Author: Diane Riggs

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September 30, 2026
Leadership Center for Social Justice

United Celebrates Largest New Class and Highest Enrollment in Its 65-Year History

Enrollment Has More than Tripled in Ten Years For the second consecutive year, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (United) is thrilled to welcome its largest-ever incoming class of degree-seeking students. With 85 new degree-seeking students, the seminary is celebrating a total fall term enrollment of 288 degree-seeking students and 7 certificate students, representing the largest total enrollment in United’s history. The seminary’s 65th academic year features: 25% year-over-year enrollment growth and a staggering 239% increase over fall 2016; 163 Master of Divinity (MDiv) students, an increase of 42% year-over-year; 63 Master of Arts (MA), Master of Arts in Leadership (MAL), and Master of Arts in Ministry (MAM) students; 62 Doctor of Ministry (DMin) students. Public theology, social transformation, interreligious engagement, and theology and the arts comprise the four foundational pillars of United’s curricula. They are unique among seminaries and divinity schools rooted in Christian traditions, cultivating an educational environment that practices ecumenism, religious pluralism, and social justice. The MDiv in Interreligious Chaplaincy is United’s largest degree program, with 73 students enrolled for the fall term. The concentration’s interfaith emphasis sets the school apart among its peers, drawing students from diverse backgrounds and faiths. Reflecting the program’s flagship status, the seminary marked a new milestone on July 1 when it welcomed Dr. Ginger Morgan as associate professor for Pastoral and Spiritual Care and program director for Interreligious Chaplaincy. United’s considerable ten-year growth can be credited to its leading-edge academic offerings, widely accessible distance education, and accomplished faculty. The seminary is a bold witness for the common good, preparing innovative leaders for myriad vocational and professional outcomes. From rural congregations to the city hospital’s ICU, United students and alums equip their communities for justice and peace. Mason Mennenga (’22), director of Admissions, leads a passionate and creative staff, all of whom are current students or alums. He reflects, “United’s growth in enrollment over the last number of years and our record for this year is truly a remarkable achievement in theological education. We’re showing what’s possible for progressive theological institutions!” Dr. Hillary Vamstad, director of Student Services, adds, “We’ve created an environment where students feel more than just a number, and I think students see that through the admissions and onboarding process. Feeling seen, heard, and supported while pursuing a seminary education is an important component to United’s growth.” Growth in student enrollment underscores the need to increase the number of core faculty members to continue to provide the quality of education for which United is well-known. Dr. Kyle Roberts, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, shares, “We are undertaking two faculty searches this year, which include an additional faculty role focused on Ministry Practices. This is a specialty we have been needing for some time on our core faculty to ground students in the practical elements of ministry leadership, such as preaching and liturgy, religious education, institutional leadership and administration.” Rev. Dr. Molly T. Marshall, who is beginning her final year as United’s beloved president, asserts, “I believe United’s remarkable growth is due to our progressive and relevant curriculum, our theological hospitality, and our accessible educational delivery.” She continues, “We delight in creating space (perichoresis) for everyone who desires formative theological education, a distinctive pursuit among seminaries.” United looks ahead to a historic 65th year of progressive theological education, and we give thanks for the students whose vocations, traditions, and unique perspectives enrich the life of our seminary. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge. Media Contact Nathanial Green (he/him) Director of Marketing and Communications press@unitedseminary.edu • 651.255.6138 Admissions and Enrollment admissions@unitedseminary.edu

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December 5, 2023
Leadership Center for Social Justice

Rev. Clare Gromoll (’14) & Year One of the Leadership Center for Social Justice

In May 2023, 16 ministers—the inaugural cohort of the Leadership Center for Social Justice (LCSJ)—graduated from the nine-month program of education and formation. For their final project, each minister provided a showcase of their church’s social justice work. Some graduates have partnered with grassroots organizers to support migrant and housing justice. Others have implemented relational curricula for easing intergenerational conversations about race, gender, sexuality, and class. Rev. Clare Gromoll (’14, pictured at right) who participated in the inaugural LCSJ cohort, is the pastor of a church and congregation that was going through a transition. The congregation also had a passion for putting faith into action, but as the pandemic wore on, organizing grew harder. “My experience with LCSJ,” Clare asserts, “helped my roots sink into my way of leadership. I drew upon community organizing principles and strategies so I could equip our Pastoral Relations Committee to engage in one-on-one conversations with church members on the periphery.” Engagement was key since the congregation was experiencing “a significant time of multivalent discernment, change, and growth.” During its first year, LCSJ events have also attracted alums, United students, and others from local universities and faith-based organizations. The three-part Praxis series drew many participants. In December 2022, LCSJ presented “The Praxis of Love: A Community Conversation on All about Love by bell hooks.” In February this year, there was the “Praxis of Hope: An Evening with Ricardo Levins Morales,” and the series concluded in March with “The Praxis of Faith: A Panel on the Life and Faith of James Cone.” LCSJ even hosts its own podcast. Started in December 2022, podcasts have featured national and global social justice and theology experts including Beverly Mitchell, professor of systematic theology at Wesley Theological Seminary; Peter Linebaugh, historian and co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic; Bridget Anderson, director of Migration Mobilities Bristol and professor of migration, mobilities, and citizenship at the University of Bristol; and Lewis Gordon, author of Fear of Black Consciousness and head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Episodes have been downloaded by more than 1,500 listeners from across the globe. As we reflect on a very successful first year, we are inspired by all the possibilities the Center has brought to life. And, in the spirit of hope, faith, and love, we eagerly anticipate the transformational work that will continue to unfold for those affilitated with United’s Leadership Center for Social Justice.

