2013 Faculty

James Abbington is Associate Professor of Worship and Music at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. His research interests include music and worship in the Christian church, African American sacred folk music, organ, choral music, and ethnomusicology. Dr. Abbington serves as executive editor of the African American Church Music Series by GIA Publications (Chicago) and co-director of music for the Hampton University Ministers' and Musicians' Conference. He has served as the national director of music for both the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP.

Dr. David L. Bartlett is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, where he taught from 2005 to 2012. Previously he was dean of academic affairs and Lantz Professor of Preaching and Communication at Yale Divinity School. An ordained minister of the American Baptist Churches, USA, he served congregations in Minnesota, Illinois, and California and taught at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. The author of numerous books, Dr. Bartlett is interested in the intersection of biblical studies and the life of the church, especially the church’s preaching ministry. His particular exegetical interests are in Mark, John, and the Pauline Epistles.

Dorothy Bass is the director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith (www.practicingourfaith.org), a Lilly Endowment project that explores the importance of practices in Christian life and considers how greater attention to practices might contribute to theology and theological education. In addition to publishing several scholarly volumes on practices, edited or coedited by Bass, the Valparaiso Project has created several books that are widely used in congregations and other ministry settings, and has worked directly with some of these to strengthen communities of practice.

Ordained in the Church of England in 1999, Maggi Dawn began her career as a musician and singer-songwriter, releasing five albums and working as a freelance composer, arranger, and performer for various bands and recording studios, and for BBC radio and TV. In the 1990s she changed career, reading for a BA and PhD in theology at the University of Cambridge. Her research was on the relationship between literary form and theological meaning in the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

John Ferguson is the Elliot and Klara Stockdal Johnson Professor of Organ and Church Music and Cantor to the Student Congregation at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. His responsibilities include directing the church music-organ program, teaching organ and conducting the St. Olaf Cantorei. A nationally known composer, clinician, recitalist and hymn festival leader, Dr. Ferguson has made enormous ecumenical contributions to the worship lives of a broad range of congregations.

Rita Ferrone is an independent writer and lecturer on issues of liturgy, catechesis and Christian initiation in the Roman Catholic Church. Her background in parish and diocesan ministry has given her work a practical slant, and made her a much sought-after workshop leader in dioceses throughout the United States.

Martin Jean is a professor in the practice of sacred music, and director of the Institute of Sacred Music. He has performed widely throughout the United States and Europe and is known for his broad repertorial interests. He was awarded first place at the international Grand Prix de Chartres in 1986, and in 1992 at the National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance.

Melanie Ross is an assistant professor of Liturgical Studies at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She received her doctorate in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied under Nathan Mitchell and Maxwell Johnson. Before coming to Yale, she was assistant professor of worship leadership at Huntington University, and taught courses in worship, theology, and pastoral ministry. A member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, Professor Ross pursues research that facilitates the intersection of popular American evangelicalism and academic liturgical theology. Her articles have been published in the journals Worship, Pro Ecclesia, Liturgy, and the Scottish Journal of Theology. In 2010, with Simon Jones, she edited The Serious Business of Worship:Essays in Honour of Bryan D. Spinks (Continuum Books). Her first authored book, Evangelical vs. Liturgical? Defying a Dichotomy, is under contract with Eerdmans Press. B.S., Messiah College; M.A.R., Yale University; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.

Don Saliers recently retired as William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship and director of the master of sacred music program at Emory University. Dr. Saliers is currently writing on liturgy and theological aesthetics and is a sought after lecturer and clinician in worship, music and congregational life.

Bryan Spinks is the Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology, and chair of the program in liturgical studies, and Fellow of Morse College. Professor Spinks teaches courses on marriage liturgy; English Reformation worship traditions; the eucharistic prayer and theology, Christology, and liturgy of the Eastern churches; and contemporary worship. Research interests include East Syrian rites, Reformed rites, issues in theology and liturgy, and worship in a postmodern age.

Thomas Troeger, Lantz Professor of Christian Communication at Yale, has written twenty books in the fields of preaching, poetry, hymnody, worship, and the theology of music and is a frequent contributor to journals dedicated to these topics. His most recent books include Sermon Sparks: 156 Ideas to Ignite Your Preaching; Wonder Reborn: Creating Sermons on Hymns, Music and Poetry; and God, You Made All Things for Singing: Hymn Texts, Anthems, and Poems for a New Millennium. He is also a flutist and a poet whose work appears in the hymnals of most denominations and in SATB anthem settings by many contemporary composers. For three years Professor Troeger hosted the Season of Worship broadcast for Cokesbury, and he has led conferences and lectureships in worship and preaching throughout North America, as well as in Denmark, Holland, Australia, Japan, and Africa. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1970 and in the Episcopal Church in 1999, he is dually aligned with both traditions. He is a former president of the Academy of Homiletics (the North American guild of scholars in homiletics) and of Societas Homiletica (the international guild of scholars in homiletics). He serves as the national chaplain to the American Guild of Organists. He was awarded an honorary D.D. degree from Virginia Theological Seminary.