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A-twitter with American Buddhist Monk Heng Sure

You might need a list to describe Heng Sure. He’s a Buddhist monk, director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, scholar, member of several interfaith organizations, GTU alumnus, teacher at Pacific School of Religion (PSR), musician, singer-songwriter of Buddhist folksongs, story teller, youth leader, and most recently, a tweeter on Twitter. Or you could drop the list and just say he is real. His name — given to him by his teacher Master Hsuan Hua when he became a monk — translated from Mandarin, means “constantly real.” “In Buddhist tradition, monks are given a name signifying what they have...
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Carmen Lansdowne: A Prophetic Voice on Social Justice

Listen to Carmen Lansdowne recite poetry to tribal music Featuring "Haida Love Song," sung in Hailhzaqvla by Josh Vickers, Kevin Starr, Terry Reid, Doug Brown Jr., Brett Waterfall, Max Johnson Sr., Thomas Dixon, Ian Reid, Curtis Campbell, Ayla Brown, Rory Housty, Travis Hall, Eric Wilson and William Housty The Rev. Carmen Lansdowne is also called Kwisa’lakw by one of the aboriginal peoples of Canada’s central northwest coast. The name, given her by tribal elders at a ceremonial potlatch, means “woman who travels far,” and acknowledges the globetrotting work of this 34-year-old doctoral...
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New Church on the Block

Unity of Berkeley sits nestled on the corner of Scenic and Le Conte, surrounded by three GTU member schools. Rev. Dr. Patricia Keel, Unity’s minister, is excited to be here. Keel says she was called in 2001 to pioneer a Unity church in Berkeley while meditating on Hildegard von Bingen. “Hildegard was called to leave her monastery and establish a new one across the Rhine. My message from Hildegard was to cross the Bay from a congregation I was a part of in Marin.” Keel’s Unity church in the East Bay originally offered only weekday classes on meditation and creativity. Then national tragedy...
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The Gift Always Comes Back

  Celebrate! In 2008-2009: We surpassed our $30,000 challenge grant goal for new and increased gifts Donor participation increased by 18% The number of alumni donors increased by 80% The GTU still needs your help to provide innovative interreligious education, preparing our students for careers in teaching, service, and ministry. DONATE ONLINE! www.gtu.edu/give        Harold Leach “I understood that the GTU is more than a school; we...
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Finding Slavery in Your Own Back Yard (and deploying solutions to abolish it)

Listen to our interview with David Batstone Watch our video! “…you transform whatever your gifts are to… free another person.” David Batstone’s business card reads: “I am not for sale. You are not for sale. No one should be for sale.” This professor of ethics at University of San Francisco, entrepreneur, author, and social activist — founded the nonprofit Not For Sale when he discovered slavery in his own back yard; Berkeley, that is. David Batstone, Professor of Ethics at University of San Francisco and founder, Not For Sale “We give you tools to act...
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The Moan and the Shout: James Noel on African American Religious Experience

Background: “Continuity,” painted by James Noel Listen to James Noel describe the African American Religious Experience Listen to James Noel sing and recite poetry Take a black sermon, print it in a book, then read it, and you have no idea what it means because it has been abstracted from the living worship of the black church, says the Rev. Dr. James Noel, (Ph.D. ’99), Farlough Professor of African American Christianity at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. The sermon’s meaning, he says, is determined by the hymns sung, the testimonials, the prayers said before and after the sermon’s...
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In Memoriam: Sharon-Gay Smith (1942 - 2009)

Sharon-Gay Smith, Student Services, 1977 Sharon-Gay and Claude Welch (GTU President and Dean, 1972-82; Dean, 1983-87) atrededication of 2465 LeConte, business offices and bookstore, 1993 GTU Commencement 1996, Sharon-Gay, Registrar 1985 Sharon-Gay SmithAdministrative Assistant for Admissions and RecordsSharon-Gay's job requires ease with computers, care for detail work and structure, and the ability to work under deadline pressure.  She processes GTU Ph.D. and M.A. applications, issues transcripts for GTU and JSTB, compiles statistical surveys and uses the computer system to assist...
Sharon-Gay Smith
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Kathleen Kook helps shape a dynamic, groundbreaking community

Despite the diversity among the students of incoming classes, they all share one thing in common: Kathleen Kook has been the gateway for their matriculation at GTU. But her responsibility as Associate Dean for Admissions doesn’t stop there. She and her team personally respond throughout the year to all those who inquire about the GTU. Then Kook walks prospective students through the application process and helps them decide what area and program best suits their situation and interests -- an honor according to Kook. She believes that the Admissions department’s strength derives from...
Admissions & Aid
PeopleKathleen KookAdmissions
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Lewis Rambo - 2009 Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient

A Godsend. A delight. A surprise. Humbling. These are Lewis Rambo’s words, describing his feelings as the 2009 recipient of the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award. The award recognizes the values of interreligious sensitivity and commitment, interdisciplinary approach and content in teaching, sensitivity to ethnic and cultural diversity, and creative classroom pedagogical methods and performance. Why humbling? “Because,” Rambo says, “at this stage in the 30th year of my career at the GTU, I know how much I don’t know.” By that and any other measure, Rambo knows a lot. What he conveys in...
Center for the Arts & Religion (CARe)
PeopleLewis RamboArts Culture and Technology
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MA student Adam Strater receives Haas/Koshland Memorial Award from Jewish Community Endowment Fund

