Register now for Convocation 2019!
Save the date for Alumni/ae Convocation 2019!
October 15, 2019
Registration tables will open at 8:30 am and the event will begin with opening worship at 10:00 am. Join Andover Newton faculty, staff, and your fellow alumni/ae for this annual event. For a full schedule, visit the YDS Convocation schedules and scroll down to Tuesday, October 15th. The convocation schedules can be found here.
Convocation Speaker
Randy Mayer (MDiv ‘94) will speak on the theme “Grace on the Margins.”
Deeply influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Randy Mayer and his family moved to the Borderlands 21 years ago so he could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Arizona – 35 miles from the US/Mexico border. Randy and his congregation have helped develop many of the humanitarian groups (Humane Borders, No Más Muertes, and Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans) that give food, water, and medical care to migrants in the desert – for no one should be dying in our deserts. Randy has also guided the Good Shepherd in creating the Sahuarita Food Bank, the Javarita Coffeehouse, a progressive theological lecture series, and Common Ground on the Border – a three-day cultural event using arts to foster conversation around struggles of immigration and border life. Randy is a 1994 graduate of Andover Newton Theological School and received his Doctorate in Ministry from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2012.
Workshops
Reflections on “Grace” in the Hebrew Bible
Leader: Gregory Mobley
Though it has been in circulation for two millennia, the idea of God’s grace—“amazing” in the words of John Newton, “awful” for Aeschylus—has never lost its currency. To guard against it becoming another shopworn artifact of popular religious speech so smoothed over and flattened that it loses its defining rough edges and nuances through overuse, this workshop considers the meanings of grace in the Hebrew Bible where this idea so central to New Testament and Christian discourse was first minted. In the Hebrew Bible, “grace” is neither conveyed through nor confined to a single linguistic root, but by a bouquet of virtues—“mercy,” “compassion,” “charm,” “favor,” and more—used to express the irresistible attraction of God. In this workshop, we will seek to enrich both our spiritual vocabulary and souls through an encounter with the concept of grace in the Hebrew Bible.
Border of Death, Valley of Life: Ministry in the Epicenter
Leader: Randy Mayer (MDiv ‘94)
The borderlands has long been a place of stunning beauty, extravagant hospitality, and rich cultural diversity. It is also a hostile, dangerous, and deadly space where thousands of migrants have died as they are pushed by the violence and poverty in their home countries and pulled into the economy and shelter of the United States. Over the past few years the response of the political class of all stripes has been to throw walls, agents, and the military at the border. Religious leaders like Randy Mayer have offered other solutions like practicing the hospitality of the Samaritan at the border. Come and hear about life and ministry in the epicenter of our nation’s border crisis.
Grace and Forgiveness in the Seminary and the Church
Leaders: S. Mark Heim (MDiv ‘76) and Laura Kisthardt (MDiv ‘20)
Current student and Andover Newton Founder Laura Kisthardt will share her perspective on grace in the seminary and the church. The Andover Newton Student Founders chose “Grace” as their theme for the academic year 2019-2020. Laura will share how this theme came about, as well as reflect on the growth of the Andover Newton community at Yale Divinity School. Mark Heim will share some brief comments on some of his recent research regarding grace and forgiveness. Together they will lead a discussion about the place of these central Christian realities amid contemporary currents of “take no prisoners” polarization.
