Columbia Seminary

Vantage

ALUMNI COUNCIL
WOLD6 HR6T MEETING

Inaugurating a new era in relations between the Seminary and its Alumni,
more than 30 members of the recently established Alumni Council met at
Columbia on March 29 to set their agenda, establish task forces and offer
counsel as to how Columbia can better serve its graduates. Representation
came from across the whole Church from Maryland to Florida, from Okla-
homa to South Carolina truly a significant response.

Under the leadership of President William Adams of Atlanta, Vice-
President Robert Lawrence of Greenville, S. C, and Secretary-Treasurer
McCoy Franklin of Auburn, Ala., President J. Davison Philips and members
of the Columbia administration provided the Alumni with an up-to-date view
of the Seminary. The Council then voted the following recommendations:
urging the faculty to combine the
Smyth and Alumni lectures into a
week-long comprehensive format
including various facets of interest;
a determination that Alumni Giving
next year be allocated to student
scholarships; that a Board of Visitors
be created to help in the advocacy of
Seminary programs and support; and
a recommendation to the Board of
Directors to encourage faculty to pub-
lish in their fields of academic com-
petence.

Along with these recommenda-
tions the Council established for it-
self several areas of responsibility
including the creation of a communi-
cations system between itself and
members of the Board of Directors,
the fund-raising effort among Alumni,
and the recruitment of the best men
and women possible as candidates for
the ministry and encouragement of
them to consider Columbia Seminary
for their theological education.

Officers and Members of the Coun-
cil are:

(See A lumni Council,
_, . _ , , , Secretary-Treasurer

Page 4, Column 1) McCoy Franklin

Vice-President
Bob Lawrence

Alumni President
Bill Adams

ENDOWMENT UP
URLF-MILLION

Through gifts from individuals,
foundations and wills, Columbia has,
since July 1, 1975, received in ex-
cess of $500,000 for its endowment
fund. The total endowment of the
Seminary now stands at approximate-
ly $5.2 million.

Alumni giving now has exceeded
last year's total of $14,000 and will
certainly establish a new high before
the fiscal year is over at the end of
June. Current giving through the
Living Endowment program has sur-
passed the $45,000 mark.

Further financial reports indicate
that the special effort generated by
the Board of Directors to secure
$75,000 in gifts beyond the normal
revenue sources has already been
successful. All gifts and pledges to
both the endowment and current
funds as a result of work by Board

(See Endowment,
Page 4, Column 3)

COLUMBIA FRIEND6MIP CIRCLE TO AID
6CWOLAR6WIP FUND

As this issue of Vantage goes to
press plans are being made to wel-
come more than 200 women who are
part of the Columbia Friendship
Circle to the campus for CFC's
"Come-See-Columbia Day" on April
22.

The day will feature Dr. J. Davi-
son Philips, President, who will
preach at the opening worship service,
a report on CFC's efforts to help
underwrite the cost of Columbia's
Supervised Ministry Program, action
upon the recommendation to adopt
Scholarship Aid Assistance as the
coming year's project and the election
of new officers.

Careful advance preparations have
been carried out by Mrs. Frances
Cox, Climax, Ga., President; Mrs.
Harriet Moore, Mobile, AL, Vice-
President and Mrs. Ruth Esche, Sec-
retary-Historian from Marietta, Ga.

Columbia spends its million dollar budget in many ways, but more than
$120,000 of it is spent in student aid. Seminary education is an expensive
operation; it costs approximately $5,000 a year per student, but Columbia's
students pay only $2,190 a year tuition, board, room and fees. Yet, one out
of every four students receives aid to meet even the costs we charge. Without
this aid many Columbia students simply would not be able to attain a Semi-
nary education.

PROM the PRE6IDENT

The past 4 months have been a
time of listening, learning, adjusting,
and planning. Columbia has many
opportunities and our expectations
are high both here and throughout the
Church.

