Chvala-Smith Travels to Ecumenical Theological Seminary

In September, Paul E. Morden Seminary Chair & Associate Professor of Religion Anthony Chvala-Smith, PhD, traveled to Detroit to join the Ecumenical Theological Seminary as an examination committee member in the dissertation defense of a Graceland alumna. 

Rev. Linda Stanbridge is a 2019 graduate of the Graceland University Community of Christ Seminary‘s Master of Arts in Religion program. She entered the Doctor of Ministry degree program at the Detroit Ecumenical Theological Seminary (ETS) in 2020. In 2022, she invited her former Seminary professor Chvala-Smith to serve as Content and Context Specialist on her dissertation committee. 

She successfully defended her work on The Prophetic Tradition as Solution to Inaction. It explores how helping church members engage in a structured way by the social justice tradition of the Old Testament prophets can empower modern-day congregations to become active in social justice locally and globally. 

Chvala-Smith and the defense committee representing various Christian traditions found Stanbridge’s conclusions inspiring, as they are applicable across denominations. 

Stanbridge’s completion of the Detroit D.Min program and Chvala-Smith’s committee engagement alongside the ETS faculty established an important new bond between both institutions.