott (Alexandria)
• Reading the Prophets in the 21st Century, Richard Weis (Mankato)
• The Spiritual Lives of Children and Youth, Barbara Anne Keely (Rochester)
• Sunday School Teaching 101, Cindy Yanchury
• Understanding Islam, Adil Ozdemir
• Wrestling with the Problem of Evil and Suffering, Eleazar Fernandez

Workshops, Lectures, and Programs

• A Map to the Soul: Exploring a Creative Faith with Jan Richardson - February 2
• Evenings at the Bigelow: Art and Soul - “Readings and Reflections on Love” with Leslie Ball - February 11
• Susan Draper White Lectures with Joyce Ann Mercer - March 1 & 2
• Multicultural Lectures with Justo L. González - April 12 & 13
• Russian Pilgrimage - September 26-October 10

Community Programming

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A Map to the Soul: Exploring a Creative Faith

Workshop with Jan Richardson at
United Theological Seminary
Tuesday, February 2
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

The journey of faith gives us few maps. Though our way may seem chartless at times, the Christian tradition gives us rich wellsprings that help us find our path and sustain us as we travel. In story, art, and scripture, we find gifts that engage our imagination, speak to our soul, and help us navigate the terrain.

We invite you to join us for a morning that will offer a fresh, challenging, and creative look at our Christian faith. As we engage these wellsprings of story, art, and scripture, we will find new ways to reflect on our journey and to envision the path ahead. Our cartographer’s tools in this morning of reflection will include writing, artwork, conversation, personal times of contemplation, and ritual.

Cost is $30.00.

• Download Printable Registration Form. (form can be mailed, faxed, or scanned & e-mailed)
• Or, you can register by contacting Renee Flesner at 651.255.6138.

Jan Richardson
Jan is the director of The Wellspring Studio, LLC, a company that incorporates her vocation as an artist, writer, retreat and workshop leader, and spiritual director. She serves as Visiting Artist at First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, Fla.  Jan is the author of In Wisdom’s Path, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas and Sacred Journey: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer. Jan is on the faculty of the Grünewald Guild in Leavenworth, Wash., and is an oblate of St. Brigid of Kildare Monastery, a Methodist-Benedictine community based in St. Joseph, Minn.

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Seeking the Face of Christ in Russia: An Experiential Pilgrimage
download brochure
download article

September 26-October 10, 2010

United Theological Seminary will again partner with Icon Art Studios, Inc. in a pilgrimage in spiritual formation through study and dialogue with Iconography and art. The pilgrimage, which will be jointly led by Russian and American leaders and features stops in St. Petersburg and Moscow, is designed to build deeper bridges of cultural and spiritual understanding between American Christianity and the Orthodox faith in Holy Russia.

Russian Leaders

Tamara Mikhailova is associate professor at the Smolny Institute of Arts and Sciences in St. Petersburg. Prior to that she lived in America for 10 years, where she taught Russian language, art, literature, and culture at Macalester College in St. Paul and at Kansas University and Miami University in Ohio. Tamara is the author of five books on Russian and British art and has professional associations with The Hermitage, The Russian Museum, and the Vaganova Academy of Ballet.

Nadezhda Kolesnikova is an instructor at St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, which is on the territory of the St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery (Lavra). She assists in the formation of special opportunities for pilgrimages that seek a deeply interactive journey in the arts, theology, and culture.

Slava Benois-Rogalsky is the Russian director of the Benois Institute, which also partners with academic institutions in France. Mr. Benois-Rogalsky facilitates tour itineraries for the purpose of education and cultural exchange.

American Leaders

Debra Korluka is an internationally renowned artist and Byzantine iconographer. She was the first American to exhibit in the former Soviet Union and has studied with icon masters from the Ukraine and Russia. Korluka teaches workshops at seminaries and also offers instruction from her studio and gallery, www.icon-art-studios.com. Her work, which is displayed in museums around the world, has been commissioned by many churches and private collectors nationally and internationally. Over the years, Korluka has developed many close working relationships with renowned artists, churches, and monasteries in Russia.

Richard Scheerer is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and has had a full career in the local church and denominational ministry. His gifts include creating meaningful experiences in inter-cultural encounters and building a sense of community for those on a pilgrimage experience. His specialties are in ecumenical dialogue, spirituality and liturgy, Celtic and orthodox spirituality, and the visual arts; he also dabbles in painting. He is a member of the adjunct faculty at United.

Download the brochure, which includes a complete itinerary.

Download a registration form.

Please call 612.889.5868 for all inquiries.