Grace & Peace
2025 Lenten Speaker Series

This Lent, join us as we delve into the transformative power of grace to foster peace in our lives and in the world. Each Sunday, a different speaker will explore this theme from a unique perspective, yet our ultimate goal remains the same: that "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" (2 Peter 1:2).

The Lenten Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Video and audio recordings of each speaker will be posted here on the Monday following the presentation.

Our Speakers

March 9
“Grace and Grief”
The Rev. Kelly Koonce

Kelly Koonce is an Episcopal priest, spiritual director, and grief educator who currently serves as the Interim Associate Vicar at St. Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church. He is the founder and Executive Director of Life After Loss, a nonprofit organization that offers grief support services to underserved communities throughout the Austin area. He graduated from the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and pursued postgraduate studies in Christian spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Kelly is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® and has studied extensively with Dr. Alan Wolfelt at the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Fort Collins, Colorado.

March 16
“Good Food: How the Eucharist Offers Grace to a Ruptured World”
Dr. Jenny Howell

Dr. Jenny Howell serves as the director of the Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice Program at Baylor University's Truett Seminary. Howell received her MDiv (Duke Divinity School) and PhD in Theology and Ethics (Baylor University). Her scholarship focuses on the doctrine of creation. Howell also serves as the Theologian in Residence at the World Hunger Relief Farm, where all her classes are offered. She believes that teaching her courses on site at a flourishing regenerative farm allows seminary students the opportunity to more fully integrate the rigor of theological education with an informed love of place that Christians are called to tend and nurture.

March 23
“The Grace and Peace of Wild Things: Connecting with Creation in Turbulent Times”
Dr. R. Robert Creech

Robert Creech is a retired Baptist college and seminary professor and pastor. Since 2020, he and his wife of nearly 51 years, Melinda, have lived on family farmland in South Texas outside of Floresville. They are restoring the 88 acres to native grasses and operate a 501(c)3, Creech Prairie Restoration.

March 30
“Bridging Grace: Building Relationships Between the Episcopal Church and Black Methodist Traditions”
Rev. Dr. Dominique A. Robinson

Rev. Dr. Dominique A. Robinson is the new John Hines Assistant Professor of Preaching at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX. She is a millennial Womanist homiletician and justice advocate who takes great pride in being the former inaugural Dean of Chapel and Assistant Professor of Religion at Wiley College in Marshall, TX. Dr. Robinson is also an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church and a member of the illustrious Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, among many other amazing accomplishments. She is continuously humbled by opportunities to share God's Word and desires to march to the drumbeat of God's heart

April 6
“Martin Luther’s Search for Grace and Peace”
Dr. Brian Brewer

Dr. Brian Brewer is Professor of Historical Theology at Truett Seminary, Baylor University, where he teaches the history and theology of the Protestant Reformation. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author or editor of six books. Brian is married to Amy, a retired pediatrician, and is the father of two adult daughters.