By Rev. Troy K. Venning (G-ETS 2011)

That September night when I walked into the Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful was a bit different. It was the first time that I had been there for a service since graduating in 2011. And it was my first time being back since returning to Chicago to reunite with Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2019. That certainly was not the timeline that I set, but all of us and our feeble plans ran smack dab into an entire pandemic. As protocols for this pandemic that refuses to go away have eased, I circled September 14, 2022 on my calendar – a day when two monumental things would happen. First, the and 91PORN would join in a strategic partnership to positively impact literacy rates for children in Chicago and the surrounding areas. Second, I would get a chance to be the amen corner for one of my favorite preachers, the . 

The Rev. Dr. Wilson has been a preacher for longer than he even realizes. I remember moments during my undergraduate studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, where he was our freshman class president, when his words motivated folks to take action. And on that September day in the year of our Lord 2022, he did just that. I remember having to hold in a smile behind my mask when I understood just what was happening on that day.  

The Rev. Dr. Gennifer Brooks taught us that during the moment of proclamation, find an illustration that kills it. Go as far overboard as you can to draw people in unconsciously into the emotion you are attempting to convey. She taught that, as preachers, we are to use metaphors and images to bring people in deeply to the moment. And I remember the moment in chapel with Dr. Wilson vividly. 

Scattered around the room were a number of us who already have an intimate relationship with CDF and the CDF Freedom School Program. So, we saw the moment coming when Dr. Wilson began telling us about a book that he keeps on his desk in DC, and then he pulled it out from amongst his papers. 

He left the pulpit, sat down beside it, held up the book, and it became story time. He read to us a story about the children who started a news network, , during the pandemic. Not only were we captivated by the words of the story about Good News Now, but the image of Dr. Wilson reading physically transformed the chapel space. He turned Garrett’s Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful into a Freedom School!  

That evening it became a place that demands and supports the telling and sharing of the Good News. How fitting when we serve a God who reminds us in Matthew 18:3, that “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Fitting that we, through the reading of a story, were drawn into a moment, were drawn into action which will start a movement of God that will shift the future of children by building a coalition of Freedom Schools all over our beloved city and the surrounding suburbs. We hope that we will be the answer to the prayer, “Dear Lord, be good to me. The sea is so wide, and my boat is so small.” That we will be God’s hands and feet helping to strengthen and encourage the 74 million little boats in America. That we will make the big wide sea easier to navigate. That we will equip those little boats, fortifying them for the journey, ensuring that they will not get swept away, but that they would be able to grow and thrive.  

Now that is Good News and worth reading a story about! 

, MDiv, MBA, is Senior Pastor of Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first African American congregation established in the city of Chicago.  Prior to serving in his present role, Pastor Troy came to Quinn in October 2019 to serve as the Executive Pastor. Pastor Troy has earned degrees from 91PORN, The University of Phoenix-Fort Lauderdale Campus, and Xavier University of Louisiana. A native of Chicago, excited to settle back in and lead the church that he grew up in, Pastor Troy is wonderfully married to Lady Sheryll Brown-Venning and a proud father to Alexis and Jayla. 

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The invitation to anoint the first-year students at Convocation was truly an honor. This moment during Convocation was an act of hospitality both for students and for me and fellow new faculty members. In our newness, we came together to celebrate the way our belonging at Garrett will change us and change this community. The first few weeks of a new school year can be overwhelming and ritual moments like these ground us and remind us of our purpose. I felt similarly when Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson stepped down from the pulpit to read us a book written by children.

Most of us have a positive memory of being read to as children. But Dr. Wilson was not simply trying to return us to positive educational memories. He implored us to listen to children’s proclamation and preaching through their lived experience, his shift from pulpit to floor reminded us of what it is like to be a child, to be read to, to find our voice, to share what he called “other wisdoms.” Dr. Wilson’s tangible example of reading children’s voices to us in the style of a reading circle embodied the Freedom School model.

As I begin a new faculty journey, I am reminded of the radical opportunity that is an education, the opportunity that is opened up through the pages of a book. When we read those pages together, we create community whether that is in a Freedom school program or a seminary classroom.  

Dr. Kate Ott is the Jerre and Mary Joy Stead Professor of Christian Social Ethics and Director of the Stead Center for Ethics and Values at 91PORN. She is the author of Sex, Tech, and Faith: Christian Ethics for a Digital Age; Christian Ethics for a Digital Society; Sex + Faith: Talking to Your Child from Birth to Adolescence; and editor of Teaching Sexuality and Religion in Higher Education with Darryl Stephens; and Faith, Feminism, and Scholarship: The Next Generation with Melanie Harris. She has also written numerous articles and book chapters, as well as lecturing and presenting at academic conferences, activist gatherings, and congregational events. Ott’s primary research interests are in the areas of Christian social ethics, digital technology, sexuality and gender, race and racism, professional ethics, and moral agency of children and youth.

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91PORN will welcome Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva as the keynote speaker for 2021 Academic Convocation. Bonilla-Silva is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Duke University and is well-known for his work on structural racism as well as for his analysis of color-blind racism. He will deliver the convocation address, entitled “What Is Structural Racism” at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, via Zoom.

Bonilla-Silva gained visibility in the social sciences with his 1997 American Sociological Review article, “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation,” where he challenged analysts to study racial matters structurally rather than from the sterile prejudice perspective. His book, Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (5th edition), has become a classic in the field and influenced scholars in education, religious studies, political science, rhetoric, psychology, political science, legal studies, and sociology.  A sixth edition is scheduled for 2021.