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December 4, 2023
Alums Chaplaincy

Alums Sue Allers Hatlie and Lynda Lee Promote Healing in Prisons

For years, Rev. Dr. Sue Allers Hatlie (’85, ’04) and Rev. Lynda Lee (’14) felt a strong call to work with individuals in prison. For Sue, who grew up as a Missouri Synod Lutheran, ordination in that faith was not possible for women. Lynda was working in tax compliance for a wealth management firm and “drooling” over ARTS: The Arts in Religion and Theological Studies journal founded by Wilson Yates, United’s Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion, Society and the Arts. Fortunately, both ended up at United and found the support they needed to become extraordinary prison chaplains.  The Road to United Sue attended college at Concordia College-Moorhead, a Lutheran-founded liberal arts school in northwestern Minnesota. Her plan was to become a lawyer or probation officer, but she relates that upon graduation, college officials sent her directly to Luther Seminary instead. Sue expressed a desire to become a prison chaplain but was told that could only happen after serving as a congregational pastor. Frustrated, she stepped away from the seminary and took Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) classes at the University of Minnesota. While there, a Catholic woman asked Sue if she had ever considered the United Church of Christ or United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Lynda, who graduated from college with a music degree in piano, was always drawn to creative pursuits. She found out about United through their joint project with Minneapolis Institute of Arts and through the ARTS journal, and immediately felt a kinship with the seminary. She had even started volunteering in prisons, playing music, because she felt compelled to be with the prisoners. When her friend Patsy Herbert,* another artist, said she was taking classes, Lynda was motivated to enroll. Suddenly it seemed that everything in her life was preparing her for this next challenge. Still, it wasn’t until another good friend—Rev. Dr. Verlyn Hemmen, then director of chaplaincy at Allina Hospital—told her to sit down and fill out the application, that she actually set the wheels in motion to attend United. Experiences at United For Sue, United and the UCC opened wide the doors of possibility. United created a formation process that would enable Sue to be ordained and work as a prison chaplain. To satisfy her preference for learning by doing, or contextual education, United approved a plan of independent study. Sue studied liberation theology with Robert Bryant, Professor Emeritus of Constructive Theology. Professor Bryant took his students on an eye-opening trip to Central and South America, including Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, where the poverty and oppression mirrors the US “school-to-prison pipeline” for people of color. Fittingly, Sue’s internship was at Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF)–Shakopee, an all-women’s prison. Once there, she found a mentor: United alum Carrie Dorfman (’78).* Her next CPE took place at the Hennepin County Home School, a behavioral treatment center in Minnetonka for teens in the juvenile justice system. Since it took her six years to graduate while balancing full-time work and school, Lynda had a lot of time to explore her interest in art. “Cindi Beth Johnson and Jann Cather Weaver were so good!” Lynda remembers. Through their classes, she learned that art was less a product and more an expression and process. Failure wasn’t an option. During her last semester at United, Lynda attended The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Ministers Institute where the keynote speaker was Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock. Brock had just published a book with Gabriella Lettini titled Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War. The book, in reviewing the care needed for soldiers who sustain moral injury—an overwhelming sense of shame, grief, and remorse for having violated one’s core beliefs—covers narrative therapy and using art as a piece of that. During Lynda’s CPE placement at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, she connected with an alternative medicine practitioner who taught her to use aroma therapy and guided imagery for self-care. The premise, as Lynda explains, is that these techniques “release the deep care for another’s story that is not mine to hold.” She learned to hold space for a client’s story, without keeping its emotional weight. The Good Work While at the Hennepin County Home School, Sue worked to get a chaplain position funded at the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Minneapolis. As it worked out, Sue was employed by the Greater Minneapolis Council Churches for more than 30 years serving as a chaplain for Hennepin County Adult and Juvenile Corrections. During that time, she decided to re-launch a CPE program that the county’s correctional system had ended decades earlier. To do that, Sue dual-tracked a DMin at United with the Certified Educator Training through the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). At United, she worked with Christie Cozad Neuger (’80), United’s Professor Emerita of Pastoral Counseling and Pastoral Theology, to build her practice of using narrative therapy as a foundation for spiritual care and counseling with those who are marginalized. Once a year, from 1998–2010, Sue also studied in person with narrative therapy founders Michael White and David Epston through training offered by Minneapolis psychologist Dr. Walter Bera. In 1998, Sue began to offer CPE units in correctional settings. Many chaplains in the Minnesota Department of Corrections have completed CPE with her. In 2017, she started to take CPE students into