Columbia Theological Seminary Inform, 66, number 6, October 1972

Inform

Vol. 66 No. 6 October 1972 News Bulletin From Columbia Theological Seminary Decatur, Georgia

ALUMNI, SMYTH LECTURES SET

T

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.wo distinguished churchmen will be
the Alumni and Smyth Lecturers on
Columbia's campus during the 1972-73
academic year.

"Putting it Together in the Parish" will
be the topic of Alumni Lecturer James D.
Glasse, president of Lancaster (Pa.) Theo-
logical Seminary, for Ministers' Week, Jan.
8-10, 1973. The program for the week is
specifically designed for those at work in
ministry.

The Rev. Dr. Wilhelm Pauck has given
the title "The Religion of the Protestant
Reformers" to the 1973 Smyth Lectures,
scheduled for the week of March 26. These
Lectures on the Thomas Smyth Founda-
tion were established in 1911 by a bequest
of the Rev. Thomas Smyth, long-time
pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church
of Charleston, S. C.

The Alumni Council and the faculty-
student worship and convocations com-
mittee are working with President Glasse to
develop a full schedule of activities for
participants in Ministers' Week. He has said
he will be discussing it from the viewpoint
of "the pastorate as a specialized and
experimental ministry".

At their annual luncheon, on Tues., Jan.
9, the alumni will honor the Rev. Dr.
Samuel A. Cartledge, who retires at the end
of the academic year after 42 years on
Columbia's faculty.

Dr. Glasse, who assumed the presidency
of Lancaster in the fall of 1970, will bring
a broad understanding of ministry to his
presentations from his background as a
pastor, professor and director of field
education.

He has served pastorates in North Caro-
lina and Tennessee, and has been mod-
erator of the United Presbyterian Holston
and Nashville Presbyteries. His nearly 20
years of involvement in theological educa-
tion began in 1953 when he was named
assistant director of field work and director
of professional studies at Yale Divinity
School. He was director of field education,
professor of practical theology and
associate dean of the divinity school at
Vanderbilt University between 1956 and
1970. During one year, he was also visiting
professor of ministry and management in
the Graduate School of Management.

Dr. Glasse is a contributing editor of
Presbyterian Outlook, co-author of Educa-
tion for Ministry, and author of Profession:
Minister and Putting it Together in the
Parish. He earned his undergraduate degree
at Occidental College (Los Angeles) and his
divinity degree at Yale Divinity School.

Prof. Wilhelm Pauck, noted Reforma-
tion scholar, will divide his lectures on the
Smyth Foundation in four parts: "The
Basic Structure of the Reformers' Faith",
"Martin Luther", "John Calvin", and "The
Anabaptists".

Born and educated in Germany (Uni-
versity of Berlin for both undergraduate
and theological studies), Prof. Pauck's
teaching career has been in the United
States, first at the Chicago Theological
Seminary, then at the University of
Chicago, Union Theological Seminary
(New York), and Vanderbilt University
Divinity School, where he and Dr. Glasse
were colleagues. He is now visiting pro-
fessor of religion at Stanford University.

Prof. Pauck's writings include Das Reich
Gottes auf h'rden; Karl Barth, Prophet of a
New Christianity"^ The Church Against the
World: the Heritage of the Reformation:
Luther's Lectures on Romans: Melanch-
thon and Bucer: and Harnack and
Troeltsch, Two Historical Theologians.

Inform

F,

ROM THE PRESIDENT

We hear a great deal these days about di-
versity in the cliurch, and we also hear
about that diversity producing division or
being accepted in reconciliation. We at
Columbia Seminary have lived with diversi-
ty a long time. We are firmly committed to
the belief that divershy in itself is no cause
for dividing the church. We seek ways of
being reconciled so that our diversity is set
in the context of our basic unity.

It seems to me that two things are
needed in the life of our church today. The
first of these is to correct our vision of
priorities, so that we can see what is truly
important the witness we are called to
bear to the gospel of Jesus Christ. To be
critical of those who see that witness as
involving social action or of those who do
not, to sit in judgment on those who use a
particular form of personal witnessing or
those who do not - to spend all our energy
on criticism, judgment, and controversy is
an evasion of our mission as servants of
Jesus Christ. We need to get on with that
mission, and in that need we are truly
united.

Ihe second thing that is needed in our
life is fairness. To talk of reconciliation, to
hold listening sessions, is meaningless un-
less we are willing to act in fairness.
Fairness involves providing adequate repre-
sentation in decision-making bodies. It
involves willingness to engage in debate and
to be convinced by the Holy Spirit and
Scripture. It involves not pushing for
decisions prematurely simply because the
voting strength has been calculated.

