PROFESSOR ROGER OWENS PRESENTS LECTURE AHEAD OF INSTALLATION TO Hugh Thomson Kerr Chair in Pastoral Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary invites you to an installation lecture Oct. 25, 2022, at 4:30 p.m. in Hicks Chapel. The Rev. Dr. L. Roger Owens, professor of Christian spirituality and ministry, will present the Hugh Thomson Kerr Chair in Pastoral Theology Lecture—"The Good Enough Pastor? Reimagining Pastoral Excellence for a Post-Pandemic Church"—ahead of his installation to this chair Nov. 8, 2022.
This event will be in-person and online. A reception will follow the lecture.
Register for the combined installation service Nov. 8, 2022, during which time professors Leanna Fuller, Scott Hagley, Angela Hancock, Roger Owens, and Drew Smith will be installed into their respective chairs.
ABOUT PROFESSOR OWENS
The Rev. Dr. L. Roger Owens received his Ph.D. in theology from Duke University where he was awarded a Lilly Fellowship for the Formation of a Learned Clergy. Before that he completed his M.Div. at Duke Divinity School. As an undergraduate he studied philosophy and Bible/religion at Anderson University in Indiana. Before coming to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Dr. Owens served both urban and rural churches in North Carolina for eight years as co-pastor with his wife, the Rev. Ginger Thomas. As a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA), Dr. Owens currently serves as co-senior pastor of Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church with his wife in addition to his work at the Seminary. His books include Everyday Contemplative: The Way of Prayerful Living (Upper Room Books, 2022), Threshold of Discovery: A Field Guide to Spirituality in Midlife (Church Publishing, 2019), A New Day in the City: Urban Church Revival (Abingdon, 2017), What We Need Is Here: Practicing the Heart of Christian Spirituality (Upper Room Books, 2015), Pastoral Work: Engagements with the Vision of Eugene Peterson (Cascade Press; edited with Jason Byassees), Abba, Give Me a Word: The Path of Spiritual Direction (Paraclete Press, 2012), Wendell Berry and Religion: Heaven’s Earthly Life (University of Kentucky Press, 2009; edited with Joel Shuman) and The Shape of Participation: A Theology of Church Practices (Cascade Press, 2010), which was called “this decade’s best work in ecclesiology” by The Christian Century. Dr. Owens has preached and lectured across the country, and his work has appeared in The Christian Century, Currents in Theology and Mission, The Journal of Religious Ethics, New Blackfriars, and elsewhere. Dr. Owens serves on the faculty for the Upper Room’s Academy for Spiritual Formation, where he lectures on the history and practice of Christian spirituality. Dr. Owens and his wife are the parents of Simeon, Silas, and Mary Clare.
ABOUT Hugh Thomson Kerr
Hugh Thomson Kerr was born in 1871 in Canada. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Toronto, graduated from Western Theological Seminary in 1897, and was ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery. He served pastorates in Pittsburgh, Kansas, and Chicago and then returned to Pittsburgh to become pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church, where he served from 1913-1945. Kerr was a member of the board of directors at Western Theological Seminary and a guest professor in homiletics from 1947-1950. The first minister to preach over the radio, many of his sermons were published by Shadyside Presbyterian Church and are cataloged in the Barbour Library at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Mable Lindsay Gillespie endowed this chair in 1958, eight years after Dr. Kerr’s death. In 1961 the Rev. Dr. Gordon E. Jackson was installed to the chair as its first occupant, and in 1995 the Rev. Dr. Andrew Purves, Jean and Nancy Davis Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, was named as its second occupant.