Category: July 2023

Summer is in full swing, and the Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) continues to review Fall 2023 applications weekly in addition to the many other ways in which we are working to engage students. For Annual Conference season alone, OEM participated in nine trips to connect with our UMC constituents and alumni.

One summer event we look forward to every year is hosting our Project Transformation students on campus. This year’s visit included an impromptu piano recital — we have some talented students and look forward to seeing where their ministry goals take them!

All of us in OEM look forward to meeting prospective students and sharing the exciting story of how God is working through Perkins School of Theology. A reminder: everyone in the Perkins community plays a part in our recruiting effort. That includes faculty, staff, alumni, current students and friends. Please let us know about any of your church members, friends or associates who may be considering a theological education. We’ll reach out and support them in any way we can.

Much is uncertain these days; but Perkins OEM stands ready to receive inquiries and applications for Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. To that end, here are a few key dates to keep in mind:

• Fall 2023 Dallas Campus Application Deadline: August 4
• Spring 2024 Houston-Galveston Hybrid Application Deadline: December 1
• Spring 2024 Dallas Campus Application Deadline: December 15

With this momentum, we are eager to approach the recruitment season and have already planned to increase the number of virtual sessions by continuing our creativity of content, format and sensitivity to prospective student schedules. Another exciting addition to our calendar for the coming year is the introduction of Saturday Inside Perkins events, allowing students to visit campus on the weekend. We also will be traveling across the United States, visiting schools and ministries with students who are discerning whether seminary is the right next step for them.

Lastly, we would like to congratulate Stephen Bagby on his new position, working with Church of the Incarnation. We are grateful to Stephen for his five years of service in OEM. We will miss his presence in the office and his natural capacity for connection but are excited for this next step in his journey!

Thank you for your continued support of OEM! We ask for your prayers as we continue striving to find the future leaders of our church and community.

All the best,

The Office of Enrollment Management

Youth 2023 – July 25-28, Daytona Beach, Fla.

Every four years, youth from throughout The United Methodist Church have gathered for four days of discipleship, fun and fellowship at the YOUTH event. The event is filled with interactive learning, worship, Bible study, service opportunities and fellowship time.

This year, members of Perkins’ Office of External Programs will be onsite to engage with conference attendees about the myriad programs Perkins offers. Also, 2023 graduate Tripp Gulledge will be one of the event’s 10 highlighted speakers, while three other Perkins alumni will be leading workshops: Melissa Gepford (“Pioneering a New Conference Youth Ministry”), David Magallanes (“A Ministry Strategy that Works”) and Chelsea Peddecord (“What’s a Methodist? It’s All in the Details!”)

Christian Congregational Music 2023 – Aug. 1-4, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford

To further the understanding and practice of congregational music-making, the Christian Congregational Music conference brings together world-class scholars and practitioners to explore together the varying cultural, social, and spiritual roles church music plays in the life of various Christian communities around the world. This conference, which happens every other year, is among the premier academic events in the field.

At this year’s gathering, Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel – Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of both the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Pastoral Music programs at Perkins – is chairing the panel “Issues of Performance,” participating in the roundtable discussion “Between Ephemerality and Stability: Timbre in Christian Congregational Music” and presenting a paper entitled “From Hybridity to Messiness: Power and Purity in Christian Musicking.”

Two 2023 Perkins graduates also will have central roles at the conference. Fernando Berwig Silva, who is moving on to doctoral studies at SMU, is presenting a paper entitled “The Sacred World of Futebol,” while Mykayla Turner will be chairing two panels – “Children’s Music Ministry in Local Culture” and “Creating Meaning Through Song” – while presenting her paper entitled “Reckoning Resources: Community Music in a Rural Mennonite Context.”

MARCHA 2023 – Aug. 10-12, San Antonio

MARCHA is the official Hispanic/Latino national caucus within The United Methodist Church and the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico that serves as an advocate for the Hispanic/Latino people inside and outside the church. By encouraging the creation of spaces for reflection on Hispanic/Latino pastoral work, MARCHA promotes a respect for human rights and a commitment to peace, justice, freedom and equality. Melissa Hernandez Probus will be onsite to answer any questions about Perkins’ Hispanic ministry initiative.

Dr. Harold Recinos completed two new collections of poetry while on a recent research leave: The Looking Glass: Far and Near and Tell Somebody (to be released in late July).

The Looking Glass: Far and Near (Wipf and Stock, 2023) also has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the second-such work of Recinos’ to be nominated. Pulitzer recipients will be announced in May 2024, and Recinos hopes to become the second Latino poet (William Carlos Williams received the honor posthumously in 1963) to be awarded the prize.

Of his latest work, Recinos said, “Tell Somebody is a collection of poetry that seeks to bring the overlooked human beings and existential conditions into public light. I welcome readers to step into the reality of persons who challenge the moral claims of society upon the marginalized found on the streets, the workplace and crossing borders.”

Dr. Priscilla Pope-Levison, Research Professor of Practical Theology, has been recognized as one of two recipients of the Florence Ellen Bell Scholar Award, presented by the Drew University Library.

Pope-Levison’s project, Negotiating Boundaries: The Emergence of the International Methodist Deaconess Movement, 1885-1918, to be published by Cascade Books in their Wesleyan and Methodist Explorations Series, will provide a thorough analysis of the intricate negotiations during the Methodist deaconess movement’s emergence on an international scale. This interdisciplinary book, integrating women’s studies, biblical studies, theology, history, and sociology, will focus on the twists and turns of the deaconess movement in its multi-faceted negotiations of church regulations, male clergy, women’s ministry, society’s gendered expectations, and its distinctive dress.

The award provides $2,500 for expenses relating to academic research at the United Methodist Archives and History Center at Drew University in Madison, N.J. The award supports scholars using the Methodist Collections of Drew University and the General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) for The United Methodist Church.

Dr. Susanne Scholz, Professor of Old Testament, presented a paper – entitled “How to Read the Song of Miriam (Exod. 15:20-21) as a Literary Poem during the Time of War in the Ukraine” – at the European Association of Biblical Studies conference this month in Sicily, Italy. Scholz received a University Research Council travel grant from SMU to cover some of her expenses.

Dr. Dallas Gingles, director of the Houston-Galveston Extension Program and Perkins Fellow in Systematic Theology, was a speaker at the McDonald Centre Conference last month at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. This international, interdisciplinary conference brought together those with dual expertise in both healthcare and ethics or theology to attempt to diagnose the conditions for corrosion that currently prevail and consider what should be done to address them.

Alumna tabbed to lead UWF

Sally Vonner (M.Div. ‘08) has been a part of the organization’s national staff since 2010. Read more at: https://uwfaith.org/press/2023/united-women-in-faith-board-elects-sally-vonner-general-secretary-ceo/