Scholarship recipients journey toward ministry
By Linda Green*
March 18, 2008 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
When
Christopher Deluise opened the doors to the library at Candler School
of Theology, his first thought was that "there is a lot of God in here."
The second largest theological library in North America, Pitts
Theological Library at Candler is among the reasons that Deluise chose
to attend the seminary at United Methodist-related Emory University in
Atlanta.
Christopher Deluise
|
Now completing his first year at Candler, Deluise recounted his journey
toward ordained ministry during a March 5 appreciation dinner sponsored
by the Office of Loans and Scholarships, United Methodist Board of
Higher Education and Ministry.
He is among more than 3,000 United Methodist students who received
$6.3 million in aid from the Office of Loans and Scholarships for the
2007-2008 academic year. The dinner honored nearly 50 people for their
service in enabling students to receive university and theological
education over the past four years.
"It does make one feel proud of what this board can do," said Angella
Current-Felder, executive director of the Loans and Scholarships
office. "We are blessed that we can continue to provide opportunities
for students."
Deluise received a special seminary scholarship which is awarded to
students under age 30 pursuing ordained ministry as a vocation and
enrolled at a United Methodist-related seminary or theological school in
pursuit of a master of divinity degree. He thanked those at the dinner
and others with the church's higher education and ministry agency for
"their commitment, their passion and their time."
"The support that we receive allows us the opportunity to focus on
our mission of serving God (and) also provides us fortitude in the face
of financial pressures that accompany attending an institution of higher
education," said Deluise, a former wellness director at a YMCA in
Orlando, Fla.
Deluise also talked about the Rev. Bill Barnes, pastor of St. Luke's
United Methodist Church, Orlando, "who was integral in my call to
ministry."
"For two years, we worked together in discerning my call. … In a
world where faith, theology and religion is such a complex issue, he
makes it so simple," Deluise said.
Building relationships
Juan Silva of the Rio Grande Annual (regional) Conference spoke about
the Journey Toward Ordained Ministry Program, which provides $50,000
per year in scholarship money, as well as retreats and mentoring, to 10
racial-ethnic students pursuing ordination as an deacon or elder. That
amount will increase to $60,000 annually in 2009. Funding comes from
gifts received in United Methodist churches on World Communion Sunday, scheduled this year for Oct. 5.
Angela Current-Felder
|
A student at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Silva said the
program's retreats and mentoring has helped him to get acquainted with
fellow recipients "who will help me on the journey and even beyond.
"I feel so blessed to know all of my colleagues in the program," he
said. "I have been so enriched by the mentors, the other students in the
program and by God through this program, affecting me and affecting
others through the ministry." He placed emphasis on the retreats because
they help "equip us for ordained ministry."
Current-Felder introduced dinner participants to the late Evelyn
Steinmeyer Ozga, who received an $80 Methodist student loan in 1929 to
remain in college and later received two additional loans. She developed
a relationship with Current-Felder in the 1990s and shared that she
wanted other United Methodist students to receive the same level of
church support in college that she did. Upon her death in 2000, Ozga
bequeathed $75,000 to the Office of Loans and Scholarships which
established a loan fund in her name.
"Support from the Methodist Church is a lifetime relationship,"
Current-Felder said. "We are in ministry in the way that we try to help
those who are members of our congregations and in support of our
denomination to be able to have access to higher education. We can't pay
the tuition, but that little bit of money helps and it always goes a
long way."
Women of Color Scholars
The Rev. Rosetta Ross, convener and graduate of the Women of Color
Scholars Program, talked about how opportunities have opened for ethnic
women in the United States since the days of her great-great
grandfather, a former slave who helped to found St. Daniel Methodist
Episcopal Church in Dorchester, S.C. When the church was founded,
historically black Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., was only a
few decades old.
The Rev. Rosetta Ross
|
"It is very unlikely that Pink Ross would have envisioned that one of
his female descendants would have completed Candler School of Theology,
would have been ordained an elder in the South Carolina Annual
Conference and would have obtained a Ph.D. in religion from Emory
University," she said of her own education.
Ross affirmed The United Methodist Church for working to change the
face of theological education through its Women of Color Scholars
Program. The program is designed to increase the number of women of
color serving as teachers and researchers on seminary faculties. "We
managed to see God's call and hear God's call clearly and to open the
table as God's calls us to whosoever will," she said.
Since the program's 1989 launch, 22 women have graduated with
doctorate degrees, 17 are in process and others have been assisted along
the way. The first Native American woman will graduate from the program
in 2008.
"In this work, The United Methodist Church has been and continues to
be a singular leader. No other denomination has been so intentional in
saying that the history of our nations past does not have the power to
stop us from being God's church in the world," Ross said.
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry
Office of Loans and Scholarships
Loans and Scholarship Opportunities
Women of Color Scholars Program |