Inform

Vol. 66 No. 3 April 1972 News Bulletin From Columbia Theological Seminary Decatur, Georgia

INAUGURAL EVENTS APRIL 13-15

T

-he three-day inaugural program for the
installation of the Rev. Dr. C. Benton
Kline, Jr., as president of Columbia
Theological Seminary will have more than
800 friends and distinguished vistors taking
part.

Presbytery representatives and church
and educational leaders will take part in
the service of inauguration on Saturday,
April 15. Dr. Kline will deliver the main
address, his inaugural lecture as president
and professor of theology.

The preceding evening, "The Seminary
and the Church: Partnership in Mission"

J. DAVISON PHILIPS

will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. James I.
McCord before the official representatives
to the inaugural. Dr. McCord has been
president of Princeton Theological Semi-
nary since 1959, coming to that post from
the deanship of Austin Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary.

Earlier Ministers Day (Friday, April 14)
the Rev. Dr. Leighton Ford will speak at
the luncheon sponsored by the Alumni
Association. His topic will be "Evangelism
in Crisis and Change". The alumni will also
elect their 1972-73 officers.

Dr. Ford, associate evangelist and vice
president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, is a Columbia Seminary and
Wheaton College graduate. His latest book
is One Way to Change the World. Mr. Ford
appears regularly on Insight, a daily TV
program, and Hour of Decision, a radio
program.

Thursday, April 13, will be Columbia
Friendship Circle Day when members of

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the CFC, primarily from the seminary's
five supporting synods of South Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida,
will gather on campus for their annual
meeting. Participants will hear the Rev. Dr.
J. Davison Philips, pastor of Decatur
Presbyterian Church, as their major speak-
er. They will also elect 1972-73 officers,
adopt their 1972-73 project, and tour the
campus.

That same evening (Thursday) Atlanta
Presbyterian leaders will be the seminary's
guests for a dinner meeting.

The Board of Directors' Planning Com-
mittee for the inauguration is chaired by
Dr. Wallace M. Alston and includes Mr.
Frank B. Davis, chairman of the board.
Board Member Arthur Magill, Professor
Jack B. McMichael, Professor Dean G.
McKee, Alumni Association President
Cook Freeman, Alumnus James Daughdrill,
and Students Burwell Bennett, James
McLain, and Eric Swenson.

JAMES I. McCORD

Inform

E

ROM THE PRESIDENT

This is an exciting time for ministry in the
church and also a turbulent time. It is a
time when serious and significant questions
are being asked about the church and
about the ministry of the church. The
re-alignment of synods is beginning to take
shape, though not without questions and
struggles. The re-organization of General
Assembly agencies will be voted on by this
General Assembly, and far-reaching
changes are proposed. A new confession of
faith will be presented for study some time
this summer, the product of three years of
hard work.

A group of our faculty, students, and
directors were participants in the Consulta-
tion on Ministry at Montreat in early
March, where for three days there was
searching discussion of the nature of minis-
try, the deployment of ministers, and the
possibility of more meaningful life and
mission for the church. Our own faculty
has been studying intensively a new cur-
riculum to prepare men and women to
minister more effectively in the church.

I welcome this stirring in the church. Of
course it is threatening to face so many
proposals for change. But the world we
must bring the Gospel to is a world in
change. We must be ready with better
means to minister, with a church able to
minister, with a ministry better prepared. I
think we are in the windy March of God's
springtime for the church.

C

OLUMBIA SEMINARY'S
FIVE PRESIDENTS

When C. Benton Kline, Jr., is inaugurated
president of Columbia Seminary on April
15, he will become the fifth holder of the
office in the institution's history.

The first mention of the term "presi-
dent" occurs 83 years after the seminary's
founding when Thornton C. Whaling was
elected president and professor of didactic
and polemic theology in 191 1. A Virginian
and a Columbia graduate. Dr. Whaling had
been professor of philosophy and eco-

WHALING

WELLS

nomics at Southwestern Presbyterian Uni-
versity and had held pastorates in South
Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and Texas. He
was a moderator of the General Assembly.
He resigned the presidency in 1921, and
made his home in Columbia, South Caro-
lina, where he died in 1938.

