Religious Education Theory and Practice
2025-05-27 11:00 - 14:00, 2025-06-03 11:00 - 14:00, 2025-06-10 11:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Christian Education Certification Course instructed by Dr. Rebecca Davis: Religious Education Theory and Practice
Course Description:
Religious Education Theory and Practice provides Presbyterian Christian Educators an opportunity to think theologically about the teaching ministry of the church. It exposes educators to a variety of educational theories that informs pedagogical practices. Writing publishable, quality lesson plans, as well as choosing and evaluating curriculum are essential components of this course.

Meet the instructor
Rebecca L. Davis is a Minister of the Word and Sacrament and a Certified Christian Educator in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Before being appointed to the faculty of Union Presbyterian Seminary on the Charlotte Campus she served as Associate Professor of Religion and the Director of the Christian Education Program at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC.
Dr. Davis brings 25 years of congregational experience to her academic teaching. She has been both ordained and non-ordained ministry staff in small, medium and large congregations across the south. She was Director of Christian Education at Enslow Park Presbyterian in Huntington, WV, Associate Pastor at Central Presbyterian in Mobile, AL, Pastor of First Presbyterian in Monahans, TX and Executive Director of its child development center, Associate General Presbyter in Peace River Presbytery in FL and Associate Pastor at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.
Dates: May 13-June 17, 2025, with synchronous zoom meetings from 11am-2pm on 5/20, 5/27, 6/03, and 6/10
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on May 8. Late registration ends on May 16.
If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes

Special Course: The Black Teaching Tradition and the Legacy of Proclamation in the Black Church
2025-05-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-10 19:00 - 21:00
Special Course instructed by Rev. Dr. Akosua Lesesne: The Black Teaching Tradition and the Legacy of Proclamation in the Black Church
Dates: May 6 – June 10, 2025 // Tuesdays, 7-9pm via Zoom
Course Description:
In this course, we will explore the relationship between the transformative legacy of Black teaching excellence and the powerful tradition of Black preaching. Participants will come away from this course with a new or renewed understanding of how the practices of proclamation in the Black Church and pedagogical genius in Black schoolhouses are aligned. The primary aim of this course of study is to reclaim and (re)member the liberatory power of Black teaching and Black preaching for greater impact in the pulpit and traditional learning settings alike. Study will be taken up through the lens of Sankofa: an African word from the Akan peoples in Ghana. The literal translation of the word and the Sankofa symbol is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”

Meet the instructor
Rev. Dr. Akosua Lesesne is an educational design leader and creator of the Black Teaching Tradition (BTT)®: Teacher Development Framework for Pedagogical Genius. She is the founder of The Lesesne Collective Corp (Lesesne Collective) dba Sisters in Education Circle (SIEC) and Lesesne Legacy Learning Village (Lesesne Learning). Prior to founding Lesesne Collective dba SIEC, Akosua’s commitment to upholding historic legacies of Black teaching excellence for justice and liberation defined fifteen years of work as a teacher then district leader in the sixth, fourth, and eight-largest school districts in the nation respectively and design consultant serving a wide array of educational organizations and initiatives across the United States–from preschool through higher education, including theological education. Akosua was licensed and ordained by the late and legendary Rev. Dr. Mack King Carter at New Mount Olive Baptist Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL and served under Dr. Carter as Interim Minister of Education. She is also an ordained elder, Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). Akosua earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University, and a Doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on May 2, 2025, at 8am. Late registration ends on May 9, 2025.
If you are UPSem faculty or staff you can register for free HERE. If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Pathways Online Course: Mission & Evangelism
2025-06-02 19:00 - 21:00
Pathways Online Course instructed by Rev. Dr. Aram Feinberg: Mission & Evangelism

