Mission and Evangelism Institute explores ‘Missional Church in Many Contexts’

Methodist Theological School in Ohio will host the Mission and Evangelism Institute March 19 and 20, with the theme “Missional Church in Many Contexts.” The institute will offer pathways toward becoming a missional congregation in rural, suburban and urban settings. The event’s three speakers are proven missional leaders who have had breakthroughs in transforming congregations from inward-oriented to mission-focused.

Rev. Dave Hood is the campus pastor at Fort McKinley Church, the urban branch of Ginghamsburg Church in Dayton. Fort McKinley is a church “restart” that was on the brink of closing in 2008. In just three years, it has grown from 40 attendees to 400, with three Sunday morning worship celebrations.

Rev. Kevin Koske is the pastor of Church in the Mall in Heath. An outreach ministry of Centenary UMC in Granville, Church in the Mall celebrated its public launch on Palm Sunday of 2010. Through its location, it brings church to the people, instead of bringing people to the church, and seeks to integrally embrace and utilize social media for evangelism.

Rev. Bill Lyle served as pastor of Greenville Evangelical United Methodist Church, a rural congregation, for 14 years. His accomplishments there include growing church attendance from 126 to 770, initiating three new styles of worship with innovative multimedia, and creating a culture of serving and witnessing with over 70 percent of the church family involved. He has recently become the senior pastor at Peace UMC in Pickerington.

Tuition for the Mission and Evangelism Institute is $70. Two or more people from the same congregation may attend for $60 each. Student tuition is $15. Dinner on March 19 is included. A Continuing Education Unit certificate is available for $10.

Additional material, including a schedule and registration form, is available at www.mtso.edu/mei.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares leaders of many faith traditions for lives of significance in service to the church and the world. The school offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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Casperson helps provide the spark
for an innovative UMC venture

MTSO Admissions Director April Casperson

As the Leadership Table of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops began fleshing out a bold vision for young entrepreneurship, Rev. April Casperson got an email. Casperson, director of admissions for Methodist Theological School in Ohio, was asked to join the design team driving the fledgling effort. The resulting project, dubbed Spark12, took a big step forward Jan. 21 with the launch of its website, Spark12.org.

So, what is it?

“Spark12 is an entry point for those interested in ministry leadership that allows them to discern while serving,” said Casperson, an ordained deacon who earned Master of Divinity and Master of Theological Studies degrees from MTSO. The church hopes to tap the fresh ideas and energy of young people who aren’t yet ordained – or perhaps aren’t choosing a path that leads to ordination.

Later this year, Casperson and her fellow leadership team members will sift the first batch of proposals for innovative ministry from individuals or small groups of 18- to 35-year-olds. Those whose projects are chosen will become Spark12 fellows and awarded funding from a $175,000 pool established by several United Methodist sources.

Fellows will meet with coaches and mentors for an intensive weeklong orientation, after which they’ll prepare to launch their ministry visions over the following 12 weeks. At the end of that time, fellows will again gather in person to present, meet with potential investors as appropriate, and conclude their formal relationship with the program.

Casperson is careful not to suggest what a winning Spark12 project should look like. “We were deliberately vague in order to leave things open,” she said. But she noted that leadership team members have identified a couple of ministries they believe are similar to what the leadership team might want to fund: the Polaris Project, founded by Brown University students to fight human trafficking, and Ambatana Threads, a handmade-clothing business utilizing the skills of refugee women.

Joining Casperson on the Spark12 leadership team are three other young people from around the country, all with day jobs serving the church. The executive director, Rev. DJ del Rosario, is director of young adult ministry discernment and enlistment for the General Board of Higher Education & Ministry; Director of Communications Patrick Scriven is associate director of connectional ministries for the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference; and Director of Community Care Joseph D. Kim is director of children’s rights advocacy for the General Board of Church & Society.

As Spark12’s director of internal operations, Casperson’s role is to take the big ideas of her teammates and figure out how to make them happen.

“DJ is a dreamer. I’m like, ‘We need a spreadsheet,’” Casperson said, laughing.

