Lancaster Theological Seminary Library

Our Juneteenth & Pride Month collection is available for you to browse now in person and online!
Just visit the table on the first floor, or check out our online list of resources:
https://lancasterlibrary.moravian.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl?op=view&shelfnumber=190&sortfield=title
All items are available for check out.

Lancaster Theological Seminary Library is celebrating Juneteenth and Pride this month!

"The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free."
~ Maya Angelou

Come check out the many resources we have on Black Liberation and Q***r Theology this June (and year-round).

For seminar today we talked with Rev. Dr. Chynaah Maryoung-Cooke at Lancaster Theological Seminary Library about the concept of Ubuntu, which comes from a Zulu phrase meaning "I am because we are," and popularized by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Chynaah shared with us about how Ubuntu is about community and hospitality, and creating spaces of true belonging, equity, and safety, where everyone brings what they have, whether material or emotional resources, so that everyone has what they need and are able to flourish. We discussed some ways we have experienced this in our lives, and how the library is intentional about cultivating this kind of space.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚

TRAUMA-INFORMED CHRISTIAN ETHICS (2026)
by Rev. Dr. Darryl W. Stephens

Stephens argues that trauma disrupts moral perception, making ethics inseparable from lived experience. He calls for practices of attentiveness, lament, and repair, and critiques rule-based approaches that ignore how trauma constrains choice and fractures relationships. Emphasizing communal healing, he draws on confession, repentance, and reconciliation to center compassion, accountability, and justice over punishment.

He also highlights the role of churches in producing trauma through systems like colonialism and white supremacy, urging institutional transformation. Stephens states it best when he says, “Moral community is forged in the collective struggles of everyday life and when we bear witness to someone else’s suffering, we enter into a relationship with that person in community.” Ultimately, Stephens reframes Christian ethics as a practice of communal healing, ethical humility, and restorative justice.

Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Chynaah Maryoung-Cooke🌈