the MCF–Stillwater for a six-week course in Restorative Justice led by incarcerated men serving life sentences. Photo from the Spring 2023 CPE Graduation at MCF–Stillwater. Two years later, Sue sought funding to allow the incarcerated leaders of the Restorative Justice Council to become CPE students so they could earn master’s level theological education credits and develop their spiritual care skills. Sue’s nonprofit, Social Justice CPE, offers the only units inside prison with incarcerated students in the US. These same students found narrative therapy as a foundation for interfaith spiritual care so life-changing, that many have become adjunct faculty for the Social Justice CPE program. Lynda retired from her 25-year career in tax compliance in 2014 so she could begin a CPE residency at St. Cloud VA Medical Center the following January. It was there that she developed a specialization in trauma-informed care. Working with veterans in dual diagnosis and PTSD programs, Lynda wrote curricula, curated materials, and facilitated/co-facilitated groups to help individuals deal with inner conflict, self-acceptance, anger management, and image rehearsal therapy (nightmare management). After completing her clinical residency, job offers came in simultaneously from Allina Health Hospice and the Minnesota Department of Corrections. Once she remembered why she began her seminary journey, Lynda began chaplain work with the Department of Corrections in 2016. As she explains her choice, “I’m wired to see the underdog and advocate for the underdog, and I understand the oppressor and the oppressed.” She served at MCF-Oak Park Heights and MCF-Stillwater before being called to MCF-Lino Lakes. These days, in addition to providing spiritual care and all religious services, Lynda runs a quarterly grief and loss class for those incarcerated at MCF-Lino Lakes, a unique treatment facility with both medium- and minimum-security housing that also includes opportunities for secondary and higher education. In working with veterans and incarcerated individuals, Lynda encourages them to identify grief and loss in their life stories. Often trauma occurs in childhood, a time before one has the capacity to make sense of the events in their life. She uses the Internal Family Systems therapy model to identify individuals’ misbeliefs about themselves in a safe and nonjudgmental way so they can embrace those parts with compassion. “Part of the adult waking up,” Lynda explains, “is giving language to the deepest feelings/emotions we have absorbed as children in the midst of trauma.” She helps them to understand that the action that resulted in their incarceration was likely a desperate means of survival. At the same time, the action does not have to define them, and it doesn’t mean they are defective. By “peeling back layers” of protective veneer to expose foundational sources of grief and loss, Lynda can validate their pain, guide them to process past trauma, and teach them to feel compassion for their younger selves. She also offers spiritual direction in accord with their identified faith. Restorative Justice Both Sue and Lynda are committed to Restorative Justice and Liberation Theology. Their beliefs in and practices around trauma-informed care, narrative therapy, and relationship building are a far cry from the prototypically punitive “justice system.” It also offers prison leaders and those who leave prison greater self-awareness and renewed possibilities for hope and purpose. Wardens at MCF–Stillwater, Sue reports, have recognized that incarcerated individuals who went through the CPE training “make the prisons safer for incarcerated persons and staff.” The 20 trained “spiritual care mentors” (known by other incarcerated men as inmate chaplains) are on call 24–7 and use their well-developed spiritual care skills of de-escalation, conflict mediation, grief and loss processing, and trauma-informed and responsive care.   Damien, David, and John, three CPE alums, discuss the training and its ongoing impact. As Sue shared in a 2022 Social Justice CPE Newsletter, “As the CPE group forms and stories are told with such courage and accountability, there is a relational quality and sacred space that somehow happens. In the outpouring of stories—some horrendously tragic, some so pain-filled—there is yet the sparkle and shimmer of the spirit…the sacred…the light shining through the clouds.” As one of the incarcerated alums said at a Social Justice CPE graduation, “In this dark place, a little light goes a long way; sparking a hope is contagious.” Lynda also believes that the space she opens up with narrative therapy and internal family systems work can help each prisoner’s “soul spark” in recognition of their “divine self.” There’s a clear value to walking alongside each person, empowering them to be in charge of their own healing. When she helps prisoners prepare for parole hearings, Lynda explains, “we meet to process their life story, as the focus shifts from their crime and rehabilitation…to their inner story of change. My preferred metaphor is using ‘I am’ statements to ‘keep the boat out of the weeds.’ It is profound work to shift from ‘I'm not going to…and I'm no longer’ to ’I am.’” Gratitude To secure relevant spiritual resources for those with whom she works, Lynda says, “United continues to offer a deep bench of consults.” Sue asks, “What would I have done without United honoring my deep desire to do this work?” She has won national awards from ACPE for prophetic and innovative leadership. United is equally grateful for the spiritual dedication with which Sue and Lynda have ministered to those who have been exiled from society. We applaud their work to recognize that all people, regardless of who they are, what they have done, or what they believe, are beloved members of the community. * Deceased

