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CALL Courses: Spring 2025

All Spring 2025 courses run March 24 – May 19. Courses are online and fully asynchronous, each week a separate interactive lesson featuring discussion with your classmates and instructor.

The new public course cost is $150. Registration for Spring 2025 opens on January 27.


The Prophets

Mónica Rey headshot

This course is a survey course of prophets in Ancient Israel and the texts of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Studying the language of the prophetic corpus, we will explore the historical, social, and political contexts of the writings and their meanings for the intended audience and readers today. By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

  1. Define what it means to be called a prophet.
  2. Identify and understand who the former and pre-exilic prophets are, what they did in their various contexts, and how they functioned.
  3. Explain the focus of the messages of the prophets,
  4. Explore the relevance of the prophetic writings for the reader today.

Special attention will be paid to feminist and womanist perspectives on prophecy, prophets, and the prophetic.  The course will also consider what it means for each of us to be prophetic in this historical moment. 

Instructor: Dr. Mónica I. Rey (she/her/ella) is adjunct professor of Gender Studies at Babson College and WGS at Wheaton College (MA). Her teaching specialty is in courses that tackle religion, gender, sexuality and violence. Among courses Rey has taught include: WGS101, LGBT101, Transnational Feminisms, Women & The World Religions, and Gender and Violence in the Bible. Rey is especially interested in teaching contextual interpretations of the Bible (especially from feminist and LGBT+ perspectives). As a Latina of Peruvian descent, Rey has an immense appreciation for different points of view, perspectives, and epistemologies. Her research focus navigates multiple worlds at these intersections. This is also reflected in her pedagogy which at its heart is intersectional, experiential, and embraces multiple diverse canons.

A feminist biblical scholar with a PhD in Religious Studies from Boston University (2024), her research is primarily concerned with gender, genocide, and the Hebrew Bible (and its afterlives). Rey also completed a graduate certificate from BU in Women’s and Gender Studies and took part in the MIT GCWS Workshop for Dissertation Writers in Women’s and Gender Studies which is an outstanding resource for research and collaboration in areas related to WGS. She has published on the law of the foreign female captive (Deut 21:10–14) as a case of genocidal rape in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Rey has a peer-reviewed journal article forthcoming on the use of just war theory in interpretations of Deuteronomy, as well as a chapter in the edited volume The Bible and Violence (Bloomsbury T&T Clark) titled, “Genocidal Language in the Hebrew Bible: A Reappraisal,” and a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of the Hebrew Bible, Gender and Sexuality, “Yefat To’ar in Deuteronomy 21:10–14 and the Role of Beauty in Warfare.” Her first book, Gendering Genocide in the Hebrew Bible is forthcoming with Routledge in the book series Rape Culture, Religion and the Bible. Rey is a 2023-2024 Charles E. Scheidt Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention Faculty Fellow and currently co-chair of the Feminist Studies in Religion CoLaboratory.


Changing Church: Missional Practices and/for Beloved Community

Kyle Oliver

What does it mean to lead during a time of religious, sociocultural, and environmental upheaval? What can churches do differently to better reflect and nurture gospel values and God’s dream of a just, reconciled, Spirit-filled world? This course in missional leadership will ask these and related questions. We will explore concepts and experience practices of congregational development, evangelism and outreach, and equity and racial reconciliation. The course is structured, in part, according to the broad themes of the Episcopal Church’s curriculum Becoming Beloved Community … Where You Are. It will require instructor and participants alike to bring open minds and brave hearts as we attempt to tell the truth about the history and present of Christ’s church as we each claim our roles in shaping its future.

Instructor: Kyle Oliver is an Episcopal priest and educational media producer and researcher interested in community-building and meaning-making practices in innovative faith- and faith-adjacent communities. His dissertation documentary, Becoming Tapestry, chronicles and develops such practices with the co-directors, mentors, and young people of a West Coast foster youth mentoring ministry. Kyle is director of communications and adjunct instructor in Christian formation at CDSP; a visiting scholar at the Digital Futures Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University; and an adjunct instructor in digital media studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.


