Yale Divinity School

Notes from 2007

Beverly Allen Asbury ’53 B.D. writes: “The same problems of relating religious faith to the doubts raised by rational/scientific discourse mark my life now as they did fifty-five and more years ago. Although it was not in my plans then, it now seems less than accidental that I spent most of my life in ministry in and to institutions of higher education. That work has marked me increasingly in the directions of doubt and skepticism regarding religious traditions.

 “Those who knew me at YDS will not be surprised that the central issues of my work have involved racial equality, death-and-human-meaning, the Holocaust and other genocides.  What I now believe and what I now no longer believe have grown out of those issues.

 “At YDS, I was deeply influenced and shaped by Professors Julian N. Hartt ’40 Div., ’40 Ph.D. (with whom I remain in touch), H. Richard Niebuhr ’23 Div., Kenneth Underwood, Liston Pope, Paul Schubert, and B. Davie Napier ’39 B.D., ’44 Ph.D.  Those who were then students and whose later work has also influenced me include James. F. Gustafson ’55 Div., ’55 Ph.D.; Gordon Kaufman ’51 B.D., ’55 Ph.D.; and James T. Laney ’50 B.A., ’54 B.D., ’66 Ph.D., ’93 L.H.D.H.  My life is in their debt.”

Theodore M. Atkinson ’53 B.D. writes: “I was a UCC pastor for 25 years and a professional genealogist for 25 years. I suspect that no one else in our class became a professional genealogist.  ‘Very unique,’ as some might say.

“A thought of mine:  The merger in 1957 between the Congregational-Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed denomination was a mistake. Over 1,600 Congregational Churches voted against the merger, never to ‘return’ in most cases.

“Roland Bainton ’17 B.D., ’21 Ph.D. didn’t change my direction.  But he re-enforced my great interest in history. I send a picture of me at the Bennington, VT geneal library, after the purchase of over 200 reels of Vermont vital records.”

Ralph Cannon ’53 B.D. and Mimi (Bowers) Cannon ’53 Div. write: “We met as YDS students and married on Thanksgiving Day, 1953, in Maryland, just after Ralph had begun his first appointment in his home territory – the South Carolina Annual Conference of The Methodist Church.  We were happy to begin our ministry and our family with that first appointment of three small rural churches and to serve the subsequent eight pastorates that followed throughout South Carolina.  Our sharing of YDS life gave us a mutual outlook on life and faith, a sense of shared purpose in raising our family and in serving the church, and a community of friends with whom we have enjoyed keeping up with through the years.

“Ralph began his seminary education with an intention of entering campus ministry upon graduation.  By his third year his career choice had changed to parish ministry; he managed to get in one preaching course with Dr. Luccock, a seminar on pastoral care, and a course on church school supervision.  However, he credits his substantive courses with the greats of that time, Drs. Niebhur, Bainton, Burrows, Napier, Hartt, and Schubert, as preparing him more than adequately for a lifetime dedication to his chosen role as parish theologian.

“Our 41 years of active ministry, with churches ranging in membership from 50 to 1700, saw Ralph serving the annual conference in a number of policy making boards.  He was elected six times to represent the S.C. Conferences at the General Conference, which meets quadrennially.  For more than 25 years he wrote a column for the annual conference newspaper, modeled after the style of Halford Luccock’s ‘Simeon Stylites’ columns, a sampling of which later became a book.

“We are happily settled in historic Charleston, SC, with its outstanding hospitals (which we have needed), and are thoroughly immersed in its annual Spoleto arts festival and our chosen church home.  Scattered along the east coast are our two daughters and one son.  Cynthia is a university professor of social work, with HIV-AIDS as one of her fields of special expertise.  Jeff is a skilled and devoted caregiver for handicapped persons.  Teresa is a proficient and creative merchandising manager.”

Gene E. Canestrari ’53 M.Div. writes, “My experiences at YDS (1950-1953) can never be expressed in words. I remember the very first morning I woke up in New Haven (at the downtown Taft Hotel) and looking out over the "Green,"  seeing those three historic churches  and part of the old Yale campus. What a sight!  Then to go to YDS the very first time—and meeting George Pierson. What an experience for a Southern boy to meet a grouchy, old New Englander! In time I came to appreciate him.

