Free Republic

Alumni of the Illinois-based Trinity Evangelical Divinity School say they are saddened but not necessarily surprised by the announcement earlier this month that the seminary will leave the Chicago area and move over 2,000 miles away to Western Canada amid years of declining enrollment and financial concerns. With historic roots in the northern Chicago suburbs, TEDS entered into a commitment to become the seminary of Trinity Western University in British Columbia, one of the largest Christian universities in Canada, also aligned with the Evangelical Free Church of America.Leaving the campus of Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, the divinity school...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, California, is deliberating whether to become more open to LGBTQ+ students who previously faced possible expulsion if found to be in a same-sex union. That’s according to a draft of proposed revisions to the seminary’s sexual standards that was obtained by The Associated Press. If the board votes to approve these revisions, Fuller could become the first evangelical seminary in the country to adopt standards acknowledging the diversity of thought among Christians pertaining to human sexuality, according to retired professor John Hawthorne, an expert on Christian colleges. Such...

George W. Truett Theological Seminary, or ‘Truett’ for short, is a Texas-based seminary operated by Baylor University (The World’s largest Baptist university) and associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. With nearly 400 students, they describe themselves as an “orthodox, evangelical school in the historic Baptist tradition” with a mission to “equip God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.” We recently wrote about Baylor after Greg Garrett, their pro-choice, gay-affirming, trans-affirming professor of Literature and Culture who called a centuries-old hymn “sexist” for containing the word “brethren,” and after...

Lahore -- At least 15 minor male students at a seminary were allegedly raped by two teachers in Pakistan’s Punjab province, police said on Monday, days after the suspects were arrested. The incident took place in Chakwal district, some 275 km from Lahore, Punjab Inspector General Police (IGP) Usman Anwar told reporters here. Both the teachers, identified as Zeeshan and Anis, have been arrested and are being interrogated, he said. “The two teachers of a seminary in Chakwal district sexually assaulted at least 15 male students, aged between 10 and 12. The number may increase during the course of the...

Kneeling for Eucharist Banned in Some Seminaries?! (YouTube video nterview of soon-to-be ex-seminarian by Timothy J. Gordon)

Milan Archbishop Mario Delpini has approved an overhaul of seminary formation amid plunging numbers of candidates in Europe’s largest Catholic archdiocese. A seven-page document outlining the changes noted that in the five years from 2017 to 2022, the annual number of new entrants to priestly formation in the archdiocese fell from 24 to 6. Delpini, who signed the document March 25, announced the “reconfiguration” of seminary training at a Chrism Mass in Milan Cathedral April 6. “I would like to inform this particular assembly that I have approved, on a trial basis for a three-year period, a reconfiguration of the...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with a California seminary on Monday, ruling that it is entitled to ignore federal anti-discrimination law and expel students in same-sex marriages. Graduate students Nathan Brittsan and Joanna Maxon... sued the seminary, claiming that Fuller Theological Seminary accepts federal funding and is therefore bound by Title IX’s anti-discrimination mandate. In turn, the school argued that it is entitled to a defense based on what is known as the “religious exemption” under 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a)(3). ...

Italy's largest seminary has become the first educational institution in the country to force mandatory vaccination and is threatening to expel seminarians if they are not vaccinated by September 12. In a letter, rector of Milan's Venegono Archiepiscopal Seminary Fr. Enrico Castagna ordered all seminarians: "You must all be vaccinated before returning from holiday." The COVID-19 vaccine is a conditio sine qua non ("condition without which not") for the 120 seminarians who are training for the priesthood in Italy's largest archdiocese. Vice rector Fr. Michele Galli justified the directive to The Daily Compass, noting the goal was "to return to...

Whether you like it or not, there’s plenty of evidence that the God of the Bible does not sanction same-sex relationships. You may not interpret the Good Book that way. Perhaps you’ve got reasonable theological reasons for it.

The “Jesus Walks” performer has now invited Pastor Tyson to share sermonettes at his events...He was first seen at a Sunday Service during West’s sold-out show in Detroit last week. The slim, blonde-haired preacher hit the stage after West’s choir, led by James White, performed a few gospel numbers and reimagined mainstream songs with Christian lyrics. “I’m here to tell you that while our God is the judge over the universe, he’s also a God of mercy and he’s a God of love, and he sent his Son to die on a cross because he loves you,” Tyson told the...