Before joining Bayside, Rev. Dr. Aram Feinberg was the associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville. The shape of her call began in ministry with youth & families before shifting towards outreach & adult faith formation.
Aram attended Smith College and taught fifth grade before going to Princeton Seminary (MDiv). She continued her theological education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond (MACE) and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (PhD) where she served as director of family ministries at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. She is an instructor for Union Presbyterian Seminary’s continuing education program, teaching mission & evangelism.
Course Description:
The overarching goal of this course is to develop a contextual framework to understand mission and evangelism. Students will re-imagine the contours of mission and the task of evangelism, involving a theologically based approach to mission and evangelism and considering the impact of the growing demographic of the “unaffiliated” (or Spiritual But Not Religious) across the religious landscape of America. Students will examine an approach to mission and evangelism that addresses the needs of society, reflecting ways in which a local church continues its commitment to the gospel message (love God and love neighbor) and to the great commission (go and make disciples).
Dates: Mondays from 7-9pm EST, April 28 – June 2, 2025
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on April 23, 2025
If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Book Club: Up Against a Crooked Gospel by Melanie Jones Quarles
2025-06-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-17 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-24 19:00 - 21:00
Up Against a Crooked Gospel: Black Women’s Bodies and the Politics of Redemption by Melanie Jones Quarles

Online meetings 7-9pm EST; June 3, 10, 17, 24
An essential text for students and scholars of womanist thought, ethics, biblical studies, and Black religion.
Drawing upon her grandmother’s personal struggles with physical “bendedness” and the narrative of the bent woman in Luke 13:10-17, Melanie Jones Quarles engages Black religious thought and cultural criticism to expose how the Black Church paradoxically nurtures Black women while also sustaining their oppression. Quarles mines the prophetic imaginations of influential womanist thinkers, crafting a liberating vision that resists serving as surrogate “saviors” in society and religion.
With insights into politics, Christology, and biblical interpretation, this book boldly calls Black women to unbend their bodies and reclaim their moral agency in the face of crooked systems that attempt to constrain their freedom.
Led by the Author, Rev. Dr. Melanie Jones Quarles

Registration is free for UPSem Faculty and Students. Contact Deborah Keyes to register if you are a student, faculty member, or registering ater 5/27/2025.

Special Course: Stranger No More
2025-06-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-17 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-24 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-01 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-08 19:00 - 21:00
A Special Course instructed by Dr. Safwat Marzouk: Stranger No More
Dates: June 3 – July 8, Tuesdays from 7-9pm via Zoom.

Dr. Safwat Marzouk is an associate professor of Old Testament. As a Christian Egyptian and migrant to the U.S., he interprets the Bible in ways that are interreligiously and interculturally sensitive seeking God’s shalom and justice for the vulnerable and the marginalized. Dr. Marzouk is author of Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel and Intercultural Church: A Biblical Vision in an Age of Migration.
Course Description:
The experience of forced migration, being on the move, seeking refuge or asylum, displacement, and living in diaspora is a fundamental part of the human story. Throughout history and in many parts of the world, humans, individuals, or communities, because of wars, natural disasters, economic crises, have crossed domestic or national boundaries seeking safety and a better life. Given the recent waves of forced migration and internal displacement, and given the intensification of xenophobia in political discourse, the church, and communities of faith, are confronted with vital questions about their witness in these critical times. In this course, students will study closely diverse texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that have been shaped by the realities of migration, exodus, conquest, exile, and diaspora. As they engage these texts in their historical and literary contexts, students will reflect on how these texts wrestled with welcoming the stranger and how host and migrant communities negotiated cross-cultural relations. As future faith leaders in a polarized world, students will reflect on how to discern a faithful response to the issue of migration in light of the diverse biblical perspectives on the issue. Students will articulate a theological perspective that takes seriously the culture of fear of the other, that nurtures empathy towards the stranger, and that leads the church and the society to move beyond the politics of assimilation and segregation so that migrant and host communities experience God’s shalom.
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on May 29, 2025. Late registration ends on June 6, 2025.
If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Pathways Online Course: Worship and Sacraments
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:00
Pathways Online Course instructed by Rev. Dr. Donna Giver-Johnston and Rev. Dr. Diane Walton Hendricks: Worship & Sacraments

Donna Giver-Johnston is an ordained minister of word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Over her twenty years in ministry, she has served churches in New Jersey and Ohio, and most recently as Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently, she is a member of the faculty and the Director of the Doctor of Ministry degree program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She has earned degrees from Vanderbilt University (PhD and MA), Princeton Seminary (MDiv), and Westminster College (BA). Her published books include Claiming the Call to Preach: Four Female Pioneers of Preaching in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford, 2021); Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart (Fortress, 2021); For Every Matter Under Heaven: Preaching for Special Occasions (Fortress Press, 2022).

