To all of our CRCDS Alumni/ae,
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I am pleased to announce that the Rev. Edward L. Wheeler, Ph.D., CRDS '72, will be our chapel speaker during the Alumni/ae Weekend on April 21st.
Dr. Wheeler is an ordained Baptist minister and a highly regarded preacher, lecturer, community leader, and theological educator. While serving as Senior Pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, he was also a faculty member at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he taught in both the M.Div. and D.Min. programs. In the early eighties, he served as Dean of the Morehouse School of Religion; since then, he has served as Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Religion and Society at Tuskegee University and President of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was named President Emeritus in 2015.
The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, elected Dr. Wheeler as President in 2015, where he served until 2019.
Over his long and rich career Dr. Wheeler has served on civic and professional boards including the Committee on Leadership Development of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and 100 Black Men of Indianapolis. He was Vice Chair of the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Intra-Baptist Relations., and on the Board of Directors of the Association of Theological Schools in the U.S. and Canada (ATS); while on that Board he was appointed to the joint commission authorized by ATS and the Association of Hispanic Theological Education to strengthen Hispanic Bible Institutes.
Dr. Wheeler is the author of numerous articles and book reviews and his books include Uplifting the Race: Black Ministerial Leadership in the New South, 1865-1902 and Black Pearls: Lessons from a Beautiful Black Mother.
He currently serves as Associate Pastor of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Dr. Wheeler is also an active member of Sigma Pi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
He earned his B.A. from Morehouse College, his M. Div. (Magna Cum Laude) from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Emory University. He has been honored with several honorary doctorate degrees from leading colleges in Indiana and with honorary doctorates from Christian Theological Seminary and Payne Theological Seminary. In 2011 Dr. Wheeler was named one of two Distinguished Alumni of the Year by Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
Dr. Wheeler and his wife, Mary Susan, are blessed with three daughters, three grandchildren and two great grandsons.
Having missed the opportunity to celebrate in person over the last three years, we will honor our D. Min. graduates from the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022 with a special in-person hooding ceremony that will take place on Saturday, April 22nd, at 10:00 am, at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY. In addition, we will be acknowledging the twenty-five-year (’95, ’96, ’97) and fifty-year (’70, ’71, ’72) graduation anniversaries during the weekend.
Additional information about the Alumni/ae Weekend and corresponding activities is available on the CRCDS website: https://www.crcds.edu/reunion. Should you have any additional questions about the weekend, please email us at advancement@crcds.edu.
I look forward to being with many of you in April!
Yours in peace, service, and justice,
Rev. Angela D. Sims, Ph.D.
President