From ELO-
Seminary campuses grew quiet this week with the 2009-10 academic year now ended, but that quiet belies vigorous -- and by turns upbeat and cautious -- discussions about the future of theological education.
As the year was beginning, a re-configured Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, had just sold its property to nearby Northwestern University, using the $13 million to pay off its debt and balance its budget.
While it ended its master of divinity degree the year before, Seabury this year began a joint doctor of ministry degree in congregational development with the Church Divinity School of the Pacific 2,100 miles away in Berkeley, California. It is an example, the school has said, of what it calls its new mission: to "embod[y] generous Christianity, grounded in the Baptismal Covenant and the Episcopal tradition, as we educate lay and ordained women and men for ministry, build faith communities, and enrich people in their faith."
In deciding to sell property, Seabury took a further step on a path that Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Episcopal Divinity School went down in March 2008 when it sold some of its buildings to Lesley University for $33.5 million and entered into a partnership that includes academic program enhancements and shared facilities for uses such as library, student dining and services, and campus maintenance.
EDS Dean and President Katherine Ragsdale told ENS that the 2008 decisions involving Lesley mean "we're no longer in a financial crisis. We face challenges but we're not in a crisis anymore."
The 2009-10 academic year ended on word of changes and potential changes at two schools on either coast. Manhattan-based General Theological Seminary announced that it faced a cash-flow crisis and would sell property to make ends meet until other planned sources of income came to fruition. Its trustees also said they would "pursue all productive avenues for conversations with other seminaries and institutions of the Episcopal Church to consider creative collaborations and common programs."
More here-
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122602_ENG_HTM.htm
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