“Everything about YDS was wonderful to me, the beautiful buildings and campus, the teachers, but above all my fellow students. What teachers we had in those ‘golden’ days! Richard Niebuhr, B.Davie Napier, John Oliver Nelson, Julian Hartt, Vieth, McClellan, Roland Bainton, etc., etc. Each one made a great impression on me. And what guest lecturers we had: Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, James Stewart (from Scotland), etc. We knew we were hearing the very top people in the theological world at that time.

“I took advantage of as many programs, concerts, lectures, etc., on the downtown, old Yale campus as possible--including many special services at Battell Chapel. Again, what a glorious experience for a twenty-two to twenty-five year old from the hillbilly deep South of Tennessee!

“My YDS experience has had a lasting effect on my life and ministry. I still have my closest friends from those experiences. I enjoyed so much coming back to my Class of 1953 Reunion a few years ago. I hope I can come back for our next reunion in October.     My best wishes to you and everyone at YDS.”

Mark Follansbee ’53 B.D. writes: “Fifty-five years ago, I graduated from Yale Divinity School, and entered the pastoral ministry in a small, Mid-Western town.  I felt like an expert, called to head the congregation and straighten out faulty theology.  Four years later I left for another Mid-Western town – City of Cows, Colleges, and Contentment; my introductory sermon was entitled, “The Church Is People.” That was a change in perspective and attitude.

“From 1975 to 1978 I served with a catholic priest and chaplain on a Cancer Rehabilitation Team, and discovered a ministry of “being-with” the terminally ill– recognition of further development and the need to work with people of other disciplines.

“Since retirement from my fourth parish (Montpelier, VT) twenty-one years ago, I have been Director of an Urban Ministry, Burlington, an advocate for low income folk at the state capitol. I now work with Vermont Interfaith Action as a Founder and on the managing Board – purposeful teamwork for Justice bridging deep relationships across boundaries between faith communities.

“Henry Nouwen ’77 M.A.H. delivered the substance of  “Wounded Healer” in the YDS Common when I was in a parish in suburban New Haven – hooray for being human, one among many. Bill Muehl cut me out of my Republican box as we debated in front of YDS mailboxes:  Robert Taft is a better Christian than Harry Truman.

“H. Richard Niebuhr ’23 Div. demonstrated the Triadic Relationship during YDS; his later writings, especially the Meaning of Revelation and The Responsible Self, encouraged my understanding of self and ministry. 

“The validity, of religious experience is expressed in behavior.  We are being gathered by the Spirit into communion with all fellow humans, past, future and present.”

John Longley ’53 B.D. writes: “I went to Yale Divinity School with the goal of becoming a parish minister.  I served three different United Church of Christ churches during a span of thirty-eight years and felt well received by these congregations and reasonably gratified with what I felt was accomplished.  I would judge myself to be liberal in my theology but tried to deal fairly with the major Christian concepts of striving to become more Christ-like, seeing the cross as a powerful means of God's acceptance and forgiveness, and believing that God has created us for an eternal life in God's everlasting love.

“I have also felt that each one of us must take a leap of faith in trying to understand the meaning of our lives.  My leap to Christianity was not a dogmatic belief that what I thought was sacred was the only legitimate leap that one could take.  Religion can be dangerous to our fellow humans, as evidenced by the radical Islamists who consider many people to be the infidels who need to be destroyed.  Christianity can be just as dangerous to others with its penchant to identify people as lost souls. Our leaps of faith should never do damage to other people if we are trying to serve a God of love.”

Sam Magill '53 B.D. writes: “When I graduated I expected my career to be in the Student YMCA. As it turned out, that lasted only two years at Davidson. After that, I served as a student affairs administrator at UNC-Chapel Hill, then earned a doctorate in religion at Duke (1962), served as chaplain and Assistant professor at Dickinson College, followed by five years as dean of the college, eight years in DC in higher education association affairs, three years as president of Simon’s Rock and thirteen years as president of Monmouth University. After six years in semi-retirement, I returned to UNC-CH as a development officer for 6+ years, retiring finally in January 2007. All of this only proves that one’s career is likely to take a number of unexpected turns.