John Miller Wells became president and
professor of pastoral theology in 1921,
resigning in 1924. A Mississippian and a
graduate of Union Seminary (Virginia), Dr.
Wells held pastorates in Virginia, North
CaroHna, and South Carolina, and was
moderator of the General Assembly in
1917. He died in 1947.

An early purpose to prepare for an
active part in the leadership of Columbia
Seminary accounted for a deep and firm
loyalty in Richard Thomas Gillespie that
compelled him to accept the presidency,
serving Columbia from 1925 to 1930. He
had held pastorates in South Carolina and
Kentucky. He guided the move of the
seminary from Columbia, S. C, in 1927,
the erection of the new facilities, and the
campaign for the necessary financial re-
sources. "He literally poured out his life
into the new Columbia Seminary," states
Louis C. La Motte in Colored Light. Less
than a month after the graduation of the
first class to enter the seminary at its new
location. Dr. Gillespie was dead. La Motte
further states: "Almost at its founding,
Columbia Seminary was blessed with a
great unselfish and devoted leader in the
person of Dr. George Howe. At the crisis of
its existence, a great soul was raised up to

be the Joshua of the removal, Richard T.
Gillespie." A granddaughter, Sally Gillespie
Richardson, currently resides on the
campus; she is the wife of James T.
Richardson, director of admissions.

In 1932 James McDowell Richards was
called as president of the seminary. The
first year he was greeted by a deficit of
over $15,000; it is not surprising to those
who watched his presidency of nearly 39
years that only two years after that there
was a credit of $1. When called to the
seminary, Dr. Richards was in his second
pastorate since finishing his course of study
in 1928. During his tenure he removed the
seminary's debt and expanded the facili-
ties, faculty and student body by nearly
four times. He was moderator of the
General Assembly in 1955, and was a
"founding father" of the University Center
in Georgia and of the Atlanta Theological
Association. Dr. Richards is now retired
and living in Decatur. He was recently
elected to the Board of Trustees of the
University Center in Georgia.

During his 20 years as a church educator
in the southeast. Dr. Kline has been an
active presbyter while serving first Agnes
Scott College and now the seminary. A
former moderator of Atlanta Presbytery,
and a member of the General Assembly's
Permanent Theological Committee, Dr.
Kline is also a member of the Decatur
Board of Education. During the inaugural
ceremonies, Dr. Kline will also be installed
as professor of theology.

GILLESPIE

RICHARDS

B

D.

OARD TO RECEIVE
MIN. PROPOSAL IN MAY

The Doctor of Ministry Degree Committee
and the faculty of Columbia Seminary are
completing preparation of a proposal to
the Board of Directors concerning the
seminary's new degree programs for its
action in May.

Developed after an 18-month study by

Inform

the committee and the facuhy, the pro-
posal is for a two-tracked program: one for
a Master of Divinity degree, and one for a
D.Min. degree. Both sections offer students
intensive work in basic theological disci-
plines, development of professional com-
petencies, and involvement in a structured
practice of ministry under supervision.

It is expected that this new program will
begin in the fall of 1972.

The seminary is also discussing with the
Candler School of Theology and the Inter-
denominational Theological Center the de-
velopment of a D.Min. degree through the
Atlanta Theological Association for B.D. or
M.Div. degree holders. This degree will
recognize an individual's ministerial ex-
perience and formal continuing education
since receiving the basic degree. This may
be initiated in the fall of 1973.

XjaNEY and PHILLIPS
NAMED COMMENCEMENT
SPEAKERS

Dean James Thomas Laney of Candler
School of Theology and the Rev. Dr. J.
Davison Philips, pastor of the Decatur
(Ga.) Presbyterian Church,will be com-
mencement and baccalaureate speaker, re-
spectively, at the Columbia Seminary cere-
monies on June 4.

Dr. Philips, the baccalaureate preacher,
was chairman of the Columbia Board of
Directors from 1966 to 1971.

Dr. Laney, the commencement speaker,
became dean of the Candler School of
Theology at Emory University in 1969,
and is currently Chairman of the Board of
the Atlanta Theological Association.