Students at Union Theological Seminary prayed to a display of plants set up in the chapel of the school, prompting the institution to issue a statement explaining the practice as many on social media mocked them. "Today in chapel, we confessed to plants," the nation's oldest independent seminary declared Tuesday on Twitter. "Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?"

An Episcopal seminary in Virginia has announced that its setting aside $1.7 million for an endowment fund aimed at paying reparations for slavery. Virginia Theological Seminary, founded in 1823 and based in Alexandria, announced last Thursday that it was creating the fund largely in response to the institution having direct ties to slavery. Money from the fund is expected to go to projects such as helping emerging congregations linked to the seminary, aiding African-American clergy, and helping to support work by historically African-American congregations. The Rev. Joseph Thompson, director of the seminary’s Office of Multicultural Ministries, which will oversee the...

[Catholic Caucus] McCarrick breaks his silence: ‘I’m not as bad as they paint me’ VICTORIA, Kansas, September 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Ted McCarrick has broken his year-long silence.  Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has granted an interview to a reporter and denied the accusations that have been made against him.  Several men have complained that McCarrick made unwelcome sexual advances to them when they were seminarians, and there have been two “credible allegations” that McCarrick also sexually assaulted two minors, a 16-year-old altar server and an 11-year-old family friend named James Grein. Grein alleges that the cardinal abused him...

Democrats hoping to push President Donald Trump out of the White House are turning to the religious left in an effort to recruit evangelical voters ahead of the 2020 election. National Public Radio (NPR) noted in its report that exit polls in the 2016 presidential election indicated only one of six white evangelical voters supported Hillary Clinton. “She never asked for their votes,” Michael Wear, who directed religious outreach efforts for Barack Obama in 2012, said in the NPR report. At least two Democrat candidates, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, are hiring “faith advisors,”...

Presbyterian pastor Ligon Duncan has listed out some of the biggest threats facing Christians seminaries in America, from unbelief to a lack of Biblical understanding in students. Duncan, who is the chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary in Mississippi, said in a video published on YouTube on Tuesday that one of the main threats facing theological education today is the undergraduate debt crisis. The scholar warned that the debt is “causing a lot of students to stay away from graduate theological education who would really benefit from it both personally and in their public ministry. Next, he said that there is...

What does it mean to be called to ministry? What does the Bible say about men and women in ministry? Who are the examples in the Bible of being called to ministry? What are the practical tools to help you pursue God’s call for your life? Bible Gateway interviewed Kristen Padilla (@kristenpadilla) about her book, Now That I’m Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry (Zondervan, 2018).What does the Bible say about ministerial calling?Kristen Padilla: Scripture is not a ministerial calling textbook. However, we can extrapolate from Scripture a loose definition of a ministerial calling. Humans were...

Venezuelan seminarians are struggling to continue their formation for the priesthood in the midst of a deepening national crisisI’ve known Oscar for only a couple days, but I already think he has some gifts that would make him a great priest. The 19-year-old seminarian, who is just finishing his second year of formation, has been a translator of sorts for me during my visit to Buen Pastor Seminary in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. Although he doesn’t speak any English, he patiently and clearly explains things in a way that I can understand with my limited Spanish—a welcome contrast to the typical...

Moody Bible Institute is in the midst of what some say is a "crisis" involving falling enrollment numbers, theologically liberal professors, and an administration that has betrayed the school's mission and created a culture of fear. The school, however, maintains that recent strategic moves have better positioned the institution for the future and they are presently addressing concerns. In November, Moody Bible Institute of Chicago — founded in 1886 and named after renowned American evangelist Dwight L. Moody — announced that as part of a strategic initiative to preserve its long-term financial well-being, it would close its campus in Spokane,...

A mere six men will be starting the classes required to become a priest at the National Seminary at St. Patrick's College Maynooth in County Kildare this fall – the lowest number in the seminary’s more than two centuries of existence. Fifteen men, the Irish Catholic reports, are currently undergoing preparatory work that will allow them to become seminarians in the fall of 2018. Maynooth, which opened in 1795, was once the largest seminary in the world with space for 500 men to train to become priests. Last year there were only 80 men undergoing the necessary studies at the...

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is looking into ways to handle an apparent drop in satisfactory rates in Bible test scores among people preparing for ministry within the Mainline denomination. Earlier this month, a task force created by the executive committee of the Committee on Theological Education released a statement on the Bible Content Examinations and a trend of lower than average evaluation rates that began in the summer. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is looking into ways to handle an apparent drop in satisfactory rates in Bible test scores among people preparing for ministry within the Mainline denomination. Earlier this month,...