Written by: United Theological Seminary March 20, 2020

What Geoffrey Wainwright Taught Me About Ecumenism

“What Geoffrey Wainwright Taught Me About Ecumenism”
19 March 2020

Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright, a leading Methodist ecumenical theologian, died earlier this week. A Methodist minister and theologian of worship and church life, Wainwright was influential on global conversations on church unity and ecumenical struggle, especially in the years after Vatican II, a period in the 1970s-1990s in which Roman Catholicism entered into ecumencial dialogue with key Protestant and Orthodox denominations.

I was privileged to know Wainwright while I was a graduate student at Duke Divinity School. Wainwright and I could not have been in more different places in life when we first met. I was young– very young–, and just starting my theological education. He was nearing the final years of his career at Duke where he had taught theology since 1983, and I was fresh off my first masters, on what I hoped would be a fast track to a doctoral program in theology.

I registered for a course with Wainwright my first semester at Duke. All the graduate students were scrambling to get into this course, Systems of Theology. Wainwright’s seminars were becoming fewer and farther between, and I was lucky to get a seat. I walked into the seminar room on the first day overlooking the yard outside Duke Chapel, having been up late the night before reading as much of the first volume of German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg’s systematic theology as I could before dozing off in the library.* Professor Wainwright sat down grumpily, called our names off his sheet from the registrar, and then started asking questions in his bright British accent.

About three questions in, he asked me, “What impact do you believe Hegel’s philosophical system had on Pannenberg’s view of theological method?” I did what most aspiring doctoral students do and made something up. I used a lot of big words (most of them incorrectly) and managed to sputter out a half-decent answer, to which Wainwright nodded approvingly. He paused, took a breath, and in a kind but also knowing tone, said: “You did well. Err, well, you did the best you could. You are just starting out on this, mind you….”

Geoffrey Wainwright was a giant amongst Wesleyan theologians of the late twentieth century, writing on issues of ecumenical unity, worship and theology, and liturgical practice. His most influential work, Doxology, was informed both by the practical concerns of ecumenical worship and his direct experience as an itinerant minister in Methodist parishes in the UK and West Africa. Wainwright struggled to hold together the desire for Christian unity with the distinctive preferences of his British Wesleyan tradition, and so worked tirelessly “at-the-hyphens” of diverse and divergent ways of thinking about God, self, and the other. In his courses, both in seminar sections and lectures, Wainwright would remind us that he preferred to be called an evangelical-orthodox-catholic theologian because the unique distinctives of each of those differing traditions formed the core part of parallelist approach to Christian unity that refused the binary choices of exclusivity and inclusivity. One must not cease to be who one is in order to be in communion with the other. Identity need not crowd out difference.

Wainwright’s ecumenical generosity was very influential on my own theological thinking—and my work at United. When I talk to prospective students about United’s theological aspiration to be a radically inclusive community, I am reminded of Wainwright’s insistence that what makes Christian theology “Christian” is its commitment to solidarity: radical accompaniment with that which is not itself. United’s commitments to engage the other in interreligious friendship and ecumencial curiosity are grounded in its Christian roots. Its language, its liturgies, its music, its daily patterns and rhythms of life should reflect that. I believe that Wainwright would be pleased with the work United has done throughout its history to embody those values. And yet, Wainwright was always the first to admit that imperfection, indeed, failure was essential to growth, key to struggling for Christian unity in a context of triumphalism.

My last year at Duke, Wainwright taught a seminar on “eschatology,” where we explored major ideas about the “last things”: death, dying, and the end of time. I wrote a seminar paper on—you guessed it—Pannenberg’s concept of God as the end of history, and tried feebly to incorporate Wainwright’s own work on theologies of funeral rites into the paper’s thesis. At the end of the seminar, I sat in his office and fidgeted uncomfortably as we reviewed my work together, page by page, paragraph by paragraph, citation by citation. At some point in the discussion, Wainwright stopped, took his glasses off wearily, and said with a sly, but satisfied, smile, “You did well. Not as good as I had hoped, but well.”

Wainwright was nothing if not a gracious and generous pastor, a theologian of great accomplishment who dedicated his life and work to teaching faith and spiritual leaders about the moral and social impact of curiosity and openness to difference. I believe that work continues in what I do here at United; inviting prospective students into an intellectual community, struggling and striving as it always does, that aspires to live up to the values set forth by the very ideas Wainwright worked to advance in his writings and his work with students. Perhaps we don’t always do as well as we hope, but Wainwright always saw the bright side of ecumencial struggle. The unity on the other side of difference. This, he said, is where the Spirit of God is given voice in the songs and bodies of God’s people.

* Wolfhart Pannenberg (1929-2014) was a German Lutheran theologian in the late twentieth century.

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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

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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.