Written by: United Theological Seminary June 16, 2020

United Responds to the Killing of George Floyd: A collection of statements, reflections, and resources

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Reuters/Eric Miller

In the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd while he was detained by Minneapolis Police officers, and the local and global calls to address systemic violence against Black lives, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has compiled the following list of statements, ministry and reflections, articles, petitions, educational resources, and community funds. This is a living document that will be updated as we get more information, so remember to check back.

Statements:

Statement from the Seminary

Statement from Students in Public Theology for Social Transformation

Articles, Essays, and Reflections:

“UCC Continues to ‘Face the Evil’ in Response to Killings of Floyd, Arbery, and Others,” (Interview with Professor Justin Sabia-Tanis)

“An Open Letter to White Clergy on George Floyd’s Murder and the Current Unrest,” by Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs.

“Mo(u)rning in Minneapolis” (Photo essay by United Theology and the Arts student Lucy Matthews Heegaard)

“At the Intersection” (Photo essay by United Theology and the Arts student Lucy Matthews Heegaard)

Interfaith Online Vigil with the MN Conference of the UCC

Sermon from Rev. Karen Hutt, 5/31/2020 at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis

“Buddhism in the Age of Black Lives Matter,” by Professor Ayo Yetunde

“A Letter to My Christian Family Everywhere,” by Alum Yolanda Y. Williams

“To Folks Saying How Destruction of Buildings and Looting/Expropriation Leads to Fear,” by Alum Max Brumberg-Kraus

“I Can’t Breathe: In Memory of George Floyd,” by professor Eleazar Fernandez, photos by Eleazar Fernandez and Justin Sabia-Tanis

Petitions:

Faith Leaders Petition Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman

Resources:

Anti-Racism Resources for Adults from Ministry Lab

Anti-Racism Resources for Youth and Children from Ministry Lab

Talking with Children and Youth about Trauma from Ministry Lab

Community Watch Resources: Quick Tips for Non-Black Neighbors

Free COVID Testing Sites: If you’ve attended a protest, vigil, or other neighborhood action in Minnesota, the state recommends getting a free COVID test. No insurance or payment required.

Scaffolded Anti-Racism Resources from Princeton Seminary Students Anna Stamborski, Nikki Zimmerman, and Bailie Gregory

Justice In June Anti-Racism Calendar for Intentional Self-Education created by Bryanna Wallace and Autumn Gupta

Becoming Human: Dismantling Racism, an anti-racism education series created by United Alum Kimberly Vrudny (’95), Chair of the Theology Department and Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of St. Thomas.

Community Funds and Efforts:

Black Immigrant Collective: The Black Immigrant Collective amplifies and makes visible the voices of Black immigrants in Minnesota.

Black Owned Non-Profits: A list of organizations in the Twin Cities doing work in advocacy, healthcare, the arts, and more.

Black Table Arts: Gathering Black communities through the arts, towards better black futures.

Black Visions Collective: An organization dedicated to Black liberation and to collective liberation.

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha: CTUL is a worker-led organization where workers organize, educate and empower each other to fight for a voice in their workplaces and in their communities.

Du Nord Riot Recovery Fund: Du Nord Craft Spirits is a Black-owned distillery with a building that was damaged. They’ve received “a tidal wave of love and support from across the nation and many have asked how they can help… Therefore, Du Nord is establishing this fund to support black and brown companies affected by the riots.”

Femme Empowerment Project: Venmo @femmeempowermentproject. Skill shares and discussions led by and for QTIIBPOC femmes in the Twin Cities. Creating space for cultural resiliency, healing and ancestral wisdom. Currently organizing supplies and medic trainings.

Headwaters Foundation: The Transformation Fund will make grants to grassroots organizations that provide protesters and community members with immediate needs and to groups that demand change and hold law enforcement and elected officials accountable.

Isuroon: Isuroon is a grassroots nonprofit organization working to promote the well-being and empowerment of Somali women in Minnesota and beyond.

Little Earth Residents Association: Food and safety needs for residents of Little Earth of United Tribes.

Migizi Communications: MIGIZI Communications advances a message of success, well-being and justice for the American Indian community. Support them rebuilding after fire.

Minnesota Healing Justice Network: Provide supportive professional community and mutual aid network for wellness and healing justice practitioners who also identify as IBPOC (indigenous, black, or people of color).

Northside Business Support: Support businesses on Minneapolis’s Northside that have been impacted by recent demonstrations.

Pimento Relief Fund: Partnering with Pimento to provide black business without insurance relief after white supremacists set them on fire during the protests.

Powwow Grounds: Native-run cafe, currently providing meals to elders, protectors and community, purchasing medical supplies, fire supplies, cooking supplies. Send via PayPal to angelswann2021@gmail.com.

Rebuild Lake Street: Organized by the Lake Street Council, 100% of funds will be used for direct support to small businesses and nonprofits to help them rebuild their storefronts, reopen their businesses and serve our neighborhoods.

Reclaim the Block: Reclaim the Block is calling on our city to invest in violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, emergency mental health response teams, and solutions to the opioid crisis – not more police.

Roots Community Birth Center: A Black-owned birth center in North Minneapolis providing community-based midwifery. RCBC increases access to out-of-hospital midwifery care and birth center birth to communities of color, low-income families, and all those who want exceptional prenatal, birth, and postpartum care and to be honored in their experience of welcoming their baby.

The Sheraton Shelter: An incredible story happening in real time. A group negotiated with the owner of the Midtown Sheraton hotel on Lake Street to take over the building as a shelter for people displaced by the damage in the neighborhood. There are now around 100 people living in the hotel. This is run solely by volunteers and the people now living in the hotel. Send an email to the link for an update list of ways to help sustain this effort.

Southside Harm Reduction: Southside Harm Reduction Services works within a harm reduction framework to promote the human rights to health, safety, autonomy, and agency among people who use substances.

Spiral Collective: A volunteer full-spectrum reproductive options and support group comprised of doulas, birth-workers, and passionate reproductive justice advocates. based in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, occupied Dakhóta territories.

Support Black-Owned Businesses: A list of Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities. If you don’t live in Minnesota, consider donating a meal or purchasing a gift card to use later.

Twin Cities Distribution Locations: An interactive live map of organizations in the Twin Cities collecting and distributing resources, including updated lists of what’s needed.

Women for Political Change: Holistically investing in the leadership and political power of young women and trans & non-binary individuals throughout Minnesota.

Unicorn Riot: A decentralized media organization that has been live-streaming uprisings

YouTube Ad: If you aren’t able to donate money, you can click on this video featuring art from Black artists. All the ad revenue goes to Black Lives Matter affiliated organizations, including several listed above. All you have to do is let it play.

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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.