The author of On Being Responsible,
Dr. Laney has also published five essays,
held the Beecher Lectureship (Yale Uni-
versity), and delivered numerous special
lectures.

C

CAPITAL FUNDS DRIVE
HALFWAY TO
$5 MILLION GOAL

Columbia has passed the half-way mark
toward its current $5 million capital funds
goal. With the receipt in January of
$50,000 claimed from one of the donors of
the "Challenge Fund," gifts received total-
ed $2,522,970.

Pledges received in the campaign push
the total well past the $3 million mark.

"By claiming this part of the 'Challenge
Fund' we are meeting our schedule for the
Columbia Challenge Campaign," com-
mented Steve Bacon, Columbia's Vice
President for Development, "and we feel
confident the entire goal will be reached by
1975 as planned."

Three Synod campaigns will complete
the program. Solicitation for the J.
McDowell Richards Fund for Graduate and
Continuing Education in Georgia and the
Columbia Challenge Campaign in South
Carolina will be completed this year. In
Mississippi campaign leaders are beginrung
to work now on plans for solicitation there
this fall.

COLUMBIA FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE

1971-72 Richards

Fund Project

Synod Memberships

Gifts

Ala. 353

$ 1,302.05

Fla. 901

3,138.88

Ga. 1,332

4,214.79

Miss. 751

1,362.85

S. C. 634

2,444.40

Other

15.00

3,971

$12,477.97

R,

.OCK EAGLE SLIDE
PRESENTATION READY FOR
CHURCHES' USE

A slide and tape presentation to tell what
the Rock Eagle Missions Conference is all
about has been prepared by Miss Mary
Bettis, a Columbia junior who is a member
of the planning committee for the con-
ference.

"Rock Eagle is a place; Rock Eagle is a
conference; Rock Eagle is people," says
Miss Bettis, so most of the slides are of
people attending and leading the con-
ference in previous years.

The presentation is available for use
prior to this year's April 28-30 conference
by churches that request audio-visuals or a
seminary group to talk about Rock Eagle.

After graduation. Miss Bettis would like
to be in the local parish ("because that's
where the action is") with responsibilities
for counseling and youth work. But right
now she is helping Howard Shockley,
president of the sponsoring Society for
Missionary Inquiry, put the finishing
touches on this year's Rock Eagle Con-
ference, April 28-30. Requests for applica-
tions must be received by April 10, and
should be sent to: SMI, Columbia
Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, 30031.

JLaCULTY PROFILE:

SAMUEL ANTOINE CARTLEDGE

"Nudges" or outright pushes at certain
points in his life have been responsible for
the fact that Samuel Antoine Cartledge is
now completing thirty-nine years on the
faculty of Columbia Seminary.

After his graduation from the University
of Georgia (with an A. B. in 1924 and an
A. M. in Greek in 1925), Mr. Cartledge
joined the staff at Riverside Military
Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, to obtain
enough money to enter Princeton Semi-
nary. But, during the year, Dr. Richard T.
Gillespie, then Columbia's president per-
suaded him it would be more appropriate
to attend a seminary at home. His birth
into the Columbia family, then, dates from
1926.

His student days on the old (Columbia,
South Carolina) campus were marked by
filling coal scuttles and cutting kindling
every morning, classes in the old chapel,
the move to Atlanta, the 1828 General
Assembly on campus (with muddy dirt
roads making it "not the happiest situ-
ation, but at least they came").

Entering as the largest class in the
seminary's history (41 men), the group had
31 graduates three years later, many of
whom had had Mr. Cartledge as their Greek
instructor.

Columbia's Bryan Fellowship made
possible his doctoral work at the University
of Chicago in New Testament, which he
pursued summers during seminary and
completed the year after. He had accepted
a position at Davidson College, but Colum-
bia's New Testament professor was return-
ing to the pastorate, so he was "accident-
ally forced into" joining Columbia's
faculty by Dr. Gillespie.

