wfn.org | ABCUSA: Eastern Baptist Seminary to be Renamed Palmer Seminary

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Rich.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 5/13/05)--Eastern
Baptist Theological Seminary, currently celebrating its 80th
anniversary, will officially be renamed Palmer Theological Seminary on
July 1 to honor the school's longest-serving president.

The anniversary and renaming will be the focus of a reception May 19
that will be attended by Virginia Palmer, daughter-in-law of the late
Rev. Dr. Gordon Palmer, who led the school in the 1930s and 1940s.  The
event, free and open to the public, will be held at the seminary (6
Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood, Pa.) and will include an archival exhibit of
the seminary's history.

Palmer, who in 1940 guided the school's move from Rittenhouse Square in
Philadelphia to Wynnewood, was instrumental in developing scholarship
funds to help students at a financial disadvantage.  The impetus for the
name change grew out of a similar concern for contemporary students.
Under the leadership of its current president, the Rev. Dr. Wallace
Charles Smith, the seminary community wants to encourage a generation of
pastors and potential pastors to fulfill their dreams of becoming
full-time students.  "Our hope is to offer a significant improvement in
scholarship aid, so that as many as one-third to one-half of our
students may be able to matriculate full-time," said Smith, an EBTS
graduate.

"The school is particularly grateful for the wealth of denominational,
racial and ethnic diversity in the area," Smith said. "Thanks to the
vision of Dr. Palmer...we find ourselves in the wonderful position of
being a link between the city and its suburbs.	We look forward to
continuing to be a place where those who combine an evangelical faith
with a deep commitment to justice can come to be educated, nurtured and
inspired...."

Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in Philadelphia in
1925.  It launched a Collegiate Division in 1932 to prepare those
considering a calling to Christian leadership.	This undergraduate
division was incorporated as Eastern Baptist College in St. Davids, Pa.,
in 1952 and later became Eastern College and, in 2001, Eastern
University.  Two years ago the seminary officially reunited with the
university.

The seminary, whose students represent about 30 different denominations,
has been firmly committed to biblical authority and to social justice.
It also is dedicated to diversity on its faculty and among its student
body; approximately half of its students are African American and half
are women.

Eastern Baptist is one of ten seminaries related to American Baptist
Churches USA through National Ministries.

K/2005ABNS/05ABN41

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org