MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff writer
The Rev. Anna Carter Florence, Ph.D., will serve as chaplain for Week Six. Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is also currently serving as co-director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant.
She will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title is “Bread at the Gate.” She will also preach at the 9:15 a.m. Monday through Wednesday morning worship services in the Amphitheater. Her sermon titles include “Learning to Climb Trees,” “Changing the Subject” and “A Wilderness Parable.” Florence will share her faith journey at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship service in the Hall of Philosophy.
Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served as an associate pastor for youth and young adults at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Her first book, Preaching as Testimony, is based on her 2012 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School. Florence’s most recent title, A Is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scripture, has a forthcoming sequel titled B Is for Banquet: 52 More Reflections on the Stories of Scripture. She has published articles and chapters in numerous books and journals, including a year’s worth of lectionary text commentaries for workingpreacher.org, and can be heard on media ministry Day 1, the voice of the historic Protestant denominations.
Florence holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University as well as a Master of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.
This program is made possible by the generous support of The Mr. and Mrs. William Uhler Follansbee Memorial Chaplaincy and The Alison and Craig Marthinsen Endowment for the Department of Religion.
