Myron McCoy named president of Saint Paul seminary
5/27/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
NOTE:
A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Myron McCoy is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html. Saint Paul School of
Theology does not abbreviate the word "saint" in its name.
By United Methodist News Service
Myron McCoy
Myron McCoy
The Rev. Myron F. McCoy, pastor of St. Mark United
Methodist Church in Chicago, will become the first African American to
lead a predominantly white United Methodist seminary when he takes the
top post at Saint Paul School of Theology Aug. 1.
The United
Methodist Church has 13 related seminaries and theological schools in
the United States. Of those, only Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta
has ever had an African American at the helm. Gammon, led by the Rev.
Walter McKelvey, is part of a consortium of six historically black
theology schools.
McCoy, 47, will become Saint Paul's fourth
president since the school was founded in Kansas City, Mo., in 1958. He
succeeds the Rev. Lovett Weems, who moves to Wesley Theological Seminary
in Washington to become its distinguished professor of church
leadership and founding director of the G. Douglass Lewis Center for
Church Leadership.
"When I think about myself, the church, the
varied needs of the laity and clergy, seminaries and the world in its
brokenness, I'm not hearing or seeing a work completed," McCoy said. "I
see this new calling as an opportunity to engage in the new work God is
doing and will be doing in reshaping and revisioning the church, and
helping clergy and laity gain a larger grasp of learning opportunities
and faith formation for the changing and complex world in which we
live."
McCoy, who has more than two decades of experience in
local church, conference, theological and civic leadership, said he is
humbled by Saint Paul's "gracious invitation to break another glass
ceiling for those of my race." He said he looks forward to helping the
seminary and other theological schools "deal with the reality of
diversity in our church and the world."
McCoy's many roles in the
church include serving as the current chairman of the United Methodist
Publishing House board of directors and as a trustee of
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
In a
May 21 seminary release, Bob Rogers, chairman of Saint Paul's board of
trustees, said the school's mission is to educate people for leadership
in the ministry of the church. McCoy, he said, "has the dedication and
the gifts necessary to fulfill that mission and to inspire spiritually
sound leaders for the renewal of the church."
Weems, who has led
Saint Paul for 18 years, expressed support for McCoy. "He is a fine
choice," Weems said, noting that McCoy "has the pastoral, academic and
governance experience that will serve him very well."
Korean News
