Fall Semester is off to a busy start. Here are a few photos of what's been happening on campus.

We welcomed new students, who attended a week-long, immersive course, Practicing Ecotheology, conducted both in the classroom and outside around campus.

The faculty gathered in full regalia prior to Opening Convocation and Lunch on the Lawn.

At Sunset on the Farm, we enjoyed good food and music while celebrating the people who serve on Seminary Hill Farm and through our Land Stewardship Initiative.

You're invited to hear author, preacher and public theologian Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, deliver two lectures at MTSO’s Williams Institute.

Middle Church, which Lewis has led since 2005, describes itself as “a multicultural, multiethnic, intergenerational movement of Spirit and justice, powered by fierce, revolutionary Love, with room for all.”

Lewis’s first lecture, “Brick by Brick, Ubuntu: Building a Multiracial Community of Faith,” will take place at 7:15 p.m. Eastern Sept. 22. The second lecture, “Pitfalls & Promises: On Nurturing Interracial Communities of Faith,” begins at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Sept. 23.

You're invited to hear author, preacher and public theologian Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, deliver two lectures at MTSO’s Williams Institute.

Middle Church, which Lewis has led since 2005, describes itself as “a multicultural, multiethnic, intergenerational movement of Spirit and justice, powered by fierce, revolutionary Love, with room for all.”

Lewis’s first lecture, “Brick by Brick, Ubuntu: Building a Multiracial Community of Faith,” will take place at 7:15 p.m. Eastern Sept. 22. The second lecture, “Pitfalls & Promises: On Nurturing Interracial Communities of Faith,” begins at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Sept. 23.

“Every time I have heard Dr. Lewis speak, I have been inspired and forced to think more deeply about my own faith and witness,” said MTSO Dean Valerie Bridgeman. “She is a very thoughtful theologian and pastor, and the fact that she gets to put her ideas into practice, improve them, or scrap them, makes her work even more valuable from my perspective. I also think that people who are leading multicultural and interracial congregations would do well to learn from her. She doesn't offer a ‘one size fits all’ ideology, but rather she offers the kinds of questions and prayerful planning people need to do if they are going to lead. I hope people will come. I don't want them to miss this opportunity.”

If you’re attending Alumni Day and would like to stay for the Williams lectures, rooms are available on campus for $60 in Dewire Residence Hall. Email housing@mtso.edu to reserve a room.

Learn more about the lectures.

MTSO will host a Graduate Theological Education Discernment Retreat in early October. The retreat will offer aspiring faith leaders opportunities to explore graduate theological education and discern its potential role in helping them to become change agents in their communities.

Guided discernment programming will take place Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. Additionally, participants are invited to create a customized retreat according to their needs and availability beginning Monday, Oct. 5, through Thursday, Oct. 8. Options include arriving Monday evening, Tuesday or Wednesday and staying through Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

This retreat is offered at no cost to participants within the United States. It will take place on the MTSO campus in Delaware. Free on-campus housing and meals are provided, and travel assistance may be available.

The Graduate Theological Education Discernment Retreat is part of MTSO’s project “Connecting Pathways: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Strengthen and Sustain Current and Future Faith Leaders,” funded through Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative.

Those who are interested are invited to apply here.

Alumni Day is less than a week away, and we have closed registration for Monday’s Mount Alumni Awards Luncheon, as the event is at capacity.

Fortunately, there’s room for all at Monday afternoon’s events: a 1:30 p.m. chapel service with communion and 2:30 p.m. faculty presentations by Assistant Professor of Theology Jee Hyun Baek and Assistant Professor of History Beth Stroud. Both gatherings will be held in the Alford Centrum. No registration is required for either.

Baek will present perspectives from her work in Korean feminist trauma theology, drawing on her Boston University dissertation, “The Sound of Han across Generations: A Theological Response to Intergenerational Trauma in the Korean Diaspora.” Stroud will speak about Horace Bushnell, widely considered the father of American Liberal Theology, as she probes limitations encountered in late 19th century liberal traditions.

Emeritus Professor of Church History Jeff Jaynes will moderate the presentations.

Learn more about Alumni Day here.