Bethany Seminary offers Spring Chapel Preaching Series.

Senior seminary students, area pastors and activists, and other guests will offer a diversity of theological thought at this Spring’s chapel services at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind. Bethany holds chapel services on Wednesdays, and joins with Earlham School of Religion for joint chapel services on Fridays.

Melanie May, John Price Crozer Professor of Theology and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in New York, will be at Bethany Seminary on Feb. 11-13 to participate in worship and the Bethany and ESR Thursday Peace Forum, and speak in selected classes. She will present research from her recent book, "Jerusalem Testament: Heads of Churches in Palestine Speak, 1988-2008." May is a former adjunct faculty member at Bethany.

Carol Wise, executive director of the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Interests (BMC) and an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, will give the message at the Friday Joint Chapel on Feb. 20. She lives in Minneapolis, Minn., and is a member of the Common Spirit house church.

David Shumate, moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, will speak for worship on March 4. His theme will be this year’s Conference theme, "The old has gone! The new has come! All this is from God!" Shumate is district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren’s Virlina District and a Bethany graduate.

Three ministers from White Oak Church of the Brethren in Manheim, Pa.--Ron Copenhaver, Jim Myer, and Dave Wenger--will lead worship on March 25. The White Oak congregation, which has than 600 members, calls ministers from within its membership and practices bi-vocational, unsalaried ministry. Myer is a former moderator of Annual Conference.

Bob Hunter, a local activist and Church of the Brethren member, will bring the message at a Joint Chapel on April 3. He serves in Richmond as the Diversity and Justice Specialist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an evangelical campus mission serving more than 32,000 students and faculty on more than 550 college and university campuses nationwide.

Other speakers will include Bethany students presenting their senior sermons--Chuck Bell of New Castle, Ind., Holly Hathaway of Connorsville, Ind., Travis Poling of Richmond, Ind., and Dava Hensley of Roanoke, Va.; Tracy Knechel Sturgis, pastor of Mack Memorial Church of the Brethren in Dayton, Ohio.

Wednesday and Friday chapel times are 11:20 a.m. Visit www.bethanyseminary.edu/springchapelschedule for a complete list of spring semester chapel services.

-- Marcia Shetler is director of public relations for Bethany Theological Seminary.

Source: 2/12/2009 Newsline Extra