Written by: United Theological Seminary December 13, 2018

United at the Parliament of the World’s Religions: “Holding Theory and Practice in Tension”

Early this November, Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde (Director of Interreligious Chaplaincy and Assistant Professor of Pastoral and Spiritual Care and Counseling), Jessi LeClear Vachta (Associate Director of Admissions) and a group of current students attended the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Ontario. There, they held a panel, “Making Interreligious Chaplaincy Education Meaningfully Inclusive.” We will publishing content from this presentation as a series over the next few weeks. This post is from Lucia Kalinosky, who is working on an MDiv in Interreligious Chaplaincy.

Hello! I’ll start by introducing myself a little. My name is Lucia Kalinosky. I use they/them/their pronouns to acknowledge my non-binary gender, and I’m working on my Masters of Divinity in Interreligious Chaplaincy at United. I’m hoping to be a healthcare chaplain of some sort especially working with queer and trans people.

I’m going to talk about some of my own biases and challenges on inclusion in chaplaincy and chaplaincy education that I’ve been working through. A major growing edge for me is understanding disability and ableism and focusing on practice instead of theory. I’m not disabled, and I’ve only really seriously begun to examine disability and related issues like chronic illness, mental illness and aging in the last year. I’ve been learning about disability and ableism at the same time I’ve been in seminary; I’ve been able to put it in conversation with my seminary education.

I went to a liberal arts school for my undergraduate degree, and while my stated major was history of the Middle East, my real major was critical theory. I spent a lot of time in college learning how to critique and getting comfortable critiquing things. I learned to see and point out the influences of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. in my own thinking, in literature and in the world generally. Now, I am using the cultural humility model by Tervalon and Garcia to self-reflect and self-critique to further my commitment to non-paternalistic care for my patients, so I certainly don’t want to imply that my work is done on that front. But what I didn’t learn in my undergraduate education was how to interact with “problematic” texts, people and attitudes in ways that are transformative, that honor people’s experience and feelings, and that open people up to more possibilities for sacredness and justice. Instead, I was mostly taught to abandon problematic ideas instead of engaging them. So my major challenge in seminary has been developing a practice that is inclusive, that honors people on an interpersonal level, and that works to create justice in the world.

When I’m learning about something, whether it be disability activism, racism or death, I’m constantly having to remind myself that none of this is theoretical. None of this is theoretical. When I’m in a theological interpretation class and we are talking about how language use and our interpretive abilities makes us human, I need to remind myself that one day I’m going to walk into a room of a person who doesn’t use language, or who at least doesn’t use language as far as I am able to tell, and I’m going to be expected to offer them spiritual care. That does not mean I throw out the whole text and say that talking about the human experience of interpreting language is ableist and trash and that there is nothing to be gained from me reflecting on what it means to be a language user and interpret texts.

It also means that as I continue to self-reflect and self-critique and learn from the people around me. I need to take very seriously the work of being with someone where they are at. I listen to disability activists and learn why not to use phrases like “confined” to a wheelchair or “bound” to a wheelchair. I commit myself to seeing assistive devices and tools of liberation, not confinement. At the same time, I also need to remember that none of this is theoretical. I need to prepare myself to talk with someone who really does feel confined in their wheelchair or who may feel a complicated combination of gratitude and resentment towards their assistive devices.

United has helped me develop a new approach to issues of inclusion and equity that helps move the ball forward and helps me stay focused on my chosen work of offering spiritual care to people. So much of my education has been focused on understanding issues of systemic injustice, and now I’m entering a profoundly interpersonal field. One of the authors that I’ve been privileged to read in class with Dr. Ayo is Emmanuel Lartey. In his book In Living Color, Lartey presents a three-level view of human connectedness. He says that all humans are like no others, like some others and like all others. That is, we are all unique individuals, we all share some experiences with groups like our cultures and experiences of privilege and oppression, and we all share some universal human experiences and characteristics. This model has been so helpful to me because it reminds me that I need to hold things in tension.

Dr. Ayo often emphasizes how important non-dualism is for chaplains and this model is a great extension of that. It’s important for me to recognize my own social, racial and other locations and experiences and recognize what experiences I do and don’t share. I also find myself constantly surprised at how much I share with people who seem unlike me and how much I don’t share with people who do seem like me. I volunteer as a call operator on the trans lifeline, which is a great resources that everyone should know about, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a caller ask me for advice on a situation that I’ve actually had advice on. Yes, we’re both trans, but you’re asking me about how to pick a surgeon or how to put on makeup or whatever it is. I end up falling back on those individual and universal levels of connection.

Holding theory and practice in tension, allowing individuals to express their feelings even if they aren’t politically correct, and accepting people as whole people are important ways to make interreligious chaplaincy education meaningfully inclusive.

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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.