Perkins School of Theology – Southern Methodist University will offer a Spanish-language Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree to a second cohort of students beginning in the fall of 2019. Once selected, the next group will follow the same path as the first cohort of seven students, who began in the fall of 2017 and will graduate in May. Perkins is the only institution in the United States offering this type of program.
Read the full release here.
As featured guest for the 2019 Bolin Family Public Life Personal Faith Scholarship Luncheon, Judy Woodruff shared how her personal faith informs her work in the public arena, as anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour.
“I don’t talk about my faith on television; it’s not part of my job, but it does inform who I am, and it certainly does inform my work,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff was interviewed by Peggy Wehmeyer, former religion correspondent for ABC World News Tonight, at the February 8 event at SMU.
The Public Life Personal Faith series, inaugurated in 2010, is a fundraising and outreach event of Perkins School of Theology in service to the larger community. The lecture provides an opportunity for guests to hear prominent people in the public sphere on topics related to how and why personal faith shapes public life. This luncheon is a major fundraiser for student scholarships.
The Public Life Personal Faith Scholarship Luncheon is sponsored by the family of Pat and Jane Bolin. Pat Bolin, chairman and chief executive officer at Eagle Corp and Eagle Oil & Gas Co. in Dallas, is a graduate of SMU (B.A. ’73) and a 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the SMU Cox School of Business. Jane Bolin is a member of the Perkins Executive Board.
Woodruff talked about growing up in a military family and attending seven different schools by the time she was in the 7th grade. When a professor encouraged her to consider journalism covering politics, she said, “I could ask people questions, I could be nosy and get paid for it.”
She also shared her personal faith journey. Her mother came from a strong Freewill Baptist background; her father’s family was Baptist and Methodist; her childhood caregivers were a family of Pentecostals who took her to church services. After a period of searching, she met her husband, who grew up “high church Episcopalian,” and together they joined a “regular Episcopal church,” St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
While work keeps her from attending regularly – “It’s constant; all of us put in long days” – St. Columba’s is an important part of her life.
“When I do go to church, I come away with my faith restored,” she said. “It’s the place that brings me the strength I need.
She also expressed her worries about the current state of the media in the U.S.
“I can’t overemphasize how dangerous it is,” she said. “If we get to the point in this country where we don’t have a robust news media, a robust press, to ask questions, to hold public officials accountable … we can’t make good decisions as American citizens.”
With newspapers downsizing and many reporters losing their jobs, she added, “We are in a tough place. The bleeding continues, and I really do worry.”
Noting that trust in the media is at an all-time low, Wehmeyer, asked, “Are we as journalists responsible for that?”
“Yes, we are, but it’s also bigger than that,” Woodruff replied. “The country is so polarized. Some of us in the press have clearly played into that polarization by giving people what they think they want to hear. At the NewsHour, we’re trying to cover the news and let the viewers decide.”
While on campus, Woodruff also spent time with Meadows School of the Arts journalism students, and was interviewed by SMU TV.
John M. Esquivel was named recipient of the 2019 Woodrow B. Seals Laity Award, honoring a U.S. layperson for service to Christ in the church, community and world. Esquivel is a member of First United Methodist of Houston. Elected in 2016 as Lay Leader for the Texas Annual Conference, he serves actively on the Bishop’s Extended Cabinet. Esquivel will be recognized on March 28 during the opening worship service of the three-day Perkins Theological School for the Laity.
Read the full release here.
Although Katie Pryor M.Div. ’19 won’t graduate until May, her career is well underway. She recently began her new role in the North Texas Conference as the executive director of GO Camp, a program of summer and year-round camping that complements the current camping and retreat ministry offerings of the conference, reaches underserved communities and provides new opportunities to develop young leaders. Pryor sat down with conference staff to discuss her background and vision for GO Camp; read the story here.
Hannah Cruse was still in high school when she landed her first position as music director at a church.
