Written by: United Theological Seminary October 2, 2020

What Do You See?: A 2020 Online Art Gallery from the United Community

What do you see? What do you hope for your community? For United? The world? What images, words, gestures, sounds might capture your prayers and petitions? Where are you already finding beauty? These are some of the questions that the artworks below respond to. They include glimpses of natural beauty, invoke community and connection, create moments of rest and restoration; they bless the work that still needs to be done. With the world and our country and communities in tumult, wrestling with multiple pandemics, natural disasters, and social injustices, the need for hope and prophetic vision is greater than ever. At United we believe that the arts are uniquely powerful and transformative in visioning a better world and bringing it to be.

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A Haiku
RJ Teo

Beauty as mercy
beauty as mercy, the mercy of beauty

sings in me, weeps in me
draws all the dark shapes
round whole
into a bowl of night
touched with the moon’s quiet light
mercy, at the deepest curve
of the bowl of the night, mercy

Missa Gaia / Earth Mass
Agnus Dei Miserere nobis
the sound of the seal for our sister
homing call
she is mercy to us

this afternoon snow falling
in streams of light
down the rock face of the glen, mercy
water springing from so deep
running over oak leaves resting there, mercy

where the lost and the hungry
shelter from the storm
a young girl plays a tin flute
a lithe boy dances in the rain
all the children gather in close to be fed, mercy

at the deepest curve
of the bowl of the night, mercy
-Patricia Brown

stillnesslife

Stillness. . .Life!
Meredith Webb

“Self” Portraits in the Chthulucene
I.
My skin petrifies
grates
into salt
the red palm
the yellow arm

None of it can be taken for granted
while much of it is taken

in every field
there are faces we want to ignore
as if they do not weight the air
with their smiles and frowns

they carry us
but they are not selfless
they care for us

because of a bond built in our dna
when some primate, long ago,
who had greater intention than I can muster
unified with a stranger––

because someone long before I was an egg
fed his intestines
to the congress
threaded her viscera
through a loom,

I am
because while someone ended
another lived
and savored the taste

II.
I posit,
I reach
I let my hands empty
their particles, like pigeons
waiting for their points to sink
to dig

letting myself into a storm
so that every raindrop
sweatdrop
every hair
can lead to a chain, you hold
in your hands

wherever you are
kept by whatever anima loves you enough
to capture you

and it’s okay to be held
because every seizure
is an attempt at the many mawed and ever tendrilled
an attempt to hold
in a child’s net
a thousand hurricanes
laughing

III.
Honeycomb, haze
amber
swells and indents
it takes all our faculties (which of course were never really “ours”)
to stay on any sort of track
any sort of path to matter

matter in place
matter with thought and direction
and a perspective.

Where are my hands in relation to my elbows, my shoulders? Is geography
how I measure my relations?
Am I a landscape
A forest
A wilderness without mumbo jumbo, Christian implication
but earlier, ancienter
a swarm
a thing that is many things
at the threshold of unraveling

so even when I feel my limbs
disintegrating
I feel my spine coalescing with hundreds of hills popping through webs
wetted by a gold quality of light
which is not the entirety of what light is
just as my “self” is not the entirety of what I am.
-Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus

Orthopraxy of James 20200423

The Orthopraxy of James
Brian Weis

Materials: comic book and magazine pages on Egyptian papyrus

Statement: I began with a central person in anguish. This is from the cover of a Harbinger comic. The individual is wearing a hoodie, which could be symbolic of the homeless, the mentally ill, shooting victims (such as Trayvon Martin), etc. Messages of despair and need surround this central figure. Some messages are the figure’s own; others are from people nearby, for the figure is telepathic and cannot keep out the thoughts of others. This figure is surrounded by acts of love, healing, compassion, protection, art, etc. Acts on behalf of family, friends, and even the “other.” This shows the community alive, at work. Doing work from their hearts, works alive with their faith. Note also that these acts have started to cover the individual’s despairing thoughts. Might the positive work one day erase or replace the negative? We can strive for that very goal. And that is my HOPE.

Note: This artwork also accompanied my New Testament exegesis for RT1201 during United’s Spring 2020 semester.

Dawning on US
Tanya Sadagopan

Artist statement: This acrylic piece represents our hope bursting on the scene of dark and gloomy days. The America of our xenophobic racist past is laid to waste on the ground before us. The sun will rise over our horizons as we move forward. The BLM flag of justice is now our guide.

Sunflower 20200831

“Sunflower“
Brian Weis

Medium: Digital photography

Statement: I love sunrises, sunsets, sunbeams, and lens flares. So, when I recently noticed how the evening sun was beaming over my backyard fence, I knew I had found an opportunity to combine several of my sunny loves. I selected the best of my photos, cropped it down to a 1:1 ratio, and carefully adjusted the resultant image until it approached my flowery vision. Flowers are symbols of hope in new life. The Sun gives me hope for a new day. I guess this image, then, is pretty much hope squared.

Sabbath
Melissa Miller

Artist statement: As summer Of 2020 wore on, the effects of the pandemic weighed heavily on my heart. Working harder than ever to transform ministry with young children into something that provided familiarity and support within the boundaries of safe social distance, I found myself exhausted at the end of the day. I turned to art making as a way to heal.

This piece, called “Sabbath”, is a needle felted painting. The continuous stabbing motion used to push wool fibers into a pre-felted background material alleviated stress, while the creative process allowed me momentary escapes from daily burdens.

I believe in the need for Sabbath; rest. It allows us time to seek respite from our own doubt and despair. Accessing the part of our creative self that beings us joy helps us find love for ourself. If we cannot find that which we love and treasure about our own spiritual and creative gifts, how can we have anything to draw upon to share with others? Nourishing our creativity provides us with hope and strength for our journey.

This piece is a metaphor for my time of sabbath. The cabin is my quiet place. My shelter from the world. Nestled in the embrace of nature. Watched over by a trinity of sheep. Carried through each week on the winds of life. Filling my life’s garden with outrageously colorful joy. My hope for the United community is that we may all find ways to experience the restoration and rejuvenation we need to minister to those around us.

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Untitled
Micah J. Murray

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Untitled
Rev. Joy Bailey, Class of 1981

stephanie1

Blessing Objects
Stephani Pescitelli

To view all three objects, Visit the Slideshow.

Artist statement: When I think about imagining a new world right now, I think about the paradox of dreaming for change while still being in the fear, sadness, and anger of the rupturing that leads to change. When I think about crisis and change, I think about–and long for–blessings.

Blessings are for threshold moments. We bless when we are in between worlds, states, or experiences, or as a rite of passage: morning prayers, before we sleep, when we sneeze, leave on a journey, end a relationship, start a new relationship, or return home. Blessings are a way to relate to this change: shelters, containers, and portals for our bodies to make meaning from the passing of time within and beyond us…

Blessings are a mediation between the material world and mystery, and an attending to this in-between-ness and the in-between spaces in our lives. Blessings are at once for keeping as whole and coming home and for breaking us open and sending us off to something new. And the materiality and nature of blessings holds this paradox, too.

When I think about blessings in this way, I think about skin; how skin lets in and keeps out, protects our ever-moving liquidy soft insides and also helps us reach out and connect to the ever-moving outside landscape. I also think about cell walls of plants and other creatures: selectively permeable barriers, thin, flexible, discerning, allowing for both protection and growth.

I’m curious about how the strongest, most impactful blessings–biological and otherwise–are also delicate and responsive.

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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.