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November 13, 2023
Alums Chaplaincy VOICES

Alums Rev. Dr. Sue Allers-Hatlie and Rev. Lynda Lee Promote Healing in Prisons

Rev. Dr. Susan Allers-Hatlie (’85, ’04) and Rev. Lynda Lee (’14) are prison chaplains. Sue, an Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Certified Educator, teaches CPE to prisoners and seminarians inside Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF)-Stillwater. Lynda, a trauma-informed care specialist, runs a grief and loss class at MCF-Lino Lakes. In their work, both have created uniquely effective means of ministering within prisons. Answering a Call Sue was raised in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and considered being a lawyer or probation officer. Directed by her Lutheran college to a seminary, her burgeoning interest in prison chaplaincy was deemed an unacceptable path. Stepping away, she found a CPE course at the University of Minnesota and a mentor who pointed her to United and the UCC. United offered a contextual formation process to meet Sue’s goals. She studied liberation theology with Rev. Dr. Robert Bryant, Professor Emeritus of Constructive Theology, who took students on an eye-opening trip to Central and South America where poverty and oppression mirrors the US “pipeline to prison.” She completed an internship at MCF-Shakopee, a women’s prison, with alum Carrie Dorfman* (’78). Lynda, a music major in college, has always been creative. She discovered United through a United/Minneapolis Institute of Arts joint project and ARTS: The Arts in Religion and Theological Studies. Gradually, Lynda realized she wanted to work with people in prison and began volunteering. When her friend, Patsy Herbert* (’15), said she was taking classes at United, Lynda decided to apply. Working full time, Lynda earned her MDiv in six years. A CPE unit taught her to recoup energy expended in ministering. United’s arts emphasis helped her value the process of creation as storytelling and subvert the idea of failure. In her final semester, Lynda met Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, whose book, Soul Repair, reinforced the practice of using art in narrative healing. Making a Difference In 1998, Sue started a DMin at United and Certified Educator Training through ACPE. Rev. Dr. Christie Cozad Neuger (’80), Professor Emerita of Pastoral Counseling and Pastoral Theology, guided Sue’s work in narrative therapy. Sue then offered CPE units in correctional settings. In 2019, she sought funding to expand CPE training to imprisoned leaders so they could gain credits and learn spiritual care skills. It was the first such program in the US. Since finishing CPE units with seminarians and incarcerated leaders, Sue asserts that “doing CPE inside prisons is a way to practice anti-racist commitments, integrate restorative justice, and live out liberation theology.” It is also systems change. Prison chaplaincy is vital to restorative justice. As Lynda explains, when she can help people to deconstruct sources of their pain/grief, become aware of somatic responses to feelings, and accept that past events and actions do not have to define them or their future, a new life story becomes possible. “Real healing,” she adds, comes from “addressing losses that have been unarticulated and offering compassion to those parts of yourself.” Lynda also seeks out relevant spiritual resources for the diversity of faith communities at the prison. For this work, she says, “United continues to offer a deep bench of consults.” “What would I have done without United honoring my deep desire to do this work?” Sue asks. She has won national awards for being prophetic and innovative. “United seminarians,” she adds, “have been amazing, and transformations are literally contagious as the learning unfolds between all of the students!” * Deceased

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November 7, 2023
students VOICES

