Alfred S. Palmer Lectures Est. 1978

Through lives of committed service, the Palmers have served the church and the Christian mission field for more than 50 years. The Rev. Alfred Palmer pastored several Methodist churches in Western Washington and together the Palmers worked with the American Sunday School Union. They have declared the Gospel in Argentina, China, India, Kenya and Paraguay while staying faithful to their wedding vows for more than 70 years. Through their kind support, the annual Alfred s. Palmer Lectures bring to the campus, community and area clergy outstanding leaders in the field of Wesleyan theology.

To listen to past Palmer Lectures visit our University iTunes.

The 2010 Alfred S. Palmer Lecture

Kenda Creasy Dean, Associate Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture, at Princeton Theological Seminary will join the SPU community for the 2010 Palmer Lecture events May 6th - May 7th.    The evening lecture will take place in Upper Gwinn on May 6th at 7:30 p.m.  More information will soon follow.

The 2009 Alfred S. Palmer Lecture

Is Christ Divided?:

Locating the Possibility of the True Church

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Upper Gwinn Commons

The Reverend Ephraim Radner, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in systematic theology from Yale University.  An Anglican priest, he has served as a missionary in Burundi, Africa; in the inner-city of Cleveland; and among Haitian refugees.  He has also served as a parish priest in Brooklyn, NY, and in Pueblo, CO.  Radner is the author of The End of the Church: A Pneumatology of Christian Division in the West (1998) and Hope Among the Fragments: The Broken Church and Its Engagement of Scripture (2004).  He has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous other works on pneumatology, ecclesiology, and ecumenism.

In the 2009 Palmer Lecture, the Rev. Dr. Radner will discuss how long-standing, obvious divisions among Christians appear to contradict the Scriptures' claim that "the Church is One."  Christians navigate this contradiction in different ways, most often by redefining "the Church."  Dr. Radner seeks to describe the oneness of the Church in a way that respects historical reality and Christian truth-claims together, pointing in a direction that challenges Christian witness and self-identity.

Other Palmer Lecture Events

Chapel

The Church's Witness of Reconciliation in the 21st Century

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009, 9:30 a.m.

First Free Methodist Church

open to the public

Theology Student Union Luncheon

Christian Solidarity: The Forging of a Modern Ecumenical Tradition

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 9:30 p.m.

Upper Gwinn Commons

open to TSU members and SOT faculty, RSVP required

Faculty Luncheon

The Meaning of the Church's Love: A Scriptural Phenomenology of the Church

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 12:30 p.m.

Upper Gwinn Commons

open to SPU faculty, RSVP required