The Claremont School of Theology, a California institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church, will offer clerical training to Muslim and Jewish students this fall, the Los Angeles Times reports. The seminary is believed to be the first accredited institution to train clergy members of multiple faiths, according to the Times. But the expanded mission could cost the seminary. Earlier this year, the church suspended its financial support of the seminary, an amount that accounts for about 8 percent of its budget, pending an investigation.
RSS
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
2 Responses to Methodist Seminary Expands Training to Jewish and Muslim Clergy
timlincoln - June 10, 2010 at 10:20 am
Other Christian seminaries,I know, have from time to time admitted a modest number of Jewish or Muslim students. Should Jews and Muslims actually attend in substantial numbers, it will be very interesting to see how the school’s faculty and student microcultures are reshaped.
darkroomjames - June 11, 2010 at 10:27 am
Darkroomjames -June 10, 2010 at 10:21amI wonder if the other category of seminary candidates will be allowed– those influenced by and based on a scientific world view of a future church, celebrating the Periodic Table, evolution, and the human genome, and discussing God as a perception. Existence shouldn’t be a cynical mind adventure after thousands of false gods rising and falling. It should be celebrated, the community well-served by compassion and personal sacrifice, and the ideas of justice and honor more completely defined with derivations from understandings of the human genome schematics. That’s as big a responsibility as church has ever been, bringing sanity and a voice with a heart to the cruel world.