Bangor Theological Seminary names Ulery as next president
Written by BTS press release April 16, 2008
The Rev. Dr. Kent J. Ulery will become the tenth president of Bangor Theological Seminary. The announcement was made by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Brookes '72, chair of the Seminary's Board of Trustees. Ulery will assume the presidency of the seminary on July 1, 2008. He will succeed the Rev. Dr. William C. Imes, who is retiring after serving as president since 2001. Ulery's election represents the culmination of a ten-month search process conducted by a committee comprised of trustees, two faculty members, a member of the staff and a current student.
Ulery currently serves as UCC's Michigan Conference Minister, a position he has held for the past 12 years. His previous experience includes serving three churches: a shared ministry of two congregations in Indiana, a congregation in Illinois, and for 13 years a congregation in Midland, Michigan.
Ulery is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of DePauw University (1972) where he majored in religion and mathematics. He earned his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (1975) with a concentration in New Testament, and his D.Min. in parish revitalization from McCormick Theological Seminary (1984). He is ordained in the United Church of Christ.
Ulery also has been named Professor of Pastoral Leadership.
During the years Ulery has served as conference minister in Michigan, he has resolved long standing conflicts, built an effective staff, and structured the conference to meet current ministry needs. "I personally believe the church needs leaders who sense they have been called to do ministry, who have heard Jesus say 'Follow me,' who have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding their lives," Ulery told the BTS search committee.
The search committee was impressed with Ulery's solid leadership credentials, his experience working with complex staff arrangements, his financial acumen and comfort with technology. When he met with the committee, Ulery engaged its members directly in honest, constructive, and creative conversation. In addition to these abilities, he is a person of deep faith. In answer to the committee's request to write about what had been 'most formative of your adult faith,' Ulery closed with these words: "The bottom line is: I don't know what has been most formative in my adult faith. Every door opened or shut, every success or failure, every experience of God's presence or absence has contributed to my spiritual maturity. In fact, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the very term 'adult faith,' for my journey has not been from childhood to adulthood, but from baby's milk to solid food?that is to say, from religious childishness to a spiritual childlikeness which simply trusts God's will, God's way and God's realm."
The nation's third oldest seminary founded in 1814, Bangor Theological Seminary is a closely related seminary of the United Church of Christ, with campuses in Bangor and Portland, Maine. With a strongly ecumenical faculty, student body, and spirit, BTS is the only accredited graduate school of religion in northern New England.