VOICES Archives - Page 2 of 3 - United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

April 14, 2025

Student Rev. Alicia Reese Creatively Mixes Ministry with Improv

Rev. Alicia Reese has followed the pull of two great loves: theatre and ministry. “I spent most of my life in theatre; I think I started when I was seven,” she recalls. As she grew older, Alicia also felt “a strong call toward ministry,” but there were no women pastors in her church setting. “I never saw,” she reflects, “how that call to ministry could be lived out.” Through high school and college, Alicia threw herself into theatre. At a small Christian school in Florida, she met a theatre director who believed the arts and church could go together. He let her take over the theatre ministry troupe—“a sketch comedy-ish group that used Christian themes and scripture,” Alicia explains. In her 20s, after moving to Chicago and working in theatre full-time, Alicia experienced another strong nudge toward ministry. This time, she earned an MA in Theological Studies, but had the sinking feeling that she might have to give up theatre. A minister at her church, who recognized her unique gifts, encouraged her to pursue an MDiv. One of Alicia’s professors at North Park Theological Seminary introduced her to a prison education program at a correctional facility in Joliet. She embraced this new challenge and wanted to help those who were incarcerated share their stories. “So I pulled out my theatre bag of tricks,” Alicia shares, and considered using improv. Finding United The success Alicia found using improv to get incarcerated students to re-vision their stories inspired her to go back to school for a DMin through which she could explore the “connection between spiritual formation and improv.” Why United? “From the moment I started interacting with United,” Alicia remarks, “I felt that deep connection between the arts and theology and ministry.” After meeting with Dr. Jennifer Awes Freeman, she was hooked. Jennifer helped Alicia create an independent study that involved taking classes at The Second City in Chicago, “a life-changing” experience. Alicia credits United’s “openness to exploration,” the ability to have both “a classroom and a laboratory,” and the needs-based scholarship she received as keys to her success. In addition, “every professor has made a stamp on my work along the way,” and interactions with other students have been “just as fruitful and formative.” Real Life Applications For Dean Roberts’ class, Alicia “designed a whole Lenten series of spiritual practices that use improv” for her congregation. For example, one week she asked congregants to practice failure using the “failure bow”—an exuberant, joyous admission of failure that tricks the brain into getting more comfortable with and learning from failure. More recently, she created a similar series for Advent. When the children’s minister asked her to devise something for the children’s pageant, he and Alicia designed an intergenerational service based on joy and improv. Toward the end of the service, Alicia used an improv game called “Slide Show” to help the children tell the story of Jesus’ birth. For the first slide, Alicia shared a piece of the birth narrative, and the kids acted out the scene on stage. On alternate slides, the children acted out another piece of the story, and Alicia had to explain what they were doing. Along the way, the kids added new characters and became very engaged in the storytelling. The pageant, Alicia exclaims, was “probably one of the most joyful, wonderful experiences I’ve had in a faith community, ever.” It was also a reminder of how the DMin work is spilling over into her ministry. This is “a full-circle moment,” Alicia declares. The gift of “bringing art back into my life through my ministry work has felt like I’m living into the fullness of who God really called me to be now.”

