The Meaning of a True Pilgrim

…bodily gesture to that we had seen among Coptic Christian women in Egypt at a holy man’s tomb: forearm and forehead leaning on the box of remains. It is a powerful gesture, and the meaning of it is probably as individual as the number of people using it. One thing was clear to me—Hollywood has lied to us about spiritual…

Sunrise on Mount Sinai

…did was support each other on our often arduous trek. It seems fitting that we will have celebrated three birthdays of group members on this trip. Birthdays are individual milestones, and our hike today marked a milestone that I think many of us will remember as we consider our own journeys—whether today’s climb was frustrating, exhilarating, or even painful. Yesterday,…

Arrived in Cairo

We’ve arrived in Cairo! It’s been a long day. After some travel mishaps (the bus we took from Richmond to Washington-Dulles airport leaked, we almost missed our connecting flight, and our luggage didn’t make it), we finally made it to our hotel. I’m sitting on the balcony with my roommate, enjoying a freshly puréed strawberry drink complimentary from the hotel….

Union students log 1,000+ miles to vote

…miles to turn in a ballot,” she says. Although most would not go to the lengths that these students went through to vote in a midterm election, Zeigler says, “in my family it’s not a huge deal to go way out of your way to vote. In this family we vote, and we make our voices heard.” Shields agrees that…

Extending Union’s reach into East Africa

…lectured on Leadership and after lunch, I lectured on African American biblical interpretation and the black church. The next day we were on to the airport again and back to Dubai before that long flight back to Dulles Airport and the U.S. As you might imagine, we were tired from our journey but what an invigorating journey it was! I…

Reading Revelation through the Trials of Phillis Wheatley

…though she is displaced, her impact is still felt. Just as Phillis Wheatley is displaced, so also John is displaced. In Revelation 1:9, John discloses that he has been exiled to the island of Patmos for proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. A small island ten miles long and six miles wide, located thirty- seven miles from the mainland, Patmos is…

Black Alumni Association Newsletter: September 2021

…TODD Never thought we’d be here Roll-backs Invisible holdbacks Forward, then backward Fights on flights Mental health jeopardized Millions untold Assaults to the soul No one escapes Erosions. There are many on the street whose needs I would like to meet. A little old lady struggling with bags feels threatened when someone extends a hand. A man who’s hungry, why…

Assocuate Pastor for Children & Familes Myers Park Pres – Description

Black Alumni Association Newsletter: February 2022

…I attended the then School of Theology at Virginia Union University, where I was exposed by Dr. Miles Jerome Jones to literature that I had never read. It was only, however, when I was in my early 70’s studying at Union Presbyterian Seminary under Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, that I started to learn about the brutality of slavery and how…

CLC-MDP #12541 Portville

Dinner on the Nile

On Wednesday, we were in the lobby at 3:30 a.m., lucky to maybe have 4 to 5 hours of sleep. We packed our carry-ons and got a bagged breakfast before hopping on the bus to head to the airport for our flight to Luxor. After a coffee pit stop, we visited the temple of Karnak. We beat the crowd and…

Movement Toward Diversity

…a visiting churchman, a black man, to have dinner in the dining room. The decision was made with the knowledge that it would present a delicate situation which could have resounding repercussions for hundreds of miles beyond the dining room, mainly in a southerly direction, if not handled discreetly. Carefully selected students were approached and asked if they would sit…

President Brian Blount statement on passing of Katherine Johnson

…knew of her abilities, but even more importantly, knew that her kindness, generosity, and humility were as mammoth as her talents. Most people will remember her legacy as the NASA human computer whose formulas plotted course and trajectory for some of the most famous early space flights, a recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal…

Sunday Worship

…the people showed us but also because it made us feel a part of something meaningful. It was emotional when we were brought up on stage to pray over our journey forward and gift us with Kente Stoles. The hugs, the Akwaabas (welcome), and the smiles have created a lasting connection and relationship with this community. After church, we moved…

The Gargoyle Speaks: Unscheduled Beauty

…shoppers. Minutes after our arrival, a group of about eight people, each dressed in what appeared to be a baptismal robe, came silently down the steps we had just taken. We acknowledged one another with smiles and nods. No words were exchanged. The group quickly formed a circle where the stream emerged from the entrance of the stone tunnel. One…

Appreciation of Music Is Motivation for Gift to Watts Organ Fund

…by Bach played in the master’s hometown of Leipzig, in Germany. And his connection with Union Presbyterian Seminary goes back many years. “I knew Union from my Presbyterian beginnings,” he explains. Dr. Trevathan has fond childhood memories of visits from Seminary faculty, who preached in his parents’ church in the town of Fountain—in Pitt County, North Carolina, some 18 miles…

Strengthening Faith Formation Among Children

…observable behaviors and “practices we want to see.” She suggests that we should consider new rubrics for faith development (along the lines of milestones like height and weight that might be captured in a doctor’s office). “This could be a set of standards that capture what faith looks like at different ages and the observable behaviors we’d like to see,…

Black Lives Matter!

BY WILLIAM R. FREEMAN (M.Div.‘01) WOW! Here we go again. On Thursday, November 22, 2018, Thanksgiving Day, we received a report of another police killing of a Black man. This time a young twenty-one year old, at a mall in Hoover, Alabama – ten miles from Birmingham. His name: Emantic Fitzgerald “EJ” Bradford, Jr. At first, the police put out…

Colleen Earp: Camping, conservation, and chickens

…after they expressed interest in trail maintenance. Their fun but tiring hike took them over steep hills and through muddy wetlands. With her new home in Richmond only a few miles down the road from Union she could not deny that seminary was something she had been thinking about for a while. “I needed the theological vocabulary to explain the…

California wildfires affect Union families

BY EMMA NORTH Richmond student Douglas Hippe is busy studying for his mid-term finals but his mind is on the tragic wildfires burning 2,800 miles away in Malibu, California, where he lived before enrolling at Union Presbyterian Seminary. “It is very sad for me because I love California and feel very attached to the state,” Hippe said. Douglas Hippe While…

Loss, lament, and gratitude in the aftermath of Florence

…and had brought death, destruction, and record-breaking flooding across Eastern Carolina. Hawkins’ inland hometown of New Bern, at the junction of the Trent and Neuse rivers, began feeling the hurricane on Wednesday and its interminable rains through the rest of the week. “It was so slow moving,” Hawkins said, “…two miles per hour…and it just kind of sat on top…

Class of 2018 profiles: Bruce McVey faces down challenges to reach the pulpit

…an elder for stewardship at their church. That was the beginning of McVey’s path to Union Presbyterian Seminary. The last part of the story came about because of a tragic accident. While working in Dallas, McVey was rear-ended by somebody texting and driving at 80 miles an hour. He ended up breaking his back and, during his recovery, the CEO…