One of the things the group had to dream up was a name. “Our previous name was Genesis Project,” Casperson said. “But that was far too common. Everything from an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has used it.” A brainstorming session with Corhouse, a Seattle branding company, led the group to choose “Spark12,” honoring a number that appears frequently in biblical text, from the 12 apostles to the 12 tribes of Israel to the 12 remaining baskets of food after Jesus fed the multitudes.

Casperson said the process of defining the Spark12 mission gave her a new appreciation for the principles and values she absorbed as an MTSO student.

“The entire team is about developing principled Christian leaders,” she said. “We are also about social justice and transforming the world, and that parallels the way I was shaped and formed at MTSO.”

The synthesis of the team’s vision is apparent in the first words of the group’s mission statement: “Spark12 invests in young entrepreneurs to launch innovative ideas that will transform the world.”

Spark12 is one of several areas beyond MTSO where Casperson puts her education to use. Among other things, she is Design Team co-chair for Exploration 2013, an event for young people considering ordained ministry, and a member of the Campus Ministry Task Force of the West Ohio Annual Conference. She also is pursuing a Ph.D. in higher education administration at Ohio University.

It all makes her grateful for her experiences as an MTSO student: “I would not have had the foundation to do these things and think this way without this education.”

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares leaders of many faith traditions for lives of significance in service to the church and the world. The school offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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Mark Kelly Tyler to lead special Black History Month chapel

Tyler

Dr. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, will preach at the Feb. 21 chapel service at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. The service, to be held at 11:30 a.m. in the Alford Centrum, is one of seven special services marking Black History Month at MTSO. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Tyler holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Dayton, a Master of Divinity degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio, and a B.A. in religion from Clark Atlanta University. An adjunct professor at MTSO, Tyler most recently taught African-American Religious History in the fall of 2011.

In 2008, Tyler was appointed pastor of Mother Bethel, the first congregation founded by Bishop Richard Allen, the founder of the AME Church. Mother Bethel has been a spiritual, social and community force since the late 1700s.

Additional Black History Month chapel services feature sermons by MTSO faculty, alumni and students. All services begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Alford Centrum.

• Feb. 7: Rev. Charles Ferguson, Second Baptist Church, Circleville
• Feb. 8: Gregory E. Kendrick Jr., Master of Divinity student
• Feb. 14: Marco Peterson, Master of Divinity student
• Feb. 15: Dr. John Kampen, professor in the Dunn Chair in Biblical Interpretation
• Feb. 21: Dr. Mark Kelly Tyler, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia
• Feb. 22: Dr. Ervin Smith, emeritus professor of Christian ethics
• Feb. 28: Rev. Ross Pryor, First United Methodist Church and Speers United Methodist Church, Charleroi, Pa.; Dunlevy United Methodist Church, Dunlevy, Pa.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares leaders of many faith traditions for lives of significance in service to the church and the world. The school offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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Claremont’s Monica A. Coleman to speak at Williams Institute

Coleman

Writer, scholar and activist Monica A. Coleman will deliver two February lectures at MTSO. “Interreligious Outsiders” is the theme for the 2012 Williams Institute lectures, to be presented by Coleman at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 and 11:30 a.m. Feb. 29 in the Alford Centrum. The lectures are free and open to the public. No registration is necessary.

Coleman is associate professor of constructive theology and African American religions at Claremont School of Theology in southern California, where she also serves as co-director of Claremont’s Center for Process Studies. Her Feb. 28 lecture title is “Multiple Religious Belonging: How African American History Expands Theories of Religious Pluralism.” On Feb. 29, she’ll speak on the topic “Transreligious Spirituality: Process Philosophy, New Thought Religions and Religious Pluralism.”

An ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Coleman earned doctoral and master’s degrees from Claremont Graduate University, and a Master of Divinity degree from Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Her research interests include process theology, new movements in black and womanist theologies, African traditional religions, mental health and theology, and religious pluralism.

Coleman founded and coordinated the Dinah Project, an organized church response to sexual violence, at Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville. Her writings focus on the role of faith in addressing critical social issues. She wrote about church responses to sexual violence in her book The Dinah Project: A Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence. In Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology, she discusses interreligious responses to the joys and pains of black women’s lives. She is co-editor of Creating Women’s Theology: A Movement Engaging Process Thought.