January 8, 2025

social justice social transformation students VOICES

Ryan Cagle’s Ministry Leads through Social Transformation & Eco-Justice

Student Ryan Cagle, who grew up in what he describes as the “backwoods of Alabama and the foothills of Appalachia,” is pursuing both an MDiv in Social Transformation and an MA in Eco-Justice. For the past three years, he has also been the driving force behind a social justice ministry in Parrish, Alabama, called Jubilee House Community. It is a big lift, but Ryan finds that his academic work at United is complementing his home ministry. “Seminary has always been a dream for me—something I always wanted to do,” Ryan shares. He’s been involved in ministry since he was 18 and supplemented his ministry with extensive reading. When he decided to pursue seminary, there were no local options. United, however, seemed like a good fit. “The theology and the place and the diversity that is here and embodied in the community,” Ryan explains, was what he needed. Social transformation was an obvious choice since Ryan was already engaged in community organizing and social justice work. Still, much of his ministry in Alabama deals with “ecologically oriented” issues, so he wanted to explore that side too. Fortunately, Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis, associate professor of Christian Ethics and Social Transformation, supported by the McVay Endowment, allowed Ryan to create a self-directed study in Land, Food, Faith, and Justice. Once United added the MA in Eco-Justice, Ryan couldn’t resist adding that degree. Ryan asserts he cannot “quantify the number of ways that what I’m learning [at United] is actively helping me refine the actual on-the-ground work that I’m doing.” His academic work, Ryan says, is enhancing how he relates, leads, and ministers to others, how they approach decision-making, and how they effectuate eco-justice for those in their community. With no state funding, Jubilee House Community operates a 24/7 food pantry, a free store for non-perishable items, a community garden, and Alabama’s first, second, and third free 24/7 Narcan® (naloxone) distribution sites (part of their harm reduction efforts). It’s an amazing, heart-filled, and transformational ministry. “I love United.” Ryan avows. “It’s been one of the most life-affirming and vocation-affirming places I’ve ever been and experienced in my entire life.”

December 17, 2024

Alums VOICES

Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi (’19) Ministers through Counseling and Relationships

“Since I was a teenager,” Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi reflects, “I always…said I would love to be a youth pastor.” So it made sense that she earned an MDiv in pastoral care and counseling. While at United, Cyreta was excited to learn more about womanist and Black liberation theology from faculty who had learned from some of the pioneers in those fields. This connection, she asserts, “brought [theology] into a different light for me and brought it to life.” Since earning her MDiv, Cyreta has held several positions at Liberty Community Church in North Minneapolis and founded a consulting business. Currently, she serves as the program director at Liberty’s Northside Healing Space and as an associate pastor for youth development at Liberty. The Northside Healing Space program that Cyreta directs intends to reduce Minnesota’s disproportionately high rate of infant and maternal mortality within Black communities and its unhealthy relationship with health care. “We are caring and walking with families who are pregnant, in delivery, or postpartum,” she explains, and connecting families with “trusted providers”— doulas, midwives, other birth workers, lactation consultants, elders, and others—who use culturally sensitive “rituals and traditions that help wrap around the family.” Since 2016, when she founded I Am Youthwork, Cyreta has also been offering extra support to “those who work with children and youth,” including youth pastors. “Youthwork, she shares, “is how to walk with children and families on their spiritual journey in today’s context.” Recently, Cyreta re-enrolled at United to begin work on her DMin! Why come back? There are too few “women who represent what I look like, where I live, and the way my family looks” who are conducting meaningful research about her community, she admits. In addition, she couldn’t ignore all the nudges she received from United, Liberty, and God. With a laugh in her voice, Cyreta tells the story of all the ways she tried not to return to school. Still, she confesses, “God was like, ’Girl, shut up!’” And she is happy to be back. For Cyreta, returning to United feels both like a homecoming and the start of a new adventure. We are truly excited to see what she will do next to support the common good.

November 25, 2024

Methodist Studies ministry VOICES

Rev. Gloria Roach Thomas (’98) Ministers through Love, Healing, and Hope in a Hurting World