The Bible & Politics: A Biblical Perspective

Donn Morgan

From biblical times to the present, God has been in the middle of politics. Charismatic leadership, the election of leaders and nations, political parties and their social policies, scandal and sin, kingship and triumph—all of these have been peppered with theological rhetoric. Building on biblical and contemporary studies, this course asks whether there is more to the biblical witness than simply affirmation of God’s presence in political processes, past and present. Can the Bible as scripture provide new insights about God and politics for our church and nation? Are there theological teachings that offer opportunities for us to hear, together, messages that judge past practices, offer healing of divisions, and provide new visions of leadership and mission?

Instructor: Donn Morgan is Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Always a student and teacher of the Bible, he also held administrative positions at CDSP (academic dean, president). He has been deeply involved in theological education in The Episcopal Church and the Graduate Theological Union, as well as teaching in Asia and England. His books include Fighting with the Bible, Manifesto for Learning, Talking with the Bible and The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible (editor).


Sacramental Theology

Melissa Hartley headshot

This course will explore sacramental theology through the lens of the Episcopal Church and, specifically, how the sacraments are encountered through the liturgies of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The majority of the course will focus on the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, but the other sacramental rites will be examined. By the end of this course, students will have gained a general knowledge of the sacraments and the theology that defines them.

Instructor: The Rev. Dr. Melissa Hartley is Priest Associate at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, where she oversees liturgy and adult Christian formation. She also teaches at The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, in the Master of Divinity and ACTS (Alternative Clergy Training in Sewanee) programs at the School of Theology. Melissa is an Episcopal priest originally from Atlanta and has served parishes in Georgia, New York, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Most recently, she was the Senior Associate University Chaplain at Sewanee. She holds the following degrees: B.A., University of the South; M.Div., S.T.M., General Theological Seminary; Ph.D. (Liturgical Studies), Drew University.


Introduction to Preaching

“If churches saw their mission in the same way, there is no telling what might happen. What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?” ― Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

What does it mean to preach in the 21st century as institutional vitality and notions of authority and expertise continually shift and change? In this course, students will explore the sacramentality of preaching, prepare a sermon for Holy Week, and preach that sermon in their parish. Through online conversations, course reading, brief writings, and sermon evaluation, we will begin to answer such questions as “What is a sacramentality of preaching?” “What is an Anglican theology of preaching?” and “Who am I to preach?” 

Instructor: Rev. Tripp Hudgins is an ordained baptist minister who has made the journey of returning to the Episcopal Church. He taught Homiletics at CDSP as both the Bogard Scholar and an adjunct instructor. He holds degrees from University of Richmond (‘92 BA, Religion), Seabury-Western (‘04 MDiv, MTS, Liturgics), and Graduate Theological Union (‘23, MA, Liturgy, Ethnomusicology). Tripp is a native of Virginia currently living in Richmond with his wife and their son. He can be found working as a hospice chaplain, teaching, preaching, and making music. He is currently seeking ordination in the Episcopal Church and serves on the Vestry of St. James the Less in Ashland, VA.


Postcolonial Communion: The Anglican Communion in Global Context

Jennifer Snow

What does the “Anglican Communion” mean? How do different histories, cultures, and interpretations of Anglicanism come together into this one global relationship? This course explores the Anglican Communion from its historical origins, its entanglement in colonialism and empire, its relationship to other faiths and other versions of the Christian tradition, and its modern tensions and conflicts as well as its dynamic creativity and energy for worship, faith, and ministry in the world.

Instructor: Jennifer Snow received her PhD in religion from Columbia University in 2003, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. Her first book, published in 2007, addresses the connections between Protestant missionaries and activism in support of early Asian immigrants to the United States. Studying faith-based activists inspired her to a commitment to ministries of justice, inclusion, and advocacy as the deputy director of Progressive Christians Uniting in Los Angeles, followed by a move to Chicago and then to San Francisco, where she served the Diocese of California as the associate for discipleship ministries, focused on youth and young adult communities. Committed to the congregation as a place of spiritual and justice formation, she developed curricula on environmental justice and worked with the ELCA, writing materials on mission education and immigration policy. Her work as Director of Extended Learning arises directly from her belief in the power of Christian community for spiritual and social transformation.

In addition to articles and book chapters on race, religion, and immigration policy in the United States, she is currently completing a project on church discipline and the sexual education to African converts provided by missionaries to Africa in the mid-twentieth century. This is part of a larger project examining the role of missionary teachings on the Christian home, including sexual discipline, in the creation of global ecumenical structures and the transformation of ecumenical missiology.

Jennifer lives with her spouse, the Rev. Tita Valeriano, and their son. When academy and family permit, she writes science fiction and fantasy.