MTSO’s Williams Institute was begun in 1981 to honor the late Dr. Ronald L. Williams, professor of theology from 1971 until his death in 1981. The institute has featured speakers from many backgrounds, including theologians, ethicists, poets, biblical scholars, historians, pastoral psychologists and Christian educators.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares leaders of many faith traditions for lives of significance in service to the church and the world. The school offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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MTSO awarded 224-volume science and religion library

The International Society for Science & Religion has selected Methodist Theological School in Ohio as an ISSR Library awardee. At no cost to the school, the ISSR is providing MTSO’s Dickhaut Library with 224 volumes, spanning subject areas from ecology to cosmology to bioethics. If the volumes had been purchased separately, Dickhaut Library Director Paul Burnam estimates the price would have exceeded $13,000.

In a Nov. 23 letter to Burnam, ISSR Executive Editor Pranab Das wrote, “Your application was reviewed under a competitive judging process and your institution will join a select group of only 150 institutions worldwide to receive a full set of the Library.”

MTSO’s application included letters of support from Master of Divinity student Jess Peacock and Dr. Timothy Van Meter, assistant professor in the Alford Chair of Christian Education and Youth Ministry.

“I could not have asked for better news on Thanksgiving Eve,” said Burnam, who began the ISSR application process in April. “MTSO is doing more and more in terms of looking at science and religion. This came along at just the right time.”

Burnam said the ISSR Library will provide valuable resources for students pursuing two specializations recently introduced by MTSO: the Ecology and Social Change specialization for those pursuing a Master of Divinity degree, and the Ecology and Justice specialization for those pursuing a Master of Arts in Practical Theology.

“In looking at all the areas this collection takes in, it fits very well with the courses that make up those specializations,” he said.

The ISSR Library Project is headquartered at St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, in Cambridge, UK. The collection is being delivered to MTSO the week of Dec. 5 and should be available for circulation soon.

The John W. Dickhaut Library, named for MTSO’s founding president, is the school’s primary information and research resource. With more than 130,000 volumes onsite, the library offers borrowers access to 48 million volumes through its membership in the Ohio Private Academic Libraries and OhioLINK consortia. It also subscribes to 250 periodicals.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares leaders of many faith traditions for lives of significance in service to the church and the world. The school offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

Paul Burnam, director of the Dickhaut Library
pburnam@mtso.edu, 740-362-3435

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Lorenza Andrade Smith to lead DREAM Act conversation

Lorenza Andrade Smith

Methodist Theological School in Ohio will host a conversation about the DREAM Act at 5 p.m. Dec. 5 in the campus’s Coffee Shop on the ground level of Werner Hall. The conversation is open to the public. It will be led by Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith, an elder in the United Methodist Church who has been appointed to ministry with the poor and marginalized.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would allow young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children by their undocumented parents a path to U.S. citizenship in exchange for two years of college or military service. It would permit them to continue to live and work here without fear of deportation during their service or education. MTSO’s faculty has issued a statement supporting passage of the DREAM Act by Congress. Read the faculty’s full statement here. The faculty also advocates the celebration of a DREAM Sabbath in churches Jan. 6.

As part of her United Methodist appointment, Smith lives among the homeless. Prior to this appointment, she served as pastor of Westlawn UMC in San Antonio. Participants in the conversation Smith leads Dec. 5 will consider how to prepare congregations for a DREAM Sabbath and how to address broader issues of immigration, naturalization and human rights in churches.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares transformational leaders of many faith traditions for service to the church and the world. MTSO offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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Professor Paul Numrich provides analysis for NPR story

‘Morning Edition’ features his sabbatical work on Chicago mosques

Numrich

MTSO Professor of Religion and Interreligious Relations Paul Numrich provided expert analysis for a National Public Radio story about the growing presence of mosques in Chicago. The story, which aired nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition Nov. 3, drew on Numrich’s 2010 sabbatical studies of mosques in the six-county Chicago area.