Rev. Canon Tyrone Fowlkes Melds Art and Justice into His Ministry

Born into a religious family, DMin student Rev. Canon Tyrone Fowlkes grew up in what he describes as, for years, “the only Black Wesleyan Church in Indiana—what I affectionately call the ‘old church.’” He credits his upbringing in the church for giving him “the faith for which I will always be grateful.” These days, however, Tyrone has moved past his conservative upbringing and embraced a vision of ministering through faith, justice, and art. “Growing up,” Tyrone remembers, “I had an acute awareness of mistreatment and injustice…and was particularly attuned…when it occurred in the church.” He guesses that a desire to call out unjust treatment of women and those in the LGBTQ+ community perhaps fueled his sense of call to ordination. “I had a burgeoning career as an art director,” Tyrone shares, “when I noticed what felt like a tug at my spirit.” In 1995, he enrolled in an MDiv program at Christian Theological Seminary (CTS)—affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—in Indianapolis. Choosing United for the Next Step The pandemic caused Tyrone to re-examine his life and future. He already had several years of practical ministry experience, but no clear direction. “Suddenly,” he recounts, “I could sense an urgency to start weaving together my life as an artist, my history in social services, and my passion for justice.” It was time to move on to a doctorate degree. Why United? “I’ve known about United for a long time,” Tyrone  explains. He remembers reading United’s journal, ARTS: The Arts in Religion and Theological Studies, at CTS and says it was one of the few resources that allowed him to “envision being an artist and a leader in the church.” In the end, “the decision to enroll at United was the obvious choice.” Preparing for the Future As he pursues his DMin, Tyrone says he’s been gleaning lessons both from faculty and fellow students. “I’m learning,” he says, “that effective religious leadership right now is dependent on openness, understanding, and flexibility. I see great examples of this in my peers who are engaged in some rather challenging ministry contexts.” To make an impact, he asserts, “We now have to minister…in contexts that are increasingly multi-faith, spirituality-fluid, and secular.” Faculty, Tyrone suggests, encourage students to develop the capacity to hold in balance ambiguity and uncertainty while embracing spontaneity and creativity. He credits his Public Theology, Engaging in a Multi-Faith World, and Arts for Leadership classes for “tapping into some of the problem-solving skills which I intuitively practice as an artist in ways that also apply to the various arenas in which I travel as a priest.” At present, Tyrone is serving as the Canon for Congregational Life at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, a position he accepted last year. He notes that while the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) helped him recognize his ministerial gifts, the Episcopal Church inspired in him the desire to become ordained and step into the priesthood. Tyrone is currently in his 14th year of the priesthood. Equipped with his DMin in Theology and the Arts, Tyrone hopes to “start integrating everything that I have pondered, learned, and experimented with in the arts, in social justice, and in ministry.” He can envision a new model of ministry at the “intersection of faith, justice, and art” that will help faith communities “deepen their connections to the neighborhoods they occupy” and gain the skills they need “to affect social change.”

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November 3, 2023
Legacy VOICES

The Lasting Legacy of Hildegard and Marion Bunge

For twin sisters Marion and Hildegard, life centered around church. Their father, Rev. John Bunge, was pastor of Pleasant Prairie Evangelical Church when they were born. Later, he served in judicatory roles and, at the time of his death, was pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ (UCC) in Welcome, Minnesota. Hildegard and Marion grew up in and stayed at St. Paul’s.  As their niece, Lisa, explains, “I think church was important to them because that is how they were brought up. Their father was a minister, their mother played the organ, so doing church things were important. It is just what they did.” When their brother, Jonathan (’63†), decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, their mother enlisted the twins to help with tuition expenses. Like many students today, he was able to attend seminary because he had financial support. The sisters gave their first gifts to United in 1967. Tragically, Jonathan died in 1969. In his honor, classmates established the Jonathan Bunge Memorial Scholarship and the sisters’ donations then provided ongoing support to his endowed scholarship. They also planned a legacy gift; in death, as in life, they made a gift to support the Bunge Memorial Scholarship. Identical twins, Marion and Hildegard dressed alike their whole lives. Their lives and work were also closely aligned. Graduates of St. Cloud’s Teacher’s College, they both taught phy ed and health in southern Minnesota.  The twins supported girls’ athletics before it was popular. They involved girls in sports, and organized and coached girls’ gymnastics and volleyball in the 1950s and 1960s. Nominated to the Coaches Hall of Fame, State Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame, and the MN State High School League Hall of Fame, they were active with the National Physical Education Association and traveled to the 1960 Rome Olympics. Though they retired in 1981, the sisters remained active. They were very involved in St. Paul’s UCC, worked for Habitat for Humanity, and enjoyed traveling, walking, gardening, and visiting family.  Jonathan Bunge isn’t the only alum in the family. In 2004, 41 years after Jonathan earned his degree, his grandson—Rev. Brian Wohlhuter—graduated. Brian chose United because he wanted to attend a UCC-affiliated seminary and serve as a UCC minister.  Brian says of United, “It was invaluable in my faith formation. It was at United where my childhood beliefs were challenged and I was forced to form my own thoughts and beliefs around my Christian faith…United gave me the freedom to ask questions and not be chastised for doing so. The ability to question, and yet take seriously, what the Bible says allowed me to form my beliefs and make my faith my own.” At the time of her death in 2023, Hildegard was 97. Marion died two years earlier, almost to the day, at 95. Services were held at their church home and Brian preached at both funerals.  As he described his great-aunts, Brian said, “For them, a way to live out their faith and express their Christianity was to be vital members of the church…the [physical one] and the wider United Church of Christ. They gave of themselves to support both.” Marion and Hildegard’s faithful gifts to their brother’s Bunge Scholarship will support the wider church for years to come as they support the next generation of leaders. Blessed be the memory of the inspirational Bunge sisters.     † Deceased

