Significant changes go into effect on July 1, 2026, for Federal Student Loans. Meadville Lombard's Financial Aid & Student Services Assistant, Ashley Senesac, leads us through some of these new rules and requirements as they apply to graduate and professional students.

**PLEASE NOTE** We recorded this episode on the morning of June 26, 2026; so this information is accurate as of the date of this recording.

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*Notes from the episode*

Official information is available through

1. StudentAid.gov - https://studentaid.gov/
2. Federal Register - https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/01/2026-08556/reimagining-and-improving-student-education-federal-student-loan-program-final-regulations

Additional links

Important Definitions - https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/big-updates/definitions

"One Big Beautiful Bill Act" Updates - https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/big-updates

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd​ and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Generative AI (artificial intelligence) is pervasive in many contexts today. How does copyright apply when it comes to AI? Dr. John Dechant, the Director of Library and Archives at Meadville Lombard, is our in-house point person on copyright and the current AI landscape in theological education.

*Notes from the episode*

Past episode on copyright: Keeping Online Worship on the Up and Up (copyright & online worship) with guest John Leeker. Season 1, episode 1, Feb 21, 2022 https://player.captivate.fm/episode/f4a0440c-eb4d-4879-be07-652b5bf2fde9/

Past episode on generative AI: Generative AI and Theological Education with guest Dr. John Dechant, Season 3, episode 8 (Jan 18, 2024) https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a8a89c7b-fbb5-4fe0-8ea4-e9988378a48d/

Dr. Dechant utilized the following article for much of his research and recommends it for further information: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB10922.

Meadville Lombard Library resource pages:

• How to cite material generated with AI: https://library.meadville.edu/citations/genai.
• Copyright overview: https://library.meadville.edu/copyright/
• Copyright and worship: https://library.meadville.edu/copyright/worship

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Theology, love, and Howard Thurman are the focus of this conversation with my colleague, the Rev. Dr. Kathryn House.

Link to the recording of Howard Thurman reading his work, “Meditations of the Heart,” part of the Howard Thurman Collection in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University Libraries https://digitallibrary.bu.edu/readings-meditations-heart-part-1-2

Text referenced: Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, editor Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt https://uuabookstore.org/products/love-at-the-center

Rev. Kathryn House, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies and Practical Theology and Chair of the Rev. Dr. Lee Barker Professorship of Leadership Studies at Meadville Lombard Theological School. She was previously Visiting Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. House received her BA in Religion from Duke University and her MDiv. and PhD in Theological Studies from Boston University School of Theology. House is ordained in the American Baptist Churches, USA and affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists.

House is co-editor, with Dr. Sara Moslener, of "Purity Culture and its Discontents," a special issue of Theology and Sexuality. She has also contributed chapters to Trauma and Lived Religion: Transcending the Ordinary (Palgrave Macmillan) and Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay (White Cloud Press), and her writing has been published in journals such as Perspectives in Religious Studies, Pastoral Psychology, and American Baptist Quarterly. Her current book project, an expansion of her dissertation, The Afterlife of White Evangelical Purity Culture: Wounds, Legacies, and Impacts, investigates the theological scaffolding of white evangelical purity culture and its continuing impact on American religious and political life.

Her teaching and scholarship are generated at intersections of leadership studies, trauma-informed pastoral and spiritual care, and liberation theologies. She serves on the steering committee for the Ecclesial Practices Unit of the American Academy of Religion and on the Advisory Committee of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. She is also an active member of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion (NABPR) and NABPR Region-at-Large.

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Supporting people and communities through complex relationship dynamics is something ministers do all the time as part of the job. What is not always so expected is how to navigate complex relationship dynamics when the minister is part of the complex relationship. The Ministry of Good Offices at the UUMA is a team of colleagues who support peers in just this way.

Today’s guest is the Reverend Melissa Carvill Ziemer, part of the Executive Team and Director of Ministries and Programs of the UU Ministers Association.

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd​ and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Summer is almost here! Rev. Michelle Favreault, Ministerial Formation Network (MFN) Manager, is here to lift-up MFN summer programming and beyond.

The Ministerial Formation Network (MFN) is a program of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA). The MFN can be accessed through the UUMA website: https://www.uuma.org. MFN materials are for UUMA members only, so a login will be required.

