Ministry

The Rev. Willie Bodrick, MDiv' 14, is surrounded by family and friends at the historic Twelfth Baptist Church

Pastor Bodrick Formally Installed at Twelfth Baptist

September 30, 2021
Reverend Willie Bodrick II, MDiv '14, was installed as Senior Pastor at Roxbury’s Twelfth Baptist Church, making him the second-youngest pastor in the church’s 181-year history, and its youngest in the last 145 years.
Two people in academic regalia hold up a banner labeled 2025 during the University's Convocation ceremony

Community Spirit

September 1, 2021
During the University's Convocation for the Class of 2024 and 2025 on Tuesday, the Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at HDS and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, asked everybody to be “thankful that we are here, that we made it” and to remember those whose help was crucial to arrive at this moment.
Matthew Potts preaching in Memorial Church

Welcoming the Lost, Lonely and Forgotten

August 30, 2021
"May we always make neighbors of strangers. May we learn to love them as we love ourselves. And may we forever welcome the lost and the lonely and the forgotten as our own into this, our church home," said Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.
Shadow of man in front of stained glass in Maine church. AP photo

Millions Skipped Church during Pandemic. Will They Return?

June 29, 2021
Smaller organizations with older congregations that struggled to adapt during the pandemic are in the greatest danger of a downward spiral from which they can’t recover, said the Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, Swartz Resident Practitioner in Ministry Studies.
Stephanie Paulsell in Memorial Church

Breaking Through

June 2, 2021
“To have been on pilgrimage with you through these days has been one of the most profound experiences of my life, one from which I hope I will never stop learning,” said outgoing Interim Pusey Minister at Memorial Church and HDS Professor Stephanie Paulsell.
Interim Pusey Minister Stephanie A. Paulsell and her successor, Matthew I. Potts, both of Harvard Divinity School

The Morning Exercises, Virtual Again

May 27, 2021

Speaking alternately from outside Memorial Church, Interim Pusey Minister Stephanie A. Paulsell and her successor, Matthew I. Potts, both HDS professors, closed out the Honoring the Class of 2021 program with a benediction.

Professor Matthew Ichihashi Potts

Into a Waiting World

May 18, 2021
"In every case, at every level, we feel ourselves caught between a past we must let go and a future beyond our grasp. In every case we’ve been left with neither the comforts of the familiar nor the confidence of the foreseeable. In every case, all we really know about the future is that it’s coming," said HDS Professor Matthew Ichihashi Potts, newly appointed Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.
Richie Butler, MTS '96

Pastor Puts Entrepreneurial Skills to Work This Time to Get People Vaccinated

May 11, 2021
Dallas pastor Richie Butler, MTS '96, has blazed a trail through the worlds of real estate and ministry in Texas and nationwide, developing more than $500 million in urban properties, leading iconic Black churches and launching initiatives to combat racism and deliver COVID-19 testing and vaccinations to communities of color.

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