United Methodists celebrate higher education

By Linda Green*

FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS)—A 120-member student choir, college presidents and delegates attending the 2008 General Conference celebrated United Methodist higher education and church-related schools for their “open hearts, open minds and open doors.”

More than 1,000 delegates and visitors attended the banquet and program celebrating higher education on April 28 at the Fort Worth Convention Center, site of the 2008 General Conference. The event honored the institutions for educating the next generation of students that will determine the future of the United Methodist Church.

The evening included a video presentation on the 122 United Methodist-related academic and theological institutions. Openness is "not just a slogan" at United Methodist institutions, said the voiceover on a video. Students from all over the world attend church-related schools and, when they walk through "the global doors," they put a face on United Methodist education, the video said.

"Young people are the future for any organization but especially for the church," said Jake Schrum, president of Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, and chairman of the Higher Education Night Task Force.

The student choir was under the direction of the Rev. Barbara Day Miller, assistant dean of worship and lecturer in liturgical practices at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

Following the choral performance featuring songs about the holiness of Jesus and how Jesus is the rock, Schrum said he "doesn't worry about the Methodist Church's ability to share the hope of Christ with the rest of the world."

Schools are superior

United Methodist education is distinctive and in many ways superior because the institutions emphasize John Wesley's charge of education for the common good, said William Lucky, president of the National Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities. "We celebrate John Wesley's vision by continuing to have open hearts, open minds and open doors," he said.

A prayer led by Stuart Gulley, president of LaGrange (Ga.) College, thanked the Methodist Church for not stopping with the establishment of local congregations and the spread of scriptural holiness across the land. He thanked the church for investing in the educational institutions.

Gulley said that in times of war, terrorism, crime, immorality, poverty, disease and depletion of the earth's resources, it is the church and its academic institutions which have "challenged minds and inspired souls to address these complicated and vexing problems."

Higher Education Night was sponsored by an 11-member task force of representatives from the National Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities; the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the Council of Bishops, the Council of Presidents of the denomination's historically black colleges and universities, and the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation.

Wade in the water

Following a stirring rendition of the Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water" by the student choir representing nearly 30 United Methodist academic and theological institutions, Iowa Area Bishop Gregory Palmer said the metaphor heard in the song should be a calling card for the United Methodist schools, colleges and universities.

Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said the song could be used to invite people to consider United Methodist education when making decisions about where they will attend school to "wade in this water."

"Very often students make that decision with strong oversight from their parents under the misguided conception that it will cost them more to attend a private, church-related (or) United Methodist institution,” he said.

"If we are beginning to sing in harmony … the key to our future and the future of the world and of our planet is leadership, leadership, leadership. I say to you to let's wade in the water."

Across the United States, 250,000 students attend United Methodist-related academic and theological institutions. Of the total schools, 92 are four-year institutions, six are two-year colleges, 13 are seminaries and theological schools, 10 are pre-collegiate schools and one is a professional school.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn