Russell E. Richey, Dean and Professor of Church History

http://candler.emory.edu/

Candler School of Theology is grounded in the Christian faith and shaped by the Wesleyan tradition of evangelical piety, ecumenical openness, and social concerns. Its mission is to educate—through scholarship, teaching, and service—faithful and creative leaders for the church’s ministries in the world.

These purposes define Candler’s role as a school of the university and of the church. I begin by mentioning this because Candler faces the challenge and opportunity of leading a national research university in rediscovering what it might mean to relate to a major denomination. And I am happy to report to you that we are making very real progress in this complex and precious relationship.

Most dramatically, Emory and Candler received from the Lilly Endowment Inc. a grant for $10,000,000 for a doctoral venture in religious practices and practical theology. The United Methodist News Service release only hints at the importance of this grant. No fields in theological education are more vital to ministerial
training and formation than those that work at the connection of school and church, vocation and leadership, theory and practice. Yet schools find faculty for these fields—preaching, worship, pastoral care, religious education, evangelism, administration—with great difficulty or cover these areas with adjunct faculty or content themselves with persons whose credentials and scholarship do not equal those in the more classical areas. This grant will make it possible for Candler through the Graduate Division of Religion to recruit superb persons into the practical theological fields and to provide them the training that will make them the future leaders of theological education.

Candler has continued to make extraordinary faculty appointments. Dr. Robert Franklin, previously president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta and commentator on National Public Radio, will re-join us next fall as Emory’s Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics. Dr. Alice Rogers, a leading pastor in the North Georgia Conference, came last summer to direct our Teaching Parish (student pastor) program. We welcomed as well Dr. David Petersen, a highly distinguished member of the Old Testament guild, long-time faculty member at Iliff and the newly chosen President-Elect of the Society of Biblical Literature. And Dr. Faith Hawkins, an Emory Ph.D., has returned to Candler and is providing remarkable leadership in our Youth Theological Initiative (YTI).

YTI celebrated its tenth anniversary this past fall with a conference for practitioners. The three day event reflected on ten year’s experience of gathering young people from across the country every summer for a four week experience in thinking and acting in an environment that encourages serious theological and ethical reflection on God’s place in all of life. The conference generated great excitement about the future of youth ministry. Candler also received refunding for YTI in the amount of $2,182,200. This grant from the Lilly Endowment will cover the next four years of the program. Lilly has told us that this will be their last grant to us for this program, so we are searching now for endowment and annual fund support to ensure its continuation.

Candler was very pleased that Bishop Lindsey Davis appointed Dr. Wesley Wachob to Glenn Memorial Church on the Emory campus with a commitment to continue the effort to better connect that congregation with the University. Wachob served previously as senior minister in Mobile and as chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Alabama-West Florida Conference. Wachob and the church have agreed that he might teach on occasion and Candler has appointed him as an adjunct faculty member. To read more about Dr. Wachob and his Candler appointment, please visit the Emory web site.

We continue to enhance our continuing and church education efforts under the able leadership of the Rev. Beth Luton Cook. January 6-8 we offered a conference Celebrating and Revisioning the Wesleyan Movements featuring Dr. William B. McClain as Whiteside preacher and lecturer, plus Drs. Richard Heitzenrater, Rebekah Miles, Randy Maddox, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Stephen Gunter, Carlton “Sam” Young, and Mercy A. Oduyoye. Continuing education has also offered the church a new Mini Theology School, through the Bill Mallard Lay Theology Institute; summer and year-long Courses of Study; conferences on Spiritual Guides and the Great Commission; and Covenant Colleagues, an experiment in sustained continuing education. Note especially the next continuing education and alumni/ae event, a preaching festival scheduled for September 16-19, 2003, featuring our Bandy professors, Fred Craddock, Robert Kysar and Thomas Long.

Candler continues to be a pacesetter in addressing student indebtedness and in aid to ministerial candidates. Over the 2001-02 academic year we awarded $4,191,298 in scholarships, of which only $978,010 derived from the Ministerial Education Fund (MEF). In addition we administered $978,842 of externally conferred scholarships, a total of over five million in grants, and roughly nine million in aid total. With such resources we are now able to provide full tuition awards to many United Methodist students who have demonstrated financial need. The MEF remains key to that commitment, as does the generosity of the Cannons, Shermans, Pitts, Hardins, Franks, McDonalds, Garretts, Quenelles and so many others whose benefactions have made such support possible. Even with these resources our students borrowed $3,566,398 last year, so our quest for additional support continues.

Another strong class matriculated this fall bringing student enrollment to 562. Of these 422 are M.Div., 87% of whom are full time and 46% of whom are under 30. The M.Div. population is half male, half female, 28% American ethnic, and 5% international. Forty-seven conferences are represented by our United Methodist students, 77% of whom are from the Southeastern Jurisdiction. The diversity and the talent of these folk make Candler an exciting place for ministerial formation.

We are very proud that Barbara Day Miller, assistant dean of worship and lecturer in liturgical practices, has been named music director for the 2004 General Conference. We are also proud of our faculty, who week-in-week-out speak, preach, conduct workshops, teach Sunday school throughout the church.

For more information about Candler, our extraordinary faculty and dedicated students preparing for ministerial leadership, I hope that you will bookmark: http://candler.emory.edu/ABOUT/news.html

I thank you for the church’s partnership with us. Candler appreciates your support, your gifts and your prayers for the work we are about.