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October 17, 2008
Seminary news
SAN ANSELMO, CA — San Francisco Theological Seminary welcomes 53 incoming Master of Divinity students and 28 Doctor of Ministry students between its two campuses as it begins its 136th academic year.
Between the two campuses, the ratio of male and female M.Div. students is 50-50 with the average age being 39. Of the M.Div. students, 42 percent are non-Anglo, including 16 percent international. Nearly 60 percent of the incoming class is from California.
Just more than 50 percent of students between the two campuses are members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), but several other denominations are represented, including United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Korean Presbyterian Church in America.
The total number of master’s students enrolled at SFTS this fall is 112 at the San Anselmo campus and 54 in Pasadena (including the summer program enrollment). There are 226 students enrolled in the D.Min. program, including 32 in the pastoral counseling program offered through the Lloyd Center.
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Theological Seminary will offer a church educator’s certification course “Polity, Program and Mission of the PC(USA),” Oct. 27-31. The Rev. Joyce Mackichan Walker, minister of education at Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton, NJ, will lead the course.
Immersed in the work of congregations, it is easy to miss the richness of the connectional nature of Presbyterianism and the helpful resources available as a result. Participants will explore representative samples of hunger; compassion, peace and justice; evangelism; worship; and education.
The goal of this course is to familiarize participants with The Book of Order, including the Directory for Worship and The Rules of Discipline while exploring portions particularly relevant to the ministry of educators. Participants will also explore the status of the newly proposed Form of Government.
MacKichan Walker, who has been at Nassau Church for 18 years, is a 1979 graduate of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (now Union-PSCE), and she has been a Certified Christian Educator since 1983. She is the 2008 Association of Presbyerian Church Educators (APCE) Educator of the Year.
AUSTIN, TX — Christians are not immune from anxiety, and many believers go to their church leaders for support and solace.
Be Not Anxious: Pastoral Care of Disquieted Souls (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008) is a new book from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary professor Allan Cole that draws on narrative approaches to theology and counseling to suggest how pastoral caregivers may minister to anxious persons.
Cole focuses both on cognitive-based methods of counseling and on common faith practices — church membership, frequent worship, prayer, Bible reading, service, and confession — showing how these may provide relief from anxiety. By addressing the roles of both psychiatry and ministry as co-liberators from anxiety, he leads the pastor and the faith community in helping disquieted souls find rest.
CHICAGO — The Rev. Judy Lee Hay (M.Div., Class of 1971) will be honored as the 2008 McCormick Theological Seminary Distinguished Alumna on Oct. 28 at a special luncheon during the seminary's McCormick Days alumni/ae event.
Hay has served as pastor of Calvary St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Parish in Rochester, NY since 1979. Calvary St. Andrew's is a former joint Presbyterian/Episcopal congregation, and Judy led the liturgy in both traditions from 1973 to 2000. She was the first non-Episcopalian to be granted both voice and vote in the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester. In 2000, Judy led Calvary St. Andrew’s congregation in becoming a solely Presbyterian Church.
While pastor of Calvary St. Andrew’s, Judy also served for 16 years as executive director of the South Wedge Planning Committee, Inc., where she was instrumental in developing a non-profit housing corporation for the challenged Rochester neighborhood. During her tenure, the corporation placed 120 houses back on the tax rolls, brought in new businesses, established a public library and operated work camps to help elderly, low-income residents. It also built three Habitat Houses and created two public parks.
Hay also serves the PC(USA) as field staff for the Congregational Transformation Office of Church Growth, where she is a consultant for presbyteries and congregations undergoing transformational change. She is the author of several articles, including the feminist theology section of the Congregational Transformation Workbook published by the PC(USA).
Photo courtesy of Dubuque Theological Seminary | 
