Richmond, Va. – Union Presbyterian Seminary is honoring the ministries, scholarship, and service of Professor Frances Taylor Gench and Professor John T. Carroll as they conclude their long and influential tenures at the seminary.
Gench and Carroll announced their retirement plans to the campus community in fall 2025. Now, as the academic year draws to a close, the seminary is inviting students, alumni, and friends to join in celebrating two beloved professors whose teaching, writing, and leadership have shaped generations of students and strengthened the life of Union Presbyterian Seminary across Richmond and Charlotte.
Frances Taylor Gench, the Herbert Worth & Annie H. Jackson Professor of Biblical Interpretation, is a beloved teacher, mentor, and alumna of Union Presbyterian Seminary (M.Div. ’82; Ph.D. ’88). Her retirement marks the completion of forty years in theological education. Gench joined the UPSem faculty in 1999 after more than a decade on the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Her scholarship—read with gratitude in classrooms, congregations, and study groups across the church—includes Encountering God in Tyrannical Texts, Back to the Well, Faithful Disagreement, and Hebrews and James. Her research and teaching have explored the Gospels, especially John, women in the biblical world and feminist biblical criticism, global and intercultural perspectives on the Bible, and questions of biblical authority and interpretation.
Her service to the seminary has included 24 years as Book Review Editor for Interpretation, leadership of travel seminars to Ghana and the Middle East, and service on two presidential search committees. Gench is also the author of a forthcoming commentary on the Gospel of John for the new Interpretation Bible Commentary series, to be published by Westminster John Knox Press. Through both her teaching and writing, Gench has helped generations of readers engage Scripture with courage, curiosity, and grace, especially when wrestling with difficult texts. Her family’s ties to Union run deep: four generations of her family have studied here, including both her parents and her husband, Roger J. Gench.
John T. Carroll has shaped generations of UPSem students since 1992 as a teacher, mentor, colleague, and academic leader. He has served as Associate Professor, then Professor of New Testament, and as the Harriet Robertson Fitts Memorial Professor of New Testament. Carroll continues to teach part-time through 2026, extending his long service to both campuses in this final season.
A scholar who combines intellectual rigor with deep pastoral imagination, Carroll’s leadership at UPSem has been steady and generous. He has served as Dean of Theology Faculty (1998–2004), Academic Dean (2006–2010), and longtime Director of the Program for Excellence in Teaching and Learning—roles through which he has strengthened both faculty life and student formation. A Princeton-trained New Testament scholar, his research and teaching center on the Gospels—especially Luke—and on how Scripture speaks into ethical, public discipleship. Carroll is the author of Luke: A Commentary, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction, The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and Six Themes in Luke that Everyone Should Know. He has also served the wider theological community through editorial leadership, including work with Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology and the New Testament Library editorial advisory board.
Together, Professors Gench and Carroll leave a lasting legacy of faithful scholarship and formation—a witness to the transformative power of Scripture and the enduring mission of Union Presbyterian Seminary.
Later this spring, Union Presbyterian Seminary will release a commemorative publication honoring the service of Gench and Carroll alongside faculty members who have retired from 2020 to the present. The publication will include profiles, reflections, appreciations, selected writings, and remembrances celebrating the ministries and contributions of Samuel E. Balentine, Brian K. Blount, Richard N. Boyce, Carson T. Brisson, John T. Carroll, Dawn DeVries, Paul Galbreath, Frances Taylor Gench, Cindy Kissel-Ito, Kenneth J. McFayden, and Stanley H. Skreslet.
Students are also invited to join in this final season of teaching at UPSem. Carroll’s final course is a spring term class on Romans. Gench’s final course, offered during May Term 2026, is “Cross Examination,” an interdisciplinary elective she will co-teach with Roger J. Gench. Together, Gench and Carroll will also lead a Scripture Happy Hour at the 116th Sprunt Lecture Series, offering scripture study and conversation around selected lectionary texts for the coming weeks of May.
Alumni and friends are invited to share memories and photos of Professors Gench and Carroll with the seminary at [email protected].
About Union Presbyterian Seminary
Union Presbyterian Seminary is a community that is bound by the love of God, and united in bold Christian service for the church in the world. With campuses in Richmond, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, the seminary has prepared leaders for ministry since 1812 through rigorous theological education that is scholarly, pastoral, and engaged with contemporary life. Offering a range of degree programs, Union is home to distinguished faculty, a historic campus with one of the nation’s finest theological libraries, and a vibrant community of worship, service, and fellowship. Graduates serve as pastors, educators, chaplains, mission workers, and scholars, carrying forward the seminary’s long tradition of equipping leaders for the church and the world. Learn more at upsem.edu
