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| Warren Dennis and Robert Brashear |
On the occasion of the retirement of Warren Dennis
Thank you for the opportunity to share a few words this evening on the
occasion of the retirement of Warren Dennis. You have heard much about Warren’s
career in academia and his impact as a teacher and a pedagogue. I too was one
of Warren’s students and am thankful for it. But I am here tonight to bring
greetings on behalf of the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare
Association (PHEWA) and Warren’s witness
within his national denomination the Presbyterian Church USA.
It is truly an honor to be part of this night’s dinner and
celebration. It was a great dinner. And I knew it was going to be a great
dinner because of so many dinners I shared in so many cities with Warren Dennis,
Now we all know Warren as an urban
theologian, but I know Warren as an urban
epicure. No matter where we were, I could always count on Warren to find
the very best (and here Phil Tom shouts most expensive) item on any menu.
I also am here to remind us that whenever Warren had to make
a point to make, he wouldn’t stop until it was made. Once, at a PHEWA biennial
in San Diego, a bunch of us, including
Phil Tom and Mark Wendorf and
John Scotland went on a whale watching tour. Warren was deep into theological
reflection and when he emerged, he was ready to share. We were on the back of the boat and I was
directly in front of him. As he continued to speak, I noticed my friends on
either side slowly slipping away. Finally, there was only me with Warren in
front and the ocean behind me. I only
hoped that he finished his point before
I was over the edge and into the ocean
to join the whales. When Warren had something to say, it was going to get said.
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| Warren has his say |
Warren was one of the founding organizers of networks of urban practitioners,
both Community Ministries and Neighborhood Organizations (COMANO) and the Urban
Presbyterian Pastors Association (UPPA) because he believed, like Gustavo
Gutierrez, that theology comes from the ground up not from heaven down and that
it was the job of the academy to help practitioners find the language to express and tools to exegete the
theology that was already being lived out at the grassroots level. As a
teacher, he was the greatest embodiment I have ever known of Freirian pedagogy
wherein we know our lives and our work as part of the text that informs our
reflection whereby we become subjects of our own history.
Warren was the PHEWA chair during some of our most tumultuous days
following budget cuts and the downsizing of our staff and disagreement over the meaning of the word covenant. He helped to shape the conversation that kept that idea alive.
I have known Warren so long that when we began, the issue
was white flight and white people leaving the cities and now we can’t keep them out
as gentrification defines the day. I have heartfelt conversations with my son
about his moving into Bushwick (in Brooklyn) as I myself have moved into Harlem as
I can no longer afford to live in my old
neighborhood.
In the anxious apocalyptic days following 9-11, Warren
helped me to gather a national group of
colleagues at my church in Upper Manhattan to have a conversation about the
content of urban ministry in the context
of what we had just experienced. Again, helping us find the language to express
the meaning of our experience.
At some point, he said to me, we have gone from being young Turks to gray beards in the blink of an
eye. Warren has helped to inspire and equip the next generation of young
Turks while continuing to value and use
the gifts of his fellow gray beards.
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| Former young Turks, now gray beards Ron Peters, Robert Brashear, Phil Tom |
As a student, I am forever thankful for what I have learned.
As a teacher, my pedagogy has been changed forever. As a colleague, I have been
supported and sustained. Warren, on behalf of PHEWA, I say thank you. There can
be no greater response to your ministry of pedagogy than to say, let the
conversation continue.
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