Joining approximately 100 doctors, dentists, nurses, and volunteers, Dr. Susan Cole participated in a mission to a remote region of Honduras to conduct an annual clinic that provides healthcare to hundreds who otherwise have no access to healthcare in their day-to-day lives.

She delves into the economic and other factors that impact the health status of children and adults and emphasizes how important basic education in simple health practices is to potentially changing the future health of the patients they treat.

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This episode contains a reference to suicides. If you or someone you know is in crisis call or text 988 for assistance.

Poet Shaheen Dil speaks with Katy Giebenhain about what sparked the writing of her verse memoir. Dil was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She now lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Her poetry collections include Acts of Deference, The Boat-Maker’s Art, and, most recently, Letters to My Younger Self. Her BA in English is from Vassar College. She holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Princeton University. Dil’s career started in academia, then shifted to banking and consulting. All along she’s been writing poetry. But for many years that was her secret. Luckily, we are now able to read her poems in journals and books, and to hear her at public readings.

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Writer and community advocate Will Lane joins Katy Giebenhain for a conversation about the questions we ask ourselves in complex times, especially in a place like Gettysburg.  

Lane is the author of 5 poetry collections: Moonlight Standing in as Cordelia, Elegy for Virginia Redding, In the Barn of God, Trust Rust, and Kin. As an undergraduate he studied Classical Greek at Gettysburg College. For over a decade he worked in the building trade before earning an MA from the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He taught for many years in the English and Environmental Studies Department at Gettysburg College. Lane currently serves on the St. James Lutheran Church Council and is integral to Adams County organizations such as the long-running Green Gettysburg Book Club and Democracy for America (DFA). One of the founders of the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice and Project Gettysburg Leon (the town’s sister city in Nicaragua), he lives in Adams County with his wife and partner in Democracy, Anne.

A downloadable transcript was generated using otter.AI.

NOTE (2026-08-10 14:49): We discovered an error in the uploaded file and have uploaded a corrected version. The transcript may have a gap in the transcription and will be updated once we are able to do so.

NOTE (2026-08-12 11:42): Transcript file has been updated.

Dr. Richard Perry, Prof. Emeritus of Church and Society, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Dr. James Thomas, retired Prof. of Church and Ministry, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary Lenoir-Rhyne University discuss the life and ministry of Dr. William Herzfeld.

Dr Herzfeld was the first African American to be presiding bishop of a Lutheran denomination in the United States. They discussed his years as parish pastor, Civil Rights leader(worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Southern Christian Leadership Conference), bishop of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and executive position in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They also describe him as a synthesizer, nurturer, liberator, and community builder who showed his faith. In his life and with his organizational skills, he created space for Black Lutherans. He had a commitment to the global church. They both conclude that his life and ministry continues to inspire them and their work.

Bishop Herzfeld photo: https://coslutheran.org/bishop-will-herzfeld-1937-2002/

In this Episode Dr. Christopher Bellitto, Professor of History at Kean University, author of “Walking Toward Virtue: A Journey with Dante,” and a frequent interpreter of Catholic history and current affairs, recaps the election of the first American pope, Pope Leo XIV, and his recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, “The Magnificence of Humanity,” which is about the promise and peril of AI, but also about war, slavery, and the poor. A recurring theme is safeguarding humanity.

Bellitto believes that Pope Leo’s papacy will emphasize human values and the condition of have-nots in society.

This episode is hosted by retired Seminary Explores host Jerry Christianson, Professor Emeritus of Church History at United Lutheran Seminary.

Pope Leo XIV photo credit: Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar

Victoria Jesswein, Associate Archivist at United Lutheran Seminary, introduces us to the work of an archivist, explains the importance of the archives to an institution and answers the question, what is an archivist? She describes the archive collection at United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) noting the ample collection of 19th century materials as well as materials from earlier centuries. As the seminary celebrates its bicentennial in 2026 it is important to reflect on what voices have been excluded from that story and how to fill in those gaps. Jesswein also shares the professional preparation of an archivist as well as the challenges all archives face amid the digital age.

Dr. Maria Erling, Professor of Modern Church History and Global Mission at United Lutheran Seminary, shares her thoughts on the 200th Anniversary of ULS. She tells about the need for an educated Lutheran ministry in the United States , the English/German language issue in Church, and the confessional issues that established two Lutheran seminaries in the state of Pennsylvania. She also shares examples of personalities that held her interest. She discusses the life and Dr. Bertha Paulssen, a German refugee during WW2 , who was the first woman to be on a Lutheran seminary faculty in the United States. Dr. Erling also discusses the challenges to theological education in general and United Lutheran Seminary in particular.

Dr. Jon Pahl, Professor of the History of Christianity, United Lutheran Seminary discusses his thoughts on the top stories in religion for 2025. He covers both national and international areas including interreligious peacebuilding in the global village, the changing dynamics of civil religion, the election of Pope Leo, the rise of misogyny, the GAZA protests, and the Epstein scandal. While some of the issues discussed and described are difficult and painful to hear, Dr. Pahl counters them with words of hope as we embark on 2026.

Dr. Mark Tyler, Historiographer of the AME Church, and the Inaugural Daniel A. Payne Lecturer, highlights the life and work of Daniel A. Payne and the importance of his years at Gettysburg Seminary.

He emphasizes the importance of and the role that education exhibited in Payne’s life as an African American intellectual in the 19th century. Tyler also discusses Payne work as the first  historiographer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; he (Tyler) is the 15th person to hold that position. While a true intellectual, Tyler notes the fact that Payne’s life emphasized the use of Head and Heart in ministry. The intellect and the emotional commitment are inseparable; they inform one another.

Dr. Tyler's full lecture can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n6aoWutn20

Dr. Mark Tyler

Thumbnail image source: By C M Bell - https://www.loc.gov/item/2016690322/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103021368 

Tom Jolin, a folk musician, introduces this episode by sharing his love of folk music that developed in the 50s and 60s in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. Using a dulcimer, banjo or accordion, he then describes a brief history of each of the songs or melodies for the listeners.

This segment includes: “Love from the Heart/Marching Through GA by Henry Clay Work whose father spend three years in jail for abolition work; “No More Auction Block for Me” by the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. This was the first authorized Black regiment with Black men coming from South Carolina and Florida; “Deportee” (Crash at Los Gago Canyon) by Woody Guthrie tells the story of migrants who were deported from California and the plane crashed in 1948. These and the other songs/melodies are significant for what we are experiencing today.