The first woman to serve as president of Union Theological Seminary will retire next year, after 18 years of leading the New York-based theologically progressive academic institution.
The Rev. Serene Jones will step down at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, according to an announcement on Monday from the seminary, with the outgoing president expecting to return as a faculty member following a sabbatical.
“President Jones’ legacy at Union is extraordinary,” said Cliff Hudson, chair of Union’s Board of Trustees, as quoted in the announcement. “She led with heart, vision, and unrelenting purpose — guiding Union through a period of remarkable growth, renewal, and impact.”
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“She has provided tremendous and courageous leadership during one of the most challenging periods in the history of higher education in this country. The Board is deeply proud of the way she rose to this moment with moral clarity, courage, and conviction.”
The UTS Board of Trustees said they will launch a national search for the next president, with the search committee led by Board Vice Chair Rhonda Joy McLean, according to the seminary.
“I deeply love this community. It has challenged and inspired me in ways that have allowed me to grow and evolve alongside the institution,” stated Jones, as quoted in the announcement.
“In times such as these, it is absolutely critical that Union continues this vibrant global witness against the many forces of destruction that plague our earth while also being generatively supportive of the many beautiful voices that are standing up for truth, love, and justice.”
A non-denominational seminary founded in 1836, Union selected Jones to be its first female president in 2008, succeeding Joseph C. Hough Jr. and taking office on July 1 of that year.
Jones earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oklahoma in 1981, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1985, and a Doctorate in Theology from Yale University in 1991.
Additionally, Jones was ordained a minister in two Mainline Protestant denominations, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.
During her time as president of Union, Jones occasionally advocated for progressive causes. For example, in 2021, she denounced Texas’ heartbeat abortion ban as “un-Christian.”
“As a Christian, a biblical scholar, and a mother, it is infuriating that lawmakers would twist and distort our sacred text to give the government the power to force women to carry a child to term,” she wrote for Salon at the time.
In April 2019, Jones garnered backlash when, in an interview with The New York Times, she appeared to reject fundamentals of the Christian faith, including the bodily resurrection and virgin birth of Jesus.
“For Christians for whom the physical resurrection becomes a sort of obsession, that seems to me to be a pretty wobbly faith,” she said. “What if tomorrow someone found the body of Jesus still in the tomb? Would that then mean that Christianity was a lie? No, faith is stronger than that.”
One critique of Jones’ comments, posted to the blog A Well-Designed Faith, asked “how exactly love is ‘stronger than death’ unless death is not the end?”
“I’m afraid she has missed the significance of the Resurrection. If Jesus did what no other person in all of human history has done or could do, and lived after death, never to die again, that is a jaw-droppingly awesome claim,” the rebuttal noted.
“And the claim isn’t merely that Jesus ‘wasn’t there’ three days later; He walked and talked and ate meals with people. The Resurrection isn’t about a missing body, but rather a present Lord.”
In response to the feedback, Jones released a statement apologizing for sounding “dismissive of those who hold other views” and wishing that she “could have expanded and nuanced my responses.”
Jones went on to say that she considered “the ‘virgin birth’ story of Jesus” and “the ‘bodily’ resurrection of Jesus” as “deeply important Christian claims” that were “near and dear to my own heart and my own profession of faith.”
