Written by: United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities April 27, 2023

Jermaine Ross-Allam: United’s 2023 Spirit of United Alum

Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to honor Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam (’12) as its inaugural Spirit of United alum award recipient. Established this year, the Spirit of United award raises up recent alums who have done “exceptional work that reflects the mission of United in the church, in faith communities, or in society.” Jermaine—a dedicated scholar, gifted Presbyterian preacher, and a thoughtful and discerning social ethicist—has accomplished that and more since he earned his MDiv.

Though Jermaine graduated from United in 2012, his scholarship did not stop. While serving as United’s “superlative admissions recruiter,” he audited United classes through 2015. More recently, Jermaine earned an MTh in 2021 and has become a doctoral candidate in social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

As a preacher in the Twin Cities, Jermaine served as the associate pastor for social justice at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church, as well as the associate pastor at Liberty Community Church. His tenure at Oak Grove coincided with disturbing police-involved encounters with people of color, including the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a 2016 traffic stop.

Based in North Minneapolis, Liberty Community Church was co-founded by the Rev. Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway and is the only African American-led Presbyterian congregation in Minnesota. Jermaine—who credits the trajectory of his ongoing ministry to the Galloways’ “witness of just, creative, sacrificial, and faithful parish and community leadership in the face of brazen racist inequity”—co-founded and was executive director of the 21st Century Academy, a faith-inspired after school program that is now one of Liberty’s community outreach initiatives.

Alika Galloway was also Jermaine’s first professor in womanist Theological Ethics through her 2010 United course on Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon held at Liberty (then named Kwanza Church). Ross-Allam attests that the most important lesson he learned in Galloway’s course was that “a combination of ‘unshouted courage’ and ‘unctuousness’ is a non-negotiable spiritual requirement and ethical virtue for the Afro-American people in our process of achieving a full-spectrum liberation worthy of the unfolding world-creative and historic yet uncompensated labor of our ancestors.”

Galloway, in partnership with United professor Rev. Dr. Paul Capetz (from whom Jermaine learned to embrace the historical-critical method), also taught an important course about the theology of Rev. Dr. James Cone. That course was second only to the field-defining scholarship of Jermaine’s doctoral advisor, the preeminent social ethicist Rev. Dr. Gary Dorrien, as inspiration to attend Union Theological Seminary and build on Cone’s foundation as laid out in his 2011 book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree.

In early 2022, Jermaine delivered two important speeches. As part of a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. event sponsored by Liberty Community Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church in January, he spoke about “the social ecology that inspires, justifies, ignores, rewards, and excuses extralegal violence against Afro-Americans after Emancipation.” A few months later, Jermaine delivered the Inaugural RIDGS Keynote Lecture—“Strange Fruit: The Social Ecology of Extralegal Violence against Afro-Americans from the New York City Draft Riots to the Wilmington, North Carolina Coup D’état, 1863–1898”—at the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts.

Rev. Sarah Moore-Nokes, who penned a support letter for Jermaine’s nomination, met him when he became a Theology and Program Co-Lead for an initiative called Restorative Actions. Restorative Actions is an initiative for churches, individuals, mid-councils, and PC(USA) agencies—as well as ecumenical partners—to take a strong stance against racism and racial privilege, and set aside restorative funds to support harmed communities’ self-development.

“Jermaine,” Rev. Moore-Nokes asserts, has been “instrumental” in developing the initiative. “He has led the group in wrestling with difficult theological questions about institutional injustices; made the case for white Protestant Christians to lead efforts to dismantle systems of oppression; and written a curriculum…for congregations [who want to] begin hard conversations about the church’s history and current role in the significant wealth disparities that exist in this country.”

In October 2022, Jermaine assumed a national role when he was called to lead the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s newly formed Center for the Repair of Historical Harms. “The Center exists,” Jermaine explained at the time, “so that the PC(USA) can have an organized way to go about the business of repairing the harm that the PC(USA) has done to Indigenous peoples and to Afro Americans and to other groups.”

Once the church can acknowledge its historical role in harming others, he added, “it can discover…what role the church is perfectly placed in to begin to lead the culture into believing that repair is necessary and right and possible.”

Since becoming director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Center for the Repair of Historic Harms, Jermaine has been busy traveling, consulting, speaking, and preaching. He shared his vision for the Center this January on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” In February, Jermaine was in Lansing, Michigan, to witness an historic public apology by white clergy to Black parishioners. In Louisville, Kentucky, he celebrated the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, recipient of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, and preached on the occasion of the 125th birthday of Louisville’s Grace Hope Presbyterian Church. This fall, Jermaine expects to complete the initial phase of establishing the Center for Repair’s new International Ecumenical Repair and Reparations Alliance.

