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Garrett Seminary is thrilled to announce that the Reverend Dr. Willie James Jennings will offer this year’s commencement address on Friday, May 8. He will also be recognized with an honorary degree for his groundbreaking scholarship and leadership in theological education. Hosted at 9:00 a.m. CT in the Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University, and streamed live, the 2026 graduating students will walk the stage at 170th Commencement, ready to work for the thriving of the church and the healing of the world. “We are honored to host a scholar who has rightly been labeled one of the world’s most transformational thinkers,” says Garrett President Javier A. Viera. “As students prepare for lives of ministry, scholarship, and public service, his work reminds us exactly what is at stake and calls the church to live into its fullest potential.”

Dr. Jennings is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School, a prolific author, and one the world’s foremost theologians. His book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race was awarded American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in constructive-reflective studies, and he is also the recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his landmark scholarship on race and Christianity. More recently, his book After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging was named Publisher’s Weekly 2020 Book of the Year and has become an instant classic. His commencement words promise moral clarity in a moment of international peril, charging assembled students to lives of service that bring God’s love to where it’s needed most. And his incisive analysis about the history of Christianity, race, and colonialism can help everyone better understand the work to which we’re called.

In addition to Dr. Jennings, Garrett will also confer an honorary degree upon the Reverend Dr. Lizzette Gabriel-Montalvo. Affectionately known as “the People’s Bishop,” Bishop Gabriel-Montalvo has been a pioneering leader in Methodist communities across Latin America and the Caribbean. She was elected President of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL) prior to her election to the episcopacy—becoming the first person who was not a bishop to serve in that role. In 2022, she was elected Bishop of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, making history as its first female bishop.

A proud Puerto Rican leader, she has long been a trailblazer—earlier in her career she became the first female chaplain of the Puerto Rico Army National Guard. She continues to serve as a member of the United Methodist Church Council of Bishops, in a ministry that has been marked by advocacy and service to marginalized communities, including migrants, women, people with disabilities, and families in need.

The selection of this year’s commencement honorees reflects Garrett Seminary’s expanding global vision and its deep commitments to theological rigor and imagination, embodied faith that cultivates justice, compassion, and hope, and leadership that exemplifies commitment to the thriving of the Church and the healing of the world. “As Garrett becomes an increasingly global institution, we must incline our ears toward scholars and leaders who help us chart a course beyond colonial legacies,” says President Viera. “Dr. Jennings and Bishop Gabriel-Montalvo personify a witness that is expansive in its love and unflinching in its willingness to call the church and theological academy to the work of repair and resurrection.

Garrett Seminary warmly invites the community to join in celebrating the Class of 2026 and to be inspired by leaders whose lives bear witness to the transformative power of faith in the public square.