In the summer of 1930 Dr. Cartledge
and his bride moved into a six-room
apartment in what is now Simons-Law
Hall, living right above Dr. McPheeters.
During the Thirties, he recalls, the faculty
was half "older wise men" (Professors
McPheeters, Clark, and Kerr) and half
"younger wise men" (William Childs

Inform

Robinson, J. McDowell Richards, and him-
selO- Among his students during this
period were Peter Marshall, Wallace Alston
(now president of Agnes Scott College) and
Cecil Thompson, who later became a
Columbia faculty member. In general, he
feels, "there have been good students and
poor ones, but most have been pretty
faithful". (The "baby Greek" class of last
summer he found to be the best he has ever
had.)

When Dr. Cartledge published his
second book, A Conservative Introduction
to the Old Testament in 1942, it very
nearly brought a heresy trial, amazing as
that now seems. Of that experience, he
says only, "There were more heresy hunt-
ers in those days". Undaunted, he went on
to publish another four volumes, and
numerous contributions to The Interpre-
ter's Dictionary of the Bible, Dictionary of
Theology, and Presbyterian Outlook. For
thirty-four years he has prepared the week-
ly Sunday School lessons in the Christian
Observer, even writing a whole year's sup-
ply before he left for his sabbatical in
England in 1965-66.

During his forty-two years in Athens
Presbytery, Dr. Cartledge has been seven
times its moderator. In other church ser-
vice, he has been a member of the General
Assembly's former Christian Education
Council, and a chairman of the Synod's
Work Committee of the Synod of Georgia.
He has also been a chaplain in the U. S.
Penitentiary in Atlanta and with the
United States Army Reserves. Agnes Scott
College, Emory University, the Presby-
terian School of Christian Education, and
the Winona Lake Summer School of Theol-
ogy have wisely made use of his abilities.

Beyond his contributions to the larger
Church, he has been a "repeat" interim
supply at several Georgia churches: Austell,

Cartersville, Central in Athens (his father's
former pastorate), and First in Athens.
During a year he will preach more than half
the Sundays, and finds the interplay
between the seminary setting and the local
church most refreshing, both personally,
and for his teaching.

Doctoral degrees were not common
when Dr. Cartledge joined the faculty, but
there has been a growing emphasis on
graduate study for professors. Now, he
notes happily, every faculty member either
holds a doctorate or is working on one.

Looking back over his four decades with
the seminary. Dr. Cartledge feels that the
seminary's stress on keeping up to date
educationally is tied very closely with the
Presbyterian Church's emphasis on theol-
ogy and the responsibility it feels for
thorough academic preparation for its
ministry. Over the years he has watched an
openness to use of new educational
methods and curriculum plans strengthen
the preparation of the seminary and its
students to minister.

With satisfaction. Dr. Cartledge com-
ments on the denomination's recognition
of Columbia as "a good seminary worthy
of its support". Even though pastorates
have been very attractive, he has felt that
the seminary is where he can "render the
greatest service to the Church". That con-
viction has not wavered, even to the point
of his saying he would "do it over again
but more intelligently!"

President GUlespie's argument per-
meated the mind of Samuel A. Cartledge,
not just in 1926, but his life on through
the forty-six years since then: he still
firmly believes that a southern Presbyterian
seminary is the best place to train for
ministry in the Presbyterian Church, US,
and he has spent these years giving life to
that premise.

E,

fLLIGAN IS VIPM
FOR SPRING QUARTER

The Rev. Irvin Elligan, Jr., will be Colum-
bia's Visiting Instructor in Pastoral Minis-
try for the spring quarter.

Pastor of Miami's New Covenant Presby-
terian Church since 1970, Mr. Elligan has
held pastorates in Virginia, Tennessee, and
Florida. A native of Chattanooga, Term.,
he is a graduate of Knoxville College and
Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary, and was award-
ed a D.D. degree by Stillman College.

Mr. Elligan is secretary of the Black
Presbyterian Leadership Caucus, chairman
of the Greater Miami Council on Human
Relations, and of Everglades Presbytery
Committee on Institutions, and is a mem-
ber of the boards of the Florida Christian
Migrant Ministry, Stillman College, and the
Miami NAACP.

<

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Vol, 66, No 3 /April 1972

Elizabeth Andrews, Editor

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

Inform

DECATUR, GEORGIA

30031

SECOND CLASS

POSTAGE

PAID AT
DECATUR, GA