October 2019
The Rev. Kymberley Clemons-Jones ’05, the Rev. Tom Goodhue ’75, and Rev. Emily Odom ’90, Director of Alumni/ae Relations would like to invite you to attend a festive and informative luncheon gathering of Union and Episcopal Divinity School alums at The Presbytery Center in Commack, N.Y., on Tuesday, October 22nd, at 12:30 p.m. This will be a time to gather in fellowship, share stories, and build community. Emily Odom will share an update on the seminary and we will hear from special guest presenter, Afua Akwaah Ofori-Atta. Guest Speaker Bio: Afua Akwaah Ofori-Atta is a pharmacist with a passion for youth development, children’s health—especially children with special needs—and patient safety issues in Ghana. Ofori-Atta is registered with the Ghana Association of Coaching Practitioners, is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, and is a Founder/Director of Karisa Foundation, a Christian NGO with a goal for ensuring total healing for the body, spirit and soul for all. She is [...]
Find out more
After the justice system failed to prosecute former NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, it was civilian oversight that led to the officer’s firing. This panel will address the value of civilian oversight to the disciplinary process, discuss Charter Revision recommendations for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and dissect the current strengths and weaknesses of the civilian oversight process. We hope that you can join us. RSVP by visiting utsnyc.edu/garner.
Find out more
“A Fresh Word” (formerly Got Sermon?), brings the gifts of our faculty to our alumni/ae, students, neighbors, and friends who primarily serve congregations in ministries of preaching. Click here to view the flyer. Karl Barth said that “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.” Why not leverage the power of this great gift of humor in preaching and ministry? Join Rev. Susan Sparks—trial lawyer, turned standup comedian and Baptist minister—for an entertaining and instructive afternoon on how humor can transform preaching, strengthen pastoral care, and inspire hope and reconciliation. Rev. Susan Sparks is America’s only female comedian with a pulpit. She is Senior Minister of Madison Ave. Baptist Church. “Joyful Preaching: Laugh Your Way to Grace” will also feature Dr. David Carr, Professor of Old Testament, and Shola Adegbite, Ph.D. Student in New Testament. Tickets are $50. The cost of the event includes lunch and light refreshments. Click here to purchase tickets.
Find out more
Date: Friday, October 25, 1:00 – 6:00 pm; Saturday, October 26, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Instructor: Nahum Ward-Lev RSVP: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/perceiving-thinking-acting-as-a-prophet-an-exploration Through text study, conversation, and experiential exercise, this course is a community inquiry into the role of prophetic wisdom in societal transformation. Drawing insight and inspiration from sacred Scriptures as well as our own life experience, we ask: What wisdom can we draw from the Hebrew prophets to guide our social action? How does the liberating energy flowing throughout creation support our social justice endeavors? What practices cultivate our capacity to perceive the world through the eyes of God’s love and concern? How do we discern the prophetic action that we are called to engage? And how might this inquiry shape our next steps, individually and collectively? Students have an opportunity to explore spiritual practices that might help ground us in our most loving, wise and resilient selves while pursuing the challenging work of uprooting oppression. This course [...]
Find out more
This gathering will critically analyze how racism and Christian Nationalism shape the institutions of religion, the academy, civic society, and sanctuary for Latinx communities.
Find out moreNovember 2019
Join NYC Chaplain and faith leader, Abeda Khanam, “Building Resiliency In Our Time: Mental Health, Mindfulness and Self Care,” sponsored by the VISION program at Union.
Find out more
Alums and friends are invited to join Dr. Hamori for coffee before the lecture at 5:00 p.m. If you are planning to attend this presentation and the coffee beforehand, please email eodom@uts.columbia.edu so that we may let Dr. Hamori know to expect you on Monday, November 4.
Find out more
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, originally from New York City. He [...]
Find out more
Date: Friday, November 8, 1:00 – 6:00 pm; Saturday, November 9, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Instructor: Steven D. Paulikas and Chris Lee RSVP: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/putting-gods-peace-in-print As our country endures one of the stormiest seasons in its political history, the witness of its faith leaders is more important than ever. Like many dissenting voices, however, progressive religious perspectives are too often either dismissed outright or confined to conversations happening far from the public square. This course aims to foster the skills necessary to conceive, write and place articles in the opinion sections of daily print newspapers and various online outlets. First, students study successful opinion writing from a faith perspective, then they focus on developing students’ own ideas in a workshop environment. Students will be required to bring at least a pitch, and preferably a rough draft of a piece, to the first session. The Rev. Steven D. Paulikas has served at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Park [...]
Find out more
Date: Friday, November 15, 1:00 – 6:00 pm Saturday, November 16, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Instructor: David Wildman and Katie Reimer RSVP: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/palestinian-christians-and-loving-resistance In the 10 years since the launch of the Kairos Palestine Document, churches and Christians around the world have joined Palestinian Christians in taking up the call of loving non-violent resistance. This course looks at the Kairos Palestine Document, a statement of faith written prayerfully in 2009 by Palestinian Christians. These Palestinian Christians reflect on the 50+ year military occupation of their land, calling upon churches and Christians worldwide to stand against injustice and apartheid, and work for a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine. The document is a “cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God,” and it holds a clear position of loving non-violent resistance as a response to apartheid and military occupation. The Kairos Palestine Document uses 1 Corinthians 13:13 to frame Palestinian experience and [...]
Find out more
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. David Loy comes from both the Japanese Zen tradition and Insight. He began Zen practice [...]
Find out moreDecember 2019
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi is the Head of the Mountains and Rivers Order, abbot and [...]
Find out moreJanuary 2020
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Ven. Bhante Buddharakkita, Founder & Abbot, was born and raised in Uganda, Africa. He first [...]
Find out more
Date: Friday, January 31, 1:00 – 6:00 pm; Saturday, February 1, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Instructor: Donna Schaper RSVP: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/bricks-and-mortals-removethepews This course teaches queer and non-binary theology of sacred sites. It will show what we need the sacred sites for, how endangered they are and how to save them. Establishing an incarnational approach to buildings that neither elevates nor demeans them, it will offer ways to steward them. The course highlight multi-use of sacred spaces as a way to be green, to be neighborly and to establish less distinction between sacralized and desacralized spaces. It argues for hyper-use of open, public spaces in worlds where the privatization of space is rapidly increasing. Students learn how self-governing small institutions are foundational to larger democratic institutions. Donna Schaper is Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church since 2006. She is active in th New York City Sanctuary Movement, Bricks and Mortals (sacred sites and real estate) and with [...]
Find out moreFebruary 2020
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist. DaRa has been a meditator for [...]
Find out more
Please join us for A Fresh Word–Noche: Metaphors for Preaching from the Darkness on Friday, February 7, 2020, from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm. Speakers to include Cláudio Carvalhaes ’07, Associate Professor of Worship, Esther J. Hamori, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, and Jeremey Hultin, Associate Professor of Biblical Languages. Schedule to be announced. “A Fresh Word” (formerly Got Sermon?), brings the gifts of our faculty to our alumni/ae, students, neighbors, and friends who primarily serve congregations in ministries of preaching. Tickets are $50. The cost of the event includes lunch and light refreshments. Purchase tickets Tickets: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/a-fresh-word-2020.
Find out moreMarch 2020
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Gina Sharpe is co-founder of New York Insight Meditation Center for which she was Guiding [...]
Find out moreApril 2020
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Dr. Pilar Jennings ’09 is a psychoanalyst in private practice based in New York City [...]
Find out moreMay 2020
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world. How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time. Khenpo Pema Wangdak became a monk at the age of seven and later attended the [...]
Find out more