wfn.org | Covenant agreement brings Auburn Seminary into Presbyterian family

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04-July-1996 
 
GA96088 
 
    Covenant agreement brings Auburn Seminary into Presbyterian family 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - The Assembly voted Wednesday to establish a covenant 
relationship with Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, N.Y.  Dr. 
Douglas W. Oldenburg, Decatur, Ga., president of Columbia Theological 
Seminary, applauded the Assembly's action.  "This culminates almost 200 
years of Auburn seeking to clarify its relationship with the General 
Assembly," he noted.  The action was part of the report of the Christian 
Education and Theological Institutions commmittee report. 
 
    Oldenburg told commissioners that Auburn had three main functions.  The 
first is to provide Presbyterian students at Union with courses in 
Presbyterian polity and reformed theology.  The second is to offer 
continuing education opportunities for people living in the Northeast.  The 
third is to conduct research on theological education through its Center 
for the Study of Theological Education.  Auburn "is the only place in the 
world" that does such research, Oldenburg reported. 
 
    Auburn was established in 1818.  It is located currently on the campus 
of Union Theological Seminary (N.Y.), although it is not part of that 
institution.  It does not grant theological degrees. 
 
    Oldenburg stressed that "Auburn will not ask for funding from the 1 
percent fund" and has promised to support that fund in the congregations of 
the Northeast.  The "1 percent fund" is the Theological Education Fund 
which congregations may participate in by pledging 1 percent of their 
budget. 
 
    "What you have done," Oldenburg told commissioners, "has added another 
star in the crown of theological education in the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.). 
 
    The General Assembly also approved a new vision statement for campus 
ministry.  The statement describes campus ministry's target audience and 
defines its tasks.  It was approved overwhelmingly on a voice vote. 
 
    The statement characterizes students as "persons of various ages, 
cultures, and races challenged to balance the roles and responsibilities of 
families, jobs, and campus life."  It lists six tasks of campus ministry. 
The first is to invite students to "a deeper discipleship in Christ."  The 
second is to provide a safe place where "students can explore their 
relationship with God."  Campus ministry also should demonstrate "God's 
faithfulness and grace to students in all areas of their lives" and provide 
"a faith community" for worship, study and service.   Finally, it will 
enable students "to minister to persons, neighborhoods, and communities" 
and work "through a variety of partnerships with the church and society." 
 
    The Assembly also instructed a study committee currently working on 
campus ministry issues to "provide a plan that would provide adequate 
budget and staff support" for campus ministry and student Christian 
associations. 
 
    Brittain Skinner, a Youth Advisory Delegate from Georgetown, Ky., urged 
commissioners to vote in favor of issuing such instructions.  "The church 
does not seem to care about this part of our lives [college]. . .Ask the 
church to review its weak support of campus ministry and help us at this 
important point in our lives." 
 
    John Johnson, elder commissioner from the Presbytery of Wabash Valley, 
also spoke in favor of strengthening campus ministry.  "If we are going to 
revitalize the denomination, I can think of no better place to start than 
on our young people on whom we lavish so much attention through high school 
and then ignore when they go away to school," he remarked. 
 
    The Assembly also voiced its concern about family and single adult 
ministries.  The Congregational Ministries Division of the General Assembly 
Council eliminated the office of family and single adult ministries 
effective January 1, 1997.  It did this as part of its effort to present a 
balanced budget proposal for 1997. 
 
    Representatives of Presbyterian Mariners raised this issue with the 
Assembly's committee on Christian Education and Theological Institutions. 
The Mariners are a national organization with the denomination which 
focuses on family ministries.  Elder William Bridge, Presbytery of Lake 
Huron, and Rev. Barry J. Ukena, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, presented a 
commissioners' resolution which argued that the elimination of the office 
on family and single adult ministries left the impression that families and 
single adults are not important to the church. 
 
    The Assembly "state[d] its conviction that all families are important 
to the church."  It requested that "the Congregational Ministries Division 
or the General Assembly Council take whatever action may be necessary to 
continue support" for family and single adult ministries. 
It further asked that such action "be in place before the end of 1996." 
It also requested the same two groups "to consider ways in which family 
ministry to single-parent and two-parent families with children in their 
formative years might be enhanced" by the church. 
 
 
Peggy Rounseville 

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