Honorees Jones (left) and Willis (center) with Seminary President Krey

PHILADELPHIA, March 25, 2000 --It was a gala festive banquet filled with balloons, laughter, joy, sumptuous food and entertainment ranging from soloist Diane Johnson's soulful singing to the Rev. Carla Harris's praise-filled, inspirational dancing. Two mayors were there -- Philadelphia's current chief executive John Street and former mayor, the Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, who has taught at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP). By all accounts, the Urban Theological Institute's 20th anniversary banquet was unforgettable for an estimated crowd of 300 graduates, faculty, staff and friends of the UTI, an LTSP program.

The banquet scene was the African Methodist Episcopal Church's First District Plaza ballroom in West Philadelphia. High tribute was paid the UTI founders, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Willis and the Rev. Dr. Randolph Jones, who anticipate receiving honorary Doctoral degrees later this year. Willis directs recruitment for the UTI, and Jones is the UTI's Program Director and also one of its teachers. More than 30 individuals received citations at the banquet. The honors recognized the variety of contributions to establishing the UTI, a Seminary program of Afro-centric teaching, which has made it possible for scores of graduates to expand their credentials as pastors, educators and outreach coordinators in a variety of churches comprising the fabric of spiritual life in the Philadelphia area. Many UTI seminarians have studied seven years or more to earn those credentials.

UTI students attend classes evenings and weekends at the Seminary while they continue to hold regular jobs to support themselves and their families. Students come from such diverse backgrounds as corporate executives, legal professions, law enforcement, librarian or teacher. A current student is a veterinarian.

The Rev. Janet Jenkins, who chairs the UTI Advisory Board, emceed the dinner and the Rev. Dr. Shirley Pritchett Hilton designed certificates of honor for those recognized.

The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Riverside Church (New York City)

But the focal point for the occasion was probably the electrifying preaching of the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes of Riverside Church in New York's Manhattan, an interdenominational congregation with some 2,400 members.

Preaching from Ezekiel 47: 11, Forbes described the "miry places" of life where "the Spirit appears not to be working," those places where people are "excluded from blessings" such as motel accommodations or receiving a mortgage. Or miry places are marked by an illness that won't be cured, bills past due, disrupted family lives, or being charged with a wrong not vindicated. Such a place may leave one "down so long down doesn't bother me," he said.

"But that's not the end," Forbes noted. "God doesn't abandon you there. This is not a period at the end with no hope. It is a time with a comma, more to come....Something is working in that miry place. Salt, which heals when in proper proportion, leads to promising outcomes. Salt preserves. Salt makes for a tougher skin, and it takes tough skin to handle urban ministry. You need to get salted down real good. God balances things. You need a little miry place to appreciate the meaning of life. You learn special graces in miry places. In miry places you find out who your friends are, and you discover the faithfulness of God. The grace of God may come to you even before you know enough to ask for it."

The Good News, he said, is that "God came all the way down to us in the form of Jesus. Jesus endured two miry places for us (Gethsemene and Calvary). He suffered, bled and died for us. On the third day he rose and took us all with him."

Forbes praised founders Willis and Jones for persuading leaders in storefront churches to go shopping for learning for themselves. "With learning comes plenty of hope," he said. And learning leads students out of miry places, he said, while at the same time a diverse community of learners has "brought a little salt" to LTSP, making it "a more seasoned and redemptive place. If we are faithful while we are in our miry places, the Holy Spirit will help the river to flow again."

Philadelphia Mayor John Street, an advocate of faith-based initiatives for social change, addresses UTI banquet.

In his greetings, Street praised the UTI program for the difference it is making in the lives of church leaders and cited the significance of the church's role in emphasizing values critical to combatting the prevalent forces of drugs and violence. Later on Goode, then serving as Street's emissary, gave Liberty Bell mementos to UTI leaders.

Willis and Jones gave brief remarks.

Jones celebrated that LTSP had welcomed the UTI Program when others had turned the idea down 20 years ago. Quoting a commercial, Jones said, "A Champion says 'yes!'" Willis movingly remarked that he was glad to be part of a program "where I can see Baptists, Methodists, AMEs and others under one roof before I get to heaven."

LTSP President Krey announces more than $22,000 in scholarship support for UTI

The UTI honored LTSP President the Rev. Philip D. W. Krey with a citation, and Krey announced that the celebration had attracted more than $22,000 in support of the UTI Scholarship Fund.

Key figures serving with Jenkins and Pritchett on the Banquet Committee were Seminary staffer Mae Green, Jones, Willis, the Rev. Vernon Ross, a UTI senior; Krey; Dr. J. Paul Rajashekar, Dean of the Seminary; the Rev. John E. Churchville; and UTI students Nathaniel L. Shaw and Curtis Haynes. Haynes is the Seminary's Business Administrator.