“I attended a Presbyterian church in my small hometown in Arkansas,” she said. “Almost everyone there was of retirement age, including the organist.”
When the organist retired, Cruse learned how to play the organ and stepped in. By the end of high school, she was the church’s music director.
“That was a formative experience that sparked a love for sacred music for me,” she said. “I learned an appreciation of what music can be, beyond just performance and enjoyment, which is how the secular world looks at music.”
Hannah came to SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts to pursue her undergraduate degree in oboe and organ performance. While there, she realized that Perkins’ Sacred Music program was the best place for the next phase of her education.
“I got to know Chris Anderson a little bit while taking an improvisation class with him,” she said. “When he learned about my interest in sacred music, he encouraged me to check out the Master of Sacred Music (M.S.M.) degree program.”
She discovered that Perkins’ program offered the right mix of theological study and music for her. Cruse will graduate in May.
“I didn’t see many other programs that have same balance between theology and music that Perkins has,” she said. “Perkins’ M.S.M. is not just a performance degree, it’s also an academic degree. My feeling is that you can’t separate the two if you’re going to work on the music staff in a church setting.”
At Perkins, she’s taking the same basic courses in theology as M.Div. students, such as Old Testament, New Testament, Christian heritage and Christian worship, as well as courses designed specifically for M.S.M. students that link theology and music, such as classes in hymnology, ritual studies and the history of music in the church. She’s also a member of the Seminary Singers choir and takes organ lessons and music theory.
On top of her school work, Cruse serves as music director and organist at West Plano Presbyterian Church, which she describes as a small but liturgically minded church. The church is a member congregation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that worships in the Reformed liturgical tradition; the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. David Batchelder, is a liturgical scholar.
While her exact career plans aren’t yet final, Cruse says she’s very interested in composition.
“I arrange a lot of pieces for the choir, and I see a number of little niches that need compositions,” she said. She noted a need for cyclical songs, new psalmody and a wider array of anthems for choirs of different sizes and ability levels.
As music director, Cruse especially enjoys finding music that works in the liturgy, blending and expanding the teaching and accompanying ritual action.
“Liturgy is the embodiment of worship in community,” she said. “I look for music that enhances the liturgy and help it move forward.”
Cruse cites 1 Corinthians 13:1 as a guiding principle in work in sacred music: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
“It’s the same reason why music is so important, other than just for enjoyment,” she said. “That love has to be there all the time – or music can turn into a ‘me, me, me’ performance kind of thing.”
When the United States marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner will be poised to help people at SMU and beyond to celebrate, look back and learn.
She is co-editing a book, Women with 2020 Vision: Theologians on the Vote (1920), Voice, and Vision of Women with Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, 59th Bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) denomination and the first woman elected to the position. The book will be published in time to mark the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment on August 18, 1920. Fifteen contributors will each write a chapter.
“I think we need to just pause for a moment, in the cacophony and noise, to celebrate the fact that these women, in spite of their differences, pulled off something so incredible,” she said. “We’re not finished yet. We have a long way to go. We need to keep on in the progress toward equal rights, equal pay and equal acknowledgement. But let’s pause to celebrate.
Stevenson-Moessner is also working to assemble a display of artifacts related to the struggle and eventual passage of suffrage, a display to benefit undergraduate students and others at SMU. In recent years, she has collected items such as original newspaper clippings from the 1860s and 1850s covering the conferences of women who worked to help pass the vote. They include newspaper stories about Sojourner Truth’s famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech and campaign ephemera advocating for and against women’s suffrage.
How did she come to amass this collection of items? “My daughter is very tech savvy,” she said. “She introduced me to eBay.”
Stevenson-Moessner began collecting the items because she was fascinated by the way women of such diverse backgrounds worked together, successfully, toward the common goal of suffrage. She hopes the display will serve as a reminder of the importance of voting.
“Whether the weather is bad or it’s inconvenient to get out, students need to know how hard fought this was,” she said.
