wfn.org | Historians look at United Methodism's role in higher education

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 28, 1999	News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.    10-71B{352}

By Robert Lear*

SAINT PAUL, Minn.  (UMNS) --  The United Methodist Church can take pride in
its 200-year history of support for higher education, but the task now is to
prepare a new generation to live in community in a new century.

This was the challenge sounded here June 25-28 as 125 persons from across
the nation gathered on the Hamline University campus for the fourth
convocation of the United Methodist Historical Society. Theme of the
gathering was "Knowledge and Vital Piety--United Methodism's Historic Role
in Higher Education."

"Our educational process must be built on a global experience and a greater
understanding of those things which have shaped the modern world," said the
Rev. Roger W. Ireson in the keynote address.  Ireson is chief staff
executive of the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and
Ministry.

"We are preparing a new generation for a new world in a new century," Ireson
said.  "This is what Methodism and education is about and has always been
about.  The church in education is our most important ministry because
therein lies the hope for a new century."

The shared mission of church and university, Ireson asserted, "is to provide
. . . leaders who will be knowledgeable and committed to the ideals of peace
in a world community."

A growing diversity of culture is one of the greatest points of change
facing higher education today, he said.  "Almost every community has
increased ethnic presence with new cultural patterns and customs impacting
the education process."  Other challenges include the need for presidential
leadership of institutions and church relationship.

"We need to claim our original vision, namely, a passion to develop a
concept of life that would embrace all of life.  Education is a search . . .
for the things which . . . unite faith and knowledge."

Another speaker, the Rev. Russell E. Richey, professor of church history at
Duke Divinity School, raised a different issue when he cited figures showing
relatively few divinity students today come from United Methodist-related
campuses.  At Duke, Richey said, twice as many students come from state
schools as from those related to United Methodism.

Fifty years ago most divinity students would have come from United Methodist
schools, he said.  "Do we have a right to expect our colleges to provide our
leadership?"

There is curriculum in United Methodist-related schools today that would
never have been seen in an earlier day, Richey asserted, citing such courses
as sports medicine, business administration, professional sports management,
criminal justice and accounting.	

Some schools "are so elite as to be embarrassed by United Methodist
relationship," Richey said.  Further, professors are not schooled in
relating Methodist ethics to current curriculum.

Discussing theological education in Europe, the Rev. Michael G. Nickerson,
former president of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, said that
the "almost total secularization" of Western Europe, and the rise in
nationalism, has implications for a global church as United Methodism is
striving to be.

A global church, he said, means being "multinational, multilingual and
ecumenical."

There is tremendous competition in Europe for theological students,
Nickerson said.  Many students have little or no church background.

Other addresses during the convocation examined student movements such as
Wesley Foundation, discussed American Methodism in missions, and took a look
at evolving directions in United Methodist-related higher education.

 By meeting at United Methodist-related Hamline University, the convocation
was on historic ground.  This year marks the 150th anniversary of Minnesota
Territory, and the 145th anniversary of the founding of Hamline with a
$25,000 gift from Bishop Leonidas Hamline of Ohio.  Begun in Red Wing,
Minn., the school moved to its present site in 1880.

The Historical Society will hold its next meeting in Baltimore in 2000 in
connection with the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United Brethren
in Christ church, a predecessor body of the United Methodist Church.

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*Lear is a retired staff member of United Methodist News Service.

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