Recently the Association of Theo-
logical Schools conducted an exten-
sive study of what American Chris-
tians expect from their ministers.
Preliminary reports indicate that
character and integrity rate higher
than skills. Spiritual authenticity
ranked above the capacity to adminis-
ter programs, although a minister is
expected to do both.

It would be easy to find flaws in
this study. The emphasis on "what is
expected" may not consider "what is
needed." However, this is a most
important issue for those of us who
care about Columbia and the mission

we share of preparing people for min-
istry. How can we best prepare peo-
ple to serve Our Lord, the Church
and the world in this latter part of the
20th century? What will they need in
the way of competence and character
to be effective ministers for Him?

Your prayers and your thoughtful
participation in this common venture
are urgently needed.

1 look forward to seeing many of
you in Services, Presbyteries and Sy-
nods.

May God bless and use you
through His Church in these demand-
ing days.

Faithfully yours,

J. Davison Philips

/. Erskine Love, Jr.
Chairman of Columbia's Board of Direc-
tors, will direct the Spring meeting of the
Board April 19-20 held on the campus.

KLINE APPRECIATION DAY
HELD AT COLUMBIA

Amid a spirit of joyfulness and
thanksgiving, more than 200 students,
faculty, alumni, members of the
Board of Directors and friends gath-
ered in the Tull Refectory on Thurs-
day, March 25, to offer appreciation
to Dr. C. Benton Kline, Jr., former
President of Columbia Seminary, for
his years of service as President.

Presentations were made by repre-
sentatives of the students, faculty,
alumni and Board, all paying tribute
to Ben as a friend, as one who was
more than faithful to his duties, and
their appreciation of him as a teacher.
Several gifts were given, including a
book of bound letters of appreciation,
financial assistance for his proposed
trip to Scotland, a chain saw for use
at his summer home and a cassette
tape of the luncheon proceedings.

It is interesting to note that with the
presence of Dr. Richards and Dr.
Philips at the luncheon, three of
Columbia Seminary's six presidents
were present.

"If a man has ability, achievement
is a joy. But to take the hard knocks
and come up smiling, to have your
mainsail blown away and then rig a
sheet on the bowsprit and sail on, this
is perhaps the deepest test of charac-
ter."

Harry Emerson Fosdick

COLUMBIA PREPARES
FOR VISITORS

Fifty men and women are now
registered for the Conference on the
Ministry to be held at Columbia at
the end of April. This conference is
for those who, some years following
their college graduation, have de-
cided to explore the ministry as a
vocation. To assist them in the com-
plex process of determining whether
or not God has called them to change
vocations Columbia offers a week-
end on the campus to meet with fac-
ulty and students, discuss in depth the
nature and meaning of a call, to
examine some of the dimensions of
ministry today and allow an oppor-
tunity for them to ask the practical
questions involved. As in the past,
a highly stimulating weekend is ex-
pected.

COMMENCEMENT,
BACCALAUREATE
SCHEDULED

'75 Ministry Conferees meet with Prof.
Wade Hide

WITH OUR ALUMNI

Dr. Robert I. Doom, CTS '55,
recently installed pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, St. Genevieve,
Missouri, has published a book en-
titled Faith That Matters and pre-
sented a copy to the.Seminary library.

The Rev. James D. Newsome, Jr.,
CTS '55, pastor of the Presbyterian
Church of Paducah, Kentucky, has
published a paper "Toward A New
Understanding of the Chronicler and
His Purposes" in the June, 1975, is-
sue of the Journal of Biblical Litera-
ture. He is spending this academic
year on leave from his parish studying
at Oxford. Mr. Newsome is serving
on the Alumni Council, also.

Columbia Church, site of Commencement
Exercises.

Approximately forty men and
women of Columbia will complete
their Seminary sojourn and receive
their degrees at Commencement ex-
ercises on Sunday, June 6, at the
Columbia Presbyterian Church, adja-
cent to the campus. Dr. George T.
Brown, Staff Director of the.Interna-
tional Mission Division of the GEB,
will offer the address at the 4 p.m.
exercises.

