April 29
Rev. Dr. Jonathan Linman
(Lutheran) is assistant to the bishop for formation of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is the author of Holy Conversation: Spirituality for Worship (Augsburg Fortress, 2010). He was pastor of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., from 1989-2001. From 2001-09, he was director of the Center for Christian Spirituality and professor of ascetical theology at General Theological Seminary in Chelsea. He earned an M.Div. degree at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and an M.A. and Ph.D. at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

May 6
Dr. Katherine Kurs
(Episcopal/Jewish) compiled and edited the award-winning book Searching for Your Soul. She has a private practice in spiritual counseling and direction and is an ecumenical associate minister of West Park Presbyterian Church as well as teaching at General Theological Seminary and New School University. She holds an M.Div. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the Royal College of Art, London.
Special Music:
Andre Solomon-Glover

May 13
Minister Kenneth Brown
(Baptist) is associate minister for education at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Far Rockaway, NY. He is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary program in Sing Sing Correctional Facility where he earned his master of professional studies degree in 1996. He spent nearly 30 years in prison before being released in 2008.

May 20
Rilla Askew
(Nondenominational/Baptist) is a prize-winning fiction writer whose themes cover race and ethnicity and faith and redemption with a keen appreciation for the spiritual dimension of human struggles. An artist in residence at the University of Central Oklahoma in Norman, she received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature in 2009. She is the author of Harpsong (2007), Fire in Beulah (2001) and the forthcoming Kind of Kin (2013).  She has taught creative writing at Brooklyn College, Syracuse University, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Oklahoma and assisted in teaching a Rising Hope course at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Upstate New York.
Special Music: Heather Davis

May 27
Lay-Led Service

June 3
Rev. John Magisano
(Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches) is Chelsea Community Church's pastoral counselor. He also works as a consultant to nonprofit organizations in the New York area. He earned his M.Div. degree at New York Theological Seminary and previously served as assistant pastor for development at the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford.
Special Music: Sarah Miller

June 10
Rev. Dr. Lauren Hunter
(American Baptist) provides pulpit supply ministry at the First Baptist Church in Bronxville. She was previously assistant pastor at Union Square Restoration Temple Ministries, a nondenominational congregation, and a  minister on the staff of Potter's House Church of the Living God in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A guidance counselor at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, she earned an M.Div. degree at New York Theological Seminary and an Ed.D. at North Central University in Minnesota. She also holds master's degrees in counseling and education administration.
Special Music: Otto Walberg
 
June 17
Donald Hill
(United Church of Christ) was certified as a lay speaker in a United Methodist church in Delaware County, NY. He also took an advanced speaking course with the church’s pastor. He has since transferred his affiliation to the Broadway United Church of Christ in Manhattan. An interior designer with his own firm that specializes in residential projects, he earned a B.F.A. degree in architecture at the Parsons School of Design.
 
June 24
Sharon White Harrigan
(Nondenominational) is house director at Housing + Solutions in Brooklyn. The agency provides supervised permanent housing for chronically homeless women and their children. Previously program manager at Exodus Transitional Community in Manhattan, she spent 11 years in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before being released in 2005. She is a minister in training and a trustee at New Jerusalem Church, a nondenominational congregation in the Bronx. A 2008 graduate of Lehman College, she is now working toward an M.S.W. degree at the Lehman School of Social Work.
 
July 1
Lay-Led Service
 
July 8
Rev. Wilfried Wasserman
(Lutheran) is pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul in Chelsea. Prior to coming to this pastorate in 2003, he served at two congregations in Germany for 20 years. He grew up in Beirut, Lebanon where his father was administrator of an orphanage. After majoring in biology and chemistry in college, he worked in the chemical industry in Germany for several years before studying theology at Tubingen University and earning the equivalent of an M.Div. degree.
 
July 15
Esther Sohn
(Presbyterian) is on the staff of Evergreen Presbyterian Fellowship in Bayside, Queens and is on the ordination track of her denomination. She is also working toward a D.Min. degree at New York Theological Seminary, where she earned her M.Div. A native of Korea, she previously served as a youth pastor in Korean churches in the U.S.
Special Music: William Safkow
 
July 22
Rev. John Magisano
(Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches) is Chelsea Community Church's pastoral counselor. He also works as a consultant to nonprofit organizations in the New York area. He earned his M.Div. degree at New York Theological Seminary and previously served as assistant pastor for development at the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford.
 
July 29
Emily Brown
(United Church of Christ) is acting associate pastor at Broadway United Church of Christ. She formerly was s community minister at Judson Memorial Church. She earned her M.Div. degree from Union Theological Seminary in 2010. While at Union she received the David H.C. Read Memorial Preacher/Scholar Award, a national honor that is enabling her to travel in Israel. She also received Union’s Kneeland Award for Preaching.
Special Music: Martha Bernard