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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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Winter 2006 |
Meadville Lombard Welcomes
New Modified Residency Program Students |
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2006 Incoming Class of Modified Residency Program students.
Front: Holly Anne Lux, Jean Feeney, and Lois Cole. Middle: India McCanse, Roger Grugel, and Sharon Rucker. Back: Marcia Stanard, Amy Beltaine, Karen Lapidis, Sally Beth Shore, and Kathy Ellis.
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January is the most lively month in the Meadville Lombard academic calendar, because that’s when our Modified Residency Program (MRP) students come “home” to be in class with each other and in residence with our faculty, staff and residential students.
The Modified Residency Program is designed for students who are unable, due to family or vocational commitments, to reside full-time in Chicago. Our MRP students live across the continent and come to the Meadville Lombard campus each January where they take week-long courses we call “intensives.” Each intensive course meets all-day for five days and the students must come to the course with readings and other academic work completed. Follow-up work (such as papers) is due upon completion of the winter quarter. (full story)
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Partners In Ministry Society Raises Nearly $1 Million |
In March 2005, Meadville Lombard launched a brand-new partnership, a multi-year giving society called the Partners in Ministry Society. To date, we have 68 members in the society and nearly 100 other individuals and couples have made other multiple-year pledges to Meadville Lombard. Since its inception, the Partners in Ministry Society has raised more than $950,000 for the school.
“The goal of Meadville Lombard's Partners in Ministry program is to build a strong foundation for expanding our programs and to provide a stable future for the School,” said Trish Bailey, Vice President of Institutional Advancement. “It gives donors a way of saying: ‘Count me in. I really do understand your mission. And, you have my support.’”
O. Darwin and Myra Smith of Dallas, Texas, attended our Partners in Ministry breakfast at General Assembly in June 2005 and responded to this call to support Unitarian Universalism by supporting its seminaries. “I do believe it is important that there be a Unitarian Universalist school,” said Darwin Smith, “a place where UU theology resides and thrives.” (full story)
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| From Lee |
Lee Barker,
DMin ’78 DD ’01
President
Meadville Lombard Theological School |
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Last week, I received an email from one of the hundreds of UU students who attend non-UU seminaries. She had recently traveled from another city to Meadville Lombard to take a preaching course during our Winter Intensives. She said she was “blown away” by the difference between learning this crucial ministerial practice in a UU environment versus in an environment where ministry is addressed only through the lens of another faith. (full story)
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Learning for Life |
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Registration will open March 15 for our Summer Intensive courses. These courses are designed for our Doctor of Ministry students, professional ministers who pursue the coursework for their advanced degrees during the summer. But these courses may also be of interest to congregational lay-leaders or ministers pursuing continuing education credit. This summer, we offer the following courses:
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Spiritual Leadership and Political Ministries;
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Creation-Evolution;
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20th Century Liberal Theology; and,
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Art as Spiritual Practice (Ferry Beach).
See our website for the dates for these courses. You can also register online after March 15.
Interested in UU History? Music as Theology? Take a look at our proposed course offerings for January Intensive Terms through 2011 and Summer Intensive Terms through 2008 and plan ahead to be in residence with our students.
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| New at the Library |
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A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian Universalist Storybook. Janeen K. Grohsmeyer. BV 4315.G76, 2004.
This collection of twenty-one original stories brings UU history to life for young listeners. A Lamp in Every Corner offers educators, parents and ministers a wonderful way to share UU faith stories with children, featuring historical information and discussion topics. (more)
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| Meadville Lombard Community News |
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Welcome New Staff Members
 Erika Chavez joined Meadville Lombard in August 2005 as the Executive Assistant to the President. She graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2005 with a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science and a minor in Anthropology. She brings with her an exceptional mix of knowledge, experience, and education.
 Sharon Diaz, Director of Development and Alumni/ae Relations, came to Meadville Lombard after serving for ten years as the church administrator at the North Shore Unitarian Church. Sharon is also pursuing a Masters of Management in Nonprofit Administration degree from North Park University in Chicago. A UU since 1992, Sharon also served as secretary of the Central Midwest District Board and as Director at Large on the board of the Association of UU Administrators. She brings with her a dedication to our liberal faith tradition as well as a unique understanding of congregational life.
 Phillis Wilson joined Meadville Lombard in October, 2005, as Assistant to the Academic Dean and Faculty Administrator. She came from Dominican University where she had been Assistant to the Dean in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science since early 2001. Phillis has a masters degree in library science and spent many years in library administration.
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Other Community News
Student Publishes Book on the Spirituality of Parenting
 Tracy Springberry, a fourth-year Modified Residency Program student, announces the publication of a collection of essays she co-edited with Sarah Conover. At Work in Life’s Garden, includes essays by authors such as Barbara Kingsolver and Anne Lamott, as well as by the editors themselves, and focuses on the spiritual impact of being a parent.
Tracy says the book was born out of many conversations she had with friends about the things people don’t often honestly talk about when it comes to parenting. “We talked about how parenting pushed us to grow, and how most of that growth is spiritual,” said Tracy. With humor and poignancy, the book looks at three dimensions of growth: Waking, Struggles with Love, and Embracing Life. Read a review here.
In addition to training to become a UU minister, Tracy works as Associate of Grant Development and Communications at Eastern Washington University and lives in Washington state with her three sons, Mercury, 14; Nashua, 12; and Solomon, 10.
