Two Upcoming Guest Preachers

The Chapel looks forward to welcoming a guest preacher at each of the next two 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning worship services.

On February 6, the Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence, Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary, will preach a sermon based on Jesus's calling of Peter in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Her books include Preaching as Testimony, Inscribing the Word, and Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community, based on her 2012 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School; her current book project is ‘A’ is for Alabaster: A Preacher’s Alphabet. She has also published articles and chapters in numerous books and journals, including a year’s worth of lectionary text commentaries for the Working Preacher website. A frequent preacher and teacher in the U.S. and abroad, she continues to think about new ways to teach, and creative strategies for communities to engage and encounter Scripture together.

The preacher on February 13 is the Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Hale, founder and senior pastor, Ray of Hope Christian Church. Her vision and leadership led her to establish two ministries: Elah Pastoral Ministries, Inc is a mentoring program to assist in the spiritual and practical development of pastors and para-church leaders, and the Women in Ministry Conference, Inc. is a national conference for developing, coaching, and mentoring Christian women in ministry. As a recipient of numerous honors and recognitions, Dr. Hale was inducted into the African American Biographies Hall of Fame, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College, and the Atlanta Business League Women’s Hall of Fame. She is a recipient of the National Urban League’s “Women of Power” award, the Preston Taylor Living Legacy Award, the Balm in Gilead Keeper of the Flame Award, and she was recognized on Ebony Magazine’s “Power 100” list as one of the nation’s most influential African American leaders. Dr. Hale is a contributing writer for many books and publications including, Power in the Pulpit II: How America’s Most Effective Black Preachers Prepare their Sermons and the preaching resource series, Feasting on the Gospels. In January 2010, she authored her first book entitled, I’m A Piece of Work: Sisters Shaped by God. An alumna of Duke Divinity School, Rev. Dr. Hale was recently interviewed for the Living Tradition preaching resource about a sermon she preached at the Chapel in 1996.