Grace Imathiu will address the class of 2020

Update

MTSO will hold a virtual commencement ceremony online at 11 a.m. May 23. Information for tuning in will be provided at a future date.

Rev. Grace Imathiu, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church, Evanston, Illinois, will deliver the 2020 commencement address at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. May 23 in Dickinson Courtyard on the MTSO campus, 3081 Columbus Pike in Delaware. Guests are welcome. Tickets are not required.

A sought-after preacher who earned her Master of Divinity degree from MTSO in 1987, Imathiu has pastored congregations from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Nairobi, Kenya. Long an ally and activist for the LGBTQI community, she uses sermons as tools of justice at the intersection of religion, race, sexuality and gender.

Among her many professional roles, Imathiu has served as a church planter in Kenya, a superintendent minister overseeing 68 rural churches in Nkubu, and an urban minister to an ecumenical congregation in Nairobi with strong outreach to the neighboring slums of Kawangware.

She has preached in Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Togo, Liberia, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, Brazil and throughout the United States. A founding member of Kenya Methodist University, she is the author of the books Matthew’s Message: Good News for the New Millennium and Words of Fire, Spirit of Grace.

“Rev. Imathiu is a preacher and activist of impact whose work spans the globe,” said MTSO President Jay Rundell. “We’re excited to welcome her back to MTSO to share her considerable wisdom and inspiration with the class of 2020.”

MTSO will award master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as Doctor of Ministry degrees, at the May 23 ceremony.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio provides theological education and leadership in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree, the school offers master’s degrees in counseling, practical theology, social justice and theological studies, along with a Doctor of Ministry degree.

CONTACT:

Danny Russell, communications director
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322