Rev. Gloria Roach Thomas (’98) grew up in a small town in South Carolina. As she recalls, “I drank out of the colored water fountains, I went to the colored elementary school.” Still, she reflects, the surrounding community “told us we were someone, even when the world said we were not.” Her father was a community activist and civil rights proponent, and her parents gave back to the community. What brought Gloria to Minnesota? “I came to Minnesota in 1976 on a bet with my cousin,” she admits. “We wanted to live somewhere for one year away from our homes.” Much to the chagrin of her family and friends, Gloria ended up staying in the Twin Cities and started her ministry here. The Path to United Gloria’s years at Model Cities of St. Paul, Inc.—helping underserved families and individuals access education, financial knowledge, housing, and health services—inspired her to consider seminary. While there, she met successful United alums, and even got to know a person on staff at United. After a tour of the space in New Brighton and a fact-finding meeting, Gloria decided to apply. “My interest in attending United was met with interest and respect,” she remembers, “so it was United that I decided on.” Treasuring Experience At United, Gloria states, “I most treasured the overall theme of human inclusion in ministry.” She reveled in the variety of religions, denominations, and philosophies she found, the broad acceptance of gender expressions, “a variety of ways to refer to God,” and exposure to Womanist Theology. After graduating (MDiv, with a Pastoral Congregational Care emphasis), Gloria asserts that the pastoral care and grief education she received at United enabled her to reach the goal of supporting families who have lost kin to tragedies such as suicide or murder. For 14 years, she taught “Death and Dying across Cultures and Religions” in the Mortuary Sciences Program at the University of Minnesota. Gloria has led grief sessions with congregations, supported hospital staff, and worked with bereaved families. During that time, Gloria also became ordained as a United Methodist Elder, and ministered at several Twin Cities Churches, including Brooklyn United Methodist Church in Brooklyn Center, and Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Paul. While at Camphor, Gloria helped launch a building renovation and construction project to develop gathering spaces for community support programs. Re-fire-ment In 2018, Gloria announced her retirement from full-time work. She likes to call it “re-fire-ment”—re-firing into something new. In honor of her decades of dedication to community service and ministry, Governor Mark Dayton declared June 2, 2018, as Rev. Gloria Roach Thomas Day. In 2019, St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation named her as its local Facing Race Award recipient. In a video recorded for the Facing Race Award, Gloria credits her parents and home community for their strength and courage. “I stand on their shoulders,” she avows. “I would not take anything for that journey because it really began to take hold of who I am and it... set me on a journey.” More recently, Gloria shared that “God has allowed me many great ministry opportunities to assist in bringing love, healing, justice, and hope to a world that desperately needs it.” United is truly honored and blessed to count Gloria as one of its transformational alums.

November 19, 2024

social transformation students VOICES

Social Transformation Student Doe Hoyer Follows the Spirit

Doe Hoyer, who is pursuing an MDiv in Social Transformation, grew up southeast of the Twin Cities. Their grandfather was a Lutheran pastor. “I really had a strong love and resonance with him as a child,” Doe shares, but “as a queer child, I always felt like a misfit” at the family’s Lutheran church. It has taken some time, but since starting at United, Doe has found where their gifts can flourish and grow. The Slow Road to Seminary When Doe was 16, they experienced a “devastating loss” when a cousin tragically died. Retrospectively, they acknowledge there was a “missed opportunity for spiritual care there.” That trauma turned Doe away from religion and spirituality for many years. After earning a BA in linguistics at Macalester College, Doe’s early jobs included teaching ESL to Latinx and Somali adults. Though teaching a colonizing language bothered Doe, they learned how challenging it is for immigrants to navigate American systems. Meanwhile, through involvement with the local Reclaiming Pagan community, Doe found “a thread of earth-based spirituality” and “community singing.” They also made an important connection with United alum Colleen Cook* (’12), with whom they lived for six months. Not only did Colleen share stories about their time at United, they proved to be a “vocal encourager.” During what they describe as a “seven-year discernment process,” Doe took on more leadership roles, learned how to be a community song leader, and had experiences that affirmed the spirituality in nature. Then, just a few weeks before Colleen passed away in 2019, they texted Doe: “Maybe you want to apply to United.” Growing into an Organizer “Reckoning with my Christian roots and learning more at United,” Doe asserts, “has allowed me to have so much more flexible thinking about Christianity.” They made strong connections with other students in their “incredible” formation class with Rev. Dr. John Lee (’19). Rev. Dr. Jessica Chapman Lape’s “amazing classes” have “yielded connections with inspiring chaplains,” and they treasure the feedback and encouragement from professors Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman, Rev. Dr. Gary Green, and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. For the past year, Doe has also worked as an organizer and song leader for the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. The Coalition, co-founded by Sarah Augustine—a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant—“calls on the Christian Church to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done in the name of Christ on Indigenous lands.” Doe’s local involvement with repair communities for Makoce Ikikcupi, the Dakota land recovery project, helped them get the job. Doe believes lessons learned in United’s social transformation and chaplaincy courses have strengthened their organizing abilities. As Doe explains it, chaplaincy’s emphasis on remaining present and open with another helps temper the social transformation push for action and systemic change. Moving between these skill sets helps Doe forge deeper and longer-lasting relationships with other activist organizers. Following the Spirit “I could not be doing this work,” Doe attests, “without the learning and reflective experiences I have had through United.” They now encourage others to check out the seminary. “We need people who are going to engage robustly with their own spirituality, what it means to bring that to others in this world,” and how that can play out in meaningful service. * Deceased