The Sensual Gospel of John: Experiencing the Fourth Gospel through the Five Senses

Daniel London headshot

“The Word made flesh,” according to William Temple, is the most important phrase in all of Christianity because it affirms flesh as the vehicle and instrument for spirit. Although some scholars have described Jesus in John’s Gospel as a detached “god who seems to glide over the face of the earth,” a closer look reveals how much John’s Jesus takes great delight in earthly pleasures. In this course, students will explore the ways in which the Fourth Gospel invites readers to appreciate the gift our bodies and our bodily senses, including our heart sense. This uniquely Anglican approach to the Gospel of John incorporates wisdom from Nature and Forest Therapy, which will help inform some of the spiritual practices and disciplines throughout the course.

Instructor: The Rev. Daniel London, PhD, serves as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA. He earned his doctorate in Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He is a certified Forest Therapy Guide and the author of several books. He has also published articles and presented papers at academic conferences around the world. He serves as the Ecumenical Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California and lives in the Transfiguration House in Eureka CA with his wife Dr. Ashley London Bacchi and their two Yorkies, Seabury and Gubbio.


Cultivate, Theologize, Organize! Community Organizing Fundamentals for the Church

Francisco García headshot

This course aims to develop skills, tools, and theoretical/reflective capacity for engaging in neighborhood and community ministries from a holistic and theologically-grounded community organizing lens. The course will draw on case studies and center the role of theological reflection, spiritual practices and formation, and the Episcopal tradition as essential aspects of a faith-rooted community organizing approach to organizing in congregational and other ministerial contexts. 

By the end of this class, students will begin to

  • think about community-based ministry from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining theological, scriptural, and pastoral views with social analysis;
  • begin exploring and practicing relational community organizing tools and approaches in a diversity of congregational and other ministerial contexts; and
  • integrate course-based learning with the praxis of ministry and other experiences/contexts outside of the classroom, including ministerial identity in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition(s).

Instructor: Professor García is an Episcopal priest with more than ten years of parish ministry experience and more than twenty as an organizer, educator, and leader in community, labor, faith, and academic settings. He is a PhD candidate in theological studies with a minor in ethics and action at Vanderbilt University. His doctoral project involves the development of grassroots, social movement-oriented ecclesiologies outside of formal church structures, through an exploration of faith practices among Latine/immigrant workers organizing in their workplaces and communities. Professor García taught the Systematic Theology and Moral Theology courses for the M.Div. program this Fall and has taught the courses Theology and Ethics: Liberation Perspectives and Praxis as well as Theology and Justice at the Intersections: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in our CALL program.


The Diaconate

This course explores the history, development, and current and evolving understanding of the diaconate, especially in the Anglican tradition, without neglecting the contributions of other Christian traditions. Beginning with the Ordination of a Deacon, and then continuing through changes in understanding of Diakonia, and changes in ministry context, the course challenges the participant to examine and reflect on their call to the diaconate and the contexts in which they will serve. The deacon’s roles in the church and the world require a deep understanding of the church, tradition, scripture and their own gifts for ministry.

Instructor: The Venerable Tim Spannaus is Archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan and retired deacon of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit. Tim has been a deacon since 1996, having been raised up and serving in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and then being received into the Episcopal Church in 2006 He previously served at St. John’s, Royal Oak (MI), where he initiated the Stephen Ministry program and Education for Ministry. He continues mentoring EfM, with participants from across the diocese.

He is retired from Wayne State University, where he was Sr. Lecturer and Program Coordinator of Learning Design and Technology until 2020. Tim served as convenor of the Vocational Development and Lifelong Learning Task Force of the Association for Episcopal Deacons in the development of Competencies for Deacons, 2017 (Rev. 2018). He earned his PhD from Wayne State. He is former president and a Fellow of the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (ibstpi).

He also serves the diocese and the Episcopal Church in a variety of roles relating to formation and Safe Church, Safe Communities, including the Task Force to Develop Safe Church Policies and Training. He serves on and was formerly chair of the diocesan Commission on Ministry and participated in the revision of the process for ordination, including developing competencies and formation plans for those seeking ordination. He co-leads the cohort of locally formed seminarians in the Diocese of Michigan.

Tim is married to Collette Pariseau and has two sons and two grandsons. He enjoys baking, woodworking and road trips.