Written by: United Theological Seminary December 21, 2020

Movies for What Ails You: Reflecting on Holiday Favorites.

Around winter holidays, one of the most beloved traditions is staying in, bundling up, and watching a favorite movie or television show. Eventually, the media we are drawn to once becomes something we might return whether after many years or on a regular annual basis. Movies, like other forms of art, both entertain us and give us insight that we can describe as not only culturally relevant but theological, ministerial, or even prophetic. At United Community, we are committed to the role of art in our collective ministry, and so this year, some of our faculty and staff have opted to share about our favorite holiday movies, the lessons we’ve learned, and blessing we can draw from them.

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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Our family has inadvertently made it a tradition to watch this movie every Christmas Day when we gather for our extended family get together of games, food, drinks and stories. There are always laughs and shouts of our favorite movie lines, and so many happy memories.

While it might not be theological reflections exactly (I’ll leave that to the professors), there are a few good sense themes that can be picked out of this classic movie.

First, don’t be a snotty, materialistic, money hungry jerk. Karma’s a bitch, and when it comes knocking you might find an expensive stereo destroyed mysteriously by something wet, or you might find yourself kidnapped by an employee’s crazy cousin Eddie.

Second, don’t put unreal expectations on yourself or expect everything to go perfectly as planned. Clark’s wife points this out to him in the beginning of the movie, setting the stage for “Sparky’s” unrealistic plans and subsequent failures. However, when things do get hairy, you can take his dad’s advice and get some help from your friend Jack Daniels.

Third, it’s ok to just roll with it when the unexpected happens. The odd cousin may show up, the family cat may get wrapped up for a Christmas present, the Pledge of Allegiance is said in place of the dinner blessing, you may get stuck in the attic while everybody is shopping, the turkey may be overcooked, or you may nearly get killed on your way to choose the Christmas Tree. Life is what you make of it, and sometimes you just have to roll with whatever happens and all you can do is laugh.

Finally, we all have quirks that make us unique, but the holiday season is about showing love and compassion for all family, friends, and humanity in general.

“Hallelujah! Holy Shit! Where’s the Tylenol?”

–Hillary Vamstad, Registrar and Academic Advisor Title IX Coordinator

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Tokyo Godfathers

Tokyo Godfathers is a 2003 animated film by the late director Satoshi Kon. The “godfathers” of the film are three people who are experiencing homelessness: the gambling, alcoholic Gin; the transgender and former drag queen Hana; and Miyuki, the runaway teen daughter of a police officer. These three, a kind of assembled family, discover an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve. Hana wants to raise the child, but the three realize they don’t have the means to raise her, so Hana agrees to help the others find the baby’s parents on the condition that the parents explain how they could abandon their child. What ensues is a manic adventure full of humor, hijinks, and heartfelt realizations, where miraculous coincidences occur, and where each of the “godfather’s” utterly human backstory is unveiled. Meanwhile, the buildings, streets, windows, graveyards, and alleyways of Tokyo become characters in their own right, animated as a brightly lit, snowclad, and constantly shifting as they aid the trio on their quest.

As a queer person myself, I return to this movie every year for its complexification and celebration of “family” beyond the most traditional or heteronormative notions. I love how the film asks what we owe our neighbors and strangers along with our blood relatives. I also learn from and relate to its portrayal of a gender-non-conforming character in Hana who bears some of the greatest hurts of the characters while nonetheless acting as source of poetry and direction for the three misfits. And I love that none of the characters are of the saccharine Hallmark variety. Rather, they are warted, petty, hyperbolic, foolish, angry, and apathetic in turns, just like all of us. And within each character is a well of love, just like in all of us.

The figures of Hana, Miyuki, and Gin reinterpret for a modern context the heart of the Biblical Nativity Story, with its refugees, poor shepherds, and “suspect” women. For Satoshi Kon, the miraculous is in the mundane, the mundane beams with vibrancy, moments of time and space explode with color, gesture, emotion, and music only to realign into a clarity of revelation. May we all be like the Tokyo godfathers and glimpse from the chaos, fear, and confusion of our lives a sense of wonder; may we search for what is right, even if it takes us onto strange and winding paths; and may we foster such love between one another, reimagining family into its most expansive possibilities.

–Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus ’20, Alum

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

My favorite holiday movie is not a holiday movie. Every year one was released, right around Christmas time, my family went and saw The Lord of the Rings Trilogy movies. We never saw movies in the theater as a family, but for some reason, we went to these – I think because my dad loved C. S. Lewis, and Tolkien was associated with Lewis, so we could talk him into liking TLOTR, and if dad was in, we all were.

Tolkien had a gift for weaving the traditional themes of good vs. evil and the Hero’s Journey with beautiful stories of friendship, respect, wisdom, deep connection with creation, and history. He also helped us see the need for not only a single individual or community to stand against evil, but for a network – or system – of communities to collectively overcome the powers of hatred, fear and death.

