Fellowships for 2025-2026 announced at the Reformed Church Center

July 9, 2025

The Reformed Church Center is pleased to announce five women who will work in the three fellowships offered by the Center during the 2025-2026 academic year. Each was chosen as part of a competitive proposal process, reviewed by members of the Reformed Church Center Committee. They will spend up to two weeks for each fellowship in New Brunswick, working with the resources of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) Archives, Gardner A. Sage Library, and members of the NBTS faculty as needed to complete their work, then will present their findings to members of the Seminary community in programs still to be scheduled that will be streamed on Zoom.

Lynn M. Japinga, recently retired as Professor of Religion at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where she had been on faculty for thirty-three years, will be the Albert A Smith Fellow in RCA History. She is the author of Bible studies, histories, and essays in numerous books and journals. Her fellowship with be part of her current work researching the experiences and attitudes of RCA members during World War II, on the home front, on the war front, and in the churches. She plans to be on campus in October.

Mary K. Risseeuw is a historian and genealogist living in Wisconsin and the recipient of the Alvin J. Poppen-John R. Young Fellowship in Reformed Worship for 2025-2026. She is the second person ever to complete the “hat trick” of all three Reformed Church Center fellowships, and the first to do so in three consecutive years. Her planned project for the Poppen-Young fellowship looks at the history and evolution of liturgical vestments in the RCA, starting in New Netherland and moving forward to the present day. Mary plans to be in New Brunswick in November.

The three women who have the Hazel B. Gnade Fellowship in RCA Women’s Studies for 2025-2026—Christina Van Eyl-Godin, Arlene Walters Waldorf, and Dianna Walker—have all served as Executive Directors of Reformed Church Women (RCW), consecutively, beginning with Walker and ending with Waldorf, between 1986 and 2004. Reformed Church Women ceased to exist as in independent organization in 2004. Their project will look at the triennial gatherings of RCW, the last of which was held in 2007, particularly at how they were empowering and transformative for women and also aided RCA men in their journey of acceptance of women’s leadership. They will begin working on campus in late July.

The three fellowships of the Reformed Church Center are awarded annually by the Reformed Church Center based on the submission of proposals, reviewed by the Reformed Church Center Committee, which includes NBTS faculty and the RCA Archivist. More information is available at nbts.edu/student-life/reformed-church-center/research-and-scholarship/. During the Reformed Church Center’s twenty-fifth anniversary year, gifts to “Friends of the Reformed Church Center” are being used to help bolster the fellowship funds and, it is hoped, expand their work. To support this, go the nbts.edu/donate/. When asked to designate where your gift will go, select “Friends of RCC” from the drop-down menu. You may also contact Cathy Proctor, Vice President of Advancement, for other ways to support this work.