His findings are presented on the website of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. A map of the 91 mosques he located in metropolitan Chicago is accompanied by an essay describing his research methods and findings.

In discussing the implications of his research, Numrich notes in the essay that “new mosque construction has continued – even accelerated in Chicago – since the watershed of September 11, 2001. This has occurred in spite of – perhaps because of, in some sense – growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the country. This is no trivial fact as it bespeaks the civic maturity of American Islam. Building a new mosque requires interaction with government authorities, neighbors, local community interests, contractors, vendors, and others. In today’s hypertense atmosphere, the lesser known story is that of the successful construction of new mosques across the country.”

Numrich holds the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations at MTSO. His most recent book is The Faith Next Door: American Christians and Their New Religious Neighbors, published by Oxford University Press in 2009.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares transformational leaders of many faith traditions for service to the church and the world. MTSO offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

Paul Numrich, professor of religion and interreligious relations
pnumrich@mtso.edu, 740-362-3443

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After a life cut short, a lasting legacy

The Allen Ingram Scholarship honors a highly respected 2008 graduate

The decision to move to Ohio wasn’t an easy one for Allen and Anita Ingram. They and their young daughters, Erin and Ann Marie, had a good life and deep roots in North Carolina. Allen had been an attorney for 19 years, and the Ingrams were active members of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Hickory, where Allen was a lay leader.

Allen Ingram earned his M.Div. in 2008

But Allen felt called to full-time ministry, and he chose to prepare for that calling at MTSO. He enrolled in 2004, with the Ingram family taking up residence on campus.

Allen quickly earned the admiration and respect of his peers and professors. As he prepared to graduate with a Master of Divinity degree in 2008, Allen was instrumental in the senior class project, which raised more than $5,000 for a family center administered by the Concerned Citizens Against Homelessness of Delaware.

“Theological school makes a very real difference in a student’s life, and in the best cases it’s reciprocal,” said MTSO President Jay Rundell. “A student can have a real impact on the seminary community. Allen was one of those students.”

Allen, Anita and their daughters cherished their time as part of the MTSO community. And they developed a lasting sense of gratitude for the scholarships and other financial support that eased their financial burden.

“Allen and I talked about how thankful we were,” Anita recalled recently. “And we said if we could ever afford it, we would like to provide a scholarship.”

Ann Marie, Anita and Erin moved quickly to honor Allen

After graduation, the Ingrams returned to North Carolina, where Allen became the pastor of Clarksbury United Methodist Church in the town of Harmony. “He showed the heart of Christ in a deep concern for injustice, the underdog and the less fortunate,” said Dr. Mary John Dye, Statesville District superintendent in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.

In May 2011, shortly before he was to be ordained as a full elder, Allen died suddenly of a heart attack while returning home from a round of golf. At the conference ordination ceremony, his seat was left empty, and his stole was presented to his family.

“Allen was one of our brightest and best,” Dye said. “I am so grateful for all that MTSO contributed to his life. We had many important conversations about his seminary formation. He was very grateful.”

That gratitude manifested itself just weeks after he was laid to rest, with an act of generosity that speaks to Allen’s lasting legacy and his family’s undying loyalty to the place where he prepared for ministry. In June, Anita, Erin and Ann Marie Ingram visited Ohio and presented a substantial gift to MTSO for the creation of the Allen Ingram Scholarship.

The Ingram family’s gift struck a chord with Allen’s friends, colleagues and parishioners in North Carolina. Other donations have followed, and the members of Clarksbury UMC organized a particularly fitting tribute: On Oct. 8, the first annual Allen Ingram Memorial Golf Tournament drew more than 100 golfers to Lake Louise Golf Club near Harmony, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the scholarship fund.

“I can’t think of a better example of the sustaining faith and generosity of the MTSO community than the Allen Ingram Scholarship,” Rundell said. “Seven years ago, the generosity of others enabled Allen to prepare for exemplary service to his church and community. Now, thanks to the generosity of Anita, Erin, Ann Marie and many others who are investing in this scholarship, future Christian leaders and their families will find a smoother path to ministry.”

