The Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II, General Assembly Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), will be the featured speaker at the 163rd commencement ceremony at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS). The commencement celebration will be Sunday, May 14, at Second Presbyterian Church in Louisville.

Rev. J. Bradley Wigger

Rev. J. Bradley Wigger

Earlier in the day, the Reverend J. Bradley Wigger, the seminary’s Second Presbyterian Church Professor of Christian Education, will preach at the seminary’s baccalaureate worship service. That service will be at 10:30 a.m. in Caldwell Chapel on the seminary campus. He will preach on the biblical texts Zechariah 8:1–8 and Ruth 1:16–17.

Nelson, who was elected Stated Clerk [the PC(USA)’s top ecclesiastical office] last summer, has deep roots at LPTS. He received his Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree there in 2002 and received the seminary’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2014. In 2016 he was LPTS’s Festival of Theology and Alumni/ae Reunion preacher. Prior to his election as Stated Clerk, Nelson served as director of the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C.

Wigger joined the faculty of Louisville Seminary in 1997. He has authored several articles and books and has become renowned for his groundbreaking research in children’s cognitive development. Since 2009 he has interviewed more than 500 children in five countries about invisible friends, deities, ancestors, angels, and more. In March he was selected as a 2017–2018 Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology to continue his research into the religious imagination of children.

For more information about commencement, baccalaureate, and other programs and events at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, visit the seminary’s website