The Icon of St. Pauli Murray, consecrated during the Alumni Memorial Eucharist, May 17, 2022
Our celebration of 50 Years of Women at General came to a moving close during our May, 2022 Alumni Gathering. The final events included The Next 50 Years: Beyond Women and Men, led by the Rev. Dr. April Stace, the consecration of our new icon of Distinguished Alumna Pauli Murray ’76 during the Alumni Memorial Eucharist, and a panel discussion on Zoom remembering and honoring St. Pauli.
The Commemorative Booklet is now available!
CLICK HERE TO ORDER A PRINTED COPY or contact alumni@gts.edu.
Please scroll down to read alumnae reflections,
and for details on all the events, including links for recordings.
50 years ago last September 2021, the first two women entered the Master of Divinity program at General Seminary and signed the Matriculation Book. For One Hundred and Fifty Years, the only names that appeared in the book were men. In September 1971, at the Matriculation Ceremony in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, two new names were added: Peggy Muncie and Page Bigelow.
Throughout the year, alumnae contributed remembrances of their time at General, reflecting the depth and diversity of educational and formational experiences women have had over these past fifty years.
50 Years of Women at General Events
If you have any questions about the below events, please contact the Alumni Office at alumni@gts.edu
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Remembering and Honoring Pauli Murray
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 2:30-4:00pm
(HYBRID ROUNDTABLE FOLLOWING THE ALUMNI MEMORIAL EUCHARIST)
Our concluding event remembered and shared who Pauli Murray was and means to us, particularly exploring how we must continue to lift up Murray’s legacy. The panel was moderated by the Rev. Dr. Julie Faith Parker, who welcomed Pauli’s classmates, the Rev. Dr. Ellen Marie Barrett (Sr. Helena) ’75 and the Rev. Jonathan Appleyard ’76, the Rev. Dr. Valerie Bailey Fischer ’20, and the Rev. Diane Shepard, the Chaplain who cared for Pauli during the last year of life. At Baccalaureate the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, D.D. ’22 challenged us to carry on Pauli’s prophetic voice.
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“The Next 50 years: Beyond Women and Men: ”
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 10:30am - Noon
HYBRID ROUNDTABLE DURING THE ALUMNI GATHERING — (IN PERSON + ZOOM)
After a year honoring and celebrating the ministry and theological education of women, the Rev. Dr. April Stace was joined by the Rev. Evan Fischer ’92 and Flourish Klink ’24 in a discussion recognizing that if we stop at women and men, we are still excluding people. Stace is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Leadership and Sr. Associate Dean for Hybrid Learning at General; Fischer is the first priest in the Anglican Communion to transition and remain at their parish; Klink identifies as non-binary, but is identified at General as Chief Sacristan!
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V.K. McCARTY '11: “Adding Women to the Story of the Early Church”
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 6:00 -7:15 pm
(WEBINAR)
VK McCarty (Class of '11), took a fascinating look at a dozen female church leaders whose voice and wisdom are remembered—and indeed recorded—in the New Testament, throughout the Church Fathers and other ancient sources. Their faithful voices can be heard across the centuries as they pray and mentor their followers, and collaborate in the exciting early development of monasticism and the Church itself.
VK McCarty ('11) served as Acquisitions Librarian at General Seminary 2000-2015, and also for several years as copy editor for both of General's regular publications. She copy-edited Through the Gates into the City: A Metropolis, a Seminary, a Chapel by Tim Boggs, The Vows Books by Distinguished GTS Alum Clark Berge, as well as his newest book, Running for Resurrection, and she continues to lecture in Ascetical Theology at General and at St. Luke in the Fields.