June 21, 2024

VOICES

Bob McCrea: Remembering a Steadfast Ambassador for United

In his youth, Robert “Bob” Kyle McCrea* was an acolyte at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and a founding member of the Edina High School Alpine Ski Team. As an adult, Bob was a founding partner and CEO of Colour Graphics Corporation, a member of St. Martin’s by-the-Lake Episcopal Church, and an active husband and father. He discovered United through his church Priest, Rev. Edwin John Eilertsen, who was a member of United’s Board of Trustees. In 1976, Rev. Eilertsen encouraged Bob to take a course at United. One spring course, “Outlines of Christian Faith,” was all it took for Bob to decide to support United. Though he had to drive in a few evenings a week, Bob’s wife Polly remembers that he really enjoyed being a student, loved the environment at the school, and studying at United helped his faith journey. Bob joined the board in 1978. His first role was on the vice presidential search committee. Between 1982 and 1983, Bob was a member of the finance committee, and from 1983 to 1985, he was board chair. He served on the executive committee from 1985 to 1986 and on board affairs from 1984 to 1986, co-chaired two fundraising campaigns, and helped lead the 50th anniversary committee in 2012. Starting in 1978, Bob and Polly also began making regular donations to United and offering their fundraising expertise. They maintained that they had a responsibility to share their good fortune with causes in which they believed. Bob appreciated that United was not only educating future clergy, but supplying a theological edge to those pursuing work in nonprofits, schools, or other organizations. An effective networker, Bob worked closely with then-President Wilson Yates and Dr. Mary Bednarowski. Wilson recalls that Bob was always introducing him to new people, saying, “Wilson, you have to meet this person!” Gregarious by nature, Bob was a natural leader and staunch supporter. Long time friend Addison (Tad) Piper—whose father, Harry C. Piper,* graduated from United in 1974— attests, “Bob was a person of strong loyalties. He cherished his relationship with the wonderful United board, staff, and faculty and worked hard to keep the institution strong, relevant, and vibrant.” Bill George, former Medtronic CEO and United board member, asserts: “Bob McCrea was the most dedicated member of the United board. He was constantly talking about the good things happening at United and how important its work is. Long after he retired from the board, we continued working with prospective donors to raise money for United. I can’t imagine anyone serving a board better than Bob.” At a sold-out luncheon in late 2014, the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals honored Bob and Polly McCrea with the prestigious Outstanding Volunteer Fundraisers award. Speaking at the event, Bob said, “It’s a pleasure to share our enthusiasm for a good cause, program, or community resource with friends and acquaintances who might find value in supporting these organizations as well. It is a role of connecting the dots.” Polly notes that Bob’s hope for United was that it would become self-sustaining, and continue to grow. She adds, “I think one of the things we loved about United was making a lot of very good friends. We always enjoyed programs and the opportunities to hear speakers. United was a very important part of our life.” United is humbly grateful for the stalwart support that Bob and Polly McCrea gave to the seminary over four decades. Blessed be the memory of Bob McCrea. * indicates those of blessed memory

