The Mark Kraai Lectures – “The Changing Face of Urban Ministry”

The lectures will be held at our New York Campus:
St. John’s University
D’Angelo Center, Room 306

The day will consist of presentations and a keynote address.

Admission is free but you must reserve your space – Please RSVP to NYevents@nbts.edu

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The Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., is National Minister of the Drum Major Institute, Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church, The Harry Emerson Fosdick Distinguished Professor at Union Theological Seminary, and President of the Healing of the Nations Foundation (all of these institutions of New York City). Additionally, Dr. Forbes is a highly acclaimed author, scholar and nationally sought-after speaker, affectionately referred to in national and international religious circles as the preacher’s preacher because of his extensive preaching career and his charismatic style.  Newsweek magazine once recognized Forbes as one of the 12 “most effective preachers” in the English-speaking world.  As a passionate educator, administrator, community and human rights activist and interfaith leader, Dr. Forbes was twice designated as one of America’s greatest Black preachers by Ebony magazine. Dr. Forbes is a featured TEDex speaker and also a frequent guest & contributor to top national media outlets including Huffington Post, MSNBC and others.  

Most recently, as Senior Minister of the Riverside Church⎯an interdenominational, interracial, and international church built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1927, Dr. Forbes led a 2,400 member church. Affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ. Forbes, was installed as the fifth senior minister of Riverside on June 1, 1989, and retired on June 1, 2007. He was the first African-American to serve as minister of this multicultural congregation. Dr. Forbes is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches.

Before being called to Riverside’s pulpit, Dr. Forbes served from 1976-1985 as the Brown and Sockman Associate Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  From 1985-1989, he was Union’s first Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching.  Union named him the first Harry Emerson Fosdick Adjunct Professor of Preaching in 1989, when he accepted the pastorate at Riverside.  Dr. Forbes has served on the Core Teaching Staff at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.

Dr. Forbes has earned three degrees and has been awarded 14 honorary degrees.  He earned a doctor of ministry degree from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY; a master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, NY; and a bachelor of science in chemistry from Howard University in Washington, D.C.  He earned his clinical pastoral education certificate from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA.

His Alma Mater, Union Theology Seminary presented him its Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Award and Teacher’s College of Columbia University award him its Distinguished Service Medal in 2003.  Howard University awarded him their Distinguished Service Award in Ministry.  His honorary doctorates included degrees from the following colleges and universities:  Princeton, DePauw, Colgate, Fairleigh Dickenson, Lehigh and the University of Richmond.

From 1992 to 2007, Dr. Forbes was co-chair of A Partnership of Faith, an interfaith organization of clergy among New York’s Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim communities.  He is on the board of Manhattanville College, the Interfaith Alliance, Children’s Defense Fund, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, and the United Way.  He is a past president of The Martin Luther King Fellows. Dr. Forbes is also a member of Mayor DiBlasio’s Clergy Advisory Council in New York City.

Additionally, two of Dr. Forbes’ songs have been published in the Silver Burdett Songbooks for schools: “For Children Safe and Strong” and “Our Families Together.”  Dr. Forbes has performed the narration for several large musical productions, including Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with the Riverside choir.

Born in 1935 in Burgaw, North Carolina, Dr. Forbes is married to Bettye Franks Forbes, formerly of San Antonio, TX.  They are the proud parents of one son, James A. Forbes, III and two grandchildren, Hannah Rose and James IV.

Sally Ann Castle is completing her Masters of Divinity at NBTS. Her sense of call is end of life counseling and cross-cultural pastoral care ministry. Her passion is writing liturgy for contemporary worship settings. As an Elder at the Church on the Hill in Flushing (COTH) she developed and implemented a Blue Christmas worship service to minister to grieving and despondent people during the holiday season. This service has been adopted by several other congregations in New York and across the nation.  Responding to needs in our urban community, she helped initiate the Food for Kids program at COTH which provides weekend groceries for food insecure families, a program which is now in its fourth year.

In her ministry as a hospital chaplain in Far Rockaway, Sally Ann advocated for indigent and non-communicative patients. She also initiated Health Care Decisions Day, a program which educates patients and staff about advanced medical directives in order to encourage early informed decisions leading to a dignified death. This program is in its third year.

Sally Ann has also served as a nursing home chaplain in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where she wrote and led weekly worship services for an ecumenical congregation. For seventeen years she served as the Sunday School Superintendent at The Community Church of Douglaston where She focused on mission and intergenerational worship. The children led the congregation in mission outreach projects in Queens and internationally.

As she completes her seminary education, she looks forward to using her gifts ministering to those in need in diverse communities.

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The Rev. Prophet F.W. Hood has been chosen by God to walk in in the office of Prophet. He is an ordained Baptist minister that serves as the pastor of the Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church, U.C.C., located in South Jamaica, New York. Prophet Hood has a specialized educational ministry that allows the Holy Ghost to create a prophetic pastorate that fully nurtures and nourishes the individual in a holistic manner that not only empowers the individual but empowers communities as well.

Prophet Hood’s secular ministry has been in the field of social services, working for programs that service those who are homeless, who suffer abuses of all kinds, those living with HIV/AIDS, rape victims, drug/alcohol abuse and those involved in drug treatment family court. He has served in many capacities from counselor, outreach coordinator and job developer to developing and conducting seminars. He states, “I have learned and experienced a lot through serving the needs of others and have become the better for it.”