Rev. Dr. Diane Walton Hendricks has served as pastor of Clifton Presbyterian Church in Clifton, VA, since September of 2020. She is passionate about nurturing a community that is growing in relationship with one another, with God, with the community, and with God’s ongoing work in the world. Before coming to CPC, Pastor Diane served churches in Arlington and Falls Church. In addition, she serves the greater church as a spiritual director (trained in the contemplative tradition), and has also served on staff at Wesley Theological Seminary and in the Pathways program of Union Presbyterian Seminary. She also served National Capital Presbytery as its immediate past moderator and is presently chair of the Leadership Council. She received her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and her Doctor of Ministry from Virginia Theological Seminary.
Course Description:
This course will examine the history, theology, and practice of worship and sacraments. While rooted in the reformed tradition, the goal is to deepen appreciation for a variety of worship services and liturgical practices. Through reflections on readings and discussions of observed liturgical rituals, the course will seek to cultivate enlivened worship leadership practices and their theological impact within the particular ecclesial context for each person. At the end of the course, participants will be equipped and inspired to craft and lead worship that is lifegiving for them and their worshiping congregation.
Dates: Thursdays, May 1-June 5 (asynchronous only on May 29)
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on April 27, 2025. Late registration ends on May 6, 2025.
If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Special Telugu Course: Creeds and Confessions
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-12 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-26 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-10 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
This course surveys and examines the historical and contemporary creeds and confessions of the Christian faith as the core theological compass and lenses to help understand, evaluate, and evolve current interpretations of the Christian faith.

Instructed by Rev. Dr. James Taneti
James is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in the USA and currently teaches World Christianity at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He directs the seminary’s Synghman Rhee Global Mission Center. Having completed his theological education at the United Theological College in India, he earned master’s degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Western Theological Seminary, and Virginia Commonwealth University, and a doctorate from Union Presbyterian Seminary. He has authored three books on Christianity in South Asia, along with numerous essays and book reviews.
Dates: June 5 – July 10, 2025 / Thursdays from 7-9pm via Zoom
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Leadership Institute Author Event: Kerra Becker English
2025-06-10 10:00 - 11:00
Join us on June 10 at 10am in-person or online to speak with author Kerra Becker English about her book True Awakening: The Highs, Lows, and Mess of Spiritual Transformation available July 25!

With signature raw honesty, Kerra English identifies the numerous ways inner spiritual awakening happens: through curiosity, rituals, faith practices, deconstruction, even psychonaut adventures. English explores classic themes―the hero(ine)’s journey, the dark night, and what it means to answer a call―and reveals the challenges we face as we respond to the terrifying breaking-open of awakening, an invitation that changes everything.
Pre-order the book HERE.
Meet the Author: Kerra Becker English

From almost her very first words, Kerra has been fascinated with the question, “why.” Why is the basic question of the curious. Kerra likes exploring this question both in nature and in her practice of listening to firsthand accounts of wonder as a Spiritual Companion. Her deep fascination with spirituality led her to participate in the Johns Hopkins research that recruited religious leaders of various traditions to explore the mysteries of the psychedelic realm through psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and report on their experience. Writing about the highs, the lows and the mess of spiritual transformation in her upcoming book, she explores multiple pathways from her own journey into awakening, and as a trusted spiritual friend, she will help you discern if your own path feels “true.”
As a 1996 M.Div. graduate from Union Presbyterian Seminary and ordained PCUSA pastor, she has served Presbyterian congregations in Richmond and Ashland, Virginia; Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Altoona, Pennsylvania. Her spiritual direction website can be found at www.kerraenglish.com
RSVP to attend in-person HERE or register to watch the event live online HERE

