Preachers of the Week

Pre-Season – Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett: June 7, 2026

The Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett is the Director of Worship and Religious Life at the Bay View Association. Raised in Berkeley, California, she received an undergraduate degree in World and Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University and holds graduate degrees from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (M. Div.) and Pacific School of Religion (D. Min). Her Doctor of Ministry thesis, Telling Stories: Narrative Approaches to Congregational Studies, explores the power of stories to shape a community’s sense of who they are and what they believe is possible for them. Prior to retiring from full-time parish ministry, Dr. Barrett served in settled pastorates and interim settings in southeastern Pennsylvania for 33 years. She and her husband, Rob Scarrow, reside in suburban Philadelphia in the off-season. They have one adult son named, Sam (and a black Lab named, Sophie).

Week 1 – Rev. Hendree Harrison: June 14 – 18, 2026

The Reverend G. Hendree Harrison, Jr. has served as rector of The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Lexington, Kentucky, since 2018. A fifth-generation Episcopal priest, Father Harrison brings deep roots in spiritual formation and contemplative practice to his ministry. He completed both his undergraduate and seminary studies at Sewanee: The University of the South, and is a graduate of the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation, where he studied contemplative Christianity under Richard Rohr.

Before coming to Good Shepherd, Father Harrison served for three years at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Dalton in his home state of Georgia and then for twelve years as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Athens, Tennessee, where he co-founded the Grace House, a shelter and recovery program for men experiencing homelessness due to addiction. He has been a leader in diocesan ministry, serving a decade as chair of the Commission on Ministry in the Diocese of East Tennessee and two years as president of the Standing Committee in the Diocese of Lexington.

A devoted practitioner of Centering Prayer, Father Harrison is known for his exploration of the contemplative dimension of the Gospel with a special emphasis on the Christian mystics and his commitment to creating inclusive, welcoming communities of faith. He is married to Kristin and is the father of two daughters, Gracie and Mary.

Week 2 – Father Michael Renninger: June 21 – 25, 2026

Father Michael A. Renninger serves as pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Fr. Michael completed his theological education at the Catholic University of America and was ordained in 1993.

Father Renninger’s engaging homilies and reflections have reached thousands through St. Mary’s widely-distributed podcast and media presence, making him one of the most listened-to Catholic voices in Virginia. His preaching combines theological depth with accessibility, addressing contemporary challenges through the lens of faith.

Throughout his ministry, Fr. Renninger has been active in diocesan leadership and social ministry initiatives, speaking at conferences and retreats throughout the region. His pastoral approach emphasizes accompaniment, meeting people where they are in their spiritual journeys while calling them toward deeper relationship with Christ and service to others. Father Renninger’s leadership has been marked by his ability to build vibrant parish communities centered on worship, formation, and mission. He has been a featured speaker at the Bay View and Lakeside communities, and he is grateful for the opportunity to return to Bay View in 2026!

Week 3 – Dr. Charles Marsh: June 28 – July 2, 2026

Charles Marsh is the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and director of the Project on Lived Theology. A scholar of modern Christian thought, Marsh has written widely on the intersections of faith, social ethics, and public life, with particular attention to the lived textures of religious experience.

His biography Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2014) was shortlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award and received the Christianity Today Book Award. The book offers an intimate and deeply researched portrait of the German theologian and resistor, drawing on extensive archival discoveries. Marsh’s earlier work God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (1997) won the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion and remains a touchstone in studies of religion and the American freedom struggle.

Marsh has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Ellen Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize at the American Academy in Berlin. He has also served as the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Visiting Professor at Humboldt University in Berlin.

In both his scholarship and his leadership of the Project on Lived Theology, Marsh explores how religious conviction shapes moral imagination, civic courage, and social transformation. His recent work includes Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir (HarperOne, 2022), which weaves theological reflection with personal narrative to consider the demands—and promises—of telling the truth about one’s life. Across theology, biography, and cultural criticism, Marsh’s writing attends to the concrete, lived dimensions of faith in history and in our own unsettled times.

Week 4 – BIG SUNDAY – Preacher TBA: July 5, 2026

More information coming soon!

American Experience 2026 – Speaker TBA: July 6 – 10, 2026

More information coming soon!

Week 5 – Dr. Gary Dorrien: July 12 – 16, 2026

The Reverend Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University in New York City. An Episcopal priest and prolific scholar, he is widely regarded as one of the preeminent theologians and social ethicists of our time.

Dorrien has authored twenty-five books spanning theology, ethics, philosophy, and political history. His trilogy on the Black social gospel tradition—including The New Abolition: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel (2015), which won the 2017 Grawemeyer Award—has been hailed as definitive scholarship that recovers neglected streams of American religious history. His recent works include American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory (2021) and A Darkly Radiant Vision: The Black Social Gospel in the Shadow of MLK (2023).

