wfn.org | Rev. Mary E. McNamara takes helm at UCC's United Theological Seminary

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

New president takes helm at UCC's United Theological Seminary

> Written by staff reports
> September 11, 2009

The Rev. Mary E. McNamara has begun her term as the seventh president
of UCC-related United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, an
ecumenical Protestant seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota. For the
last decade, McNamara served as the executive vice president of Union
Theological Seminary in New York, located near Columbia University,
which offers a joint doctoral program with the university.

"Mary brings a deep understanding of theological education and is
known as something of an organizational genius," said Sharon Ryan,
chair of United's board of trustees. "She played a key role in a
strategic planning process that brought Union back from the financial brink."

Prior to joining Union in 1998, McNamara headed the Interchurch
Center, an interdenominational center in New York that houses the
National Council of Churches; served as director for the nonprofit
sector for the New York City Mayor's Office of Business Development;
and staffed the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.). An ordained Presbyterian minister, she grew up in Cambridge,
Minnesota, and graduated from Carleton College and Harvard Divinity School.

United Theological Seminary was founded in 1960 by the United Church
of Christ to offer an ecumenical, inclusive approach to theological
education. It attracts students from many Protestant denominations and
from the Catholic Church and other faiths. United is known nationally
for providing fine theological education, fostering the role of arts
in religion, its exceptional preparation of students for pastoral
leadership,  and its commitment to reconciliation and justice.

McNamara said, "What attracted me to United was the opportunity to
work with a fine seminary with an established reputation for academic
excellence, highly responsive to the many changes occurring in the
church, and a commitment to progressive values within the tradition of
the United Church of Christ. It is a school with a big heart,
responsive to the joys and pain of many kinds of people and to both
personal and societal needs. It also has a profound sense of the
beautiful, which is incorporated into its curriculum and facilities,
especially its award-winning new Bigelow Chapel. It is rare to find
such a highly developed commitment to both spiritual growth and social
justice in a single institution."

The seminary's Academy for Vital Christianity offers weekend and
evening classes to lay people and clergy outside the usual schedule of
seminary courses, which are also open to non-degree students. "The
academy is an example of United's commitment to the preparation of all
who find inspiration through their Christian faith and seek to live
that out as fully as possible," McNamara said. "This is just one of
several new initiatives that United will offer to people in the Upper
Midwest. We are in the process of reaching out through flexible,
convenient educational programming, through distance education,
through the arts, and through media. Our commitment is to come to
people wherever and however possible."