For me, Frodo’s intentional, purposeful and inexorable plodding trudge to Mordor is a powerful depiction of the Jesus event of overcoming death by entering into death – not just for one’s self, but for the entire world. This is the trilogy’s key lesson: that we cannot avoid or reject evil and death, we have to enter into the vulnerable places, the shadow side of ourselves, our church, our communities and our world with intention and purpose and embrace our own death/loss/brokenness; in doing so, we enact redemption for ourselves and for at least our little corner of God’s beloved creation.

I pray that people around the world use this time of pandemic, social unrest and isolation to embark on their own courageous adventure toward embracing their shadow side and unearthing their True Self, the Self that leads us all toward wholeness and life abundant.

–Emily Meyer, Ministry Lab Executive Director

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The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of the benefits of The Nightmare before Christmas (1993) is that it can be ceremoniously viewed at both Halloween and Christmas. In it, the protagonist Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, has grown tired of his role and after stepping through a door deep in the woods, discovers the enchanting Christmas Town, and then hatches a plan to give Santa a break. Hilarity, screams, several musical numbers, and eventually disaster ensues. What I’ve always appreciated about the film (besides the aesthetic, the stop-motion animation, and Danny Elfman’s voice) is Jack’s struggle to articulate something ineffable about Christmas. His eureka moment comes in a song called “Jack’s Obsession,” during which he uses scientific equipment to study various Christmas-related objects. He seems to lament:

Christmas time is buzzing in my skull
Will it let me be? I cannot tell
There are so many things I cannot grasp
When I think I’ve got it, and then at last
Through my bony fingers it does slip
Like a snowflake in a fiery grip

The elusiveness of the meaning of Christmas frustrates and compels Jack. He describes it as a process of remembering or recognition:

Something’s here I’m not quite getting
Though I try, I keep forgetting
Like a memory long since past
Here in an instant, gone in a flash
What does it mean?
What does it mean?

But the pursuit is as enjoyable as it is futile, and perhaps it is precisely that delight that spurs Jack on:

These dolls and toys confuse me so
Confound it all, I love it though

When his calculations and material examination of decorations fail to produce anything, he begins to understand that there is more to Christmas and in fact it is accessible to everyone:

It’s simple really, very clear
Like music drifting in the air
Invisible, but everywhere
Just because I cannot see it
Doesn’t mean I can’t believe it

While this song concludes with Jack thinking he’s understood Christmas, from which he goes on to orchestrate the kidnapping of Santa Claus and the hijacking of Christmas, in the end, Jack realizes he had indeed failed to fully understand what Christmas was about, and in the process comes to appreciate Halloween Town anew. No doubt theologians and seminarians can especially relate to Jack’s attraction to and struggle with understanding and articulating the unknown. During this season of wintry stillness and anticipation, may we experience joy in the pursuit of the ineffable divine.

–Dr. Jennifer Awes-Freeman, Assistant Professor of Arts and Theology; Program Director for Theology and the Arts

May these movies bring you blessings for the new years. And may take time to enjoy the movies, visual art, television shows, music, books, food and company that make this season special for you!

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October 9, 2026

Alums Homecoming News Releases

Rev. Dr. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell (’06) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is excited to announce that Rev. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell, PhD—who earned his MA in Theology and Biblical Interpretation from United in 2006—has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Alum. An accomplished preacher, teacher, and published author, Dr. Tredwell has championed biblical narratives that affirm the divinity of all people, regardless of their race, creed, color, class, gender, or sexuality. Adopted at age four, Lee was raised in the Baptist faith and felt called to ministry as a child. Even so, after earning a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, he spent the first ten years of his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After connecting with Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee found United, and his call was reignited. He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020) and Dean Richard Weis* with great affection. Both teachers, he observes, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and post-colonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Lee also cites the influence of Rev. Dr. Christine Smith’s (Professor Emerita of Preaching 1992–2013) preaching courses on his life. In Colorado, at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Lee completed a joint PhD program with a concentration in Religion and Social Change in 2017. Ronald Smith, a former United student who nominated Lee for this award, notes, “Dr. Tredwell has demonstrated that he is an innovator and compassionate leader who has served both inside the academy as a professor of African American Preaching at Iliff School of Theology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and in the larger community; he has served as [a] pastor, civil rights and human rights activist, and [a] chief executive officer in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.” Lee’s new book—Black, Queer and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach—was published in June 2025. As the description reads, “For all who believe God-Yahweh is angry, mad, disgusted, and against LGBTQIA+ folx, regrettably, you been had, misled, took, hood-winked and bamboozled! Black, Queer and Blessed, through lived experience and the excavation of the subjugated biblical narrative of Ebed-Melech, demolishes society’s antiquated mores.” The book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. In addition to his roles as teacher, preacher, and author, Lee has specifically worked to promote adoption of Black children from foster care and create affordable housing. These days, he serves as the pastor of Theology and Community Engagement at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Ronald Smith asserts, “Dr. Tredwell is the embodiment and an exemplar of United Theological Seminary’s mission, vision, and values.” * of blessed memory 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.

