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.

From Lee:  Race, Religion, and Ministry in the 21st Century

Lee Barker, DMin '78 DD '01, President

It has been bubbling under the surface throughout the presidential campaign season and now it has emerged as an issue for every American, regardless of political stripe.  I'm talking about race, specifically how it relates to church and religious life. 

Elsewhere, you will see in this newsletter that two Meadville Lombard Board members, Dr. Anthony Pinn and Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell, were interviewed for stories that aired nationally on National Public Radio and on The News Hour on public television. Dr. Pinn was part of a story that tried to give some depth to Black Liberation Theology; Dr. Harris-Lacewell was one of the voices that helped describe worship in predominantly African-American churches. I am not surprised that Tony and Melissa were sought out for these stories. Their scholarship and insights are among the reasons each was asked to serve in leadership positions at Meadville Lombard. 

Considering Ministry? Join us, April 23 through 25, 2008, for the Prospective Student Conference. There is still time to register and attend. Whether you hope to start in Fall 2008 or beyond, this conference is designed to help you through your process of discernment and introduce you to seminary life. Contact our Director of Admissions, Erika Chavez, for more information.

Join us for one (or more) of our summer intensive courses. These courses are designed for seminary students and for ministers seeking continuing education credits, but they are also intended for lay congregational leaders seeking a deeper understanding or connection to Unitarian Universalism. Our offerings this summer include:

• Preaching As If You Mean It, William F Schulz, Chicago, July 7 – 11, 2008
• The Large Church: Praxis, Problems and Promise, Lee Barker, Laurel Hallman, Marlin Lavanhar, Linda Olson Peebles, John Tolley,  and other lay and professional leaders, Arlington, VA, July 7 – 11, 2008
• Creating Healthy Congregations: The Role of the Minister from a Systems Perspective, Kenneth Reeves, July 14 - 18
• Advanced Seminar on Liberal Theology, Michael Hogue, Chicago, July 21 – 25
• Growth of the Spirit in UU History, Mark Harris, Ferry Beach, ME, July 20 – 25
• Ministry and the Art of Presence, Silvia Behrend, Chicago, August 11 - 15, 2008
• UU Spiritual Traditions, Rob Hardies, Ferry Beach, ME, August 24 – 29

Look at our Course Offerings page for syllabi or Register here.

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Alumni/ae Alert!

Save the Date for the Alumni/ae Dinner: Friday, June 27, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Please, do let us know that you will be coming to General Assembly.  We will be sending invitations for the Alumni/ae Dinner in the very near future.

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New Board Members 

David Frost, Marjorie Girth, and Craig Scholl have joined the ML Board of Trustees, bringing with them great enthusiasm, scholarship, and leadership skills (please click on the names to learn more about these dynamic leaders):

• David Frost (who is also the husband of Claudia Frost, a current student in our Modified Residency Program) is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a member of the Eno River UU Fellowship. 
• Marjorie Girth is a Professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law, where she teaches a sequence of commercial law courses and the required course in professional responsibility and she is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. 
• Craig Scholl is a Vice President of State Street Global Advisors and a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Global Active Equity group and currently serves as Chair of the Unitarian Universalist Association Investment Committee.

Faculty and Staff

Welcome Edit Babos, our new English Teacher in Transylvania. Edit will be teaching English to Unitarian seminary students at the Protestant Theological Institute in Cluj/Kolozsvar, Romania. This is the first time a native Hungarian speaker will hold this position, which will allow opportunities for current and future Meadville students to serve internships in Cluj/Kolozsvar supporting and complementing the work Edit will be doing.  Read more about Edit and the program here.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Boeke will be Meadville Lombard’s Minister in Residence for the Spring Quarter.  Rev. Boeke has been serving as the minister of the Unitarian Church of Horsham, (Sussex, United Kingdom) for the last 12 years and is the Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (where he served as minister for 22 years). He is also the Vice Chair of the World Congress of Faiths, an ecumenical association he helped to found and for which he has previously served as Chair and Secretary. He began his ministerial career as an Air Force Chaplain and then served churches in New York, Florida, and Berkeley, California and became active in the creation of the UU Partner Church Council. More than 100 of his articles have been published in Magazines ranging from Dharma World to The Sea of Faith. He is the author of God is No-Thing - Fresh Ways of Looking at Theological Questions. We are honored to have Dr. Boeke with us this quarter.

J’zhanel Cole joined the staff at Meadville as the Executive Assistant to the President in January.  She is originally from Los Angeles, California and moved to Chicago in 2005 to pursue her education at Columbia College Chicago, where she is currently pursuing a B.A in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management with a concentration in Music Business/Entertainment Law.  J’zhanel will be graduating from Columbia in May and looks forward to her bright future, “I believe that with an education, everything is possible, and I am looking forward to all of the possibilities that my education is affording me.” 

