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This story available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08943<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08943

>PC(USA) seminary news

>by Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

PRINCETON, NJ ― Princeton Theological Seminary
[www.ptsem.edu] is inviting the church and individual
Christians around the world to celebrate the 500th
anniversary of John Calvin's birth by participating in "A
Year with the Institutes," a daily reading of Calvin's
major work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion,
during 2009. Calvin, the most important founding theologian
of the Reformed theological tradition, was born July 10,
1509. His Institutes represent a systematized approach to
Reformed theology, written with a pastor's heart in service
to the church of Calvin's day.

Princeton Seminary, through its Center of Continuing
Education, will provide a daily reading schedule and text
of a three-to-six-page section of the 1559 version of the
Institutes for each day of 2009, except Sundays and
Christmas Day, online on its Web site
[www2.ptsem.edu/ConEd/Calvin]. The readings, using the
McNeill/Battles translation of the Institutes, thanks to
permission from Westminster John Knox Press, will also be
provided in audio format, as a podcast, with sections read
by oral performers from around the country. Michael
Brothers, an assistant professor of speech communication in
ministry at Princeton Seminary, will direct this part of
the project.

Each week an invited scholar or pastor will provide a
reflection paper on that week's readings on the Web site
[www2.ptsem.edu/ConEd/Calvin], and participants will be
able to comment on both the readings and the reflection
papers. The project was the brainchild of Princeton
Seminary's Christian education assistant professor Gordon
Mikoski. It will include a number of events in 2009 to
celebrate the Calvin anniversary. The first of these is
2009's first global Calvin conference, "Calvin and the
Church Today," Jan. 20-23.

For information about how to participate in "A Year with
the Institutes," and for answers to questions, visit the
Web site [www.ptsem.edu/ce/calvin2009.php] or send an email
[calvin2009@ptsem.edu].

SAN ANSELMO, CA ― San Francisco Theological Seminary
[http://web.sfts.edu] has hired Charlene Jin as its new
director of student formation and assistant professor of
Christian education at the Southern California campus.

Jin has most recently been serving as the director of
Christian education at San Marino (CA) Community Church.
She has previously served in various education and
leadership capacities at churches in Richmond, VA, Anaheim,
CA, and Los Angeles.

She earned her Ph.D. in Christian education from Union
Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian
Education in Richmond, VA, where she won the Sara Little
and Will Kennedy Dissertation Award for her research on
reconceptualizing Christian education through
autobiography. Jin also earned a master's degree in
education from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree
in political science from University of California Irvine.

Fluent in Korean, Spanish and French, Jin's research
interests include feminist pedagogy, curriculum theory,
culture and education, narrative studies and models of
teaching and learning.

AUSTIN, TX ― Tom Long, Mary Louise Bringle, Paul
Westermeyer, and Scott Black Johnston will offer a time for
alumni/ae and friends of Austin Presbyterian Theological
Seminary [www.austinseminary.edu] to combine topics of
interest with warm fellowship during "MidWinters," Feb.
2-4, 2009.

In addition to the lectures, there will be a Homecoming
Fiesta, a screening of the award-winning documentary "At
the Death House Door," and opportunities for dialogue with
the lecturers and other participants. The three-day event
will include seven lectures, four reunion events,
distinguished alum awards, faculty book signings, and tours
of the Seminary's new residence, Anderson House.

In the Thomas White Currie Lectures, Long, professor of
preaching at Emory University's Candler School of Theology,
will look at the seeming incompatibility of innocent
suffering and the goodness of God. The E. C. Westervelt
Lecturer, Mary Louise Bringle, professor of philosophy and
religion at Brevard College, plans to explore how
contemporary hymns are being written to address new things
God is doing in the world and new challenges arising for
Christian faith and practice.

The Robert F. Jones Lecturer, The Rev. Paul Westermeyer,
will explore the role of the church's music in the task of
Christian education. Westermeyer is professor of church
music at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, cantor for the
seminary, and director of the Master of Sacred Music
program in cooperation with St. Olaf College.

MidWinters preacher is the Rev. Scott Black Johnston,
formerly Austin Seminary's professor of homiletics who last
summer became pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in
New York City. The Austin Seminary Alumni Association
annual meeting and banquet, Feb. 4 honors 2009
Distinguished Service recipients Marvin Griffin (DMin'90)
and Bob Lively (MDiv'73), graduating seniors, and will
include a keynote address by former Huntsville (TX) death
row Chaplain Carroll Pickett (MDiv'57).

LOUISVILLE ― The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc.
has awarded a grant of $8 million to Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary [www.lpts.edu] to support
the work of the Louisville Institute through 2012.
Generously supported by the Endowment since 1990, the
Louisville Institute seeks to enrich the religious lives of
American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of
their institutions, by bringing together those who lead
religious institutions with those who study them so that
the work of each might inform and strengthen the work of
the other.

The Louisville Institute focuses on three issues of
particular importance - Christian faith and life, pastoral
leadership, and religious institutions. Since 1990, the
Louisville Institute has made nearly 1,500 grants totaling
almost $26.5 million. The additional support from Lilly
Endowment will enable the Louisville Institute to extend
its grantmaking and convening work with pastoral leaders
and scholar-educators in religion and theology for the good
of the church and North American society.

According to Dr. Craig Dykstra, Endowment Senior Vice
President for Religion, "The church very much needs the
kind of collaboration that the Louisville Institute
encourages among talented pastors and scholar-teachers who
care deeply about the church. Their combined efforts
represent a promising resource for America's churches."

Added LPTS President Dean K. Thompson: "The Louisville
Institute contributes to the church by enriching the work
of pastors and theological educators alike. We are
immensely grateful to Lilly Endowment for their support of
this important ministry of Louisville Seminary."

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