wfn.org | Churchwide education board addresses seminary graduate debt

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

TITLE:Churchwide education board addresses seminary graduate debt

Oct. 12, 1999  News media contact: Linda Green*(615) 742-5470 * Nashville,
Tenn.   10-71B{527}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The significant debt that United Methodist
seminary graduates amass before ordination has caused the denomination's
education agency to set aside $3 million in funds to help address the
problem.

Sixty percent of seminary graduates enter the ministry with debts between
$10,000 and $20,000, according to the Rev. Roger W. Ireson, top staff
executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
Students who already have undergraduate loans may incur a debt of up to
$30,000, he said.  

"This load of debt for students who upon graduation will receive modest
salaries, maybe for much of their lives, is a crushing and depressing factor
as they seek to care for their families and their children's education," he
said.

Ireson outlined the problem in his state of the board address during the
Oct. 7-10 meeting of the agency's governing members. He noted the agency's
continued concern about support systems for United Methodist seminaries.
While the Ministerial Education Fund has been strongly supported by the
church, it only accounts for 14 percent of the annual budgets of the
seminaries, he said. These financial constraints put pressure on students in
the form of tuition increases, he said.  

"Our concern is to support a denominational seminary system so that future
pastors can be formed in the ethos, values and ideals that we have as United
Methodists," Ireson said. He noted that students of the denomination's 13
seminaries get a background in United Methodism that other theological
schools do not provide.

He challenged the board to support an endowment program that will provide
assistance to seminarians with substantial debt. Ireson projected a possible
goal of $200 million in grants to seminarians over a period of 20 years.

In the meantime, the board's directors passed a General Conference
resolution requiring the agency to set aside funds as they become available
to assist students and annual conferences in addressing the issue of
seminary indebtedness. 

Ireson said the agency would put $3 million from its investment earnings
into an indebtedness fund to provide the foundation for a program addressing
the financial hardships of seminary students.

The resolution approved by the board calls on the agency in cooperation with
the Council of Bishops, the United Methodist Foundation for Christian Higher
Education and the Office of Loans and Scholarships, to develop a plan to
reduce seminary indebtedness of candidates for ordination. This plan would
include: 
·	Assisting annual conferences in addressing the seminary indebtedness
of probationary members in their conference.
·	Challenging local churches to support candidates for ordination with
scholarship assistance during seminary.
·	Working with United Methodist seminaries to minimize student
borrowing and potential for indebtedness.
·	Raising endowment funds to provide tuition scholarships for United
Methodist candidates for ordination who are attending United Methodist
seminaries. 

In another financial matter, the board approved an initiative with the
National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church
to explore ways to support United Methodist-related institutions that are
struggling financially due to declining church support. 

The study and implementation of the new orders of ministry by the 1996
General Conference resulted in a reorganization of the board's Division of
Ordained Ministry, Division of  Chaplains and Related Ministries and
Division of Diaconal Ministries. The three merged into one Division of
Ordained Ministry with three working sections - elders and local pastors,
deacons and diaconal ministries, and chaplains and related ministries. Three
staff people, one from each section, share in the leadership of the
division.  

During the board meeting, the governing members learned of the plan to
implement the search for a new executive for the Division of Ordained
Ministry. The division's sections will be headed by assistant general
secretaries, each reporting to an associate general secretary.   

As a way of affirming the new order of ministry as framed by the 1996
General Conference, the board of directors declared that the 2001-2004
quadrennium will be a time for discerning how the laity, diaconal ministers,
local pastors, deacons and elders continue to embody the ministry of the
United Methodist Church. 

The church agency will hold consultations throughout the next quadrennium to
explore the ways in which laity, deacons, diaconal ministers, elders and
local pastors support one another and to discuss how each of those
ministries can be enhanced.

Through the Section of Deacons and Diaconal Ministries, new directions for
the program of certification for those people that provide ministry in
specialized settings were finalized. 

The new directions seek to make the certification courses more accessible to
the workers in the church, according to Joaquin Garcia, a director in the
section. The program also aims to have more areas of certification in
specialized ministries to help the church carry out its work. In addition,
the section approved in principle two new areas of certification --
spiritual formation and camping/retreat ministries. These directions will be
implemented after General Conference, the denomination's top legislative
body, which meets May 2-12 in Cleveland.

Board members also approved a transitional search process for a top
executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
Ireson has lead the agency for 12 years, and church rules adopted in 1988
bar executives of program agencies from serving longer than that.  The
search for his successor will begin after the fall 2000 organizational
meeting of the agency's new board of directors. Ireson will serve until a
new executive is in place.

The board spent much of its meeting time perfecting resolutions and
legislation that will be sent to General Conference. The board:
·	Asked that the current six special Sundays with offerings be
retained; 
·	Proposed that the "Education: The Gift of Hope" program be
continued. The study has been revised to address concerns about drugs and
violence in schools and to challenge United Methodists to become involved in
local efforts in education.
·	Asked that a new "Fund for Theological Education in Post-Communist
Europe," be established with $4 million support for the 2001-2004
quadrennium. Of that, $2 million would be in new funds budgeted by the
General Conference and $2 million from the agency's budget.
·	Called for affirmation of the church's longstanding ministry in
higher education for women with and through the four women's colleges
affiliated with the denomination, and to authorize the board to undertake a
study of women in higher education and the role of women's colleges in
education.
·	Asked that a task force be appointed to examine the issues of
immigration and naturalization with regard to federal laws and regulations
for United Methodist clergy under appointment and requested a report to the
2004 General Conference.
·	Requested that the board be authorized to develop and implement a
25-year plan to raise $300 million in endowment funds to increase the
collective endowments of the church's 11 historically black colleges and
universities.
·	Endorsed a feasibility study for a faculty of medical sciences at
United Methodist-related Africa University in Zimbabwe.

In another Africa University-related matter, Ireson accepted an $80,000
check from the North Carolina Annual Conference to endow scholarships at the
school.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://www.umc.org/umns