Upcoming Events from the Neighborhood Collaborative

Henderson Leadership Conference 2024 – Celebrating 40 Years
J. Hubert Henderson Lecture and Leadership Conference
“Faithful Resistance: Choosing Christ over Empire” with Diana Butler Bass and Leah Schade
Sept. 22-24, 2024
In Person and Online

Visit the event page for full details.

OVERVIEW

National elections can stir up conflict, anxiety, and fear. Our churches feel these tensions too. Preachers take great care to sidestep partisan politics from the pulpit, yet still touch a nerve on one side or the other (or both). Administrative meetings take on the tenor of point/counter-point news debates. Bible study groups wonder aloud how faithful Christians can interpret Scripture so differently in applying it to current events. Meanwhile, concerns about election violence threaten our wider communities, as Christian imagery and language are co-opted by movements of political extremism and hatred.

How should Christian leaders respond? Ignoring these dangers will not make them go away in society or sanctuary. A better approach may be faithful resistance: engaging in the difficult work of peacemaking in congregations and communities facing partisan polarization. With inspiring lectures, strategies for preaching in and beyond election season, and creative exploration of what resistance can look like, this year’s Henderson Leadership Conference will equip pastors and congregants to choose the way of Christ over the empires of the world.

PRESENTERS

The 2024 Henderson Lectures will be delivered by award-winning author, speaker, and preacher Dr. Diana Butler Bass, one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality, especially where faith intersects with politics and culture. Dr. Bass will deliver three lectures, one of which—on Monday evening—is free and open to the public.

Following these three lectures, the Rev. Dr. Leah Schade will lead two large group workshops with table breakouts. Read more below.

For in person attendees, there will also be opportunities to explore art as resistance. Attendees have the option to visit the Maxo Vanka Murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Church in Millvale (transportation will be provided), and will also be invited to participate in a communal creation of art using provided materials, as a visible and tangible response to all we are hearing and learning throughout the conference.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

Click Here To Register

McClure Lecture and World Mission Initiative Conference with Harvey Kwiyani
Oct. 11-12, 2024
In-person and Online

In collaboration with and co-sponsored by the Office of Continuing Education and the World Mission Initiative

OVERVIEW

In the emerging landscape of mission, refugees, migrants, and the church in the Global South—traditionally viewed as recipients of mission goods and services—have become a major source of innovation and leadership in the founding of new worshiping communities, the provision of community services, and the work of advocacy for justice around the world. Our 2024 World Mission Initiative Conference will be held Oct. 11-12 and will highlight “Mission in the Margins: Lessons and Practices from the Global Church,” which will highlight this paradigm shift in God’s mission and how we can learn from our siblings in Christ on the other sides of our world. As we’ve done for the last two conferences, this year we will again combine the conference with the annual W. Don McClure Lecture. This year’s conference will also coincide with one of our Fall Hybrid Gatherings, where all students taking hybrid classes will gather on campus for learning and community building.

LECTURER

Dr. Harvey Kwiyani is a Malawian theologian currently serving as CEO of Global Connections, the UK Network for World Mission. He leads a master's program exploring diasporas in world Christianity at Church Mission Society. He is the founder and executive director of Missio Africanus and the general editor of Missio Africanus: The Journal of African Missiology. He has authored several books, including Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West and Multicultural Kingdom: Ethnic Diversity, Mission and the Church. He received his Ph.D. from Luther Seminary following a research on the missiological (or theological) implications of the presence of African Christians in the United States. He blogs at www.harveykwiyani.substack.com.

SCHEDULE

See the event page for full details on this two-day conference featuring worship, keynote lectures, and workshops.

REGISTRATION

The fee for this event is $20. Visit the website to register.

Albright-Deering Lectures with Dr. Lovett H. Weems Jr.
Feb. 18-19, 2025
In-person and Online

In collaboration with and co-sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church

OVERVIEW

The Albright-Deering Lectures in Methodist Studies were established in 1999 through individual contributions and a generous gift from Joseph and Gail Deering of Dayton, Ohio, to celebrate Joseph’s career accomplishments and to honor their former pastor, the Rev. Dr. H. Pat Albright. The lectureship is intended to bring outstanding scholars in the Wesleyan tradition to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary community.

LECTURER

Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is distinguished professor of church leadership and senior consultant of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. Weems was the founding director of the Lewis Center in 2003, coming to the position after 18 years as president of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. He became senior consultant in 2017. A native of Mississippi, he was a local church pastor in that state for many years. His time in local church ministry in Mississippi were marked by emphasis on both evangelism and social concerns. His work there led the distinguished Mississippi writer Willie Morris to describe him as “one of the persons who added much to the growing civility of Mississippi.”

SCHEDULE

Coming soon! Leave your e-mail to be notified.

REGISTRATION

The Albright-Deering Lectures are free and open to the public. There may be costs associated with additional programming related to the lecture.

Please leave your e-mail below to be reminded when the registration for this event goes live.

ABOUT THE ALBRIGHT-DEERING LECTURES

Joseph W. Deering was a graduate of Harvard University (B.A.) and Stanford University (M.B.A.). He came to Pittsburgh in 1980 as the president of Eljer Plumbingware. The following year his family became active in Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church and began a lifelong friendship with the Albrights.

The Rev. Dr. H. Pat Albright was an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, serving three churches in his 38 years of active ministry: Wesley United Methodist in New Castle, Pa., from 1956 to 1964; First United Methodist in Erie, Pa., from 1964 to 1978; and Mt. Lebanon United Methodist from 1978 until his retirement in active ministry in 1994.

During his life, Pat also served Pittsburgh Theological Seminary as adjunct faculty in homiletics, and served on the PTS Board of Directors from 1989 to 1998 and then as an emeritus member of the Board until his death in 2014. By all accounts he was a true Methodist, passionate about education and scholarship—not for the sake of acquiring knowledge only, but for the strengthening of ministry in local churches.