The 17th century preacher, Richard
Baxter, put it this way: "In necessary
things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in
all things, charity." And the apostle Paul
said it from prison to the Philippian
Church: "Some indeed preach Christ from
envy and rivalry, but others from good
will . . . What then? Only that in every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice."
(Philippians 1:15, 18)

My prayer is that we may achieve in our
church that sense of priority and that
fairness.

N

lEW YEAR OPENS
WITH 184 ENROLLED

Olin Marsh Whitener, Jr., Charlotte, N. C,
is one of the 184 students at Columbia
Seminary this fall. Son of Mrs. 0. M.
Whitener, Sr.. of Montreat, and the late Mr.
Whitener, he enrolled in the Master of
Divinity program this fall with the hope of
being accepted into the Doctor of Ministry
program in about two years.

Olin, shown below with Dean Charles B.
Cousar, came to Columbia specifically for
this possibility. When he was living in
Greenville, S. C, he attended Fourth Pres-
byterian Church where he came to know
John Payne, a 1969 graduate of Columbia,
who was then in an intern year at the
church. Olin, a salesman of computer
business forms for Standard Register, de-
cided during this time that the ministry
was where he ought to be.

Partially because of Mr. Payne's in-
tluence, he considered a year of supervised
ministry as an integral part of his decision.
"I anxiously await that year; I wouldn't do
anything to deny myself and the people I
will minister to that one year just to finish
seminary more quickly," he says. "In all
honesty, too," he adds, "I cannot deny the
impact of a doctorate degree in a degree-
oriented society." Olin earned his B.A.
degree in English at the University of
North Carolina in May of this year.

Of the 184 students, 109 are enrolled in
the undergraduate program (Master of
Divinity), 22 are Master of Theology
candidates, 8 are in the Doctor of Sacred
Theology program, 19 are auditing courses,
and 1 is in an intern year program.

Students who have completed two com-
ponents (roughly equivalent to two aca-
demic years) can apply for admission to
degree candidacy in the D. Min. program.
If admitted, they can then expect to earn
the degree after the satisfactory com-
pletion of an additional two components,
including a 12-month period of supervised
field ministry, in combination with certain
academic work.

M,

ISSISSIPPI
CAMPAIGN PASSES $30,000

Over $30,000 in advance gifts has been
received in the Columbia Campaign in
Mississippi toward a goal of S350,000 for
student aid, student housing, campus ex-
pansion, general endowment, and a pro-
gram of graduate and continuing education
for pastors. Solicitation of pledges from
the churches will take place during October
and November.

Coinciding with the completion of
Columbia's first 50 years as an institution
of the Synod of Mississippi, the campaign
looks ahead to a second half-century of
partnership in training men and women for
the Gospel ministry.

In a recent interview. Dr. CecU
Thompson, a member of Columbia's Board
of Directors and the pastor of Central
Presbyterian Church in Jackson, com-
mented that "The Church today needs
ministers who are 'truly furnished unto
every good work', prepared to minister as
spiritual shepherds to all the needs of all
ages. The Church must provide the means
for our seminary to prepare men and
women (who are) adequately equipped as
proclaimers of God's Word and shepherds
of the sheep."

In recognition of the need to "provide
the means", the Synod of Mississippi
authorized the present campaign. Ministers
and laymen across the Synod have accept-
ed positions of leadership and are con-
ducting the carnpaign in the seminary's
behalf. Plans call for the major solicitation
efforts to be completed in 1972, with
pledge payments extending for three years.

I^TUDENTS FORM
NEW GOVERNMENT

A new plan of student government has
been established at Columbia. Using the
representative structure of state and
national government, it is organized in
three branches executive, legislative, and
judicial and four major committees
(community life, community service, aca-
demics, communications).

Senior William J. Holmes of Columbia,
S. C, its first president, and -Senior B.
Bradford Hestir, III, Atlanta, the vice
president, were the chief architects of the
new plan. "To facilitate community'among
the seminary family, it was felt leadership
from all the classes and from all the living
areas (not just campus organizations)
would be the most helpful," Brad explain-
ed. "We're hoping to generally improve
community life and to help the wives of
students feel more involvement in the
seminary process," added Bill.

Inform

Po

Hestir

Holmes

Other officers in the executive branch
are Beverly H. Smith, Winfred, S. D., secre-
tary, and Thomas H. Barclay, Corpus
Christi, Tex., treasurer. Sr. J. Mark
Wilburn, Jackson, Miss., is chief justice of
the judicial branch, and the other members
are Jerald H. Bailey, Dothan, Ala., Dewey
Bowen, LaGrange, Ga., Joseph E. Ross-
man, Albany. Ga., and P. David Snellgrove,
Columbus, Miss.