June 20, 2024

VOICES

Amoke Kubat (’17) Transforms Artistry into Activism

In 1987, Amoke Kubat (’17) moved from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. “I wanted to work with Prince,” she explains. Two years later, she began a 25-year career teaching special education in North Minneapolis with Minneapolis Public Schools. Toward the end of that life chapter, Amoke discovered art, and art connected her to United. Connecting to United Chiaki O’Brien, a SAORI weaving artist from Japan, came to United for an artist residency during a summer institute. Amoke, who had already met Chiaki and wanted to learn more about SAORI weaving, came too. “I sat and watched United faculty and students learn to weave,” Amoke recalls. “I was invited to weave.” After the event, she continues, “staff encouraged me to apply to the seminary. As a non-Christian, I was very reluctant to do so.” Rev. Craig Lemming (’17), then a student who worked in admissions, walked Amoke to her bus stop and they began to talk. “Craig and I had a really deep conversation about United, social justice and religion, and Yoruba culture,” she recounts, and she missed her bus. After Craig chased down the bus, he handed Amoke an admissions packet and more information about United. “I felt I owed him that much for his time and making sure I got home,” she reflects. The Next Chapter Amoke earned an MA in Religious Leadership and a Certificate in Black Church Leadership at United. She also made lasting connections with fellow students and faculty—including Dr. Rufus Burrow, Rev. Dr. Jann Cather Weaver, Dr. Margaree Levy (’17), and Rev. Dr. John Lee (’19)—who were “inspiring and supportive.” United “definitely holds a special place in my heart,” she asserts, and seminary was “a challenging but stellar experience!” Looking back, Amoke has especially fond memories of Rev. Dr. Wilson Yates and the arts curriculum at United. “I loved the Art Practicum that [Rev. Dr. Cindi Beth Johnson] taught during United’s Summer Institute in Spirituality and the Arts and every member of that class. I would have loved to get a certificate in Art and Spirituality!” Leaning into Truth A lifelong learner, Amoke has earned a BA, two MAs, two certificates, and is still growing in knowledge. She has also experienced the worst of humanity—from the 1965 Watts and 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, to the 2020 murder of George Floyd and world pandemic—and fought tirelessly to empower mothers and families in disadvantaged communities. It is the grounding and divine practices of making art, living with honesty, and forging relationships, that bring her some measure of solace. The recipient of multiple grants and fellowships, Amoke is the founding executive director of YO MAMA’S HOUSE, Inc., an art and healing space for mothers. She is also the author of Missing Mama: My Story of Loss, Sorrow and Healing, as well as self-referential plays such as Angry Black Woman & Well-Intentioned White Girl, and many other short stories and articles. She and her work have appeared in installations at the Weisman Art Museum, the South London Gallery, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Cora McCovey Health and Wellness Center. Though she will turn 74 in August, and lives with chronic pain, Amoke focuses on what’s next. On April 29, she became the YWCA Minneapolis’ Inaugural Camille J. Gage Fellowship Awardee, she is in discussion to have another show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and there is more writing and publishing to come in 2025. For her countless contributions, unwavering dedication, and indomitable spirit, we feel incredibly blessed to have Amoke Kubat as a United alum.

June 12, 2024

VOICES

Isabel Nelson Finds Kinship between Social Justice, Religion, and Storytelling

A physical theater and devising artist, Isabel Nelson (’24) traces her passion for theater back to childhood. “I have always been really compelled by story and the meaning that we make and drawn to what I call ‘old story’—folk tales, fairy tales, myth, etc.” At the same time, as a UCC minister’s child and a Macalester College liberal arts graduate (’04), Isabel is deeply concerned with social justice. At United, she affirmed the kinship between justice, religion, and story, and gained a greater sense of self. Finding United Though Isabel double majored in theater and religious studies during college, she says her religious studies degree was “much more of an intellectual interest than a personal call.” Instead, she undertook a two-year intensive physical theater training program in London. Transatlantic Love Affair, the company Isabel founded in 2010, “takes the seeds of an old story, and reimagines it into something really fresh and imaginative.” The plays have no props or set pieces; stories are conveyed by the actors’ movements, some dialogue, and imagination. Back in Minnesota, working at Macalester College, Isabel was struck by how interreligious campus chaplains served the community in times of crisis. At one point during a racial reckoning, she recalls, the chaplains were able to “invite authentic dialogue, hold a space that contained multiple perspectives, and guide folks toward wrestling with the hard questions and reaching mutual understanding.” This example of faith in action inspired Isabel to reconsider the idea of seminary. On a Zoom call with a colleague, she learned about United for the first time and our Theology and the Arts Program. Three months later, she enrolled. Finding Home While at United, Isabel began to understand when her heart first felt the spiritual tug toward justice, story, and religion. She traces that feeling back to the mountains in western North Carolina where her mother worked at Eagle’s Nest Camp. “Every summer of my life, including in utero, I was surrounded by nature and music and play and physical activity. We moved around a lot when I was a child, and Eagle’s Nest felt like home.” Returning to the camp many years later with her own children, Isabel was able to see the use of ritual and the ways in which “leaders of that community...called us to live into an interconnectedness with nature and presence with a sense of the Sacred.” Isabel had come home again. Moving Forward Isabel credits United for helping her to gain a deeper sense of herself and the unique gifts she can share. Her social transformation course with Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II, she asserts, “was the first class in which I really felt like I could start to articulate this intersection of creativity and social justice work and spirituality.” Courses like Arts Praxis and Art, Religion, and Contemporary Culture with her advisor, Dr. Jennifer Awes Freeman, have allowed Isabel the opportunity to continue to live into that vital connection. What’s next? Isabel wants to slow down for a time. “I want to gift myself as close to a fallow period as I have ever had.” In addition to her theatrical pursuits, she still works as the administrative coordinator for the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice at Macalester College and is happy there. When the time is right, she will live into the dream of where art, social justice, and spiritual practice will take her next.

