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At
Meadville Lombard Theological School
we educate students
in the
Unitarian Universalist
tradition to embody
liberal religious
ministry in
Unitarian Universalist congregations and wherever else they
are called to serve.
We do this in order
to take into the
world our
Unitarian Universalist
vision of justice,
equity and compassion. |
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Spring 2006 |
| Students Prepare for Ministerial Internships |
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These are a few of the Meadville Lombard students who are preparing for their internships
next year. From left: Marian Stewart, Alison Farnum, Megan Dalby, E. Scott Michael, and
Ellen Cooper-Davis. Not pictured: Claudia Frost, Kate Lore, Aaron McEmrys, Wendy Pantoja, Jessica Purple Rodela, Justin Schroeder and Stephen Sinclair.
Each season brings a different kind of activity for the Meadville Lombard community. In the fall, we welcome our incoming residential students, in the winter, we welcome not only our new Modified Residency Program students, but also those MRP students who are returning for their yearly residential requirement. And, in the spring, our second-year students are making final preparations for the internship requirement of their degree programs. Our residential students generally complete their internship requirement during their third year, allowing them time to integrate what they have learned with the course work of their final year; it also gives them the freedom to begin the search process before graduation in their final year.
An internship of no less than six months is required by Meadville Lombard and the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee. We recommend that our students serve nine months (a full academic year) of full-time immersion in the supervised practice of ministry, but other arrangements (such as a two-year, half-time internship) can be made to meet this requirement. (full story)
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Endowment Allows Meadville to Re-envision Fahs Center and Continuing Education for Religious Educators |
In 1993, the Sophia Lyon Fahs Center for Religious Education was dedicated at Meadville Lombard. The vision for the program was to provide leadership in and direction for religious education to better serve students, scholars, ministers, religious educators and congregations. The center was endowed by a donation from the family of Dr. Sophia Lyon Fahs, to honor her legacy in the work of liberal religious education. “Mrs. Fahs--as she preferred to be addressed--was a formative figure,” said M. Susan Harlow, Angus MacLean Professor of Religious Education at Meadville Lombard, “and truly caused a renaissance within the Unitarian community as to how religious education was taught.”
The center housed a number of historical documents that showed the evolution of religious education within the liberal religious movement. “The center has made accessible materials from the 1700s to the 1930s,” said Harlow. (full story)
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| From Lee |
Lee Barker,
DMin ’78 DD ’01
President
Meadville Lombard Theological School |
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The stakes have never been higher. Those who are willing to use their extremist religious beliefs to inflict hatred and violence are found in every faith tradition. And in this age, when nuclear capability is spreading and biological weapons are an absolute reality, the possibilities for death and destruction are unprecedented. The stakes have never been higher.
Unitarian Universalism is perfectly poised to sway the world toward the hope of harmony and understanding and peace. No faith tradition prizes religious diversity more than we do. No faith tradition embraces “the other” with quite the same enthusiasm. Our unique orientation is our call to serve as a leader in the movement to initiate and maintain interfaith dialogue, relationships and justice-making projects.
We MUST do this. The future depends on it. Still, I am not sure we all have all the tools we need to do this. (full column)
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Learning for Life |
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Summer Intensives offer Continuing Education
or Personal Enrichment
Our summer intensive courses are designed for ministers who are already enrolled in our Doctor of Ministry program or who are seeking continuing education credit. But, they are also a great way for lay UUs to gain a deeper understanding of their faith and of liberal religion.
Courses offered this summer are (check our website for further details):
Creation-Evolution, the Sacred, and Creative Living, July 10 - 14, 2006, taught by Karl E. Peters, Co-Editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College. This course will explore contemporary and ancient understandings of the sacred, the origins of the universe, and human meaning and purpose.
Twentieth Century Liberal Theology, July 17 - 21, taught by Jerome A. Stone. This course is designed to help students understand some of the major theological trends of the twentieth century which could be considered as "liberal theologies" in a broad sense, and to deepen their individual theologies by understanding these trends.
Liberal Religion and the Arts: Art as Spiritual Practice, August 5 - 12, at Ferry Beach, taught by John Tolley, Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services and Associate Professor of Ministry, Meadville Lombard. This class, designed as a spiritual retreat, has the overarching goal of both allowing individuals to experience the transformative power of art in their lives and discovering the skills and comfort level necessary for them to use their innate talents in their living ministries. |
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Journal of Liberal Religion
Look for the latest edition of the Journal of Liberal Religion by May 1, 2006. You can access it from our website. Registered readers of the JLR will be notified by email when the Journal is online.
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| New at the Library |
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Bad for Us: The Lure of Self-Harm. John Portmann. (Beacon Press 2004) BF637.S37 P67 2004.
Why do we choose self-destructive behavior? From affairs to raves, Portmann considers why we do just what we ought not.
Embodied Care: Jane Addams, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Feminist Ethics. Maurice Hamington. (U of Illinois Press 2004) BJ1475 .H37 2004.
Based in Merleau-Ponty’s reconsideration of mind-body dualism, Hamington argues that ethics must be based in a consideration of the body. (more listings)
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| Meadville Lombard Community News |
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Join us for Commencement
The day we confer degrees on our graduating students is always a time of excitement. We hope you will consider joining us for our commencement ceremony, Sunday, June 4, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Chicago. A reception will follow, in Hull Chapel.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Gilbert, Minister Emeritus of First Unitarian Church of Rochester will be the commencement speaker; the Rev. David Bumbaugh, Meadville Lombard Professor of Ministry, will be the charger.