CE: Reformed Theology
2025-08-05 00:00
Christian Education Certification Course instructed by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty
Course Description:
Reformed Theology is designed to provide Presbyterian Christian educators with a clear understanding of the theology of the Reformed Tradition, especially as it is expressed in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Confessions. Courses explore the content of those confessions, the historical contexts out of which they arose, and the contemporary significance those confessions have for the life of the church today. By means of varied teaching methods and learning activities (e.g., lectures, small group exercises, discussions, and personal research), students will be able to gain a personal understanding of the Reformed theological tradition. Courses will also allow participants to gain a balanced understanding of the broad landscape of Reformed theological understandings today.
View the Syllabus HERE
Meet the instructor

Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty is the J. Roy Davis Family Chair of Theology and History at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte. With over two decades of experience in higher education and social justice ministry, she is known for her leadership in academia, church, and advocacy work. Her research focuses on freedom in the U.S., poverty, and the intersection of theology with social inequality and disability justice. She is the author of Authentic Christian Freedom (2025) and The Problem of Wealth (2017), and has received several honors including a Fulbright Scholarship and a Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant. Outside of work, she enjoys running, beach walks, and time with her family.
Dates: 11am – 1:30pm EST, August 5 – September 2, 2025. View the syllabus above to see detailed meeting plans and times.
Registration closes 2 business days before the first class meeting on August 1, 2025.

Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary
UPSem faculty, staff, and students can register for this class for free. If you are a UPSem faculty, staff, or student, you can register here using your UPSem email address. If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes, subject line “CECERT: Financial Aid.

25-26 Pathways: Polity & Administration
2025-08-12 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-26 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
This course will examine the Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Order, its underpinnings, and its implication for mission and ministry. As part of the course, participants will review administrative tasks which grow out of the Book of Order (e.g., session meetings, committee meetings, stewardship season, personnel matters and policies, financial matters, presbytery meetings, annual statistical reports).
Meet the Instructor

Rev. H. Carson Rhyne Jr. served as the general presbyter and stated clerk of the Presbytery of the James for over 21 years, retiring in 2019. Known for his visionary leadership, Carson established mentorship programs, stewardship and evangelism ministries, and a mission co-worker in Haiti. He is recognized for his deep knowledge of the Presbyterian Church’s polity and his ability to apply it with grace and humor. Carson’s dedication to the church and community is celebrated by colleagues and congregations alike. He holds degrees from Presbyterian College and Union Theological Seminary and has taught polity and practical theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary since 2005.
Dates: Tuesdays, 7-9pm EST, August 12 – September 16, 2025
Registration closes 2 days before the first class meeting on August 10, 2025.
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes, subject line “PWPA:Financial Aid”.
UPSem faculty, staff, and students can register for this class for free. If you are a UPSem faculty, staff, or student, you can register here using your UPSem email address.

25-26 Pathways: Introduction to Pastoral Care
2025-08-28 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
An introduction to the theories of pastoral care and counseling. The course offers various theological and psychological perspectives and tools to help participants develop confidence in responding to circumstances of pastoral care and counseling in the context of parish ministry and other institutional settings. Topics include the art of listening, loss and grief, pastoral care with couples and families, and the pastoral function of worship and the sacraments.
Meet the Instructor

Dr. Joshua Morris is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ and a Board-Certified Chaplain. He served in pediatric healthcare for 11 years, most recently as Assistant Director of Spiritual Services at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Dr. Morris has 15 years of experience as an army chaplain in the United States Army Reserve, including a deployment to Afghanistan. He has taught at Phillips Theological Seminary, Claremont School of Theology, and Saint Paul School of Theology. Dr. Morris is the author of “Moral Injury Among Returning Veterans” and numerous peer-reviewed articles. He speaks nationally and internationally on moral injury, reintegration, and spiritual care. Passionate about cultivating compassionate ministers, he integrates theory and practice to promote love for God and humanity.

Dates: Thursdays, 7-9pm EST, August 28 – October 2, 2025
Registration closes 2 days before the first class meeting on August 26, 2025.
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes, subject line “PWIPC : Financial Aid”.
UPSem faculty, staff, and students can register for this class for free. If you are a UPSem faculty, staff, or student, you can register here using your UPSem email address.
