From Lee

Summer 2007

What a General Assembly Meadville Lombard had!  We:

• introduced Dr. Sharon Welch as our new Provost in a workshop, at our Alumni/ae dinner and at our fundraising breakfast.
• offered another workshop on living religiously that was well-attended and well-received.
• celebrated with a group of nearly 100 alumni/ae where the food was perhaps not the best, but the energy and entertainment was.  (Thanks there go to an a capella singing group, the LomBards, comprised of Michael and Cara Leuchtenberger, Karen Mooney, and Jason Tenbrink, and to Peter Luton, DMin '82, our special speaker who celebrated his 25 years in the ministry.)
• raised more than $500,000 at our annual fundraising breakfast and pledge envelopes continue to arrive in Chicago!

It was an exceptional week for Meadville Lombard, and I daresay for Theological Education for Unitarian Universalists, as well.  If you were not at General Assembly or have not been catching the latest, you might not have heard that the UUA's Board of Trustees voted to accept the recommendation of the Panel on Theological Education to reduce the amount of money given to the two UU theological schools (Meadville Lombard and Starr King School for the Ministry) from $250,000 to $225,000 for the current fiscal year with an intention to support "formation, development and excellence in ministry" rather than funding the two UU schools, specifically.

While I was at GA, I was approached by many people who wondered what this might mean for Meadville Lombard.  Although I can't say I know how this will unfold, at Meadville Lombard we will be concentrating our energies on our future.  The recommendations of the Panel on Theological Education are, I think, consistent with how our school is working to create a theological school that is focused on excellence in ministerial formation as well as in offering opportunities for lay leaders and ordained ministers to broaden and deepen their own theological education. 

By now you've most likely heard about our Moving Forward objectives, and the fact that we now have two new fully-endowed scholarships for academic excellence, thanks to the Lavans and the Bradburds.  These gifts are both key components and key outcomes of our desire to offer theological education that is academically rigorous and unapologetically progressive.

Here's another question that is frequently asked of me as I speak about Meadville Lombard's plans to grow its student body: are there enough UU pulpits to sustain that many graduates? While I would love to see our movement grow so large that there is an increased demand for UU ministers to fill all those new pulpits, the truth is that not all of our students seek the traditional placement in a parish. For example, the UUWorld recently published a story about two of our current Master of Divinity Students (Seanan Holland and David Pyle) and one of our 2007 Doctor of Ministry graduates (Rev. Dr. Lisa Presley) who will be or are serving as Military and Police chaplains.

Other graduates may serve as hospital or prison chaplains. Others will serve the community in ways they may have been doing before entering seminary-as leaders of nonprofit organizations, or of human or labor rights organizations, or of political organizations-but in ways informed by their theological education. 

Some of our graduates may never serve in a capacity that looks like what many people think of when they think of ministry, but I promise you, however they serve the world, they will take with them the Unitarian Universalist values that are so dear to me and to you and that hold the key to changing lives to change the world.

We-you and I-know that Unitarian Universalism offers a religious response to violence and oppression. We also know that the hope for freedom and justice that lives in our faith must be made available to the far reaches of the world now, and sooner rather than later. One way for that to happen is through those who serve ministries that are community- and justice-based. As our mission so clearly states:

At Meadville Lombard, 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.

It was a fantastic General Assembly, to be sure.  But, as always, I can't help looking toward the future to see what's coming up next for Meadville Lombard, for Unitarian Universalism, for the World.  The future of each rests in the work we do today.