For more details, please contact the Executive Assistant to the President at 773-256-3000 x222. |
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Meadville Lombard's Civil Rights Course "On Wheels"
Fourteen Meadville students spent their spring break traveling back in time to the 1950s and 60s, and traveling many hundreds of miles to visit the people and places of the Civil Rights Movement. Eighteen other students, ministers, and lay people also went on the tour, although it was not a credit course for them. The Rev. Dr. Gordon Gibson, the first John Young Fellow at Meadville, served as instructor, and Judy Gibson handled logistics.
Even before the tour left it had reached a high point. Simeon Wright, now of Countryside, IL, visited the bon voyage party Friday night in the Curtis Room. In 1955 Mr. Wright was one of the cousins Emmett Till visited in Money, Mississippi. He shared his memories of being with Emmett Till in the store in Money, of being in the bedroom when his cousin was abducted, and of enduring the press and historians getting many aspects of the story wrong. (full story) |
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News Releases You May Have Missed
If you haven't been to our website lately, you might have missed these announcements. Click on the links to read more:
ML student one of four winners of the Borden Award for Excellence in Sermons
Michael Hogue promoted to Assistant Professor of Theology. "The world is ripe to hear what liberal religion has to offer," he says.
Merger Recommendation Report sent to the Boards of Trustees of both Starr King School of Ministry and Meadville Lombard.
John Howland Lathrop Fund fully endowed: Endowment will ensure English instruction for seminary students in Transylvania. |
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Grant to Enhance Meadville's Curb Appeal
Another exciting event at Meadville Lombard is the work that will soon commence to landscape our property along and behind our main building on 57th Avenue. We have been awarded a grant of up to $9,665 by the Univeristy of Chicago/South East Chicago Commission Neighborhood Enhancement Grant Program. Thanks also to Kris Barker and Sharon Diaz for their work on this proposal. |
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Going to General Assembly? Join Us!
Here are a few of the things Meadville Lombard has planned for General Assembly:
Faithful Formation: Struggles and Surprises of Religious Growth, presented by Nan Hobart and John Tolley, Thursday, June 22 from 8:00 - 9:15 a.m., America's Center, Room 232.
This workshop is for anyone interested in exploring the vocation of living religiously. Theological education is a comprehensive experience of religious learning, spiritual development, and professional growth. In drama and story, Meadville Lombard students will offer a personal view of the process--provocative, profound, and sometimes humorous.
Embodied Faith: Theological Thinking in Congregational Life, A panel discussion with Lee Barker, Susan Harlow, Neil Gerdes, and Michael Hogue, Friday, June 23 4:00 - 5:15 p.m., America's Center, Room 262
A new paradigm in adult religious education begins with Theological language, metaphors and symbols. Unitarian Universalists tend to privilege social scientific language when describing reasons for belonging to a UU congregation or in approaching leadership development. This workshop explores dynamics of this paradigm and offers exercises for local church settings.
Meadville Lombard Partners in Ministry Fundraising Breakfast, Saturday, June 24 from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m., Renaissance in the Grand Majestic Ballroom DE. By invitation. RSVP required. Free.
Also, Meadville Lombard will be offering a one-hour segment on theological literacy during the plenary session on either Thursday afternoon, June 22, or Friday morning, June 23.
Meadville Lombard MRP field advisors will meet during GA, time and place to be announced.
And, as always, we will have a booth in the exhibit hall, so please stop by and see what's happening at Meadville Lombard.
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| Alumni/ae Notes |
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SAVE THE DATE - June 24, 2006!
Be sure to block out 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., June 24, 2006 for the annual Meadville Lombard Alumni/ae Dinner at General Assembly. Invitations will be sent with details about where, when, and how much. |
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J. Ronald Engel, BD '64 reports the following:
"I have been appointed a 'Senior Research Fellow' of the Martin Marty Center at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago. Prof. Wendy Doniger is the Director of the Institute and its basic focus is on the global and political aspects of religion. Each year there are two senior fellow appointments and 16 junior fellows. Junior fellows are students from throughout the University writing dissertations in some field of the academic study of religion.
"Senior fellows are persons who have distinguished themselves in the field of religious studies and are pursuing original research that is considered of importance to the intellectual life of the Divinity School. They are typically scholars on sabbatical from other universities, such as Joseph Prabhu from the Philosophy Department at UCLA this year, or retired professors such as myself. I will be working on a book on the post-World War II movement to articulate principles of global ethics that integrate human rights, peace, and ecological integrity; my thesis is that this movement may be most productively understood as a reformation in covenantal religious thinking and action.
"I will be drawing on my experience as a member of the drafting committee for the Earth Charter, and my on going associations with the World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law and International Academy of Environmental Law. Needless to say, the theological ethics of James Luther Adams and his long-standing interest in the relationships between religion and law got me started on all this! The project is tentatively titled A New Earth Covenant: Prospects for Just and Sustainable Global Governance in the 21st Century. I will have an office at the Divinity School, and participate in the regular meetings of the Center’s Research Seminar."
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Ordinations
Tamara Lebak was ordained April 2, 2006 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, Ohio.
Bruce Russell-Jayne, MDiv '05 was ordained on April 9, 2006 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden in Ogden, Utah.
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| Do you have interesting news to share about ML alumni/ae? Please contact Sharon Diaz, Director of Development and Alumni/ae Relations by email or by telephone at 773-256-3000 x232. | |