“To me,” Jermaine’s nominator Rev. Phil Romine (’16, ’21) avers, “Jermaine embodies that part of our spiritual heritage we affirm in our Presbyterian ordination vows: energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. In a time when many have energy, but few seek to deepen the dimensions of their intelligence to direct that energy, Jermaine brings both to bear on widening our imaginations, so that we might practice love: a love that revives and expands our imaginations; a love that guides our intellects; a love that animates our energies; and a love that ultimately weaves us together in the kindom of creation.”

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Alum Rev. Todd Lippert (’03): Living a Public Ministry

As Rev. Todd Lippert was growing up, his life was dominated by two constants: music and church. Both of his parents were music teachers. His dad was the high school choir director, and his mom was the elementary school music teacher. Though his family had been Baptist for generations, they ended up attending a United Church of Christ (UCC) church where his mom was hired to play the organ. It was also much closer to home than the nearest Baptist church. “I always took Christian faith very seriously,” Todd asserts. “The church was a sacred and holy place to me.” In seventh grade, Todd remembers talking to his father. “I was at the bottom of the stairs talking to my dad at the top of the stairs. And that was when I said for the first time, ‘I wonder if I might want to be a pastor someday.’” But, Todd adds, “the idea was really terrifying to me,” so he put it out of his mind. At the University of Iowa, he pursued a music degree. During a philosophy class toward the end of college, a professed atheist professor began asking some of the same questions about faith that Todd was confronting. “I was wrestling with whether I was a Christian or not.” Deciding on Seminary The turning point came one Sunday morning after graduation when Todd and his wife were at church. At the time, he was selling Yellow Pages ads and contemplating an MBA. “I hated it,” Todd confesses. “I was miserable.” Watching the preacher at First United Methodist Church in Iowa City, he thought, “Maybe I could do that, and maybe I need to pay attention to this call to ministry that keeps bubbling up.” United was the first UCC seminary that came up on the computer, and when Todd visited, “it felt like home for me as soon as I arrived.” Since his wife was doing graduate work at the University of Minnesota, they moved to the Twin Cities. “At United,” Todd recalls, “I had the space to figure out how Christianity was meaningful and how this faith fit together for me.” Professors who welcomed and encouraged his questions were key to his faith formation, and the “liberation theology that moved through the curriculum, with its focus on justice, was extremely appealing to me.” Todd was also inspired by his classmates. “I saw the student body deeply engaged in the political and social questions of the day.” At United from 2000 to 2003, Todd experienced the Bush v. Gore lawsuit, 9/11 terror attacks, Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone’s tragic death, and the Iraq war launch as he was earning his MDiv. Public Theology Justice-seeking activism, Todd asserts, “really cemented my understanding that the body of Christ is about bringing the realm of God into being wherever it is. And that was something that would have to make my life better and make my community better.” Since graduating, Todd has worked as a UCC pastor, a Minnesota state legislator (2018–2022), a community organizer with ISAIAH, and a community minister with Creekside Church. The clergy organizing work during Operation Metro Surge was especially impactful and reconnected him with United. Todd went through “nonviolent direct action training with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, one of the authors I read.” He also worked with Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler, his former Hebrew scripture professor. United, notes Todd, equipped him “to be able to understand what is going on in our world, and in our communities, and I had the tools to get better and better at that, reading the present through a biblical and theological lens.” He is extraordinarily proud of the way the church showed up in Minnesota and grateful for United. “I really want,” Todd concludes, “the love-your-neighbor values of the church to be a force in our public life, not an afterthought. I want it to be a force in our political life.”

Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman Promoted to Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, supported by the McVay Endowment

Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, June 24, 2026 —United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is delighted to announce that, effective July 1, 2026, Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman will become the Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, supported by the McVay Endowment, and Director for Formation. This promotion to an endowed chair follows Rev. Dr. Justin Sabis-Tanis’ appointment as the inaugural Wilson Yates Chair in Theology and the Arts. Announced during Commencement in April, the McVay chairship reflects the esteem with which United’s board and faculty members regard Professor Packman. In February, Dean Kyle Roberts proudly reported that Dr. Packman was being promoted from assistant to associate professor and transitioning from a three-year contract into a tenure-track position. Dr. Packman joined United in July 2021 as a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Practical Theology. At the Spring 2022 Convocation to welcome and bless our new faculty member, Dr. Packman—who holds an MDiv and PhD from the University of Chicago—presented on “The Atmospherics of Theological Education.” By December 2022, Dr. Packman’s “teaching, mentoring, and other stellar capabilities” prompted United to offer him a contract to continue teaching past the terms of his Louisville Fellowship. Since then, he has co-authored an article in The Oxford Handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher, had a paper (“The Consolation of Studying Theology”) published in the Christian Century, and presented at the September 2025 Schleiermacher Kongress in Kiel, Germany. Spiritual and personal formation is a vital component of Packman’s work with students, and he will continue in his role as the director for Formation. In May of 2025, he began a new initiative, the Formation Pilot Program, to gauge the foundational axis points of students’ formation at United. “This is a remarkable moment in theological education,” Dr. Packman explained this spring, “where what it means to be a theological learning community is being reimagined in real time. This pilot program is designed to interrogate this question from across the life of the seminary, and to build up our community in the process.” “Dr. Packman’s doctoral studies,” observed Dean Roberts in his April announcement, “focused on Christian theology and ethics, and his current research explores questions about racism, intransigent evil, and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s philosophical and theological ethics. Combined with his MDiv studies in pastoral formation, these make Dr. Packman well-suited to occupy this chair while he continues…serving as the Director for Formation.” President Molly T. Marshall reflects, “Dr. Packman brings academic excellence and pastoral sensitivity to his teaching, collegial relationships, and community involvement. His theological depth suffuses his courses in ethics and formation, seeking to form good human beings as transformative agents for a world in travail. I am delighted by this appointment.” As Dr. Packman shared when he was offered a chance to continue teaching at United past his Louisville Fellowship, “It’s such an immense gift to get to do this work, and it’s an honor to get to do it with folks like you. I’m so eager to see what we build together!” Now, as a new chapter begins with his elevation to the McVay Chair, we are overjoyed that such a prodigiously talented scholar and teacher can continue to journey with our dedicated and curious students. 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, exploring multi-faith spirituality, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Contact Nathanial Green (he/him) Director of Marketing and Communications press@unitedseminary.edu • 651.255.6138 Admissions and Enrollment admissions@unitedseminary.edu