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July 4, 2023
Alums Arts theology and the arts VOICES

2023 Graduate Stephani Pescitelli and the Power of YES, AND…

Stephani Pescitelli, who graduated April 30, 2023 with an MDiv in Theology and the Arts, admits that United wasn’t even on her radar when she first felt called to seminary. She intended to enroll in a Unitarian Universalist (UU) seminary. Still, after a phone call with a kind soul in United’s admissions office, followed by a whirlwind visit with faculty, alums, and students during a February blizzard (naturally), the uniquely heartfelt and open sense of welcome, and United’s arts and theology program won her over. As she recalls, “I walked out into the bitter cold after that day carrying a warm, welcoming, enthusiastic YES! Lessons Learned at United Though she could have safely stayed in her UU community, Stephani is thankful she was exposed to so many differing faith traditions and histories at United. One “gift of learning…in classrooms and conversations with voices from other traditions,” she shares, “is appreciating how all of our traditions have evolved in relation, often in syncretic ways, even when in opposition.” “Sometimes,” she adds, “confronting these differences and histories is uncomfortable and has meant learning to speak and listen to different… perspectives, letting go of the coziness of knowing, and stepping into the practice of saying YES, AND to others.” This practice of affirmation and openness is important for spiritual leaders who must face myriad challenges in today’s world. Personal relationships are also key. “The relationships I’ve cultivated at United,” Stephani emphasizes, “are the most important gift I’ve received.…I can’t imagine any other graduate program or learning community where I could have truly practiced the messy, beautiful new ways of creating, relating, and leading together.” “United to me is what I wanted and needed church to be,” Marjorie asserts. “It is a non-judgemental place where I am able to think theologically, I'm able to experience the spirit, but also to have intellectual discourse around what I believe to be true and what it is like to be with other Christ-centered people who believe differently than I do, but we have this core place of connection.” Looking to the Future Thanks to connections made while in seminary, Stephani’s future is rapidly taking shape. Through a research project for Dr. Awes Freeman’s Images and Ideologies course about the changing landscape of monuments, last summer she was able to intern with a national nonprofit, Monument Lab. Now, since presenting research about a community arts approach to saving memories and sharing stories at the Midwest American Academy of Religion Meeting, she’s Monument Lab’s part-time partnership research associate. “I am grateful,” Stephani says, “to be able to bring this unique perspective and the holistic formational and practical leadership training I received as an MDiv student to this important art and social justice work at Monument Lab.” At the same time, Stephani is exploring a call to support people one-on-one, and hopes to focus on “offering discernment and relational spiritual care to makers, seekers, and activists through creative embodied practice.” Learn more on her website: stephanipescitelli.com. Stephani credits her experiences and education at United for making these and other vocational options possible. As she explains, “Engaging in rigorous academic and rich formational learning within a community full of diverse, dynamic beliefs and spiritual backgrounds has helped me to contextualize and deepen my own theologies. It has also increased my desire and capacity for building coalitions across differences in my leadership work and in relationships beyond seminary.” No matter where she goes after commencement, Stephani now knows “that the most important repair and liberation is done…within our five-foot radius.” She adds, “I am lucky that my immediate circle has included some of the finest faculty, co-conspirators, dance—and wrestling—partners, and humans, and even luckier to be able to carry these relationships with me in whatever lies ahead.”

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June 21, 2023
Alums VOICES

Alum Marjorie Grevious (’18) Promotes Spiritual Wellness through Yoga Ministry | VOICES

