Featured speakers
Click the names below to learn more about each of our speakers.
Osvaldo Vena
Osvaldo Vena, Associate
Professor of New Testament at Garrett
Theological Seminary, will be our Bible
study leader and will lead sessions with
Preaching from the Center participants.
(Click here to view the homework
assignments for these sessions.) A
specialist in the gospels, late epistles,
and apocalyptic literature of the New
Testament, Osvaldo is remembered by his
students for the way he empowers them to ask
all kinds of questions of the biblical text.
Born in Azul, Argentina, he attended the Buenos
Aires Bible Institute of the Christian and
Missionary Alliance from where he graduated in
1975 with a Th.B. He came to the U.S.A. in
August of 1976 to attend Bethel Theological
Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he
obtained a M.Div in 1980. During his time at
Bethel he served as a minister in an
independent Hispanic congregation in
Minneapolis.
In 1980 he entered Princeton Theological
Seminary, from where he graduated in 1981 with
a Th.M. Back in Argentina he was ordained in
1985 by the Reformed Church and was appointed
to serve in two different congregations of the
Presbyterian Church, first as interim minister
and later as senior pastor. From 1983 to 1989
he completed his Th.D. in ISEDET (Instituto
Superior de Estudios Teológicos) in Buenos
Aires. Invited by the Church of Scotland, he
spent nine months in New College, University of
Edinburgh, doing post-doctoral research.
From Scotland he came to the U.S.A. where he
served as an interim minister in a UCC
congregation in Joliet, Illinois and as a
bilingual teacher in two different school
districts in the Chicago area. He was called in
1995 to Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary as an assistant professor of New
Testament Interpretation and director of the
then Center of Hispanic Ministries. He was
promoted to associate professor in June of 2000
and granted tenure in October of 2001.
He has a book published, The Parousia and
Its Rereadings: The Development of the
Eschatological Consciousness in the Writings of
the New Testament, from Peter Lang, 2001,
as well as many articles written both in
English and Spanish. A second book, A
Handbook for Translators of the Gospel of
Mark, written in Spanish, is forthcoming,
published by the United Bible Societies. In
December of 2006 he released his first music
CD, Still a Dream, with original music and
lyrics based on the poetry of Arab and Jewish
children.
He is married and has two sons ages 23 and
20.
Marjorie Suchocki
She is the executive director of Process & Faith, a center that promotes the practical application of process-relational theology for faith communities, and a co-director of the Center for Process Studies. Her passion, however, is film. She is director of the annual Whitehead International Film Festival and has been a frequent Ecumenical Prize jurist at the Montreal and Berlin film festivals.
Marjorie will be one of the Preaching from the Center speakers (in a Sunday afternoon session open to all CEF participants) on the topic of "Faith and Film."
Bill McKibben
Bill's first book, The End of Nature, was the first book for a general audience on global warming; it's now available in 20 foreign languages. A former staff writer for the New Yorker, his work appears in Harpers, the Atlantic, the New York Review of Books, and a variety of other national publications. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and Lyndhurst fellowships and the Lannan Prize in Nonfiction Writing.
In his new book, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, “more” is no longer synonymous with “better”—indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. Our purchases, he says, need not be at odds with the things we truly value.
Some of his other books include: Hope, Human and Wild; Maybe One; Hundred Dollar Holiday; The Age of Missing Information; and Wandering Home: A Long Walk through America’s Most Hopeful Landscape.
Recently, Bill spearheaded two nationwide global warming action days, the largest events related to the environment since Earth Day. You can learn more about these events at Step It Up 2007.
Marjorie Thompson
Marjorie Thompson brings over 25 years of experience with retreat work, teaching, and writing in the area of Christian spiritual formation to her work. She is the author of Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life (Westminster/John Knox Press 1995/2005) and Family, The Forming Center: A Vision of the Role of Family in Spiritual Formation (Upper Room Books, 1996).
Marjorie has served in pastoral ministry and as adjunct instructor in several seminary settings. Marjorie's educational path includes Swarthmore College, McCormick Theological Seminary, and a Research Fellowship at Yale Divinity School where she was deeply influenced by her mentor, Henri J.M. Nouwen.