The lives and ministry of several of these female elders are examined in From Their Lips: Voices of Early Christian Women, newly published by VK McCarty (Gorgias Press, 2021). available at: https://www.gorgiaspress.com/from-their-lips-voices-of-early-christian-women
USE DISCOUNT CODE: 22VK40%
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Professor Jee Hei Park: "Women, Woke and Wired: Solidarity and the Resurrection"
Thursday, March 31, 2022 6:00 – 7:15 pm (WEBINAR)
Dr. Park’s presentation focused on the resurrection accounts in the Synoptic Gospels, in which women—yes, plural—are presented as the first witnesses of the empty tomb, reading them as a story of solidarity among women disciples. Exploring these biblical narratives alongside some contemporary stories of sisterhood, encourages us to find the event of resurrection not just as an individual experience but more as a communal commitment to the restoration of hope.
Dr. Jee Hei Park was formerly Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament/Louisville Postdoctoral Fellow here at General Seminary. She is currently Assistant Professor of New Testament at Seminary of the Southwest.
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The Paddock Lectures: Diana Butler Bass
In Memory of Them: Anamnesis for the Rest of Us
Tuesday February 15, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Lost Histories: The Problem of Anglican Exceptionalism and Honest Remembering
Wednesday February 16, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Beyond Tradition: The Necessity of Experience and Memory as a Spiritual Practice
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Julie Faith Parker: “Magnificent, Marxist, Mary: Textual Light on Advent’s Brightest Star”
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 6:00 -7:30 pm
(WEBINAR)
The presentation seeks to dispel images of Mary as “meek” and “mild” and replace them with understandings of a brave, radical teenage girl. Exploring stories of Mary’s spiritual sisters from the Hebrew Bible, Miriam and Hannah, leads us to appreciate Mary’s courage and theology. Textual exegesis combines with images, music, and video in this engaging presentation.
The Rev. Dr. Julie Faith Parker is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Biblical Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Yale University (awarded with distinction), an S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School, an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary (New York), and a B.A. from Hamilton College (Phi Beta Kappa). She is ordained in the United Methodist Church and has authored or edited seven books and many articles.
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This Band of Sisterhood: A Conversation with the First Five Black Women Diocesan Bishops
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 7:00 – 8:15 pm
(WEBINAR) VIEW THE YOUTUBE RECORDING BELOW
Moderated by Westina Matthews, Ph.D., Adjunct Prof. of Christian Spirituality. Bishops Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows (The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis), Carlye J. Hughes (The Episcopal Diocese of Newark), Kimberly Lucas (The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado), Shannon MacVean-Brown (The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont), and Phoebe A. Roaf (The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee) offer honest wisdom and experiences relevant to this complex time in American life.
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Elizabeth Schrader: "Early Textual Changes to the Gospel of John: Suppressions of Mary Magdalene's Authority?"
Friday, October 1, 2021 10:00 am – Noon
(HYBRID WEBINAR)
TO SEE THE RECORDING OF THE WEBINAR, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW — FOR SECURITY REASONS YOU WILL BE ASKED TO REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE LINK.
Elizabeth Schrader (MA ‘15, STM ‘16), a current Ph.D candidate in Early Christianity at Duke University, presents new research on variations in Gospel manuscripts that could reflect deliberate suppressions of Mary Magdalene's authority. Schrader's M.A. thesis at GTS, which was published in the 2017 issue of the Harvard Theological Review, was a text-critical study of over a hundred manuscripts of the Gospel of John. Schrader argued that in the second century, the Lukan character Martha may have been editorially added to the story of Lazarus (John 11-12) for the purpose of diminishing Mary Magdalene's authority in the Fourth Gospel. Schrader now has two new peer-reviewed articles coming out about Mary Magdalene, and on October 1st she will be discussing striking textual variations in the manuscripts of John 20, the encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the garden. Join us to see images of the world's oldest manuscripts of John 11 and John 20, and get a sneak peek of cutting-edge Mary Magdalene scholarship.
TO SEE THE RECORDING OF THE WEBINAR, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW — FOR SECURITY REASONS YOU WILL BE ASKED TO REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE LINK.