Center for Jewish Studies (CJS) MA student Adam Strater has been awarded the prestigious Haas/Koshland Memorial Award from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. The award, in the amount of $20,000, provides the opportunity for a student to spend one year in Israel engaged in study and personal development. The choice of where and what to study is determined by the student; Strater has elected to enroll in a year of graduate study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, taking intensive Hebrew language...
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)
PeopleCJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesJudaismAdam Strater
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Erin Brigham, PhD student in Systematic and Philosophical Theology, continually explores how other fields may contribute to her work in ecumenism

The journey which led PhD student Erin Brigham from her general interest in Religious Studies at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to her current dissertation topic was shaped by questions and detours along the pathway. Like many who travel in theological discourse, she began pursuing answers to the big questions theology attempts to answer — those of meaning and purpose. She landed at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley as a Systematic and Philosophical Theology MA student, and then she fell in love with the works of Elizabeth A. Johnson. Johnson’s premise that the symbol of God...
PeopleErin BrighamTheology
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State of the GTU

Office of the President Berkeley, CA — January 2009 Dear Friends of the Graduate Theological Union, The financial and economic crisis facing our nation has presented challenges for the GTU as well as for many other institutions and for many people in their personal lives. Many GTU friends, alumni, and staff have asked about how GTU is faring and what people can do to help. We are so grateful that our well being is on your minds and in your hearts. We especially thank those, who in this difficult time, are stepping forward to support our students and the unique interreligious programs that...
GTU News

Consortial Registrar Sharon-Gay Smith Leaves GTU after 37 Years

“My job isn’t a job. It’s a ministry. And the GTU has given me community and allowed me to practice my ministry.” That’s what Sharon-Gay Smith says of her 37 years of work at the Graduate Theological Union. In return, from 1971 when she worked the GTU’s PBX system (remember those?) and typed transcripts by hand, to 1989 when she became common registrar, to 2008, Smith has given the GTU her loyalty. Day in and day out, she has given students down-to-earth, day-to-day practical help, ranging from advice about where to find affordable housing to how to register for classes. Smith says she saw...
PeopleSharon-Gay Smith
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Learning to Speak a New Tongue: Imagining a Way that Holds People Together

"Who are we as Americans? What will bring people together as Americans today and tomorrow?" Fumitaka Matsuoka attempts to answer these questions in the 2008 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture on November 11. Currently, Matsuoka is the Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and the Executive Director for the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute). He says the voices that declare our American identity primarily stem from a single source, Western European Christian thought -- but that...
PeopleFumitaka Matsuoka
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Stitching Hope and Beauty in Pamplona Alta

Student Stories Stitching Hope and Beauty in Pamplona Alta A stack of colorful cuadros — Spanish for “pictures” — sits on Rebecca Berru Davis’ sofa. They are hand-appliquéd and embroidered textile scenes created by a cooperative of women artists in Pamplona Alta, a shantytown outside Lima, Peru. Davis, a third-year Graduate Theological Union doctoral student in the area of Art and Religion, has just returned from her third trip to Pamplona Alta since 2006. For these cuadros, Davis asked the women to sew scenes that expressed their hopes and dreams. One artist sewed pictures of animals —...
GTU News

Holger Zellentin, Assistant Professor of Rabbinics and Late Antique Judaism, anticipates community outreach and interreligious collaboration

A member of the faculty of the Center for Jewish Studies, Holger Zellentin celebrates the center’s 40th birthday.  He believes that CJS is a pioneering institution with a bright future as it faces new challenges, one of them being adapting to the evolving needs of the GTU’s students, and surrounding community.  He hopes to see more community outreach as a means of growing the center.  In addition, Zellentin would like to see more collaboration among academic institutions, especially between GTU and the University of California, Berkeley.  CJS is focusing on working with the Center for Islamic...
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)
PeopleCJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesJudaismHolger Zellentin
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Joan McGrath Set To Not Just Survive, But Thrive

Joan McGrath, chair of the Graduate Theological Union board of trustees, is fascinated by the power of groups to survive and thrive -- the first Christians whose tiny movement grew to today’s two billion; her own successful company built on teamwork and caring ethics; and the GTU, founded by people of distinct faiths committed to learning about one another and bringing a healing message to a world in need.  McGrath, who started her two-year term in October 2007 and has served as a GTU trustee for 10 years, says she has always been interested in religion. She earned a master’s degree in...
PeopleJoan McGrath
GTU News

Jerome Baggett Wins 2008 Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award

Snake-handling Pentecostals in Appalachia, Muslim feminists in the Middle East, and leaders in the Central American peace movement: These are a few of the many religious groups Jerome Baggett encourages his students to explore and “to see.” Baggett is the 2008 recipient of the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes the values of interreligious sensitivity and commitment, interdisciplinary approach and content in teaching, sensitivity to ethnic and cultural diversity, and creative classroom pedagogical methods and performance. “We conflate religion with ‘official’ religion, that...
GTU Alums
AlumniJerome BaggettEthics
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Learning to Teach to the "Big Ideas"

Students’ Stories: In the Classroom Learning to Teach to the “Big Ideas” Danté Quick, Teagle-Wabash scholar, strides across the classroom, his voice arresting, his manner assured. He’s dressed impeccably in a gray suit, crisp white shirt, and colorful bowtie. A dozen students, nearly all African American, regard a familiar image of a fair-haired, blue-eyed Jesus that Quick has projected onto a large screen. “Race,” he says, “is at the bottom of religion in America.” Quick is one of 12 Graduate Theological Union doctoral students participating in the GTU’s Preparing Future Faculty Project,...

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