Legislative branch representatives are
Fahed Abu Akel, Galilee, Israel, W. S.
Barton, Daytona Beach, Fla., Mary M.
Bettis, Knoxville, Tenn., Margarita Ana
Boyce, Mexico, Dorothy Burgess, Mon-
treat, N. C, John S. Carothers, III,
Birmingliam, Ala., Scott C. Girard,
Charlotte, N. C, Michael B. McCrorey,
Atlanta, Ga., Richard P. Neldon, Atlanta,
Ga., John A. Roper, Wagram, N. C, Etta C.
Rossman, Pulaski, Va., Thomas J. Aycock,
Jacksonville, Fla., Sheryl Aycock, Tampa,
Fla., Bennett E. Cox, Mooresville, N. C,
William P. Lancaster, Sparjtanburg, S. C, A.
Lamar Potts, Newnan, Ga., and Glenn A.
Ruggles, Dade City, Fla.

Wo

rOMEN'S COURSE
INITIATED

A course on the emerging role of women in
church and society and a coordinator of
womein's activities are the first actions of
the women's studies program initiated this
fall by the Atlanta Theological Association
and the Atlanta Committee on Women and
Religion. The four schools involved are
Candler School of Theology, Columbia
Theological Seminary, Erskine Theological
Seminary, and the Interdenominational
Theological Center.

Columbia enrolls 18 of the nearly 50
women students at the four seminaries.
According to Director of Field Education
J. Richard Bass, Columbia's seven rising
middler and senior women in the field
education program were all placed in
pastoral situations this past summer. "They
are also doing Sunday supply preaching,"
he added.

OSSIBILITIES FOR
MINISTRY DATES
ANNOUNCED

Weekend conferences in November and
February and three student teams are part
of a new Columbia program for discussing
the Possibilities for Ministry with men and
women considering the ministry.

Two teams of students are being select-
ed and trained for programs in local
churches to give particular emphasis on
evangelism. A third team will host visitors
on campus.

The Nov. 10-12 conference is designed
especially for couples who are considering
vocational change, while the Feb. 2-4
conference is planned for college students
considering the ministry.

Conference leaders will be Columbia
Seminary faculty members and students
and pastors of Atlanta area churches. Call-
ing, ministries, and seminary training will
be considered in a format that combines
presentations with informal opportunities
for participants to discuss their own
questions with conference leaders.

The total program of conferences and
team ministries is an attempt to assist
individuals and the churches from which
they come to think through questions
about their vocational choice in light of
God's call. Faculty members and students
will seek to supplement the ministry of
I pastors and local church leaders by sharing
their own experiences and providing
additional factual information about the
possibilities for ministry today.

The student host team members are
M.Div. candidates Joyce Rimes, shown
below with Vice President Steve Bacon,
Lamar Potts, William Carr, and John
Roper. All except Miss Rimes, a senior, are
middlers. Mr. Carr, son of Mr. and Mrs.
William B. Carr, Sr., of Matthews, N. C,
received his B.A. degree in political science
from Davidson College in 1968. A former
ambulance driver-attendant and police
officer, Mr. Carr also served two years with
the U. S. Army med'ical seiA'ice corps. He
was discharged, after a Vietnam tour of
duty, with the rank of first lieutenant.
While at Columbia, he has been student
assistant at Columbia Presbyterian Church,
Decatur.

Ordained an elder in 1961, Mr. Potts
owned his own concrete and construction
business from 1958 to 1968 in Newnan,
Ga. He served two years with the United
States Army artillery corps. This past
summer he was student assistant at Jack-
son, Miss., Central Presbyterian Church. A
candidate under care of the Presbytery of
Atlanta, he is the son of Mrs. Lamar Potts
of Newnan and the late Mr. Potts.

Miss Rimes, president of the Society for
Theological Scholarship at Columbia, re-
ceived a B.A. degree in religion from
Stetson University in 1962. Since that time
she has been director of Christian educa-
tion at First Presbyterian, Palatka, Fla.;
Arlington Presbyterian, Jacksonville, Fla.;
and First Presbyterian, Birmingham, Ala.
During the summer of 1972, Miss Rimes
directed the Bay Treat Center of the
Mobile Government Street Presbyterian
Church. She is under care of Birmingham
Presbytery.

Mr. Roper, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. A.
Roper of Wagram, N. C, received his B.A.
degree in history from St. Andrews College
where he was elected to Who's Who Among
American Students in Colleges and Uni-
versities. He is under care of Fayetteville
Presbytery.

C

ONTINUING
EDUCATION SCHEDULED

Eleven Continuing Education Programs
have been scheduled for the 1972-73 aca-
demic year. Nearly 250 ministers and lay
persons will participate in the two- to
ten-day events with Columbia professors
and other resource people as the leaders.

Participants will be responsible only for
their own travel expenses and a nominal
fee for the course (usually S25); room and
board during the session is provided by the
seminary.

Inquiries for further details should be
mnde to Dean A. Milton Riviere.