Lena K. Gardner (’15) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

[caption id="attachment_11955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] photo by Bethany Birnie[/caption] United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to announce that Lena K. Gardner—who graduated with an MA in Justice and Peace Studies in 2015—has been selected as one of our three 2026 Distinguished Alums. A highly respected social justice activist and community leader, Lena is the co-founder and executive director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), a nonprofit founded in 2015 that creates life-giving and life-saving opportunities for spiritual community and Black-centered organizing. According to Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel (’13), Lena has “been a force in the Twin Cities’ religiously rooted justice ecosystem for the last 15 years.” Dr. Voelkel, Lena’s nominator, traces Lena’s justice-organizing acumen back to 2011, when she served on the Faith Organizing Roundtable—a body that coordinated religious communities’ opposition to the anti-marriage amendment. Lena went on to champion marriage equality in the 2012–2013 legislative session. After a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old Black teen, in 2014, Lena played a key role in transforming the Faith Organizing Roundtable into the Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change & Healing or MARCH. “In that same period,” Voelkel notes, “Lena was a core team organizer of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and served on its steering committee.” Lena was deeply involved, quoted in many national and local articles, and interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio after former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. In April 2021, after a Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Lena co-wrote an article in the Sahan Journal demanding that Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, and that the Hennepin County attorney be removed. More recently, Lena embarked on another ambitious project. In May 2024, through the BLUU Cooperative Housing Initiative, she co-hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing complex for single parents in North Minneapolis. In a MinnPost article about the groundbreaking, Lena explained, “It’s really about trying to give back to one of the communities that made me…. We really see providing stable housing in a cooperative framework as one of the many paths to collective liberation and Black liberation. Ultimately, it’s about self-determination.” When Operation Metro Surge arrived in the Twin Cities in late 2025, Lena took action again. As Voelkel observes, she “returned to the MARCH steering committee…. When MARCH organized a clergy call (in five days) to which 700 clergy came, the ability to create and host such an amazing event owes part of its success to Lena’s relationships with communications specialists, graphic designers, and organizers.” Lena was also a driving force behind Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a mutual aid group she and Anna Stamborski founded in late 2025 to connect vulnerable ICE-targeted families with congregational networks whose members could provide shopping and transportation services. Through all of Lena’s indefatigable contributions to working for justice, Voelkel asserts, she “has focused on Black excellence, Black power, Black spiritual wholeness, Black beauty, and how non-Black folks can act in solidarity and followership of Black folks, particularly Black queer women. She has done so skillfully through building relationships across differences in ways that facilitate and deepen genuine relationships.”

Cori Berg (’98) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is elated to announce that Cori Berg (’98)—advocate, artist, and educator—is a 2026 Distinguished Alum. Cori earned her Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and the Arts in 1998, and for more than 27 years, she has integrated creativity, art, and spirituality into her field. Cori arrived at United in the 1990s, having majored in theater and minored in studio art during her undergraduate studies. “I knew I had an artistic voice,” she recalls, “but it didn’t make sense in any of the traditional contexts.” After seeing an advertisement for United’s Theology and the Arts program, Cori drove from Dallas to the Twin Cities to visit as a prospective student. A campus art exhibit by Merle Janis was all she needed to see—“this school had something I needed: strength, boldness, vulnerability.” For Cori, “life is liturgy.” She credits United with introducing her to “the freedom in a progressive faith.” At United, Cori learned to expand her creativity, which became a launching pad for a vibrant career. “United gave me a safe, nurturing space to explore, dream, and execute big things,” she writes. “I’ve continued that through the rest of my career as an artist, an educator, an administrator, and a speaker.” Art is central to Cori’s work and features prominently in her curriculum development for children. Her art was featured in the 2012 opening parade for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, TX, a project that involved “seniors, children, and adults in all aspects” from a local Methodist community program. Ministry with Children and Spirituality, courses taught by Rev. Dr. Barbara Anne Keely (Professor Emerita, 1991–2015), were particularly formative for Cori’s future in education. “I remember she taught us to get on the floor and view the church nursery from a baby’s point of view,” Cori reflects. “I use this today over and over as I teach early childhood educators…. She introduced the idea of seeing oneself not as a separate body, mind, or spirit, but when one part of my being is suffering, to use the other parts to help lift that part.” More recently, Cori has been an active community member at Dallas Meditation Center, where she is known for her moving dharma talks that weave Buddhist themes into contemporary storytelling. In public schools and congregational settings, Cori has applied what she learned as a United student to the field of early childhood education, for which—nominator Rev. Jim Peck (’99) points out—she has become “one of the nation’s leading advocates.” When facing challenges in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cori leveraged her ingenuity and creative vision to support educators with online training resources. As a teacher and an administrator in spaces where lack of institutional funding and support are commonplace, Jim observes, “she uses her [United] education to work for justice and equity,” to “nurture relationships in the early childhood settings where she has served, with an expertise in working in settings in crisis to encourage recovery, healing, and new paths for serving the future.” In May 2026, Cori completed her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at American College of Education, where she immediately enrolled to begin her EdD in Early Childhood Education. She serves as an executive director at the University of Kansas (KU) and anticipates returning to Dallas to live near her family at the end of the year while awaiting her next opportunity. We are delighted to celebrate Cori and her decades of faithful, innovative leadership in the field of early childhood education and art. 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.