Category: May 2019

While speaking at Perkins Theological School for the Laity in late March, Adam Hamilton saw “two possible pathways” for centrists and progressives following the special General Conference in February. In one, church members say, “This is our church and we’re not giving it up and we’re going to resist and we’re going to disobey the Discipline.” The other means “creating two new Methodisms out of one existing United Methodism.” Read the perspective from Hamilton and others on the church’s future in this UMNS story.

Congratulations to Cori Clevenger (M.Div., 2020.) Her paper, “John Wesley Hardin: Preacher’s Kid and Convicted Killer,” was selected as the recipient of the Walter Vernon Essay Award for 2019. As winner, Clevenger received a $250 prize and the opportunity to present a summary of the paper to the Annual Meeting of the Texas United Methodist Historical Society. The meeting was held in April at the Central Texas Archives Center in Arlington, at the invitation of the Central Texas Archives and History Commission in Ft. Worth and Arlington.

Hardin (1853-1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. The son of a Methodist preacher, Hardin got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at age 14, he claimed in self-defense. Pursued by lawmen for most of his life, he was sentenced in 1877 at age 24 to 25 years in prison for murder. When he was sentenced, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men; however, he was well known for wildly exaggerating or completely making up stories about his life.  Within a year of his release in 1894, Hardin was killed by John Selman in an El Paso saloon.

Mark W. Stamm, Professor of Christian Worship at Perkins, was recently interviewed for the podcast Practicing the Presence, a production of Arapaho United Methodist Church in Dallas and hosted by the Rev. Blair Thompson-White (D. Min. 2018, M.Div. 2012), Senior Pastor. The topic was “Bumping Up Against Grace,” about John Wesley’s experience of having his heart “strangely warmed” and the practices that we can use in our daily lives to get close to God. To listen to the podcast, click here.

Past Alumni/ae Updates

• April 2019
• March 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018