Annual Lecture
About Our Lecturer:
The Reverend Doctor Brandon Thomas Crowley is an African-American pastor, preacher, author, and scholar in religion, theology, and queer theory. Since 2009, he has served as the Senior Pastor of the Historic Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, one of America’s oldest Black congregations founded by formerly enslaved persons at the end of Reconstruction and one of the nation’s few open and affirming historically Black churches.
In addition to his pastoral role, Dr. Crowley is a Lecturer in Ministry Studies at Harvard University’s Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has taught courses at Boston University, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the New York Theological Seminary, and the Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL.
Reverend Crowley earned a Ph.D. in Church and Society and a Master of Sacred Theology with a certificate in social justice from Boston University’s School of Theology. He also earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard University’s Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion with a moral cosmopolitan pastoral leadership certificate from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Reverend Crowley’s first manuscript is Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in African American Congregations with Oxford University Press. His scholarship reflects his commitment to fostering inclusivity and challenging societal norms within African American faith communities.
Beyond his pastoral and academic roles, Dr. Crowley serves on various boards and leads several communal organizations. He serves as a member of the inaugural Council of Religious Practitioners and Scholars for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Dr. Crowley is an active member of the Harvard Alumni Council and membership selection committee, the Newton-Wellesley Hospital Community Benefits and Needs Assessment Committees, and holds the position of Executive Director and Chief Curator of the African American Lectionary. Ordained in the Progressive National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., and licensed by the National Baptist Convention of America, Dr. Crowley brings a wealth of wisdom and dedication to his work. He resides in Boston with his husband, Tyrone Sutton, an administrator in the Boston public school system, and their beloved 14-year-old Maltese pup, Bishop.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Gold Level
Silver Level
Bronze Level
Previous Lectures:
2023 Lecture: Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw
“Truth and Lies at the Foot of the Cross: The Church and God’s LGBTQ+ Children”
Monday, September 11, 2023, 6:30PM CT
A 50th Anniversary Reception, featuring cake, will follow the lecture.
at Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, TX
Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University
We’ve all heard how everyone’s equal at the foot of the cross. That doesn’t seem to apply to LGBTQ+ people, however, according to many Christians. In fact, the disgust and hatred of LGBTQ+ people among many Christians is so great that they eagerly accept, tell, create, and repeat lies and falsehoods about the queer community and work actively to limit, roll back, and deny civil and human rights to LGBTQ+ people. Surely, however, of all places, the foot of the cross is a place for truths. On the cross, Jesus sided with the marginalized, oppressed, and despised. The resurrection was God’s affirmation of that choice, and, in his “coming out” of the tomb, Jesus offered hope, possibility, love, and welcome. We’ll explore truths and lies at the foot of the cross, drawing from the latest headlines, biological, medical, and social sciences, gender studies, and theological and biblical studies and make a specific case for Baptist welcome of God’s LGBTQ+ children.
Click here for the lecture recording
2022 Lecture: Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders
STRENGTHEN WHAT REMAINS: QUEER APOCALYPTIC HOPE
Monday, September 26th, 2022 6:30 PM
at St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church
1600 Norris Ave., Charlotte, North Carolina
Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders
The age in which we are living and dying is one of myriad endings and edges. The planetary climate, the political climate, the composition of our everyday lives and communities are all filled with possibility and peril. Christian faith traditions hold a resource of visionary potential for living at the edges of life and the endings of the world as we know it: apocalyptic imagination. This lecture will explore the potential of holding together three concepts – queer, apocalyptic, hope – known to cause trouble and provoke revolutionary imagination, asking: What potential does queer apocalyptic hope offer to faith communities to awaken us from our captivity to the status quo, sustain us in cultivating communities of compassion and justice, and nurture our capacity to “strengthen what remains and is on the point of death” (Rev. 3:2).