Baccalaureate services will be held
at the Decatur Presbyterian Church
at 1 1 o'clock the same Sunday morn-
ing with Dr. J. Phillips Noble preach-
ing the sermon. Dr. Noble, a member
of the Board of Directors of Colum-
bia, was chairman of the Search Com-
mittee which nominated Dr. Philips
for the Presidency of Columbia.

STUDENTS READY FOR
SUMMER MINISTRIES

Summer '76 approaches, but for
first year students the most important
fact is not the Bi-Centennial but
summer Supervised Ministry. Almost
thirty of Columbia's students have
already been placed and others are
in the process. A summer of super-
vised ministry is required of all
Columbia students as part of their
seminary training. The 10- week
period allows the student to partici-
pate in all phases of ministry in the
local church, giving most students the
first opportunity to serve in a live
parish situation.

Yontoq g

(A lumni Council, from Page 1 )

Current Officers

President

William A. Adams

Atlanta, Ga. '56

Vice-President

Robert Lawrence

Greenville, S.C. '52

Secretary- Treasurer

M. McCoy Franklin

Auburn, Al. '64

Past Officers

President

William M. Schotanus

Atlanta, Ga. '53

Vice-President

John L. Newton

Atlanta, Ga. '47

Secretary-Treasurer

William E. Hammond

Atlanta, Ga. '52

COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES

William G. Foster
Florence, S.C.
Everett H. Phillips
Bay Minette, Al.
John Leith
Richmond, Va.
Charles Moffatt
Gallatin, Tn.

Edward L. Hopper
Lexington, Ky.
C. Phil Esty
Jackson, Ms.

'39
'41

'43
'51
'52
'53

Roy W. Hicks
Gerald, Mo.

Archie Davis
Hollywood, Fl.

Murdoch Calhoun
Oklahoma City, Ok.

Richard Dodds
Pine Bluff, Ark.

James D. Newsome, Jr.
Paducah, Ky.

C. J. Hammet
Columbia, S. C.

P. C. Enniss, Jr.
Tallahassee, Fl.

George Dana Waters
Selma, Al.

Eugene B. Norris
Chattanooga, Tn.

Roland Perdue
Austin, Texas

Ben D. Dunagan
Meridian, Ms.

Randolph Kowalski
Greenville, S. C.

Robert Malsbary
Metairie, La.

James L. Peacock
Birmingham, Al.

William V. Arnold
Louisville, Ky.

James R. Wilburn
Jackson, Ms.

John Jey Deifell
Gaithersburg, Md.

'53
'54
'54
'54
'55
'57
'58
'58
'59
'59
'60
'60
'60
'63
'66
'66
'66

(Endowment, from Page I )

members and assisted by the Develop-
ment Office now exceed $85,000,"
and there are still some areas which
have not completed their efforts.
Funds have been put into the endow-
ment account to replace the $41,000
borrowed from it in 1973-74, and sal-
ary increases have been given to fac-
ulty and staff to allow a cost-of-living
adjustment in the area of 5% . The re-
maining unknown in the financial
equation for this fiscal year is what
the total amount received from the
Synods will be by June 30. There
still is the need for friends of the
Seminary to plan to include Colum-
bia in their giving programs before
July to ensure a balance of income
and expenditures in order to main-
tain and strengthen the enterprise of
theological education at Columbia
Seminary. Gifts may be sent to Dr.
J. Davison Philips at the Seminary.

J. Hunter Coleman
Jacksonville, Fl.

'68

H. Harrison Morgan
Albany, Ga.

'68

R. Leon Carroll
Charleston, W. Va.

'68

E. Joyce Rimes
Atlanta, Ga.

'73

Joyce C. Tucker
Marietta, Ga.

'75

W. Woodland Johnson
Highlands, N. C.

'76

Second Class
Postage
Paid at

Decatur, Ga.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, DECATUR, GEORGIA 30031

Vol. 70, No. 3 / April, 1976

Eugene H. Tennis, Editor

Published 7 times a year / Jan., Feb., Apr., May, July, Oct., Nov.

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

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