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Press Releases » The Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence is Guest Preacher July 13 at Montreat Conference Center
The Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence is Guest Preacher July 13 at Montreat Conference Center
The Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence, the guest preacher, July 13, at Montreat Conference Center, is Associate Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and has focused much of her work on two of her passions: youth and poetics. From 1988-1993, she was associate pastor for youth and young adults at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN. From 1993-1997, she lived with her family and a dorm full of ninth grade boys at Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ, where her husband, the Rev. David Carter Florence, was chaplain. She holds degrees from Yale College, New Haven, CT, and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ. She has published and preached in many places and for many kinds of groups, but the best part of being invited to preach somewhere, she says, is the conversations she has with those she meets. The seeds of those conversations culminated recently in her first book, Preaching as Testimony (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007). Dr. Florence joined the faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in 1998, and completed her Ph.D. in Homiletics in 2000. When she is not listening to students preach their first sermons and talking with pastors about their preaching ministry, she is taking her two sons to lacrosse and basketball, and knitting in the stands.
Dr. Florence’s sermon is entitled “Birth Rites” and is taken from readings in Genesis and the epistle to the Romans. Joining her in worship will be the Chancel Choir from First Presbyterian Church, Athens, GA, directed by Tom Granum, Director of Music and organist.
A Bible study, “The Artistry of Biblical Storytellers,” will be led by summer Theologian-in Residence at Montreat Conference Center, the Rev. Dr. George W. Ramsey at 9:30 AM in the Allen Building, followed by worship at 11:00 AM in Montreat Conference Center’s Anderson Auditorium. Child care during worship is available in the Updike Child Care Center on Texas Road for children six months through completed kindergarten. At noon, worshippers are invited to enjoy a lunch buffet at the Assembly Inn’s Galax Dining Room. Learn more about summer worship at Montreat Conference Center.