Union Presbyterian Seminary

LifeNet Health Organ Donor Webinar with Bishop Autie Hines
2025-04-08 | VA
Bishop Autie R. Hines II, a native of Southern California, he is bi-vocational clergy in transplant health education and nonprofit & business consulting as the Vice President of DMG Professional Services.
He has amassed 28 years of ministry experience from the Westcoast to the East playing a crucial role in human redevelopment programs nationally impacting K-6 to K-12 students in workforce readiness, and gang prevention & intervention recruitment of at-risk youth to leave gangs. Known for his strategic planning, program design, and leadership coaching, Bishop Hines actively engages as a consultant for various business and ministry community organizations. Passionate about keeping the gospel relevant to today’s challenges, he is a dedicated servant-leader and executive coach.
He holds a master’s degree in ministry for Pastoral Leadership and a bachelor’s degree in theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary. He was consecrated to the Bishopric in 2019 in Virginia and serves on the Executive Staff as Director for Nonprofit Development at the Global Conference of Bishops & Leaders.

Book Club: How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
2025-04-08 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

Online meetings 6-8pm EST; March 18, March 25, April 1, and April 8
With echoes of Educated and The Glass Castle, How to Say Babylon is a “lushly observed and keenly reflective chronicle” (The Washington Post), brilliantly recounting the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid religious upbringing and navigate the world on her own terms.
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
Safiya’s extraordinary mother, though loyal to her father, gave her the one gift she knew would take Safiya beyond the stretch of beach and mountains in Jamaica their family called home: a world of books, knowledge, and education she conjured almost out of thin air. When she introduced Safiya to poetry, Safiya’s voice awakened. As she watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under relentless domesticity, Safiya’s rebellion against her father’s rules set her on an inevitable collision course with him. Her education became the sharp tool to hone her own poetic voice and carve her path to liberation. Rich in emotion and page-turning drama, How to Say Babylon is “a melodious wave of memories” of a woman finding her own power (NPR).

Led by Rev. Dr. Chris Burton

Register below. Registration closes on March 15, 2025. You can register late until March 21 by emailing Deborah Keyes

UPSem Students and Faculty can register for free. Contact Deborah to register if you are a UPSem student or faculty.

WLI Online Course: Womanist Biblical Interpretation
2025-04-08 19:00 - 21:00
Womanist Leadership Institute Online Course instructed by Rev. Dr. Angela Parker: Womanist Biblical Interpretation
Course Description: This semi-seminar course studies womanist biblical interpretation and its application to preaching. It examines womanist theoretical frameworks with special attention to the lived experiences of Black women in the United States of America and womanist thought and Black women’s experiences have conversations with various “isms” (racism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, and anti-Semitism) as we read the biblical text. These conversations will explore strategies towards ethical biblical interpretation and preaching in order to engage community and society (i.e. such as politics).

Meet the instructor
Rev. Dr. Angela N. Parker is an Associate Professor at McAfee School of Theology, specializing in New Testament and Greek. She holds degrees from Shaw University, Duke Divinity School, and Chicago Theological Seminary. Previously an Assistant Professor at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, she won the ESF New Scholar Award for her article “One Womanist’s View of Reconciliation in Galatians.” She teaches courses in New Testament, Greek Exegesis, the Gospel of Mark, the Corinthians Correspondence, the Gospel of John, and Womanist and Feminist Hermeneutics unto preaching.
Dates: March 4 – April 8, 2025 | Tuesdays, 7-9pm EST via Zoom
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on February 26, 2025. Late registration ends on March 8, 2025.
If you are UPSem faculty or staff or are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes.

Author Event: Andrew Taylor-Troutman
2025-04-10 18:00 - 20:00
This Is the Day
By Andrew Taylor-Troutman
What does a slab of bacon have to do with marital fidelity? Who wrote the Chicken Dance? Why are there two days to celebrate eating ice cream for breakfast? Did Jesus have a tattoo?
This Is the Day is a yearlong journal of observing national days for things as diverse and weird as bobbleheads, Yo-Yos, hairball awareness, and serendipity. Taylor-Troutman explores his local North Carolina community and delves into ancient history. Alongside his family, friends, and church congregation, he finds hope in the ordinary, faith in small things, and joy in grief. He writes cheesy limericks, plays the ukulele, and prays with people in prison. He also learns new appreciation for hairdressers, mail carriers, and middle children. Taylor-Troutman even discovers the answers to questions he had never thought to ask, such as “What is the technical name of a flock of zebras?”

Meet the Author

Andrew Taylor Troutman, as captured by a camera and as drawn by his daughter Sadie
Since his ordination in 2010, Andrew Taylor-Troutman (MDiv, 2009) has served two wonderful churches. He is the pastor and head of staff at Chapel in the Pines in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Taylor-Troutman is the author of eight books, most recently This IS the Day (Wipf and Stock). He and his wife Ginny (MDiv, 2008) parent three kids and chase a dog named Ramona after one of their literary heroines.
Join us in Lake Chapel on the Richmond campus of Union Presbyterian Seminary at 6pm on April 10!
RSVP Here:
