PhD Student Profile: Rev. Michelle Whitlock

September 8, 2021

Area of Study: Liturgical Studies

Rev. Michelle Whitlock is an ordained Elder in the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church, currently serving Hawley United Methodist in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She studied voice performance at Ithaca College and holds a Master of Sacred Music and Masters of Music Education from Perkins School of Theology and Southern Methodist Univeristy. Her Master of Divinity was completed at Wesley Theological Seminary. Rev. Whitlock is a practical theologian currently focused on intergenerational liturgy. She is passionate about the full inclusion of all ages in corporate worship. Her work has explored narrative theology, developmental theory, the formational nature of liturgy, theology of the child, and the theology of play. Her dissertation integrates a Wesleyan understanding of relational grace in a conversation with scholars such as Paul Ricoeur, Erik Erikson, James Fowler, and Etienne Wegner.

Papers and Publications

“A Narrative Identity” presented at the North American Academy of Liturgy, Liturgical Hermeneutics Seminar, Atlanta, GA, January 2020

“The Liturgy: Practicing Relational Narrative,” presented at the North American Academy of Liturgy, Liturgical Hermeneutics Seminar, Denver, CO, January 2019

“Practicing Liturgy: One Performance, Infinite Rehearsals” prsented at the North American Academy of Liturgy, Liturgical Hermeneutics Seminar, Vancouver, BC, January 2018.

Book Review of In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of Spirituals, by Eileen Guenther in Pan Pipes 109, no. 4 (Summer 2017): 25.

Published “Community Prayer Stations: Creating a tool for reconciliation and unity” in Worship Arts 61, no. 4 (2016): 17-19