 “I also expected to have one marriage during my lifetime; much to my chagrin, there have been several, but I am now happily married to a lovely woman, Eunice Brock, in Chapel Hill.  My children are all grown, and I am very proud of their accomplishments in life. Only two grand children, however, but they are a joy.

 “The invitation, at age 35, to become academic dean at Dickinson was a life-changing event and forever altered the course of my professional life. My intention to teach ethics at the college level gave way to academic administration and the campus ministry was a thing of the past as well. Throughout my career, at least until the last decade or so, I saw my career as a ministry, seeking to work towards building the kingdom of God in human terms, to take the thought of Daniel Day Williams.  As the decades passed, however, I came less and less to see the hand of God in human events and gradually took on a degree of skepticism about the claims of Christianity and, indeed, the existence of God at all.  Now I don't pretend to have any ultimate knowledge of god's existence and prefer to hover between agnosticism and atheism.  The spate of recent works by atheists, however, seems to me to be overly hostile, intolerant and disdainful of any dialogue between responsible, thoughtful religionists.

 “While at YDS there is no question that H. Richard Niebuhr ’23 Div. made a deep impression on me and influenced my thinking for many years. I often wonder how he would have responded to the contemporary argument about the existence of God. Liston Pope, Ken Underwood, Bill Miller and Clarence Shedd were also influential. Fellow students were powerful influences as well.  I think of Bob Skeele ’53 B.D., who remains to this day as a dear friend, though living on the other side of the continent, Bev Asbury ’53 B.D., and the late Harry Smith ’53 B.D.  "Skeets," as we knew him, and I frequently engaged in cross-continent conversations about religion and other topics of mutual concern. Paul Kaylor ’54 M.Div. was a colleague at Dickinson, Simon's Rock and Monmouth and, most recently, officiated at my wedding to Eunice Brock.

 “One of things that I recall was the great good humor of the faculty.  I shall never forget two hilarious incidents. The first concerned Julian Hartt ’40 Div., ’40 Ph.D. One morning Bev Asbury and another student, rushed into the classroom, grabbed Hartt and hustled him out, crying out as they left, "He thinks he's Schliermacher!" The other incident involved the late Davie Napier ’39 B.D., ’44 Ph.D. Napier was extremely near-sighted and always constructed a series of objects to bring his notes closer to his eyes: first an upside down wastebasket on top of the desk, then a desk drawer turned upside down on top of the wastebasket, and finally the small wooden podium for his notes. One morning some student hung a sign on this structure reading, "Napier's Tower of Babel."  In each instance, Hartt and Napier joined in the hilarity following.

“Since retiring the second time, Eunice and I have traveled a good bit: Australia, New Zealand, Turkey and Bavaria. We plan to tour Scotland next.”

Hall Peebles ’53 B.D., ’55 M.A., ’59 Ph.D. writes: “When I entered the Divinity School, my aim was college teaching, so after my B.D. I continued at Yale for a Ph.D., which I received in 1959. The work I did at Yale was superb preparation for my teaching at Wabash College, where I was a professor of religion until I retired after 40 years. My dissertation advisor, Claude Welch, deserves most of the credit for finding my position, which was earlier held by Hans Frei ’45 B.D., ’56 Ph.D. Other Yale faculty to whom I feel especially indebted Davie Napier ’39 B.D., ’44 Ph.D.; Julian Hartt ’40 Div., ’40 Ph.D.; and H. Richard Niebuhr ’23 Div.

“Wabash is an excellent small liberal arts college, so I've had the opportunity to teach in most areas of religion. The one area I did not work in at Yale was non-Western Religions, but I obtained a Ford Foundation Faculty Fellowship which allowed me to return to Yale to remedy this. Here in Indiana, I have not had many opportunities to see Yale classmates, except for John Eigenbrodt ’52 B.D., ’55 M.A., ’60 Ph.D., who taught at DePauw University nearby. John became my de facto family chaplain. He officiated at the ceremony when I married Emmy Shepherd, a Professor of English whom I met in Rome, and baptized our three sons, David, John, and Mark.

“I saw Bev Asbury ’53 B.D. a few years ago at our Georgia reunion, but I regret not seeing others. My memories of others are fond, and my enduring gratitude to Yale endures.”

