 |
| "If I had Rockefeller's money... |
 |
| "I would be richer than Rockefeller." |
 |
| "How could you be richer than Rockefeller if you had Rockefeller's money?" |
 |
| "I would do a little sewing on the side." |
Long ago and far away, Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Episcopalian Seminary formed a partnership, rather than a marriage, in 1971. They only wanted to live together and see how it would work. Following trends, they added two more mainline seminaries - Andover and Newton - which dreamed the dream many years before, merging in 1965. Merging lost some of Andover-Newton's luster - not to mention students - so they asked if they could join the New Haven arrangement in 2015.
"On Thursday (Nov. 12), Andover Newton Theological School announced plans to relocate and sell its 20-acre campus in Newton, Mass. The move will be part of “a bold new direction” for the 208-year-old school as it struggles with big deficits."
“God is doing something new in this time,” said Andover Newton President Martin Copenhaver. “We have to figure out what it is and get with the program.”
Whatever God is doing, it will be with a smaller faculty, lower overhead and new partnerships. On the table are two options: become embedded within a more stable institution such as Yale Divinity School, where discussions are ongoing, or shift to a lean cooperative learning model. The latter would strip away broad elective offerings, focus on core subjects and dispatch students to do much of their learning in local congregations.
Two Lutheran seminaries to close and reopen as new school
(RNS) The new plan comes as mainline Protestant seminaries take steps to weather financial storms caused by an average drop in enrollments of nearly 24 percent since 2005.
ELCA's Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago semi-merged with the Presbyterian McCormick seminary, but their press agents seldom mention that LSTC was itself a merger of Augustana, Maywood, Central, and other micro-mini-seminaries.
LSTC-McCormick should occupy a big chunk of the University of Chicago by now, but no, they have sold their campus to Rockefeller's school and packed up to join the Roman Catholics.
McCormick, a graduate school belonging to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), also has signed a letter of intent with the Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry.
Sister Barbara Reid, president of CTU, said in the press release that the Catholic institution was “delighted” for the two mainline schools to join its campus in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
“Sharing our space with LSTC and McCormick will bring numerous benefits to our schools, building on our existing modes of collaboration through the Association of Chicago Theological Schools,” Reid said.
CTU was founded in 1968 by merging three Catholic entities, and that particular arrangement has grown to a total of 24. I could explain this as a stand-up comedy routine, but I would hear shouts from the audience, "You forgot..."
"From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn." Les Miserables
The organizational shifts in all these denominations have lacked one tiny element, which has doomed them all. They have rushed around with goals, management plans, projections, and statistics, urging their colleagues to create a united front. Their hopeful smiles are betrayed by beads of sweat on their upper lips.
KJV Luke 10:38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful [full of cares] and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
The denominations and synods trying to pose as conservative are just as bad as the Tillich-Barth-Bultmann experts who mythologized the Bible. Every Lutheran group "to the right of ELCA" - so they imagine - are eager participants in Management by Objectives and the rest of the tommyrot sold by Drucker, Fuller Seminary, and Robert Schuller. Lacking faith in Jesus Christ, they trust the process, because the process works, so they declare.
