Presenters
Confirmed presenters and leaders are listed below. Continue to check here for updates as we build our exciting line-up.
Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. The author of eleven books and many articles, her research interests focus on how biblical interpretation bears on the life of faith communities and their response to urgent public issues, particularly the ecological crisis and interfaith relations. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2009), integrates biblical studies with a critique of industrial agriculture and food production. Biblical Prophecy: Perspectives for Christian Theology, Discipleship and Ministry (Westminster John Knox, 2014), explores the prophetic role and word across both Testaments of the Christian Bible. Her most recent books are Preaching the Luminous Word (Eerdmans, 2016), a collection of her sermons and essays, and Opening Israel’s Scriptures (Oxford, 2019), a comprehensive theological reading of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. A lay Episcopalian, she has long been active as a theological consultant within the Anglican Communion. Her current work explores the arts as modes of scriptural interpretation.
Jerusha Neal’s scholarly work examines the action of the Spirit on the performative borders of body and culture. Her research interests focus on postcolonial preaching, climate stewardship, preaching and gender, and a theology of the Spirit in sermon performance. Her most recent book, The Overshadowed Preacher: Mary, the Spirit, and the Labor of Proclamation (Wm. B. Eerdmans), asks the sticky question of what is meant when preaching is described as “anointed.” It challenges preachers to leave behind false shadows and be overshadowed by the Spirit of God. It received a 2020 Christianity Today “Jesus Creed Book Award for the Preaching Life.” Neal is an ordained American Baptist minister with broad ecumenical experience, most recently serving as a Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands through the United Methodist Church. During her years in Fiji, she served as Dean of Studies at Davuilevu Theological College, the oldest theological seminary in that nation. A former actress and playwright, she has authored a collection of dramatic monologues, Blessed: Monologues for Mary (2012). Neal has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces and bridging denominational communities. God’s work in these in-between locations has convinced her that preaching matters now more than ever. Serving as keynote preacher for such events as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, the Young Preacher’s Festival and the Homegrown North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival, Neal is committed to encouraging the voices of young preachers—and particularly the voices of women—in the risky proclamation of gospel hope. In 2020, she was awarded the “Exemplary Teacher of the Year” award from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.
The Raleigh Ringers is an Emmy-nominated, internationally-acclaimed concert handbell choir based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The group has been dazzling audiences with unique interpretations of sacred, secular and popular music, including rock ‘n’ roll tunes that the group has become noted for, along with original compositions written just for The Raleigh Ringers.
Tom Trenney, composer, conductor, organist, preacher, and teacher, has been blessed to serve as Minister of Music to First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, since 2009. In 2019, he was invited to become Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Tom’s choirs have been honored to perform for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and they have been award winners in the American Prize for choral ensembles.