Bob Raines ’50 B.A., ’53 B.D. writes: “I am grateful for my three years at YDS: filled with intellectual challenge, superior Biblical and theological training, and the formation of significant friendships.  I was privileged to be part of a spiritual journey group which met weekly over three years with such colleagues as Bard Smith ’50 B.A., ’53 B.D., ’57 M.A., ’64 Ph.D.; Mark Follansbee ’53 B.D.; Charley Luckey, Roger Anderson ’53 M.Div.  In this group I learned something of the transforming power of small groups which was to significantly impact my ministries in congregations and at Kirkridge Retreat Center.

“I didn’t anticipate my 20 year ministry at Kirkridge, which richly expanded my contacts ecumenically, and engaged stellar leaders and participants dealing with the central spiritual issues of the day.  I am happy to have been able to participate, in congregations and at Kirkridge, in the civil rights struggles, Vietnam anguish, womens’ and gay rights issues of these decades, and now the Iraq disaster. 

“Now it is my gladness to participate in the vibrant life of my congregation, the 1st Congregational Church of Guildford, CT, where I find comfort and belonging and opportunities to serve.  It is a time of savoring the blessedness of good health and a loving family and the abiding love of God.”

Parker Rossman ’53 Ph.D., ’53 Div. writes: “Greetings to the class of ’53.  As I near age 90 in the face I do not feel like traveling to New Haven.  My sad news is that my brother, Vern Rossman ’51 B.D., whom I roomed with one year at YDS has died this year.

“You asked what events at YDS changed my life direction?  I decided to give my life to research on the future of higher education and how to provide learning and job training for everyone on the planet.  My three volume online book on the topic (at http://ecolecon.missouri.edu/globalresearch) has been accessed more than a half a million times by readers in 37 countries, many sending comments and suggestions for regular updating.  I now have in hand a copy of the first volume print edition that in 2007 is being published by a university press in China. 

“After attending the founding assembly of the World Council of Churches, I served a year on the staff of the World Student Christian Federation (Incidentally there I was the third person present during a long theological discussion between Karl Barth and Billy Graham.)  As a member of the board of World University Service I visited universities around the rim of Asia to help assess their needs.  Invited to serve on the staff of the Orthodox Youth Movement in the Middle East (a student movement) gave me wide experience with Islam (including a day’s conversation with Grand Mufti of Syria, arranged by the head of UNESCO in the Middle East.)  Partly as a result of that I was briefly employed by the World Bank on a university project, and as a result of that was in 2005 invited to participate in a conference on water shortages and pollution in the Middle East (hydrologists from Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt who worked together as if lifelong friends.)  I have spent time in Paris at UNESCO fifteen times, briefing student delegates for example, to the UNESCO conference on the future of higher education.  In 2007 I have continued to participate in UNESCO discussions on how to use the Internet to provide education for everyone on the planet.

“For several years I conducted continuing education conferences at YDS that were attended by nearly 2,500 clergy of nearly all denominations…until the funding ran out.  The books that I wrote out of that experience led me to initiations to lecture overseas, in the Philippines, the Indian Institute of World Culture, a peace conference in Hungary, at the Classical University of Lisbon conference on the future of higher education (you can read that online today), at the World Brain conference at the Free University in Belgium and in 2005 at a conference on major religion leaders and major scientists.

“The student government officers at the University of Rangoon that I was there to interview were shot by the government before I could talk with them.  I had more luck in 2006 when I interviewed my students in Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania.  I have published a series of books challenging major professions.  I served ten years with Congresswoman Edith Green that examined university student involvement in Marxism in Latin America; and was for ten years vice-president of an organization that raised money to fight the Mafia in Sicily.  I am now experimenting with some other online interactive books.  The first will be another novel, Kingdom of Weeds that will be published late in 2007 with a blog about the possibility of a western hemisphere virtual nation for native Americans.  Some in the class of ’53 will no doubt remember David Byers and Dwight Hall.  When last in Paris my wife asked me to look up Dave’s daughter in Paris who is married to a Moroccan artist.  I had given up finding her when I jumped on the wrong metro train by mistake, and the only vacant seat was beside Becky and she had taken the wrong train by mistake also. 

“Be grateful what I write here is short, for my mother saved 60 years of my weekly letters.”