Speakers

Walter Brueggemann

Walter Bruggemann Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, has devoted his life to a passionate exploration of Old Testament theology. Essential companions for both students and pastors, his five dozen books include The Message of the Psalms, The Prophetic Imagination, Struggling with Scripture, and most recently Prayers for a Privileged People and The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word. In the 1990s Brueggemann participated in the Bill Moyers PBS television series on Genesis. A minister in the UCC, he appears in Covenant Network’s award-winning documentary Turning Points: Stories of Life and Change in the Church.

William Stacy Johnson

Princeton Theological Seminary Professor William Stacy Johnson focuses his teaching and writing on constructive theological reflection amid challenges of a postmodern, post- September 11 world. For five years he worked as a member of the PCUSA’s Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church. An ordained Presbyterian minister and a lawyer, he is the author most recently of A Time to Embrace: Same Gender Relationships in Religion, Law and Politics.  He is currently working on a book on Calvin.

Preachers

Barbara K. Lundblad

Barbara Lundblad’s brilliant and compassionate preaching has placed her in constant demand as a conference leader and guest preacher. Currently the Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, she served for sixteen years as pastor of Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church in Manhattan. She has also taught at Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2007 she served as President of the Academy of Homiletics. A minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, she serves as Co-President of its Network for Inclusive Vision and as a committee member for the “One Voice” campaign, working for full inclusion of GLBT people in the ELCA. Her books include Transforming the Stone: Preaching through Resistance to Change and Marking Time: Preaching Biblical Stories in Present Tense.

Eily Marlow

Eily Marlow is Program Associate for the Lilly Project for Vocation and Ethical Leadership at Macalester College, after serving there as Associate Chaplain. While a student at Macalester, she was a leader in the National Network of Presbyterian College Women before graduating from McCormick Theological Seminary. Her current commitments focus on reproductive choice and HIV/AIDS communities, as well as the movement for the full inclusion of LGBT persons within religious communities. She is co-creator of an annual retreat for Presbyterian LGBT seminarians and is Co-Moderator of That All May Freely Serve.

Diane Givens Moffet

The Pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, Diane Givens Moffett is also a singer, writer, and poet.   She is the author of Beyond Greens and Cornbread: Reflections on African American Christian Identity.  Her sermons and articles have been featured in Outstanding Black Sermons, the African American Pulpit Journal, and the journal of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. A sought-after revival speaker and guest preacher, she preached at this summer’s Montreat Women’s Connection and at the 1991 and 2008 General Assemblies of the PCUSA.

John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson is Pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, and earlier served as executive associate pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. Currently a member of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, he also served on the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church. Wilkinson chairs the Trustees at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and is a founding director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. He earned a doctorate in American Religious History from Northwestern University, with a dissertation on the Confession of 1967.