Written by: United Theological Seminary March 30, 2021

Stations of the Cross 2021: Online Exhibit

The Stations of the Cross is a Catholic devotion that commemorates fourteen images or stations from the last day of Jesus’ life. Participants meditate on each station and may recite specific prayers. As a processional liturgy—whether contained within a church or displayed in yards in a neighborhood—the Stations of the Cross is a kind of miniature pilgrimage in which the faithful engage in embodied meditation on the Passion of Jesus.

This online gallery and video are inspired by the Stations of the Cross and are curated by Dr. Jennifer Awes-Freeman, Assistant Professor and Program Director of Arts and Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. The original artworks were submitted by United students and alumni of many religious traditions. These artworks form a kind of virtual pilgrimage for the viewer/listener to engage with at their own time and place, as art exhibition, liturgy, or a combination of both.

Some pieces may speak more to you than others. Individual pieces may stand out or you might draw the most meaning from the whole as a collection. Some pieces might challenge you, others surprise you, still others might resonate on a deeply familiar level. As you “move” through the pieces be guided by your heart, communing with others across time and place, thirsting for the sacred.

Video of the Stations with Liturgy

The Artworks

Station 1: Jesus is condemned to death

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Samantha Carwyn

Station 2: Jesus carries his cross

2-Cara Hochhalter

Cara Hochhalter

Artist Statement

Artist’s questions for the viewer: What do you see here? What does the significance of Jesus’ heart mean to you? How did his love impact his attitude at this very time? What about the way Jesus is dressed? What do the charcoal expressions surrounding the image say to you? Jesus’ outstretched leg seems to become one with the cross; what do you think about the cross being a symbol for Jesus? The Gospel of John is the only one that says Jesus carried his cross. The other gospels have someone else carry the cross for him. What does all this mean to you? Do you notice a lily-like flower in the image and what does this say to you? Do the rocks have any significance for you in this story?

Station 3: Jesus falls for the first time

3-IMG-2613-1 Elizabeth O’Sullivan

Station 4: Jesus meets his mother, Mary.

Jesus Meets His Mother

For days
the sky has darkened
to the color of baked bread
with the dust of many feet.
The pigeons
hide their heads
in the eaves

in shame

I have removed my bracelets
my rings
so there is nothing
between me
and my god

my god
how you fell
from his mouth
rearranging the space
bringing it alive
like the singing
on the edge of a sword
charges the air

if I could sever my own liver
in two
wring the blood
as sacrifice
instead

I would. I would.

For days the sky has changed
into the color of dark bread
all dust

and rumbling

we wait

the earth flattens

into cacophony

Yet when I fall
into your twitching shoulder
your straining neck
it is in a bubble of silence
profound

that I will never escape
all the long days

Monique Wentzel

Station 5: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross.

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Suzanne Cole Sullivan

Station 6: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

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Artist Statement

They’ve got a line around the corner. Guys are buying two, three pies apiece
– Revenge of the Nerds,
directed by Jeff Kanew, (1984; Los Angeles, CA: Interscope Communications, 20th Century Fox, 2007), DVD.

I’ve cut off Heather Chandler’s head and Heather Duke’s head has sprouted in its place like some mythological thing my eighth grade boyfriend would know about
– Heathers,
directed by Michael Lehmann, (1989; Atlanta, GA: New World Pictures, Image Entertainment, 2011), DVD.

Medusa Crucified
Perseus forced my chin, split me
from body, sampled an unsimple thing,
sapped me with tricks… Give head to heroes, huh,
become a trophy. . .
Unless I am a talisman,
A guard from gorgon, not only used but useful,
shield for cocksure boys as serpents in the sea
and all her grottos (birthing, dark antitheses)
are strangled in their thighs.
Am I talisman or trophy,
O Suns, o Heroes, o Sires of Kingdom Come?

Veronica Emboldened
To grasp a man in woman’s fabric…
powerless and empowering, bodiless but bleeding.
Love him. Diminish him.
Scrunch the face, wet it, wring it, quench headaches
from beggar to emperor.
Rome, will yield the greatest profit.

Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus ’20

Station 7: Jesus falls for the second time

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Karl Bjornerud

Station 8: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

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weep07

weep05

weep03

weep06

weep02
weep04 Micah Murray

Station 9: Jesus falls for the third time

9 Stations_of_the_Cross_09_Elizabeth_J

Elizabeth Jacobson

Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his clothes

10-Stripped

Angelique Russell-Sawyer

Station 11: Jesus is nailed to the cross

11-Carly

Carly Gaeth

Station 12: Canticle of the crucifixion

12-Maroni

Christine Moroni

Station 13: Jesus is taken down from the cross

13-Mellisa

Melissa Miller ’20

Station 14: Jesus is placed in the tomb

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Artist Statement

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace Peace’ they say, when there is no peace. Jeremiah 6:14

This altarpiece is a response to an invitation offered after the killings in Atlanta: “Your grief is mine. My grief is now yours as well, if you can embrace it.” Creating this piece was my own particular way of touching and making with the grief I feel in my own particular body, but also this grief that lives through my relationship to other bodies.

In my attempt to embrace this interconnected groundwater of grief in a world where our physical bodies are still separated by the pandemic, I turned to the images–and the lives, ideas, and dreams they hold–born from the wound made and exposed by this moment. In a time when the unprocessed and complicated grief feels too big and yet the urgency to relate to this grief differently cannot be ignored, what structures and symbols might we recover from our religious and cultural lineages that help us connect to and feel the flood of grief and move from this place towards transformation and healing?

In bringing together images of public grieving, memorial, and activism across time and place, such as the supposed site of Jesus’ tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, George Floyd Square, projects such as https://sayevery.name/, and the sites of the recent shootings in Atlanta, I found an overwhelming and overlapping collage of the ordinary and ornate: open lament and quiet presence, protest signs and prayer candles, piles of bouquets of flowers–wilting, fresh, and fake all mixed together, stuffed animals and portraits of saints, singing and food-sharing, and of course, the faces of those who have been killed by the violence of white supremacy and misogyny. This triptych altarpiece emerged from allowing these images and their stories to spillover through me and into each other, while still holding on to their own particular meaning. In mingling personal devotional object with the communal and political, as well as particular wounds with collective trauma, I hope to uncover possibilities for a more connected and creative grief practice for ongoing movements of healing and justice.

Here is a link to the names of those pictured. This is nowhere near complete. Many of the images came from https://sayevery.name/ as well as recent news coverage. I encourage you to read their stories, and visit the links and resources included in CARJ’s statement in response to the Atlanta shootings.

Stephani Pescitalli

Arts Lunch, March 30

Stations of the Cross 2021 Online Exhibit:

Meet the Artists

Tues. Mar. 30, 12pm-1pm CST

Zoom Event.

As part of our weekly Arts Lunch series, on Tuesday March 30 at 12pm central, we will be having a special “meet the artists” session with a number of the artists who participated in Stations of the Cross 2021. For zoom information, contact Dr. Jennifer Awes-Freeman at jawes-freeman@unitedseminary.edu

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June 25, 2026

Activism Alums immigration justice Liberation Theology

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.