Support Emmaus Encounters (Click Here to Make Your Gift Today)

Emmaus Encounters Heads to Puerto Rico

From January 3RD-10TH, 2026, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS) and American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) will convene in San Juan for Emmaus Encounters Puerto Rico.

The 2026 twenty-three member cohort will be comprised of fifteen Yale Divinity School students, four ANS faculty, and four ABHMS staff.  In addition to San Juan, other key local sites and partners include Loiza, El Yunque National Forest, Vega Baja,  and The Happy Givers NPO.

The 2026 Emmaus Encounters will be the first of three annual travel seminars to Puerto Rico conducted by ANS. Like its predecessor in Hawai‘i, Emmaus Encounters Puerto Rico will explore the local community’s colonial past, current ecological challenges, and the unique socioeconomic currents that shape the island today.

The goal is not only for students to observe, learn, and help develop a collaborative and more equitable framework for community building in Puerto Rico, but also for the experience to positively impact their individual ministries and abilities as leaders for faith communities.  

Deeply Rooted In Puerto Rico

Building upon the lessons and relationships established in Hawai‘i, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School looks to expand Emmaus Encounters to include other communities, like Puerto Rico, that have played in an integral role in its institutional history.

Puerto Rico has been and continues to be an important part of Andover Newton Seminary‘s impact in Latinx and faith communities, as a direct result of the pioneering Puerto Rican theologian and scholar, Rev. Orlando Costas (1942–1987).

Ordained in 1965 by the American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, Costas served in pastoral and academic roles across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and beyond. He emphasized ministry to the marginalized, rooted in a theology that uplifted the poor, the oppressed, and the culturally displaced.

In 1984, Costas was appointed Academic Dean of Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS), where he championed access for minority students, led the creation of a Latinx theological studies program, and provided a vision of contextual and liberative theological education that remains influential across denominational lines.

His work was recognized through the creation of the Orlando and Rose Costas Lecture, which celebrates Puerto Rican and Latinx faith leadership; missionally oriented, justice-centered theological education; and the intercultural church. Costas was also an inaugural member of the Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School Hall of Fame, and in 2023,  he was further honored by Andover Newton at the American Baptist Churches Summit in Peurto Rico with tribute called Reading Costas in San Juan.

Today, Costas’ continues to inspire a new generation of Puerto Rican theologians and faith leaders, and both in memory and practice, Emmaus Encounters Puerto Rico is a true tribute to his legacy.

About Emmaus Encounters

Andover Newton Seminary  has a deep history of travel seminars and border-crossing immersion trips to places like India, Israel, Ecuador, and Kenya. After joining Yale Divinity School, ANS sought to reimagine the educational experience afforded through travel.

Andover Newton Seminary aimed to develop a travel seminar, Emmaus Encounters, through which seminary students could learn how to build and cultivate community on the road, by partnering directly with local communities, institutions, and faith leaders to develop a more equitable and sustainable framework beyond the neocolonialism of today’s academy.

Through Emmaus Encounters, students learn how to not only confront difficult colonial histories and the social, economic, and environmental consequences of imperialism, but also foster inclusive and lasting relationships that are more attuned with what God is doing now and the needs of faith communities today.

From 2023-2025, Emmaus Encounters traveled to Oʻahu, Hawai‘i, and explored the legacy of ANS Hall of Fame honoree, HenryʻŌpūkahaʻia, a Native Hawaiian scholar and Christian convert whose life helped catalyze the 19th-century Protestant missionary movement to Hawai‘i.

Emmaus Encounters Hawai‘i had a profoundly positive impact on ANS and demonstrated that there is incomparable value to learning how to cultivate and sustain community in a physical environment where there is a both a complicated institutional history and a vibrant coalition of educational, cultural, and faith partners.

For more information, please see Emmaus Encounters.

Get Involved

Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity (ANS) is a self-funded permanently embedded institution at Yale University. The first of two strategic priorities for ANS include scholarship funding in order to ensure that seminary students may continue to pursue their education tuition-debt free. The second is to fully endow the Emmaus Encounters program. To date, ANS has secured approximately 25% of its $1,000,000 goal. All gifts to Emmaus Encounters are fully tax deductible, and naming opportunities are available. 

Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity (ANS) is a self-funded permanently embedded institution at Yale University. The first of two strategic priorities for ANS include scholarship funding in order to ensure that seminary students may continue to pursue their education tuition-debt free. The second is to fully endow the Emmaus Encounters program. To date, ANS has secured approximately 25% of its $1,000,000 goal. All gifts to Emmaus Encounters are fully tax deductible, and naming opportunities are available.

Support Emmaus Encounters by making a gift online today, and if you are interested in sponsoring the Orlando and Rose Costas Lecture, then please contact David C. Smith, Ph.D., Director of Institutional Advancement, at (203)436-9947 or email david.c.smith@yale.edu.