Ronald Allen
Ronald Allen received his Ph.D. from Drew University, the M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York and the A.B. from Phillips University. In addition to over 100 articles and chapters in books Allen is the author of thirty books. His most recent publications are Theology and Preaching: How Different Theologies Shape Preaching (Fortress Press, 2007) and The Life of Jesus For Today (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
He and Clark M. Williamson have authored a three-volume commentary published by Westminster John Knox Press on the Revised Common Lectionary that identifies and proposes remedies for anti-Jewish tendencies in the lectionary. The overall series is called “Preaching without Prejudice” with the individual volumes entitled Preaching the Gospels without Blaming the Jews, Preaching the Letters without Dismissing the Law, and Preaching the Old Testament.
From 2000-2004, he directed one of the first studies of people who listen to sermons to determine the qualities in preaching that encourage people to pay attention to the sermon and qualities that discourage them from doing so. This project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, is generating four books: Listening to Listeners: Homiletic Case Studies (jointly authored with Dale P. Andrews, L. Susan Bond, John S. McClure, Dan P. Moseley, and G. Lee. Ramsey, Jr.) (2004), Hearing the Sermon: Relationship, Content, Feeling (2004), Believing in Preaching: What Laity Think about Sermons (coauthored with Mary Alice Mulligan, Diane Turner-Sharazz and Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm) (2005) and, with Mary Alice Mulligan, Make the Word Come Alive: Lessons from Laity (2006). All are published by Chalice Press.
Allen and his spouse, the Rev. Linda McKiernnan-Allen, have five children: Canaan (26), Genesis (23), Moriah (20), Barek (20), and Sabbath (16). He and his family spent the summer in Zambia in 1990 and in Jamaica in 1998.
Taylor Burton-Edwards
Rev. Burton-Edwards is is an ordained elder in the North Indiana Conference, and he holds the Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a master of arts in peace studies from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He joined the staff of the General Board of Discipleship in September 2005.
His wife, Dr. Grace Burton-Edwards, is chaplain at St. Richard’s School (Indianapolis, IN) and congregational development/church planting consultant to the Diocese of Indianapolis (Episcopal Church USA). Taylor and Grace have two boys, Jacob (14) and William (10).
Safiyah Fosua
Her academic background includes a bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University, in English literature; and a doctor of ministry degree in Afrocentric Preaching from United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. Safiyah writes weekly lectionary-based preaching helps and articles for the General Board of Discipleship’s worship web page and has written for Upper Room publications, Cokesbury’s Daily Bible Study, Urban Ministries, Inc., and contributed to the recent Women of Color Study Bible. Among her published works are: Mother Wit: 365 Meditations for African-American Women, and Jesus and Prayer. She is the associate editor of the Africana Worship Book series, released by Discipleship Resources.
Dr. Fosua is a clergy member of the Greater New Jersey Annul Conference and a former missionary to Ghana, West Africa. She is married to the Rev. Dr. Kwasi Kena.
Dean McIntyre
He has a Phd.D. in fine arts from Texas Tech University, a master's degree in post-secondary music Education, and a bachelor's degree in organ performance. McIntyre has published works for organ, handbells, and adult and children's choirs with a number of publishers, and has authored Song Leading, a book on congregational singing for Discipleship Resources. He is the compiler of Hymns for the Revised Common Lectionary, an annual publication of Discipleship Resources. He is a member of ASCAP and a Life Member of The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.
Stephanie Hand
Stephanie is a master's degree graduate of Pfeiffer University and presently a student at Hood Theological Seminary. Stephanie loves to tell the old, old story from the voice of a new generation. She is a wife, mother, sister and friend.
Bob Winstead
Bob travels widely leading workshops and training events in Christian education and pastoral leadership. He is a national trainer for Disciple Bible Study, and teaches in the Course of Study Program for the Local Pastors in Georgia and Tennessee.
Bob’s hobbies include playing music, building log homes, and riding motorcycles. He and his wife, Kathy, have three children and four wonderful grandchildren (just ask).
Publications:
Contributing author, Contextualizing Theological Education: Integrating Ecclesial and Academic Practices in Teaching and Learning, publishing date: spring 2008
“What Shall We Teach?” published in Wesleyan Christian Advocate, May 2007
Disciple Bible Study Training Design, co-wrote the national training seminar design used by Cokesbury Seminars, United Methodist Publishing House, published January 2006