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New seminary president relishes 'opportunity to serve'

>Oct. 1, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

When the Rev. Wendy J. Deichmann Edwards was ordained, she saw herself
as a leader on the local level, not as an influence in the larger United
Methodist Church.

Now, as the new president of United Theological Seminary in suburban
Dayton, Ohio, she views her leadership role as "such a great opportunity
to serve."

Unanimously elected in February by United's board of trustees, Edwards
is the first woman president of a freestanding United Methodist seminary
in the United States.

The 50-year-old clergywoman from the denomination's Western New York
Conference will be inaugurated as the seminary's eighth president on
Oct. 7 during a 7 p.m. service at Christ United Methodist Church in
Kettering, Ohio.

In an age when mainline churches are shrinking, United Theological
Seminary is focusing on church renewal in a Holy Spirit-led way, Edwards
told United Methodist News Service.

Theological education, she pointed out, is all about fostering
leadership that goes out and makes a difference for Jesus Christ. "We
have the capacity to serve in ways that will turn the world upside
down," she declared.

Previously the academic dean and vice president for academic affairs,
Edwards was acting president for several months at United before her
election.

>Interest in teaching

"I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was little," said the
Connecticut native, who moved to upstate New York at age 16. She
attended the State University of New York at Geneseo and graduated in
1981 with a degree in education, but not before she felt the call to
ministry.

The following fall, she enrolled in Colgate Rochester Divinity School,
where she received a Master of Divinity degree in 1984, the same year
she was ordained a deacon. "I did not know at that time that education
would factor in as largely as it has in my living out that call to
ministry," Edwards said.

But she loved learning and was asked by two different professors to be a
teaching assistant in church history classes. "They both encouraged me
to go to graduate school and use my gift for teaching in theological
education," she said.

Her 1991 doctorate in theological and religious studies from Drew
University focused on American church history. During that period, she
was ordained an elder in 1989 and started serving in several pastoral
positions at local churches in New York and New Jersey.

She moved to Ohio for family reasons and, after her son's birth, began
inquiring about teaching opportunities there. The Rev. Leonard Sweet, a
mentor, was at United and she began commuting from Akron to Dayton to
teach there. Edwards also had teaching stints at Ashland (Ohio)
Theological Seminary and Colgate Rochester and was the director of
United's extension seminary in Buffalo, N.Y. When that extension closed,
she moved back to Ohio in 2005 to become academic dean at United.

United Theological Seminary moved from Dayton to its suburban Trotswood
campus that year. Edwards now lives due west of the new seminary in a
big brick farmhouse with her 15-year-old son, Lansing, and an assortment
of animals-40 chickens, four sheep, four cats and a dog.

>Outdated facilities

The move was needed because the outdated and maintenance-plagued United
facilities had become "a stumbling block" to fulfilling the school's
mission, according to Edwards. When the seminary purchased the current
campus, a former Jewish community center, "it had so many opportunities
around the direction the school wanted to take," she explained.

That direction retains the traditional mission of preparing pastors for
the church but with an emphasis on updated technology, long-distance
learning and new techniques for church renewal that allows both the
seminary and pastors "to be responsive to the new needs of the church
and the world in which we serve."

United has about 250 students, a substantial increase after enrollment
dropped because of the move. Younger students are enrolling as well as
second-career students. "The most rapidly increasing part of our student
body is the 20s and early 30s group," Edwards said.

During the past year, the seminary has completed a curriculum revision,
instituted "ramped-up" applied theology certificate programs for laity
and clergy and formed partnerships with a variety of local churches,
seminaries and denominational agencies. At the same time, the school has
retained its commitments to the urban and African-American communities
in the Dayton area.

The past life of the campus-with its indoor and outdoor pools,
gymnasium, tennis courts and large grounds-also allows the school to
address wellness issues as part of its theological education. The school
considers such issues a major concern for the denomination.

In partnership with Drew and Garrett seminaries, United is piloting a
"fit to lead" wellness program to raise consciousness and provide
resources to help seminary students lead healthier lives. "The clergy of
The United Methodist Church are among the least healthy and (are)
high-stressed," Edwards said. "The majority of these health problems are
directly related to unhealthy lifestyles."

>Women leading seminaries

Of the 13 United Methodist-related seminaries, eight are freestanding
and five are university-based. The presidents of the freestanding
seminaries are selected by a board of trustees, while the heads of
university-based seminaries-called deans-are hired by the university's
president and provost.

In 2000, Maxine Clarke Beach became the first woman to head a
university-based seminary when she was hired at Drew University in
Madison, N.J. In January 2007, Jan Love became the first woman to serve
as dean of Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. On
Jan. 1, the Rev. Mary Elizabeth Moore will become the first deacon to be
dean at Boston University School of Theology.

Love pointed out that just as the number of female bishops has increased
in the denomination, the number of female academic leaders has grown.
"One of the important generational changes is that we're now getting to
harvest leadership from women who got their Ph.D.s 20 and 30 years ago,
who are now at a point in their careers where they're available for CEO
leadership," she said.

Still, Love believes that schools of theology are "behind the curve" as
more women in secular higher education have been promoted. The
Association of Theological Schools, a professional organization, remains
"overwhelmingly male," she said.

Edwards noted that both United and Boston schools of theology have a
long history of supporting women in mission, although she wonders why it
took so long for women to reach the top.

Still, she is gratified that the seminary sought her out to be president
when she did not initially apply. "It made me proud of the institution I
worked for and proud of the church," she said.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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