Each gift to the Allen Ingram Scholarship Fund will help the scholarship provide a more substantial benefit to a deserving MTSO student. To add your gift, visit www.mtso.edu/ingramscholarship.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares transformational leaders of many faith traditions for service to the church and the world. MTSO offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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When a sponge finds her voice

How I ended up presenting a paper on developmental disability on the other side of the Atlantic

By Katherine Dickson
M.Div. ’12

Nervous in The Netherlands, I approached the podium and placed a postcard of a chick emerging from an egg where the audience could see it. It was July 1, and I was about to deliver a paper at the Third Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Theology and Disability. This was easily the farthest-flung stop on a vocational journey that was inspired largely by my relationship with my beloved Aunt Debbie – and nurtured by the courses I’ve taken, the relationships I’ve formed and the resources I’ve tapped at MTSO.

Dickson in Schoorl

This conference, in the Dutch village of Schoorl, brought together top scholars in the relatively young field of disability and theology. As the only master’s-level student from the U.S. who spoke, I pointed out the picture of the hatching chick and told the group, “This is how I feel presenting this paper to this conference.”

In the paper, “Vocation, Theological Anthropology, and Emerging Adults with a Developmental Disability,” I consider disability through a lens of who and how we believe God is in relation to humans, and how that can shape the way we think about vocation. This view of vocation has particular applications for emerging adults with developmental disabilities, who often leave the support network of public accommodations at a certain age.

When I finished the presentation, one of the scholars approached me and said, “I like your little egg picture, but what do you think? That all of the rest of us are grown chickens? You have a voice.”

That brief exchange is typical of the way I have been encouraged and challenged as I delve deeper into this fascinating and blossoming area of study. Through my education, I’ve learned the disabilities field is experiencing a sort of “civil rights movement,” a movement to which the church is something of a newcomer. In fact, places of worship were exempted from key requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. One leader in the field has pointedly noted that bars and Walmarts are more accessible to people with disabilities than most churches are.

The good news is that the past decade has produced a wealth of work in this field, across many faith traditions. Perhaps because I grew up in a Lutheran congregation, currently attend a Mennonite church and study at MTSO, I notice ecumenism. It’s encouraging to see the way people in many denominations are working together to be the best body of Christ we can be within a culture shaped predominately by ableist attitudes. Ableism, like racism or sexism, is not just attitudinal; it institutionalizes discriminatory practices against persons with disabilities.

MTSO is a fitting educational home base for a person engaged in this issue. Last winter, our campus hosted a four-part lecture series with the theme “Disabilities, Theology and the Church.” And I personally have benefited from the encouragement and prodding of MTSO faculty, as well as the availability of academic and financial resources. Through courses in ethics, biblical studies, pastoral care, theology and practical theology, faculty members have encouraged me to dig deeper, use new tools and develop language in getting to some of the questions I have been asking for a long time.

Those questions began to develop early on for me. I would not be who I am without the presence of my mom’s younger sister, my Aunt Debbie, in my life. She was my greatest teacher and a beacon of light into what it means to have an intellectual disability. Among all of the parts that made her who she was, she had Down syndrome. She was born in 1960, and even amidst much joy, she and my family experienced the kind of roadblocks that arise when little is known or understood about disability. Debbie died suddenly the year before I came to MTSO, and this raised new questions in my mind, mostly regarding end-of-life care, pastoral care and medical ethics as they apply to those with disabilities.

The flexibility afforded me in my journey at MTSO gave space for a distance-learning course through the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. The course, Ministry with Persons with Disabilities and their Families, was taught in part by Bill Gaventa, director of community and congregational supports for the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities in New Jersey. He quickly became one of my top “disability mentors.”

Under Bill’s leadership, Gettysburg Seminary launched an annual Institute on Theology and Disability in 2010. I was able to attend both the first and second annual institutes at Gettysburg, as well as the conference in the Netherlands, thanks to an invaluable resource MTSO provides: the Student Enrichment Program. SEP grants are awarded throughout the year for approved student endeavors beyond our campus. Without this funding, I couldn’t have attended these events.

