Upcoming Events at Phillips Theological Seminary

Pride @ Phillips Coming Oct. 13

Cody J. Sanders

The Rev. Cody Sanders, PhD, is our Pride @ Phillips keynote speaker. Sanders is a leader in the area of LGBTQIA+ spiritual care, writing and speaking frequently on the subject in churches and academic settings. He is a practitioner of narrative theories of pastoral care and counseling, training clergy, students, and lay leaders in these skills of caregiving. 

Sanders (he/him) is an ordained Baptist minister (Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches U.S.A.). He teaches in the areas of pastoral theology and spiritual care within congregational and community contexts, having taught on the adjunct faculties in this area in several other institutions, including Andover Newton Theological School and Chicago Theological Seminary.

Prior to joining the faculty of Luther Seminary, Sanders was pastor to Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA, where he also served as American Baptist Chaplain to Harvard University, and Advisor for LGBTQ+ Affairs in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His current research aims to build ministerial and congregational capacity to lead in cultivating caring communities amid climate collapse, political turmoil, technological acceleration, and the uncertainty of complex near-future scenarios for our life in the world.

His books include  Spiritual Care First Aid: An All-Hands Approach for Church and Community (Fortress, 2025), Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead with Mikeal Parsons (Fortress, 2023), Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk (Lexington, 2020), A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth (Westminster John Knox, 2017), Microaggressions in Ministry: Confronting the Hidden Violence of Everyday Church with Angela Yarber (Westminster John Knox, 2015), and Queer Lessons for Churches on the Straight and Narrow: What All Christians Can Learn from LGBTQ Lives (FaithLab, 2013; translated into Japanese and Swahili). He has also edited resources for congregations on racial justice and LGBTQ inclusivity, including, Trouble the Water: A Christian Resource for the Work of Racial Justice edited with Michael-Ray Mathews and Marie Onwubuariri (Nurturing Faith, 2017), and Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Resource for Congregations on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2nd ed. (Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, 2013).

Playing church at six years old in a backyard chapel built by his father and grandfather at his childhood home in South Carolina, wearing a tiny robe and stole made by his grandmother, Sanders began nurturing a deep and abiding love for the church. That love for the church grew into a passion for educating clergy through contributing to the praxis of theological education and ministerial formation. He takes delight in every opportunity to share with congregations in preaching, worship leadership, and teaching.

This event is open to the public at no charge. Details for the program will be posted soon.