In teaching courses in pastoral theology, Stevenson-Moessner has worked to establish connections that help keep the coursework grounded in the broader community beyond the walls of Perkins. She has trained in a rape crisis center, an addictive disease unit, three domestic violence programs, a community mental health clinic and a child abuse council. She was a three-year resident at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta and on the staff of a counseling center. For classes on crisis ministry and sexual and domestic violence, she takes students to train in places such as Genesis Women’s Shelter and the Rape Crisis Center at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
“At the Rape Crisis Center, we go into the unoccupied exam rooms and the students undergo training right there with people who specialize in this area,” she said. Staff from local agencies also come occasionally to the classroom to teach.
Stevenson-Moessner is an ordained Presbyterian minister who stays connected with the Grace Presbytery and attends all the ordination and installation services for Perkins students and recent graduates who are Presbyterian. She is also an active member of The Compassionate Friends, a group for people who have lost a child or a sibling. While it relates to her professional work in pastoral theology, in this case the connection is personal. Her son, David Stevenson Moessner, died in a car accident in January 2015.
“When we went through this shattering experience, the Perkins community rallied around us in a way I could never have imagined,” she said. “Without asking, people showed up to clean our house, put away our Christmas decorations and stocked our fridge. The memorial service filled Perkins Chapel. The entire Seminary Singers choir performed. Former students came back. Colleagues stepped forward and taught my classes. I didn’t even ask. I’ve seen Perkins at its finest.”
Faculty Profile
Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
Issues in practical theology, pastoral care of women, crisis ministry, pastoral self-care, family systems theory, adoption
Multicultural issues in pastoral care of women, cross-cultural children and their identity formation, the impact of violence on our culture
“Luke 10:27, which reads, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ It wasn’t until later in life that I actually heard those last two words. We’re not called to love just two but all three – God, neighbor, self. That realization changed my life. I always try to make sure that those three loves are honored. The hardest is love of self.”
“I’m almost finished with Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It’s a work of fiction; I picked it up in the airport because it won the Pulitzer. I try to read Pulitzer Prize-winning books to help improve my own writing.”
“First, I’d make sure that someone else does the cooking. I want this to be a meal where I can sit and enjoy it. I would like to invite close members of my family who I’ve lost, who have passed over the thin veil of earth to beyond – which I take as heaven. I would just start the conversation by asking, “How have you been?” Then I’d ask, “What is it really like in heaven? Did you ever worry about me or others you left behind? Do you experience any pain? I have an assumption that there’s no regret; there’s healing.”
Husband Rev. Dr. David Paul Moessner holds the A.A. Bradford Chair in Religion at TCU. Daughter Jean McCarley Stevenson Moessner is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s BFA program and now a jeweler in Dubuque. Son, David Stevenson Moessner, who passed away in 2015.
A Pomeranian named Little Bit.
“I’m a seasoned antique sale-er. I go treasure hunting at garage sales and estate sales around Highland Park every Saturday morning.”
“I’m related to Jack Daniels. My grandmother was his niece.”
Shrimp Creole
Each morning, she reads a passage from Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief by Martha Whitmore Hickmann. She also attends a deep conditioning exercise class. “It’s very rigorous; the woman who leads it is like a loving drill sergeant,” she said. “The class helps me to keep my body centered. When I was president of the University Senate (2016-17), I had to carry the University Mace at convocations. It was heavy – 26 pounds – and you carry it down a very long hallway. The women in the class were so supportive and helped me train for that.”
The Rev. Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins, traveled to Casper, Wyoming, recently as part of a workshop sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming. The 51 lay and ordained attendees exceeded the capacity of the Diocesan office, so the event was moved to another venue, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Attendees included seasoned seminary-trained priests, bi-vocational clergy, licensed lay preachers, students in the Wyoming Iona School and many others interested in improving their preaching. Allen was one of several instructors there from the Episcopal Preaching Foundation. Read the story here.