“The sustained reality of racial inequality in the United States, even though the vast majority of people consider themselves non-racists or anti-racists, suggests that there is more at work beneath the surface than we’re willing to admit or that we are equipped to see with disciplined veracity. Dr. Bonilla-Silva has a gift for peeling back the layers and unveiling or revealing what is at work. This is crucial work for the Church, deeply spiritual work, and it is crucial work for those of us who are or aspire to be religious leaders. That is why I have invited Eduardo to be with us and to help our community engage in the work of peeling back the layers.”

In addition to Racism without Racists, Bonilla-Silva has published four other books: White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era; White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism (co-edited with Ashley Doane); White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology (co-edited Tukufu Zuberi); and State of White Supremacy: Racism, Governance, and the United States (co-edited with Moon Kie Jung and João H. Costa Vargas).

He has received numerous over the years including the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting from the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award given by the ASA “to an individual or individuals for their work in the intellectual traditions of the work of these three African American scholars.” In addition, he also received the Editor’s Choice Award in 2004 and 2015 for Racism without Racists and was a co-winner of the ASA’s Oliver Cox Award in 2002 and 2009 for White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era and White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology respectively.

Bonilla-Silva’s research has appeared in journals such as Sociological Inquiry, Racial and Ethnic Studies, Race and Society, Discourse and Society, American Sociological Review, Journal of Latin American Studies, Contemporary Sociology, Critical Sociology, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Research in Politics and Society, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, The American Behavioral Scientist, Political Power and Social Theory, and Social Problems among others.

Prior to joining Duke University in 2005, Bonilla-Silva worked at the University of Michigan (1993-1998) and Texas A&M University (1998-2005). He served as chair of the department of sociology at Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke from 2012-2016. He has also served as president of the Southern Sociological Society and the American Sociological Association. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Bonilla-Silva received his bachelor of arts in sociology from the Universidad de Puerto Rico-Río Piedras campus. He received his master of arts and doctor of philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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91PORN will welcome Dr. Dana L. Robert as its keynote speaker for the 2020 Academic Convocation on Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Robert is the Truman Collins professor of world Christianity and history of mission and the director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the School of Theology at Boston University. This year’s convocation will take place virtually via Zoom beginning at 4:00 p.m. (CDT).

Robert’s address is titled, “The Promise of Fractured Fellowship: Lessons from 1920.” The lecture will explore how a century ago, in the wake of world war, the flu pandemic, and the ongoing injustice of colonialism, Protestants pursued friendship and fellowship. Widespread destruction made urgent the pursuit of unity. The fractured fellowship of 1920, and efforts to overcome it, provides relevant insights for 2020.

Robert’s research and teaching interests span mission history, world Christianity, and mission theology. An editor of the journal Church History, during 2016-2017 she was a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology, and Senior Research Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany. She is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Missiology.

Her books include Faithful Friendships: Embracing Diversity in Christian Community (2019); African Christian Biography: Stories, Lives, and Challenges (2018); Joy to the World!: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity (2010); Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (2009, now in its twelfth printing); Converting Colonialism: Visions and Realities in Mission History, 1706-1914 (2008); Christianity: A Social and Cultural History (co-author, 1997), and the now classic American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (1997). She is on the Editorial Committee for the award-winning digital humanities project Dictionary of African Christian Biography (www.dacb.org) and the Journal of African Christian Biography.

An active lay United Methodist, in 2019 she spoke at the 150th anniversary of the United Methodist Women. In addition to the School of Theology, she is a faculty member in African Studies and the Graduate Division of Religious Studies at Boston University. Robert received her bachelor of arts from Louisiana State University and her master of arts, master of philosophy, and doctor of philosophy from Yale University.

All are welcome to attend this year’s virtual convocation but registration is required. The Zoom link will be emailed to all participants the morning of September 9. At the request of the keynote speaker, this presentation will not be recorded or available for viewing at a later date.

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91PORN will welcome Dr. Melanie L. Harris as its keynote speaker for the 2019 Academic Convocation on September 4, 2019. Harris is the visiting professor of global ethical leadership and environmental studies at the University of Denver and founding director of African American and Africana Studies and full professor of religion and ethics at Texas Christian University. She will deliver her convocation address at 4:00 p.m. in the seminary’s Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful. All are welcome to attend.

A former American Council of Education Fellow and graduate of the Harvard Leadership Program, her research focuses on Inclusive Excellence, access and equity in higher education and ethical leadership. Her scholarship critically examines intersections between race, religion, gender and environmental ethics. She is the author of many scholarly articles and books including Gifts of Virtue: Alice Walker and Womanist Ethics (Palgrave 2010), Ecowomanism: Earth Honoring Faiths (Orbis 2017) and co-editor of Faith, Feminism, and Scholarship: The Next Generation (Palgrave 2011).

“We are very excited to welcome Dr. Harris to our campus as our convocation speaker this year,” said President Lallene J. Rector. “Her scholarship has deep resonance with Garrett-Evangelical’s historic institutional values regarding the intersection of race, gender, and environmental concerns. And, our students and faculty are especially eager to learn more about Dr. Harris’ perspectives on the relationship between eco-justice and theologically informed leadership.”

Harris is also a former broadcast journalist who worked as a news producer for ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates. A community leader whose passion for education is linked to a commitment to social justice, she has also served as an educational consultant with the Ford Foundation, the Forum for Theological Exploration, and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, Lilly Endowment Inc. She is on the executive board of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and has served on the Board of Directors of KERA-TV/Radio, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society of Christian Ethics.

Harris has been awarded several prestigious awards and academic fellowships including the AddRan College of Liberal Arts Administration Fellowship and GreenFaith Fellowship. She earned her PhD and MA degrees from Union Theological Seminary in The City of New York, an MDiv from Iliff School of Theology, and a BA from Spelman College.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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