Bishop Charleston to present Willson Lectures

What does the Gospel, the good news, sound like when spoken in the traditional voice of Native American religious experience? How does the spiritual history and wisdom of North America’s indigenous cultures shape and inform Christian theology?

Bishop Steven Charleston will explore these questions on Oct. 4 in the 2012 Willson Lectures at Oklahoma City University.

Bishop Charleston is Visiting Professor of Native American Ministries at Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU.

He has served as president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and as bishop of Alaska for the Episcopal Church.

His work for the seminary started July 1. The post is funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Most recently, Bishop Charleston, who is Choctaw, served as interim dean at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Oklahoma City. He has been a priest for 30 years, more than 20 of those as a bishop. He has been deeply engaged in both education and the Native American community.

He served on the faculty at Luther Seminary.

Charleston holds a master’s degree from Episcopal Divinity School and honorary doctorates from Trinity College, Alaska Pacific University, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.

"The Native American Gospel" is the theme of his lectures.

n The first presentation will be in the chapel service, at 1 p.m., in a sermon titled "The Old Testament of Native America."

n Lectures at 3 and 7 p.m. will be held in Watson Lounge of the chapel. Those topics will be "The Tribes of Israel/The Tribes of America: A Spiritual Economy" and "The Covenant of Kinship."

All lectures are free and open to the public.