Alumni/ae Forum Featuring Randy Mayer
This is a virtual event that will take place via Zoom on April 29th at 1:00 PM EST. For those of you unable to join live, this meeting will be recorded and shared at a later time.
The Discipline of Loving Your Neighbor
“What does it actually take to love your neighbor when your neighbors don’t agree with you—or may even oppose what you do? For 25 years, our community has practiced a demanding kind of love along the U.S.–Mexico border—driving remote desert roads, offering water, aid, and presence to migrants in distress.
But that work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It puts us in regular contact with ranchers, Border Patrol agents, environmentalists, border bandits, and anti-immigrant activists—people with deeply different perspectives on immigration and our role in it.
This forum explores love not as a feeling, but as a discipline—something practiced in real time, in complex spaces, and across sharp disagreement. What does it mean to stay grounded, human, and open in those encounters? And how do we keep showing up with integrity when love gets hard?”
~ Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer
About Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer (ANTS MDiv, ‘94)
Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer is an ordained United Church of Christ minister. Deeply influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Randy and his family moved to the Borderlands 28 years ago so he could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd in Sahuarita, Arizona—35 miles from the US/Mexico border. As immigration and border issues have become more and more intense, Randy and his congregation have been key leaders of many of the humanitarian groups (Humane Borders, No Mas 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. In addition the Good Shepherd and the Samaritans have hosted the annual Common Ground on the Border event going on its 13th year.
ANS Alumni/ae Forum Background
The Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS) Alumni/ae Forum is a new initiative led by the ANS Alumni/ae Board to provide a platform that promotes collegial exchange and fosters greater engagement across our alumni/ae community. The virtual series will take place quarterly beginning with Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer’s talk on April 29, 2026 at 1:00PM EST. Each forum is free and available to all alumni/ae. The preliminary format consists of a 20-to-30-minute presentation or talk by the invited speaker, followed by a 15-to-20-minute discussion with the audience. For more information, please contact David C. Smith, Ph.D., Director of Institutional Advancement, at david.c.smith@yale.edu or call (203) 436-9947. We hope to see you there!