The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, a “leading Christian thinker on issues of gender, sexuality and trauma,” will pay a visit to Lawrence early this month as the Theologian in Residence program’s 2016 Visiting Scholar in Religion, the program announced recently.

As part of the programming, which takes place April 10-11 in Lawrence, Jones will present a formal lecture on “Revolutionary Love” at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St., at 7 p.m. April 11.

Jones is the president of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she is the first woman to serve in her position in the 179-year history of the interdenominational seminary. In her tenure at the Union, Jones has founded the Institute for Women, Religion and Globalization as well as the Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice. She is also the president of the American Academy of Religion, which annually hosts the world’s largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion.

Prior to her Union appointment, Jones served as chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University and the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Yale Divinity School.

The annual Theologian in Residence program is a joint venture by Kansas University’s Ecumenical Campus Ministries, department of religious studies and several congregations across Lawrence in bringing “academic and faith communities together with an acclaimed speaker to address issues and questions of faith.”

All programming is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Rev. Kent Winters-Hazelton, pastor at First Presbyterian Church, at 843-4171 or fpcpastor@sunflower.com. A full schedule of events can be found www.plymouthlawrence.com.