The application deadline has been extended until April 1, 2019, for the Diploma for Theology in Ministry program offered through Perkins School of Theology and Wesley House, Cambridge (England). This unique, international one-year study opportunity is available with scholarship funding for 2019–20 M.Div. graduates and recent Perkins M.Div. alumni/ae. The diploma program offers a “combination of classical theological disciplines taught by world-class academics through the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, together with specialist teaching from a confessional perspective delivered by ecumenical partners in Cambridge, in ecumenical classrooms.” For more information, visit our website here.
No Mercy, No Justice. The Dominant Narrative of America versus the Counter-Narrative of Jesus’ Parables by John Brooks Harrington
Harrington M.Div. ’94 is an elder in the Central Texas Conference who currently serves as director of the Methodist Justice Ministry, a legal ministry and nonprofit owned by First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth that protects indigent women and children victims of family violence and sexual abuse and provides them financial and pastoral support. Net proceeds of book sales and any speaking honoraria will go directly to the Methodist Justice Ministry. Click here to learn more.
Saints in the Struggle: Church of God in Christ Activists in the Memphis Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1968, by Jonathan Chism
Chism M.Div. ’08 writes about Mason Temple, the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), which looms large in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his last sermon there during the Sanitation Workers Strike on April 3, 1968. This book highlights the unsung contributions made by local activists from the COGIC in the historic strike and the broader civil rights struggle in Memphis. Click here to learn more.
Called: Hearing and Responding to God’s Voice by Susan Robb
Robb M.Div. ‘06 is Senior Associate Minister at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, where she has been part of the church staff for 17 years. Published by Abingdon Press, the book examines how, throughout the Bible, God interrupts the lives of ordinary men and women, calling and empowering them to lives of service they never could have imagined on their own. A DVD featuring Susan Robb and a comprehensive Leader Guide complete the six-week study. Learn more here.
Retired Bishop Janice Riggle Huie M.Th. ‘73 reflects on resilience in this essay on the Texas Methodist Foundation website. She writes, “I first learned about resilience from my father, a South Texas farmer.” Read the post here.
Congratulations to Cynthia A. Wilson M.S.M. ’86 of Discipleship Ministries for being named a 2019 Women’s History Month Honoree in byFaith magazine!
The Jackson County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office recently announced the addition of its newest team member, the Rev. Kelli Williamson M.Div. ‘08. In this newly created position, Williamson will serve as volunteer chaplain on an on-call basis, as a resource as needed on scene, at death notifications, to support Sheriff’s Office personnel and at community events. Williamson also serves as pastor of First United Methodist Church Edna in Edna, Texas, and as a volunteer firefighter and chaplain for the Jackson County Emergency Services District No. 3 Fire Department.
From the Texas Methodist Foundation
Amy Spaur M.Div. ‘14 had one of the winning pitches presented at Courageous Leadership Imperative’s Launch 1.0, a cooperative event with the South Central Jurisdiction Foundations and Bishops designed to create a network for dynamic leaders. She is senior pastor of La Fundición de Cristo/Christ’s Foundry church in Dallas. The Texas Methodist Foundation interviewed her about her pitch: community cooking classes. Learn more about how her pitch idea is becoming a reality, and hear the outcomes she hopes to see here.
As many pastors already know, a good organist is hard to find. The number of trained organists is declining, especially as smaller universities downsize their offerings and degrees in music in performance. Josiah Montgomery M.T.S. ‘18 is in high demand and drives from Fort Worth every weekend, sometimes more often, to play the organ at Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene. Read the story in the Abilene Reporter-News here.
Rev. Bruce Weaver B.D. ’47 passed away on February 18, 2019, in his home in Carrollton, Texas, near Dallas, at the age of 97. He was the Perkins Distinguished Alum in 2001 and a leader in the North Texas conference and the global church. Read his UMNS obituary here.
Rev. Robert A. Simpson M.Th. ’53 passed away on February 9, 2019, in his home at the age of 93. He was a member of the North Arkansas Conference who helped to open Camp Tanako and served the Stanford Charge (near Paragould), Rose City. He was also a chaplain for the Veterans Administration in Iowa and Texas. He retired in 1983. A Service of Death and Resurrection was held on February 12 at First UMC Sheridan.