Keslo Lecture with Keri L. Day
March 13-15, 2025
In-person and Online

In collaboration with and co-sponsored by the Office of Continuing Education and the Metro-Urban Institute

OVERVIEW

The Kelso Lecture is funded by an endowment begun in 1957 as a memorial for Dr. James A. Kelso, world renowned biblical archaeologist and former president of Western Theological Seminary, a precedent institution of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Starting with the 1982-1983 academic year, the Kelso Lecture has focused on the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In recent years the lecture has been part of Community Conversations on Race and Faith.

The PTS Metro-Urban Institute selects the Kelso lecturer, and in 2025, the lecture will be held in conjunction with the Metro-Urban Institute Conference.

LECTURER

Dr. Keri Day is professor of constructive theology and African American religion at Princeton Theological Seminary. She earned a B.S. in political science and economics from Tennessee State University, an M.A. in teligion and ethics from Yale University Divinity School, and her Ph.D. in religion from Vanderbilt University. Her teaching and research interests are in womanist/feminist theologies, social critical theory, cultural studies, economics, and Afro-Pentecostalism. She has authored four academic books, Unfinished Business: Black Women, The Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (2012); Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives (2015); Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education (2021); and her most recent book, Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging (2022). She has also been recognized by NBC News as one of six black women at the center of gravity in theological education in America. She is a fourth generation preacher in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).

Alongside her scholarship, she also engages public policy leaders. She has participated in White House briefings in Washington, D.C. to discuss issues related to economic policy, religious freedom, faith-based initiatives, human rights efforts, and peace building efforts around the world. She has been a guest political commentator on KERA/NPR, DFW/FOX News, and Huffpost Live on issues related to faith and politics. She has written for the New York Daily News, The Christian Century, The Feminist Wire, and the Huffington Post.

SCHEDULE

Coming soon! Check back later for details.

REGISTRATION

The Kelso Lecture is free and open to the public. There may be costs associated with additional programming related to the lecture.

Please leave your e-mail below to be reminded when the registration for this event goes live.

David S. Schaff Lectures with Teresa L. Fry Brown
April 23, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio
April 24, 2025 at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pa.
In-person and Online

LECTURER

The Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown is the associate dean of academic affairs and Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Additionally, she is the 14th historiographer, the editor of the A.M.E. Review, and executive director of research and scholarship and president of the General Officers’ Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Fry Brown served as director of Black church studies at Candler from 2007 to 2015. She earned her doctor of philosophy in religious and theological studies from the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver, with an emphasis in religion and social transformation (1996). She earned her master of divinity from Iliff School of Theology (1988), master of science degree (1975), and bachelor of science degree (1973) in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Central Missouri. 

Fry Brown has extensive teaching and preaching experience in national, international, academic, and ecumenical settings. A prolific author, her books include Delivering the Sermon: Voice, Body and Animation in Proclamation (2008); Can A Sister Get a Little Help: Advice and Encouragement for Black Women in Ministry (2008); God Don’t Like Ugly:  African American Women Handing on Spiritual Values (2000); Weary Throats and New Song: Black Women Proclaiming God’s Word (2003) and the 2006 African American History Devotional (2006). Additionally, she has published 50 other reviews, chapters, and commentaries.

Fry Brown is a member of the American Academy of Religion (Steering Committee of Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group), Society for the Study of Black Religion, and the Academy of Homiletics (frrst vice wresident 2021, then president 2022). She was honored for her academic achievements at the Eighteenth Annual Black Religious Scholar Group Consultation at the American Academy of Religion (2015), and was honored with the Emory-Williams Distinguished Teaching Award (2017), Samuel Dewitt Proctor Beautiful Are the Feet Award (2019), and Turner Theological Seminary Lifetime Achievement Award (2021). She is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and an associate minister at New Bethel A.M.E. Church, Lithonia, Ga.

Fry Brown’s life is governed by the words of the Prophet Isaiah “Those whose hope is in the Lord gain new strength” and Zora Neale Hurston, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

SCHEDULE

Coming soon! Check back later for details.

Beginning in 2025, the Schaff Lectures will coincide with PTS Alumnae/i Days, and attendees to Alumnae/i Days will be invited to attend the Schaff Lectures in Pittsburgh.

REGISTRATION

The Schaff Lecture is free and open to the public. There may be costs associated with additional programming related to the lecture.

Please leave your e-mail above to be reminded when the registration for this event goes live.

OVERVIEW

This lecture series is named for David S. Schaff, who taught church history for 23 years at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and is best known as co-editor of the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia. The lectures, which are intended to be academic in nature, occur over a two- or three-day period. A unique feature of the series is that some of the presentations take place in nearby Youngstown, Ohio, in collaboration with the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

The late Jane Booth Schaff (Mrs. Philip H. Schaff), 1894-1981, came from a family with historic ties to theological education. For 23 years, her father-in-law, Professor David S. Schaff, taught church history at Western Theological Seminary. Western is one of the antecedents of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Before beginning his teaching duties in 1903, he held two pastorates.

In her will, Mrs. Schaff provided for the completion of the endowment of the previously established David S. Schaff Lectureship at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, with an important stipulation and addition that the Schaff Lecturer(s) would deliver one address in Youngstown. This was a unique concept, bringing a world renowned lecturer to the Mahoning Valley for religious and cultural enrichment. For this reason, representatives of the finest scholarship of the theological world visit Youngstown annually to participate in this program. This educational experience is open to people of all denominations and faiths and celebrates the power of words shared to create, support, and thus nurture and strengthen community. The faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary select the Schaff lecturer, rotating among nine academic disciplines in theological education.