On Saturday, June 6 there’s the MFN Formation Conversation - Introduction to the Summer UU Wellspring cohort REGISTER HERE - If I were to offer one bit of collegial advice it would be to find and dedicate your heart to a small group. We need each other in this work and UUWellspring is a particularly beautiful way to build meaningful relationships.

Then, coming up next week on June 9 is the MFN Formation Conversation: Let's Talk! Time with the Ministerial Fellowship Committee REGISTER HERE

The MFN Mosaic Program for Aspirtants and Candidates - a series of 6 sessions to foster belonging and liberation - has only a few spots still available for the program launching in August. You can find out more and REGISTER HERE.

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Theological education is a unique experience and everyone’s path is different. Nicholas D’Agosto is a graduating Master of Divinity student. Nick and I talk about his time at Meadville and he reflects on advice he might give a student just starting out.

Nicholas has also been a professional TV/Film actor for over 20 years. His podcast God & Other Delicacies (G.O.D.) begins with the question, “How and when were you introduced to the idea of God in your life?” and follows the guest’s journey from there. It is available everywhere. You can find more at nicholasdagosto.com

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Grief and loss are universal, ubiquitous, an also unique, personal. My guest today is Dr. Mike Hogue, whose evolving work on structural grief is an invitation to engage this multifaceted and often elusive experience.

*Notes from the episode*

Michael S. Hogue, Ph.D. (U. Chicago), is a philosopher, theologian, writer, and teacher exploring questions of meaning, morality, and mortality in a turbulent world. Whether on the page or in the classroom, Michael invites others to a more attuned, relational, and accountable way of becoming more human in a more-than-human world. He’s authored several academic books, including American Immanence: Democracy for an Uncertain World (Columbia, 2018). He is currently working on his first book for a trade press, The Unmaking of My Mother: Alzheimer’s and the Mysticism of Forgetting, as well as new academic projects on structural grief.

Substack: The School of Grief: Notes from the Unmaking - https://substack.com/@michaelshogue

www.michaelshogue.com

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd​ and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Ever want to eavesdrop on religious professionals talking theology? Listen in as Aisha Hauser and Jules go to some deep places talking about the Universalist idea of affirming all people, but not all ideas.

Aisha Hauser, MSW, CRE-ML, is one-half of the Church of the Larger Fellowship's Lead Ministry Team.

https://clfuu.org/team-member/aisha-hauser/

https://connectlearngrow.org/

Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd​ and apple.co/3u51z2V)

After a long hiatus, Many Windows returns with a wonderful guest, Rev. Dr. Adam Robersmith! I am grateful to start season 5 with a rich conversation on creativity and performance in liturgy.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Taylor, D. (2015). Performance. Duke University Press Books.

Marshall, Lorna. (2001). The Body Speaks. St. Marten’s Griffin.

Stephenson, Barry. (2015). Ritual: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Concannon, H. & Palm, A. (2024). Blessing It All: Rituals for Transition and Transformation. Skinner House Press.

Stringer, Kafi, and Teague (2025.) Imani Rituals: Nurturing African Spiritual Heritage. Skinner House Press.

Articles by Josette Féral

Féral, J. (1982). Performance and Theatricality: The Subject Demystified (T. Lyons, Trans.). Modern Drama, 25(1), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1353/mdr.1982.0036

Féral, J. (2002). Theatricality: The Specificity of Theatrical Language (R. P. Bermingham, Trans.). SubStance, 31(2/3), 94. https://doi.org/10.2307/3685480

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The Rev. Dr. Adam Robersmith can be found at www.adamrobersmith.com

The Universalist Church of West Hartford, CT: https://www.westhartforduu.org

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Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)

Big episode today, an important conversation about the three decision categories candidates can receive after their MFC interview. My guests are the current panel chairs for the UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee: Alison Aguilar Lopez Gutierrez McLeod, Michael Tino, and Beth Norton. You will not want to miss this conversation.

*Notes from the episode*

MFC Decision Categories

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MfKquIrM4YuKg6Vx6VGA3PU0p8TiKR1GC9f1lBEIWus/edit#heading=h.qpmsv28d2rmv

Thank you for listening. Many Windows: Conversations on Ministry is a production of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Theme music is “Destination” by Justhea. This episode is produced by Jules Taylor.

(Justhea: spoti.fi/2NycVfd and apple.co/3u51z2V)