Ministers-in-Residence Announced for the Coming Year
We welcome Patrick Price, MDiv ’95 as our Minister in Residence for the Winter Quarter. Rev. Price served nine years as the called minister with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia until August, 2004. He currently serves as an Associate Member of the Central Midwest District Congregational Growth and Development Council. In June, 2003, Rev. Price married Rev. Jennifer Innis, who is currently serving as the Interim Associate Minister for the UU society of Geneva, Illinois. Both Rev. Price and Rev. Innis are in search for a settled ministry. Before seminary, Rev. Price enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served as a non-commissioned officer and orthopedic brace technician during the first Gulf War (1988-1992).
The Rev. Karen Stoyanoff, MDiv ’96, will serve as Minister in Residence at Meadville Lombard during the Spring Quarter. Rev. Stoyanoff currently serves on the Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees and her son, Jeff, is a first-year student here.
Rev. James Ishmael Ford has been selected as the second John Lester Young Fellow at Meadville Lombard. As the recipient of the fellowship, Rev. Ford will serve as our minister in residence during the Fall ’06 quarter. Rev. Ford has been a Unitarian Universalist parish minister since 1991. He is currently serving as senior minister of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts. He is the first UU minister to be acknowledged as a Zen master, having received Dharma transmission (full authorization as a teacher) in two Zen lineages and guides the Boundless Way Zen community, an experiment in joining Unitarian Universalism and Zen Buddhism into a single activity. He is also an adjunct teacher at the Pacific Zen Institute as well as a member of both the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (in North America). He is the author of In This Very Moment: A Simple Guide to Zen Buddhism (1996/2002, Boston, Skinner House Books) and A Brief History of Zen Buddhism: Tracing the Tradition from Ancient India to Modern America (forthcoming September, 2006, Boston, Wisdom Publication).
Congratulations to…
Michael Hogue, our Lecturer in Liberal Theology, was awarded his Ph.D. by the University of Chicago Divinity School at the graduation ceremony in December, 2005.
Anthony Heacock, our Associate Librarian, has passed successfully the oral defense of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Sheffield, England.
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| Alumni/ae Notes |
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Rev. Fred Lipp, BD ’64, was featured in an article in Money Magazine about redirecting retirement toward charitable acts. Read the article here.
Rev. Barbara Wells ten Hove, MDiv ’85, celebrated 20 years in the ministry this year. Barbara and her husband, Jaco ten Hove, are co-ministers at the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi, Maryland. In October, the Paint Branch congregation held a special service in her honor. The Rev. Dr. John Tolley and the Rev. Dr. Neil Gerdes represented Meadville Lombard at the event. The school received the offering collected at this special celebration. We are grateful to Barbara and to the members of the Paint Branch UU Church for including us in their celebration.
Rev. Eva Cameron, MDiv ’88, was installed at Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Rev. Mark Hoelter (attended ML 1990-91) resigned as parish minister of the UU Community Church in Hillsboro, Oregon, after nine successful years. “I have taken a position on the staff of The InterFaith Conference of Metro Washington, DC (IFCMW.org) as their new Coordinator for Grassroots InterFaith Dialogue. My job will be to deepen and extend the web of interfaith dialogues in the DC metro area and to work closely with the Coordinator for Religious Freedom. The IFCMW was founded in 1978 with the twin goals of interfaith dialogue and social justice witness.
Rev. Rebecca (Cohen) Benner, MDiv ’99, joyfully reports she was married to Derek Benner on October 15, 2005 at her home church of First Parish in Lexington, Massachusetts. Rebecca and Derek live in Springfield, Virginia and Rebecca continues to serve as the parish minister at the Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church in Burke, Virginia.
Rev. Christine Hillman, MDiv ’00, announces that one of her sermons was included in Glorious Women: Award-Winning Sermons about Women, Dorothy May Emerson, Editor. (Find it here.)
Rev. David Lysy, MDiv ’04, writes that he is now employed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Homeland Security & Justice Department team (www.gao.gov). Through his current work at the GAO he is helping to review the federal government’s implementation of the National Response Plan and the National Incident Management System during the response to Hurricane Katrina, which will result in recommendations to Congress about what needs to be done to make sure federal disaster response and recovery is improved and more just in the future. In other news, David is happy to announce that the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s Board of Trustees have elected him to join the Board. David will begin his term with the UUSC this month. Finally, as a recent arrival to the Washington DC area, David is looking forward to growing his involvement with a local congregation and the UUA’s Washington Office for Advocacy. If you would like to contact David, he can be reached at david.lysy@alum.dartmouth.org or at 301-588-0762.
Rev. Laura Horton, MDiv ’05, was ordained November 2005 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Rock Valley.
Rev. Heather Janules, MDiv ’05, was installed as Assistant Minister at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, Bethesda, Maryland. (Read more about Heather, here.)
In Memoriam
Rev. William D. Hammond died November 17, 2005 after a long illness. He was 89 years of age. Rev. Hammond was born on December 17, 1915 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Missouri. He also attended the University of Chicago Divinity School and Meadville Lombard Theological School. He was ordained on May 7, 1939 in Missouri. He served congregations in Asheville, NC. The UU Church of Asheville named him Minister Emeritus.
Rev. Hammond also served at People’s Liberal Church, Michigan – Ohio Valley District, UU Church of Minnetonka, and Grosse Point Unitarian Church. Surviving Rev. Hammond is his wife Grace Lindquist and their three children Donald and Thomas Hammond (residing in Michigan) and Gail Hammond-Stone (residing in Arkansas). Messages of remembrance may be sent to Ms. Grace Lindquist, 230 Foster Street, Littleton, MA 01460.
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.
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