Yoga and church were childhood pillars for 2018 alum Marjorie D. Grevious. She estimates that she started doing yoga alongside her mother at age three, and that the practice of yoga ran “parallel to my journey as a church girl raised in the Black missionary church tradition of the south.” Those two pillars remained constant, but separate, until United helped Marjorie connect her core beliefs as a Christian and her spiritual practice of yoga. The Path to United For most of her career—with an MS in Human Services and Community Counseling and Psychology—Marjorie worked with young people who were “caught in cycles of crisis and chaos most often caused by the unstable/unhealthy adults in their lives.” Part of the impetus for taking advanced training in yoga, and attending seminary, was Marjorie’s desire to not just treat the symptoms of dysfunction, but to “help people at the core of their being.” After completing a 200-hour yoga training in 2012, her first students were teen girls caught in the juvenile justice system. “I was amazed,” Marjorie says, “by the immediate effect a single yoga class had on their overly stressed minds and hyper-reactive bodies.” At the same time, she knew there was more to learn. Connecting Faith and Yoga At United, Marjorie realized “that ordination and formal church work was not the call that God has on my life.” Still, the relationships she built, the community she found, and the scholarship in which she engaged were what she needed. “United to me is what I wanted and needed church to be,” Marjorie asserts. “It is a non-judgemental place where I am able to think theologically, I'm able to experience the spirit, but also to have intellectual discourse around what I believe to be true and what it is like to be with other Christ-centered people who believe differently than I do, but we have this core place of connection.” “I think the beauty of my United education,” she adds, “was how big the conversations were. You were not trapped by dogma or by denominational restrictions.” Learning about “seminary siblings’” plans also gave Marjorie the inspiration to lean into her strengths as a yoga teacher and person of faith. It seemed obvious after that; a yoga ministry became possible. After all, as Marjorie readily confesses, “I feel in touch with the sacred, with that which is bigger than myself, on my yoga mat; when life gets big and life gets full, I go to my yoga mat.” There are other connections too. Notes Marjorie: “The philosophies behind yoga, the 195 yoga sutra statements created by Patañjali, are very parallel to what we read and study in the Bible in terms of how we treat ourselves, how we treat each other, and how we move through the world.” Living into Her Purpose These days, Marjorie is an instructor at Yoga Sanctuary and operates a private practice at Temple Within. She has many more hours of training under her belt and is certified in five types of yoga, several designed to support individuals with histories of trauma. Ultimately, Marjorie is happy to teach how the practice of yoga can realign each person’s sense of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. She is grateful, she says, that United helped her “to define my passion and fulfill my purpose of offering spiritual wellness as a way of being for all God’s people.”

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June 9, 2023
Academics Activism students

Bridgette Weber Finds the through Lines—Food and Transformation—at United

At United, a supportive community of beloved students and faculty, is an integral part of the educational journey for future faith and justice leaders. Since coming to seminary and charting a path toward chaplaincy, dual degree student Bridgette Weber (bottom right) has not only been elected to the Student Leadership Collective twice, they have also worked with another student to support and sustain United students with Sunday evening United Family Dinners. United has also helped them uncover their purpose-filled throughlines from food to social transformation to justice through food sovereignty.  The connection between food and church is not anything new. Church potlucks, coffee and sweets between services, and pizza nights for youth groups are a familiar part of the landscape. As a seminary student, Bridgette is digging deeper to explore the broad historical import of food in culture, and how that connects to theological study. They are also developing a fundamental awareness of how issues of environment and justice and religion all intersect with the natural resources that sustain or degrade all life. Working toward United & Social Justice Ministry Bridgette’s connection to food started early. Their first job, at age 14, was at Taco Bell. Next, at Chilton, Wisconsin’s 7 Angels Restaurant, Bridgette worked with their mom and sisters and had their first experience working in the back of the house. After growing up in a small Wisconsin town and attending rural Catholic churches, Bridgette was eager to see what their future might hold. They started college at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, continued working in restaurants, dropped out of college, returned, and ultimately earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies. During college, Bridgette also found their “passion for building vibrant communities with food at the center.” While studying biology and ecology, Bridgette worked in the community. They were a farmer and chef, managed Trust Local Foods (as the only employee), joined the Sustainable Living Roadshow as a green market manager, and founded the Oshkosh Food Cooperative which finally opened in July 2020. After college, they were a pastry chef at L’etoile Restaurant—a James Beard award winning farm-to-table establishment in Madison—and worked at Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, a grassroots social transformation effort based in Sri Lanka. Bridgette was also a volunteer coordinator for a free clothing center and worked in “crisis management for houseless people.” All the while, between rejecting the toxic aspects of the restaurant industry, starting their own personal chef business, and searching for purpose, the idea of a vital ministry around food and sustainability as represented by the image of a “food church” kept arising in their mind. “Those two words,” Bridgette explains, “are an anchor to my spiritual calling.” Why? “Not only do I see food as a sacred intersection between our relationship to the land, water, and each other, but I see how this message of reality was subverted through colonization…and ways the Christian church codified slavery and industrial agriculture. I am drawn to work that moves us toward a dominant culture more in line with the Indigenous worldview of how to grow and manage food.” When they found United online and discovered the seminary offered programming in Social Transformation, “there was no doubt” they state, “that it was a huge, cosmic, universal, divine YES happening inside of me.” And it was not just the possibility of ministering through food, but a distinctive call to social justice. Finding Purpose at United & The Path Forward United, as Bridgette explains, “is a place where I can explore the multitude of who I am.” The seminary enables them to “examine and explore the roots of where I came from—the complex and dynamic and beautiful and traumatizing space that is—while supporting me in an inclusive, welcoming, and affirming place.” “Those accepting and nurturing aspects of United felt like a gift,” they add. The weekly United Family dinners provide an intentional and safe space for students and their families—and even regular guest President Molly T. Marshall (in a gray tee shirt on the right)—to share in good food and to nurture relationships. The meals are also a centering time to reflect on the values many students hold dear: creation care and sustainability for the planet. “Right now,” they say, “it’s a sacred place for us to experiment with how food brings us into conversation with the land and our history.” What has been developing from the food church idea, they say, is a “food sovereignty ethic for the beloved community.” This ethic “is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”1 The concept of the food sovereignty ethic, Bridgette suggests, could be a “powerful ethical antidote” for the practice of Christianity long shaped by “dominion theology.” In simpler terms, Brigette adds, “I think food sovereignty has the power to heal many of our divides if we can invest our time, energy, and money into making it happen. I hope to see the church become a critical player in that transformation. As Dr. Norman Wirzba says, ‘Food is God’s love made nutritious and delicious.’ I think social transformation can be nutritious, delicious, and exciting!” United’s focus on art and theology has also allowed Bridgette to express other facets of their artistic side. First introduced to community earth mandalas during her time with Sustainable Living Roadshow, Bridgette created a mandala for the 2021 Symposium Week. They have also used their drawing skills in class assignments, including an art observation of the St. Paul Farmers Market, and an examination of the trinity using artistically rendered sourdough starter, dough, and bread. Through art, justice, and theology classes, Bridgette has also discovered how gender and sexuality are deeply connected to food. The 2022 summer term, they add, “brought together the articulation and minds of amazing writers and activists and humans who have been forging this path” of actively promoting justice. “That’s the kind of person I want to be.” The painstaking process of “getting to know deeply who I am,” though challenging, has also enabled Bridgette to lay bare their roots and start to reconcile the past with their goals for the future. The through lines of food and justice make possible the plan to bring the leadership and ministry skills they have gained at United back to the rural areas they left years ago. “I want unity and connection, and know that building these types of relationships will take care and time and attention. Joy and creative potential are just waiting for us,” Bridgette declares. 1. This is the definition of food sovereignty coined by La Via Campesina in 1996.

