Wesley Theological Seminary : 2004 Seminar
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After preparation of our narrative and participation in the Northeast Harbor Seminar, our team is more convinced than ever that diversity as both gift and challenge is indeed centrally important to the faithful work of theological education at Wesley and to the churches we serve. Sharing of this conviction with the entire faculty at a September study session made clear that this issue is equally important to our entire faculty community.
We are clear that diversity for us means the encounter and embrace of difference in the body of Christ and includes differences of race, gender, culture, sexual orientation, denominational tradition, theological perspective, age, abilities and disabilities. We are also clear that our efforts will build upon and complement much positive work already done and strong commitments already made—as evidenced in our President’s new strategic vision document, the strong work of a seminary Diversity Committee, the intentional recruitment over many years of a richly diverse faculty and student body, and the committed labors of many individual members of the Wesley community.
Our project will develop and implement a process that seeks to discover and put into practice faithful collegial responses to the following two questions.
1. How can faculty experience and draw upon diversity as a resource for teaching that frames learning in the context of God’s kingdom?
2. How can students encounter and claim diversity as a transformative resource for their ministries and as a manifestation of the body of Christ?
By framing our focal questions in this way, we hope to avoid a common attitude in seminaries and churches that treats diversity primarily as a problem to be overcome, managed or negotiated. Such an attitude rarely produces more than passive tolerance of diversity on the one hand or earnest and urgent response to tensions or conflicts on the other hand.
(Download the full report using the link below.)
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