Conversations in Wellbeing Webinar Series

LGBTQ+ people are a gift to the communities in which they belong. While many churches and denominations have been on long journeys toward affirmation for LGBTQ+ people, this webinar invites participants to consider what comes just beyond affirmation and inclusion in order to cultivate a deep sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ people in congregations and communities, and to imagine ways of institutionalizing commitments to wellbeing and justice for LGBTQ+ people. The conversation is rooted in a practical theological orientation to this exploration, asking what LGBTQ+ lived experience can teach us all about cultivating communities of care and justice, and how our theological commitments of affirmation can be shaped into practices of belonging that benefit entire communities committed to LGBTQ+ wellbeing. 
Date and Time: September 25, 12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M. (Central)

Cultivating Belonging & Wellbeing with LGBTQ+ People
Click here to register.

The Rev. Cody J. Sanders, PhD, is associate professor of Congregational & Community Care Leadership at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a faculty member at the Center for Chaplaincy Studies. Prior to arriving at Luther, Cody was pastor for eight years to the congregation at Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he also served as Advisor for LGBTQ+ Affairs in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life at MIT and the American Baptist Chaplain at Harvard University. He has published numerous books and articles on LGBTQ+ concerns, including, A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth (Westminster, 2017), Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk (Lexington, 2020), and Queer Lessons for Churches on the Straight and Narrow: What All Christians Can Learn from LGBTQ Lives (FaithLab, 2013, translated into Japanese and Swahili). He lives in Minnesota with his partner, also named Cody, and their two dogs, Suzie and Buddy. 

The Latino population, with its incredible diversity, constitutes the largest minority group in the US. This diversity requires spiritual caregivers to approach every Latino/a individual with humbleness. "Cada persona es un mundo," "every person is a world," says R. Esteban Montilla, co-author of Pastoral Care and Counseling with Latino/as with Ferney Medina. To equip professionals for their ministry with and for Latino/as, the authors bring fresh value to aspects of Latino/a culture that are sometimes misunderstood, reclaiming them from a standpoint of pride. They also explore pastoral strategies with issues of discrimination and racism. Our conversation will take place with Dr. R. Esteban Montilla.

Date and Time: October 9, Noon - 1:00 p.m. (Central)

Pastoral Care with Latino/as
Click here to register.

R. Esteban Montilla, PhD, is a Latino-American theologian and psychotherapist known for his ability to integrate science and religion. His research interest involves aging, palliative care, neuroscience of psychology and religion, human personality and interculturalism. He has written extensively on counseling older adults, integration of psychotherapy and spirituality, family therapy, pastoral counseling, and post-colonial counseling. His book, Pastoral Care and Counseling with Latino/as, is used in pastoral care classes at Austin Seminary. Montilla is one of the pioneers of the hospice movement and counseling profession in several Latin American countries. He has developed diploma, master, and doctoral programs in counseling and theology in nations such as Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Dr. Montilla serves as associate professor of counseling at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and as a bilingual counselor and pastoral educator at the Ecumenical Center in San Antonio.

Stories are powerful, shaping our identity, and in turn, our behavior. Much of our time in ministry is spent listening to the stories of others. We are story-shaped beings with story-shaped lives, and we communicate who we are through the stories we tell. As ministers, our personal stories, including our stories of pastoral identity, can thwart or foster our flourishing in ministry. Attending to our own stories and revising them as needed can help us move toward greater well-being. In this conversation we will talk about the practice of story care and how writing can be a spiritual practice, fostering closer attention to our stories as they develop, allowing us to revise those that undermine our well-being.  

Date and Time: October 23, Noon - 1:00 p.m.

Attend to Stories: How to Flourish in Ministry
Click here to register.

Karen D. Scheib is emerita professor of pastoral care and pastoral theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University; she is a retired clergy member of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. She served as a pastor, pastoral counselor, and part-time chaplain before beginning a twenty-seven-year career as a professor. She is the author of three books, Challenging Invisibility: Practices of Care with Older Women, Pastoral Care: Telling the Stories of Our Lives, and Attend to Stories: How to Flourish in Ministry, as well as several articles and book chapters. Her research and writing explore the stories we tell about ourselves and the world. Karen now lives on Skidaway Island, just south of Savannah, Georgia. She enjoys playing pickleball, walking along the marsh, birdwatching with her husband, Jonathan, knitting, cardmaking, and other crafts. 

Difference does not have to divide us. In fact, difference is a gift that enables us to live more fully into our identity as the body of Christ. In the church we often feel comfortable sharing about things we have in common, but less comfortable talking about the differences between us. But if we never talk about our differences, we miss opportunities to grow in our understanding of each other and of our faith. In this conversation we'll discuss concrete practices and leadership skills that can help us constructively engage difference, with the aim of strengthening relationships and more fully living into our identity as the body of Christ.

Date and Time: November 6, Noon. - 1:00 p.m.

One Body, Many Parts: Engaging Difference in Congregations
Click here to register.

The Reverend Dr. Leanna Fuller is the Joan Marshall Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (PhD), Vanderbilt Divinity School (MDiv), and Furman University (BA). Her most recent book is When Christ’s Body is Broken: Anxiety, Identity, and Conflict in Congregations (Wipf and Stock, 2016). Fuller has earned numerous fellowships, awards, and honors. She was selected to participate in the 2016-2017 Wabash Center Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty, and she received the Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship in 2010-2011. Fuller’s most recent conference paper, “One Body, Many Parts: An Ecclesiology for Churches in Conflict,” was presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Her ministry experience includes serving as associate pastor of Oakland Christian Church in Suffolk, Virginia, where she coordinated youth ministry and Christian education programming. Fuller also worked as chaplain resident at Riverside Regional Medical Center, in Newport News, Virginia, providing pastoral care for patients. Fuller's family includes her spouse, the Rev. Scott Fuller, a UCC minister and chaplain, their young son, Simon, and a beagle named Copper.

The work of Howard Thurman provides a profound starting point for theological reflection on pastoral vocation. As a founder-thinker of the Civil Rights movement, a nature mystic, and a rigorous-question asker, he embodies the true self on the way towards vocation. This webinar with Dr. Ellison will explore Thurman as a source of vocation as it focuses on themes of inner voice, the individual’s growing knowledge of God in a context of social justice. Thurman can make us feel accompanied as we struggle with life’s deepest questions, prompting us to evaluate what we hold most dear.

Howard Thurman and Vocation
Click here to register.

Date and Time: November 27, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Gregory C. Ellison II, PhD is a product of the Atlanta Public School System and a proud alumnus of Frederick Douglass High School. On May 10, 1999, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Emory University, where he was inducted into the Emory College Hall of Fame; the first black male bestowed with that honor. Gregory continued his educational journey at Princeton Theological Seminary as a Presidential Scholar where he received his Master of Divinity degree and PhD in pastoral theology. Ten years after graduating, he returned to Emory to join the faculty of Candler School of Theology. He is currently an associate professor of pastoral care and counseling. In his second year of teaching at Candler, Gregory was awarded Faculty Person of the Year (2010-2011). Three years later he received the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, Emory University’s most prestigious faculty teaching honor. He is the author of Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for African American Young Men and Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice. He is the editor of Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet released in October 2020. He is an ordained Baptist minister who has served on the ministerial staffs at both Methodist and Presbyterian churches. Gregory cherishes most the strong convictions he holds toward family, fraternity brothers (of Kappa Alpha Psi) and friends. On June 14, 2003, he was married to Antoinette Greenaway-Ellison and is the proud father of Gregory III and Anaya.