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June 6, 2023
UCC VOICES

Mizpah Church Offers United a Legacy Scholarship Fund | VOICES

Rev. Rebecca Lemenager (’01) was only seven when she knew she wanted to be a minister. All she needed was fertile soil in which to nurture that calling. Mizpah United Church of Christ (Mizpah), her home congregation in Hopkins, Minnesota, provided that nurture. Now, as Mizpah comes to the end of its life as a church, members have decided to provide a legacy of support for new pastors by establishing the Mizpah Church, United Church of Christ, Endowed Scholarship at United for UCC students who pursue ministry. Mizpah’s vital ministry spanned 125 years, providing a place for worship and spiritual formation as well as community support. Members played an active role by supporting a teen clinic, the Crisis Nursery, Loaves and Fishes, and more. In closing, they are making final financial gifts to those long-supported groups. Their gift of the scholarship to United will hold the Mizpah name in perpetuity. As decisions were being made, Linda Williams, a member of the Mizpah council, advocated for the new scholarship. Her husband, who attended the University of Minnesota in Duluth (UMD), started a scholarship fund with his college friends to support new UMD business students. That practice, and Rebecca’s urging, inspired them to find a way to support new ministers. “It is really important to help people who want to become ministers,” Linda says. “We don’t want the cost of seminary to be a barrier.” Rebecca adds, “When pastors graduate with debt, they have to make decisions about where they are called based on the compensation a congregation can provide. Having less debt opens up the possibility of serving a smaller congregation.” Mizpah and United have many connections. Both Rebecca and her mother, Betty Wentworth (’86), were United graduates. Rev. Coqui Conkey (’02), currently the Interim Pastor at Urbandale UCC, also came to United from Mizpah. Over the years, many pastors, interns, and students crossed paths from United to Mizpah and from Mizpah to United. Both places were known for their love of the arts and theological depth, both inviting people to wrestle with important questions. Ordained 21 years ago, Rebecca has served a variety of churches. For the last decade, she has been working at the Virginia Public Library, but on Sundays, you will find her answering her call in new ways. Last year, she provided pulpit supply 30 Sunday mornings for churches in five different denominations. She appreciates the fact that United broadened her understanding and passion for ecumenism. This year, she plans on doing even more pulpit supply, believing that supporting churches that might not be able to otherwise afford a pastor is a valuable service. Rebecca loved her time at United, stating that it prepared her well for what she is doing with the right mix of academic rigor, social justice, and pastoral care woven together. “We live in a polarized, hurting world. We need people who are willing to have a vision of what this world can be, leaders who can share that vision. United helped me learn those skills.” Rebecca goes on to say, “Most of us knew we weren’t going to become The Rev. Peter Gomes at Harvard, but that didn’t mean that we weren’t going to change a little piece of the world. That is true of Mizpah also. They weren’t ever the biggest church in the conference, but in small and important ways, we changed the little corner of our community.” Through the creation of this endowed scholarship, Mizpah’s 125 years of ministry will persist in a new form, transforming little pieces of the world through congregational ministry.

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