The Wells Sermons

Wells Preacher – Dr. Donyelle McCray

Donyelle McCray serves as Associate Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School. A teacher, writer, and Episcopal layperson, her scholarship focuses on the spirituality of preaching. She is the author of The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher (2019) and a volume on sermon genre, Is it a Sermon?: Art, Activism, and Genre Fluidity in African American Preaching (2024). She is currently writing a book on the preaching and spirituality of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. Before becoming a homiletics professor, Donyelle served as an attorney focusing on wills, trusts, and estates. This work raised existential questions that led her to seminary and then into ministry as a hospice chaplain.  Human finitude and compassion remain central theological concerns in her scholarship. 

Scott Lecture – Dr. Christine Hong, “Incarnational Justice for Such a Time as This.”

Christine J. Hong is Associate Professor of Educational Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. Her research includes anti-colonial and decolonial approaches to religious and interreligious education. Hong’s research interests include Asian Diasporic spiritualities, reindiginizing Christian spirituality and practices, and the spiritual and theological formation among BIPOC communities. She is the author of four books, Youth, Identity, and Gender in the Korean American Church; Decolonial Futures: Intercultural and Interreligious Intelligence for Theological Education; Waking Up Ghosts: Making Peace with Ancestors out in 2026; and a co-authored book with Dr. Anne Walker called, Candidly Speaking Dialogues for the End of Empire, also out in 2026. She is a frequent conference speaker and workshop leader on decolonizing religion and spirituality.

Davis Workshop – Lighting Lectures by Brite Faculty

"Can theologically and historically complex ideas be compressed into comprehensive points?"

Lightning Lectures explores this possibility, educating people one mini-lecture at a time! During "Lightning Lecture," Brite faculty will take turns offering abbreviated talks from their area of expertise around a central subject matter. In the spirit of Incarnating Love for Ministry Week 2026, numerous Brite faculty will offer thoughtful, consolidated takes on "Who Is My Neighbor?" exploring the range, meaning, and form love can take around neighborliness from biblical, theological, historical, and spiritual perspectives.

McFaden Lecture – Rev. Dr. Amey Adkins-Jones, “'Would you like to see in her how you are loved?’ Mary, Consent, and the Call to Care.”

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones is Assistant Professor of Theology and Africana studies at Candler School of Theology (Emory University). A graduate of the University of Virginia and Duke Divinity School, she received her Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University in 2016 with a Certificate in Feminist Theory. She was the first Black woman to graduate from the doctoral program in Christian theology and ethics. Her first book, Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology, centers the Black Madonna to examine how Christian theologies of purity influence who and what we deem to be sacred. She is at work on a second book project, See No Evil, which explores how visual technologies and AI impact public perception of violence and Black death. Outside of academia, Adkins-Jones is an ordained Baptist minister who frequently preaches around the country and brings pastoral sensibility to her work centering social justice. She shares life with her beloved spouse and their four children in Atlanta, GA.

Workshops:

Tuesday

Dr. Trina Armstrong, LMFT, “Love Made Known: The Spiritual Heart of Mental Health Care.”

Caring for the psychological and spiritual well-being of others reflects the heart of God’s compassion for humanity. It is love that listens, stays, and provides comfort amid suffering. Mental health care is a sacred expression of love demonstrated through compassion, patience, and attentive care to human needs, recognizing persons in the fullness of their humanity. This workshop invites participants to deepen their awareness of how embodying this love more completely allows it to be expressed through their presence and practice, bringing renewed meaning and depth to the care they offer.

Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders, “Cultivating Communities of LGBTQIA+ Belonging and Justice.”

LGBTQIA+ rights are under attack across the country, and places of deep belonging and justice-seeking for and with LGBTQIA+ people are critical spaces for the wellbeing and flourishing of queer and trans people across the lifespan. This workshop will present an overview of concerns that impact the livability of life for LGBTQIA+ people at present, discuss the role of faith communities in cultivating communities of belonging for queer and trans people, and draw on the wisdom of queer and trans ancestors to help congregations imagine faith praxis and ministry leadership in times of turmoil. Participants will encounter trauma-informed care practices that attend to the spiritual woundedness many LGBTQIA+ people experience, and move along a continuum of what comes after the decision of a congregation to become affirming of LGBTQIA+ people to imagine how that commitment becomes integrated into the arts of ministry and the overall mission of a congregation. 

Wednesday

Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, “Blessed Minds: Celebrating Neurodiversity in the Church.”

As more and more people self-identify with the Neurodiversity movement, churches can embrace ways of designing inclusive and loving communities and spaces. Through storytelling, examples, and resources, we will learn how to make congregations more Neuroinclusive. God loves all of us and we can celebrate the diversity of ways we think, learn, and experience the world through our blessed minds. 

Panel including Dr. Leah Jordan, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Dr. Philip Butler – moderated by Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II, “Communion Behind the Curtain: Learning Christ-like Love in a Post-Christian World.”

We know that Christianity has never been the only religion in the United States. For a growing number of previously identified Christians, however, Christianity is no longer an option. Post-Christianity is a growing movement that is widening and raising new theological questions for Christian communities to confront: What should be the relationship be between Christian morality, peace-making, and the work of justice? What new religious frameworks are being constructed among communities who have moved on from Christianity? How can we love like Jesus when “Christ” no longer captures our cultural imagination? Come join an esteemed panel conversation as Dr. Leah Jordan, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Dr. Philip Butler – moderated by Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II – respond to these questions, and raise new ones about love and what it looks like behind the curtain.