Plans for the year's schedule include:
Church Officer Development Workshop
(Oct. 10-19), Pastoral Care of Families
(Oct. 31 -Nov. 9), Theology, Ministry, and
Economic Systems (Nov. 16-18), Group
Dynamics Training Workshop (Nov.
27-Dec. 1). Atlanta Presbytery Adult
Leader Training Workshop (Dec. 8-10),
Clinical Pastoral Practicum (Jan. 9-18),
Communication Through Mass Media (Feb.
5-10), Growth in Ministry: Worship with
Preaciiing (Feb. 20-Mar. 1), Preaclicr -
Camera - Playback (Apr. 2-4), (irowih in
Ministry: Contemporary Issues in Church
and Society (Apr. 24-May 3), Growth in
Ministry: Exploring Prophetic Ways (Mav
8-17).

Inform

M,

cKEE VISITS
NEAR EAST

In the summer of 1971, Dr. Dean G.
McKee, Columbia professor of Biblical
exposition, and rising senior Mark Wil-
burn, a football player from Jackson, Miss.,
spent three months traveling in the Near
East - or, as Mark puts it, "he ran the legs
off of me".

Since his return, he has spent countless
hours sorting, cataloging, and putting in
order the slides he took during the trip in
preparation for his very popular lecture
"The Middle East Speaks to the Church
througlT Crises Ancient and Modern", his
successful attempt to combine Bible study
with illustration so that this "broader
perspective gives force and power to the
particulars" of in-depth Bible study. This
year he has traveled to many parts of the
Church to give the lecture nearly a dozen
times before various groups.

This kind of approach to his teaching,
coupled with his conviction "never to meet
a class without an awareness of God,
making the students aware of Him in their
lives, so that the crises of life still show
God's purposes for us", make his teaching
a vibrant experience.

This former seminary president (Bibli-
cal, New York) started his educational

career in mathematics, but found himself
interested in political and social issues. So,
even though a friend pursuaded him to
enter Biblical Seminary, he was still plan-
ning to do a masters degree in mathe-
matics. He found an exciting influence in
the late Dr. Howard Kuist and, when he
went on sabbatical, taught his beginning
Greek course for him, finding, to his
surprise, that he was remaining on the
faculty there for more than 30 years.

Tapped repeatedly for administrative
responsibilities (which he never wanted,
and considers a great test of patience). Dr.
McKee became president in 1946, resigning
in 1960 because he wanted to get back to
teaching.

His urge to return to teaching is com-
pelling when he talks about it:

"Teaching and preaching are an un-
believable effort; I feel great empathy with
Moses when he argues with God that he
didn't have the gift of gab."

"I want ministers to be the best teachers
in their churches, so I'm trying to teach
them how to teach themselves. I have to
discipline myself not to lecture because I
want to keep my classes active with partici-
pation, freedom, relaxed but working as
hard as I do in the teaching function."

"I want to keep students concerned
about God at work in the institutional
Church and in people."

When his strong feelings about church
music ("you can measure the piety and test
the attitudes of a congregation by the way
it sings and by the quality of the music it
uses") and his precise and beautiful
carpentry are added to this picture, it is
easy to see why his unique, rich contri-
bution to the life of Columbia permeates
the lives of its students and faculty.

Photos on pages 2, 3, 4 by Richard Stanford,
class of 1973.

H

OPEWELL IS NEW
A.T. A. DIRECTOR

James Franklin Hopewell is the new execu-
tive director of the Atlanta Theological
Association as "God's retribution for an
ecumenical bureaucrat who has pontifi-
cated for ten years about theological edu-
cation," he says.

Columbia Seminary welcomed him to
his new post Sept. 1, along with the other
participants in the ATA: Candler School of
Theology, Interdenominational Theological
Center, Erskine Theological Seminary,
Urban Training Organization of Atlanta,
and the Georgia Association for Pastoral
Care.

From 1960 to 1967, Dr. Hopewell was
associate director and then director of the
Theological Education Fund of the World
Council of Churches. Before that he had
been dean of the divinity school and vice
president of Cuttington College and
Divinity School in Liberia where he was
also professor of Bible and comparative
religion. Since returning to this country in
1970 he has been professor of religion in
contemporary sub-Saharan African society
at the Hartford Seminary Foundation.

"Right now, I've been doing an awful
lot of listening, and I am impressed by the
breadth of the ecclesiastical, academic,
ethnic, and training possibilities in the
ATA mix," he added. The chance to partic-
ipate in producing a better ministry
through ecumenical theological education
and the possibility of working out the
general principles of it in a concrete setting
were the main attraction to him of this
new position.

Dr. Hopewell sees a move to more
substantive discussion of ministry and
mission and the manner in which the
schools will accomplish this.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY DECATUR, GEORGIA

Vol. 66, No. 6 /October 1972

Elizabeth Andrews, Editor

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

30031

Inform

SECOND CLASS

POSTAGE

PAID AT
DECATUR, GA