Pastor Albert James Rymph II, 93, passed away on February 16, 2019, at Asbury Park in Newton, Kansas. He earned a Master of Theology degree from Perkins in 1955. During Pastor Rymph’s ministerial career, he served numerous congregations and communities throughout much of central and western Kansas, including First Methodist Church, Copeland; Ebenezer and Green Methodist Churches, near Clay Center; Mount Olivet and Saint Luke Methodist Churches, Wichita; First Methodist Church, Kingman; Trinity United Methodist Church, Russell; First United Methodist Church, El Dorado; First United Methodist Church, Beloit; First United Methodist Church, Dodge City; and First United Methodist Church, Ulysses.
I have been contemplating two contradictory aphorisms as we approach this month’s called United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis, a meeting that will deal with the highly contentious issue of human sexuality: “Change is the only constant,” and “Some things never change.”
Perkins has undergone considerable change in recent years, such as the revamping of the Houston-Galveston program and the creation of elective concentrations at other professional schools within SMU. In many essential respects, however, Perkins remains the same. One thing that has not altered is its abiding commitment to serve the Methodist Church, whatever its institutional forms (the UMC, of course, but also CME, AME, AMEZ and others). That mission is central though not exclusive: We are committed to preparing “women and men for faithful leadership in Christian ministry,” irrespective of denominational affiliation. Moreover, that preparation includes not only our degree programs but also the Course of Study School and encompasses the ministry of both clergy and laity.
It is important to remember that change is more or less a constant throughout church history, whether for good or for ill. Most dramatically, one thinks of the great East-West Schism of 1054, when the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally broke communion, and of the Protestant Reformation five centuries later. Even in the New Testament period, there is evidence of at least significant tension between different Christian groups, if not open separation, such as actually did occur in the second century.
The history of modern Protestantism in particular, with its less centralized authority, is a case study in diverse opinion. The current situation within the United Methodist Church is, in that respect, nothing new. There have been countless such disputes in the past, and doubtless there will be others in the future. Fortunately, many did not result in open division, but instead led in time to less disruptive but still significant change. In the case of the UMC, two such transformations involved moments of restoration and renewal, first in 1939 (the reunification of Northern and Southern churches) and then in 1968 (the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church).
Although the history of disagreement within the church is not particularly encouraging, there is consolation to be found. Across all centuries, the one universal church has endured – and so we believe will continue to endure. Though I am a cradle Methodist, I am grateful that the body of Christ is something so much larger and greater than the UMC. No denomination contains the whole of God’s church.
From its inception, Perkins School of Theology has sought to serve that whole, undivided church, not simply one fraction or faction of it. Our history is one of inclusion: Perkins led the way in 1952 with the admission of five African-American students, resulting in the racial integration of Southern Methodist University two years before the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka. Students representing dozens of denominations – Wesleyan in heritage and many others besides, including Roman Catholic and Orthodox – have attended SMU’s School of Theology over the past century. Nothing that happens at General Conference will change that. Already, we are a diverse community that welcomes students, staff and faculty from a wide range of traditions and perspectives. We see this as both an abiding strength and a positive goal. This is in concert with the commitments of the larger institution in which we are imbedded, Southern Methodist University, whose nondiscrimination statement reads as follows:
Southern Methodist University (SMU) will not discriminate in any employment practice, education program, education activity or admissions on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status. SMU’s commitment to equal opportunity includes nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
I often tell prospective students that, yes, they will leave Perkins with a deeper and clearer understanding of their own beliefs. That is to be expected. Less obvious but just as important is the need to leave with a deeper, a clearer and a more empathetic understanding of those who hold different beliefs. The church (and the wider world, for that matter) needs leaders able to comprehend other viewpoints and to recognize that they are not the only ones possessing integrity, intelligence and faith. We need leaders who see others first as persons and not as theological or ideological positions, who therefore can transcend boundaries and can find common ground where it exists. That kind of leadership is learned in a place where it is actually practiced, not in an echo chamber where one hears only reinforcing voices, and where outsiders are demonized and dismissed. One of the most remarkable things about Jesus was his continual recognition of outsiders, of “the other” – Samaritans, lepers, centurions, tax collectors, women, the poor – as persons worthy of love, attention and even sacrifice. For his disciples, disagreement can never justify depersonalization.