Rev. Dr. Tim McGregor (’26) Finds Hope for Healing in Exploratory Theology

Rev. Dr. Tim McGregor (’26) has been a chaplain, pastor, and church planter for years. How did he find this well-trodden path? Tim says his mother introduced him to Christ. “She was very devout,” he explains. Unfortunately, she was also very sick, so Tim spent more time in hospitals than in church as a child. Still, he recalls one incident during communion when he was 11. Tim shares that he “had a very out-of-body experience with the divine while I was in church, and it touched my soul.” Tim grew up and pursued a BA at Tuskegee University. While there, he experienced another out-of-body experience when he was robbed at gunpoint and stabbed. “At that point,” he reflects, “I decided to rethink some of my living and some of my decisions. It reignited my spiritual walk.” As he changed the way he lived, Tim felt a spiritual nudge. Others observed that they “saw the calling” on his life. And dreams about preaching began to recur. “Before I ever preached a sermon, I dreamed I was preaching…in the same church where I ended up preaching later on.” Christian Theological Seminary Though Tim identified as National Baptist, he decided to attend Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) in Indiana—a progressive school aligned with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It helped that Dr. Edward Wheeler, an ordained Baptist minister whom Tim knew when Wheeler worked at Tuskegee, was CTS’s president. During a United chapel service this March, Tim described his experience at CTS as “quite grueling,” but also that he “learned a lot.” As he clarified more recently, he had to “let go of a very fundamentalist perspective,” and that sort of deconstruction was difficult. “It was a crucible situation,” Tim asserts. Chaplaining and Church Planting After earning his MDiv in 2003, Tim spent years in Mississippi and Texas planting churches and working as a hospital chaplain. Since returning to Minnesota, he’s been a chaplain at Regions Hospital, Abbott Northwestern, and the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, and pastored at Family Bible Church. He suspects that the time he spent with his mother in hospitals likely inclined him toward hospital chaplaincy. When he decided to pursue a DMin, Tim reviewed his options. Only United, he found, had the interreligious chaplaincy program and liberal ethos that made his MDiv work transformational. Plus, he could attend onsite or online as his schedule allowed. “It was a great benefit,” Tim attests, “to do both.” United and Nat Turner Tim credits Dr. Jessica Chapman Lape, former director of the Interreligious Chaplaincy program, with positively shaping his education. Her theological knowledge and emphasis on her African American heritage impressed him. Dr. Munjed Murad’s Comparative Theology course elevated Tim’s intercultural acuity. Munjed is an assistant professor of World Religions and Intercultural Studies, supported by the Johnson-Fry Endowment. Tim describes his dissertation, “The Exploratory Theology of Nat Turner and Its Effects on African and African American PTSD,” as “a labor of love.” Why Nat Turner? “I appreciate his passion and his desire to live and fight for the rights of his people,” Tim explains, “and his willingness to do so in the name of his religious beliefs.” In addition, “I’m always interested in people that…have been misunderstood or written off as villains.” Shepherded with vital support from Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman (assistant professor of Theological Ethics and Formation), Tim’s dissertation studies Nat Turner, his traumatic experiences as a slave, and his burgeoning theology. It also traces links to the moral injury, trauma, and PTSD endemic to military service, especially for African American veterans. Tim wants to “understand more about…how to be an asset to my community.” He feels that “United was a really good place for that” and is a rich resource for “clergy…and spiritual caregivers” who are going to help us “keep pressing toward better understandings.” Tim is grateful for United’s role in honing his academic and spiritual voice.