"The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11 NRSV
FACULTY NEWS
Dr. Nancy Hall participates in Hymn Society's 2010 annual conference
Dr. Nancy Hall just returned from the annual July conference of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, held this year at Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama. The theme of this year's conference was "Sing of Justice, Sing of Peace." Highlights of the five-day event included hymn festivals each day. Among these was "Unsung Hymns by Black and Unknown Bards, led by James Abbington at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church; "Crazy in Alabama: Longing for Justice in Story and Song," a festival with folksinger and recording artist Kate Campbell; and an evening of shaped-note Sacred Harp singing. Attendees could choose from among forty different workshops on hymnody and church music offered during the week. Over two hundred people from across the US and Canada attended the conference.
Stand-out plenary addresses were given by Mary Louise Bringle: "The Truth Goes Marching On: Nineteenth-Century U.S. Women Singing for Social Change;" Daniel C. Damon (Bay Area United Methodist pastor, who co-taught a 2009 summer course at ABSW with Dr. Hall): "A Cry for Justice in Hymnody;" and Andrew Donaldson: "Singing the Stranger's Song in Our Own Lands."
Also featured at the conference was a showcase session for the new hymnal, "Celebrating Grace." Dr. Hall was a member of an editorial committee for this 2010 Baptist hymnal, published by Mercer University Press.
As editor of "THE HYMN: A Journal of Congregational Song," the quarterly research and hymnic news publication of The Hymn Society, Dr. Hall convened a meeting of the journal's editorial board and made a report to the membership meeting of the Society at the Birmingham conference. She is also a member of The Hymn Society's executive committee.
Next year's annual conference will be in Colorado Springs and will have a theme of creation stewardship. If you are interested in learning more about The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, Dr. Hall would be happy to talk with you. E-mail her at nhall@absw.edu. Vist the website for The Hymn Society here.
In June, Dr. Hall attended a invitational colloquium on congregational singing and the Psalms, sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and held at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The lively two-day ecumenical event was attended by fifty people from across the continent, including some of our most active and well-known sacred music scholars, as well as composers and writers of congregational music, including V. Michael McKay, Allison Adam, Rawn Harbor (who is on the faculty of the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley), Michael Hawn, Ken Medema, and Kathleen Harmon.
Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. in Print
Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., Distinguished Sr. Professor of Preaching and Church Ministries, contributes a chapter entitled "Christ as a Woman: A Hope for the Church" in the 2010 title, "Walk Together Children: Black and Womanist Theologies, Church and Theological Reflection.
For more information about the book, visit the publisher's website.
The Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. honored by the California Legislative Black Caucus
On January 21, 2010, ABSW Professor of Preaching and Church Ministries Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. was honored with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Award at two special events in Sacramento, California. At both events, Dr. Smith was formally recognized for his commitment and extensive contributions made in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of equal opportunity for all people.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Award was presented during a special breakfast ceremony at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. Among the attendees were members of the California State Legislature, California Constitutional Officers and other governmental and business dignitaries. Dr. Smith also delivered the keynote address reflecting on the importance of King’s legacy.
Dr. Smith was presented with a resolution that memorialized his life’s work on the floor of the State Assembly’s Official Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration later that same morning.
The ABSW community is honored to have one such distinguished minister of the justice demands of the gospel among us, teaching future community leaders.
Dr. Nancy Hall attended Calvin Symposium on Worship, January 28-30
The annual January gathering at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, brought together hundreds of worshipers and worship leaders from around the world for a time of fellowship, worship, and learning, seeking to deepen and integrate all aspects of worship, develop their gifts, encourage each other, and renew their commitment to the full ministry of the church.
Dr. Hall was an invited guest of the conference this year and was a panelist for a 
session on Calvin Worship Grants (ABSW received grants in 2003, 2004, and 2005). She is participated in the conference as one of thirty book group leaders across the US and Canada who led studies in 2009 on "The Church of All Ages: Generations Worshiping Together" (The Alban Institute, 2008).
You can read one of Dr. Hall's blog postings on the book group experience at: http://www.worshipweblog.com/2010/01/berkeley-book-group-second-meeting.html.
Summer 2009 Trip to Uganda
Academic Dean, Dr. LeAnn Flesher, and Associate Professor of Preaching and Director of D. Min. Program, Dr. Sangyil Park, participated earlier this month in the 2009 African-Korean Women’s Conference held at the Miracle Centre Cathedral in Kampala, Uganda.
With the theme, “Rise-up, Africa!” the conference hoped to be a “movement to awaken all women in Africa for helping to build their families and churches on the rock of the Word of God,” according to Paul Kim, Chairman of Christian Life World Missions Frontiers, one of the conference organizing bodies, along with Torch WOGA Korea.
Our ABSW professors led workshops for hundreds of women leaders alongside other pastors, professors and speakers from the US, Korea and African countries.
Flesher and Park were joined by ABSW Board Member, Kristen Preston, and ABSW students, Sil Choi-Jung and Cheryl Dawson, to also research and develop partnering opportunities between ABSW and theological training centers in Africa.