wfn.org | Dempster Graduate Fellowships awarded to five seminary students

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March 4, 1999 Contact: Linda Green* (615)742-5470* Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{121}
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)--Five doctoral candidates preparing for careers in
theological education have received Dempster Graduate Fellowships from the
United Methodist Church for the 1999-2000 academic year.
The awards, at $10,000 each, are the largest offered by the church's
Division of Ordained Ministry at the United Methodist Board of Higher
Education and Ministry in Nashville.
For 45 years, the fellowships have represented the church's strong
commitment to excellence in theological education, according to the Rev.
John E. Harnish, staff executive of the division.
The annual fellowships are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century Methodist
preacher who helped establish three denomination-related seminaries.
The 1999 fellows "clearly represent the vision of John Dempster (and) bring
together the best of academic scholarship with a commitment to the church
and parish ministry," Harnish said. The recipients join 190 others who have
followed similar callings and have served the academy and church for many
years, he said.
Selection for the Dempster award is based on intellectual competence,
academic achievement, promise of usefulness in teaching careers, personal
qualities, and clarity of spiritual purpose and commitment.
The 1999-2000 recipients are:
	Ellen Jeffery Blue, a native of Olla, La., and graduate Northeast
Louisiana University and Perkins School of Theology. She is an ordained
elder in the Louisiana Annual Conference and is enrolled at Tulane
University, where she is specializing in U.S. and religious history. She has
completed her course work and will be working on her dissertation, which
will focus on the history of St. Mark's United Methodist Church and
Community Center in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
	Soo-Young Kwon, a native of Seoul, South Korea. He will be ordained
as an elder in the New England Annual Conference in June. He is a graduate
of Yonsei University, Boston University School of Theology and Harvard
Divinity School, and is planning to specialize in religion and psychology at
Graduate Theological Union.
	Gerald Charles Kane, a native of Aberdeen, Md., and an ordained
deacon and probationary member in the North Georgia Annual Conference. He is
a graduate of Furman University and Candler School of Theology, and is doing
language study at the University of Georgia. He plans to specialize in
theology, religious practices and generational studies.
	Herbert Robinson Marbury, a native of Nashville, is a graduate of
Emory University and Gammon Theological Seminary and an ordained elder in
the North Georgia Annual Conference. He is in his second year at Vanderbilt
University's Graduate Department of Religion, where he is specializing in
the Hebrew Bible with a minor in social ethics.
	Joel David Stormo Rasmussen, a native of Scottsdale, Ariz., and a
graduate of the University of Kansas and Boston University School of
Theology. He is specializing in theology, philosophy of religion, and
comparative religion at Harvard University.
The Dempster Fellowships are funded through the Ministerial Education Fund,
which is supported by the apportionments paid by local churches across the
denomination.

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