March 21, 2024

Religion and Theology Theology VOICES

Keith and Mary Farrell Bednarowski Establish the Sophia Chair in Religious and Theological Studies

In February 2024, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities was thrilled to announce the establishment of the Sophia Chair in Religious and Theological Studies. Realized through a generous donation by Dr. Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies (1976–2004), and her husband, Keith Bednarowski (pictured at right), the Sophia Chair makes possible a tenure-track, endowed faculty position. An endowed chair is often named by the donor(s) whose gift establishes it. When considering this responsibility, Mary believed it “appropriate and appealing to name the chair after an ‘idea’ with sufficient depth of meaning, complexity, and connection to United. The name needed to inspire creative and dynamic explorations of religion, theology, and culture, an emphasis deeply embedded in all versions of the curriculum since United opened in 1962.” For Mary, the concept of “Wisdom” came to her immediately. “Within seconds of thinking ‘Wisdom!,’ there was ‘Sophia’ with its call to the feminine spirit of the Divine, and its connections to the Re-Imagining Community celebrating women’s theological creativity, which has been so much a part of United’s history.” “It suggests,” Mary asserts, “not only ‘knowledge,’ but the desire and capacity to put that knowledge to good use, to discern how to proceed based on what we have learned, to explore what to do with the knowledge we have acquired.” Sophia raises questions that, for Mary, evoke “the more.” “I like to think of Sophia as the patron spirit of asking both new and old, profound, life-giving questions.” She continues, “I like to think of her as the inspiring spirit of the theological and religious imagination.” As a member of the United community for nearly 50 years, Mary observes that United has had distinct impacts on theological and religious education, both in the Twin Cities and beyond. She affirms that United has fostered an educational environment where “theological studies and religious studies dance happily together.” The religious studies aspect of the chair reinforces United’s long time insistence on the dynamic and creative relationship between theology and culture. For President Molly T. Marshall, this is an auspicious occasion in the life of United. “We revel in charting new pathways of wisdom even as we explore the faith traditions we have inherited. We anticipate that this faculty chair will extend the legacy of Mary’s scholarship and honor her capacity to encourage students to find critical distance from their traditions for the sake of clarification and commitment. Her search for wisdom will continue at United.” Mary insists that United must impact the social landscape as much as we possibly can for the sake of the common good. She continues, “I deeply believe we have to bring as much depth of response as possible to the profoundly evocative and complicated question, ‘What is going on here?’ Then comes the next question, ‘What are the most just and loving ways to respond?’” There is no doubt in Mary’s mind that United will continue to have a part in this essential work. Looking ahead, she says, “I have a very deep faith that this full-of-life seminary will persist and flourish for many, many years. Keith and I want to be part of that flourishing.” United excitedly anticipates the installation of Dr. Demian Wheeler, associate professor of philosophical theology and religious studies, into the newly established Sophia Chair during Fall Convocation on September 26, 2024.