New leader for library association

The board of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) has appointed Brenda Bailey-Hainer as its new executive director.

Bailey-Hainer was previously chief executive of the Bibliographical Center for Research in Aurora, Colorado. She has also served as director of networking and resource sharing at the Colorado State Library in Denver. She is a graduate of the University of South Dakota and Kent State University. Established in 1946, the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) is a professional association for theological and religious studies libraries. Its ATLAS online serials database is found in most academic libraries and is available to seminary alumni through a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Name change for Mars Hill Graduate School 

In April, the board of trustees of Mars Hill Graduate School voted to change the institution's name to The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. The name change will take effect this summer.

The Seattle Times reported that many local residents have been confused about the relationship between the 260-student school and the nearby 10,000-member Mars Hill Church. The two institutions are not affiliated, despite their similar names.

Mars Hill Graduate School, which identifies itself as a "progressive nondenominational Christian graduate school," is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) and is a candidate for accreditation by the Association of Theological Schools. Founded in 1997 as a branch of Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, the school became independent in 2000.

Selected grants from the Henry Luce Foundation

Andover Newton Theological School: $285,000 to expand interreligious leadership training program.

Auburn Theological Seminary: $360,000 for renewed support of Center for Multifaith Education, and $30,000 to support public education about anniversary of September 11, 2001.

Drew University Theological School: $215,000 for Center for Christianities in Global Contexts.

Lancaster Theological Seminary: $350,000 for collaborative program on religious pluralism with the Institute of Religion, Culture, and Peace of Payap University in Thailand. New Brunswick Theological Seminary: $350,000 for Horace G. Underwood Chair of Global Christianity.

Other recent grants and gifts

Chicago Theological Seminary: $1 million unrestricted grant from Clark Family Foundation on recommendation of Don and Ellen Clark. Don Clark is chair of seminary's board of trustees.

Claremont School of Theology: $40 million from Joan and David Lincoln. With an additional $10 million given last year, the gift will create a new multifaith university, Claremont Lincoln University. Claremont School of Theology will remain a United Methodist seminary under the new university umbrella, as will separate graduate schools offering ministerial training to Muslims and Jews.

San Francisco Theological Seminary: $1.5 million pledge from Dr. and Mrs. John F. Shaw for renovation of Landon Hall student apartments.

Changes at the top

Albert Mosley

■  The Rev. Albert Mosley has been named dean-president of Gammon Theological Seminary, a United Methodist institution that is one of the constituent seminaries of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. He succeeds the Rev. Alfred L. Norris, a Methodist bishop who came out of retirement to serve as the seminary's interim leader after the previous dean-president's contract was not renewed.

Mosley is a graduate of Millsaps College, Duke University, and Yale University, and he is enrolled in a doctoral program in higher education administration at Fordham University. Ordained in the United Methodist Church, he was formerly pastor of Janes Memorial United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. At the time of his appointment to lead Gammon Seminary, Mosley was university chaplain at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

John Horn

■  Jesuit Father John Horn has been appointed rector-president of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, the college and graduate seminary of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri. He succeeds interim rector-president Father Michael Witt, who continues as associate professor of church history at the seminary. The previous rector-president, Msgr. Ted L. Wojcicki, who led the seminary from 2002 to 2010, is now pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri. Father Horn is a founder of the Institute for Priestly Formation located on the campus of Creighton University in Nebraska, where he has most recently been serving as director of program development. Previously he was a chaplain in the Jesuit Refugee Service, a teacher and chaplain at Scranton Preparatory High School, and a retreat director in Pennsylvania.

Ordained in 1985 in the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Father Horn is a graduate of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Creighton University, and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

■ Dr. Pamela Dickey Young has been appointed interim principal of the Queen's School of Religion in Kingston, Ontario, as well as head of the department of religious studies, for a one-year term. Formerly called Queen's Theological College and still affiliated with the United Church of Canada, the school of religion is pursuing reintegration with Queen's University, from which it separated in 1912. Young's responsibilities during the year include representing Queen's School of Religion in the ongoing affiliation discussions. 

Pamela Dickey Young

Young is a professor in the school of religion and was formerly head of the department of religious studies at Queen's University. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University, the Atlantic School of Theology, and Southern Methodist University.

She succeeds the Rev. Jean Stairs, who has retired after ten years as principal. Stairs will immediately begin a grant-funded research project on the spirituality of non-traditional women's groups in the United Church of Canada.

■ The Rev. Marvin A. McMickle has been elected president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New  York. McMickle will assume part-time duties this summer and will begin his full-time service on January 1, 2012. He replaces Bishop Jack M. McKelvey, retired head of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, who has been serving as interim president since last year and will work with McMickle during the transition period. 

McMickle is a graduate of Aurora University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Case Western Reserve University. He was ordained in 1973 at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, where he served on the pastoral staff. Later he was pastor of churches in Montclair, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio. Since 1996 he has been a full-time faculty member at Ashland Theological Seminary, most recently as professor of homiletics. 

McMickle and his wife, Peggy Lorraine Noble, have one adult son.

Episcopal seminaries move toward closer collaboration

Trustees of Bexley Hall in Ohio and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois have ratified a joint operating agreement that will extend through June 30, 2012. During that time, a joint trustee committee will draft proposals for a permanent partnership between the two Episcopal seminaries.

The schools began discussions in 2007, facilitated by a team from Auburn Seminary's Center for the Study of Theological Education. A $40,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation helped fund the negotiations.

The plan calls for the schools to share personnel in financial services, fundraising, communications, and other operations. Budgets will remain separate, though closely coordinated, and faculty will work toward joint operations.

From July 1, 2011, until June 30, 2012, Seabury's interim dean and president, Robert Bottoms, will serve as the interim joint president of both Seabury and Bexley. During this time, the boards of the two seminaries will study the model of having a single leader with the intent of searching for a permanent joint president.

The Bexley board has appointed Thomas Ferguson as the new dean of Bexley Hall, responsible for day-to-day operations on the Columbus, Ohio, campus. Ferguson is currently ecumenical and interreligious relations officer for the Episcopal Church. In his new position he will report to interim president Robert Bottoms.

Overall enrollment at theological schools remained flat in 2010 

Source: Association of Theological Schools

A cursory look at the 2010 theological school enrollment figures suggests that the head count declines of the past four years have been stanched. Among the 261 schools affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS), total head count enrollment reached 75,898 in fall 2010, up from 75,431 in the previous year. For the previous several years, overall enrollment at ATS schools had declined each year.

The increase in 2010 is attributable to the entry of 11 new schools into the association, with a combined head count of about 1,000. When a constant set of 245 schools is counted — all of which have been members of ATS for at least five years — the enrollment figures reflect continued slow decline.

Master of divinity programs continue to enroll the largest number of students: M.Div. candidates composed 42 percent of new students in fall 2010 (3,500 out of 8,300) and 43 percent of total head count (32,780 out of 75,898).

Women represented 34 percent of the total head count enrollment, and the racial/ethnic composition of students who reported ethnicity remained relatively steady: 64 percent white, 13 percent black, 7 percent Asian, 5 percent Hispanic, and 0.4 percent Native American. Nearly 10 percent of those reporting ethnicity designated themselves as visa (i.e., foreign) students.