This coming Sunday, we are privileged to welcome Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric as our guest proclaimer in worship. Dr. Colón-Emeric serves as the Dean of Duke Divinity School, where Matthew and I know him best as our Christian Theology professor. Dr. Colón-Emeric is a vibrant preacher with a pastoral heart. You will love him! If you participated in “Forum at First” sessions a few years ago on theology or church history, you have already been influenced by Dr. Colón-Emeric’s teaching, because I used his class syllabi to guide my own lessons on salvation, creation, and how to understand human beings in relationship with God. One of the best parts of his theology class was its interdisciplinary focus; we read theological reflections on everything from physics to poetry and learned from Christian voices across space and time. As a teacher, Dr. Colón-Emeric celebrates the diversity and depth of the body of Christ.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Colón-Emeric was the first Latino to be ordained as an elder in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and was founding pastor of Cristo Vive UMC in Durham, N.C. He became founding director of the Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in 2007 and joined the Divinity School faculty in 2008. He is dedicated to training and encouraging pastors with and without access to formal theological education. Dr. Colón-Emeric’s academic work explores the intersection of Methodist and Catholic theologies, and Wesleyan and Latin American experiences. His teaching covers a broad range of theological areas: systematics, Wesleyan theology, ecumenism, and Latin American theology.
He will continue Carol’s sermon series on Christian character with a sermon on Romans 12:1–5 titled “The Transfiguration of the Christian.” If my experience as Dr. Colón-Emeric’s student is any indication, we can expect a thoughtful and powerful sermon urging God’s people—with kindness—to embrace the transformative work of Christ in us.
May your week be filled with God’s peace and love—see you in worship this Sunday in the Sanctuary at 10:30am or by livestream!
—Camille Loomis Rehnborg, Minister of Spiritual Formation & Outreach