The search advisory committee for the next minister of the Memorial Church includes faculty with relevant expertise, students, and others actively involved in the Memorial Church community and/or religious life on campus more broadly. Photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus & Community

Memorial Church search committee

3 min read

President Faust appoints advisory committee to find new minister

President Drew Faust has announced the appointment of a search advisory committee for the next minister of the Memorial Church. “This is an important moment of transition for the church,” said Faust.  “I am committed to finding a minister who will lead a vibrant congregation and carry on the church’s rich tradition of preaching and pastoral work, while also engaging in a robust way the diverse religious communities across Harvard.”

The committee includes faculty with relevant expertise, students, and others actively involved in the Memorial Church community and/or religious life on campus more broadly. An initial meeting will be held this month so that the committee can begin to educate itself on the questions at hand. Work will continue over the summer, and the committee will reconvene in the early fall.

Faust invites input on the qualities we should seek in the next minister of the Memorial Church, and recommendations of individuals to consider. Please submit comments, suggestions, or other correspondence to memorialchurchsearch@harvard.edu.

Membership for the Memorial Church search advisory committee includes:

Drew Faust (chair)
President, Harvard University

Ali Asani
Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Rev. Sarah Drummond
Affiliated Minister in the Memorial Church
Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Andover Newton Theological School

Diana Eck
Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Member, Faculty of Divinity, Harvard University

Marla Frederick
Professor of African and African American Studies and of Religion, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Rabbi Benjamin Greenberg
Orthodox Rabbi of Harvard Hillel
Jewish Chaplain of Harvard University

David Hempton
The Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School

Rev. Victor Kazanjian
Dean of Intercultural Education & Religious and Spiritual Life, Wellesley College
Chair, Harvard Board of Ministry
Co-director, Peace and Justice Studies, Wellesley College

Thomas Forrest Kelly
Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

James Lawson
Partner, Prince Lobel Tye LLP, Boston
M.Div., Harvard Divinity School, ’72
Memorial Church Congregation

Justin Mathew ’14
Student, Harvard College

Annie Morgan ’13
Student, Harvard College

Jackie O’Neill
Harvard University Marshal

Stephanie Paulsell
Amory Houghton Professor of the Practice of Ministry Studies, Harvard Divinity School

Robert Shapiro
Member, Board of Overseers, Harvard University
Partner, Ropes & Gray LLP, Boston
Member, Visiting Committee to the Memorial Church

Judith Sizer
Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Brandeis University
Memorial Church Congregation

Rev. Daniel Smith
Affiliated Minister in the Memorial Church
Lecturer on Ministry, Harvard Divinity School
Senior Minister, First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC

Clayton Spencer
Vice President for Policy
A.M., Theology, Oxford University, ’79
A.M., Study of Religion, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, ’82

Jonathan Walton
Assistant Professor of African American Religions, Harvard Divinity School

Staff

Nina Collins
Associate Dean and Senior Adviser to the Dean, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, ’00

Liam Schwartz
Senior Project Analyst, Institutional Research, Harvard University
Ph.D., Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, ’07