At Gettysburg’s Institute on Theology and Disability, I’ve been able to interact with pastors, scholars and fellow students, including some of the most significant voices in this area. Many of the experts at the institute are people whose work I have explored in depth through two independent-study courses I took with Professor Lisa Withrow at MTSO.

At the first Gettysburg institute and in other disability-focused settings, I chose to be a sponge, filling journals with personal reflections, conference notes, memories of my aunt and theological questions. But in advising my independent study, Dr. Withrow began prodding me to continue with these “inputs” while also producing “outputs”; it was time for me to stop simply observing and become active. And so it began, first with a talk at my church and then through work for the Anabaptist Disabilities Network, where I am currently completing my MTSO Field Education.

This spring, my final project for Dr. Tim Van Meter’s Ministry with Young Adults class explored the topic of young adults with developmental disabilities in relation to my work with college students at Bluffton University, where I am director of career development. Around the same time, I finished a theological anthropology paper within my independent study. I wouldn’t realize until shortly before the Netherlands conference that those two projects could come together. They formed the basis for the paper I presented in Schoorl.

Less than three weeks after July’s Schoorl conference, I arrived in Gettysburg for the Second Annual Institute on Theology and Disability. My time between the two events had been hectic, and I planned to simply sit back and take things in. But my mentor had other ideas. When I arrived, Bill Gaventa greeted me with a big smile and a sign titled “Wednesday night presentations” – with my name on the list. “You’re on tonight,” he said. I hadn’t even brought the paper I presented in The Netherlands, so I scrambled to cobble together remarks from old notes I happened to have on a thumb drive.

Later, after my presentation, I thanked Bill for adding me to the schedule, even if it took me out of my comfort zone. He responded, “Hopefully you understand a bit more about what is expected of you.”

Encouraged and challenged yet again.

I hope to continue working on my “outputs” even as I keep filling my journals. I plan to graduate from MTSO with my M.Div. degree in the spring of 2012. Regardless of what comes after that, I understand my place within the body of Christ includes offering a voice in this vital field.

For continued support on this journey, I am grateful to MTSO.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares transformational leaders of many faith traditions for service to the church and the world. MTSO offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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Eco-theology scholar commends MTSO for ‘dynamite’ specializations

A visiting eco-theology expert commended MTSO’s commitment to this growing field during a campus appearance Oct. 27. Gregory Hitzhusen, a lecturer at Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, spoke to MTSO students, faculty and guests on the topic “Resources for Eco-Theology.” His appearance was funded through a grant by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA).

Hitzhusen at MTSO Oct. 27

“You’ve got this new specialization that’s dynamite,” said Hitzhusen, referring to ecological specializations MTSO offers within its Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Practical Theology programs. In the 1990s, Hitzhusen said, he had difficulty finding a school where he could do graduate-level work in eco-theology. He eventually went to Yale Divinity School, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree that incorporated ecological studies at Yale University. He later earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

For many years, Hitzhusen said, theology and ecology seemed to be at odds. His environmental professors would tell him, “Religion is the problem,” and a pastor he respected was unimpressed with those who were more drawn to nature than the inside of a church, referring to them as “blue domers.”

But over time, religion and ecology have found each other, Hitzhusen said. He has done research on the number of volumes mentioning “ecology” or “environment” cataloged by the ATLA, a collection that has grown steadily, with a large jump following the first Earth Day in 1970.

He also has surveyed those around the country who speak to faith-based groups about the environment, asking them what messages are most effective. Discussions of stewardship and eco-justice resonate, he found, while scare tactics and overly technical information don’t.

Hitzhusen recommended a number of resources to those in the audience, including the Green Seminary Initiative, where MTSO is one of 16 schools that have submitted a Seminary Green Profile.

“I’m always very excited when seminaries take ecology seriously,” he said. “When faith communities take ecology seriously, then the earth has a prayer.”

Methodist Theological School in Ohio prepares transformational leaders of many faith traditions for service to the church and the world. MTSO offers master’s degrees in divinity, counseling ministries, theological studies and practical theology, as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree. For more information, visit www.mtso.edu.

CONTACT:
Danny Russell, director of communications
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322

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