In response to President Menjares' call to prayer, faculty, staff, and students are invited to a Campus Community Worship, Prayer, and Fellowship event this Wednesday, Nov. 10, 12–1 p.m. in Upper Gwinn. Please join us as we gather to invite God to meet us in this space through worship, prayer, Scripture reading, and fellowship.

You are invited to the annual Walls Lecture, Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons. This year’s lecture, “For It Seems Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us,” will be given by Rob Wall, professor emeritus of theology, who will reclaim one of Scripture’s most famous one-liners to cue the telling of the Bible’s story from the perspective of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, our hope is that Scripture’s faithful readers are made more alert to what Professor Wall calls a “participatory pneumatology — Bible readers’ partnership with God’s Spirit that actively forms and animates their life with God. Learn more about the lecture.

As we remember and say thank you to our veterans this Veterans Day, we invite you to read this story on Tom Cooper, a veteran and 1950 SPU alumnus who recalls his post-World War II life at Seattle Pacific College. The article, "Battlefield to classroom: Tom Cooper's return," is in the latest issue of Response magazine.

Message from Brian Ficken, director and treasurer of the Seattle Pacific Foundation: Reflecting investment valuations for September 2021, the value of the University’s endowment now exceeds $180 million and total managed assets of over $200 million. The spending from endowment funds provides scholarships and operating budget relief to the University on a quarterly basis. In the most recent endowment survey conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (including 336 participants), the University’s endowment investment results were ranked first for their three-, five-, and 10-year net returns (and second for their one- and 15-year net returns) for their peer group: $100 million to under $500 million.

The SPU Percussion Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble will present their autumn concerts on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the E.E. Bach Theater in McKinley Hall. The concert is free and all COVID-19 protocols will followed in the theater.

• The Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Director of Percussion Studies and Percussion Ensemble Dan Adams, will perform traditional West African drumming, marimba music of Guatemala, Pete O’Gorman’s quartet “Fire” and Ivan Trevino’s “Catching Shadows,” featuring seniors Arie Martinet and Eric Peterson.  
• The Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Instructor of Jazz History and Jazz Piano Dan Kramlich, will perform jazz standards for jazz quartet.

If you missed last’s week’s talk, “Who Goes to Heaven? The Afterlife According to St. Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419),” by Alberto Ferreiro, professor of European history, you can now watch it at youtu.be/MhN2v3hNBTk. Stay tuned for more events offered by the History department during Winter Quarter 2022.

The latest SPU Voices podcast features Chris Baron, a director and cinematographer on many television and documentary productions, including the acclaimed short documentary The Time to Heal, which follows three Seattle Pacific alumni who are living out their faith through their work at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris shares how he got interested in film making, directing The Time to Heal, and his work on other noteworthy projects.

The SPU Voices podcast, produced by the Office of Alumni, Parent, and Family Relations, is a monthly interview show dedicated to telling inspiring and compelling stories.

The Office of Inclusive Excellence offers diversity seed grants up to $1,500 to support departmentwide initiatives that advance one or more of the University’s strategic diversity goals. The application window for the quarter closes on Friday, Nov. 12.

A message from the Office University Communications: If you need to update your school, department, or office website, but you want or need a Sitecore refresher, check out the five short Sitecore video tutorials, the Sitecore Mini-Guide, and the Sitecore User Quick Tips. If you have questions about the recent upgrade to Sitecore 9, email ucwebteam2@spu.edu.

A message from Campus Dining: Between Monday, Nov. 15, and Wednesday, Nov. 17, you can order a pie for the upcoming holidays! Choose from apple, pumpkin, and cream pie, $10 each. Order and pick up your pies in Gwinn Commons or at Corner Place Market.

What is the role of hope in entrepreneurship? Check out what SPU faculty, students, and alumni have to say about the theology of entrepreneurship and innovation in the latest issue of the School of Business, Government, and Economics Shareholders e-newsletter.

The introduction of the Cybersecurity and Online Habits training is now available in the SPU wiki Cybersecurity Awareness Training section, and in the Human Resources’ compliance training library. Federal rules from both Congress and the Department of Education require this training of all institutions receiving federal funding.  

In order to comply, all faculty and staff are required to complete this Cybersecurity Awareness training by Jan. 1, 2022. Any employee unable to complete the training by this date will lose access to systems and information until they complete the training. This is the first time this training is required at SPU, and will be required annually in the future.

On Oct. 25, the Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIEX) launched an anonymous and confidential Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey. All students, regular faculty, staff, and administrators should have received a link from SeattlePacific@hedsconsoritum.org and are encouraged to complete the survey by Nov. 15. For more information, visit the FAQs on the OIEX website.

The Perkins 2021 Fall Series: Subversive Witness, featuring Rev. Dominique Dubois Gilliard and local leaders, is now available to be viewed on the SPU John Perkins Center YouTube Channel.

From the Office of the Provost: This fall the Theological Integration Fellows Program welcomed its third cohort, comprised of Carlos Arias, assistant professor of computer science, Kristen Hoffman, psychology and scholarly communications librarian, Brittany Tausen, associate professor of psychology, and Joshua Tom, assistant professor of sociology. 