 

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Rev. Dr. Patricia A. Sealy is called and anointed of God to a ministry of health,  healing, and restoration. Her focus on health and healing was borne out of a personal experience of healing from a paralytic illness. God raised her up from a state of paralysis to be able to praise and rejoice in Him. Since that experience, she has dedicated her life to ministering healing to others through the ministry of nursing, mentoring, the Word of God and prayer.Next to her love for God, is her love for her family.  Dr. Pat is married to Pastor Alistair Anderson Sealy. Pastor Alistair is a quiet man with a deep and abiding love for the Lord, his wife and his family. He is a man of prayer and a man of worship.  Dr. Pat is the proud mother of Rachel Alexander and Brian Protho of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and her grandchildren are a source of joy and happiness to her.

Rev. Dr. Sealy is the founder of MANNA Ministries International, Inc. The focus of MANNA is to use the Scripture to teach principles related to healthy and holy living; and to collaborate with like-minded ministries/organizations regarding issues of social justice and the church.

She pastors The Mott Haven Reformed Church in the Bronx, New York; a member church of the Reformed Church in America.  The vision for Mott Haven is that it will become a multi-cultural, intergenerational church transforming the lives of the community by the power of the gospel.  Rev. Sealy has a burden for the youth and young families of the Mott Haven Community and her ministry is directed on impacting the lives of the next generation of South Bronx residents.

Pastor Pat, as she is commonly known, served for many years as an Associate Pastor at The Elim International Fellowship under the pastorate of the late Archbishop Wilbert S. McKinley.  There she taught in the Children’s Church, was leader of the Pastoral Care Ministry, served as Catechism Teacher and Director of Evangelism.  Additionally, she served as interim pastor of Mission Network Intl. Ministry under the leadership of Bishop Roger K.  Samuel of Trinidad/Tobago.

Dr. Sealy has accomplished much in both the academic and secular work world. She completed studies for the Masters of Science degree focusing on cancer nursing and administration; the Doctorate of Education Degree, the Masters of Divinity and the Doctor of Ministry Degree.  Her research on “The Church as a Healing Community for Children of Incarcerated Parents” resulted in a ministry model of healing to disrupt generational incarceration in impoverished communities. She is a national board certified health care chaplain and has functioned in many leadership positions, in the military, Department of Veterans Affairs, churches that have tapped into her administrative/leadership skills and at the denominational level of the Reformed Church in America. Nevertheless, she grounds her life in the Word and work of God and clings to the Scripture as found in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

 

The breadth of Reverend Karen Jones’ ministry has been far reaching as she has served in congregational ministry, in academia, as an activist for social justice, in healthcare, and in many ecumenical partnerships.  She has provided leadership:

• as an Adjunct Faculty member of the American Baptist College in Nashville (classes taught:  Gender Roles in Church and Society; Principles and Methods in Teaching Christian Education; and Educational Ministries of the Church);
• as an invited guest Teacher/Lecturer in the National Baptist Congress Association of Germany;
• as a Community Lecturer at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, Detroit, MI addressing the topic:  “Preaching to Women:  It’s Not Just a Woman’s Job;”
• as a co-Coordinator of the New York Sabbatical Institute (a Lilly Endowed project developed and implemented by Union, Auburn, and New York Theological Seminaries, to address “sustaining pastoral excellence”);
• as Director of Field Education at Union Theological Seminary in New York;
• as the Executive Coordinator of the Tennessee Hunger Coalition (a coalition of non-profits and community-based groups addressing hunger and poverty-related issues);
• as an Interim Pastor, Pastor of Congregational Care, and Minister of Christian Education and Family Ministry; and
• as the Assistant to the Pastor at Believers Christian Fellowship in the Bronx, under the leadership of former Ambassador of Religious Freedom, Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook.  Reverend Jones was featured in Ebony Magazine with Dr. Cook in June 2006, and in the New York Times in April 2007.
• Currently, Reverend Jones is the Director of Pastoral Care and Education at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York.  In this role, Reverend Jones is responsible for leading Winthrop’s Pastoral Care and Education Program, which serves the spiritual needs of patients, families and medical professionals and staff at Winthrop by offering healing ministry, spiritual support and bereavement counseling 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reverend Jones serves as a liaison between the Hospital and community clergy of all faiths and denominations, and is committed to raising awareness of the spiritual dimension of healing, while cultivating an understanding of, and respect for, the faith traditions of the diverse religious communities served by Winthrop.

With a passion for ministry and a love for family, Reverend Jones is committed to the healing and wellness of families.  She is the editor of a resource that continues to be re-printed, Church and Family Together: A Congregational Manual for Black Family Ministry published by Judson Press.  Her most recent published article is in PlainViews, an online journal of HealthCare Chaplaincy Network:  “Advance Directives and the African American Community:  Navigating the Cultural Challenges.” She is the founder and CEO of Healing Our Wings Ministries, providing coaching, consulting, and counseling services to individuals, families, and churches.

Reverend Jones earned a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary from New York, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Tennessee State University, and a Master of Arts in Christian Education with an emphasis in Pastoral Care and Family Ministry from Scarritt Graduate School in Nashville.

Reverend Jones serves on the ministerial team at the Antioch Baptist Church in Corona, New York. She is an ordained minister affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and American Baptist Churches, Metropolitan New York, where she serves as pulpit supply in churches throughout New York City and Long Island.

A native of Northern California, Reverend Jones claims the Louisiana roots of her parents and extended family.  She is a co-parent to three young adults and a teenage son.  She has one granddaughter and recently welcomed a grandson! Her family includes a lovable rescue dog named, “Handsome Jack.” During her time of relaxation and refreshment, Reverend Jones enjoys Broadway plays, movies, fishing, word puzzles, quilting and traveling.

 

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