The Rev. Dr. Qiyamah Rahman has been hired to serve as our Field Site Coordinator, working as a conultant to develop the new first-year integrated praxis/reflection curriculum.  Qiyamah, has an MSW and extensive experience as a social worker since 1987. We are delighted that she is bringing her knowledge of Meadville Lombard and her professional expertise to this very important task. She will be responsible for building community partnerships to identify and develop ongoing field sites; and will develop a recruitment plan for sites, draft a public relation information for sites and for students, as well as develop criteria and objectives for sites and students.

Tiffany Nicole Slade joined Meadville in September as the Enrollment and Student Services Office Administrator. “I really enjoy living and working in the Hyde Park area,” she says. “My nine-year-old daughter attends Ray School and I am working on my first book of experimental non-fiction. I enjoy working as administrator for the Department of Enrollment & Student Services because I enjoy a good challenge and implementing structures." Tiffany is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin; she completed her BFA in Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin in 2003, then moved to Chicago to focus on Writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate and an MFA in Writing, in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

Students: January @ Meadville: "Exhilarating, Exhausting, Enticing"

Incoming Modified Residency Program Class of 2008: Front row, left to right: Richard Hurst, Andrew Mertz, Helen "Betty" Skwarek, Patrick McLaughlin, Judy Zimmerman, Kennan Pomeroy, Ava Adams-Morris, Drew Moeller, Debra Thorne, Jennifer Dant, and Michelle Buhite.

Earlier this year, we welcomed our newest class of students enrolled in the Modified Residency Program (MRP).  Like the other classes before them, these students come with varied backgrounds and reasons for seeking to further their education at Meadville Lombard in the modified residency format, though most of our students make the choice to be in the MRP program because of family and career commitments that don't allow for full-time residency in Chicago. Debra Thorne says she chose Meadville and the MRP format because the program "allows me to keep my job and raise my two teenage girls while working towards my dream of becoming a Unitarian Universalist (UU) parish minister. I also chose Meadville because I knew I wanted to immerse myself in a UU learning community."

Judy Zimmerman echoes similar reasons for choosing Meadville though adds that the academic integrity of the school was also a deciding factor for her. "I value a ministerial formation process that occurs in an environment steeped in the rich tradition of our UU faith," says Judy. "Meadville’s reputation for academic rigor and the college's connection with the ACTS and University of Chicago were also factors in my decision."  (full story)

Board of Trustees members Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Dr. Anthony Pinn were both interviewed and included in stories aired nationally on National Public Radio and on the Public Broadcasting System in the days following Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race and religion in America. Listen and watch, here:

• All Things Considered, March 18, 2008: A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology
• Morning Edition, March 19, 2008: Chicagoans: Reports Misrepresent Obama's Church
• The Newshour with Jim Leherer, March 27, 2008: Election Draws attention to Race, Religion 

• Dr. Michael Hogue was awarded one of 12 Templeton Awards for Theological Promise.  We are extremely proud to have a scholar of Michael’s caliber at Meadville. Read more about Michael and the award here. 
• Prometheus Books has just published A New Encyclopedia of Unbelief and includes an article on Universalism by the Rev. David Bumbaugh, BD ’64, Professor of Ministry.
• Dr. Anthony Heacock, Associate Libararian announces the publication of his book, Jonathan Loved David; Manly Love in the Bible and the Hermeneutics of Sex.

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• Charles Howe, BD ’66 DD ’95, has written a history of the late John Godbey which has been published in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.
• Kent Hemmen Saleska, MDiv’05, was ordained and installed as minister of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka on March 9, 2008.
• After a period of working for Meadville Lombard, Elizabeth Harding, MDiv’ 06, is happy to report that she's started a CPE residency in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Elizabeth is also proud to report she was ordained at Second Unitarian Church of Chicago on October 28th, 2007.
• Sara Hayman, MDiv ’06, was ordained Sunday, January 27, by the UU Church of Ellsworth. 
• The installation of John A. Cullinan, MDiv ’07, as minister at The Unitarian church of Los Alamos will be celebrated on April 26, 2008.
• Eliza Galaher, MDiv ’07, was installed as the minister at Wildflower Church, A UU Congregation in Austin Texas on March 2, 2008.
• Kathleen A. Green, MDiv ’07, was installed at the Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Santee, CA on Sunday, January 20.
• Qiyamah A. Rahman was ordained Sunday, October 21, 2007, at the UU Church of Charlotte.
• Alumni/ae: Share your news with us so we can share it with our readers. Send an email.

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The Rev. Dr. Frank Robertson died on February 6, 2008 at his home in Plymouth, MA at the age of 71. In 2006, Meadville Lombard recognized the Rev. Robertson's contribution to Unitarian Universalism by bestowing a Doctor of Divinity degree. The citation read at the graduation ceremony noted "we honor you today as an outstanding Unitarian Universalist minister, as a faithful religious educator, as an exceptional leader in many and sundry public institutions, and finally as a courageous pioneer of human rights." Rev. Robertson will be missed.  (Read the decree, above, or at the Remembering the Living Tradition website.)

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