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The Inaugural Douglass & Wells Lecture

The Bible and the Black church | Fr. Dr. Esau McCaulley

  • The Douglass and Wells Lecture Series is named in honor of Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, two Black Christians, born into slavery, whose faith informed and helped sustain movements for justice arising out of the heart of the Black church.

    Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, writer, and politician who was instrumental in the fight to end slavery. After abolition, he continued to fight for justice for African Americans. Ida B. Wells is perhaps the most significant activist in the history of the anti-lynching movement and a strident voice in the long civil rights movement for the dignity and flourishing of Black people.

    Every year, during the month of February, All Saints will invite a speaker to deliver a public lecture that will be open to the community.

    The inaugural lecture will be delivered by our pastor, Fr. Esau McCaulley, PhD, on the subject of The Bible and the Black Church. He will examine the distinctive Bible reading habits of the Black church and explain how they came to see in the Scriptures a God who was a friend and not an enemy.

    The purpose of this annual lecture is to help all people appreciate the distinctive theological and spiritual contributions that African American followers of Jesus have made to the church and the world.

    Central to the lecture series is the conviction that one does not have to choose between a high view of Scripture, deep commitment to Jesus, and a concern for justice. These elements—personal piety, concern for justice, and love for God’s word—have always been hallmarks of the central stream of the Black Christian tradition. We want the lectures to reflect those same commitments.

    Thematically, the speakers will have the freedom to engage different elements of the Black Christian tradition depending on their interests and abilities, including, but not limited to:

    The Black Preaching Tradition

    Black Sacred Music

    African American Biblical Interpretation & Theology

    African American Political Theology

    Seminal Figures in the History of the Black Church

    We believe that the riches of the Black Church tradition are a gift from that tradition to the world.

Women’s History Month Lecture

The Value of Women: What Mary and

Paul Have To Teach Us | Rev. Dr. Amy Peeler

  • Paul never mentions Mary, Jesus’s mother, by name and the New Testament never recounts that Mary encounters Paul, so many might imagine that they have nothing to do with each other. The reality, however, is quite the opposite. Frequently, when Paul reflects on the relationship between men and women in the church, he appeals to the birth of the Messiah. In this lecture I invite consideration of God’s decision to send the Savior via birth. I do so by studying both the story of Jesus’ birth recounted by Luke and then the texts of Paul in which he applies the meaning of the Savior’s birth to the church.

    Amy Peeler is Associate Rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL and the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies/Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. Author most recently of Hebrews: A Commentary for Christian Formation (Eerdmans, 2022) and Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans, 2024), she also had the privilege as serving as one of the four editors for New Testament In Color: A Multiethnic Commentary (Eerdmans, 2024). Her next major writing projects focus on Paul’s statements on men and women’s participation in the church as informed by his belief in the Incarnation and the NICNT commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. She enjoys time with her family, running, and CrossFit.

Asian American Pacific Islander Month Lecture

Courage for Today, Hope for Tomorrow

with Daniel Yang