Dorrien’s book, Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit, won the prestigious PROSE Award, and three of his books have won the Association of American Publishers Award. He recently published a memoir, Over from Union Road: My Christian-Left-Intellectual Life (2024).

In 2024, Dorrien was awarded the Gandhi King Mandela Peace Prize at Morehouse College for his “distinguished teaching and magisterial, rigorous, monumental scholarship” that centers Black Christian witness and political imagination. Philosopher Cornel West describes him as “the preeminent social ethicist in North America today.” Dorrien’s work illuminates the religious roots of progressive social movements and continues to shape contemporary conversations about justice, democracy, and faith.

Week 6 – Father Gregory Boyle: July 19 – 23, 2026

Father Gregory Boyle a Jesuit priest is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world.

Born and raised in Los Angeles and Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Fr. Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights. Dolores Mission was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city.

Fr. Boyle witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992. In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings.

In 1988 they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to thousands of individuals who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.

Fr. Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Followed by Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship (2017) and The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness (2021). His most recent work is Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times (2024).

He has received the California Peace Prize and has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Obama named Fr. Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. Homeboy Industries was the recipient of the 2020 Hilton Humanitarian Prize validating 32 years of Fr. Greg Boyle’s vision and work by the organization for over three decades. Most recently he was one of the recipients of the 2024 The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Week 8 – Rabbi Dan Gordon: August 2 – 6, 2026

Rabbi Dan Gordon has served as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Torah in Humble, Texas, since 1998. Known as both a rabbi and a “maggid” (sacred storyteller), he brings unique insights from Torah, midrash, and Jewish folklore to audiences across the United States, Israel, and Australia.

Rabbi Gordon received his rabbinic ordination from the Mesifta Adath Wolkowisk Rabbinical Academy of New York in 2009. He holds a BA in Drama and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. His diverse professional journey included directing Jewish summer camps, serving as JCC program director, working as principal of a Jewish high school, and even managing an auto parts warehouse—experiences that enriched his understanding of both Jewish and secular worlds.

Active in interfaith work, Rabbi Gordon serves as National Rabbinic Advisor for March of Remembrance, is a board member of the American Jewish Committee, and participates in the Coalition for Mutual Respect. He was elected president of OHALAH (Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal) in 2025 and has co-chaired the National Jewish Storytelling Network since 2006. Rabbi Gordon also serves as a chaplain, facilitating “Sacred Vocations” training for hospital staff and providing pastoral care to inmates. His ministry emphasizes storytelling, interfaith dialogue, and connecting people to the living traditions of Judaism.

Week 9 – Rev. Canon Dr. Jennifer Smith: August 9 – 13, 2026

Jennifer Smith is a Methodist Minister serving as Superintendent of Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission, the London church opened in 1778 for John Wesley, founder of Methodism. She also chairs the Global Relationships Committee of the Methodist Church in Great Britain and has a particular interest in the global work of Methodism in education.

With a background in higher education, Jennifer completed the PhD in politics (Leicester, 2001) and taught at graduate level before coming into the ministry. She has published a peer-reviewed study of Windrush Generation British Methodist experience and has ongoing research interests in cross-cultural leadership.

An Honorary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and a US native, Jennifer is a regular contributor to BBC religious broadcasting and a widely invited speaker and preacher.

Post-Season Week 2 – Bishop Tracy Malone: August 23, 2026

Bishop Tracy S. Malone serves as resident bishop of the Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church and as President of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church (through April 2026)—the first Black woman elected to this position. In this role, she provides leadership to more than 110 active and retired bishops across the global denomination spanning the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Malone serves on the Board of Trustees at the United Methodist-affiliated institutions of higher education and organizations in the Episcopal Area. She is currently the President of the Council of Bishops, which includes all bishops in The United Methodist Church, and a member of the College of Bishops, which is comprised of the United Methodist bishops in the North Central Jurisdiction. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Africa University and the immediate Past President of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women.

Malone was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and was raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of the late Rev. Willie and the late April Smith. She grew up in The United Methodist Church and accepted her call to ministry at the early age of 13.

During her ministry she pastored several churches, served as a District Superintendent, and provided leadership to various community organizations. She has authored chapters in several books, published articles, blogs and book reviews, and has taught courses as an adjunct professor at several higher education institutions.

Malone has a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Sociology, with a minor in Computer Science, from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She holds a Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and has earned a Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

She and her husband Derrick are the parents of two adult daughters.

Bay View Worship invites people of all ages to explore and grow their faith through a variety of worship services, worship music, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, and prayer groups. The Worship Endowment supports these efforts to explore and nurture faith for all ages. Would you consider investing in the future of faith at Bay View by adding the Worship Endowment to your will or estate plan? To learn more about how to leave your legacy, contact Giving@BayViewAssociation.org.