Professor to give Schaff Lectures

Staff report

youngstown

The Rev. Dr. Hak Joon Lee, an associate professor of theology and ethics at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, will be guest speaker for the Schaff Lectures. Programs will be March 22 at First Presbyterian Church, 201 Wick Ave.

A clergy and lay-leaders seminar is scheduled for 4 p.m. with registration starting at 3:30. The Rev. Dr. Lee’s topic will be “Can Cosmopolitanism be Locally Rooted? The Case of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

There is no charge, but reservations are requested.

A catered buffet supper will be at 5:30, and the cost is $10. Paid reservations must be in the church office by March 16.

For information, call the church at 330-744-4307.

A public lecture is scheduled at 7 p.m. at the church. Dr. Lee’s topic will be “Is America Still a City on a Hill? E Pluribus Unum and a Global Vision of the U.S.” This program is open to all; no reservations required.

Dr. Lee is a graduate of Chung-Nam National University with a bachelor’s degree, Yonsei University and Temple University with master’s degrees and Princeton Theological Seminary with a master’s, master of divinity and doctorate.

Before taking a full-time position in New Brunswick in 1988, he served as a teaching fellow at Temple and Princeton and as an adjunct at Drew University and New York Theological Seminary.

Dr. Lee was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by New Brunswick Presbytery in 1991. He has served as pastor to college students and young adults. For six years, he also was senior pastor at the Church in Acts, Voorhees, N.J.

Dr. Lee has written numerous academic and general articles and authored three books, “Covenant and Communication: A Christian Moral Conversation with Jurgen Habermas,” “Bridge Builders: Beyond Cultural Differences” and “We Will Get to the Promised Land: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Communal-Political Spirituality.”

He has been active in a variety of academic, denominational and community organizations.

The David S. Schaff Lecture Series is made possible by the late Mrs. Philip H. (Jane Booth) Schaff, who died in 1981. In her will, she provided for the completion of the endowment of the previously established David S. Schaff Lectureship at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. It was stipulated that the Schaff lecturer would give one address in Youngstown. Mrs. Schaff’s father-in-law, professor David S. Schaff, taught church history at Western Theological Seminary, a forerunner to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Historically, the series has been sponsored by First Presbyterian in conjunction with Eastminster Presbytery, Mahoning Valley Association of Churches and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

The educational program is open to people of all denominations.