School Notes: Yale Divinity School
January/February 2018

Preaching about joy on death row

Can joy be found on death row? It can, says the North Carolina pastor who won a preaching-on-joy competition organized by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at YDS. Dewey Williams, a minister at Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church in Durham, preached five sermons on joy for death-row inmates at Central Prison in Raleigh, beginning with a Christmas sermon in December of 2016. “Joy is about making something worthwhile out of a bad situation,” Williams says. “We all have things that discourage and hurt us. How does joy come into being when we have those circumstances? Men on death row are a real example of how joy can be lived out.” YCFC associate research scholar Angela Gorrell said the competition was aimed at encouraging pastors to preach more on joy, which she calls a neglected topic in churches. 

Exploring a “faithful” approach to immigration

Yale Divinity School teamed up with the AYA and the Yale Club of Los Angeles to host a panel discussion on a “faithful” approach to the immigration debate. “Immigration is not only an issue for politicians and human-rights activists; it is a moral issue,” YDS dean Greg Sterling said in his opening remarks. The event was held September 25 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, whose rector is Mike Kinman ’96MDiv. Panelists included Felicia Escobar ’00, a former immigration policy adviser to President Obama, and Divinity School professor Lamin Sanneh, with Stephen Pitti ’91, professor of history and American studies at Yale, moderating. A video of the event is available on the YDS YouTube channel.