Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Muslim College Buys ELCA Lutheran Seminary Campus in Berkeley



Muslim college buys Lutheran seminary campus in Berkeley:



"Spokeswoman Karin Grennan said admissions at the seminary have fallen off, but it also wanted to be able to provide its graduate students opportunities to work with social service agencies and develop urban ministries near downtown Berkeley.

Pacific Lutheran has 49 students enrolled in various degree programs. It had occupied the hilltop campus, with six buildings, for 64 years."

 Mose drawing water from a rock - Pacific Seminary.

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Berkeley Residents Worry, Cal Lutheran Says -

 "The 6.6-acre property is much larger than needed to serve the 48 degree students and its aging buildings need millions of dollars in work. Utility and maintenance costs as well as the seminary's carbon footprint will drop significantly with the move."


Chapel at Pacific Seminary


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The New Digs - Study Advocacy, Look Down at Riots

The new location in the heart of Berkeley will provide more opportunities for the seminarians to engage with diverse members of the public, work with social service agencies and learn firsthand about the needs and opportunities in urban locations. The building is across the street from Berkeley City Hall, next to a YMCA and near a high school and two colleges. As they prepare for their roles as healers, the students will be surrounded by people in need of ministry, including the homeless who gather at a nearby park. While they study advocacy, they can look out the window to see protests on the steps of City Hall. The move dovetails with a proposal in the works to revise the seminary’s curriculum to better connect students to the people and issues of the world.

All the ELCA Seminaries Are Like "Honey, I Shrunk the School"

Question: Does this move put us at a disadvantage with other seminaries?


While we don’t know the answer to this question, we do know that all of the other ELCA seminaries are taking major steps toward addressing size and space issues. None is going to stay just as they are (sic - just as it is). Two are merging, one other has merged with a university before us, and a fourth seminary has just announced such intentions. Another seminary has sold quite a bit of its property.

 Phyllis Anderson, a graduate of Wartburg Seminary,
was the first woman president of a Lutheran seminary - Pacific. She anticipated selling the campus and downsizing.


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