This year we look forward to receiving our fourth-year cohort applications. This program and certification provides seminary training to faculty members who wish to better integrate their faith with their disciplines and professionally enhance their teaching and scholarship. If you are interested in participating in the fourth cohort of this program, starting in fall 2022, please submit a one-page application to the Office of the Provost at provost@spu.edu no later than Monday, Dec. 13. Applications must be accompanied by a letter of approval from your dean.

From Mailing Services: Please note our Thanksgiving and Christmas Break hours:

• Wednesday, Nov. 24, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
• Closed Thursday–Friday, Nov. 25–26.
• Nov. 29–Jan. 3, Mailing Services will be open for business from 8 a.m.–4 p.m., however there will be no mail deliveries to the departments.You are welcome to come in during those hours to pick up your mail and/or packages. Mailing Services will be closed on Dec. 24.
• Dec. 27–31, Mailing Services will have limited operational hours of 8 a.m.–12 p.m., with no counter sales. But if you wish to pick up your departmental mail, please come to the back door and we will be happy to help you.
• On Jan. 3, 2022, Mail Services resumes normal operational hours, 8 a.m.–4 p.m., with afternoon department mail and package deliveries.

The 10th of each month is the last day to make changes to your upcoming payroll check. Do you need to add or remove your spouse and/or children from your health care plans? If so, contact Human Resources (HR) to complete the appropriate form. Changes might include events that are expected to impact your benefits and deductions, such as your spouse or children gaining or losing coverage due to employment, birth, marriage, etc. Additionally, any changes to your 403b account may take up to seven days to be provided to SPU for processing, so please contract Transamerica by the first of the month prior to your requested change. For changes to your 403(b) account, contact Transamerica Retirement Solutions at 1-888-676-5512 (5 a.m.–6 p.m. PST), or 1-800-755-5801. If you have any other benefits-related changes, call Cherylin Shdo in HR at 206-281-2816.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published weekly during the academic year. Due to the Veterans Day holiday, the next deadline is Wednesday. Nov. 10,  and the next issue will be published Monday, Nov. 15. 

If you have information or event news, send it as soon as possible with an image or graphic to Bulletin editor Tracy Norlen at fsb-editor@spu.edu. Submissions may be edited for clarity.

Ramona Holmes, professor emerita of music, has had her book, Resilient Voices: Estonian Choirs and Song Festivals in World War II Displaced Person Camps, published this year by Routledge. The research for her book was done during two of her sabbaticals from SPU while in Estonia, Germany, and Australia.

Bo Lim, professor of Old Testament, contributed to a special edition of the Journal of Theological Interpretation (15.2, 2021: 203–218) dedicated to honor Joel Green on his 65th birthday.  Bo’s article, “Reading the Psalms as Torah for Social Ethics,” examines how individual lament psalms both serve to instruct God’s people how to petition God in times of trouble and advocate for the listening community to come to the aid of the poor.

A study by Rob Wall, Paul T. Walls professor emeritus of Scripture and Wesleyan studies, of the famous biblical catchphrase, “Every Scripture is God-Breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), was published in The Spirit Says: Inspiration and Interpretation in Israelite Jewish, and Early Christian Texts. Edited by R. Herms, J. R. Levison, A. T. Wright. Berlin: DeGruyter, 2021. Pp. 331–350. In this essay, Rob provides a theological reading of Paul’s instruction to his young apprentice, Timothy, found in 2 Timothy 3:14–17, of Scripture’s role in forming a believer’s life with and witness of God. This text is arguably Scripture’s most important text about Scripture and therefore has been consistently used (and abused) by Christians to secure their beliefs about the Bible’s authority and role. Rob’s essay challenges the traditional Protestant interpretation and application of this text to argue that the idea of inspiration (“God-breathed”) has more to do with a reader’s spiritual discernment than with an author’s divine inspiration, with the performance of Scripture more than with its production. Note: Even in retirement, Rob always welcomes conversations over his published work!

An article by Alberto Ferreiro, professor of European history, titled “Consecrated Women, Monks, and Priscillianism in the Hispano-Roman / Suevic-Visigothic Councils,” has been accepted for publication in the Annales Historiae Conciliorum, the official journal of the Society for the Study of Church Councils (Vienna/Rome). His article fully explores for the first time what these councils legislated on these topics from the fourth through seventh centuries in the Iberian Peninsula. He presented a version of this topic at the symposium sponsored by the society on “Councils and Monasticism” in Dresden, Germany, in September 2021. The paper was written over the summer.

Please join the Office of Human Resources in welcoming these new staff members:

• Debbie Mercado,, office administrator and events coordinator/TIF program coordinator, School of Theology
• Janette Plunkett, sustainability manager, Facility and Project Management
• Anna White, program manager for biology, chemistry, pre-professional health sciences, Eaton Hall, College of Arts and Sciences

Mohammad Qadam Shah, assistant professor of political science, co-authored the op-ed, “Should the Taliban Be Given Afghanistan’s UN Seat,” which was published in the Nov. 2, 2021, issue of  The Diplomat.