Uniting for Economy & Ecumenism

While the pace of church merger is still tortoise-slow, there is no slackening in the trend toward union among the nation's seminaries. This month, sev en schools in the Boston area* an nounced the creation of the Boston Theological Institute, which in effect is nothing less than an interdenominational theological university. Although the seven member schools will maintain their individual identity, students at any one of the seminaries will be able to en roll in courses at the other six. By pooling their resources, the institutions, which have a total enrollment of 1,500, will be able to offer students a joint catalogue containing 918 courses, the services of 255 teachers, and library facilities totaling 750,000 volumes.

The Boston experiment is modeled on Berkeley's pioneering Graduate Theological Union (TIME, Nov. 6, 1964), which was founded in 1962 by four Bay Area seminaries, has since expanded to encompass eleven divinity schools--six Protestant, five Roman Catholic. The Jesuits' Alma College at Los Gatos and the Franciscan The ology School in Santa Barbara are so pleased with the affiliation that they plan to abandon their existing facilities and move to the G.T.U. campus as soon as feasible.

Economics is one reason for union. In the past decade, the number of seminary students has dropped more than 10%, while the cost of operating the average divinity school has nearly doubled. In the past year, financial problems have forced four U.S. seminaries to shut down completely. More important than money is the conviction of theological educators that training for the ministry in an age of ecumenism must take place in an inter-faith environment. "The idea of isolated seminary training," says Alma's rector, Richard Hill, "is completely passe."

Convinced that the trend toward merger will continue, the American Association of Theological Schools has commissioned the research-consultant firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc., to study how seminary unions can be more carefully planned. Dr. Jesse H. Ziegler, executive director of the association, predicts that within the next 20 years most of North America's Protestant seminaries will have combined into 25 major ecumenical clusters.

*Harvard, Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Andover-Newton, Boston University, and three Catholic institutes: the Jesuit schools at Boston College and Weston College and the archdiocesan seminary of St. John's.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.