The simple fact is that none of us is always right about everything, and none of us is always wrong. I have taught with a very wide spectrum of colleagues over three decades, and as far apart as we might have been on some vital issues, there wasn’t one of them from whom I didn’t learn something important. So I challenge incoming students to see what each individual at Perkins has to teach them. (Seeing where they disagree is invariably the easy part.) All of us are more limited in our understanding than we can possibly grasp, and all of us need others to help us to comprehend what we otherwise could not know. A little intellectual humility goes a long way.
But the value of a learning community like Perkins is not simply pragmatic. After all, Jesus did not command us merely to tolerate one another. The standard he set us is to love even those with whom we are most at odds. “’If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them’” (Luke 6:32). We might paraphrase, “If you associate only with those who agree with you, what more are you doing than anyone else?” There are fewer and fewer places where it is possible both to learn from and to influence persons of varied opinion, much less to get to know them as unique individuals and, in Christ, to come to love them. The goal is not to turn out students who all think alike, but to turn out students who think both deeply and broadly and who understand and care for others, however different they might be.
In service to and modeling the example of Jesus himself, this is the kind of community Perkins strives to be. We warmly welcome everyone and, whatever the future form of the United Methodist Church, for which we profoundly care and daily pray, we will continue to do so. That, too, remains a constant.
Grace and peace,
Craig C. Hill
The new year is off to a productive start for the Office of Enrollment Management. Staff members have already traveled to half a dozen campuses and events in January, with many more visits planned for February and the remainder of the semester.
Members of the Perkins community are invited to follow the schedule of upcoming visits and to alert the staff of potential connections.
“If we’re visiting a place where you know someone we should talk to – a faculty member, a personal connection, a student with an interest in Perkins – please let us know, and we’ll be sure to follow up,” said Margot Perez-Greene, Associate Dean for Enrollment Management.
Do you know a prospective student who is considering graduate theological education? Refer someone here or alert them to on-site information events through Inside Perkins.
Here is the Office of Enrollment Management’s recruitment travel schedule for January and February:
January 2-5
National Festival of Young Preachers
Caleb Palmer
January 13-15
UMC Lead Conference (New Orleans, La.)
John Lowery
January 16
Louisiana State University Wesley Foundation (Baton Rouge, La.)
John Lowery
January 17
Lakeview Summer Camp
John Lowery and Caleb Palmer
January 24
Texas College (Tyler, Texas)
John Lowery
January 24-26
Calvin College Worship Symposium
Caleb Palmer
January 29-30
Southwestern University (Winfield, Kan.)
John Lowery
January 31-February 5
Belmont University Wesley Foundation,
Vanderbilt University
and Nashville area tour
Caleb Palmer
February 5
Prairie View A&M (61st Annual Ministers Conference)
John Lowery
February 6
Texas Southern University
Texas Wesleyan Foundation
Stephen Bagby
February 14 (tentative)
Midwestern State University
Caleb Palmer
February 15-17
Mississippi Statewide Wesley Foundation (Morton, Miss.)
John Lowery
February 18-21
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
Caleb Palmer
February 21-23
Texas State University Wesley Foundation Mission Dinner
and area tour (University of Texas – San Antonio, LaFe Intervarsity, Texas Lutheran University)
Caleb Palmer
February 22-24
All-Campus Wesley Retreat (Van, Texas)
Central Texas Conference
John Lowery and Stephen Bagby